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appearing all over the place penned by people with a political agenda presenting themselves as ordinary citizens, here's a reminder of what kind of business we know Republican pResidents have been incorporating into their own special styles while running the country: Otto Reich
Reich is a right-wing Cuban-American who, under Reagan, ran the Office for Public Diplomacy. It reported in theory to the State Department, but Reich was shown by congressional investigations to report directly to Reagan's National Security Aide, Colonel Oliver North, in the White House.
As head of the Reagan administration's Orwellian Office of Public Diplomacy, Reich ran "Operation 'White Propaganda.'" The OPD planted stories and op-eds in the U.S. media that were ghostwritten by Reich's operatives or assigned to "independent" experts. Tainted articles ran in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post, among other outlets.
His office also engaged in such dirty tricks as charging that reporters in Nicaragua were paid for their anti-U.S. coverage with the services of Sandinista-supplied prostitutes. See the report on the National Security Archive web site.
This is the man President George Bush tasked to be his key policy-maker for Latin America. The visits by Venezuelans plotting the coup against President Chavez, including Carmona himself, began, say sources, 'several months ago', and continued until weeks before the putsch. The visitors were received at the White House by - guess who - Otto Reich. The US administration was not only aware the coup was about to take place, but had sanctioned it, presuming it to be destined for success.
Reich has close ties to Venezuela, having been made ambassador to Caracas in 1986. His appointment was contested both by Democrats in Washington and political leaders in the Latin American country. The objections were overridden as Venezuela sought access to the US oil market.
On the day Carmona claimed power, Reich summoned ambassadors from Latin America and the Caribbean to his office. He said the removal of Chavez was not a rupture of democratic rule, as he had resigned and was 'responsible for his fate'. He said the US would support the Carmona government.
Washington’s celebration proved short-lived, however, as the Venezuelan junta disintegrated in barely 24 hours under the pressure of mass protests and conflicts within the military command.
Reich's recess appointment to the Department of State has lapsed becuase the Senate did not confirm him. He has been given another post as "Special Adviser" to the Secretary of State. One finds it hard to see an intelligent person like Colin Powell needing any advice at all from Reich. The attitude of Secretary of State Powell to any future Reich appointment requiring Senate confirmation will tell the world much more about how far Colin Powell is prepare to sacrifice principle in the service of his Commander-in-Chief, than it will about Reich.
(snip) http://www.eurolegal.org/useur/uspubpol.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~
He ran a government office which engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities" within the U.S to support the "contra" fighters against the Sandinista Government of Nicaragua as part of the Iran-Contra scandal under President Reagan; this was "beyond the range of acceptable agency public information activities," and in violation of "a restriction on the State Dept.’s annual appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by Congress," according to the Republican-appointed Comptroller-General of the U.S.
(snip) http://www.afrocubaweb.com/ottoreich.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~snip~
Over the past two weeks, the Spanish-language version of the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald, has run a three-part series on the growing threat of organizations and individuals that support the Venezuelan Government from within the United States.<3> The articles, written by right-wing Cuban-American journalist Casto Ocando, who has written dozens of fervently anti-Chávez articles for that same paper, pretend to expose a network of Chávez supporters in universities and progressive groups that, at the appeal of the journalist, should be considered “foreign agents” or almost “terrorist” by the U.S. Government and public. One of the articles even includes a map of where such pro-Chávez groups are located in the U.S., with a large image of President Chávez in military fatigues imposed on top, as though the author were exposing some clandestine terrorist network secretly operating within the United States.
The groups and institutions mentioned by the Herald that form part of the “sinister” pro-Chávez network in the U.S. include Harvard University, New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Global Exchange, Global Women’s Strike, San Romero de las Americas Church in New York and its Pastor, Luis Barrios, the catholic missionary Maryknoll group, the author of this article (yes, me), and several Bolivarian Circles, small community-based organizations that support Chávez modeled from the Venezuelan grassroots organizations that carry the same name. Sounds like a scary group!
I am sure that thoughts of Maryknoll missioners, prestigious university professors, Harlem-based Pastors and the environmentally-friendly Global Exchange all lauding a foreign government that is investing its oil wealth in improving health care, education, housing and raising salaries, has driven fear into the hearts and minds of ordinary Americans.<4>
Media-CIA Relationship Exposed
But maybe the author’s intent and not the content of the article should cause alarm. During the publishing of the three-part series on the growing threat of pro-Chávez supporters in the U.S., journalist Casto Ocando appeared on a local Miami television show on Channel 22, discussing such “threats” in detail alongside fellow Cuban-American F鬩x Rodríguez, ex-CIA Officer responsible for the assassination of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and who was also an Iran-Contra operative.<5> Just days earlier, this expert in CIA assassination techniques used against foreign leaders, F鬩x Rodríguez, was interviewed on that same program, “Maria Elvira Confronta” (Maria Elvira Confronts), providing details about an assassination plot in motion against President Hugo Chávez.<6> Ocando and Rodríguez’s association merely points to a collaborative effort between CIA and news media, a relationship established decades ago by the United States Government.
(snip) http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/us_aggression_propaganda_golinger.htm |
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