Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
Back to Main

August 4, 2008
DNI and Venezuela

The org-chart of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence includes three country specific mission managers (MM).

Those for North Korea and Iran are somewhat understandable. The one for Cuba eventually too. But why is Venezuela one of them?

Just asking …

Posted by b on August 4, 2008 at 07:32 UTC | Permalink
Comments

They are all countires for which we are considering some sort of “regime change” at some point. There is a lot of groundwork to be laid.

Posted by: ralphieboy | Aug 4 2008 8:14 utc | 1

‘Cause them’s the bad guys, everyone knows Hugo Chavez hates Democracy. Except the Venezuelans, maybe, don’t know that, but just ask the Colombians, well, the Colombian government.

Posted by: Cloud | Aug 4 2008 14:36 utc | 2

Could it have anything to do with the leadership Chavez is providing in the anti-American wave rolling over South America?
What would the near future of South America look like if Chavez was to meet an untimely death?

Posted by: Jake | Aug 4 2008 15:06 utc | 3

it’s all chavez’s fault, they’re going down like dominoes.

Landless poor protest for parcels in Paraguay
CAPIIBARY, Paraguay — Just outside the rickety wire fence that guards the rich, red soil of this vast hacienda, dozens of peasants have camped for weeks under a patchwork of thatched shelters and tarpaulin-covered tents.
They are demanding a slice of the wealthy landowner’s property to grow food for their families. And if Paraguay president-elect Fernando Lugo doesn’t help them get it, they plan to swarm the private property, just as thousands of other landless farmers have done throughout the country.
“The Paraguayan people are awakening,” said Salomon Ruiz Diaz, 29, a protest leader.
Land reform is the single biggest issue in this tiny nation of just under 7 million people, where 1 percent of the population controls 77 percent of the arable fields. It is also the biggest challenge facing Lugo, a bearded, sandal-clad former Roman Catholic bishop who won election in April when Paraguay joined the continent’s swing to the left and ended six decades of conservative single-party rule.
With the Aug. 15 inauguration of the man known as “the bishop of the poor,” peasants like Ruiz Diaz see Paraguay’s first real chance to address an age-old land dilemma. The way Lugo deals with the land issue will go a long way toward determining whether he will govern as a revolutionary leftist, like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, or more of a middle-of-the-road pragmatist, like Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Posted by: annie | Aug 4 2008 15:53 utc | 4

i would love for pedro to contribute to this discussion because he has much to offer

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 4 2008 19:48 utc | 5

B,
I don’t know if you’ve seen this org chart of the Bush admin by Slate. It classifies the individuals by what crimes they’ve committed. A work in progress, obviously.
http://sentientlemming.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/20080805-bush-org-chart.jpg

Posted by: PeeDee | Aug 5 2008 0:15 utc | 6

Okay, three countries are the “Axis of evil” named in Bush’s state of the nation speech in 2002 — Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
Do you recall Chavez saying that he wanted to join with Castro and Lula of Brazil to form an axis of good?
It seems clear that the US occupation of Iraq takes it off the list, thus the promotion of Venezuela.
I am personally saddened that speech writer David Frum, who penned the phrase, is my countryman and son of the wonderful CBC voice of As it Happens, Barbara Frum.

Posted by: jonku | Aug 5 2008 9:39 utc | 7

Jonku, you’re not the only one. Frankly, Frum should stay out, too…just like Conrad Black. Feh.
BTW, Venezuela now has the world’s largest proven oil reserves–that extra-heavy crude under the Orinoco is surely what’s got them smacking their chops for “Operation Liberate Venezuela”, or whatever other Orwellian name they choose to give it. Unmetered oil wells in Iraq are just a warmup for this invasion.
Cuba also has oil in its waters, and with help from Venezuela, will soon have processing facilities, too. That horrible, obnoxious fair trade–doctors and medicine from Cuba, oil from Venezuela–must be stopped, don’cha know!

Posted by: Bina | Aug 7 2008 3:07 utc | 8

Back to Main