U.S. NGO’s Case against Venezuela’s Citgo and Chavez Dismissed

[Joanne98]

On Monday a U.S. judged dismissed a lawsuit filed against Citgo, a U.S.-based subsidiary of Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA. The company and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were accused of alleged terrorist acts and human rights abuses.

News service EFE reported that Judge Cecilia Altonaga granted Citgo's request to make the proceeding null and void and also closed the cases against Chavez, Vice President Ramon Carrizales, Foreign Affairs Minister Nicolas Maduro and four other officials.

The petitioner of the lawsuit against Chavez, journalist Ricardo Guanipa, failed to follow an order to notify all of the defendants. Through his lawyer he managed to notify Citgo, which responded with a request to annul the case, but not Chavez and the other officials.

EFE reports that the U.S. NGO Freedom Watch lodged the lawsuit last April on behalf of Guanipa. According to Aporrea.org, Guanipa used to work with Radio Marti, a U.S.-financed station that transmits to Cuba against the government there, and Radionexx, a private Venezuelan station that has called for the overthrow of the Chavez government and for the president's assassination.

Radionexx stopped operating at the beginning of this year, because, in the words of its operators in an interview published on Elbrollo.com, "It's useless, this country doesn't want to understand."

Guanipa claims he was forced to flee his country over alleged death threats, aggression and intimidation. He has had political asylum in the U.S. since 2005.

In the lawsuit, Freedom Watch asserted that Citgo resources were being used by Chavez to "support terrorism and other crimes against humanity, including death threats, arrests, torture, and murder." Freedom Watch was seeking US$5 billion for punitive damages.

On its website, the NGO calls Chavez a "terrorist communist dictator" and claims that he has supported the "Colombian FARC, a Marxist-Leninist group of terrorists, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, Middle Eastern Arabic terrorist states and others bent on destroying Judeo-Christian and western civilization and freedom."

The organisation says it will "bring to justice in a Miami court for his crimes, not only to compensate his victims, but to set an example for the Obama administration."

Chavez responded to Freedom Watch's accusations in April by laughing and saying, "It's the kind of strange news that comes out everyday."
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4765

[fascisthunter]

1. haha... idiots

[SPedigrees]

2. Hmmm, time to fill up with petrol at my local citgo station. nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. This will leave Larry Klayman's "Freedom Watch" more time to plot against President Obama:

The Return of Larry Klayman
Submitted by Kyle on March 9, 2009 - 4:10pm

Back during the Clinton administration, Larry Klayman was, in the words of the Washington Post, “in the middle of most every Democratic scandal ricocheting through Washington”:

A once-obscure trade lawyer who founded his conservative "watchdog" group Judicial Watch in 1994, Klayman is suing the Clinton administration in 18 separate matters, alleging an array of government cover-ups related to such things as Commerce Department trade missions and the suicide of White House deputy counsel Vincent W. Foster.

~snip~
In late 2003, Klayman stepped down from his position at Judicial Watch in order to make a run for the Senate for Florida, only to come in dead last in the Republican primary. He eventually became embroiled in a nasty and prolonged legal battle with those left behind at Judicial Watch and started a new organization called Freedom Watch, which he appears poised to use as a springboard to reclaim his standing as the Right’s most relentless source of frivolous lawsuits:

An organization that serves as a watchdog on the U.S. government for American taxpayers has launched a campaign to uncover exactly how much tax money is being spent on parties at the Obama White House … Larry Klayman, founder of Freedom Watch, told WND today he's seeking information about the partying in the White House since the Obamas moved in.

Klayman said the reports of the partying at the White House, "with the likes of Steve Wonder and other high priced entertainment stars," will be the focus of document requests being submitted to the General Services Administration. The requests will seek to determine how much taxpayer money is being used.

"Barack and Michelle Obama have been throwing taxpayer funded parties nearly every night with their 'friends' and supporters, with Michelle Obama even exhorting them not to 'break' White House property," Klayman's announcement said.

"This party atmosphere sends the wrong message to the American people. As the Obama-Clinton crowd party on, the American people are suffering greatly," Klayman said.

"It was right to criticize corporate execs for using taxpayer bailout money on bonuses and corporate junkets. In the face of this criticism, it is an outrage for Barack and Michelle Obama to party on, as Rome burns. It's like throwing a party at a funeral," he said.

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/category/individuals/larry-klayman