Replies to post #6614 on Foreign Correspondence

[otraque]

i located in my own house, the latest article written by Seymour Hersh on "America's future wars".
It was in my 12/5/2005 NewYorker.
i will settle down and read and pass on contents.
i went to NewYorker web-site and noted it can't be retrieved(their archives have a one year lag).
But just at a mere glance, i theget idea he is saying the U.S. is going to get around its troops problem by going to relentless air attack, boms, bombs and more bombs.
Evil in its vilest form.
Rumsfeld remains absolutely committed to high tech machine run War.
I saw a movie once, King's Row i think it was, that included a surgeon that got his jollies by intentionally maiming some patients.
This is Rumsfeld war, surgical, vicious death and destruction via exploiting an huge weapons major advantage.
This is viciuos bullines. We are indeed a good people

[Amaunet]

Uzbekistan to Foster Cuba Ties

Happened to think this makes at least four SCO countries holding hands in Cuba, China, Russia, Uzbekistan and Iran with SCO observer status.

The SCO which represents nearly 50 percent of the world's population when including members with observer status, desires to be a serious force in international affairs. This can be seen in the granting of observer status to India (at Russia's request), Pakistan (at China's insistence) and Iran (to the delight of all members).
#msg-7218273

-Am



Uzbekistan to Foster Cuba Ties

Tashkent, Mar 16 (Prensa Latina) Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Sodik Safoev will strengthen links with Cuba based on friendship and mutual respect, diplomatic sources stated this Thursday.

Safoev welcomed in this capital the island´s Deputy Foreign Minister Omelio Caballero and his accompanying delegation in an official ceremony, shortly before continuing his tour of some Central Asian countries.

The two governments established diplomatic relations this week, after this ministry´s Acting Minister Ilham Nematov and Caballero signed a joint declaration, aimed at continuing links of bilateral friendship and cooperation, states the Uzbek Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Caballero used this visit to give Safoev a letter of invitation for President Islan Karimov to attend the 14th Non-Aligned Countries Movement (NAM) Summit, to be run in Havana on September 11-16 of the present year, a diplomatic source told Prensa Latina.

http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7B3924ABA7-D9DC-46A7-A152-6F046C76D260%7D)&language=EN

[Amaunet]

US military bases on Venezuela’s doorstep

Dutch Islands Caught Up in US-Venezuela Friction

Background:

We are extremely worried about getting to Cuba first when Castro dies. Moreover the Chinese have a listening post on Cuba I imagine we would like to get rid of as soon as possible.

He did not mince his words, arguing that the United States must be prepared to intervene within hours of Castro's death to prevent his compinches — his accomplices — from cementing their hold on power.
#msg-2991903

Chavez, thorn in Bush’s side and economic lifeline for Cuba another thorn in Bush’ side, is also gaining vast influence in the Caribbean along with that major thorn in Bush’s side, China.

The Caribbean- Chávez was in Jamaica Tuesday to finalize details on the PetroCaribe agreement signed in June. The deal, which is meant to help small Caribbean economies cope with high fuel prices, offers generous financing for oil sales and favorable rates in exchange for goods, services, or credit. Thirteen of the 15 members of the Caribbean Community group, or Caricom, have already signed on.
#msg-7487003

China is waging an aggressive campaign of seduction in the Caribbean, wooing countries away from relationships with rival Taiwan, opening markets for its expanding economy, promising to send tourists, and shipping police to Haiti in the first communist deployment in the Western Hemisphere.
#msg-5859727


Nicolás Maduro, the speaker of the Venezuelan legislature, maintained that Kemp’s statements were aimed at "preparing the psychological and political conditions in Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire" to justify the installation of U.S. military bases on the islands.

-Am

Dutch Islands Caught Up in US-Venezuela Friction (Antiwar.com)

April 6, 2006

by Humberto Márquez

CARACAS - Several Dutch islands in the Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela, have been caught in the middle of the war of words between the Venezuelan and U.S. governments, while the United States is getting ready to carry out naval exercises in the area.

Dutch Defense Minister Henk Kamp recently remarked that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is a "fanatic populist who has his sights set on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao" - Dutch islands located off the Venezuelan coast.

Chávez responded by calling Kamp "ridiculous" and describing him as a "pawn" of Washington, which he has repeatedly accused of carrying out an international smear campaign against the Venezuelan government.

In the latest edition of his Sunday radio and television program, Chávez argued that there is a "natural relationship, perhaps more direct than with the kingdom [of the Netherlands] itself," between Venezuela, Aruba, and the Netherlands Antilles, which are made up of Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten.

Leftist independence movements arose on the islands in the 1970s. But they declined in the 1980s as European integration advanced and when Aruba left the Netherlands Antilles.

In response to opposition members of the Dutch parliament, who were demanding that the government design plans to defend the islands, Kamp added fuel to the fire by stating that the Venezuelan Navy "only has a few secondhand vessels" that could never pose a threat to the Dutch Navy.

But on a trip to Curaçao a week ago, the minister said his only aim was to strengthen military and coast guard cooperation with Caracas. He clarified that there was no immediate threat to the islands, and that the Netherlands was interested in good relations with Venezuela.

Venezuelan Navy officials, led by Rear Admiral Luis Chirinos, also visited Curaçao to meet Frank Sijtsma, commander of the Dutch Coast Guard in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

Venezuelan Rear Admiral Adalberto García said his country has no territorial designs on the Netherlands Antilles and "no intention of attacking" the islands.

"We guarantee the independence of every nation, and we want to attack drug trafficking in the area, and combat illiteracy, but without imposing our own methods on anyone. Neighbors and friends must mutually support each other," he added.

Political analyst Alberto Garrido, a professor at Venezuela’s University of the Andes, told IPS that "the underlying question is that Chávez and his ally [Cuban President] Fidel Castro are working to bring cooperation programs to the entire region, while mobilizing forces to make the 21st century the last century of the U.S. empire."

Washington, for its part, has started up health care programs in the Dominican Republic that are highly similar to the programs carried out by Venezuela with Cuban support. Meanwhile, in nearby Jamaica, U.S., Dutch, and British military personnel are training alongside some 2,000 police officers from throughout the English-speaking Caribbean as part of "Operation Tradewinds."

The official purpose of these exercises is to "prepare regional security forces" for the 2007 World Cricket Cup in Jamaica.

But the largest military exercise in the Caribbean, taking place throughout April and May, is "Operation Partnership of the Americas," for which the George Washington aircraft carrier strike group - which includes roughly 6,500 sailors, a 60-plane air wing, and three smaller warships - has been deployed to the region.

Ports of call will include the Dutch islands 50 km off the coast of Venezuela. The operation is organized by the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which oversees military activities in Latin America, and its objective, according to U.S. Navy officials, is "to support maritime security in the area."

Some observers, however, believe that the operation has been launched as "a warning to Cuba and Venezuela."

Nicolás Maduro, the speaker of the Venezuelan legislature, maintained that Kemp’s statements were aimed at "preparing the psychological and political conditions in Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire" to justify the installation of U.S. military bases on the islands.

The international airports in Aruba and Curaçao are already used as forward operating locations (FOL) by dozens of U.S. and allied aircraft involved in anti-drug trafficking operations. The United States and the Netherlands are both members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance.

Maduro announced that a Venezuelan congressional commission will travel to the Dutch Caribbean islands to meet with local political parties and authorities and explain Venezuela’s point of view.

In Garrido’s view, the U.S. military maneuvers in the region "portray Venezuela as a national security concern for Washington, as various documents have already done." At the same time, "they are a counteroffensive to what the Southern Command calls radical populism and considers an emerging threat."

The exercises, he stressed, are taking place at a time when left-leaning governments are gaining ground in the Andean region, with "the administrations of Chávez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in Bolivia. In addition, indigenous people in Ecuador are demanding the resignation of their president, Alfredo Palacio, for negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States, while [anti-establishment presidential candidate] Ollanta Humala in Peru is gaining in the polls."

(Inter Press Service)



http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=11359

[Amaunet]

The State Department also lists several recent encounters between Iranian, North Korean and Cuban officials but falls short of linking these contacts to bioweapons technology transfers.

The folloiwng links point to a possible shifting of bioweapons technology between Iran and Cuba. This very easily could be fact.
#msg-10171924
#msg-10111389

Perhaps another connection: There is also a growing consensus that Iran's agents would target civilians in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, they said.
#msg-10478578


-Am


Washington: Cuba, Venezuela not helping in war on terrorism
A State Department report blasted Cuba and Venezuela for not cooperating in the war on terrorism.

Sat, Apr. 29, 2006
BY PABLO BACHELET
[e-mail]
Read the State Department's 2005 Country reports on Terrorism
WASHINGTON - The State Department on Friday blasted Venezuela and Cuba for doing little in the war on terrorism and criticized Havana for refusing to hand over U.S. fugitives even as it made demands on anti-Castro activist Luis Posada Carriles and five Cuban agents held in the United States.

''Cuba remained a state sponsor of terrorism, while Venezuela virtually ceased its cooperation in the global war on terror, tolerating terrorists in its territory and seeking closer relations with Cuba and Iran,'' according to the State Department's 2005 Country Reports on Terrorism.

But the annual congressionally mandated report also said ''there is some dispute about the existence and extent of Cuba's bioweapons program,'' as the Bush administration continued to backtrack on earlier claims that Cuba possessed a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort.

The State Department also lists several recent encounters between Iranian, North Korean and Cuban officials but falls short of linking these contacts to bioweapons technology transfers.

In an unusually detailed response to Cuba's longtime demands that the United States hand over five of its agents convicted in 2001 of spying for Cuba, the State Department said some U.S. fugitives have been living on the island since the 1970s and that Cuba was ''nonresponsive'' to U.S. demands that they be handed over.

''On the other hand, the Cuban regime publicly demanded the return of five of its agents convicted of espionage in the United States,'' the report said.

Cuba says the five are heroes who defended against attacks by exile groups.

The United States made a similar point with Posada Carriles, a former CIA operative and Venezuelan citizen accused of masterminding the 1976 bombing of a Cubana Airlines plane, killing more than 70. ''Cuba did not extradite suspected terrorists during the year, but demanded that the United States surrender to Cuba Luis Posada Carriles,'' the report stated.

The report, which tackles terrorism issues worldwide, uses stern language on Venezuela but falls short of listing it as a state sponsor of terrorism, as some Venezuela officials feared.

Last year, the State Department called Venezuela's counterterrorism cooperation ``inconsistent at best.''

Now cooperation is ''negligible,'' and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez collaborated more with Cuba and Iran and was ``unwilling to deny safe haven to members of Colombian terrorists groups, as called for in U.N. resolutions.''

U.S. officials have complained that Chávez has been systematically cutting links with the United States, including limiting contacts between U.S. military personnel and their counterparts in Venezuela and ignoring or harassing William Brownfield, the U.S. ambassador in Caracas.

Washington said Chávez has turned increasingly authoritarian at home and promotes an aggressive form of populism abroad. The Bush administration has blocked or objected to Venezuelan arms purchases, saying they were overblown given the nation's defense needs.

Venezuelan ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said the State Department report was ``immoral and cynical.''

He said Washington demands collaboration on terrorism but has been silent to Venezuela's requested extradition of Posada Carriles and two Venezuelan officers charged with bombing foreign consular buildings in Caracas.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/14458354.htm