US wants to add VEN to Terror List - Was FARC attack mainly to set-up Chavez?.

[magbana]

While I swear I will never post Pablo Bachelet’s articles anywhere ever again because of his repeated lies about Haiti and his slanderous accusations about President Aristide, I break my own rule here.

After you read the article, you might consider whether the attack on the FARC was a “two-fer” – kill Reyes and pretend to seize evidence from FARC computers implicating Chavez as a financial supporter. It smells like a set-up.

MIAMI HERALD

Posted on Tue, Mar. 11, 2008
U.S. looking into terror list for Venezuela
BY PABLO BACHELET

http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/451650.html

The Bush administration has launched a preliminary inquiry that could land
Venezuela on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism because of its
alleged close links to Colombian rebels, a senior government official has
confirmed.

The inquiry, by government lawyers, is the first step in a process that
could see Venezuela join North Korea, Cuba, Sudan, Syria and Iran as
countries designated by the State Department as supporters of terrorism.

U.S. laws permit some leeway on the scope of sanctions, but experts say that
adding Venezuela to the list could force U.S. and even foreign firms to
sever or curtail links with one of the world's leading oil producers and the
owner of Citgo Petroleum.

The inquiry comes after Colombia seized four computers belonging to a
guerrilla leader in a March 1 raid into Ecuador. The documents suggest
Venezuela, among other things, promised $300 million to the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The U.S. and Colombian governments and the European Union have officially
designated the FARC as a terrorist organization, but Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez has said publicly that he considers it a legitimate insurgency.

A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
delicate nature of the subject, said government lawyers had been asked to
clarify ''what goes into effect in terms of prohibitions, or prohibited
activities'' when a country is put on the U.S. list.

The official was reluctant to predict if the FARC computer discoveries will
lead to sanctions, noting that U.S. investigators must first corroborate
their veracity. The lawyers have not yet returned their opinions.

But if the seized documents are shown to be true, the official added, ``I
think it will beg the question of whether or not Venezuela, given Chávez's
interactions with the FARC, has . . . crossed the threshold of state sponsor
of terror.''

Venezuela already is subject to a U.S. weapons sales ban and other sanctions
as a country that refuses to cooperate on terrorism matters -- though does
not necessarily sponsor them. Bush administration officials also complain
that Venezuela refuses to cooperate on drug-trafficking issues.

But declaring Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism would push the
sanctions to a much higher degree.

Such a designation ''immediately imposes restrictions on the abilities of
U.S. companies to work in Venezuela,'' said James Lewis, a former State
Department arms-trafficking expert now with the Center for Strategic and
International Studies in Washington. ``It would make it very hard for
Venezuela to sell oil to the U.S.''

The State Department's website cites four categories of sanctions for
countries on the list, including restrictions on U.S. aid, a ban on weapons
sales, tightened export controls over U.S. items that have dual military and
civilian purposes, and ``miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.''

Lewis said the last category is ''the killer.'' Those sanctions, often
implemented by the Treasury Department's Office of Asset Control, or OFAC,
prohibit U.S. companies and banks from dealing with countries on the list.
Even non-U.S. companies are reluctant to do business with countries on the
list for fear of running afoul of U.S. sanctions, he added.

The designation could reach beyond oil fields. Boeing, for instance, would
need to be careful in its dealings with Venezuelan airlines, Lewis said.
Assets belonging to specially designated entities linked to the country
could see their financial assets in U.S. banks frozen.

But Lewis and other U.S. officials cautioned that the harsh sanctions
against a country like Iran, which was declared a state sponsor in 1984,
would not necessarily be replicated on Venezuela.

''There's not a standard template'' for sanctions, said OFAC spokesman John
Rankin.

But even a relatively gentle menu of sanctions would have strong economic
and foreign policy implications, given Venezuela's position as the
fourth-largest supplier of petroleum to the United States. The
government-owned PDVSA oil company owns Citgo Petroleum, which has several
U.S. refineries.

The ban on dual-use items could affect some deep-sea drilling equipment,
said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, a
business group that usually opposes unilateral U.S. sanctions.

And any financial transaction with Venezuela would require a license from
the Treasury Department. The Commerce Department sets up a regimen that is
country-specific, with much discretion built into the system, Reinsch said.
''It's kind of a mystery how they get there,'' he said.

Chávez, who often rails against President Bush and U.S. policies, has
repeatedly threatened to cut off oil shipments to the United States in
response to what he views as possible threats of a U.S. attack against his
government.

========================================
WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
========================================
Bac

[magbana]

1. And now Connie Mack

US lawmakers call for Venezuela to be on terror list

The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

WASHINGTON: Some U.S. lawmakers are urging President George W. Bush's administration to add Venezuela to a list of nations accused of sponsoring terrorism, charging that President Hugo Chavez has close ties with Colombian rebels.

Rep. Connie Mack, a Florida Republican, said Monday that he hopes the White House will add Venezuela to the State Department list of terror sponsors, which currently includes North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Cuba. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it is considering the move.

"It is critical that the administration now act swiftly and decisively," Mack said in a statement. "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is using his vast oil wealth to fund terrorism in his own backyard."

Mack did not provide specifics, but in a previous letter to Bush last week, the congressman said "it is now abundantly clear that Mr. Chavez is increasingly intertwined" with Colombia's leftist rebels.

The lawmaker was referring to documents found on rebel laptops after a deadly Colombian military attack on a rebel camp in Ecuador on March 1. Colombian officials point to the rebel letters as evidence of close links between Venezuela and the guerrillas.

Chavez's government denies it, saying the letters simply chronicle contacts for negotiating hostage releases and that the documents released are not necessarily genuine. Colombia's military strike on Ecuadorean soil sparked a diplomatic crisis last week, though tensions have eased since the three nations' leaders shook hands at a summit over the weekend in the Dominican Republic.

Venezuela's information minister, Andres Izarra, said U.S. officials are studying actions against Venezuela because "they are searching for new ways to attack ... and move forward with their plan to finish with the Bolivarian Revolution," as Chavez's socialist movement is known.

Some analysts view the possibility of the U.S. actually branding Venezuela a terror sponsor as remote, in part because Venezuela is the fourth-largest oil supplier to the U.S.

"It's a little bit difficult to see, particularly in the context of an election year, the U.S. slapping new sanctions on Venezuela that would probably disrupt oil supplies ... and lead to higher gas prices," said Daniel Erikson of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based think tank.

If the U.S. were to do this, he said, the sanctions "would cause damage both to the U.S. and Venezuela, because the countries have such strong economic ties."

Mack is not alone in urging that Venezuela be added to the terror list. Another Florida Republican, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also has called for it and is sponsoring a House resolution along similar lines.

But Dan Hellinger, a political scientist and Venezuela expert at Webster University in St. Louis, said the Republicans appear to face an uphill battle.

"They're trying to take advantage of the moment after this blowup with Colombia to try to see if they can cement into law a more hostile policy toward Venezuela," Hellinger said. But he said "the odds are against them precisely because I think there's probably not much interest in the Congress in terms of making things worse with Venezuela at the moment."

Key State Department diplomats, he said, are also "likely not going to want to pour gasoline on the fire."

The U.S. State Department has said previously that Venezuela does not cooperate completely in anti-terrorism efforts.

For his part, Chavez accuses Washington of protecting a terrorist by failing to turn over Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela on charges of plotting a 1976 Cuban airliner bombing that killed 73 people.

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=10958739

http://snipurl.com/21jr0

[AlphaCentauri]

2. Poor Ileana still hook up with the paranormal phenomenons

She was in a radio spot calling for voters saying that either democrats or republicans are good candidates what a nice freeper.
..



...
Asked whether he would curtail funds for Radio Marti, the uncensored Spanish broadcast aimed at Cuba, McCain was adamant: "I'll spend anything necessary to win the cause of freedom."

McCain said he would rely on the three members of Congress to advise him on all matters related to Cuba, and they in turn offered enthusiastic praise for the Arizona senator.

"Some people erroneously call him Washington's inside man," said Ros-Lehtinen, referring to criticisms leveled by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. "If there's ever been a Washington outsider it's the maverick John McCain."

Speaking in Spanish, Lincoln Diaz Balart called McCain "the most prepared to be the leader of the free world."


http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/communist_fighter_mccain_i_und.html

[EFerrari]

3. Imho, it's a two'fer. They get to continue their crap in Colombia

and they get to keep hunting Chavez.