Trump’s War on Coronavirus, Nicolas Maduro, & other Terr’ists

Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 11:00am

This is Trump’s daily briefing on the coronavirus on Wednesday by way of: ‘A bold muscular/kinetic deflection’.

RT.com provides a partial transcriptt:

‘Not letting Covid-19 crisis go to waste? US ramps up war on drugs… focusing on Venezuela’s Maduro’, 1 Apr, 2020, RT.com, April 1, 2020

“US President Donald Trump has announced a massive naval deployment in the Caribbean to prevent drug cartels from ‘exploiting’ the Covid-19 pandemic, with the military singling out Venezuela as a major threat to America.

“We must not let the drug cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives,” Trump said at the outset of what was scheduled to be a daily Covid-19 task force press conference.

Raising the specter of a national security threat, the US military officials warned Americans of a growing menace from “criminals, terrorists and other malign actors,” but called out only Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by name.

“The Venezuelan people continue to suffer tremendously due to Maduro and his criminal control over the country, and drug traffickers are seizing on this lawlessness,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Also present for the announcement was General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who declared three wars in a single breath – on the coronavirus pandemic, terrorists and drug cartels – distracting from the fast-accelerating health crisis gripping the country.

Attorney General William Barr was on hand as well, to announce the action. The Department of Justice indicted Maduro on “narco-terrorism” charges last week, accusing the socialist leader of conspiring with Colombian militants to “flood” the United States with cocaine. Apparently short on evidence, however, the State Department on the same day issued a $15 million reward for any “information related to” the Venezuelan president.”

Earlier the State Department had offered a reward of $15 million for ‘the arrest of Maduro’, as in: Wanted Dead or Alive

‘Beyond Chutzpah: the Hypocrisy of US Nacroterrorism Charges Against Venezuela,  this latest escalation of the US hybrid war against Venezuela takes place amid a global pandemic, which the US apparently sees as an opportunity to further attack a people made more vulnerable by the health crisis’, Roger D. Harris, mintpressnews, March 30, 2020 (CC w/attribution)

“U.S. Attorney General Barr’s indictments on March 26 against the government of Venezuela for narcoterrorism go beyond chutzpah. For starters, William P. Barr was chief counsel for the CIA airline, Southern Air Transport, implicated in the 1980s for running illicit drugs and related narco-terrorism during Iran-Contra.

The U.S. charges of drug trafficking against Venezuela are the height of hypocrisy. The world’s leading source of heroin is U.S.-occupied Afghanistan and the U.S. is the world’s largest cocaine market.

The president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH), is the latest in a line of corrupt presidents since the 2009 U.S.-backed coup there. JOH was identified as an unindicted co-conspirator in October by a US federal court for smuggling millions of dollars worth of cocaine into the U.S.

Colombia is the chief regional U.S. client state, distinguished by being the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere. Hillary Clinton called Plan Colombia a model for Latin America. Yet this model is the planet’s largest supplier of illicit cocaine. And that’s only scratching the surface of U.S. history of complicity in international narcotrafficking.”

[Colombia is ‘Under NATO’s Umbrella’]

“The false criminal charges by the U.S. government against fourteen high-ranking Venezuelan officials are for alleged involvement in international drug trafficking. The U.S. government has, in effect, put a $15 million bounty on Venezuelan President Maduro and bounties of $10 million each for the head of the National Constituent Assembly and other leading officials and former officials.”

“Yes, some illicit drugs do flow through Venezuela – a minor amount compared to those emanating from U.S. client states – but the culprits are criminal gangs that the very indicted officials are fighting. The coca is grown and manufactured into cocaine in neighboring Colombia, not Venezuela. While supporting U.S. government actions to undermine Venezuelan state institutions, WOLA recognizes: “Venezuela’s state institutions have deteriorated…In this environment, armed groups and organized criminal structures, including drug trafficking groups, have thrived.”

Yet WOLA’s conclusion is: “US government data suggests that, despite these challenges, Venezuela is not a primary transit country for US-bound cocaine. US policy toward Venezuela should be predicated on a realistic understanding of the transnational drug trade.”

(click to stand alone and read further DEA stats in her subTweets)

CamilaTelesur

“The indictments against the government of Venezuela are a ramping up of a policy of regime change. Ever since Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998 and launched the Bolivarian Revolution, the hostile U.S. government has floated consistently unsubstantiated accusations of narcotrafficking.

More recently the Trump administration has sought to replace the democratically elected president of Venezuela with a U.S.-chosen and groomed security asset. Juan Guaidó, the man anointed by Trump to be president of Venezuela, had never run for the presidency, nor served as president. He was unknown to 81 percent of the Venezuelan population at the time of his self-declaration as president. Besides these dubious qualifications, Guaidó collaborated with the right-wing Colombian drug cartel and paramilitary group known as Los Rastrojos and even posed for pictures with some of their operatives, which were posted on Twitter.

The ever-tightening unilateral coercive measures on Venezuela by the U.S. have created a blockade, costing Venezuela over 100,000 lives. Sanctions are not an alternative to war but an economic form of warfare and just as deadly. As such, unilateral economic sanctions are an explicit violation of international law under the charters of the United Nations and the Organization of American States and even under U.S. law.”

You may remember that the IMF had refused Maduro a paltry $5 billion loan to help the nation during the coronavirus pandemic on the grounds that the Money-Lenders wouldn’t know who should receive the check, but perhaps Juan Guaido.

How much blood is on their various hands by now?  Buckets and Buckets-full.  Roger Harris had  also written:

“Unfortunately, Venezuela is not alone. The rogue empire’s sanctions now blight a third of the world’s population in 39 countries.”

Tags: 
capitalism/anticapitalism
rogue empire
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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 11:59am
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‘Venezuela Demands Probe as Foreign Ship Enters Its Waters, Sinks Coast Guard Vessel’, April 3, 2020

“Venezuela is demanding that the Dutch government open an investigation into the activities of the RCGS Resolute, a vessel presently docked in the Dutch Caribbean region island nation of Curacao for “serious aggression committed against the Venezuelan Coast Guard vessel Naiguata,” Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has announced.

The incident is said to have taken place on the night of March 30, with the RCGS Resolute, a 122 meter passenger ship sailing under the flag of Portugal, entering Venezuelan waters about 7 miles off the island of Tortuga, about 180 km northeast of Caracas. The Venezuelan Coast Guard sent out a ship to intercept it, but was rammed and sunk, with its crew said to have been rescued by the military.

According to Caracas, along with the Netherlands, Venezuela has asked Curacao to help investigate the incident, but received no response. In a press statement, the Ministry noted that “Venezuelan authorities do not exclude the possibility that this ship was transporting mercenaries to attack military bases in Venezuela.”

Vladimir Padrino, Venezuela’s minister of defence, called the incident “an act of piracy and aggression,” and posted photos of the RCGS Resolute which he said were taken following the incident showing damage to the front of its hull.”

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Submitted by edg on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 1:45pm
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Drug charges followed by an invasion worked quite well in Panama against Gen. Noriega, so why not use it against Maduro, too? After all, his own people are too dumb to throw him out and put our puppet in place, and our first puppet, Guaidó, has proved more clown than puppet, so it's up to the US to make the world safe for gunboat democracy.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 4:15pm
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@edg

and indeed both roger harris and RT had noted the parallel. but it was even more hideous than i'd known. from harris:

Thirty years ago, the U.S. posted a $1 million reward on the head of Manuel Noriega, then president of Panama, on charges of narcotrafficking. Noriega had long been a U.S. security asset assisting in the CIA’s dirty Contra war against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Noriega had also used his U.S. patronage to consolidate his rule in Panama as well as his ties with Colombian drug cartels. However, toward the end of his tenure, Noriega did not demonstrate a sufficient level of servility to his U.S. handlers and was deposed in the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989, taking the lives of many uncounted civilians.

As RT warns: “The US indictment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his subordinates on narcotrafficking charges echoes the rationale used to invade Panama and kidnap its leader.” Unlike the Noriega case, where the Panamanian president was convicted of massive drug trafficking with the knowledge and full protection of the CIA and other security agencies, the U.S. lacks evidence against the Venezuelans.

i just saw a seemingly appalling thing at RT concerning Russia asking the UN GA to lift unilateral sanctions. i'll try reading it again when my eyes simmer down to be more clear on its meaning.

the empire's wanted to reverse the pink tide in VZ for a long time, including maduro under obomba. Rexxon, of course, had wanted HIS 'disputed oil fields' off the northern coast.

on edit: jut noticed: 'make the world safe for gunboat democracy'. oh, my yes; that's what this Imperium exports best, isn't it? and that's: CIA asset random guaido, remember?

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Submitted by CB on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 2:21pm
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Colombia is the chief regional U.S. client state, distinguished by being the largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the hemisphere. Hillary Clinton called Plan Colombia a model for Latin America. Yet this model is the planet’s largest supplier of illicit cocaine. And that’s only scratching the surface of U.S. history of complicity in international narcotrafficking.”

Look how much this plan increased "tourism" from Columbia. If the US government gets rid of Maduro, the Caribbean can see similar "benefits".

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 4:27pm
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@CB

sense of Humor, doesn't she? but ha! from camila telesur:

she'd also shown a few minutes of that meeting...

thanks, CB.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 4:58pm
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perhaps you can make more sense out of it than i. i'd even checked a few russian accounts on twitter, at sputnik news, but:

‘Russian declaration aimed at stopping sanctions amid coronavirus crisis REJECTED at UN General Assembly’, 3 Apr, 2020, RT.com

“The US, UK, and EU, as well as Ukraine and Georgia, rejected a Russian draft declaration calling for unilateral sanctions to be lifted to fight Covid-19.

Moscow’s permanent mission to the UN issued a statement on Thursday questioning why Ukraine, Georgia, the UK, US, and EU had shot down its proposal, arguing that these nations “refused to cast aside politicized approaches and interests,” and that their decision could negatively affect “a great number of people” – especially in developing nations currently under sanctions.

The rejected motion called for broad international cooperation on combating the spread of Covid-19, as well as the “rejection of trade wars and unilateral sanctions adopted without the mandate of the UN Security Council, in order to ensure early access to food and medication.” The draft also called on member states to reject “stigmatizations of states, peoples and individuals with regard to the pandemic, and the need to circulate only reliable and science-based information about it.”

The declaration was co-sponsored by 28 UN member states, Russia’s UN mission said. The General Assembly ultimately passed a different resolution calling for “international cooperation” and “multilateralism” to combat coronavirus.

i'm not sure what 'unilateral sanctions' signifies, but was the meaning all 39 nations the western empire has under sanctions? anyhoo, how ghastly! True Colors again.

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Submitted by wendy davis on Fri, 04/03/2020 - 5:59pm
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West opposes Russia’s proposal in UN General Assembly to reject sanctions
Earlier the UN General Assembly passed an alternative and wider draft declaration on solidarity in countering COVID-19 pandemic, which ignored the UN Secretary General’s urge to lift sanctions', april 3

"Our text envisaged: recognizing the leading role of the WHO in combating the pandemic; consent of states to cooperate, i.a. in order to develop methods that should stop the spread and ensure treatment of the COVID-19 disease; providing assistance to the most vulnerable states, especially developing countries; rejection of trade wars and unilateral sanctions adopted without the mandate of the UN Security Council, in order to ensure early access to food and medication; countering financial speculations with essential supplies," the statement said.

Such a decision will make it more difficult to respond to the pandemic threat, according to the statement. "We regret that a small group of states championing sanctions-based policy appeared unready to respond to the call of the UN Secretary-General and refused to cast aside politicized approaches and interests. As a result, it will be much more difficult to give a global and solidary response to the threat of the new pandemic. A great number of people, in the developing countries in the first place, might be affected," the document said.

"We would be very interested to hear and see in writing reasoning and arguments for blocking our draft Declaration by the EU, US and UK. We would be willing and happy to spare and exempt Ukraine and Georgia from undertaking this exercise, as their arguments, as ever contemptuous and politicized, would not add any value to the understanding by most of the member-states," the mission said.

Russia’s declaration was co-sponsored by 28 UN member-states. "We will set forth coordination with our like-minded colleagues on that matter," the statement added.
Earlier UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all countries to ease sanctions against a number of countries, as well as stop hostilities.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 04/04/2020 - 1:34pm

drug dealer for cooking meth. Eventually, he got out of prison, started his lab in another county. When those cops busted it , he fled. He was on the FBI Most Wanted Top Ten list.
Where did he obtain his superior lab equipment? DEA? Yes.
He got caught, eventually got out of federal prison, called me to see how I was doing.
He told me lots of "stories" about possible cocaine freely floating about in Gov. Mark White's parties in Austin.
He gave me an antique Micky Mouse Watch, but the only person who could have made it work was my late husband, who fix any watch, of any kind, from anywhere.
Hubby said, get a Seiko.
The Drug Trade is partially owned by the cops.
They get their cut.

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—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by wendy davis on Sat, 04/04/2020 - 8:09am
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@on the cusp

get a Seiko', lol. thanks, i needed that.

a fascinating tale your client had quoted, but quite believable. i believe that if any 'law enforcement' agency in the US is dirty, it's the DEA. and you gotta now that when they make drug busts, some of the 'evidence' (money and dope) never quite make it into the evidence locker.

but you've also reminded me of the DEA's Parallel Construction Manuals. now this was back in 2014, but it must still be the part of their protocols/subterfuge:

Bruce Dixon at Black Agenda Report had recently steered readers to newly procured FOIAed documents that he called ‘a smoking gun’ in the DEA manuals of ‘parallel reconstruction’ of phony chains of evidence that began with NSA and likely other security state acronym agencies funneled to law enforcement agencies.

The documents showed quite clearly that law enforcement was to go to great lengths to hide the provenance of the tips, clues, etc., as to how the ‘investigations’ had begun, from not only defense attorneys, but often prosecutors and judges, even though the cases rarely involved national security issues .

From Reuters:

The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to “recreate” the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant’s Constitutional right to a fair trial. If defendants don’t know how an investigation began, they cannot know to ask to review potential sources of exculpatory evidence – information that could reveal entrapment, mistakes or biased witnesses.

a CJ Ciaramella was in that exposé; could it be the same whistleblower whose name is verbotten to utter? sure wish my memory weren't so laden with holes...

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