Filed under: bush, Caribbean, chavez, CIA, colombia, Colonialism, Coup, drones, Empire, FARC, future war, Hamid Karzai', Hugo Chavez, karzai, latin america, military base, Military Industrial Complex, nation building, netherlands, obamas war, occupation, Oil, proxy war, resource war, secret war, South America, uav, Venezuela, war on drugs, War On Terror, war provocation | Tags: Curaçao
Netherlands has Granted U.S. Military Use of its Islands in the Caribbean
globalresearch.ca
January 14, 2010
The government of the Netherlands recently granted the US military use of its islands in the Caribbean, with the excuse that this is to help in the “war against drugs”. In reality, this is a direct threat to the Chavez government in Venezuela.
In the Dutch media articles have appeared about the “war-mongering” president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, who is “preparing a war against Colombia”. Now Chávez has accused the Netherlands of supporting aggression against Venezuela, because the Netherlands has given permission to the American armed forces to use the military bases on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba and Curaçao[1].
In the media Hugo Chávez, as always, has been presented like some “crazy populist”, and of course the “civilised Netherlands” are presented as being totally innocent.
Later Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, said the American military were on Aruba and Curaçao, as part of the “war against drugs”. He remains silent about what is really happening on Aruba and Curaçao.
Authors such as Noam Chomsky and Eva Golinger have pointed out in different articles that the so-called “war against drugs” has nothing to do with any battle against drug smuggling, but has been used for other causes such as fighting against guerrilla movements and the spying of other countries. Since the start of the “war against drugs” there has only been more smuggling and consumption of drugs.
The fact that the Netherlands are participating in this is quite normal, because the Dutch government has a tradition of supporting American imperialism. After Britain the Netherlands are the biggest ally of the U.S. in Western Europe. The cabinet of Prime Minister Balkenende gave political support to the invasion of Iraq that was based completely on lies. Now the Netherlands have troops in Afghanistan, officially to rebuild the country, but in practice to prop up the corrupt regime of Karzai.
The bases on Aruba and Curaçao
In 1999 the Netherlands and the U.S. signed an agreement for the establishment of Forward Operating Locations (FOLs). This meant that the American military could use air force bases on Aruba and Curaçao. While the bases were originally used for operations against drug smuggling and the Colombian guerrilla movement FARC, this changed with the election of George Bush. Venezuela was seen as a threat by then, because it was a beacon of hope for the poor and working people of Latin America. In 2002 there was a CIA-backed coup attempt against the democratically elected Hugo Chávez. Since then there have only been more intrigues against Venezuela.
In 2006 there was a big military exercise by the U.S., Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, France and Canada in the Caribbean, named Joint Caribbean Lion 2006. This exercise was clearly a provocation against Venezuela. After criticisms by the Venezuelan government the then-minister of defence Henk Kamp and some right-wing MPs decided to accuse Chávez of “wanting to conquer the Antilles”. This was based on false statements from the Venezuelan opposition, that stated Chávez claimed everything within 200 miles from the Venezuelan coast as Venezuelan territory, while in that speech Chávez clearly said “12”, and not “200” miles.
Now there is a new conflict. This has everything to do with the recent militarization of Colombia and its seven military bases that have been given to American troops. Venezuela is not talking nonsense as the media keep claiming. Colombia’s military spending now is 5% of its Gross Domestic Product. At the peak of her struggle against the FARC this was 2.5%.
Also the American Fourth Fleet has been stationed back in the Caribbean since 2008. This fleet was disbanded in 1950 after the end of WWII, but now it is back and close to the Venezuelan coast.
The Netherlands are now playing the role of junior partner of the U.S. in the Caribbean. Different spy planes have been detected above Venezuela. An American Boeing RC-135 has taken off at different times from Curaçao and has been detected over Venezuelan air space.
Filed under: Afghanistan, Baluchistan, big pharma, Blackwater, CIA, colombia, corruption, death squads, drug cartel, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, drugs, Extraordinary Rendition, FATA, gangsters, Hamid Karzai', heroin, India, Iran, Iran Contra, Iraq, islamibad, Israel, karachi, karzai, mafia, medical industrial complex, mercenaries, Military, Military Industrial Complex, nation building, Nicaragua, obama, occupation, Oliver North, Opium, Pakistan, quetta, Saddam Hussein, scandal, Taliban, Troops, Venezuela, war on drugs, War On Terror, Waziristan, Weinberger, Zardani | Tags: government drug smuggling
Are America’s Mercenary Armies Really Drug Cartels?
Gordon Duff
December 29, 2009
News out of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India reports massive corruption at the highest levels of government, corruption that could only be financed with drug money. In Afghanistan, the president’s brother is known to be one of the biggest drug runners in the world.
In Pakistan, President Zardani is found with 60 million in a Swiss Bank and his Interior Minister is suspected of ties to American groups involved in paramilitary operations, totally illegal that could involve nothing but drugs, there is no other possibility.
Testimony in the US that our government has used “rendition” flights to transport massive amounts of narcotics to Western Europe and the United States has been taken in sworn deposition.
American mercenaries in Pakistan are hundreds of miles away from areas believed to be hiding terrorists, involved in “operations” that can’t have anything whatsoever to do with any CIA contract. These mercenaries aren’t in Quetta, Waziristan or FATA supporting our troops, they are in Karachi and Islamabad playing with police and government officials and living the life of the fatted calf.
The accusations made are that Americans in partnership with corrupt officials, perhaps in all 3 countries, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, are involved in assassinations, “unknown” criminal activities and are functioning like criminal gangs.
There is no oil. There is nothing to draw people into the area other than one product, one that nobody is talking about. Drugs.
The US got involved in massive drug operations, importation, processing and distribution during the Reagan years, supposedly to finance covert CIA operations involving death squads tasked with murdering Sandinista “infrastructure” in Nicaragua.
The deal involved Israel, Iran and the Colombian cartel. Saddam was even involved. In the end, President Reagan was put on the stand only to remember little or nothing of his tenure in office. Lt. Col. Oliver North was convicted as was Secretary of Defense Weinberger and many others. Pardons and “other methods” were used to keep the guilty out of jail.
Now we find what was supposed to be a CIA operation with one company only, Xe, operations that were meant to hunt a couple of terrorist/Taliban leaders in and around Quetta, a city of 1 million in remote Baluchistan has turned into a honeycomb of operations involving millions of dollars and personnel of all kinds, perhaps even ranking diplomats and high government officials, the highest.
The cover of hunting terrorists in remote areas with hundreds of armed men in cities on the other side of the country, cities filled with 5 star hotels, country clubs, polo, cricket and fine restaurants is not really cover, even by CIA standards.
The reports, bribes, actions that look and smell like drug gangs at work, tell a story that nobody wants to talk about.
With 50 billion dollars of opium from Afghanistan alone and crops in Pakistan and India also, managing the world’s heroin supply is, by my estimation, how all of this “muscle” is staying busy. When you see a black van full of armed men, is there a sign somewhere saying:
“We are counter terrorists working for the Central Intelligence Agency and we are only in town here, hundreds of miles from the nearest terrorist because we need a hot shower and to get a noise in the transmission checked out.”
Everyone can choose to believe what they want. It’s time we stopped lying. Its about drugs, always has been, always will, drugs and money. It buys men, it buys guns and it can buy governments and has, as anyone with eyes can see.
Filed under: chavez, CIA, colombia, Colonialism, Coup, drones, Empire, Hugo Chavez, latin america, Military, Military Industrial Complex, obamas war, occupation, proxy war, resource war, secret war, South America, uav, Venezuela, War On Terror
Hugo Chavez orders military to shoot at US aircraft
London Telegraph
December 21, 2009
President Hugo Chavez has accused the US of violating Venezuela’s airspace with an unmanned spy plane, and ordered his military to shoot down any such aircraft in the future.
Speaking during his weekly television and radio program, Mr Chavez said the aircraft overflew a Venezuelan military base in the western state of Zulia after taking off from neighbouring Colombia. He did not elaborate, but suggested the plane was being used for espionage.
“These are the Yankees. They are entering Venezuela,” he said.
“I’ve ordered them to be shot down,” Mr Chavez said of the aircraft. “We cannot permit this.”
Filed under: chavez, CIA, cocaine, colombia, Colonialism, Communism, corruption, Coup, Dictatorship, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, ELN, Empire, FARC, guerilla war, guerilla warfare, Hugo Chavez, impirialism, latin america, marxism, meddling, Military, military base, Military Industrial Complex, nation building, obama deception, obamas war, occupation, Oil, proxy war, resource war, secret war, socialism, Uribe, Venezuela, war on drugs, War On Terror | Tags: Alvaro Uribe, Gustavo Marquez, National Liberation Army, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
War threat between Venezuela and Colombia increases
UK Telegraph
November 15, 2009
Tensions between the countries reached a new high after the Colombian military arrested four Venezuelan soldiers, just days after Mr Chavez told his army to “prepare for war” with Colombia.
The Venezuelan ambassador to Bogota, Gustavo Marquez, said that the seriousness of the situation could not be overstated and that “there is a pre-war situation in the entire region”.
Diplomatic relations between the South American neighbours are frozen and on Saturday President Chavez escalated the war of words with President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia by saying there was no chance of dialogue.
“Uribe is not a politician, he comes from the world of paramilitaries, of drug trafficking, of shady business deals, and he is capable of anything,” the Venezuelan leader said.
“He is a very dangerous man as he has no principles or ethics,” Mr Chavez added.
The broadside came after Colombia detained four members of the Venezuelan National Guard in a boat allegedly on Colombian territory in the remote border province of Vichada. Colombia said yesterday that it would deport the men back to Venezuela.
Tensions between Presidents Uribe and Chavez have escalated in recent months as the two leaders have become increasingly suspicious of each other.
Colombia’s Marxist rebels, the Guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), are known to have bases within Venezuela from where they plan and launch attacks on Colombia’s US-backed army.
Mr Chavez hotly denies any links with the rebels, even though there have been seizures of Venezuelan arms and munitions in FARC camps.
Venezuela’s president is angry at an agreement signed earlier this month between Bogota and Washington under which Colombia allows the US military to use seven bases across the country, turning the Andean nation into America’s regional military hub.
Mr Chavez, who accused Washington of being behind a 2002 coup attempt, insists that the US is planning to attack Venezuela to secure control of massive oil reserves. The Venezuela leader believes that Colombia will now be the launch pad for any US attack.
President Uribe is trying to diffuse tensions since Mr Chavez began blocking the entry of Colombian goods, something which is costing the fragile economy hundreds of millions of pounds.
He stated that the captured Venezuelan soldiers would be returned as quickly as possible and “carry with them the message that here their affection for our Venezuelan brothers and that this affection is unquenchable”.
Mr Chavez has ordered another 15,000 soldiers to take up positions along the 1300-mile frontier, while Colombia has created a new division of its army to guard a strategic stretch of the border.
Analysts worry that Marxist rebel groups could manipulate the troop build-up by starting a firefight, sparking a war between the two countries.
Chávez tells Venezuela to get ready for war with Colombia
Colombian president Uribe meets with U.S. president Obama
Irish Times
November 10, 2009
VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Hugo Chávez has told his country to prepare for a possible war with Colombia, as diplomatic and border tensions between the ideologically opposed Andean nations deteriorate to their lowest level in more than a year.
Mr Chávez used his weekly television show, Aló Presidente , to denounce an agreement between Colombia and the US that allows the US military to use seven bases in Colombia. Mr Chávez warned these could be used for an attack on Venezuela.
Ordering troops to the frontier, he said the army could not afford to waste a day and that “we must prepare ourselves for war and help the people prepare for war, because this is the responsibility of all”.
The Colombian and US governments insist the bases are only for use against drug traffickers within Colombia. But Mr Chávez has denounced the pact as part of a US plan to try to dominate a region that in recent years has moved out of its traditional Washington orbit under a new generation of left-wing leaders, of whom Mr Chávez is the most radical.
Supporting their claims about the bases agreement, the Venezuelans have cited a US air force document presented to the US Congress in May. It says one of the bases provides a “unique opportunity” for “conducting full-spectrum operations throughout South America”, which it describes as a “critical region” under constant threat from “anti-US governments”.
On his television programme, Mr Chávez said that “the government of Colombia is not in Bogotá, now it is in Washington”, and warned US president Barack Obama that any US intervention launched from Colombia would spark a “100 years’ war”.
Colombia said it would raise Mr Chávez’s comments with the UN Security Council and the Organisation of American States.
Last year Mr Chávez ordered troops to the frontier live on Aló Presidente following Colombia’s bombing of a rebel guerrilla base hidden on the Ecuador side of the two countries’ border.
This latest round of tensions started with the signing of the bases agreement at the end of last month, and deteriorated last week when Venezuela said Colombian right-wing paramilitaries were responsible for killing two Venezuelan soldiers on its territory.
Colombian rebels and paramilitaries operate right along the border with Venezuela. Leading political allies of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe face investigations into their alleged links with the country’s paramilitaries.
Colombia, meanwhile, accuses Mr Chávez of providing covert support to the Farc guerrilla group.
In recent years Venezuela has embarked on an arms buying spree which it says is necessary to offset strategically the US-bankrolled military in Colombia.
Colombia is the fifth-biggest recipient of US military aid after Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Egypt.
Colombia’s army is double the size of Venezuela’s and battle-hardened after decades fighting left-wing guerrillas in the continent’s most protracted insurgency.
Economic mismanagement means that Venezuela is heavily dependent on Colombian food imports despite its own vast tracts of rich tropical farmland.
Despite a decade of increasingly hostile relations, Venezuelan imports of Colombian foodstuffs have ballooned, accounting for most of the $7.2 billion (€4.8 billion) in bilateral trade between the two countries last year.
Filed under: 2-party system, ban ki-moon, Barack Obama, black operations, blackops, brazil, central america, CIA, colombia, Colonialism, Coup, Dictatorship, Empire, Fascism, global police force, Hillary Clinton, Honduras, Israel, israeli mercenaries, israeli soldiers, kidnapping, left right paradigm, manuel zelaya, Military, military base, military strike, Nazi, OAS, obama, PNAC, project for the new american century, roman empire, Sanctions, socialism, soldiers, sovereignty, staged coup, State Sponsored Terrorism, Torture, Troops, u.s air base, u.s. military, u.s. soldiers, UN, united nations, War On Terror, war on terrorism, world police force, zelaya, Zionism | Tags: U.N. security council
Note: Is there a possibility that military weapons such as the A.D.S. radiation device and L.R.A.D. sound cannon were used on the Honduran president at the Brazilian embassy?
Honduran President Victim of U.S. Coup: I’ve Been Gassed And They’re Torturing Me
Miami Herald
September 24, 2009
It’s been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power. He’s sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and “Israeli mercenaries” are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.
“We are being threatened with death,” he said in an interview with The Miami Herald, adding that mercenaries were likely to storm the embassy where he has been holed up since Monday and assassinate him.
“I prefer to march on my feet than to live on my knees before a military dictatorship,” Zelaya said in a series of back-to-back interviews.
Zelaya was overthrown by the U.S. military at gunpoint on June 28 and slipped back into his country on Monday, just two days before he was scheduled to speak before the United Nations. He sought refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, where Zelaya said he is being subjected to toxic gases and radiation that alter his physical and mental state.
Witnesses said that for a short time Tuesday morning, soldiers used a device that looked like a large satellite dish to emit a loud shrill noise.
Honduran police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said he knew nothing of any radiation devices being used against the former president.
“He says there are mercenaries against him? Using some kind of apparatus?” Cerrato said. “No, no, no, no. Sincerely: no. The only elements surrounding that embassy are police and military, and they have no such apparatus.”
Police responded to reports of looting throughout the city Tuesday night. Civil disturbances subsided Wednesday afternoon, when a crush of people rushed grocery stores and gas stations in the capital.
Israeli government sources in Miami said they could not confirm the presence of any “Israelis mercenaries” in Honduras.
Zelaya, 56, is at the embassy with his family and other supporters, without a change of clothes or toothpaste. The power and water were turned back on, and the U.N. brought in some food. Photos showed Zelaya, his trademark cowboy hat across his face, napping on a few chairs he had pushed together.
“Look at the shape he’s in — sleeping on chairs,” de facto President Roberto Micheletti told a local TV news station.
Micheletti took Zelaya’s place after the military, executing a Supreme Court arrest warrant, burst into Zelaya’s house and forced him into exile. The country’s military, congress, Supreme Court and economic leaders have backed the ouster, arguing that Zelaya was bent on conducting an illegal plebiscite that they feared would ultimately lead to his reelection.
Micheletti said he was prepared to meet with Zelaya and a delegation from the Organization of American States, but only to discuss one topic: November elections.
On Wednesday, the U.N. cut off all technical aid that would have supported and given credibility to that presidential race. Conditions do not exist for credible elections, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
“I proposed dialogue, and they answered with bullets, bombs, a state of siege and by closing the airport,” Zelaya said.
Zelaya told The Herald that Washington should be taking a stronger stance against the elite economic interests that “financed and benefited” from the coup that ousted him three months ago.
If President Barack Obama hit Honduras with commercial sanctions or suspended free-trade agreements, the coup “would last just five minutes.”
The Obama administration suspended economic aid to Honduras and withdrew the visas of members of the current administration.
About 75 percent of Honduras’ commerce depends on the United States, Zelaya said. And because powerful economic forces were behind Zelaya’s ouster, Obama should hit those forces where it hurts most, Zelaya said.
“I have told this to Obama, to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the U.S. Embassy here and anyone else who will listen,” Zelaya said. “They know how to act. Until now, they have been very prudent.”
With Micheletti showing a new willingness to talk with the OAS, and the U.N. Security Council set to meet to discuss the embassy situation soon, it isn’t the moment for more penalties, the U.S. State Department said.
“Right now, when there are openings for dialogue, is not the time to announce new sanctions,” a State Department official said.
Dates for the OAS visit, which could include emissaries from 10 countries, are being worked out, the official said.
Spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.N. Security Council meeting came at the request of the Brazilian government. No date has been set for the meeting.
“In general, we continue to work with our partners in the U.N. and the OAS to come up with means to promote a dialogue and defuse the tensions, of course with the ultimate goal of resolving the crisis,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said at a media briefing in Washington. “And we’re continuing our consultations with our partners in the region, and enlisting wherever we can their assistance in this process.”
The U.S. Embassy here spent the day denying rumors that Zelaya planned to move to American grounds. The rumor may have started because U.S. Embassy vehicles were used to evacuate Zelaya supporters who left the Brazilian Embassy willingly Tuesday.
“The embassy has been turned into a bunker for Zelaya,” Assistant Foreign Minister Martha Lorena Alvarado de Casco told The Herald. “He’s turned it into his headquarters, and he is using it to call for insurrection.”
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told CNN en Español that his government asked Zelaya to tone down his rhetoric while he remains an embassy guest.
“The word `death’ should not even be mentioned,” he said.
Rioting broke out in various parts of the capital Tuesday night, and lines hundreds deep formed at supermarkets when desperate shoppers scrambled to buy food after a round-the-clock curfew was briefly lifted.
“I have no food in my house,” said Patti Vásquez, a housewife who, after two hours, still had not reached the front doors of a supermarket in an upscale shopping mall. “I need to get milk and juice and eggs.”
Zelaya says he has no plans to leave the embassy anytime soon.
. “I am the president the people of Honduras chose,” Zelaya said. “A country can’t have two presidents — just one.”
Filed under: Bolivia, colombia, Colonialism, Coup, Dictatorship, Empire, evo morales, Honduras, Hugo Chavez, latin america, Military, military base, military bases, military insustrial complex, morales, nation building, occupation, proxy war, South America, State Sponsored Terrorism, Venezuela, war on drugs, War On Terror | Tags: US Air Mobility Command
Morales: U.S. Planning Coups in Latin America
Press TV
September 14, 2009
The Bolivian president has accused the United States of planning coups in Latin America after Washington reached an agreement with Colombia over military bases.
“In Latin America, where there is a US military base there are military coups,” Evo Morales told Bolivian immigrants living in Spain on Sunday.
Morales along with his allies in South America have repeatedly criticized the deal between Colombia and the US that would give the US military access to seven Colombian bases for a 10 year period.
“To the social movements of Europe and the world: Help us put an end to military bases in Latin American,” he said, citing the Bolivian constitution that bans foreign bases on its soil.
According to US officials, American troops will continue to be involved in helping Colombia in counter-drug operations and in supporting its fight against leftist rebels.
However, Latin American governments believe that the US uses the regional war on drugs as a pretext to boost its regional military presence.
Meanwhile, Morales claimed earlier that the United States was involved in a military coup in Honduras that ousted President Manuel Zelaya in June.
Later, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez presented a document from the US Air Mobility Command which according to him showed Washington’s future plans for the region.
The Venezuelan leftist leader claimed that the US wants to use Colombia as a power base, from which to dominate South America.
Filed under: 2-party system, 9/11 Truth, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, black operations, blackops, central america, Chile, CIA, cocaine, Colin Powell, colombia, Colonialism, Communism, Congress, corporatism, Costa Rica, Coup, Detainee, Dick Cheney, Dictatorship, El Salvador, Empire, eric holder, Fascism, George Bush, global police force, Guantanamo, haiti, Henry Kissinger, Hillary Clinton, Honduras, Hugo Chavez, imf, Iran Contra, John Bolton, John Negroponte, kidnapping, left right paradigm, lobbyists, manuel zelaya, Military, military base, Nazi, Nicaragua, obama, PNAC, privatization, project for the new american century, roman empire, slavery, socialism, sovereignty, staged coup, Torture, Troops, truth movement, u.s air base, u.s. military, UN, war on drugs, War On Terror, war on terrorism, world police force | Tags: corporatocracy, Council for National Policy, honduran coup, Jacobo Arbenz, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Lanny Davis
Chavez Says The U.S. Toppled The Honduran President, Taking Him To A U.S. Air Base
Hugo Chavez
aangrifan
August 20, 2009
It looks like it was the CIA that toppled Manuel Zelaya, the president of Honduras, on 28 June 2009.
Diana Barahona, at Global Research, 18 August 2009, tells us that Zelaya was taken to a U.S. air base during the kidnapping.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has revealed that Honduran President Manuel Zelaya told him that the military who kidnapped him transferred him by plane to a U.S. military base, in Honduran territory.
According to Chavez: “They put Zelaya in the plane and landed at Palmerola with the president a prisoner and the Yankee officials appeared and knew that the president was there, they had a discussion with the Honduran officials.
“Then the Yankee military took the decision there to send him to Costa Rica.
“That is a very serious matter, the the president of Honduras was in a Yankee military base…
“The Yankees overthrew Zelaya…
“From the Yankee base, which is at a place called Palmerola, they carried out all of the operations and the dirty war and the terrorism against Sandinista Nicaragua, against El Salvador.
“It wasn’t long ago that the Yankees turned Honduras into a platform to attack its neighbors.”
“What we are asking is that he (Obama) withdraw the Palmerola base, that he withdraw the Guantanamo base where they torture…”
Chavez also said that Venezuela rejects Obama’s policy of setting up U.S. military bases in Colombia.
Honduras: Military Coup Engineered By Two US Companies?
John Perkins
Information Clearing House
I recently visited Central America. Everyone I talked with there was convinced that the military coup that had overthrown the democratically-elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, had been engineered by two US companies, with CIA support. And that the US and its new president were not standing up for democracy.
Earlier in the year Chiquita Brands International Inc. (formerly United Fruit) and Dole Food Co had severely criticized Zelaya for advocating an increase of 60% in Honduras’s minimum wage, claiming that the policy would cut into corporate profits. They were joined by a coalition of textile manufacturers and exporters, companies that rely on cheap labor to work in their sweatshops.
Democracy Now! covers the Honduran coup.
Memories are short in the US, but not in Central America. I kept hearing people who claimed that it was a matter of record that Chiquita (United Fruit) and the CIA had toppled Guatemala’s democratically-elected president Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 and that International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Henry Kissinger, and the CIA had brought down Chile’s Salvador Allende in 1973. These people were certain that Haiti’s president Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been ousted by the CIA in 2004 because he proposed a minimum wage increase, like Zelaya’s.
I was told by a Panamanian bank vice president, “Every multinational knows that if Honduras raises its hourly rate, the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean will have to follow. Haiti and Honduras have always set the bottom line for minimum wages. The big companies are determined to stop what they call a ‘leftist revolt’ in this hemisphere. In throwing out Zelaya they are sending frightening messages to all the other presidents who are trying to raise the living standards of their people.”
It did not take much imagination to envision the turmoil sweeping through every Latin American capital. There had been a collective sign of relief at Barack Obama’s election in the U.S., a sense of hope that the empire in the North would finally exhibit compassion toward its southern neighbors, that the unfair trade agreements, privatizations, draconian IMF Structural Adjustment Programs, and threats of military intervention would slow down and perhaps even fade away. Now, that optimism was turning sour.
The cozy relationship between Honduras’s military coup leaders and the corporatocracy were confirmed a couple of days after my arrival in Panama. England’s The Guardian ran an article announcing that “two of the Honduran coup government’s top advisers have close ties to the US secretary of state. One is Lanny Davis, an influential lobbyist who was a personal lawyer for President Bill Clinton and also campaigned for Hillary. . . The other hired gun for the coup government that has deep Clinton ties is (lobbyist) Bennett Ratcliff.” (1)
DemocracyNow! broke the news that Chiquita was represented by a powerful Washington law firm, Covington & Burling LLP, and its consultant, McLarty Associates (2). President Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder had been a Covington partner and a defender of Chiquita when the company was accused of hiring “assassination squads” in Colombia (Chiquita was found guilty, admitting that it had paid organizations listed by the US government as terrorist groups “for protection” and agreeing in 2004 to a $25 million fine). (3) George W. Bush’s UN Ambassador, John Bolton, a former Covington lawyer, had fiercely opposed Latin American leaders who fought for their peoples’ rights to larger shares of the profits derived from their resources; after leaving the government in 2006, Bolton became involved with the Project for the New American Century, the Council for National Policy, and a number of other programs that promote corporate hegemony in Honduras and elsewhere.
McLarty Vice Chairman John Negroponte was U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985, former Deputy Secretary of State, Director of National Intelligence, and U.S. Representative to the United Nations; he played a major role in the U.S.-backed Contra’s secret war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government and has consistently opposed the policies of the democratically-elected pro-reform Latin American presidents. (4) These three men symbolize the insidious power of the corporatocracy, its bipartisan composition, and the fact that the Obama Administration has been sucked in.
The Los Angeles Times went to the heart of this matter when it concluded:
What happened in Honduras is a classic Latin American coup in another sense: Gen. Romeo Vasquez, who led it, is an alumnus of the United States’ School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). The school is best known for producing Latin American officers who have committed major human rights abuses, including military coups. (5)
All of this leads us once again to the inevitable conclusion: you and I must change the system. The president – whether Democrat or Republican – needs us to speak out.
Chiquita, Dole and all your representatives need to hear from you. Zelaya must be reinstated.
Filed under: 2008 Election, colombia, Department of justice, DOJ, GOP, John McCain, Military, Military Industrial Complex, neocons, Nicaragua, War On Terror | Tags: daniel ortega, thad cochran, united self-defense of colombia
McCain Fundraiser Funded Columbian Terrorist Organization
Nico Pitney
Huffington Post
July 2, 2008
The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.
Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati businessman, was CEO of Chiquita Brands International from 1984 to 2001, and remained on the company’s board of directors until May 2002. Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the Spanish acronym AUC), which is described by George Washington University’s National Security Archive as an “illegal right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country’s most notorious civilian massacres.”
Following a Justice Department indictment last year, Chiquita admitted to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years; roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001.
According to the Justice Department, the payments “were reviewed and approved by senior executives” of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September 2000 “that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization.”
Late last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain’s Ohio Victory Team.
GOP senator: McCain roughed up Nicaraguan
Washington Times
July 2, 2008
One of John McCain’s Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.
A former McCain aide who was along on the mission said he doesn’t recall an incident like the one described by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss.
Cochran said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kansas.
http://www.reuters.com/article/burningIssues/idUKN0119815920080702
Filed under: 2008 Election, Argentina, Arizona, Barack Obama, bernanke, Bill Clinton, Bolivia, brazil, Britain, CAFTA, Canada, Central Banks, CFR, Chile, colombia, Euro, Europe, european union, FARC, Federal Reserve, George Bush, global elite, global government, Globalism, Hugo Chavez, i-69, John McCain, Mexico, Military, NAFTA, NAFTA Superhighway, NAU, New World Order, North American Union, paraguay, Peru, Real ID, Ronald Reagan, single currency, South America, South American Union, SPP, trans texas corridor, TTC, United Kingdom, uruguay, us sovereignty, Venezuela | Tags: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
South American Union To Have Single Currency
Natural News
June 21, 2008
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva recently revealed that the South American countries are planning for a common currency as part of the integration of the individual countries into the Union of South American Nations. This integration is patterned after the formation of the European Union, and parallels the plan for the North American Union.
The union of South American nations would create a trade block designed to be competitive with the European and North American trade blocks. Central to the formation of the union is the creation of a central bank to oversee the new common currency that would replace the currencies of the individual countries in the block. In a recent broadcast, President Lula stated that he sees the implementation of this plan as not being a fast one.
In his message, the president stressed the need to help the countries of South America that are economically weak, such as Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. “We have to help them because the stronger the countries in South America economically are, the more tranquility, peace, democracy, trade, companies, jobs, incomes and development”, he is quoted at ((http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/articles/…) .
Another unfolding feature of the South American Union similar to that of the North American Union is its dependence on newly created infrastructure. The South American alliance will promote the cross-nation construction of railroads, highways, bridges and transmission lines that will connect the entire region resulting in smooth interaction and movement within the trading block. The NAFTA and CAFTA Superhighways epitomize the infrastructural development of the North American Union trading block.
The union plan also calls for a regional defense council, apparently the beginning of the imposition of a regional government. This council would resolve regional conflicts, promote military cooperation and allow for the regional coordination of weapons production, much as the military integration of Canada and the U.S. initiates the unification of governments in the North American Countries.
The plan to establish a new common currency for the Union of South American Nations is the latest development in the initiation of common currencies representative of multi-country trading blocks. The euro was the first trade block currency, established as part of the European Union. The amero is the name of what may be the North American Union’s counterpart to the euro, debuting after economic integration and homogenization of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada have been completed, at exchange rates that represent the lowered standard of living of the Americans and the Canadians.
Critics of the Union of South American Nations’ efforts to establish a common currency see it as playing right into the hands of the world banking cartel. The clustering and assimilation of currencies facilitates the eventual merger into a one world currency promoted by the Council on Foreign Relations and its political puppets. They see the move toward the South American Union with its single currency as easily fitting with the European Union and current efforts to establish the North American Union. Once the formation of these major trading blocks is completed, the next step would be the unification of the blocks into a one world government.
This one world government is sometimes referred to as the New World Order. The Council on Foreign Relations has openly stated that its intentions are to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty of the national independence of the U.S. with the aim of creating a one world government. The Council, referred to as CFR, has influence in all vital areas of American life and around the world. Members have run or are running the major media outlets including NBC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other publications.
CFR members dominate the political world. U.S. presidents since Franklin Roosevelt have been CFR members, with the exception of Ronald Reagan. CFR members also dominate the academic world, top corporations, unions and the military. They are on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve. Barack Obama and John McCain are CFR members, as well as the Bushes and the Clintons. There are many corporate members of the CFR. CFR plans are not subject to the scrutiny, debate, or vote of the people. Discussion of the plans has been conspicuously absent from the endless debating of the presidential candidates.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7417896.stm
Arizona Governor Approves Prohibition on Real ID
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Feature-Article.htm?InfoNo=034608
Bill C-51 Codex & The SPP
http://intelstrike.com/?p=277
SuperCorridor Defeat? Don’t Bet On It
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2008/06/supercorridor-defeat-dont-bet-on-it.html
Comments At 4th Annual North America Forum
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/06/13/02404.html
North American Union agenda whether Canadians want it, or not, is a top priority for elite interests
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/06/13/02404.html
Filed under: Argentina, Bolivia, brazil, Britain, Central Banks, Chile, colombia, Europe, european union, FARC, global elite, Globalism, Hugo Chavez, NAU, New World Order, North American Union, paraguay, Peru, single currency, South American Union, United Kingdom, uruguay, Venezuela | Tags: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
South American Union Formed
BBC
May 24, 2008
The leaders of 12 South American nations have formed a regional body aimed at boosting economic and political integration in the region.
At a summit in Brazil, they signed a treaty which created the Union of South American Nations (Unasur).
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the move showed that South America was becoming a “global player”.
But tensions between several members will make it difficult for the group to achieve its goals, observers say.
Mr Lula said at the summit in Brasilia that the differences between some Unasur governments were a sign of vitality in the region.
“The instability some want to see in our continent is a sign of life, especially political life,” Mr Lula said.
“There’s no democracy without people [protesting] in the streets,” he added.
The treaty envisages that Unasur will have a revolving presidency and bi-annual meetings of foreign ministers.
Prior to the Brasilia summit, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the “empire” of the United States as Unasur’s “number one enemy”.
Mr Chavez is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic row with his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe – a staunch US ally – over Colombian claims that Venezuela has been helping to finance the activities of the Colombian Farc rebels.
The Unasur members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
South America considers single common currency
Gulf Times
May 28, 2008
BRASILIA: South America is thinking of creating a common currency and a central bank along the lines of those in the European Union’s eurozone, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday.
The idea is a logical next step following the signing last Friday of a treaty creating a Union of South American States that aims to promote joint regional customs and defense policies, Lula said during his weekly radio broadcast.
“Many things still haven’t been realised. We are now going to create a Bank of South America. We are going to move forward so in the future we’ll have a single central bank, a common currency,” he said.
But, he added: “This is a process. It won’t be something that happens quickly.”
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela all signed up to the Unasur treaty creating the regional union during a ceremony in Brasilia last Friday.
The entity’s goal is to bring together two trade blocs within South America, Mercosur and the Andean Community, and to integrate the region.
Brazil is also pushing for a regional defence council that could be used as a forum to settle inter-regional disputes as well as formulate joint policies.
Lula said the creation of Unasur was “the realisation of a dream,” and evidence of remarkable economic and political progress South American nations have made in recent decades.
Filed under: Africa, asia, biofuels, brent scowcroft, bush senior, central bank, CIA, colombia, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, ethiopia, Eugenics, famine, food prices, GAO, gas prices, Genocide, global elite, Globalism, Great Depression, Greenback, Henry Kissinger, imf, Inflation, Iraq, malthusian catastrophe, Mexico, neocons, Nigeria, Peru, Petrol, philippines, Population Control, riot, riots, Stock Market, tuckey, UN, US Economy, wheat, World Bank | Tags: corn, grains, rice, Robert Zoellick, yemen
World Bank: rocketing food prices have put fight against poverty back 7 years
London Guardian
April 10, 2008
Rocketing global food prices are causing acute problems of hunger in poor countries and have put back the fight against poverty by seven years, the World Bank said today.
Robert Zoellick, the Bank’s president, said that while consumers in rich countries were worried about the cost of filling the fuel tanks in their cars, people in poor countries were “struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day.”
Zoellick said the price of wheat has risen by 120% in the past year, more than doubling the cost of a loaf of bread. Rice prices were up by 75%.
“In Bangladesh a two kilogram bag of rice now consumes almost half of the daily income of a poor family. With little margin for survival, rising prices too often means fewer meals.”
Poor people in Yemen, he said, were now spending more than a quarter of their income on bread.
“This is not just about meals foregone today, or about increasing social unrest, it is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth. Even more, we estimate that the effect of this food crisis on poverty reduction worldwide is in the order of seven lost years.”
The Bank’s analysis chimes with research from the International Monetary Fund showing that Africa will be the hardest hit continent from rising food prices. More than 20 African countries will see their trade balance worsen by more than 1% of GDP as a result of having to pay more for food.
World Bank expects more high food prices
AP News
April 8, 2008
Rising food prices, which have caused social unrest in several countries, are not a temporary phenomenon, but are likely to persist for several years, World Bank President Robert Zoellick says.
Strong demand, change in diet and the use of biofuels as an alternative source of energy have reduced world food stocks to a level bordering on an emergency, he says.
Speaking to reporters Monday before the bank’s spring meeting this coming weekend, Zoellick said the 185-member World Bank would work with other organizations to deal with the crisis by seeking ways to help farmers, especially in Africa, to increase productivity and improve access to food through schools or workplaces.
“This is not a this-year phenomenon,” he said, referring to the price spike. “I think it is going to continue for some time.”
Zoellick said bank forecasters looking at food prices have concluded that a serious risk exists of a significant increase in poverty, which for some countries will reverse gains made over the past five to 10 years.
http://mparent7777-1.blogspot.com/2008/04/food-as-weapon-rape-of-iraq.html
UN Chief: Food riots are already being reported across the globe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/09/food.unitednations
Grains Gone Wild
http://www.nytimes.com/2008.._r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Food Haitians storm palace in food price riots
http://www.boston.com/news/world/la..rm_palace_in_food_price_riots/
Rice Jumps to Record, Corn Near High as Demand Outpaces Supply
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new..&sid=aBPFBEmOgnh8&refer=home
Food riots fear after rice price hits a high
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environ..r/06/food.foodanddrink
Food prices to rise for years, biofuel firms say
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSL0324014220080403
Rush to restrict trade in basic foods
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7a4c2b98..77b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Filed under: Africa, asia, brent scowcroft, bush senior, central bank, CIA, colombia, Credit Crisis, DEBT, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, ethiopia, Eugenics, famine, food prices, GAO, Genocide, global elite, Great Depression, Greenback, Henry Kissinger, Inflation, malthusian catastrophe, Mexico, neocons, Nigeria, Peru, philippines, Population Control, riot, riots, Stock Market, tuckey, UN, US Economy, wheat | Tags: grain, Guinea, King George VI, Mauritania, Morocco, rice, rice shortage, soybean shortage, thailand, yemen
Rice Prices Soar Globally Leading To Food Riots
CSM
March 26, 2008
Bangkok, Thailand – – Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week.
Around the world, governments and aid groups are grappling with the escalating cost of basic grains. In December, 37 countries faced a food crisis, reports the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), and 20 nations had imposed some form of food-price controls.
In Asia, where rice is on every plate, prices are shooting up almost daily. Premium Thai fragrant rice now costs $900 per ton, a nearly 30 percent rise from a month ago.
Exporters say the price could eclipse $1,000 per ton by June. Similarly, prices of white rice have climbed about 50 percent since January to $600 per ton and are projected to jump another 40 percent to $800 per ton in April.
The skyrocketing prices have prompted millers to default on rice supply contracts and bandits to steal rice as they aim to hoard the crop, and sell it later, as prices continue to rise.
“The farmers are afraid as their fields have been robbed in the nighttime,” says Sarayouth Phumithon, an official at the Thai government’s Bureau of Rice Strategy and Supply. “This is just the beginning. The problem will get worse if the price keeps increasing.”
High Rice Cost Creating Fears of Asia Unrest
NY Times
March 29, 2008
Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world’s largest rice producers to announce drastic limits on the amount of rice they export.
The price of rice, a staple in the diets of nearly half the world’s population, has almost doubled on international markets in the last three months. That has pinched the budgets of millions of poor Asians and raised fears of civil unrest.
Shortages and high prices for all kinds of food have caused tensions and even violence around the world in recent months. Since January, thousands of troops have been deployed in Pakistan to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. Protests have erupted in Indonesia over soybean shortages, and China has put price controls on cooking oil, grain, meat, milk and eggs.
Food riots have erupted in recent months in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. But the moves by rice-exporting nations over the last two days — meant to ensure scarce supplies will meet domestic needs — drove prices on the world market even higher this week.
This has fed the insecurity of rice-importing nations, already increasingly desperate to secure supplies. On Tuesday, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, afraid of increasing rice scarcity, ordered government investigators to track down hoarders.
The increase in rice prices internationally promised to put more pressure on prices in the United States, which imports more than 30 percent of the rice Americans consume, according to the United States Rice Producers Association. The price that consumers pay for rice has already increased more than 8 percent over the last year.
But the United States is fortunate in also exporting rice; poor countries ranging from Sengal in West Africa to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific are heavily dependent on imports and now face higher bills.
Kissinger’s Plan For Food Control Genocide
Tehran Times
March 18, 2008
On Dec. 10, 1974, the U.S. National Security Council under Henry Kissinger completed a classified 200-page study, “National Security Study Memorandum 200: Implications of Worldwide Population Growth for U.S. Security and Overseas Interests.” The study falsely claimed that population growth in the so-called Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs) was a grave threat to U.S. national security. Adopted as official policy in November 1975 by President Gerald Ford, NSSM 200 outlined a covert plan to reduce population growth in those countries through birth control, and also, implicitly, war and famine. Brent Scowcroft, who had by then replaced Kissinger as national security adviser (the same post Scowcroft was to hold in the Bush administration), was put in charge of implementing the plan. CIA Director George Bush was ordered to assist Scowcroft, as were the secretaries of state, treasury, defense, and agriculture.
The bogus arguments that Kissinger advanced were not original. One of his major sources was the Royal Commission on Population, which King George VI had created in 1944 “to consider what measures should be taken in the national interest to influence the future trend of population.” The commission found that Britain was gravely threatened by population growth in its colonies, since “a populous country has decided advantages over a sparsely-populated one for industrial production.” The combined effects of increasing population and industrialization in its colonies, it warned, “might be decisive in its effects on the prestige and influence of the West,” especially effecting “military strength and security.”
NSSM 200 similarly concluded that the United States was threatened by population growth in the former colonial sector. It paid special attention to 13 “key countries” in which the United States had a “special political and strategic interest”: India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. It claimed that population growth in those states was especially worrisome, since it would quickly increase their relative political, economic, and military strength.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=412984
Imagine you were already slowly starving and food prices suddenly double
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9421.shtml
Bread, milk, egg prices spike, draining locals’ wallets
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/186/story/119284.html
Food prices rising across the world
http://www.printthis.clickability.com..d.ap%2Findex.html&partnerID=21210
Filed under: airstrikes, CIA, cocaine, cocaine trafficking, colombia, Communism, Coup, DEA, death squads, drug smuggling, drug trafficking, FARC, George Bush, Hugo Chavez, military strike, money laundering, neocons, NYSE, Raul Reyes, Saber Rattling, Troops, Venezuela, Wall Street | Tags: Ecuador, James Esposito, Rafael Correa, Thomas M. Kent, Victor Ricardo
The Murder of Raúl Reyes: Border War or Wall Street Mafia Hit?
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
March 3, 2008
From Bloomberg:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s orders to close his Bogotá embassy and send tanks to the border raise tensions beyond his previous rhetoric and to the point where miscalculation could trigger a military clash.
Chavez, who ordered 10 armored battalions to the border yesterday, said Colombia’s air strike March 1 on a rebel camp in Ecuadorean territory risks a regional war. He pledged to support Ecuador under any circumstances. The raid killed Raul Reyes, reputed to be second in command of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
If we are to follow the corporate media line, Chávez and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, both oft characterized as rotten commies, are to blame for the prospect of impending war with Colombia, even though Colombia is at fault for a violent violation of Ecuador’s national sovereignty.
After all, according to Reuters, “Colombia apologized to Ecuador for the troops crossing the frontier, but said the attack on a rebel camp was necessary after its forces came under fire from across the border.” In order to minimize this egregious violation — consisting of air strikes and the deployment of ground troops — we are told “Colombia, a U.S. ally, also said it found documents at the [FARC] jungle camp that linked the leftist government of Correa to the Marxist guerrillas — a charge Ecuador dismissed because the evidence was not presented for public scrutiny.”
It is part and parcel of an ongoing demonization process, designed to portray Chávez and Correa in league with FARC and the Devil. FARC was long ago fingered as a “narco-terrorist group” by the United States and the shadowy “revolutionary,” i.e., communist, organization plays a leading villain role in the State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, issued this month.
Of course, all of the supposedly diligent work under the guise of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, passed in June 2000, may be considered little more than a useless spinning of wheels — and a huge squandering of tax payer money — so long as the Drug Enforcement Administration ignores ground zero of the illegal drug trade, situated squarely on Wall Street. It should come as no surprise Wall Street has traditionally gone where the money is, no matter communism or any other distant second consideration, stuff good for Sunday school lectures but useless for investment purposes.
Back in 1999, Agencia de Noticias Nueva Colombia reported Richard Grasso, president of the New York Stock Exchange, flying off to southern Colombia to meet with the recently deceased Raúl Reyes:
Grasso was accompanied by Finance Minister Juan Camilo Restrepo and presidential commissioner for peace Victor Ricardo. The Argentine daily Clarin reported that Grasso was also accompanied by NYSE vice president Alain Murban and adviser James Esposito. The meeting took place inside the rebel-controlled peace zone in an area near the village of La Machacha, in southern Caqueta department… Local media said Grasso had asked to meet a representative of the FARC’s high command to discuss foreign investment and the future role of US businesses in Colombia.
But why would a NYSE big fish want to talk with a communist revolutionary about “foreign investment and the future role of US businesses in Colombia”?
It’s a no-brainer, really. Because the numero uno foreign investment opportunity in Colombia is anchored in the drug trade, not bananas and cut flowers. Plenty of money is to be made laundering drug money, a Wall Street specialty.
It was not reported what became of the discussion between Grasso and Reyes, but it really does not matter because Reyes is now pushing up daisies. The State Department may finger FARC as the cause of all evil in the region, but it completely ignores the group’s competitor, namely Colombia’s infamous rightwing paramilitary death squads, in the business of laundering drug money and with the assistance of DEA agents, according to Department of Justice attorney Thomas M. Kent.
Is it possible Colombia crossed over into Ecuador to assassinate Raúl Reyes in classic Tony Montana fashion? After all, the State Department has long accused Reyes of setting the FARC’s cocaine policies, including the production, manufacture, and distribution of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States and the world.
Of course, the corporate media is not interested in the underlying dynamic of the situation in South America, as the point is to portray Hugo Chávez as a warmonger, increasingly so especially after the CIA failed to overthrow him and the Venezuelan leader takes pleasure in thumbing his nose at Bush and his coterie of neocons.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f0f70450-e879-11dc-913a-0000779fd2ac.html
Chavez Sends Tanks To Colombian Border
http://www.reuters.com/..RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true
U.S. Could Intervene As Chavez Preps For War
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages..14&in_page_id=1811
Chavez Warns Of War With Colombia
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8V5H5TG1&show_article=1
Filed under: Barack Obama, Canada, colombia, Congress, european union, George Bush, Globalism, Hillary Clinton, marine, Mexico, Military, NAFTA Superhighway, North American Union, ohio, Protest, SPP, SPP Summit, trans texas corridor, Troops, TTC, White House
What a Marine in Iraq Thinks of the NAFTA Superhighway
http://youtube.com/watch?v=YUmApDlCmlo
Editor’s Note: Obama slams Hillary saying: “Sen. Clinton supported NAFTA before she ran for president” yet Obama supports the NAU/SPP Agenda.
Bush defends NAFTA and presses for Colombia vote
Doug Palmer
Reuters
February 28, 2008
President George W. Bush criticized Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday for suggesting the United States could “opt out” of the North American Free Trade Agreement and urged Congress to boost U.S. exports by approving a trade deal with Colombia.
“There are a lot of farmers and businesses, large and small, who are benefiting from having a market in our neighborhood. And the idea of just unilaterally withdrawing from a trade treaty because of, you know, trying to score political points is not good policy,” Bush said during a White House press conference.
During a presidential campaign debate earlier this week in Ohio, both Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama criticized NAFTA and said the United States could opt out of the agreement if Mexico and Canada don’t agree to renegotiate labor, environmental and investment provisions of the pact.
The candidates were responding to the strong view of many Ohio voters that the 14-year-old agreement is responsible for many manufacturing job losses in that state, which holds a crucial presidential voting contest on Tuesday.
Bush warned withdrawing from the pact would hurt U.S. farmers and businesses who export around $380 billion worth of goods to Canada and Mexico each year and said a signal that the United States does not honor its trade commitments.
Canadian and Mexican official have also expressed alarm at the idea of renegotiating the pact.
“It would be like throwing a monkey wrench into the engine of North American competitiveness,” Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, told the Financial Times in a story published on Thursday.
Bush also warned that congressional rejection of an unpopular free trade pact with Colombia would damage U.S. national security interests in the Latin American region and said he expected lawmakers to vote on the pact soon.
“The Colombia free trade vote is coming up,” Bush said.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2040
North American Army created without OK by Congress
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57228
Meeting On NAU/EU Merger Confirmed
http://interestalert.com/story/02190..ORLDNEW/world.html
Media Advisory: Security and Prosperity Partnership ‘Ministerial’ Meeting
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=825220
Video: Toronto Change Protests SPP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQi69ebt7tU
Filed under: Al Gore, carbon dioxide, Co2, colombia, Europe, european union, exxon mobil, Germany, Global Warming, ipcc, mars, Oil, Petrol, Senate, UN, United Kingdom, White House
Oil Baron Al Gore Disses Climate Change Skeptics
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet
December 21, 2007
Al Gore didn’t like it one darn bit:
“More than 400 scientists challenge claims by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations about the threat of man-made global warming, a new Senate minority report says,” reports the Washington Times. “The scientists — many of whom are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore for publicizing a climate crisis — cast doubt on the ‘scientific consensus’ that man-made global warming imperils the planet.”
Gore, as you may recall, has declared the debate is over on climate change. Like a Soviet bureaucrat, he has testily demanded nobody pay attention to the skeptics and we get busy transforming society in the way envisioned by the IPCC and the United Nations. In other words, it is time to implement Agenda 21. Get ready to be moved off the land into a crowded urban ghetto — for the sake of the snail darters, don’t you know. It’ll be just like a scene out of Soylent Green.
As for the 400 scientists challenging Gore and the IPCC, Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider “said 25 or 30 of the scientists may have received funding from Exxon Mobile Corp.,” an accusation rejected by Exxon Mobile.
Gore should not be the one talking about greedy oil corporations. As it turns out, the Gore family “owns at least a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of Occidental stock.” Back in the 1990s, when Gore was in the White House, Colombia’s U’wa tribe had a bone to pick with Occidental. In 2000, Ken Silverstein wrote for the Nation:
One of the world’s hottest battles between indigenous groups and multinational oil companies is heating up in Colombia, where Occidental Petroleum is seeking to drill on land claimed by the 5,000-member U’wa tribe. Early this year, the Colombian government deployed several hundred soldiers to guard workers building a road to the multibillion-dollar project. That led to a clash in February when security forces used tear gas to break up an anti-Occidental demonstration of several hundred Indians. Three children reportedly drowned when they fell into a river as they fled from government troops.
But it is not strictly oil: “In the sixties, the Gores discovered zinc ore near land they owned in Tennessee. Through a company subsidiary Hammer bought the land for $160,000–twice the amount offered by the only other bidder. He swiftly sold the land back to Al Gore Sr. and agreed to pay him $20,000 a year for mining rights. After receiving his first payment, Gore Sr. sold the land for $140,000 to Gore Jr., who has received a $20,000 check nearly every year since he acquired it. Strangest of all, Occidental has never actually mined the land. Al Jr.’s coffers swelled further in 1985 when he began leasing the land to Union Zinc, an Occidental competitor.”
But never mind. It’s not about oil or Exxon Mobile, it’s about discrediting the opposition, as usual.
Everybody naturally hates oil barons.
It doesn’t matter if Al Gore is one.
Related News:
German ire at EU fine on car CO2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7151862.stm
Year Of Global Cooling
http://www.washingtontimes.co….MENTARY/10575140
U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fu…0c8-3c63dc2d02cb
Experts Say Global Warming Not Man Made
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/200…warmingdenial
U.N. Conference Adopts Global Warming Pact
http://www.washingtonpost.com..hpid=topnews
Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne…ars-warming.html
Over 100 Prominent Scientists Challenge UN Move For Global Carbon Tax
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/december2007/121407_carbon_tax.htm
Court Backs California Greenhouse Gas Limits
http://www.reuters.com/article/en…264643320071213?sp=true
Skeptical Climate Scientists Shunned At UN Bali Meeting
http://www.prisonpl…07/121207_scientists_shunned.htm
China’s One-Child Policy Cited for Rise in Juvenile Crime
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSPEK35891820071205
New Study Explodes Human-Global Warming Story
Consensus Shattered As Major Scientific Study Says Global Warming Is Natural
Nobel laureates propose global CO2 tax
Pope Condemns Climate Change Doom Prophets
Climate change hits Mars
BABY TAXES Needed to Save Planet
Gore warns against ‘mutually assured destruction,’ compares global warming to nuclear war
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New Peer-Reviewed Study Finds ‘Warming is naturally caused and shows no human influence’
Elite Depopulation Agenda Gains GroundGlobal Warming Hoax News Archive
Global Warming Hoax News Archive
Filed under: 2008 Election, al-qaeda, bilderberg, Cintra, citigroup, colombia, Credit Suisse, Fred Thompson, global elite, Globalism, Goldman Sachs, GOP, Greg Abbott, Mexico, Michael Mukasey, money laundering, NAFTA Superhighway, neocons, North American Union, Pakistan, Rick Perry, Rudy Giuliani, Texas, Toll Roads, TTC, TxU, Vicente Fox | Tags: Cliff Kincaid, Gonzáles Parás, Greg Abbott, Grupo Modelo heiress María Asunción Aramburuzabala, Kohlberg, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Macquarie, Mary Peters, PAC, spain, Terri Hall, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, Texas Pacific Group Hafiz Naseem, tony garza, TURF
The Ties That Bind Rick Perry & Rudy Giuliani
Aaron Dykes
JonesReport
December 14, 2007
As Texas Governor Rick Perry goes on the road to stump for Giuliani’s campaign, it is increasingly clear that the two figureheads not only share a penchant for presiding over thinly-veiled corruption, but do their presiding in the same globalist circles.
Perry’s appearance at the secretive Bilderberg meeting in 2007 gives credence to whispers about the Texas Governor becoming a GOP running mate alongside Giuliani, even as Perry denies interest in being VP. Bilderberg has a noted and well-deserved reputation as kingmaker.
Together, Rick Perry, as Governor, and Rudy Giuliani, as a named partner in the Houston-based Bracewell & Giuliani, have been instrumental in selling off Texas infrastructure and utilities while ushering in agents of globalism and (North American Union) regional control.
TRANS-TEXAS CORRIDOR
Giuliani’s law firm is heavily tied to Rick Perry’s Texas-style ‘Big Dig’– a highly contentious and very real Trans-Texas Corridor that has foreign firms building up on land seized in the face of opposition from both the state legislature and the people.
Bracewell & Giuliani is exclusively representing the Spanish-owned Cintra and essentially won the contract to build the first ever private toll road in Texas. The Online Journal refers to Bracewell & Giuliani as “the ‘guiding’ law firm on the privatization of Texas State Highway 121”
Cintra is further partnered with the Australian company Macquarie, who “previously acquired the business and assets of an investment bank known as Giuliani Capital Advisors,” according to Cliff Kincaid who further observes:
Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), notes that Giuliani clients with an interest in acquiring Texas roads and infrastructure have also invested in his presidential campaign. She comments, “This could explain why Giuliani has spent so much time fundraising in Texas. The monied proponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor, of which there are many, would like to see this man become President.“
Perry’s advocacy for the TTC has been unwavering and he has refused to back down even after the legislature passed a two-year moratorium. Perry called in U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters to lobby against the moratorium while publicly declaring that there is no alternative to toll roads (Peters has, of course, been present at a number of NAFTA super-highway meetings as well).
Bracewell & Giuliani gave Rick Perry $20,000 in PAC money in the 2006 cycle. Current Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was also a partner in Bracewell & Giuliani, which Lobby Watch suggests was related to his run for office after stepping down from the Texas Supreme Court. He received $25,000 in PAC contributions in the 2006 cycle.
TxU BUYOUT
As we previously reported, the ‘largest ever’ buyout of TxU (now slashed from $45 billion to $32 billion) was managed by KKR, who are represented annually at Bilderberg by partner Henry Kravis.
“Energy Future bought TXU Corp. in a $32 billion leveraged buyout that closed in October. It was formed by Kohlberg, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., TPG, formerly Texas Pacific Group, and other investors,” reports the Dallas Morning News.
The deal stalled over environmental issues with TxU’s plans for new coal plants, but never faltered thanks to cheerleading by Rick Perry as well as personal appearances by Henry Kravis, who is known as a virtuoso in the world of leveraged buyouts (see Barbarians at the Gate which dramatizes his infamous high-priced buyout with R.J. Reynolds and also features a younger but no less-aged Fred Thompson).
Governor Perry was involved in facilitating the TxU buyout, including the issuance of an executive order to instigate fast-track approval for TxU plant deals:
“Last year, after private meetings with TXU executives, Perry fast-tracked the permitting process for TXU’s 11-plant expansion through an executive order, slashing the time frame in half, to six months….”
“The bottom line: Only Governor Perry and TXU, which stands to make a lot of money, are championing these plants.”
Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse First Boston (both deeply nested in Bilderberg) were also involved in the deal while Bracewell & Giuliani represented TxU (as they handle a number of energy companies). A number of criminal insider trading cases involving Pakistani financiers working inside these firms– including Hafiz Naseem– have already been prosecuted as a result of the buyout. Others, still under investigation, are potentially outstanding.
In fact, Hafiz Naseem, then a Credit Suisse investor, was defended by Bracewell & Giuliani’s Marc Mukasey, who is the son of U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Bracewell’s Mukasey commented that the “case is inference built on inference built on inference.” However, prosecutors were investigating other links to alleged inside trading that went as high as Pakistani Prime Minister Aziz, who is also a former Citigroup chairman. Investigators also believe there was a link to al Qaeda money laundering.
MEXICO
And what about Mexico? If a continent-wide merger is underway, it seems to coincide with the cozy relationship Perry and Vicente Fox had as contemporaries. As WND reports, the vision to expand the Corridor into Mexico is heavily discussed and well under way.
On May 24, Gonzáles Parás announced during his recent meetings in Austin, Perry had agreed the envisioned Trans North America Corridor would pass through Laredo and connect with San Antonio, just as Mexico ultimately planned to extend the superhighway south into Colombia.
Note also that the current U.S. ambassador to Mexico is none other than Bracewell & Giuliani partner Tony Garza (who is, incidentally, married to Mexico’s richest woman, billionaire Grupo Modelo heiress María Asunción Aramburuzabala).
What is the ‘North American Union’?
noworldsystem.com 
