BOGOTÁ, Colombia (New York Times) Feb. 2 — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela announced his government had ordered the expulsion of the American naval attaché at the United States Embassy in Caracas for spying, further increasing tensions with the Bush administration.
Speaking on the seventh anniversary of his ascension to power, Mr. Chávez also warned that he would order the detention and removal of any other American military officials caught spying. “If accredited military officials continue with the espionage, we will imprison them, we will order them thrown out,” Mr. Chávez said.
The embassy denied the accusations against the attaché, John Correa, and other high-ranking military officers. “None of the military attachés in Caracas was or is involved in inappropriate activities,” Salomé Hernández, a spokeswoman in the embassy, said by phone from Caracas.
Later, Mr. Chávez elaborated saying that the rogue Venezuelan officers were providing videotapes of military exercises and personal information about high-ranking commanders. He said that the full weight of the law would come down on those officers, whom he did not name. “We will be inflexible with those traitors”.
Mr. Chávez’s comments came on the same day that senior Bush administration officials, who have been relatively silent after weeks of constant verbal volleys by the Venezuelan leader, harshly criticized his governing style. Warning that Mr. Chávez is consolidating power at the expense of democracy, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld went so far as to compare Mr. Chávez to Hitler:
Mr. Rumsfeld said, referring to the Cuban leader and the new president of Bolivia, Evo Morales. “It concerns me.”
…
Activist Interrupts King’s Executioner ◊ by susanhu
“Changing History is NOT a Spectator Sport”
Donald Rumsfeld spoke before the National Press Club on Thursday …
World Can’t Wait’s Heather Hurwitz, a respectfully attired teenager, stood up and shouted to Rumsfeld:
- “You have committed crimes against humanity and BushCommission.org and thousands are coming this weekend to drive you out of office, You and you whole administration. Step down Mr. Rumsfeld, Bush administration step down and take these programs with you. You are torturing people signing off on torture. It’s happening. This world needs to wake up, stop this war, this criminal war.”
WASHINGTON D.C, (WaPo) Feb. 3 — The United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades, as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world according to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.
Rumsfeld, who laid out broad strategies for what the military and the Bush administration are now calling the “long war,” likened al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin while urging Americans not to give in on the battle of wills that could stretch for years. He said there is a tendency to underestimate the threats that terrorists pose to global security, and said liberty is at stake.
“Compelled by a militant ideology that celebrates murder and suicide with no territory to defend, with little to lose, they will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs,” Rumsfeld said in a speech at the National Press Club.
The speech, which aides said was titled “The Long War,” came on the eve of the Pentagon’s release of its Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), which sets out plans for how the U.S. military will address major security challenges 20 years into the future. The plans to be released today include shifts to make the military more agile and capable of dealing with unconventional threats, something Rumsfeld has said is necessary to move from a military designed for the Cold War into one that is more flexible.
He said the nation must focus on three strategies in the ongoing war: preventing terrorists from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, defending the U.S. homeland and helping allies fight terrorism. He emphasized that these goals could take a long time to achieve.
Indeed, the QDR, mandated every four years by Congress, opens with the declaration: “The United States is a nation engaged in what will be a long war.”
Mr. Negroponte also said:
- Mr. Chávez’s populist government was seeking closer economic and military ties with Iran and North Korea, while meddling in the internal affairs of neighboring countries.
Little, if anything, has ever been publicly raised about ties to North Korea, and Mr. Negroponte did not offer evidence. But Mr. Chávez, whose country has the hemisphere’s largest oil reserves, has met with Iranian leaders and has vigorously defended Tehran’s goal of developing a nuclear program.
Bush neocon policy failed everywhere, from North Korea to Iran and the Arab nations in the Middle East. Bush – Powell – Rice lost all the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union and got kicked out of Uzbekistan. China and Russia have tightened their grip on these satellite nations bordering strategic oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea,
The twist with the Ukraine and Georgia were the latest where the Kremlin – Putin – and Gazprom got their way and secured the transport pipelines through the whole region. Putin mirrored the openings Bush took to grab executive power in the States, to his own possibilities with domestic politics of the Duma, Russian oil billionaires and neighboring totalitarian states. Putin’s implementation was much better than Bush, even China wasted no time to sign multi-billion LNG import contracts with Iran and invested heavily in Central Africa Chad and Sudan, South America in Argentina and Venezuela.
Bush and neocon cabal got their asses kicked everywhere and are much worse off than at the start five years ago. No wonder Bush spoke of his oil addiction, because he failed miserably to conquer any foreign oil fields. His only success was a coup d’etat interfering in Haiti’s democracy, resulting in a UN Stabilization Mission, except there is no oil to be gained. VP Cheney probably wanted to vault from Haiti into Chavez territory of Venezuela, but the overthrow failed!
● Presidents Chavez, Aristide and Castro
● “Nelson Mandela is a terrorist” – Dick Cheney in 1986
Now I understand fighting terror is a lifelong ambition of the neocon cabals, otherwise there is nothing to live for!
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
