US private military contractors already in-country to "deal with" (Chavez)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

US "private military contractors" already in-country to "deal with" Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez Frias...

Intelligence agencies are revealing that US private military contractors, active in Colombia "under various contract umbrellas, including counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency" are building up to yet another attempted coup d'etat against Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

Carefully described as "private military contractors" (a.k.a. hired mercenary killers), the PMCs are known already to have conducted several incursions across the Colombia-Venezuela border to link up with rebel units of the Venezuelan military operating along the border badlands between the two countries.

Senior officials at the US Pentagon have authorized the intruder operation as part of a plan to make it appear that Chavez is militarily assisting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

* The US mercenaries have also established close links with right-wing Colombian paramilitaries (AUC) and their associated drug cartels to smuggle weapons into Venezuela.

More: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=46388

[rucky]

1. This must be stopped. n/t

[mod mom]

2. These private mercenaries are dangerous to our foreign and domestic policy

[kenny blankenship]

9. Private Armies are dangerous to democracy

the private army called the Freikorps was an important precursor organization to the Nazis. Many of the Nazis S.A. were former members of this private army.

But hey, privatization of all things is an entrenched phenonemon of what is loosely called globalization. People generally don't object to "globalization", which is widely understood to make nation-states obsolete, so why complain about the inevitable privatization of military power? If nation-states are impotent that doesn't mean lethal force embodied in their militaries goes away too. Corporations operate without borders now--so they're naturally going to want to have armies under their control wherever they go.

It's progress!

[smoogatz]

3. You knew it would happen.

Bush is insane.

[callady]

4. They certainly don't like Mr. Chavez

who stands up for the poor and dispossessed. Who has the gall to claim Venezuela is for Venezuelans. Who is an icon in the Latin American world as he stands up to the Western Imperium.

[burrowowl]

44. Welcome to DU, callady!

I hope Chavez stays alive!

[Union Thug]

5. Nothing like overthrowing democratically elected leaders to prove

that you envision a democratic world....

oh, wait... never mind.

Personally, I'm sick of my tax dollars going to fund professional murderers. Fuck them.

[cantstandbush]

20. Can Chavez call on some other "democratic" nations to send troops

to help him?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

22. Not until he controls at least 1-2 MSM outlets...

That's where power is today.


*sigh*

[Miss Chybil]

33. So we kill to install democracy and we kill to overthrow it.

I hate my government.

[dkofos]

6. Hope he has his eyes and ears on these guys.

[acmavm]

7. How does the Xtian right square its so-called pricipals with all the

killers we have running around the world as hired guns for the bush** administration?

I know there have always be mercenaries but they never had this 'acceptance' until Shock and Awe. There were looked on as nut cases by most people. Phonies and freakshows.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. If the US harms Chavez, we will lose our spot as a respected

world leader.

The world IS going socialist. If the US want to retain a capitalist system, it can, but it must start respecting the sovereign rights of others. They will band together against us if we start knocking of world leaders whenever we damn feel like it.

[stepnw1f]

10. The World Going Socialist?

I am listening....

[Union Thug]

13. Latin america is becoming the heart of a revitalized left...

and I'm with them!

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I don't agree with a 100% socialist government system for the US.

And quite frankly, I don't think Chavez wants one for Venezuela either. I think he just wants to nationalize those things which are vital to human existence, like water, oil and farmlands. If you think about it, those are the things that will cause people to arm themselves and overthrow a government. He may just be reaching conclusions which we don't have to make right away because we are so educated, intelligent, superior, arrogant and, well, we're the United States of America.

:eyes:

[IndianaGreen]

31. But a 100% capitalist government under Bush is okay?

The choice we all face is a simple one: barbarism or socialism.

[The Backlash Cometh]

45. We're already NOT a 100% capitalist system.

Social Security is a socialist initiative.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

46. Add interstates, police forces. etc...

We ARE socialists...

Except when a corp. pays the bills...?

[The Backlash Cometh]

48. The public pays the bills, the corporations reap the profits.

That's capitalism a la Dick Cheney.

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Look to Europe.

In the last few elections, there has been a leftward movement. Spain, for example.

[stepnw1f]

17. Good

Although... look at Germany. Still I see your point and hope this is true.

[electropop]

19. Our spot as a respected world leader?

We lost that the day Chimpy invaded Iraq.

[The Backlash Cometh]

49. Just seeing if anyone was paying attention.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

34. a few points...

1. We have already lost the respect of the world.
2. We've been knocking off world leaders for years.

:cry:

[The Backlash Cometh]

50. About point 2. We've never done it in such quick succession!

Speaking of past hits, did you know that Omar Torrijo's son graduated from Texas A&M?

What a dysfunctional arrangement. They knock off the boy's father, give him an education in Georgie's backyard, then give the boy a chance to rule the country the way they wanted his father to.

Well, it seems to be working. I hear Panama is having a Renaissance.

[Kailassa]

38. That spot was lost long ago.

Now America is regarded as a retarded clown with an armful of nukes.

[DemoTex]

11. "Suicidal statecraft": The ultimate cause of imperial collapse.

Thus concluded Arnold Toynbee sixty years ago in A Study of History. The Bu$h regime's private military contractors (PMCs) and torture policies are the epitome of "suicidal statecraft."

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

21. Hey! I shopped that first!

[Massacure]

12. I'll laugh if Chavez does one of two things:

1) Oil Embargo
2) Hangs those people for cooperating with rebels.

[meganmonkey]

14. Good link for More Information about this issue...

This gives a pretty good rundown of what is going on at the border between Venezuela and Colombia, and the US stance. I haven't read the whole thing yet but it seems relatively factual so far and indicates clearly when something is just rumor... :

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on 16 September that the world could not tolerate the US way of life, adding that “Mr. Bush represents the most crude and savage imperialism that threatens the world.” His fiery, anti-US speech at the UN General Assembly earned the most applause of any speech given that day. Meanwhile, the US has placed Venezuela on its blacklist of countries not cooperating with the US-driven “war on drugs”.

--snip--

The UN reported that Venezuela had seized some 32 tonnes of cocaine in 2003, 7 per cent of the total amount of cocaine seized in the world that year. The country ranked fourth after Colombia, the US, and Spain in cocaine hauls. In 2004, the US government congratulated Venezuela for seizing 43 tonnes of drugs. This year to date, Venezuelan authorities have seized some 59 tonnes of drugs and 72 tonnes of precursor chemicals, according to the Venezuelan Office of the Vice President.

This year has been a record year for cocaine seizures in Venezuela. With such an amount of cocaine trading hands, there is opportunity for corruption. Frustration between the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and its Venezuelan counterpart, the National Guard, has contributed to some finger-pointing, rumors, and other counterproductive activities.

---snip---

Decertification means very little for Venezuela, however. With over US$30 billion in foreign reserves, the amount of funding Caracas received from the US was not even a drop in the bucket. This decertification was little more than a public dressing-down of Chavez on the global stage, intended to embarrass him on the eve of his speech at the UN General Assembly. It could not have been better timed, or more irrelevant to the actual work that is being done to fight drug trafficking in Venezuela.

..much much more...

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=13022

one edit: don't know much about the source but it seems legit after reading the 'about' page. Plus it's from Switzerland :P

[Judi Lynn]

24. Glad to see this article. Thanks for posting it! n/t

[bonzotex]

53. Thanks, much more realistic about US and Venezuela relationship

[Gregorian]

18. Hey, he's a war president. What do we expect.

He was honest about one thing, at least. Without violence, these people are nothing.



Now, how do we stop him? By calling your senator? A lot of good that has done.

[mom cat]

23. READ the Whole article...Loads on the Bush Crime family!

This makes the DeLay thing look like stealing a nickle out of the collection plate.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

25. LOL.... You NOTICED!!!! You win the kewpie doll!

[Judi Lynn]

26. Very, VERY interesting info. Someone took a lot of time

gathering it prior to writing that article. Thanks a lot.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

27. Now if only a Congressman or a Senator will take notice.

[stillcool]

30. too much deja vu...

the same names keep popping up, doing the same things. But, one I'm happy to see being bandied about is Morgenthau. Really great read, thanks for the find.

[mom cat]

47. Reading the whole article was worth more than a kewpie doll, a lot more.

Thanks for finding it, I started posting articles from there some time ago and find it quite informative, but this one is the motherload!

[femrap]

36. I read the whole article as well...follow the money...!!!!

This is like that bank (was it BCCI?) that Kerry worked on back in the '90's....and ultimately uncovered as a bank of corruption.

Do you think anyone in Congress is investigating this?

[bonzotex]

55. I read it , ....not impressed

See my post # 54

A lot of bogus speculation mixed in with facts here. No matter how much the repug mis-administration lives up to our lowest expectations, we need to stick with facts.

[IndianaGreen]

28. May they meet the same fate as their friends in Fallujah did

I was not among those that shed tears for the mercs that were strung up from a bridge in Fallujah, and I won't shed tears when the mercs in Venezuela meet a similar fate.

[Judi Lynn]

29. Ugly people, and they're in the wrong place, doing the wrong things.n/t

[chat_noir]

32. Coca-Cola mercenaries

Coca-Cola bottlers and trade unions

Coca-Cola bottler Panamco has been criticized for its relationship with unions. In Colombia, it has been alleged that the bottling company hired paramilitary mercenaries to assassinate union leaders. In January 2004, the New York City Fact-Finding Delegation on Coca-Cola in Colombia <1> <2> (see below) confirmed the workers' allegations. (emphasis mine)


They found: To date, there have been a total of 179 major human rights violations of Coca-Cola's workers, including nine murders. Family members of union activists have been abducted and tortured. Union members have been fired for attending union meetings. The company has pressured workers to resign their union membership and contractual rights, and fired workers who refused to do so.
Most troubling to the delegation were the persistent allegations that paramilitary violence against workers was done with the knowledge of and likely under the direction of company managers. The physical access that paramilitaries have had to Coca-Cola bottling plants is impossible without company knowledge and/or tacit approval....

snip

The SINALTRAINAL trade union, which represents the majority of workers at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia, called for an international boycott of Coca-Cola products in the summer of 2003. In October of that year, the Students' Union in University College, Dublin, the largest university in Ireland, controversially decided to ban the sale of Coca-Cola products as a result. A later attempt to reverse the ban at UCD failed, and the boycott has spread to other colleges in Ireland, most notably Trinity College, Dublin and the National College of Art and Design, as well as a number of bars and restaurants. Motions in support of the boycott have been passed by the Union of Students in Ireland, which represents the 250,000 students on the island of Ireland, as well as the Teachers' Union of Ireland and the Irish National Teachers Organization and a number of other trade unions and political organizations. The boycott is opposed by some branches in the SIPTU trade union (who represent the majority of Coca-Cola workers in Ireland) and by the Coca-Cola Company themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coca-Cola_Company

City Council Delegation to Colombia Reports on Human Rights Claims

What started as a civil court case in Florida almost three years ago between the Coca-Cola Company and several of its Colombian employees — who had accused their employer of human rights violations — has now spread to New York City, where a local fact-finding delegation recently returned from Colombia, loaded with testimonies of systematic murder, torture, kidnapping and intimidation.

The independent delegation, composed of educational and union representatives, was led by New York City Council member Hiram Monserrate, Co-Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. His team spent 10 days visiting sites around Colombia, where Coca-Cola’s bottling plants and its subsidiaries, Panamco/FEMSA, have been held accountable for using paramilitary forces to suppress union movements.

“It was overwhelming the volumes of tragedy that we heard city after city,” said Dorothee Benz, communications director for the Communications Workers of America during a news conference last Thursday. She gave further examples of the harassment received by family members, describing the kidnapping of children and intimidation of spouses as a means of pressuring employees to withdraw from a trade union organization.

One such union is Sinaltrainal, a workers’ coalition that represents the rights of Colombia’s Coca-Cola employees. Despite Sinaltrainal’s efforts to bring paramilitaries and bottling plant officials to court for their alleged role in the assassination of nine Coca-Cola employees, no charges have yet been made available.

http://www.nynewsnetwork.com/Article.php?article=City+Council+Delegation+to+Colombia+Reports.xml

[JNelson6563]

35. I didn't know about some of those investigations

I hope everyone reads this whole article, it's pack with great info.

Thanks for posting this great find! :toast:

Julie

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

42. Welcome....

We are at the stage where America will die or become great.

I'd hate to say what I'm betting on now.

[JanMichael]

37. I have a feeling that there are going to be captured "Contractors" on TV

who were captured in Venzuela very soon.

Any bets that there will be some Blackwater punks with the blindfolds on?

[Judi Lynn]

41. Bush and company would dearly love finding a rationale for "Falluga-izing"

any part of Venezuela, other than the properties of Venezuelan right-wingers, their beloved anti-Chavez operatives.

Never forget Operation Northwoods: conceived and signed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff when they thought they could pull it off in the 1960's by having U.S. citizens attacked, or boatloads of Cuban immigrants drowned, or other mayhem, and blaming it on the Cubans in order to launch an all-out war on the revolutionary Cuban government.

[saskatoon]

39. america once again betraying our principles

WHEN is the next American Revolution going to begin? How much more are we going to stand for? Where is the cutoff date? For godsake when are we going to stand up for what we beleive in?

[LibertyorDeath]

40. Life's a 2 way street

If your going to run around the planet murdering Elected leaders
don't come fucking whining when pay back comes calling.

It inevitably will in some shape or form.

Any person or group that thinks they can kill with impunity
is fooling themselves. History is strewn with power freaks that thought they could control the course of History.

They are almost retarded in their conceit & arrogance drunk on power.

They are destined for the shit heap of history like the rest of the Fascist fucks that came before them.

[psychopomp]

43. "Plan Columbia" moved from counter-narcotics

to counter-terrorism, thus enabling the current administration to shovel massive amounts of money to right-wing paramilitaries in Columbia under the rubric of the "war on terror." FARC was thus the excuse for propping up a right-wing counterinsurgency in Latin America, one in a state with oil, no less. As an added benefit, Venezuela, an even larger oil exporter, sits right on the border with a Castro-friendly reformer at its helm.

[IndianaGreen]

52. Plan Colombia was never about narcotics but about counter insurgency

Clinton's legacy of crimes against humanity in Latin America were Plan Colombia and keeping open the School of Assassins at Fort Benning.

[gulfcoastliberal]

51. Ending democracy, US style

When will this madness end?

[bonzotex]

54. good gravy Y'all! How many actually read this article?

Opus Dei assassins?
Mysterious unarmed sources,
Flight 93 shot down by the USAF? Payoff to terrorists by Bushco?
Philippine espionage ring run out of Cheney's office to overthrow the Philippine Government?

Rather than explaining with any evidence that American mercenaries are smuggling guns and coup plotters across the Colombian Venezuelan border, the writer(s) drive off into New World Order conspiracy land.

The money and banking links between the Saudis,Bush Family and CIA front companies need more investigation. These are not new observations. Bushco is neck deep in blood money and shady deals. There needs to be serious investigation and exposure to these links.

The rest of this is sensational conspiracy hearsay blended with a facts to make it all sound linked. Because so much of this article is questionable, it detracts from it's overall credibility.

Bush and friends have done so much drag America through the gutter; so much to impoverish Americans and kill people needlessly, We don't have to make stuff up to make a case against them.

Some of the things in this story may be true, but we'll never know from any evidence presented. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Please be more skeptical.