[Peace-discuss] Best is none too good

Morton K. Brussel brussel4 at insightbb.com
Fri Nov 30 14:50:15 CST 2007 

See Eva Gollinger's piece transmitted by DAvid Johnson:

CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela
November 28th 2007, by Eva Golinger

Image:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/2007/11/ 
chvezcnn_portada.jpg

Last night CNN en Español aired the above image, which captions at the
bottom "Who Killed him?" by "accident". The image of President Chavez  
with
the caption about killing him below, which some could say subliminally
incites to assassination, was a "production error" mistakenly made in  
the
CNN en Español newsroom. The news anchor had been narrarating a story
about the situation between Colombia and Venezuela and then switched  
to a
story about an unsolved homicide but - oops - someone forgot to  
change the
screen image and President Chavez was left with the killing statement
below. Today they apologized and admitted it was a rather "unfortunate"
and "regrettable" mistake. Yes, it was.

On a scarier note, an internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by
Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that  
reveals
a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to
destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled  
"OPERATION
PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was
addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington.  
Steere is
stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional
Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007,
references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and
confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human
Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different
scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming
referendum vote on December 2nd. The Electoral Scenario, as it's  
phrased,
confirms that the voting tendencies will not change substantially before
Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES) vote in favor of the
constitutional reform has an advantage of about 10-13 points over the NO
vote. The CIA estimates abstention around 60% and states in the memo  
that
this voting tendency is irreversible before the elections.

Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public
relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with  
more
than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are
transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development  
Alternatives,
Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for
Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and
political parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to  
these
propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS), that
include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that  
show
the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false. The CIA
also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press
agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and
that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media
organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico
Ravell.

CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden two
different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the referendum and
refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote wins. Though these
strategies appear contradictory, Steere claims that they must be
implemented together precisely to encourage activities that aim toward
impeding the referendum and at the same time prepare the conditions  
for a
rejection of the results.

How is this to be done?

In the memo, the CIA proposes the following tactics and actions:

     * Take the streets and protest with violent, disruptive actions  
across
the nation
     * Generate a climate of ungovernability
     * Provoke a general uprising in a substantial part of the  
population
     * Engage in a "plan to implode" the voting centers on election  
day by
encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN" in their centers to
agitate others
     * Start to release data during the early hours of the afternoon on
Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of election
regulations)
     * Coordinate these activities with Ravell & Globovision and
international press agencies
     * Coordinate with ex-militar officers and coupsters Pena Esclusa  
and
Guyon Cellis - this will be done by the Military Attache for Defense
and Army at the US Embassy in Caracas, Office of Defense, Attack and
Operations (DAO)

To encourage rejection of the results, the CIA proposes:

     * Creating an acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote  
will
win for sure
     * Using polling companies contracted by the CIA
     * Criticize and discredit the National Elections Council
     * Generate a sensation of fraud
     * Use a team of experts from the universities that will talk  
about how
the data from the Electoral Registry has been manipulated and will
build distrust in the voting system

The CIA memo also talks about:

     * Isolating Chavez in the international community
     * Trying to achieve unity amongst the opposition
     * Seek an aliance between those abstentionists and those who  
will vote
"NO"
     * Sustain firmly the propaganda against Chavez
     * Execute military actions to support the opposition  
mobilizations and
propagandistic occupations
     * Finalize the operative preparations on the US military bases in
Curacao and Colombia to provide support to actions in Venezuela
     * Control a part of the country during the next 72-120 hours
     * Encourage a military rebellion inside the National Guard  
forces and
other components

Those involved in these actions as detailed in the CIA memo are:

     * The CIA Office in Venezuela - Office of Regional Affairs, and
Officer Michael Steere
     * US Embassy in Venezuela, Ambassador Patrick Duddy
     * Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO) at the US  
Embassy in
Caracas and Military Attache Richard Nazario

Venezuelan Political Parties:

     * Comando Nacional de la Resistencia
     * Accion Democratica
     * Primero Justicia
     * Bandera Roja

Media:

     * Alberto Federico Ravell & Globovision
     * Interamerican Press Society (IAPA) or SIP in Spanish
     * International Press Agencies

Venezuelans:

     * Pena Esclusa
     * Guyon Cellis
     * Dean of the Simon Bolivar University, Rudolph Benjamin Podolski
     * Dean of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Ugalde
     * Students: Yon Goicochea, Juan Mejias, Ronel Gaglio, Gabriel  
Gallo,
Ricardo Sanchez

Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed  
insurrection in
Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will  
justify an
intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in
Curacao and Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code: as
Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has
operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the
past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.

The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA's  
best and
most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue  
its
efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President
Chavez and the situation in the country.

Operation Tenaza is a very alarming plan that aims to destabilize
Venezuela and overthrow (again) its legitimate and democratic (and very
popularly support) president. The plan will fail, primarily because  
it has
been discovered, but it must be denounced around the world as an
unacceptable violation of Venezuela's sovereignty.

The original document in English will be available in the public sphere
soon for viewing and authenticating purposes. And it also contains more
information than has been revealed here.

For the full text in Spanish, see:
http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/n105390.html



On Nov 29, 2007, at 11:10 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:

> BBC World News of late (today particularly) shows a slightly  
> tarnished halo above Mr Chavez's head -- riots in the street by  
> students and middle classes, state police roughing up and shooting  
> at protesters... Elections coming up soon, and polls have Chavez w/  
> less support than formerly. And then there was his refusal to renew  
> everybody's favorite commercial TV station, so folks had to take a  
> roundabout route (as I recall) so they could watch their favorite  
> soaps again... and soon after that, his attempt to throw out term  
> limits so he could be Venezuela's Castro and stay in power forever  
> (which failed, as I recall). Venezuela under Chavez was looking  
> like a true socialist democracy, and I think we all hope that isn't  
> going to change. Morales is having trouble in Bolivia as well, but  
> didn't catch the specifics... Keeping my fingers crossed for all of  
> Latin America -- I actually dared hope for the whole continent.
>  --Jenifer
>
> "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> [Given that Olbermann's is one of the few voices in mainstream media
> critical of the administration, it's unfortunate that he's unable to
> free himself from USG propaganda, as the following piece from
> CounterPunch shows. --CGE]
>
> November 23, 2007
> Trashing Chavez: Keith Olbermann's Jaundiced Rant
> By CLIFTON ROSS
>
> I don't know why I was so shocked listening to Keith Olbermann's
> insulting, degrading and uninformed remarks about President Hugo  
> Chavez
> yesterday. Perhaps because Olbermann is the only man on commercial
> television who has so far had the guts to make a frontal attack on  
> Bush
> and his coterie of war criminals. I suppose I thought his  
> articulate and
> courageous stand against the Republicans, his criticism of their
> comrades, the spineless Democrats and other collaborators with the  
> Bush
> regime, indicated a superior knowledge, analysis and understanding of
> politics in general. I hoped that his bold commentary indicated a
> suspicion of a system glued together by massive lies. Sadly, it  
> appears
> that I was wrong.
> …
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