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Paul Merrell

Obama Visits Jamaica as U.S. Helps Caribbean Quit Venezuelan Oil - Bloomberg Business - 0 views

www.bloomberg.com/...ribbean-quit-venezuelan-oil%20

war & peace Venezuela U.S.-foreign-policy Obama Summit-of-the-Americas

shared by Paul Merrell on 09 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Obama arrives ahead of a trip to Panama on April 9-11 for the Summit of the Americas
  • Paul Merrell on 09 Apr 15
     
    Starting today, Obama will be catching a lot of flack from Latin-American and Caribbean heads of state for classifying Venezuela as a threat to U.S. National Security and imposing sancitons on that basis. Obama undoubtedly hopes that the blows will be softened by his "i didn't really mean it" line delivered two days ago by a deputy national security advisor. . Not withstanding the soothing words, Obama has not withdrawn his finding or the sanctions he imposed on Venezuela. But those nations' leaders are even more upset by the fact that the U.S., working with Israel, Germany, and the UK, made its second coup attempt in Venezuela earlier this year. The arrest of the conspirators was Obama's excuse for declaring Venezuela a threat to U.S. national security. The U.S. has a sordid history of engineering coups in Latin America and the Caribbean, violating the human right of self-determination of a nation's form of government and other international law prohibiting interference in the internal affairs of other nations.      
Paul Merrell

Obama Visits Jamaica, Urges Caribbean Nations to Break from PetroCaribe | venezuelanaly... - 0 views

venezuelanalysis.com/11322

war & peace economic-warfare U.S.-foreign-policy Venezuela PetroCaribe

shared by Paul Merrell on 09 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • US President Barack Obama arrived today in Jamaica as part of an ongoing effort to persuade the island and its neighbors to reduce dependency on Venezuela’s bilateral PetroCaribe program.As the first active US president to visit Jamaica in 33 years, the primary goal of Mr. Obama’s trip will be to develop, in coordination with the World Bank, an investment plan in the Caribbean’s energy sector. Vice-president Joe Biden has alleged that PetroCaribe, founded by Hugo Chavez in 2005, is being used as a “tool of coercion” against the region by the South American nation. For almost a decade, Venezuela has shipped fuel to 18 nations in the Caribbean and Central America with favorable terms for payment, such as low-interest loans, while investing in community projects including hospitals, schools, highways, and homeless shelters.
  • Last week, the Bolivarian government, through the Petrocaribe initiative, donated US$16 million to help the government of St. Kitts and Nevis provide for former sugar industry workers.In January, Biden gathered Caribbean heads of state in Washington as part of his Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, which he claims is seeking clean energy solutions for small island governments. However, the focus of the event was less about environmentalism and more about breaking away from Venezuelan trade.“Whether it’s the Ukraine or the Caribbean, no country should be able to use natural resources as a tool of coercion against any other country,” he told the leaders in attendance.Last month, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned of “strategic damage” on Venezuela’s part which could cause “a serious humanitarian crisis in our region.”
  • According to a Miami Herald report published on March 26th, Venezuela has halved subsidized shipments of crude oil to Cuba and other PetroCaribe member nations from 400,000 barrels per day in 2012, to 200,000 barrels per day.The article, which claimed to cite a Barclay’s Bank report, has since been refuted by the Venezuelan government. Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Delcy Rodriguez insisted last week that the information was “not true,” and was being published in a concerted effort to discredit PetroCaribe.
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  • Maintaining that the organization remains “pretty strong” despite sliding oil prices and a contracting economy, Rodriguez said a “war” is being waged against the socialist program, because it “brings solutions to poor people.”
  • Paul Merrell on 09 Apr 15
     
    It seems the banksters are truly upset with Venezuela's leaders for failure to be in hock to the IMF and for spreading their natural resoices and wealth amongst the poor. 
Paul Merrell

Summit of Community of Latin America and Caribbean States (CELAC) | Informaci... - 0 views

informacionaldesnudo.com/ica-and-caribbean-states-celac

U.S.-foreign-relations Latin-America Caribbean CELAC

shared by Paul Merrell on 01 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Another moment that sparked controversy during the two-day summit was the break of protocol by President Ortega of Nicaragua when he allowed Puerto Rico’s pro-independence leader, Ruben Berrios, to address the forum.
  • The summit concluded with a political declaration and other resolutions, among the most notable were the repudiation to the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, support for the return of the Malvinas islands to Argentina, and the decolonization of Puerto Rico.
  • The Political Declaration of Belen – named after Belen county, in Costa Rica, where the summit was held – includes 94 different points including a commitment to multi-lateralism, dialogue between countries, peaceful solutions to conflicts, and unconditional support for the United Nations Charter and international law. Here are 5 important events and outcomes of the regional meeting: 1. Regions commit to eradicate hunger by 2025
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  • 2. Latin America and the Caribbean calls for end to U.S. meddling in member countries CELAC – created in opposition to the U.S.-dominated Organization of American States – firmly rejected U.S. sanctions against Venezuela, calling them a violation of international law and a threat to peace in the region.
  • In another knock to the interventionist attitude by U.S. policy makers, CELAC also reiterated its proclamation from its 2014 summit declaring Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace. The regional bloc called on the international community to “respect this proclamation in its relations with the member states of CELAC, including the commitment to non-intervention, direct or indirect, in the internal affairs of any other state and to respect the principles of national sovereignty, equal rights, and the self-determination of peoples.” 3. CELAC calls for Obama to end U.S. Blockade on Cuba The CELAC bloc and its member states overwhelmingly backed the decision by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic relations and called on U.S. President Obama to end the blockade on Cuba.
  • 4. Leaders call for Puerto Rico to be included in future CELAC meetings Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega offered his speaking time to Puerto Rican independence leader Ruben Berrios Martinez, who called on the bloc to support the island’s struggle against colonialism. Regional leaders responded with calls for independence for the island and a commitment to include representation from the island in future meetings of CELAC.
  • The bloc also approved resolutions backing Argentina’s claim to the Malvinas as well as supporting the peace process in Colombia. The special declarations also called for a new international financial structure, financing for development projects and demanded action on climate change.
Paul Merrell

Maduro Says Obama Knows about Plans against Venezuela | News | teleSUR - 0 views

www.telesurtv.net/...t-Venezuela-20150130-0031.html

war & peace U.S.-foreign-policy Venezuela interference-in-foreign-governments Biden

shared by Paul Merrell on 02 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Venezuela’s President said U.S. officials have urged Venezuela’s isolation to regional leaders, saying that the government will soon fall. On Friday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who just returned from participating at the III Summit of Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), said leaders informed him of a meeting with regional leaders where U.S. Vice President Joe Biden "urged them to leave Venezuela isolated," saying that "the government will soon fall." The South American leader went on to accuse Biden of telling Caribbean leaders that Petrocaribe, the program offering subsidized Venezuelan oil to Caribbean nations, would end soon. At the CELAC meeting, Presidents from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as social movements from the region unanimously rejected U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign countries in the hemisphere. Maduro said the region is experiencing a "new historical era," which is part of the transformation towards regional integration and a multipolar world.
  • The Venezuelan president also addressed the recent media attack against key members of the Bolivarian government, including the president of the Venezuelan parliament, Diosdado Cabello. Maduro said his government would give moral and institutional support to Cabello and other officials who are being maligned by international press. The right-wing Spanish newspaper ABC reported early this week that an ex-bodyguard of Diosdado Cabello had been working with U.S. agencies, provided information allegedly implicating his Cabello in drug trafficking. Cabello has refuted the claims, and has urged the paper to provide evidence regarding the accusations. Maduro and other Venezuelan officials called into question the political character of the paper, which supported the Spanish dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. Maduro also said he will be sending a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, urging him to stop aggressions against Venezuela. 
Paul Merrell

Embassy of Cuba in NZ Newsletter - No.4 31st January 2015 | Scoop News - 0 views

www.scoop.co.nz/...tter-no4-31st-january-2015.htm

U.S.-foreign-relations Latin-America Caribbean CELAC Cuba China

shared by Paul Merrell on 01 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Agreement China-CELAC a ‘Costa Rican achievement’ — Correa Ecuador president Rafael Correa has said that the Celac agreement with China, was probably the greatest achievement of Costa Rica during its presidency, adding that among the main achievements was reaching concrete agreements with China in the bilateral forum recently held there.In an interview with several local television channels, the Ecuadorian president said that for its size, China can be considered as a region, and deepening the relationship would be beneficial for the Celac countries.Beijing was the “principal financier of the world” and to achieve agreements to finance projects aimed at the development of Latin America and the Caribbean Project was “a great success,” he said.Correa, now pro tempore president of the regional bloc, said that at the current stage of development of the region, what was needed was financing.“We no longer need,” he said, “the alms like those given by NGOs who come to construct little schools, because we can do that.“What we need is science, technology, technology transfer to help us create our human talent, and China can give those to us,” he added.
  • Cuba and China strengthen economic relations Cuba and China have signed five new agreements — in agriculture, telecoms, trade, finances, industry and transportation — confirming both countries’ interest in strengthening and expanding their economic relations.This was the result of the 27th Intergovernmental Commission Cuba-China held last week which also made official the postponement of the starting date of payment of the credit given by China through the Economic and Technical Cooperation agreement.
  • Correa considered it was a complementary relationship between equals, given that China needs energy, oil and food, which could be obtained from Latin American and Caribbean countries.Four priority areas were identified for the work of the new presidency: reducing extreme poverty, establishment of a new international financial architecture, development of science and technology, and road, productive and energy infrastructure.
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  • Both parties agreed to carry out a special session in four months to examine the bilateral economic agenda and the processes of implementation of the signed documents.The 27th Intergovernmental Commission also reviewed 29 cooperation and economic agreements signed during the visit of Chinese President, Xi Jinping on July 22 last year.The documents dealt with the concession of a line of credit for the construction of the multipurpose terminal in the port of Santiago de Cuba, in the eastern region of the island, among other facilities.Deputy minister of foreign trade and investment Ileana Nuñez said the agreements would attract more revenues to sectors like tourism, mining and construction.She underlined the favourable conditions and level of mutual relations, which grow, deepen and expand the interest of more Chinese investors.China is the second biggest trading partner of Cuba and Cuba is China´s major partner in the Caribbean, while Cuban tobacco and marine products gain ground in Asia.Assistant trade minister of China Zhang Xiangchen ratified their intention to honour commitments and strengthen economic and trade relations with Cuba.The trade relationship of both nations exceeded 1.4 billion dollars in 2013 and after signing the latest agreements, it could increase by 26 percent, according to official estimates.
Paul Merrell

Evo Morales Slams Washington During Speech at Summit | News | teleSUR - 0 views

www.telesurtv.net/...h-at-Summit-20150411-0026.html

war & peace U.S.-foreign-policy criticism Summit-of-the-Americas Bolivia Morales

shared by Paul Merrell on 12 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Bolivian president Evo Morales harshly condemned the United States Government for creating chaos, for promoting destabilization, and for attacking the sovereignty of nations as it continues to move forward with imperialist attitudes against countries around the world. Morales also spoke about poverty in Latin America, saying that it was important to point out that the causes of the problem lie in Washington and their imposition of neoliberal measures in the region. “The United States continues to see Latin America and the Caribbean as its backyard and the people of the region as its slaves, and this is the cause of extreme poverty in the region,” Morales said. The Bolivian president accused Washington of all the military coups that affected Latin America during the second half of the 20th century. “It is important to remember,” he stated, “that in the relations between the U.S. and Latin America and the Caribbean there are more failures than successes. The relations are loaded with armed interventions by the United States, invasions and constant aggressions.”
  • He criticized the United States for labeling the countries of the region as villains, when all these nations want to do is defend their people, their sovereignty, their right to freedom and democracy. “I want to tell [President Barack] Obama that empires disappear, while democracies last for ever,” he stated. “I want to express that mistake the U.S. makes when calling the Latin American and Caribbean countries the evil ones, when all they want to do is defend their sovereignty, their resources and their people.” Morales rejected the attacks by Washington and its allies against the region, accusing them of promoting wars, terrorism and poverty around the world. “I ask the United States what have we done to deserve being treated as slaves in our own countries?” he said. “We want to tell you Obama that Latin America has changed forever.” He called on Obama to stop extorting and attacking the countries of Latin America.
  • The president also state that, “Latin America has been kidnapped by the United States and we no longer want this. We no longer want presidential decrees that call us a threat to their country, we no longer want to be spied on … we want to live in peace.” Morales, therefore, called on Obama to engage in peaceful talks with the countries of region and to leave its double standards behind. “The United States should dispose of that double morale, because, for example, it is the country that resorts to torture more than any other country,” he said, questioning the human rights discourse of Washington when justifying interventionist policies against another nation. “We ask that (The United States) stop destroying complete civilizations and to stop looking for ghosts … we want to live in peace because it is less painful and more satisfying.”
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  • Morales also questioned Washington's discourse of democracy. “How can you speak of democracy when you label countries of peace and democracy a threat to your security? … How can you speak of democracy when you send troops around the world menacing the sovereignty of other nations … How can you speak of threats to your security when your country is the largest producer of weapons in the world … weapons that are killing hundreds of thousands.” Morales also questioned Washington's discourse on human rights, saying it is the country that resorts to torture more than any other around the world, and when in the United States they have a grave crisis of racial discrimination and a serious human rights issue involving police against minorities. Evo Morales told Obama that the United States doesn't need to help Cuba, “what it needs to do is repair all the damages it has caused in that country.” Toward the end of his speech during the second day of the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, Morales criticized the United States for insisting on the aggressions against Venezuela despite the fact that 33 countries in the region have rejected them, while only two have agreed with them.
Gary Edwards

'Clinton death list': 33 spine-tingling cases - 0 views

www.wnd.com/...-list-33-most-intriguing-cases

Clinton-Body-Count

shared by Gary Edwards on 05 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • Gary Edwards on 05 Feb 17
     
    "(Editor's note: This list was originally published in August 2016 and has gone viral on the web. WND is running it again as American voters cast their ballots for the nation's next president on Election Day.) How many people do you personally know who have died mysteriously? How about in plane crashes or car wrecks? Bizarre suicides? People beaten to death or murdered in a hail of bullets? And what about violent freak accidents - like separate mountain biking and skiing collisions in Aspen, Colorado? Or barbells crushing a person's throat? Bill and Hillary Clinton attend a funeral Apparently, if you're Bill or Hillary Clinton, the answer to that question is at least 33 - and possibly many more. Talk-radio star Rush Limbaugh addressed the issue of the "Clinton body count" during an August show. "I swear, I could swear I saw these stories back in 1992, back in 1993, 1994," Limbaugh said. He cited a report from Rachel Alexander at Townhall.com titled, "Clinton body count or left-wing conspiracy? Three with ties to DNC mysteriously die." Limbaugh said he recalled Ted Koppel, then-anchor of ABC News' "Nightline," routinely having discussions on the issue following the July 20, 1993, death of White House Deputy Counsel Vince Foster. In fact, Limbaugh said, he appeared on Koppel's show. "One of the things I said was, 'Who knows what happened here? But let me ask you a question.' I said, 'Ted, how many people do you know in your life who've been murdered? Ted, how many people do you know in your life that have died under suspicious circumstances?' "Of course, the answer is zilch, zero, nada, none, very few," Limbaugh chuckled. "Ask the Clintons that question. And it's a significant number. It's a lot of people that they know who have died, who've been murdered. "And the same question here from Rachel Alexander. It's amazing the cycle that exists with the Clintons. [Citing Townhall]: 'What it
Paul Merrell

Venezuela Strengthens Ties with China, Iran, and the Caribbean | venezuelanalysis.com - 0 views

venezuelanalysis.com/11429

economic-warfare China Venezuela 10-year-plan strategic-cooperation

shared by Paul Merrell on 01 Jul 15 - No Cached
  • Venezuela and China drafted a 10-year plan for strategic cooperation yesterday as part of the China-Venezuela High-Level Joint Commission that is meeting in Caracas through Wednesday. The plan aims to advance development in both nations by deepening partnerships in diverse sectors, including manufacturing, infrastructure, telecommunications, and oil. “We are going to address the issue of ports and airports throughout the country as well as the question of electric infrastructure,” stated Venezuelan Vice-President for Planning Ricardo Menendez. “We are going to be working on the topic of telecommunications," he added, outlining plans for technological exchange in diverse areas, including providing students with digital tablets, building related factories, and constructing undersea cables to connect Venezuela with Caribbean nations. Also on the agenda are plans to expand joint oil projects as well as initiatives to kickstart Venezuela’s domestic production, particularly in the areas of cement, iron, aluminum, and paper.
  • Over the last decade, Venezuela under Chavez and Maduro has sought to strategically reorient its economy towards China, signing over 400 cooperation agreements encompassing a wide array of sectors, including energy, education, health, trade, housing, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure, sports, research, and cultural exchange. Since 2007, China has provided Venezuela with $45 billion in loans reportedly to finance development. In return, Venezuela exports over 600,000 barrels of oil a day to the rising economic giant. Relations between Venezuela and China were elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership last July during a special visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
  • Paul Merrell on 01 Jul 15
     
    So much for the Monroe Doctrine.
Paul Merrell

Data Pirates of the Caribbean: The NSA Is Recording Every Cell Phone Call in the Bahama... - 0 views

firstlook.org/...-every-cell-phone-call-bahamas

surveillance state NSA DEA cell-phone-dragnet-recording

shared by Paul Merrell on 20 May 14 - No Cached
  • The National Security Agency is secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation on the island nation of the Bahamas. According to documents provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the surveillance is part of a top-secret system – code-named SOMALGET – that was implemented without the knowledge or consent of the Bahamian government. Instead, the agency appears to have used access legally obtained in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to open a backdoor to the country’s cellular telephone network, enabling it to covertly record and store the “full-take audio” of every mobile call made to, from and within the Bahamas – and to replay those calls for up to a month. SOMALGET is part of a broader NSA program called MYSTIC, which The Intercept has learned is being used to secretly monitor the telecommunications systems of the Bahamas and several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya. But while MYSTIC scrapes mobile networks for so-called “metadata” – information that reveals the time, source, and destination of calls – SOMALGET is a cutting-edge tool that enables the NSA to vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation in an entire country.
  • All told, the NSA is using MYSTIC to gather personal data on mobile calls placed in countries with a combined population of more than 250 million people. And according to classified documents, the agency is seeking funding to export the sweeping surveillance capability elsewhere. The program raises profound questions about the nature and extent of American surveillance abroad. The U.S. intelligence community routinely justifies its massive spying efforts by citing the threats to national security posed by global terrorism and unpredictable rival nations like Russia and Iran. But the NSA documents indicate that SOMALGET has been deployed in the Bahamas to locate “international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers” – traditional law-enforcement concerns, but a far cry from derailing terror plots or intercepting weapons of mass destruction.
  • By targeting the Bahamas’ entire mobile network, the NSA is intentionally collecting and retaining intelligence on millions of people who have not been accused of any crime or terrorist activity. Nearly five million Americans visit the country each year, and many prominent U.S. citizens keep homes there, including Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey.
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  • The Intercept has confirmed that as of 2013, the NSA was actively using MYSTIC to gather cell-phone metadata in five countries, and was intercepting voice data in two of them. Documents show that the NSA has been generating intelligence reports from MYSTIC surveillance in the Bahamas, Mexico, Kenya, the Philippines, and one other country, which The Intercept is not naming in response to specific, credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence. The more expansive full-take recording capability has been deployed in both the Bahamas and the unnamed country. MYSTIC was established in 2009 by the NSA’s Special Source Operations division, which works with corporate partners to conduct surveillance. Documents in the Snowden archive describe it as a “program for embedded collection systems overtly installed on target networks, predominantly for the collection and processing of wireless/mobile communications networks.”
  • If an entire nation’s cell-phone calls were a menu of TV shows, MYSTIC would be a cable programming guide showing which channels offer which shows, and when. SOMALGET would be the DVR that automatically records every show on every channel and stores them for a month. MYSTIC provides the access; SOMALGET provides the massive amounts of storage needed to archive all those calls so that analysts can listen to them at will after the fact. According to one NSA document, SOMALGET is “deployed against entire networks” in the Bahamas and the second country, and processes “over 100 million call events per day.”
  • When U.S. drug agents need to tap a phone of a suspected drug kingpin in another country, they call up their counterparts and ask them set up an intercept. To facilitate those taps, many nations – including the Bahamas – have hired contractors who install and maintain so-called lawful intercept equipment on their telecommunications. With SOMALGET, it appears that the NSA has used the access those contractors developed to secretly mine the country’s entire phone system for “signals intelligence” –recording every mobile call in the country. “Host countries,” the document notes, “are not aware of NSA’s SIGINT collection.” “Lawful intercept systems engineer communications vulnerabilities into networks, forcing the carriers to weaken,” says Christopher Soghoian, the principal technologist for the American Civil Liberties Union. “Host governments really should be thinking twice before they accept one of these Trojan horses.”
  • The DEA has long been in a unique position to help the NSA gain backdoor access to foreign phone networks. “DEA has close relationships with foreign government counterparts and vetted foreign partners,” the manager of the NSA’s drug-war efforts reported in a 2004 memo. Indeed, with more than 80 international offices, the DEA is one of the most widely deployed U.S. agencies around the globe. But what many foreign governments fail to realize is that U.S. drug agents don’t confine themselves to simply fighting narcotics traffickers. “DEA is actually one of the biggest spy operations there is,” says Finn Selander, a former DEA special agent who works with the drug-reform advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “Our mandate is not just drugs. We collect intelligence.” What’s more, Selander adds, the NSA has aided the DEA for years on surveillance operations. “On our reports, there’s drug information and then there’s non-drug information,” he says. “So countries let us in because they don’t view us, really, as a spy organization.”
  • When U.S. drug agents wiretap a country’s phone networks, they must comply with the host country’s laws and work alongside their law enforcement counterparts. “The way DEA works with our allies – it could be Bahamas or Jamaica or anywhere – the host country has to invite us,” says Margolis. “We come in and provide the support, but they do the intercept themselves.” The Bahamas’ Listening Devices Act requires all wiretaps to be authorized in writing either by the minister of national security or the police commissioner in consultation with the attorney general. The individuals to be targeted must be named. Under the nation’s Data Protection Act, personal data may only be “collected by means which are both lawful and fair in the circumstances of the case.” The office of the Bahamian data protection commissioner, which administers the act, said in a statement that it “was not aware of the matter you raise.” Countries like the Bahamas don’t install lawful intercepts on their own. With the adoption of international standards, a thriving market has emerged for private firms that are contracted by foreign governments to install and maintain lawful intercept equipment. Currently valued at more than $128 million, the global market for private interception services is expected to skyrocket to more than $970 million within the next four years, according to a 2013 report from the research firm Markets and Markets.
  • The proliferation of private contractors has apparently provided the NSA with direct access to foreign phone networks. According to the documents, MYSTIC draws its data from “collection systems” that were overtly installed on the telecommunications systems of targeted countries, apparently by corporate “partners” cooperating with the NSA. One NSA document spells out that “the overt purpose” given for accessing foreign telecommunications systems is “for legitimate commercial service for the Telco’s themselves.” But the same document adds: “Our covert mission is the provision of SIGINT,” or signals intelligence.
  • According to the NSA documents, MYSTIC targets calls and other data transmitted on  Global System for Mobile Communications networks – the primary framework used for cell phone calls worldwide. In the Philippines, MYSTIC collects “GSM, Short Message Service (SMS) and Call Detail Records” via access provided by a “DSD asset in a Philippine provider site.” (The DSD refers to the Defence Signals Directorate, an arm of Australian intelligence. The Australian consulate in New York declined to comment.) The operation in Kenya is “sponsored” by the CIA, according to the documents, and collects “GSM metadata with the potential for content at a later date.” The Mexican operation is likewise sponsored by the CIA. The documents don’t say how or under what pretenses the agency is gathering call data in those countries. In the Bahamas, the documents say, the NSA intercepts GSM data that is transmitted over what is known as the “A link”–or “A interface”–a core component of many mobile networks. The A link transfers data between two crucial parts of GSM networks – the base station subsystem, where phones in the field communicate with cell towers, and the network subsystem, which routes calls and text messages to the appropriate destination. “It’s where all of the telephone traffic goes,” says the former engineer.
  • “I seriously don’t think that would be your run-of-the-mill legal interception equipment,” says the former engineer, who worked with hardware and software that typically maxed out at 1,000 intercepts. The NSA, by contrast, is recording and storing tens of millions of calls – “mass surveillance,” he observes, that goes far beyond the standard practices for lawful interception recognized around the world. The Bahamas Telecommunications Company did not respond to repeated phone calls and emails.
  • If the U.S. government wanted to make a case for surveillance in the Bahamas, it could point to the country’s status as a leading haven for tax cheats, corporate shell games, and a wide array of black-market traffickers. The State Department considers the Bahamas both a “major drug-transit country” and a “major money laundering country” (a designation it shares with more than 60 other nations, including the U.S.). According to the International Monetary Fund, as of 2011 the Bahamas was home to 271 banks and trust companies with active licenses. At the time, the Bahamian banks held $595 billion in U.S. assets. But the NSA documents don’t reflect a concerted focus on the money launderers and powerful financial institutions – including numerous Western banks – that underpin the black market for narcotics in the Bahamas. Instead, an internal NSA presentation from 2013 recounts with pride how analysts used SOMALGET to locate an individual who “arranged Mexico-to-United States marijuana shipments” through the U.S. Postal Service.
  • The presentation doesn’t say whether the NSA shared the information with the DEA. But the drug agency’s Special Operations Divison has come under fire for improperly using classified information obtained by the NSA to launch criminal investigations – and then creating false narratives to mislead courts about how the investigations began. The tactic – known as parallel construction – was first reported by Reuters last year, and is now under investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general. So: Beyond a desire to bust island pot dealers, why would the NSA choose to apply a powerful collection tool such as SOMALGET against the Bahamas, which poses virtually no threat to the United States? The answer may lie in a document that characterizes the Bahamas operation as a “test bed for system deployments, capabilities, and improvements” to SOMALGET. The country’s small population – fewer than 400,000 residents – provides a manageable sample to try out the surveillance system’s features. Since SOMALGET is also operational in one other country, the Bahamas may be used as a sort of guinea pig to beta-test improvements and alterations without impacting the system’s operations elsewhere. “From an engineering point of view it makes perfect sense,” says the former engineer. “Absolutely.”
  • SOMALGET operates under Executive Order 12333, a Reagan-era rule establishing wide latitude for the NSA and other intelligence agencies to spy on other countries, as long as the attorney general is convinced the efforts are aimed at gathering foreign intelligence. In 2000, the NSA assured Congress that all electronic surveillance performed under 12333 “must be conducted in a manner that minimizes the acquisition, retention, and dissemination of information about unconsenting U.S. persons.” In reality, many legal experts point out, the lack of judicial oversight or criminal penalties for violating the order render the guidelines meaningless. “I think it would be open, whether it was legal or not,” says German, the former FBI agent. “Because we don’t have all the facts about how they’re doing it. For a long time, the NSA has been interpreting their authority in the broadest possible way, even beyond what an objective observer would say was reasonable.” “An American citizen has Fourth Amendment rights wherever they are,” adds Kurt Opsahl, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Nevertheless, there have certainly been a number of things published over the last year which suggest that there are broad, sweeping programs that the NSA and other government agencies are doing abroad that sweep up the communications of Americans.”
  • Legal or not, the NSA’s covert surveillance of an entire nation suggests that it will take more than the president’s tepid “limits” to rein in the ambitions of the intelligence community. “It’s almost like they have this mentality – if we can, we will,” says German. “There’s no analysis of the long-term risks of doing it, no analysis of whether it’s actually worth the effort, no analysis of whether we couldn’t take those resources and actually put them on real threats and do more good.” It’s not surprising, German adds, that the government’s covert program in the Bahamas didn’t remain covert. “The undermining of international law and international cooperation is such a long-term negative result of these programs that they had to know would eventually be exposed, whether through a leak, whether through a spy, whether through an accident,” he says. “Nothing stays secret forever. It really shows the arrogance of these agencies – they were just going to do what they were going to do, and they weren’t really going to consider any other important aspects of how our long-term security needs to be addressed.”
  • Paul Merrell on 20 May 14
     
    Words fail me.
Paul Merrell

Ecuador Begins New Era of Cooperation with China | News | teleSUR - 0 views

www.telesurtv.net/...nt-Reality--20150106-0009.html

war & peace Ecuador China economic-development Latin-America Caribbean

shared by Paul Merrell on 08 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • As part of his official visit to China, President Rafael Correa met with Chinese bank executives in order to enhance financial cooperation. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa stated Tuesday in Beijing that the Chinese-based Eximbank will grant US$5 billion to finance various development projects throughout the country. As part of his first official trip to China, President Correa met with bank executives in order to enhance financial cooperation in the area of renewable energy projects.  "They [Eximbank] are interested in continuing their financial assistance,” Correa stated, adding that the investments of the China-based bank in Ecuador are “an example for Latin America and for the rest of the world.”  Correa, who is the first Ecuadorean president to visit China in an official capacity, went on to assure that the investments will be allocated towards projects that will contribute to economic growth of the country and will ensure that the profit from these projects will stay in the country.
  • Correa, who has maintained a high approval rating over his eight years as president, will spend a total of four days in China firming up diplomatic and trade relations for his country, as well as participating in the CELAC-China summit Thursday and Friday, which hopes to do the same for the whole Latin American and Caribbean region.
Paul Merrell

US General Says Venezuela Coup Possible, Denies Involvement | News | teleSUR - 0 views

www.telesurtv.net/...Involvement-20150313-0005.html

war & peace Venezuela U.S.-foreign-policy coup SouthCom Kelly

shared by Paul Merrell on 15 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • The high-ranking military official has made confusing statements about possible U.S. involvement in coup plans in Venezuela. Contrary to the statements by White House and State Department officials, the head of U.S. Sourthern Command said Thursday that an unconstitutional change in government could be planned for Venezuela. “A coup? You know, I don't know anyone that would want to take that mess over, but it might be that we see, whether it's at the end of his term or whatever, I wouldn't say -- I wouldn't (say) necessarily a coup, but there might be with -- the same ruling party … some arrangements to change leadership,” said Marine General John Kelly, Commander of U.S. Southern Command. The Southern Command, or Southcom, is a joint command of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and several other U.S. federal agencies, with more than 1,200 military and civilian personnel. It is responsible for military planning and operations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • The Venezuelan government has claimed, and shown proof, of thwarting a plan to overthrow it. The goverment says opposition leaders worked together with members of the Venezuelan navy and U.S. embassy offiicals. To date, U.S. officials have denied their involvement in such plans. The U.S. military leader continued with statements denying involvement in or knowledge of any coup plans. “I’m certainly not involved in any way, shape or form with coup planning. I don't know anyone who is. And I probably would know if someone was,” Kelly said in a press gathering speaking about Soutcom's 2015 Posture Statement to Congress. “And as far as the Air Force -- or, they claimed it was a U.S. Air Force pilot. This would really be a question for the State Department. But I believe it was a U.S. pilot,” he continued, referring to Venezuela detaining a U.S. pilot and accusing him of spying and recruiting Venezuelans to join the coup plot.
  • In the statement, Southcom identifies regional organizations such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Bolivarian Allliance for our Americas (ALBA) as “challenges … which deliberately exclude the United States and seek to limit (the United States') role in the hemisphere.” On Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.” Venezuelan and Latin American leaders have blasted the declaration as a form of U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Latin American countries.
Paul Merrell

Spotlight: Cooperation with China hot topic at CELAC summit - Xinhua | English.news.cn - 0 views

news.xinhuanet.com/...c_133959202.htm

U.S.-foreign-relations Latin-America Caribbean CELAC China

shared by Paul Merrell on 01 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Cooperation with China was a key topic for discussion at the 3rd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that concluded Thursday in Belen, Costa Rica. Both the Political Declaration of Belen and the 2015 Plan of Action, the two most important documents approved at the gathering by 33 member states, lauded the first China-CELAC forum ministerial meeting held in Beijing on Jan. 8-9, and reiterated that agreements and initiatives of the Beijing meeting should be facilitated as soon as possible. China and CELAC approved on Jan. 9 three major documents, including the Beijing Declaration, the 2015-2019 five-year plan and regulations for the forum. The five-year plan defined key areas and specific measures for the overall cooperation from 2015 to 2019 between China and Latin America, covering political security, trade, investment, finance, infrastructure, energy, resources, industry, agriculture, science and people-to-people exchanges. According to the plan, both sides will strive to achieve a trade volume of 500 billion U.S. dollars and investment of at least 250 billion U.S. dollars within a decade.
  • The most important work that Costa Rica has done during its rotating presidency of the bloc is to launch the forum with China, an all-important partner outside the region, and map out the five-year plan, he said. The China-CELAC forum will not only contribute to the world's prosperity, but also China-CELAC development and South-South Cooperation. As Chinese President Xi Jinping said "Every CELAC country, no matter whether it's rich or poor, is equal under the framework of the forum." Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa Delgado, who will head the group over the next 12 months, also said one of the most important achievements yielded during Costa Rica's rotating presidency is that the bloc has strengthened connection with China, which could be regarded as a historical change.
Paul Merrell

Latin America is ready to defy the US over Snowden and other issues | Stephen Kinzer | ... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...den-ecuador-defy-united-states

surveillance state NSA Snowden Latin-America decline of the American Empire

shared by Paul Merrell on 27 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Any country that grants asylum to Snowden risks retaliation from the United States, including diplomatic isolation and costly trade sanctions. Several don't seem to care. The fact that Latin America has become the favored refuge for a United States citizen accused of treason and espionage is an eye-popping reminder of how fully the continent has emerged from Washington's shadow."Latin America is not gone, and we want to keep it," President Richard Nixon told aides as he was pressing the covert operation that brought down the Chilean government in 1973. A decade later, the Reagan administration was fighting proxy wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. In the 1980s the US Army invaded two Caribbean countries, Grenada and Panama, to depose leaders who had defied Washington.
  • During the 1990s the United States sought to impose the "Washington Consensus" on Latin American governments. It embodied what Latin Americans call "neo-liberal" principles: budget cuts, privatization, deregulation of business, and incentives for foreign companies. This campaign sparked bitter resistance and ultimately collapsed. In spite of these military, political, and economic assaults – or perhaps because of them – much of Latin America has become profoundly dissatisfied with the made-in-USA model. Some of the continent's most popular leaders rose to power by denouncing the "Washington Consensus" and pledging to pull their countries out of the United States orbit.Because President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was the most flamboyant of these defiant leaders, some outsiders may have expected that following his death, the region would return to its traditional state of submission. In fact, not just a handful of leaders but huge populations in Latin America have decided that they wish for more independence from Washington.
  • This is vital for Snowden because it reduces the chances that a sudden change of government could mean his extradition. If he can make it to Latin America, he will never lack for friends or supporters.
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  • From Ecuador, Snowden could travel widely. Everything from the splendor of Bolivia's Lake Titicaca to the vibrancy of teeming Caracas awaits him. With luck, he might even be able to visit Guatemala in September to attend the grand festival being planned for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jacobo Arbenz, the reformist president who the United States deposed in 1954.
  • Paul Merrell on 27 Jun 13
     
    Remember when the U.S. routinely overthrew Latin-American governments at will, at the first sign of a government's resistance to U.S. dictates? The last time that occurred overtly was in 1989, with the invasion of Panama (although there have been later clandestine attempts). The cases of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden's selection of Ecuador as the refuge nation least likely to hand them over for U.S. prosecution illustrates the declining influence of U.S. government in Latin America.   
Paul Merrell

CNN apologizes for commentator who called WikiLeaks founder a 'pedophile' | McClatchy DC - 0 views

www.mcclatchydc.com/...article124566504.html

WIkileaks Assange libel Dark-State harrassment

shared by Paul Merrell on 07 Jan 17 - No Cached
  • In fact, the pedophile allegation has little to do with Assange’s plight that has kept him in the embassy in London, which involves incidents in Stockholm in the summer of 2010.
  • Rather, it is a bizarre tale involving a Houston-based dating website and its global and well-funded efforts to discredit Assange around the globe. The byzantine saga involves disconnected telephones and mystery websites. The website, toddandclare.com, launched and ramped up its efforts against Assange during the U.S. presidential campaign, as WikiLeaks released hacked emails related to the campaign of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.Whoever is behind the dating site has marshaled significant resources to target Assange, enough to gain entry into a United Nations body, operate in countries in Europe, North America and the Caribbean, conduct surveillance on Assange’s lawyer in London, obtain the fax number of Canada’s prime minister and seek to prod a police inquiry in the Bahamas.The dating site’s campaign sought to thwart WikiLeaks’ efforts and discredit Assange, who played a role in a presidential campaign season that deeply divided the U.S. electorate and illuminated Russia as a major cyber adversary of the U.S. government.One part of toddandclare’s two-pronged campaign put a megaphone to unproven charges that Assange made contact with a young Canadian girl in the Bahamas through the internet with the intention of molesting her. The second part sought to entangle him in a plan to receive $1 million from the Russian government.
  • WikiLeaks claims the dating site is “a highly suspicious and likely fabricated” company. In turn, the company has lashed out at Assange and “his despicable activities against American national security,” and warned journalists to “check with your libel lawyers first before printing anything that could impact or endanger innocent people’s lives.”For nearly two months after the October allegations, toddandclare.com went off line. But it recently reappeared, repeating charges about the 8-year-old Canadian girl. The website did not immediately respond Thursday to a new query from McClatchy, and no respondent in the past has given a name or allowed telephone contact.The online company paints itself as all-American. Online material says its founders, Todd and Clare Hammond, “are an average American couple from Michigan, who met in the eighth grade.” In 2011, the company says, the Christian couple started an email dating service, and “have married 3,000 couples to date.” Their online network began in 2015, and a statement it filed to a U.N. body says it has “100,000+ female singles” in six countries. The company’s operating address is a warehouse loading dock in Houston. Its mail goes to a Houston drop box. Its phone numbers no longer work. WikiLeaks says Texas officials tell it the entity is not registered there either under toddandclare.com or a parent company, T&C Network Solutions.A person who answered emails to the website in November declined to identify him or herself.
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  • The people behind toddandclare.com persuaded a U.N. body known as the Global Compact to give it status as a participant in May, and it submitted an eight-page report to the U.N. group Oct. 4 carefully laying out its allegations against Assange. The firm was delisted by the U.N. body eight days later amid controversy over its claims. The report was later taken off the internet. An Australian lawyer, Melinda Taylor, said the report’s precise language raised additional suspicions at WikiLeaks, where she assists Assange in human rights litigation.“This is not a report that’s been drafted by a dating agency. It’s highly legalistic and very structured. It’s the language of someone who has drafted complex legal submissions,” she said.Under Todd Hammond’s name, the report alleged that Assange’s Swedish lawyer had reached out in June to offer Assange’s services on a campaign against rape in exchange for an undisclosed amount of bitcoin. It said the two sides held two videoconferences.Then came the bombshell: It said the company had ended ties with Assange following “pedophile crimes” he had committed in the Bahamas in late September. It charged that the victim was the 8-year-old daughter of a Canadian couple on a monthlong yachting vacation. The father went to police in Nassau on Sept. 28, the report claimed, charging that his family held video and chat logs showing Assange “internet grooming” the child and “propositioning the 8-year-old juvenile ‘to perform oral and anal sex acts.’ ”It said Assange made a connection to the child’s 22-year-old sister, who was a client of the online dating site, from his refuge in London, eventually gaining access to the young girl.
  • An assistant commissioner for the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Stephen Dean, said “there is no investigation” into any such incident and that the police have received no evidence that such an incident occurred.“We got a phone call of someone giving us some information. But we never had a face-to-face. It could have been a hoax,” Dean said. “We don’t know.”If someone were in possession of video or chat logs about a pedophile crime, he or she did not provide them to Bahamian police, Dean said, which he said would be odd: “If you have something so significant, I think you’d want to leave a report.”Assange’s Swedish lawyer, Per Samuelson, wrote to the U.N. body on Oct. 10 alleging that Hammond’s report against Assange was “entirely false” in all its facets and that he had had no contact with the dating site or Hammond.Even as authorities in the Bahamas dismissed the report, the dating site sent a fax Oct. 17 to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying the Canadian family had fled the Bahamas due to “anti-white, racist abuse by Bahamian police.”“Julian Assange ... has started a smear campaign to claim our dating company is behind an elaborate scam. It is fully to be expected. Pedophiles are devious and cunning,” the fax said.The company said it would “continue to protect the family’s identity, until either the (Royal Bahamas Police Force) conduct a proper investigation, or hell freezes over. Whichever comes first.”
  • The fax was signed, “The Todd and Clare Team,” and left no way to contact the firm.While the founders of toddandclare.com say they’ve been in the matchmaking business since 2011, their internet presence dates only to September 2015 and really got going only early last year. Those who have done work for the company say they were kept at arm’s length.By summer, in the run-up to what many expected to be an “October surprise” from WikiLeaks to make an impact on the U.S. election, toddandclare.com began moving against Assange in multiple countries simultaneously. The DNC and a cyber-threat intelligence firm it had hired, CrowdStrike, were already fingering Russia as behind the hacks that would provide the fodder for WikiLeaks. They’d said in June that Russian hackers had access to DNC servers for about a year.A company representative, identifying herself as Hannah Hammond, emailed Assange’s Swedish and British legal agents offering $1 million for him to appear in a five-minute tongue-in-cheek television advertisement. In a subsequent exchange Sept. 19, the representative wrote that “the source of the $1,000,000 is the Russian government.”In a curious twist, she offered what she said were three facts about Assange’s London attorney that are “unknown to the public,” including details inside her home and an event in her son’s life, suggesting a capability to conduct surveillance.Taylor, the Assange lawyer, said the details appeared “to create the impression that the members of his team were under close surveillance and/or to bolster the bona fides of the claim that the offer was linked to a State. Its inclusion does appear quite menacing.”
  • A lawyer identifying himself only as “James” responded the next day, slamming the offer as an “elaborate scam designed to entrap” Assange and embarrass him for ties to Russia.The dating site representative sought to pull the veil off “James.”“Julian: We know it’s you writing. The offer expires at midnight, October 31st 2016,” she wrote back on Sept. 21, according to copies of the emails posted by WikiLeaks on its website.By early October, toddandclare.com went on the offensive. It filed a civil complaint in a British court against Assange, seeking 295 pounds sterling – about $359 – in damages because it said it could no longer use his services due to the “child sex offenses in Nassau.”The suit, said Taylor, Assange’s lawyer, “seems to be designed to evade defamation law in the U.K. They’ve put highly noxious information knowing that it would be made public.”The global tussle between the online dating company and WikiLeaks went public in mid-October when the anti-secrecy group voiced public doubt on whether toddandclare.com actually existed, or served only as a vehicle to attack Assange.
  • The announcement opened the gates for a disparate crew of internet sleuths – some motivated by hatred of Clinton and others impelled by support for WikiLeaks – to probe into the history of toddandclare.com, suspicious that the dating site might be an undercover operation with links to the Clinton campaign.Posting their findings on the discussion websites like Reddit.com, they unearthed some curious coincidences. A perusal into the archives of the internet revealed that the Hammonds had once occupied a San Francisco building later rented to a company, Premise Data, whose co-founder has ties to Clinton and her top supporters.Moreover, a telephone number once registered to a Todd Hammond later was registered to a former Premise employee, Aaron Dunn, although with a different area code.Premise co-founder David Soloff said such findings could only be coincidences.“I want to reiterate that Premise has no connection with this case. And beyond confirming that Aaron Dunn worked at Premise until 2014, I don’t know the answer to any of your questions,” Soloff wrote in an email.
Paul Merrell

Obama's "War on Ebola" or War for Oil? Sending 3000 Troops to African "Ebola" Areas tha... - 0 views

www.globalresearch.ca/...5406142

war & peace Ebola big oil west-Africa Obama boots-on-the-ground

shared by Paul Merrell on 05 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • For a Nobel Peace Prize President, Barack Obama seems destined to go down in history books as the President who presided over one of the most aggressive series of wars ever waged by a bellicose Washington Administration. Not even George Bush and Dick Cheney came close.
  • Now Obama’s advisers, no doubt led by the blood-thirsty National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, have come up with a new war. This is the War Against Ebola. On September 16, President Obama solemnly declared the war. He announced, to the surprise of most sane citizens, that he had ordered 3,000 American troops, the so-called “boots on the ground” that the Pentagon refuses to agree to in Syria, to wage a war against….a virus? In a carefully stage-managed appearance at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Obama read a bone-chilling speech. He called the alleged Ebola outbreaks in west Africa, “a global threat, and it demands a truly global response. This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. It’s a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic,” Obama continued, conjuring images that would have made Andromeda Strain novelist Michael Chrichton drool with envy. Obama added, “That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease. This outbreak is already spiraling out of control.”
  • With that hair-raising introduction, the President of the world’s greatest Superpower announced his response. In his role as Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America announced he has ordered 3,000 US troops to west Africa in what he called, “the largest international response in the history of the CDC.” He didn’t make clear if their job would be to shoot the virus wherever it reared its ugly head, or to shoot any poor hapless African suspected of having Ebola. Little does it matter that the US military doesn’t have anywhere near 3,000 troops with the slightest training in public health. Before we all panic and line up to receive the millions of doses of untested and reportedly highly dangerous “Ebola vaccines” the major drug-makers are preparing to dump on the market, some peculiarities of this Ebola outbreak in Africa are worth noting.
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  • A major problem for Chan and her backers, however, is that her Ebola statistics are very, very dubious. For those whose memory is short, this is the same Dr Margaret Chan at WHO in Geneva who was guilty in 2009 of trying to panic the world into taking unproven vaccines for “Swine Flu” influenza, by declaring a Global Pandemic with statistics calling every case of symptoms that of the common cold to be “Swine Flu,” whether it was runny nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat. That changed WHO definition of Swine Flu allowed the statistics of the disease to be declared Pandemic. It was an utter fraud, a criminal fraud Chan carried out, wittingly or unwittingly (she could be simply stupid but evidence suggests otherwise), on behalf of the major US and EU pharmaceutical cartel. In a recent Washington Post article it was admitted that sixty-nine percent of all the Ebola cases in Liberia registered by WHO have not been laboratory confirmed through blood tests. Liberia is the epicenter of the Ebola alarm in west Africa. More than half of the alleged Ebola deaths, 1,224, and nearly half of all cases, 2,046, have been in Liberia says WHO. And the US FDA diagnostic test used for the lab confirmation of Ebola is so flawed that the FDA has prohibited anyone from claiming they are safe or effective. That means, a significant proportion of the remaining 31 % of the Ebola cases lab confirmed through blood tests could be false cases.
  • Then the official WHO Ebola Fact Sheet dated September, 2014, states, “It can be difficult to distinguish EVD from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis.” Excuse me, Dr Margaret Chan, can you say that slowly? It can be difficult to distinguish EVD from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis? And you admit that 69% of the declared cases have never been adequately tested? And you state that the Ebola symptoms include “sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding”? In short it is all the most vague and unsubstantiated basis that lies behind President Obama’s new War on Ebola.
  • One striking aspect of this new concern of the US President for the situation in Liberia and other west African states where alleged surges of Ebola are being claimed is the presence of oil, huge volumes of untapped oil. The offshore coast of Liberia and east African ‘Ebola zones’ conveniently map with the presence of vast untapped oil and gas resources shown here The issue of oil in west Africa, notably in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea have become increasingly strategic both to China who is roaming the world in search of future secure oil import sources, and the United States, whose oil geo-politics was summed up in a quip by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970’s: ‘If you control the oil, you control entire nations.’
  • The Obama Administration and Pentagon policy has continued that of George W. Bush who in 2008 created the US military Africa Command or AFRICOM, to battle the rapidly-growing Chinese economic presence in Africa’s potential oil-rich countries. West Africa is a rapidly-emerging oil treasure, barely tapped to date. A US Department of Energy study projected that African oil production would rise 91 percent between 2002 and 2025, much from the region of the present Ebola alarm. Chinese oil companies are all over Africa and increasingly active in west Africa, especially Angola, Sudan and Guinea, the later in the epicenter of Obama’s new War on Ebola troop deployment.
  • If the US President were genuine about his concern to contain a public health emergency, he could look at the example of that US-declared pariah Caribbean nation, Cuba. Reuters reports that the Cuban government, a small financially distressed, economically sanctioned island nation of 11 million people, with a national budget of $50 billion, Gross Domestic Product of 121 billion and per capita GDP of just over $10,000, is dispatching 165 medical personnel to Africa to regions where there are Ebola outbreaks. Washington sends 3,000 combat troops. Something smells very rotten around the entire Ebola scare.
  • F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”
Paul Merrell

White House Seeks to Soothe Relations With Venezuela - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-relations-with-venezuela.html

war & peace Venezuela U.S.-foreign-policy

shared by Paul Merrell on 08 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • A White House official said Tuesday that Venezuela was not a threat to the national security of the United States, backing off language in an executive order that had inflamed relations with the South American nation and drawn criticism from other countries in the region.The comments came as President Obama prepared to leave for a trip to the Caribbean and Latin America that will include a meeting of heads of state from the hemisphere.“The United States does not believe that Venezuela poses some threat to our national security,” said Benjamin J. Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, during a telephone call with reporters to discuss the president’s trip.
  • He was referring to an executive order signed by Mr. Obama last month that called for economic sanctions against seven Venezuelan officials who the United States said were involved in human rights abuses or violations of due process. Continue reading the main story Related in Opinion Editorial: A Failing Relationship With Venezuela MARCH 12, 2015 The executive order said that Venezuela was a threat to national security and that it constituted a national emergency for the United States.
  • The language escalated tensions between the two countries and provoked an angry response from President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela. Even Venezuelan opposition leaders said it was excessive and had inadvertently played to Mr. Maduro’s political benefit.American officials had previously sought to play down the language in the order, saying that the administration was required by law to make the security threat designation to carry out the sanctions.But Mr. Rhodes went further on Tuesday, explicitly stating that Venezuela did not pose a threat, adding that the language was “completely pro forma.”“We, frankly, just have a framework for how we formalize these executive orders,” he said.
  • Paul Merrell on 08 Apr 15
     
    "completely pro forma".  "When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all." So because Congress said Obama has to make a written finding of a threat to national security in order to issue sanctions, Obama can make such a finding whether or not there is such a threat? Outrageous. Any judge who ruled that it is a winning argument would be laughed off the bench. Mr. Rhodes insults the public's intelligence. 
Paul Merrell

Venezuela Withdraws from OAS Civil Society Forum in Solidarity with Cuba | venezuelanal... - 0 views

venezuelanalysis.com/11326

U.S.-foreign-policy Summit-of-the-Americas Obama CIA-distractions

shared by Paul Merrell on 10 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Caracas has joined Havana in withdrawing its delegation to the Civil Society Forum at the 7th Summit of the Americas this week, after Cuban delegates broke the news that at least 20 counter-revolutionary Cuban “mercenaries” had also been invited to participate in the event. Among the highly controversial figures set to participate in the forum are the radical anti-Cuban government dissidents, Manuel Cuesta Morúa, Elizardo Sánchez and Rosa María Payá, as well as members of the Cuban exile community. All are known to have financial ties to U.S. funding agencies such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and have a history of trying to subvert the Cuban government. Ex-CIA agent, Félix Rodríguez Mendigutía, better known for his role in the assassination of Argentinian revolutionary, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, is also participating in the summit.  Although Mendigutía did not fire the bullet which murdered the Argentine revolutionary guerrilla, he is documented to have identified Guevara and chosen the weapon used to kill him. The former CIA agent arrived in Panama earlier this week, where Cubans have been staging a protest against his participation.
  • “The representatives of true civil society have left because we aren’t going to share a space with representatives from a supposed civil society, which is not our own and which is paid for… We can’t share the same space. There can’t be mercenaries posing as representatives of civil society. It’s impermissible,” explained Cuban legislator Luis Morlote.
  • The Venezuelan delegation withdrew almost immediately after, citing solidarity with Cuba and its rejection to the nature of the other participants.  The forum, which was set to begin on Wednesday, was temporarily delayed by the protest but eventually got underway without the presence of the Cuban or Venezuelan delegations.
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  • He also echoed the sentiment of other delegates that many of the dissidents at the forum had ties to Cuban terrorists currently being protected in the U.S, such as ex-CIA agent, Luis Posada Carriles, who carried out a terrorist attack against a Cuban plane in 1976 killing 73 people.  “How can we hope to have a serious, transparent, dignified and civilised conversation in the Americas, if those who protect those terrorists are registered to participate at the forums at the summit?” he asked.  According to reports, the withdrawal of the two delegations comes after an affray between anti-government and pro-government supporters earlier on this week and the temporary detention of a number of Cuban dissidents by Panamanian immigration authorities on arriving at Tocumen airport over the weekend. 
  • According to Tweets by Rosa María Payá, Panamanian authorities had expected the subversives to cause a disturbance.  It is the first time that Cuba is participating in the OAS summit, which has traditionally excluded the Caribbean country due to pressure from the White House. 
  • Paul Merrell on 10 Apr 15
     
    The CIA is apparently creating a diversionary stir in aid of lessening pressure on Obama to explain the U.S. role in the failed coup in Venezuela earlier this year and in issuing sanctions based on a finding of a national emergency caused by Venezuela becoming a national security threat to the U.S.
Paul Merrell

Venezuela's Maduro to Present Evidence of US Economic Sabotage as Gold Tumbles | venezu... - 0 views

venezuelanalysis.com/11470

war & peace economic-warfare Venezuela Latin-Amerrica U.S.-foreign-policy

shared by Paul Merrell on 12 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pledged yesterday evening to share evidence in the coming days of the United States’ “Plan Vulture”, which he claims is currently destabilizing leftist Latin American governments through economic sabotage. “I have proof of how the [US] Southern Command, personally, has placed functionaries in the US embassy in Venezuela to direct the Vulture Plan,” Maduro said during a council meeting of the ALBA trade bloc.The Venezuelan leader called upon the thirteen Latin American and Caribbean countries represented in the ALBA bloc to “unite to defend themselves” against the plan, which “tries to destroy…progressive, revolutionary processes from the inside” by “creating criminal groups and attacking national currencies.”The accusation echoed similar claims made by Argentine President Christina Fernandez last month.
Paul Merrell

UNASUR Moves toward Continental Freedom of Movement, Venezuela Makes "Equality" Call | ... - 0 views

nsnbc.me/...-venezuela-makes-equality-call

regional-governments UNASUR South-American-integration de-dollarization

shared by Paul Merrell on 06 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • The 12 member Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has taken a step toward creating South American citizenship and freedom of movement. Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro also called for strategies to promote continental economic development, social equality and defence sovereignty. The new proposals for South American integration were made during a UNASUR summit in Guayaquil, Ecuador yesterday. Today regional leaders are meeting in the Ecuadorian capital Quito for the opening of the organisation’s new permanent headquarters.
  • Taking place over two days, the summit in Guayaquil sought to design strategies to further develop regional integration. “We have approved the concept of South American citizenship. This should be the greatest register of what has happened,” said UNASUR general secretary Ernesto Samper at the summit yesterday. Part of this proposal is to create a “single passport” and homologate university degrees in order to give South Americans the right to live, work and study in any UNASUR country and to give legal protection to migrants – similar to freedom of movement rules for citizens of the European Union.
  • Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, argued that the statutes of UNASUR should be changed and that majorities, rather than absolute consensus, should be the minimum necessary basis on which to advance important areas of integration. In particular, Correa called for the advancement of financial integration and sovereignty, such as the Bank of the South and Reserve Fund, a currency exchange system to minimise the use of the dollar in intercontinental trade, the creation of a regional body to settle financial disputes, and a common currency “in the medium term”.
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  • Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro agreed that the creation of new financial instruments was central to advancing regional integration and sovereignty. “From Venezuela we believe that we must take the agenda of shared economic development into our hands; a new financial architecture [that includes] the Bank of Structural Projects, that converts us into a powerful bloc,” he said to media in Guayaquil before the meeting with other UNASUR leaders. The two other priorities for the Venezuelan government at the meeting were to promote strategies for social equality and regional defence sovereignty. On defence, Maduro said that Venezuela would support a “new South American military doctrine” based on a “system of education for South American militaries, below the guidance of the South American Defence Council,” in which the thought of the continent’s 19th century independence leaders would be present.
  • Outgoing Uruguayan president Jose Mujica made a passionate speech while accepting the presidency on behalf of his country, where he stated, “There won’t be integration without commitment, willpower, and political will, because the global obstacles are enormous and the past continues to constrain us”. Meanwhile, respected former Brazilian president Lula Da Silva declared, “Today our main challenge is to deepen the construction of strategic thought of Latin America and the Caribbean. We can construct an integration project that is more daring, that takes advantage of the formation of our rich history, goods and cultures”.
  • The UNASUR was created in 2008. Its members are: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
  • Paul Merrell on 06 Dec 14
     
    A rough equivalent of the EU for South America and the Carribean? De-dollarization? A common currency? Regional defense sovereignty? Quite obviously, the CIA needs to expand its destabilization operations in Venezuela to a few more countries, else the banksters get grumpy. 
Paul Merrell

China Commits $20 Billion to Venezuela at First Latin America-China Forum in Beijing | ... - 0 views

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war & peace economic-warfare China Venezuela Latin-America de-dollarization

shared by Paul Merrell on 10 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Venezuelan President Maduro announced that China has agreed to invest 20 billion dollars in Venezuela following the China- Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) meeting in Beijing. Venezuelan officials hope that increased Chinese investment will offset some of the shortfalls in the Venezuelan economy due to decade-low oil prices.
  • Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, opened  the First China-CELAC Forum by pledging US$250 billion in new investment in Latin America over the next decade. CELAC was formed in 2011 with the goal of consolidating regional integration and reducing the influence of the United States in Latin America. Speaking to Latin America’s shift away from the United States and towards China, President Maduro stated “This is a vital point. I told President [Xi Jinping] over dinner last night: there is unique opportunity in this moment in history we’re living through.” Following the meeting in Beijing President Maduro told the Venezuelan News Agency “we rounded up more than $20 billion in investment.” But the Guardiannewspaper reported that “it remains unclear whether the sum represents a fresh arrangement or is part of pre-existing oil-for-loans deals.”
  • China has already awarded US$50 billion of credit to Venezuela since 2007, most of which is paid through oil shipments. Venezuela ships 524,000 barrels of crude oil and derivatives to China per day, nearly half of which goes toward paying existing loans. This amount is expected to increase to one million barrelsper dayin the next year.
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  • Speaking to Venezuela´s growing relationship with China, Venezuelan Vice president Jorge Arreaza stated “China is a great potential, and it is not imperialist. It is a great potential that wants for all of us to have a repectable and dignified living standards.”
  • Paul Merrell on 10 Jan 15
     
    Looks like China will Help Venezuela weather the U.S./Saudi econnomic warfare waged through depression of oil prices.  
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