Venezuela's Chavez Denies Iran Troop Presence

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CBS/Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 27, 2010
Venezuela's Chavez Denies Iran Troop Presence
Firebrand Leader Calls U.S. Intel Report "A Disgrace" and an Attempt to "Justify" Future Military Action

(CBS/AP) President Hugo Chavez rebuffed a Pentagon report that found that an elite unit from Iran's Revolutionary Guard has a presence in Venezuela, warning that the United States could be looking for an excuse to attack his country.

Chavez on Monday called the 12-page report that was delivered to the U.S. Congress last week "a disgrace," saying "these are the things they raise and repeat in reports to later justify anything."

In the report, the Pentagon concluded that Iran's Qods Force, an elite unit within its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is well established and increasing its presence in Latin America, particularly Venezuela.

"It's totally false," Chavez said of the report's findings.

The unclassified Pentagon report did not include more details on what an increased presence by the Qods Force might entail. Pentagon officials have separately said that they do not believe Iranian terrorist proxies in Venezuela pose a threat to the United States.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/27/world/main6435290.shtml

[EFerrari]

1. The Pentagon needs to fire The Heritage Foundation

because they are bad writers with no imagination.

[Blandocyte]

2. Iranian soldiers are in Venezuela

and they have Iraq's WMDs! :sarcasm:

[Ian David]

3. Is it a slam-dunk? n/t

[dotymed]

4. No wonder Chavez is "paranoid."

I would be too. The U.S. keeps making up reasons to invade and/or assassinate him because he has been successfully redistributing the wealth to the majority of Venezuelan citizens. The wealthy and the profit-mongering multi-nationals will kill you for trying to be fair. Just like in America, everything belongs to the wealthy. "Free" enterprise is awfully expensive to the suffering masses. Chavez tells the truth about capitalism and helps the poor. Kill him.

[ShortnFiery]

5. Well put.

Concise and clear - bravo. :hi:

[dotymed]

6. Why do we allow freepers

to come on our site and "unrec" the truth? What kind of sick mind thinks that "free enterprise" is actually free or that unfettered capitalism is a "just" system?

[druidity33]

7. K&R, nt.

[IndianaGreen]

53. They are not freepers, they are DLCers

All they care about is by how much their investment portfolios will grow if the US is able to reestablish control over Venezuela, even if thousands are butchered in the process.

[Judi Lynn]

23. That's been the pattern since before Chavez, too, by god. Barbaric history against Latin America. nt

[IsItJustMe]

10. It's strange to see how far our gov't and corporate msm will go in just pulling things out of thin

air to prepare the sheep for the ultimate invasion. The really sad thing is that it works. People never seem to learn the lesson.

[struggle4progress]

45. No Iran military presence in Venezuela: U.S. general (WaPo)

By Phil Stewart
Reuters
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 4:09 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ... His comments appeared to contrast with a Pentagon report sent to Congress earlier in April. The report said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Qods force had a growing Latin American presence, "particularly in Venezuela" -- a claim Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has strongly denied.

General Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees most of Latin America, told a group of defense reporters Iran did not have a military presence in Venezuela.

"We see a growing Iranian interest and engagement with Venezuela. ... It's a diplomatic, it's a commercial presence. I haven't seen evidence of a military presence," Fraser said.

Asked whether he was contradicting the Pentagon report and earlier comments to the same effect by the director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, Fraser said: "I don't see it as a contradiction" ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042702935.html

[Flatulo]

8. The chances of the US attacking Venezuela are zero.

We tend to employ the policy of encirclement as a means of intimidation, but attack them? No way.

We've been hearing about the impending attack on Iran for years, but it never comes, and it never will. We have them encircled (Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gulf) and they're not going anywhere.

Shit, with over 100 military bases worldwide and a dozen aircraft carrier task forces, whom do we *not* have encircled?

Chavez continues to play the bogeyman card.

[Peace Patriot]

11. Did we not invade Iraq and slaughter a hundred thousand people in the first weeks of bombing

alone, to 'privatize' their oil for western moguls? I don't know where your confidence comes from that "the chances of the U.S. attacking Venezuela are zero." And you are obviously not versed in recent developments in the region, for instance, the white separatist insurrection in Bolivia, in September 2008, funded and organized right out of the U.S. embassy. Their purpose was to split off Bolivia's gas-rich eastern provinces into a fascist mini-state in control of Bolivia's main resource and thus impoverish/destabilize/destroy the elected government. The president of Ecuador said that there is a coordinated fascist strategy across three countries (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia) for the resource rich provinces to secede. It is quite possible, in my view, that the Bushwhack-backed effort in Bolivia--which failed--was a rehearsal for the bigger target, closer to our shores, with much more oil (the biggest oil reserves on earth--twice Saudi Arabia's)--Venezuela, which could net in Ecuador (big oil reserves, also a member of OPEC, adjacent to Colombia to the south) at the same time, using the Colombian military as a proxy or "front" (very like South Vietnam). Local fascist "patriots" declare their "independence" and plead with their brethren in Colombia to support them. The U.S., with SEVEN military bases in Colombia, and $7 BILLION in U.S. military aid to Colombia, acts all innocent while providing surveillance, logistics, etc. Do you imagine that the Pentagon/CIA have only one war strategy--a la Iraq--outright invasion?

As for Iran, a) Iraq was softened up for 12 years, prior to the Bush Junta invasion, with sanctions and no fly zones, so that, when the Bush Junta did invade, Iraq was a basket case and didn't even have an air force with which to defend itself against the rain of bombs, and b) It is naive to think that the U.S. has not invaded Iran because it doesn't have to, to control Iran's oil. That is not true. It DOES need to invade and occupy Iran to control the oil. And the reasons that it had not done so are more likely these: Iran is much better defended than Iraq was, and it has two very strong, nuclear allies--Russia AND China.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Also important to mention, as you have previously, the 4th fleet resurrected, returned to duty

under _{George W. Bush} after the coup in Venezuela in 2002 failed when the Venezuelan PEOPLE stormed the Presidential Palace and demanded the return of their elected President who had been kidnapped at gunpoint. That fleet had been mothballed since the Second World War concluded.

Also the deal worked out to use bases on Aruba and Caracao, both extremely closeby, only a moment away from Venezuela's coast.

From La Republica, Uruguay:

Venezuela Surrounded
by U.S. Military Bases

By Ignacio Ramonet

Never before in history has a power so rapidly increased its military control posts around the world.

Translated By Holly Fernandez

12 January 2010

Edited by Brigid Burt

Uruguay - La Republica - Original Article (Spanish)

President Hugo Chavez’s rise to power in Venezuela on Feb. 2, 1999 coincided with a traumatic military event for the United States: The closure of its principal military facility in the region: Howard Base, located in Panama, shut down in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties of 1977.

In its place, the Pentagon designated four locations to control the region: Manta in Ecuador, Comalapa in El Salvador and the islands of Aruba and Curacao, which are under Dutch sovereignty.

The U.S. added new official tasks to its so-called traditional mission of espionage, such as monitoring drug trafficking and combating underground immigration into the U.S., along with other secret tasks like countering Colombian insurgents, controlling the flow of minerals and oil, and managing resources such as fresh water and biodiversity. But since the beginning, its principal objectives were to keep an eye on Venezuela and to destabilize the Bolivian Revolution.

After 9/11, American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld defined a new military doctrine to confront “international terrorism.” He modified the strategy of overseas deployment, which previously involved equipping large bases with numerous personnel. He replaced these megabases with a large number of Forward Operating Locations (FOL) and Cooperative Security Locations (CSL) that contain little military personnel but are equipped with ultramodern detection technology.

The result: In such a short time, the quantity of overseas American military facilities have multiplied, reaching the unprecedented sum of 865 FOL or CSL-type bases spread throughout 46 countries. Never before in history has a power so rapidly increased its military control posts around the world.

In Latin America, the redeployment of bases has already permitted the facility in Manta, Ecuador to participate in the failed state coup d’état against President Chavez on April 11, 2002. Since then, a media campaign directed by Washington began to disseminate false information about the supposed presence of Hamas, Hezbollah and al-Qaida cells in the country.

Under the pretext of monitoring such movements, and in retaliation against a Caracas government that in May 2004 ended 50 years of U.S. military presence in Venezuela, the Pentagon widened the use of its military bases in Aruba and Curacao, which are situated very close to the Venezuelan coast where U.S. warships have recently increased their visits.

More:
http://watchingamerica.com/News/43123/venezuela-surrounded-by-u-s-military-bases/

[Judi Lynn]

14. I just noted in this article, Peace Patriot, something I failed to grasp last year.

Don't know how the #### I missed it! From the article I just linked:

In June, with the support of the U.S. base in Soto Cano, a coup d’état was carried out in Honduras against President Manuel Zelaya, who had joined his country with ALBA. In August, the Pentagon announced that seven new military bases would be established in Colombia. And in October, the conservative president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, admitted that he had ceded the use of four new military bases to the United States.

Thus, Venezuela and the Bolivian Revolution see themselves surrounded by no less than thirteen U.S. military bases located in Colombia, Panama, Aruba and Curacao, as well as the aircraft carriers and warships of the Fourth Fleet. President Obama seems to have given the Pentagon a free hand. Everything points to an imminent attack. Will the people consent to another crime to be committed against democracy in Latin America?

[dotymed]

17. Yes, and Hillary has already promised

the illegal, military coup installed government in Honduras, the one that the vast majority of Hondurans (except the elite) fear and despise, that they will be recognized as the legitimate government of Honduras. That same government is taking away land from peasants and "campessinos" that popularly elected and coup deposed, President Zelaya granted them. America (corporate) and Clinton are flexing their empire muscles in Latin America, harder than has been seen since raygun. Thousands of intellectuals and dissidents have been disappeared. Last week the installed President informed Hondurans that he keep the military in place as the police force until further notice. Go to therealnews.com and watch the videos. It is so sad. If the underprivileged people of the world would unite, we could make a huge difference...

[A Physicist]

19. We need Military bases around Venezuela

According to anonymous sources at the Heritage Foundation, Chavez has made a secret deal to allow Muslim Marxist Socialist Space Aliens to hide their Starship armada inside undetectable subterranean mountain bases. Because the bases are undetectable the Heritage Foundation must taken on faith; any attempt to verify this story is proof of complicity with the Muslim Marxist Socialist Space Alien/Chavez plot.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Wouldn'tcha just know it. Damn. The Muslim Marxist Socialist Space Aliens.

I'm fit to be tied over this news you've shared. What American wouldn't be?

Just wait until the Teabaggers and the Minute Men get wind of this.

[Flatulo]

25. Venezuela is not Iraq, and Barack Obama is not George W. Bush.

I will personally buy you a piece of pie on the day that US troops hit the beaches in Venezuela.

[Judi Lynn]

26. Like the CIA-backed invasion of the Bay of Pigs? Like that?

Or the Richard M. Nixon/Henry Kissinger/CIA backed coup in Chile, and the installation of the butcher puppet, General Augusto Pinochet?

Or any number of OTHER US-backed coups and puppet governments in Latin America?

[Flatulo]

27. You're arguing with yourself.

I did not say that the US didn't instigate coups in these places.

I said that the US will not invade Venezuela.

If and when we do, I will buy you a piece of pie.

[EFerrari]

47. Miguel d'Escoto said on Monday that his LatAm policy,

but for the rhetoric, has not been a change from the Bush policy.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/26/the_united_nations_is_beyond_reformit

Will we invade? Probably not. But there's a lot of damage that can be done to a nation without using US forces. Ask El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Chile, Argentina, and Peru.

[bitchkitty]

24. Grape or cherry? n/t

[EFerrari]

36. It's not a "bogeyman card" if you really have been surrounded.

[Flatulo]

43. As I stated upthread, we have everyone surrounded.

Russia, China, Iran, nobody's going anywhere.

And with the new generation of small lethal kinetic energy weapons being developed by us, with pinpoint accuracy and stealth, no one is safe anywhere on the planet (assuming we know where they are).

There's really no need to invade Venezuela. We could kill Chavez with relative ease, I believe. There's just no real good reason to do so. We're getting oil, and he's getting Yanqui $$$, so other than him being a royal PITA to us, he's harmless.

[EFerrari]

44. I beg to differ. He's done considerable harm to the multinationals

that prey on us by not only his policies in Venezuela but by Venezuela's support of Ecauador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

Harmless? Not really. Why do you think he's been in the press nearly every day since we failed to oust him?

[Flatulo]

46. I think he's in the press every day for the same reason Ahmadinejad is...

They both appear to be a rather eccentric. And they both have oil. And they both enjoy poking the USA in the eye with a stick.

I think most people would rather enjoy watching either of them self-distruct.

Like Lindsay Lohan.

It's entertainment on a geo-political scale.

[EFerrari]

48. But don't you have to ask yourself why they "appear" eccentric?

They don't write these articles.

[Flatulo]

49. Of course, the media shapes our perceptions. I grant you that.

But really, the whole Marxist schtick is so sixties. My personal opinion of the man is that he is no great thinker. But neither was GWB, and he got to be president too.

I kid... I know the man has done wonderful things for the poor in his country. But I have a strong feeling based on a lifetime of observation and reading that this whole 'eat the rich' thing is not an economic system. There will always be an unequal distribution of wealth, and some will end up with more than others. The goal of a good government is to ensure, through its laws, that people deal fairly with each other.

[Soylent Brice]

9. how eerily familiar... n/t

[Dave From Canada]

12. Everybody knows that Chavez and Ahmadinejad are close friends. This really shouldn't be a suprise.

[Judi Lynn]

15. It is a surprise to people when it DIDN'T HAPPEN and some a-holes create the rumor it did. n/t

[Dave From Canada]

18. Well it wouldn't suprise me. Chavez has positioned Venezuela closer and closer to Iran. They're

basically BFFs!

[Judi Lynn]

20. Right. No countries are allowed to do business together unless the Pentagon sanctions it.

Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

http://bokertov.typepad.com.nyud.net:8090/btb/images/ahmadinejad_w_bolivia_pres_evo_morales_0.jpg http://si.wsj.net.nyud.net:8090/public/resources/images/NA-BC145_BRAZIL_G_20091119181752.jpg http://ciempre.com.nyud.net:8090/images/uploaded/news330_1.jpg

You'd think some people would grow out of infantile, petulant gibbering about situations they won't take the time, or are unable to comprehend.

[dotymed]

31. Exactly,

America ranks the lowest of the "top 20 countries in the world" when it comes to all civil and health issues. #1 in "defense";) spending. yet we have the right to tell other countries to be as morally bankrupt as us or else? Fuck that.

[Dave From Canada]

33. Nobody is telling anybody what to do. And if you wanna look at morally bankrupt, just take a look

at Hugo's best-friend-forever Ahmadinejad. When he's not kidnapping union leaders, he's busy hanging homosexuals. What's not to like? :P

[dotymed]

50. Hugo's BFF?

Is that what Glenn told you? Educate yourself. :wtf:

[Dave From Canada]

59. Nope. It's reality. Facts can be stubborn things! :P

[Dave From Canada]

32. Nice strawman. I never said that countries aren't allowed to do business with eachother. unless the

pentagon sanctions it. Not sure where you got that from. All I aaid is that it wouldn't suprise me, because Iran and Venezuela have increased their military partnership over the last couple of years.

[dotymed]

29. What really pisses me off

and tickles the shit out of the freepers, is that this important post got 4 recs after a shitload of unrec's...what a load of shit. I think I have unrec'd twice. If I don't like the post, I usually do not do either. At least people who are interested can have a chance. maybe I'll start unrec'ing all of the rah, rah B.S.

[U4ikLefty]

34. This kind of rumor is tailor-made for folks just like Dave.

They have a predisposition against Chavez (probably because he is too dark to be trusted) and the lie fits their narrative.

[dotymed]

51. I think "Dave"

is probably a "Canadian" that hates National health care too....:dunce:

[IndianaGreen]

54. And Obama is BFFE of the murderer and torturer in Colombia, Uribe

and your point is?

There is no independent evidence of Iranian military involvement in the oil-producing south American country. Many of the economic accords signed by Chávez and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have stalled, raising a question mark over the alliance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/iran-venezuela-pentagon-report

[slackmaster]

16. Pentagon official: "Our source was the New York Times!"

[Judi Lynn]

21. " Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."

We ALL know how truthy the New York Times is at all times. God bless them.

[IndianaGreen]

55. Judith Miller back on the NY Times

We know how the NY Times was able to sell the WMD bullshit story to its gullible readers.

[Judi Lynn]

28. No Iran military presence in Venezuela: U.S. general

No Iran military presence in Venezuela: U.S. general
By Phil Stewart
Reuters
Tuesday, April 27, 2010; 1:40 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. military official played down any role of Iranian special forces in Venezuela on Tuesday, saying Tehran's activities there were diplomatic and commercial in nature -- and not military.

His comments appeared to contrast with a Pentagon report sent to Congress earlier in April. The report said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' elite Qods force had a growing Latin American presence, "particularly in Venezuela" -- a claim Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has strongly denied.

General Douglas Fraser, head of the U.S. Southern Command, which oversees most of Latin America, told a group of defense reporters Iran did not have a military presence in Venezuela.

"We see a growing Iranian interest and engagement with Venezuela. ... It's a diplomatic, it's a commercial presence. I haven't seen evidence of a military presence," Fraser said.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/27/AR2010042702935.html

[FLPanhandle]

30. I don't trust Chavez further than I could spit a rat, but even I don't believe Iranian troops...

or the Revolutionary Guard has a presence in Venezuela.

[EFerrari]

37. Do you frequently spit out rats?

[The Straight Story]

35. So he says Obam is lying? Hmmm who to believe.... (nt)

[EFerrari]

38. Actually, it was Obama's Pentagon as run by BushCo holdovers.

[EFerrari]

41. No Iran military presence in Venezuela: U.S. general

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63Q45N20100427?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

But thank Zool that the media spreads such obvious bs that even the Pentagon has to deny it. lol

[RufusTFirefly]

39. Remember the Maine!

And, while you're at it, don't forget that Caracas is just a few hours away from Harlingen, Texas!

[JoeyT]

40. While I don't believe for a second there are Iranian troops in Venezuela

the question needs to be asked: Who gives a shit if there are and what business is it of ours?
If they were invited and wanted to go, who cares? Once again our warmongers can't stop meddling, even if they have to lie to do it.

[EFerrari]

42. This is what the right wing does.

They demonized someone so that when they try to abuse that person, the pushback will be minimal.

That's what they've been doing to Chavez.

That's what they are doing to Latin American citizens in Arizona.

That's what they did to Clinton, Gore, Dean and Kerry.

This is the centerpiece of what they do. And they do it internationally as well as domestically.

[dotymed]

52. But, don't look at our

(ex) "School of the Americas"...we can train all the capitalist terrorists we want...:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

56. Iran's elite force expanding influence in Venezuela, claims Pentagon

Iran's elite force expanding influence in Venezuela, claims Pentagon
Hugo Chávez dismisses as a 'disgrace' the US report claiming Iran's Revolutionary Guard is making inroads into Latin America
Rory Carroll in Caracas guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 April 2010 19.09 BST

~snip~
Without naming Venezuela, the report said Qods forces overseas were posted in Iranian embassies, charities and Shia religious and cultural institutions. In addition to humanitarian support, the agents promoted "paramilitary operations to support extremists and destabilise unfriendly regimes".

The secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, has warned Latin America to steer clear of Tehran's embrace. But Washington has given mixed signals over how gravely it views the relationship.

In recent years, the Pentagon has said Hezbollah and other alleged Iranian terrorist proxies in Venezuela did not pose a threat to the US. American officials in the capital, Caracas, have said the same thing.

There is no independent evidence of Iranian military involvement in the oil-producing south American country. Many of the economic accords signed by Chávez and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have stalled, raising a question mark over the alliance.

On a visit to the region earlier this month, the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, played down Iran's influence. "I think it makes for interesting public relations on the part of the Iranians, the Venezuelans. I certainly don't see Venezuela at this point as a military challenge or threat."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/27/iran-venezuela-pentagon-report

[Flatulo]

57. Even if this were true, I firmly believe that it is none of our business.

I hope we can all agree on this. It just doesn't concern us.

Neither country poses even the slightest imaginable security threat to the US.

[Pavulon]

58. The revolutionary guard killed american marines in Beirut. Were bombed by the french

for killing their people on the same day. They would be the first people we killed in any conflict with Iran. They are active in Lebanon and are generally not nice people.

Not saying we SHOULD attack them, just that they would be hit with cruise missiles and bombs from jets with no radar signature in the event it became necessary.