More War, Chavez says (another WTF????)

[lala_rawraw]

Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, says he is in possession of intelligence showing that the United States plans to invade his country.

In a BBC interview, Mr Chavez said the US was after his nation's oil, much as it had been after Iraq's.

But he stressed that any invasion would never be allowed to happen.

Mr Chavez has long accused Washington of being behind what he describes as a coup - claims the United States denies.

An attempt to unseat him three years ago was aborted.

The Venezuelan president was interviewed by the BBC's Robin Lustig in Paris, while on an official visit to France.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4359386.stm

[SheilaT]

1. I, for one, am not

particularly surprised to hear this. Not to say I'm completely convinced, but it certainly seems plausible. I'd simply suggest that at the moment invading Venezuela simply isn't a high priority for the administration.

[lala_rawraw]

2. I think these guys are just speeding up their plans because

the game is over and they know they are losing power and that this chance to make "creative destruction" will not happen again... they are just that crazy, drunk on power, and while I cannot confirm at this time if what Chavez says is true, at this point, he has earned credibility points with me that this administration no longer has.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

5. I must point out...

...that having plans for the invasion of a country does not mean that you intend to invade said country. I'm sure the US has plans to invade Antarctica if necessary.

Now, covertly overthrowing Cast...err...Chavez, that's a different matter. He should probably be on the lookout for exploding CIA cigars.

[400Years]

17. splitting hairs eh?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

19. Not at all, actually.

Do you think we're going to invade Sweden, just because we (most likely) have a plan to do so?

And I'll post the same question I put forth in another post:

We and what fucking army are going to invade them?

[400Years]

27. Did the Admin just applaud an attemted coup in Sweden?

NO, but they welcomed with open arms the coup that was attempted against Venenzuela recently.

As far as the "what fucking army" question, I agree with you on that one. It would be a hard thing to accomplish but I wouldn't put it past them to try the typical destablization techniques done so many times before.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

3. Invade them using what army, exactly?

The Rhode Island National Guard?

[marmar]

4. Exactly...

listen to Condi's non-statements yesterday. They've got plenty of war plans on the shelf.

[madokie]

28. Giving Venezuela's land back to the people has made a lot of

people mad I'm sure. I don't have any links but I remember reading that something like 90 some percent of the land was owned by foreigners. Best I remember a lot of them were British.
Now you got me thinking maybe that is the tie between bush* and bLair.
Its a crazy world and I think I'm adding to it.

[HereSince1628]

6. He made the same claim months ago.

And frankly, I would expect the US has invasion plans for many nations. That's what war planners do, make plans.

Chavez may actually have gained access to one of these plans.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were plans to invade Chicago.

[endarkenment]

9. We have a proxy army in Columbia.

With lots of advisors and with huge bucks going in to prop up the regime there.

As Chavez has been the target of at least one coup attempt courtesy of the CIA plus an attempt to start up a 'middle class revolt' on the 1970 Chilean model, also courtesy of the CIA, perhaps his suspicions are a bit on the justified side?

[FloridaPat]

7. Don't forget our troops invaded Haiti, grabbed the president, and

shipped him to Africa. That sure quieted down quickly.

[endarkenment]

8. Did you forget the :sarcasm:?

Haiti is a total mess.

[Just Me]

10. The BushCO-neoCON corporacrats can't stand Chavez cause,...

,...he plays "the People" game rather than the profiteering scam.

I can't say whether our regime would attempt to wage war or not. However, there is no doubt, whatsoever, they are perfectly willing and able to take out Chavez via coup or otherwise.

[Coexist]

11. a friend of mine is in Special Forces

and has been sending me emails from South America lately. Bogata and Lima, to be precise. I was wondering what was going on.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

13. Bogota and Lima?

Ever heard of the drug war?

[Coexist]

14. no - he was doing "training exercises" there.

that means something else.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

18. Should I assume that it doesn't mean...

...he was training?

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Bolivia is on our radar screen, too...

The huge natural gas reserves in Bolivia are a plum the US desires to capture. I understand we have started prepositioning troops in Paraguay and perhaps your friend is part of that upcoming conflict.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

21. Link? n/t

[BrotherBuzz]

26. Bolivia election is scheduled to take place on December 4 2005

http://www.upsidedownworld.org/US-in-Paraguay.htm

http://www.upsidedownworld.org/us-paraguay-2.htm

Coup Warning in Bolivia

The proximity of the Estigarribia base to Bolivian natural gas reserves, and the fact that the military operations coincide with a presidential election in Bolivia, has also been a cause for concern. The election is scheduled to take place on December 4 2005. Bolivian Workers’ Union leader Jaime Solares, and Movement Toward Socialism (M.A.S.) Legislator Antonio Peredo, have warned of U.S. plans for a military coup to frustrate the elections. Solares said the U.S. Embassy backs rightwing ex-President Jorge Quiroga in his bid for office, and will go as far as necessary to prevent any other candidate’s victory.

[highplainsdem]

12. The Washington Times has run some articles this past week that seem

to be obvious attempts to make the case for going to war against Chavez. I ran across them while checking Google News.


Editing to add a link to one of them, and quotes:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20051016-112537-4689r.htm

Venezuela seeks nuclear technology
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
October 17, 2005


<snip>

"Chavez would like to have everything. He has the money to do it," said the official, noting Venezuela's vast oil reserves. "He wants new fighter jets. He wants to put a satellite in space."

<snip>

The U.S. administration official said Venezuela has begun taking delivery of more than 100,000 Russian-made AK-47s, some of which will arm the militias. It is also ramping up production of small-arms rounds that the Bush administration fears will be shipped to rebels in democratic parts of Latin America.

But more troubling to the Bush administration is Mr. Chavez's close ties to the mullahs in Iran. He visited Tehran last year and held a series of meetings with Iran's ruling mullahs. He then publicly supported Iran's quest for a huge nuclear industry.

"They are quite kissy-kissy with Iran," said the U.S. official. "There is a lot of back and forth. Iranians show up at Venezuelan things. They are both pariah states that hang out together."

<snip>

[Missy M]

16. This propaganda is laughable. I specially like the line....

"they are quite kissy-kissy with Iran". It sounds like lines from a sixth grader instead of a U.S. official. Another good one is "Iranians show up at Venezuelan things". Maybe I was wrong, could be a fourth grader.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. What do you expect from the moonie times?

I don't know which is worse, Chavez's grandstanding, or the punks from the Times.

[Missy M]

23. I love Chavez's grandstanding against the bush administration...

he is not afraid like so many others are.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

24. Two egomaniacs taunting one another is no basis...

...for a system of government.

Unless you're Italy.

[davsand]

15. Chavez scares hell out of them.

They will do all they can to marginalize him--including making hm look like a crackpot.

I have NO doubt what so ever that they have all kinds of CIA guys and mercs running around down there. I think they probably WANTED him to see a "plan" to invade (it is just as authentic as the Yellow Cake documents and the letters about shrub's military fitness that got sent to Dan Rather.)

I also think they are hoping that Chavez will continue to speak out in the international media about what they are up to--just so Chavez will look like Chicken Little when Condi stands up and says, "Yeah, we planned to invade--with the Rhodie Island National Guard--NOT!!"

I see this as a classic mind-fu*k on Chavez. I also think he's smart enough to see the game for what it is.



Laura

[Marr]

25. I wouldn't be surprised if our government intentionally allowed Chavez

to get such information. You know- try to scare him into playing ball. The fact is that we can't invade Venezuela, because Junior has our army bogged down in several other imperial ventures at the moment.

So now, we can't just stomp all over South America and stop them from organizing. It's probably the only good thing that's come of the Iraq invasion.

[allemand]

29. BBC Mundo has some snippets of the interview (in Spanish):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_4360000/4360456.stm