Bolivar reborn
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashbiswaskl@gmail.com">palashbiswaskl@gmail.com
Bolivar reborn
The Chávez revolution remains the most original and democratic experiment in Latin America, and is clearly here to stay
By Richard Gott
The Guardian
"In an unusually large open space, in a poor area of the city of Caracas where ramshackle houses built from breeze blocks and concrete columns occupy every available piece of ground, and where narrow streets wind up the hillside filled perpetually by throngs of people, one of the many thousands of cooperative enterprises created in the last few years has been securely established.
Two large hangars house workshops, and close by is a large well-equipped clinic and a government food store selling cheap food, known as a Mercal. It sells a limited range of basic foodstuffs but would hardly justify the title of supermarket. Today, as everywhere throughout Caracas, powdered milk is in short supply, although no one knows for certain if this is the result of opposition manoeuvre and malice, or of government incompetence.
The clinic is clean and well organised, with modern equipment and a stream of patients throughout the day. Unusually, it is manned by Venezuelan doctors rather than by the Cubans who, in their thousands, have run the medical outposts in the poorest parts of the country over the past three years....
.....Quite apart from the extraordinary mobilisation of the people in the poorest areas, benefiting from new schools and clinics, there has been a huge expansion of public works all over the country, with new railway lines and motorways and well-designed sports facilities in almost every major city. Even the road from the airport has finally acquired a new motorway bridge, and many shacks on the surrounding hillsides have been freshly painted in gaudy colours, blue and orange, yellow and pink. Doubtless these could be denounced as Potemkin villages, yet they demonstrate an organising power on the part of the people that augurs well for the future. The Chávez revolution remains the most original and democratic experiment in Latin America, and is clearly here to stay."
# posted by Tony : 5:48 AM
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Counterattack as Fateful Referendum Looms
COUNTERPUNCH EXCLUSIVE!
CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces
By JAMES PETRAS
"On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007.
The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government. The Embassy-CIA's polls concede that 57 per cent of the voters approved of the constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez but also predicted a 60 per cent abstention.......
The outcome of the Referendum of December 2 is a major historical event first and foremost for Venezuela but also for the rest of the Americas. A positive vote (Vota 'Sí') will provide the legal framework for the democratization of the political system, the socialization of strategic economic sectors, empower the poor and provide the basis for a self-managed factory system. A negative vote (or a successful US-backed civil-military uprising) would reverse the most promising living experience of popular self-rule, of advanced social welfare and democratically based socialism. A reversal, especially a military dictated outcome, would lead to a blood bath, such as we have not seen since the days of the Indonesian Generals' Coup of 1966, which killed over a million workers and peasants or the Argentine Coup of 1976 in which over 30,000 Argentines were murdered by the US- backed Generals.
A decisive vote for 'Sí' will not end US military and political destabilization campaigns but it will certainly undermine and demoralize their collaborators. On December 2, 2007 the Venezuelans have a rendezvous with history."
Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
30 Nov 2007
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Bush seeks to pressure Democrats over war funds --Bush seeks approval of $196 billion for his wars during fiscal year that began Oct. 1 29 Nov 2007 U.S. President [sic] George W. Bush on Thursday stepped up pressure on lawmakers to pass his Iraq war funding request, while a senior Democrat said a deal might be possible.
Bush urges Congress to approve war funding before Christmas $50 billion war spending bill passed the House but stalled last week in the Senate 29 Nov 2007 President [sic] Bush on Thursday called on Congress to approve billions of dollars in additional funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before lawmakers leave for their Christmas break.
US to control growth of Iraq neighbourhood patrols 29 Nov 2007 The U.S. military will carefully manage the growth of neighbourhood police units credited with helping to curb foment violence in Iraq, aiming ultimately to move many into public work roles, a spokesman said on Thursday. Rear Admiral Gregory Smith said about 50,000 Iraqis had been trained and were manning "concerned local citizens" checkpoints in their own communities and being paid by the U.S. military.
Iraq government wants to pay neighborhood police units: U.S. 26 Nov 2007 Iraq's government wants to start paying the wages of U.S.-backed neighborhood security units, a U.S. general said on Monday. Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said he was not immediately aware of any Iraqi plan to pay the wages which have so far been paid by U.S. forces.
6,000 Sunnis [Hired to] Join Pact With US in Iraq 29 Nov 2007 Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday... The ceremony to pledge the 6,000 new fighters was presided over by a dozen sheiks, who signed the contract on behalf of tribesmen at a small U.S. outpost in north-central Iraq. For about $275 a month -- nearly the salary for the typical Iraqi policeman -- the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in the area.
U.S. sponsorship of Sunni groups worries Iraq's government 29 Nov 2007 The American campaign to turn Sunni Muslims 'against' Islamic extremists is growing so quickly that Iraq's Shiite Muslim leaders fear that it's out of control and threatens to create a potent armed force that will turn against the government one day.
Iraq MPs block Maliki nominees for cabinet posts 29 Nov 2007 Iraqi legislators thwarted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's attempts to get approval for nominees to fill two vacant cabinet posts on Thursday. Legislators from several parties boycotted the session, ensuring parliament did not have a quorum to vote on nominations for the justice and communications portfolios.
US not seeking permanent Iraq bases: White House 29 Nov 2007 The White House denied Thursday that the United States seeks permanent military bases in Iraq, days after the US "war czar" said that would be part of talks next year on long-term security ties.
Insurgents kill U.S. soldier in Baghdad 29 Nov 2007 A U.S. soldier was killed by 'insurgents'' small arms fire in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday. The soldier, assigned to Multi-National Division - Baghdad, was killed in western Baghdad on Wednesday, a military statement said.
Australia wants Iraq troops home by mid 2008 29 Nov 2007 About 550 Australian combat troops in Iraq should be withdrawn by about the middle of next year, Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd said on Friday, setting a broad timetable for the soldiers to return home.
US security firm runs into new trouble - and this time it's closer to home --Rural community opposes expansion by company at centre of Iraq allegations 30 Nov 2007 Now Blackwater is looking to expand domestically. So it has come to the border hamlet of Potrero, population 850. Eight miles from Mexico and 40 miles inland from San Diego, Potrero has found itself at the centre of a controversy.
Blackwater Grand Jury Resumes 29 Nov 2007 A federal grand jury investigating Blackwater Worldwide began its second day of work Thursday as an unidentified witness returned to the stand. The Justice Department is investigating the government contractor for its mercenaries' involvement in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.
Blackwater guards accused of drug use, ignoring orders 28 Nov 2007 At least one in four Blackwater bodyguards in Iraq use steroids and other drugs, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of several Iraqis killed or wounded in a Baghdad shooting in September. The lawsuit filed Monday in Washington also accuses the Blackwater guards of ignoring orders and abandoning their posts shortly before taking part in the shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead, media reports said Wednesday.
NATO denies killing civilians in E Afghanistan 29 Nov 2007 The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on Thursday categorically denied killing civilians in Afghanistan's eastern Nuristan province.
NATO air-strike kills 12 Afghan civilians: governor 28 Nov 2007 NATO air strikes killed 12 civilian road workers in eastern Afghanistan, a provincial governor said on Wednesday, an incident bound to fuel Afghan resentment against the presence of international forces.
2 Danish soldiers killed in Afghanistan 30 Nov 2007 Two Danish soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan, news reaching here Thursday said. The soldiers belong to a Danish reconnaissance unit stationed in the Upper Gereshk Valley of Helmand Province.
Musharraf: Emergency in Pakistan to be lifted on Dec. 16 30 Nov 2007 Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announced on Thursday that he intended to lift the state of emergency martial law on Dec. 16.
Habib 'told not to talk about torture' 30 Nov 2007 Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib says he did not reveal details of his torture in early interviews with media and others because he was told not to by his doctors and lawyers.
Rabbi: Cleanse country of Arabs --Prominent right-wing rabbis gather for 'emergency meeting' ahead of Annapolis conference, state no peace can be achieved if Arabs stay on Israel's land 27 Nov 2007 "We must cleanse the country of Arabs and resettle them in the countries where they came from," head of the Yesha Rabbis Council, Rabbi Dov Lior, declared Monday, adding that, "If this means we have to pay them, we will. Without doing so, we will never enjoy peace in our land."
Bin Laden urges Europe to quit Afghanistan-TV 29 Nov 2007 Al Qaeda [al-CIAduh] leader Osama bin Laden urged European countries to end their military participation with U.S. forces in the Afghan conflict, Al Jazeera television said on Thursday. Jazeera aired portions of an audio tape in which a speaker who sounded like [?] bin Laden said his Taliban allies had no knowledge of plans for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, a main reason for the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
TSA plan to gather more data protested 29 Nov 2007 A government proposal to start collecting full names, birth dates and genders of people reserving airline flights is drawing protests from major airlines and travel agencies that say it would be invasive, confusing and "useless." The plan centers on transferring the task of checking passenger backgrounds from airlines to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
'Unfamiliar smell' prompts Southwest flight to return 29 Nov 2007 A Southwest Airlines flight that took off Thursday morning from Sky Harbor International Airport returned to the terminal shortly after flight attendants noticed an "unfamiliar smell" in the cabin.
'Terrorist plot' on Aussie US base 30 Nov 2007 An al-Qaeda [al-CIAduh] leader who visited Australia on a lecture tour in the late 1990s was involved in a plot to attack a US military base on Australian soil, according to secret documents made public for the first time this week. An Algerian terrorist known as Abu Sheema and his associates allegedly revealed their plans to the former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mamdouh Habib when he was in Afghanistan just weeks before the September 11 attacks.
Judge jailed entire court for phone interruption --Doors locked after ringing mobile enrages magistrate --46 sent to cells in moment of 'inexplicable madness' 29 Nov 2007 Judge Robert Restaino was hearing a session of domestic violence offenders in a court in Niagara Falls City in upstate New York when proceedings were interrupted by 10 or 11 rings of a phone. "Everyone is going to jail, every single person is going to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now," he bellowed at the court... Fourteen of the defendants who could not post bail were shackled in irons and sent to the county jail. The judge cooled off and later that afternoon released all 46. The "two hours of viral lunacy", as one member of the commission described it, has probably cost Restaino his job. The commission ruled that he should be removed from his $114,000 (£55,000) job for "an egregious and unprecedented abuse of judicial power".
CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces --'OPERATION PLIERS' 28 Nov 2007 On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007. The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government.
Coup 2008 gets an early start: Virginia GOP Demands Loyalty Pledge at Primary --Reichwing Target Crossovers, Independents 29 Nov 2007 The loyalty pledge to the Republican Party that Virginia voters will be required to sign if they vote in the state's GOP presidential primary on Feb. 12 is another attempt by the party to police steal the open primary system. On Feb. 12, a GOP primary voter will have to sign a piece of paper that says, "I, the undersigned, pledge that I intend to support the nominee of the Republican Party for President." The state does not require voters to register by political party, which means a voter can decide on the day of the primary whether to participate in the Republican or Democratic primary. [The Virginia GOP loyalty oaths typify the Reichwing hypocrisy of UNbalancing the scales of fairness and justice. This mentality allowed Bush bin Laden to steal the 2000 and 2004 'elections,' via two GOP coup d'etats. Remember when the GOPedophiles whined that Al Gore was not letting 'our brave men and women in the military' have their ballots counted - and of course, LieberBush couldn't agree fast enough, an early sign of his dementia - even though such ballots were ILLEGALLY postmarked *after* 'Election Day?' See: New York Times documents military role in theft of 2000 election By Barry Grey 19 Jul 2001.]
The plot to rig the 2008 US election By Johann Hari 29 Nov 2007 In the long, hot autumn of 2000, the world was shocked by the contempt for democracy shown by the Republican Party. They knew their man had lost the popular vote to Al Gore by half a million votes. They knew the majority of voters in Florida itself had pulled a lever for Gore. But they fought – amid the confetti of hanging chads – to stop the state's votes being counted, and to ensure that the Supreme Court imposed George W Bush. Today, that contempt for democracy is on display again. In California right now, there is a naked, out-in-the-open ploy to rig the 2008 presidential election – and it may succeed.
Giuliani's Mistress Used N.Y. Police as Taxi Service 29 Nov 2007 Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com. "She used the PD as her personal taxi service," said one former city official who worked for Giuliani.
Bird flu spreads to 60 countries, pandemic risk still high: UN 29 Nov 2007 Bird flu in poultry and wild birds spread to 60 countries but is entrenched only in six because of improved and faster responses, experts said. Despite those strides, the risk of a worldwide human-to-human pandemic remains as great today as it was when the hard-to-treat H5N1 flu strain first gained intense attention in mid-2005, said a new report by Dr. David Nabarro, the UN official co-ordinating the global fight against avian influenza, and World Bank officials. "We think it will happen sometime but we don't know when or where," Nabarro said Thursday. [Oh, that's an easy one: The US, just before the 2008 'elections.']
Defra unable to identify bird flu source 30 Nov 2007 An initial report into the recent outbreak of deadly bird flu in Suffolk has been unable to identify the source of the disease, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said today. [Right, check your local US Army lab for the source. See: Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.]
Michael Moore cut this scene from Sicko because no one would believe it 22 Nov 2007 (Video) In addition to France, Canada, and the UK, Michael Moore also went to Norway. What he found, was unbelievable. [A must see!]
Fire shuts key Canada-U.S. pipeline, oil surges $4 29 Nov 2007 An explosion crippled the main pipeline supplying Canadian crude to U.S. Midwest refineries on Wednesday, forcing operator Enbridge to halt nearly a fifth of U.S. imports and sending crude prices as much as $4 higher. Alberta-based operator Enbridge Inc said in statement Thursday that the cause of the explosion [Blackwater?] had not yet been determined.
Bank of England promises £10bn of extra Christmas liquidity 30 Nov 2007 The Bank of England acted again to soften the worst effects of the credit crunch yesterday, announcing that it would be lending £10bn to the commercial banks at the base rate of 5.75 per cent for a five-week period, rather than for the usual seven days.
Are polar bears endangered? 29 Nov 2007 Scientists studying polar bears say global warming is melting the Arctic Sea ice they depend on to live. Today, conservationists visited the bears at the Toledo Zoo and made a plea to designate wild polar bears as endangered. A member of the Natural Resources Defense Council spoke today about asking the government to add polar bears to the federal endangered species list. A decision on whether to add polar bears to the endangered species list should come by January 9. E-mail the Department of the Interior through the Polar Bear SOS website.
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[Previous lead stories:] Holocaust Denial, American Style By Mark Weisbrot 21 Nov 2007 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's flirtation with those who deny the reality of the Nazi genocide has rightly been met with disgust. But another holocaust denial is taking place with little notice: the holocaust in Iraq. The average American believes that 10,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed since the US invasion in March 2003. The most commonly cited figure in the media is 70,000. But the actual number of people who have been killed is most likely more than one million.
More Iraqi civilians shot dead by U.S. troops 27 Nov 2007 Iraqi officials say American troops in Baghdad have killed as many as seven Iraqi civilians, including a child, in two separate shootings.
Survey Shows Dangers for Iraq Reporters 28 Nov 2007 American journalists covering Iraq say they face unprecedented dangers with many reporting that they've worked closely with Iraqi colleagues who have been killed or kidnapped, according to a survey released Wednesday. The survey by the Washington-based media watchdog Project for Excellence in Journalism offered a grim picture of reporters trying to work under they describe as the constant threat of violence and intimidation in Iraq
