Whistle Ass / George Bush 2004

Aristide explains US role in stripping Haiti of its independence

...A few weeks ago I visited Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa, where he lives in forced exile. I asked him what was really behind his dramatic falling-out with Washington. He offered an explanation rarely heard in discussions of Haitian politics - actually, he offered three: "Privatisation, privatisation and privatisation..." http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1530800,00.html

Venezuela: making poverty history

...In Venezuela they are making poverty history by using the country's wealth to make society richer. And when the rest of the world is saying that it is impossible to erase homelessness in Stockholm, rebuild the underground in New York, or feed and educate everybody in the African continent Venezuela is doing all these things. Neoliberalism is a system that puts on hold the possible and calls it impossible. Maybe socialism in the XXI century is to make people dream about the impossible and make it possible... http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1487

1997 Enron plea to Bush leads to Uzbekistan

Letter from Ken Lay to Texas Gov. Bush in 1997.
Enron has established an office in Tashkent and we are negotiating a $2 billion joint venture with Neftefgas of Uzbekistan, and Gazprom of Russia to develop Uzbekestan's natural gas and transport..."
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/bushlay12.html

US Alone in encouraging others to condemn Venezuela

Washington, May 11 (Prensa Latina) The Bush administration has failed to find a South American country to sponsor an OAS resolution condemning the Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez after two high-profile visits to the region.
According to a report in The Washington Times, the pressure has been heaviest on Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
"But Mr. Lula da Silva, who says Brazil-Venezuela relations have never been closer, appears to have rebuffed such entreaties during visits to the country by Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice", the paper underlines.
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID={1EE22726-E619-4C48-973B-28D636E67BE4}&language=EN

US to Invade Venezuela...?

...High-ranking United States officials met with Venezuelan opposition leaders in the weeks and days before the military coup that ousted Chavez for 47 hours on April 11, 2002. There is now hard evidence that the CIA knew that the coup was being plotted, and Washington was the first capital in the world to recognise the illegitimate government of Pedro Carmona which was installed by the coup.

The Bush administration supplied funds to opposition groups that organised the coup in 2002. It also funded the sabotage of the oil industry in December 2002 and January 2003, which cost the country's economy some 10,000 million dollars. It financed the attempt to remove Chavez through a recall referendum. It is difficult to see how Washington's stance towards the democratically elected government of Venezuela could actually get "tougher" - short of direct military intervention.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=45&ItemID=7754

Iraq insurgents? What about the ones in Venezuala?

...Why is it that US Media never used the word ‘insurgents’ when referring to the violent, US-financed anti-Chavez movements in Venezuela … even though they almost destroyed the country … even though they used consistent violence against a legitimately-elected government and against thousands of innocent Venezuelan citizens?...
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=24201

Fingers Crossed for Venezuela and Chavez

...And what if Chavez wins the recall election? Will the U.S. intervene to further destabilize Venezuela? The Bush administration has certainly done a lot to get rid of Chavez. That he's alive for the recall referendum is a sign of the Bolivarian process' resilience. Just this Tuesday Spain's El Mundo newspaper reported on a Central Intelligence Agency meeting held in Chile to prepare a contingency plan in the event that Chavez wins the recall... http://www.counterpunch.com/engler08142004.html

Chavez: Bush to Blame for Iraq Deaths

Thursday April 15, 2004 4:46 PM
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Bush is to blame for the death and violence that is going on in Iraq, said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a fierce critic of the U.S. administration.
During a speech to commemorate his return to power in the wake of short-lived 2002 coup, the leftist Chavez also accused the Bush administration of playing a key role in the failed attempt to oust him...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3981202,00.html

US revealed to be secretly funding opponents of Chavez

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
13 March 2004

Washington has been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - including those who briefly overthrew the democratically elected leader in a coup two years ago.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that, in 2002, America paid more than a million dollars to those political groups in what it claims is an ongoing effort to build democracy and "strengthen political parties". Mr Chavez has seized on the information, telling Washington to "get its hands off Venezuela".
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=500711

Overthrowing George Bush in 2004 would be seen as legitimate coup in the eyes of his own administration (according to Colin Powell)

... Just follow the quotes from the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, over the past month and the policy shifts are clear.

On February 12, Powell told the Senate foreign relations committee: "The policy of the administration is not regime change [this will come as news to the Iraqis], President Aristide is the elected president of Haiti."

On February 17, he said. "We cannot buy into a proposition that says the elected president must be forced out of office by thugs and those who do not respect law and are bringing terrible violence to the Haitian people."

By February 26, after a week of shopping around, he decided to buy into it after all. "[Aristide] is the democratically elected president, but he has had difficulties in his presidency, and I think ... whether or not he is able to effectively continue as president is something that he will have to examine."

A day later (February 27)he was selling it, arguing that Aristide, having "the interests of the Haitian people at heart", should "examine the situation he is in and make a careful examination of how best to serve the Haitian people at this time".

Just 48 hours later(February 29), after the coup, he was asking the rest of the world to wear it. He explained why the US had not been prepared to go into Haiti and support "an individual who may have been elected democratically but was not governing effectively or democratically".

Were it not for the fact that Aristide has at least won a couple of elections, Powell could have been talking about President Bush...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1164195,00.html