Not Quite Peas and Carrots, But Pretty Darn Close

I knew when I saw this in the news the other day, there would be, as always, far more to the story than what the media was telling us. The Lefty blogs were all over the initial "no connection" spin, doing victory dances before anyone had a chance to read the report. I just finished reading the doc, and it is anything but what has been portrayed. The dude who wrote the linked article, in particular, is an untrustworthy hack. He writes, "As recently as last July, Bush tried to tie al Qaida to the ongoing violence in Iraq," as if anyone disputed that Al Qaeda is in Iraq now, regardless of pre-2003.



Anyway, the new study demonstrates beyond all doubt Saddam was a threat and needed to be dealt with. For example, his operations were slated for terror across the globe: "..top ten graduates of each Fedayeen Saddam class were specifically chosen for assignmentto London, from there to be ready to conduct operations anywhere inEurope."And.."..the Presidential Secretary informedthe council member of Saddam's decision to "form a group tostart hunting Americans present on Arab soil; especially Somalia."And..."The IIS also provides a list of activities that it considered "exemplaryevents," for example:• Re-equipping and training Palestinian fighters In al-Quds trainingcamps [in Iraq].19The classification markings are original to the Iraqi documents and do not reflect current U.S. classification.• Establishing and activating a course to train Arab Liberation Frontfighters on martyrdom operations.• Establishing fighter schools50 for Arab volunteers and later Iraqi volunteers.• Re-establishing and re-equipping the military base of the Arab LiberationFront.• Training groups from the occupied territories [Palestine] on lightweapons and tanks in secret thirty-day courses."And..."Saddam's intelligence service was deliberately targetingWestern journalists for assassination. "Other passages detail his operations against Kuwaiti and Saudi officials.



But he wasn't a threat, right? Saddam also was a big supporter of Hamas, the kind of Islamist extremist organization the Left is always telling us would never associate with secular Baathists and vice versa: "After the September 11 th attacks on the United States, a Palestinian representativeinformed the Iraqis that Hamas had thirty-five armed terror cells aroundthe world, mingled with refugee populations." And so on.



The study also details how Saddam recognized the danger, but had no problem making common cause with Islamic extremists, at least temporarily: "A document written in late September 200 1 shows the Saddamregime trying to make common cause with Islamic radicals." Common cause? Gee, where have I heard that before?



But what about Al Qaeda? Well, on the one hand, the study says there was no "smoking gun," but on the other hand: "Captured documents reveal that theregime was willing to co-opt or support organizations it knew to be part of alQaeda-as long as that organization's near-term goals supported Saddam's longtermvision."Another memo from Saddam's intelligence organization discusses an Al Qaeda affiliate they worked with: "Information available to us is that the group is under the wings of bin Laden. They receive their directions from Yemen. Their objectives are the same as bin Laden..." And..."this organization is an offshoot of bin Laden, but that their objectives are similar but with different names that canbe a way of camouflaging the organization."So Saddam knew exactly who he was dealing with, but went ahead anyway even though he was an infidel and all that shit.

The authors of the study point out that long term cooperation was untenable due to different goals, but didn't rule out short term alliances for immediate objectives: " bin Laden wanted-and still wants torestore the Islamic caliphate while Saddam, despite his later Islamic rhetoric, dreamed more narrowly of being the secular ruler of a united Arab nation. These competing visions made any significant long-tenn compromise between themhighly unlikely. After all, to the fundamentalist leadership of al Qaeda, Saddam represented the worst kind of "apostate" regime-a secular police state well practiced in suppressing internal challenges. In pursuit of their own separate but surprisingly"parallel" visions, Saddam and bin Laden often found a common enemyin the United States."



And so there was at the very least an indirect cooperation: "Saddam's security organizations and bin Laden's terrorist network operated with similar aims, atleast for the short tenn. Considerable operational overlap was inevitable when monitoring, contacting, financing, and training the regional groups involved interrorism. Saddam provided training and motivation to revolutionary pan-Arab nationalists in the region. Osama bin Laden provided training and motivation for violent revolutionary Islamists in the region. They were recruiting within the same.."



The following passage clearly makes the contradictory "smoking gun" statement inexplicable: "Saddam's interest in, and support for, non-Iraqi non-state actors was spread across a wide variety of revolutionary, liberation, nationalist, and Islamic terrorist organizations. For years, Saddam maintained training camps for foreign"fighters" drawn from these diverse groups. In some cases, particularly for Palestinians, Saddam was also a strong financial supporter. Saddam supported groups that either associated directly with al Qaeda (such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad,led at one time by bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri) or that generallyshared al Qaeda's stated goals and objectives."And yet jackass McClatchy says no link whatsoever!! Ayman Al Zawahari!

The report concludes: "Saddam nurtured this capability with an infrastructure supporting (1)his own particular brand of state terrorism against internal and external threats, (2)the state sponsorship of suicide operations, and (3) organizational relationships and "outreach programs" for terrorist groups. Evidence that was uncovered and analyzed attests to the existence of a terrorist capability and a willingness to use ituntil the day Saddam was forced to flee Baghdad by Coalition forces."



Clearly, the "no connection" meme should die a miserable death once and for all. Instead, expect the Left and the media to ignore the truth about the study they, just a few days ago, claimed vindicated their expert analyses, or say the report they originally celebrated has no credibility.

Yeah... right!!!

``I don't support, I have never supported nor will I ever support the Colombian guerrillas, nor any subversive movement against any democratic government. I swear to God and to my sacred mother . . .''

-Hugo Chavez, 2004

Attention PSF's, Chavez Has an Opening in His Faves!

Turns out Hugo may be the reason Raul Reyes is now missing half his head. (English)

I Got Your Negotiated Settlement Right Here!

Congratulations to Raul Reyes for finally reaching room temperature. We salute the Colombian military for dishing out some "social justice," Uribe style. Say "hi" to Che for us, Raul. One question we have: will Dan Kovalik and his selfish friends use this former trade unionist's expiration as part of their campaign to kill the FTA?

Way to go President Uribe!!!

Man, this is why I love President Uribe!
Watch out Tirofijo and Co.!!!

Uribe
Uploaded by frankib2

Hugo Chavez’s true intentions

PATRICIA POLEO - Factors of Power

***

Information handled by Colombia about Hugo Chavez’s true intentions.

Yesterday from Guarico, with the presence of the Senator Piedad Cordoba and the ex- kidnapped Consuelo González in scene, Hugo Chávez dedicated 70% of his speech to the subject of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)- Colombia- Uribe.

The President, as well as his guests, referred in several opportunities to Ramon Rodriguez Chacin as the person through whom "Peace in Colombia will be reached”.

On August the 30^th 2007, in this same column, I literary published the following:

"The end-of-month news event will be, without any doubt, the meeting between Hugo Chávez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, who is making true maneuvers to sketch the true intentions of the Venezuelan.

Meanwhile, Ramon Rodriguez Chacin is in Colombia in a meeting with the FARC’s main board, preparing what will be the hostages’ release, in the best possible way, for the event to harm Uribe and benefit the FARC-Chavez coalition.

Alvaro Uribe will smile for the official photo and will let Chávez tap his back and call him “my brother!!!”, but if somebody has a clear picture it is Uribe... ".

The facts have corroborated this information. The obvious familiarity shown between Consuelo González - who has preferred to stay in Venezuela than travelling to her own country to retake over her life-, strengthens the thesis that the two ladies were in Ramon Rodriguez Chacin’s property located in Barinas until their release was decided.

Due to the military intelligence maneuver deployed along all over Colombia, it has been possible to determine that the kidnapped people held by the FARC, are confined to the Colombian forest in the States of Vaupés, Guainía and Guaviare, in locations where the access for terrestrial combat operations is difficult, with four security rings, minefields, and "hunts stupid" traps, for this reason its destruction is limited the aerial route, the subversive camps coordinates are located by satellite, but it is not possible to bomb them since in each one of those "cambuches", live, against their will, kidnapped people of all nature, who have been turned into "Human Shields". This is one of the reasons why the Colombian State officials are certain that the FARC will never advance in an effective humanitarian interchange with the Colombian Government since it would be translated into their total destruction.

However, the narco-guerrilla heads are quartered in Venezuelan territory. Some, in the Amazon state, in front of Rio Negro, close by La Pedrera, an indigenous reservation entirely guarded by Venezuelan Government. The terrorists’ stay in the area has Hugo Chavez Frias’ clandestine approval and they manage from there their operations center.

Ramon Rodriguez Chacin has taken over the task of strategically locate the FARC’s main guys in Venezuelan territory. Thus Iván Márquez, member of the FARC’s main board, has his camp in Guajira. Manuel Marulanda, (aka) Tirofijo, FARC’s main head, although believed to be dead by many, is established in Barinas, personally protected by Ramon Rodriguez Chacin and German Briceño (aka) Grannobles, also member of the FARC’s main board, has a camp in Elorza, Apure State, where Ingrid Betancourt, his most appraised trophy, would be.

All of the camps are equipped with five security rings and satellite dishes, Internet and all the technology, - for that reason Hugo Chávez is sure that they follow all his media interventions-.

Hugo Chávez on his eagerness to undermine Colombia, throughout his Constitutional Government, has looked for any pretext to manipulate and destabilize. Having allowed him to participate as mediator in the humanitarian interchange, has been used by the Venezuelan President political and militarily.

A report made by military Colombian intelligence, assures that among the last national events, Chavez made up the "Emmanuel operation", well-known by everyone, and whose published purpose was to coordinate the rescue of three kidnapped. Nevertheless, very little is known about the dark part of the mentioned operation whose parallel intention consisted of invading Colombia, from the Venezuelan border airports, using the Vanguardia airport in the city of Villavicencio (62 miles away from Bogota) as "onshore headquarters“. In order to achieve this goal, it is known that Hugo Chávez consulted and requested support from Russia, China and Iran. The two first countries refused adducing that it would be the beginning of the Third World War, but nothing is known regarding the Iranian position, which is considered to be affirmative simply by affinity.

This was the reason why, the Colombian President suspended the December vacations to his Armed Forces, as well as the continuous overfly of the "ghost airplane" over Villavicencio on new year’s eve, the bugs placed in the delegations social and private areas, and the first degree enlistment of the Colombian Air Force.

patriciapoleo@hotmail.com

piensalibre@hotmail.com

factoresdepoder@yahoo.com

Miami, January of 2008

On Your Hands

Great article, written as an answer to one of those emails with photos of the mutilated bodies of two young American Soldiers

++++++

Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the runner-in-chief.

Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam. Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You’ve accused our Soldiers of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, the same words you used to describe Vietnam. You’re a fake. You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did the Vietnamese. Iraq, like Vietnam is another war that you were for, before you were against it.

John Murtha, you said our military was broken. You said we can’t win militarily in Iraq. You accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof. And said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa John? And the Democrats call you their military expert. Are you sure you didn’t suffer a traumatic brain injury while you were off building your war hero resume? You’re a sad, pitiable, corrupt and washed up politician. You’re not a Marine sir. You wouldn’t amount to a pimple on a real Marines butt. You’re a phony and a disgrace. Run away John.

Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanimo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned South East Asia to the Communists. Now you want to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? See Dick run.

Ted Kennedy, for days on end you held poster sized pictures from Abu Grhaib in front of any available television camera. Al Jazeera quoted you saying that Iraq’s torture chambers were open under new management. Did you see the news this week Teddy? The Islamic Nazis demonstrated real torture for you again. If you truly supported our troops, you’d show the world poster-sized pictures of that atrocity and demand the annihilation of the perpetrators of it. Your legislation stripping support from the South Vietnamese led to a communist victory there. You’re a bloated fool bent on repeating the same historical blunder that turned freedom-seeking people over to homicidal, genocidal maniacs. To paraphrase John Murtha, all while sitting on your wide, gin-soaked rear-end in Washington.

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Hillary Clinton, Pat Leahy, Chuck Schumer et al ad nauseam. Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our President lied. That the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers. That we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers – the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we’ll run away again and all they have to do is hang on a little longer.

American news media, the New York Times particularly. Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can’t strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer.

You are America’s axis of idiots. Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us. Self-serving politics and terrorist abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers. It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing.

There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of

murdering terrorists. Don’t ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam. If you want our Soldiers home, as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies.

Yes, I’m questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I’m also questioning why you’re stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don’t deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war – this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it.

No Commander in Chief, you don’t get off the hook either. Our country has two enemies. Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within. Your Soldiers are dealing with the outside force. It’s your obligation to support them by confronting the axis of idiots. America must hear it from you that these people are harming our country, abetting the enemy and endangering our safety. Well up a little anger please, and channel it toward the appropriate target. You must prosecute those who leak national security secrets to the media. You must prosecute those in the media who knowingly publish those secrets. Our Soldiers need you to confront the enemy that they cannot.

They need you to do it now.

Copyright © J.D. Pendry 2006

******************

Our God and soldiers we alike adore,
Ev’n at the brink of danger; not before;
After deliverance, both alike requited,
Our God’s forgotten, and our soldiers slighted. – Frances Quarles, 1632

******************

Aznar and Chavez

Here are some quotes of Jose Maria Aznar, this is what he said in Miami not too long ago.

That might be why Chavez was sore.

http://www.hacer.org/current/LATAM273.php (spanish)

Translation by me ;)

About the EU position regarding Cuba

"When I'm asked about what I whish for Cuba, I have to answer: nothing different than what I whish for my own country, but it strikes me that there are people in Europe and my country who wish something different".

About the power transition between Fidel and Raul Castro:

I'll never support a brother transition that will translate into a Cuba under the same regimen"

About Latin-America

''Latin-America is in a decisive crossroads for its future" "some of its countries have been disenchanted from populism and authoritarianism and some others are decided to defend a liberal democracy… if this tendency is kept the continent will inevitably be divided"

About Chavez' regime "XXI Century's new socialism" in Venezuela:

"It is a poisonous spectrum of the totalitarian specie that cannot have the old Castro's Marxist disguise" "Oh yeah, making a Bolivarian revolution with an 90 dollars old barrel"

He also stated that those old revolutionary recipes will only result into a latin-american disaster and remarked Colombia and his president's fight "against all evils" to defend its democratic system.

"I'm really worried because the American congress doesn't want to approve the Free trade agreement with Colombia, which is one of the biggest American allies" "What kind of message are we giving to the Latin-American world? That it is better not to be USA's friend?"

About the war on terror he said that if terrorism is a global menace then it need "global answers" and supported the alliance between Europe and USA to fight the world problems.

"You never negotiate with terrorism. Terrorism just deserves one answer that is combat and defeat… whoever uses appeasing means against someone who wants to destroy him will only get to encourage the accomplishment of his goals."

Pain of Mother Country

I know there are thousands of blogs made by guys/gals sitting in their university dorm while studying some kind of "social studies", "latin american studies" "philosophy", etc.
After reading a couple of books written by Latin american communists they think that they are experts in the matter and feel like they can give their opinion in all the matters.
Well, I'm not one of them, I was raised in a broken country, broke by Communists who we all hate and want jailed or dead, I had to live in fear of being kidnapped or taken to fight against my will, the author of this piece "Alvaro Chaparro" definitely feels my pain and put in into words.

PAIN OF MOTHER COUNTRY

Yesterday, while watching in the news the rudeness of the US ex- vice-president and ex-presidential candidate, AL GORE, I understood the reasons why I left my beloved country: COLOMBIA. I also remembered a sentence that I heard many years ago from my teacher Dario Echandia "Colombia is a country of Guaches (rude people)".

How much damage has the left made to our country? My whole life, since I was a child, I have listened to our elders during most of their conversations talk about the guerrilla. About the amount of suffering, murders, robberies, about the farmers, and in our case, the cattle dealers, who were left bankrupt and forced to leave their fields, their properties and the fruit of a whole life of work, how guerrilla rape and recruit the children of farmers from isolated regions, how they impose their law and prevent Colombia from the progress and the exploit of the gorgeous and rich of natural resources territories of our states, all of this happening before the indifferent eyes of our own government and the rest of the world.

When I began to travel around different countries from Europe and the United States and witnessed how the agriculturists in other countries lived, how the people could travel throughout all the roads and highways without fear of being robbed or even worse, being kidnapped, How they could enjoy vacations visiting the different natural landscapes from mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, something that I could never enjoy during my childhood and youth, because of those damn ones that have had us bent and put in a corner of our cities, hidden in forts surrounded by immense cement walls and steel rods to be able to raise to our children without being snatched from us by them in order to get our money or to recruit them to their revolutionary army.

How many presidents passed through the House of Nariño, without doing anything on the matter? All of them promising the same "TO END THE GUERRILLA" and always, after a few days in power, just looked for their personal wealth. And now when finally appears a good man, who got to the presidency having undergone all type of sufferings on behalf of the "FARC" (Colombian Revolutionary Army), like as the murder of his own father. A president really who made possible, as I heard from my own brother, for the Colombians to be able to travel around the Coffee Zone (Central Colombia), to travel throughout the country being able to visit so many regions that were forbidden to us for so many years.

A president who has completely cleaned States of assassins and kidnappers, who has made possible for cattle dealers to return to work on their properties. He has managed to grow the Colombian economy, its foreign investment and its worldwide banking credibility. He himself has prosecuted drugs trafficking more than all the previous presidents united. The drugs dealers and guerrillas extradition is higher than the one carried out by the four previous presidents. The illicit crops fumigation and destruction of cocaine fields is permanent.

But, although all of these profits and efforts, we, the COLOMBIANS have allowed to people with a turbid past like PETRO and Mrs. Cordoba, leftist populists, to go out and ask the world to sanction our country and manage to put in doubt the honesty of our President who has accomplished so much for our mother country.

Please, what are we, the citizens of COLOMBIA, made of?

The indifference to talk and to allow people of that nature, whom have a background of belonging to fractions of the guerrilla, to manage to internationally deprecate the image of our President, who has dedicated his whole life to clean up our country. Whichever hidden interest? Whichever money from our neighboring president who is interested in forming a socialist block with ECUADOR and Bolivia? In ending Colombia like he is finishing Venezuela.

WHAT ARE WE COLOMBIANS MADE OF?

Only when, once again, we'd be suffering the regime of terror, the kidnapping and violation of our daughters, we will speak up again.

COLOMBIA IS NOT A COUNTRY OF RUDE PEOPLE (GUACHES), IS A COUNTRY OF IDIOTS

Alvaro Chaparro

Weston, FL, April 21^st, 07

Tyrant Hugo Chavez

Great article, right on Mr. Londono!!!

Tyrant Hugo Chavez

By Fernando Londoño Hoyos*
Originally published 22.06.06 |

Hitler was also treated as a funny and hardly dangerous clown. It is not improbable that the psychological traumas that our primitive nations suffered under tyrant Aguirre cured us from dreading certain types of savages. That of taking a plunge into the deep, intimate spaces of the collective mentality would be a nice task for a collective behaviour psychologist. Now on a lighter note we want to limit ourselves to examine the risks posed by the little tyrant in our neighbourhood.

Just to remind he who may have missed it, Chavez already controls all branches of power. The Legislative turns into law or constitutional reform even the most senseless whims of the master. The Judiciary repeats in rulings any noticeable verse that the funny patriarch regales the world during his weekly verbal overflows. And checks and balances are nonexistent, for should these exist it would be unconceivable to limit its crassness and impotence.
Hugo Chavez travels the world promising things, purchasing the oddest junk and entering into the most audacious contracts with the same cheek with which Papini's Gog wasted his fortune.

Nowadays he invests hundreds of millions of dollars purchasing Argentina's useless bonds that no one in its right mind would buy. Tomorrow he gives millions of dollars to Evo Morales so that he can maintain discipline in the ungovernable Bolivia. Goes to Spain and buys airplanes and warships, picks up the phone and orders four dozens Super Tucanos from Brazil, arms himself with 100.000 Russian rifles and since he hasn't got American jet fighters goes back to the Russian shop and orders a few.
To be accepted in MERCOSUR he incurs into the superlative senselessness of offering a trans-Amazonic oil pipeline. The crumble thrown at Colombia is a gas pipeline, he refines Ecuador's oil, Central America gets inundated by his cheap gasoline, equally he heats disenfranchiseds' homes for Christmas in the USA. But, above all else, turns Cuba into his protectorate, with the same largesse used by the Soviet Union when it was the world's second largest superpower fancying being the first.
None of that matters. Venezuela pays and Chavez's prestige keeps growing in the universe of the globalized imbeciles. But this time, and there lies the crux of the matter, the tale's main character possesses an unprecedented quality: he is immensely rich.

It remains to be seen what will Chavez be capable of doing when he starts teetering. Being a coward, a condition proven at least two times already, he almost fell from power. It is unlikely that he puts himself through a similar experience. And there is nothing more dangerous than a half-lunatic tyrant cornered.
But neither do we know what will Chavez dare do when he sees his image turned into the world's laughingstock. For now, the expectations that his immense wealth generate shield him from ridicule. But when the moment that he has nothing to offer comes, when the bubble of his only merit, the petrodollars, bursts, he will have to confront forlornness' ruling and another, yet more severe, that of contempt.
Heretofore he has been able to dodge those enemies, attempting daring moves. But the buck has got to stop some day. And then what will Chavez do to escape the scrutiny of his countrymen, the deception of his court, the implacable judgement that those interested solely in his money will pass?

Nothing more aggressive that a disenchanted heir. And Chavez has only sycophants in his entourage, neither admirers nor friends. And maybe tomorrow he will be chucked in history's rubbish bin, or maybe from the grotesque histrion emerges, as Caligula or Nero, a despot of a thousand crimes. Beware of tyrant Chavez.

* Fernando Londoño Hoyos was Colombia's Minister of Interior and Justice during the first two years of President Alvaro Uribe's administration. This article was originally published in daily El Tiempo. Translation by Aleksander Boyd.

Chavez vs. Uribe