BoRev.Net

U.S. infiltration is *much* older than that. Remember Cuba 1898?

Not to mention concurrent with US infiltration from ca. 1948 onwards...

Israeli infiltration in Latin America is quite old.

http://en.mercopress.com/2009/11/09/with-iran-in-mind-israeli-president-begins-historic-visit-to-argentina-and-

Got to stop that "Iranian infiltration" with an...Israeli infiltration?

I'm happy to report that I learned how to make a bloody uribe martinelli from teevee french chef guy Hubert Keller.

Its sure to be a crowd killer at thanksgiving.

Colombia's Semana, which broke the DAS spy agency wiretapping scandal last February, has a fascinating in-depth article on all sorts of weird, spooky interventions which are getting in the way of the prosecutors investigating the DAS. (Spanish only.)

Starting with a DAS employee conducting a legally unauthorized 'parallel' investigation to the actual investigators & prosecutors, thus ruining a lot of leads (and also publicly saying the DAS never wiretapped anyone, even though already published evidence shows all the paperwork generating and ordering the actions from within DAS, so she's obviously a liar mole) up to death threats to the investigators.

Very paramilitary-like, one of the tactics of intimidation is for the investigators to receive funeral flower arrangements.

On the plus side, investigators have many gigabytes of information on the DAS' seized hard drives; they just haven't been able to break the encryption yet, and strangely, people at DAS who ought to be able to be able to un-encrypt the files somehow have been unable to assist.

This is all in Latin America's best democracy.

Totuma o totuma!!

Jennifer Aniston is a Chavista! Who knew?

OOOOoooo!
I want to play too! :)

[Copied from my post over at IKN's environmentalism topic]

Speaking of environmentalism & conservation...
Remember when Hugo BOSS urged '3 minute showers'?

Simon Romero reacted by standing in the shower an extra thirty minutes.
Patriotic [unemployed redneck] Americans took to the blogosphere & moaned:
It's GROSS!
It's IMPOSSIBLE!!
Only UGLY people do that!!!!

Scientists from NASA studied the issue.
They concluded that while dirty hillbillies required extended showers...
The beautiful people did just fine with 3 minutes:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1171347/Friend-planet-Jennifer-Aniston-gives-Beverly-Hills-mansion-15m-eco-makeover.html
Friend of the planet: Jennifer Aniston

And despite installing a swimming pool in her Beverly Hills mansion, the actress revealed she is keen on conserving water.
Aniston said: ‘I take a three-minute shower. I even brush my teeth while I shower. Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day.’

Hollywood & Hugo screw you again, bitches!

Props to Al-Jazeera's Teymoor Nabili, for exposing this hot left-wing water-preserving cabal: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/americas/2009/10/24/its-not-about-singing

Here's an interesting phone interview by VTV of Colombian ex-prez Ernesto Samper from yesterday:

http://www.vtv.gob.ve/noticias-internacionales/25865

In other news, the price of beef has fallen in Colombia because of the row with Venezuela, according to El Tiempo. (that newspaper owned by a Santos that fired a journalist that questioned something that affected the interests of the Santos family recently)

Stating the unfortunately obvious, Chile's Senator Alejandro Navarro warns that what has been happening in Honduras means that the continent must now be on guard against further coups and coup attempts, most urgently Paraguay.

"La situación de Paraguay hay que observarla, hay que estar atentos, el presidente (Fernando) Lugo ha hecho cambios importantes previo a un Golpe" y denunció que "América Latina y sus organismos deben estar atentos a lo que allí pase".

And you can bet that the threat level for a Paraguayan coup is at maximum given that outgoing President Lugo just fired the Paraguayan army, navy, and air force chiefs.

Paraguay needed a military shake-up to create opportunities for young officers with a proven commitment to democracy, President Fernando Lugo said Friday in his first explanation for removing his top commanders this week.

Lugo named new army, air force and navy commanders Wednesday without explanation — a day after denying he had worries about a coup amid calls for his impeachment.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Lugo warned there could be a small group of officers influenced by politicians seeking to stage a coup to undermine his agenda.

But the reshuffling was intended to bring in new blood, he said.

"There are excellent young officers who must be given the opportunity," Lugo said. "Talented officers who have demonstrated their ability and track record at the same time in defending the country's democratic institutions."

Lugo, a left-leaning former Roman Catholic bishop, has struggled with the oppositioin-controlled Congress over implementing economic and social changes.

He sought to end speculation about a coup, declaring his actions were his own and should not be subject to speculation. Gen. John Oscar Velazquez, the army commander who was one of the three officers relieved of his duties Wednesday, was named chief of the armed forces Friday.

Sound at all familiar? Want to go ahead and pre-write all the Washington Post and Lanny Davis guest editorials?

Should we just go ahead and ask the State Department to pre-approve whatever Acting Secretary of State for Jackass Affairs DeMint says with regard to Paraguay?

Yeah, guys, you're right. Why stop at Jim Fucking DeMint? The entire State Dept. is about equally bad (and deserving of a quick headlong trip down the mineshaft). It's just that he's the turd in the congressional punchbowl. So of course, he makes a convenient scapegoat. Mea culpa, I won't be so selective next time. (eeeeevil laugh)

I am not sure. As we all know, the US is a republic, not a democracy :)

If there was no Senator Jim DeMint in a forest, would a State Department official still undermine delicate negotiations to restore a legitimate government exactly the same as if there had been a Senator Jim DeMint?

From the wikipedia: (it confirms what I had thought: yes, the idea is older, but so is the term, going back to CIA and Dulles):

The expression "plausibly deniable" was first used publicly by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Allen Dulles.[1] The idea, on the other hand, is considerably older. For example, in the 19th century, Charles Babbage described the importance of having "a few simply honest men" on a committee who could be temporarily eliminated when "a peculiarly delicate question arises" so that one of them could "declare truly, if necessary, that he never was present at any meeting at which even a questionable course had been proposed."[2]

[edit] Church Committee
A U.S. Senate committee, the Church Committee, in 1974-1975 conducted an investigation of the intelligence agencies. In the course of the investigation, it was revealed that the CIA, going back to the Kennedy administration, had plotted the assassination of a number of foreign leaders, including Cuba's Fidel Castro. But the president himself, who clearly was in favor of such actions, was not to be directly involved, so that he could deny knowledge of it. This was given the term plausible denial.[3]

Non-attribution to the United States for covert operations was the original and principal purpose of the so-called doctrine of "plausible denial." Evidence before the Committee clearly demonstrates that this concept, designed to protect the United States and its operatives from the consequences of disclosures, has been expanded to mask decisions of the president and his senior staff members.
—Church Committee[4]
Plausible denial involves the creation of power structures and chains of command loose and informal enough to be denied if necessary. The idea was that the CIA (and, later, other bodies) could be given controversial instructions by powerful figures—up to and including the President himself—but that the existence and true source of those instructions could be denied if necessary; if, for example, an operation went disastrously wrong and it was necessary for the administration to disclaim responsibility.

Could somebody please just throw Jim Fucking DeMint down a mine shaft? Thx.

I knew the form of action was as old as history (or older), but I thought the phrase "plausible deniability" came from Reagan era. I refrain from asking Google, the master of all knowledge.

Holy crap, he actually reads us!

I heart booorev (and pie)

Plausible deniability is older than Reagan, btw.

On a lighter (matter of perspective) note, President of the Honduran Republic of the Brazilian Embassy Zelaya makes kind of a funny about the type of elections the U.S. feels like it can 'recognize':

"I don't want my country to have the type of elections they have in Afghanistan."

Unfortunately, the non-jokey part of that joke is that that is exactly the type of elections that the U.S. would apparently prefer Honduras to have.

By the way, here's the view of how the U.S. and especially that super-smooth Clinton-run State Department blew up the Honduran accords by publicly going along with the new Acting Secretary of State for Jackass Right Wing Fucktard Affairs, Latin America Office, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) from the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

After adamantly rejecting all attempted negotiations, the Honduran de facto government signed an agreement on October 29th ostensibly opening space for a potential resolution to the country’s four-month standoff. The agreement called for the formation of a unity government that will assume power and oversee the November 29th presidential elections. But even under the most favorable of circumstances, the terms of the peace agreement would transform Zelaya into little more than a figurehead president, drained of all his authority. The accord left the restoration of executive power in the hands of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court, the two bodies that authorized and led the way to Zelaya’s removal from the presidency in the first place.

Still, the most lethal blow to Zelaya’s return was delivered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she acknowledged that his restitution would not affect Washington’s recognition of the election results.

Clinton’s Coup de Main

Apparently the U.S. plan under discussion was never meant to be implemented, and de facto leader Roberto Micheletti’s alleged agreement was probably little more than a hoax. While the new deal was feted as ending the conflict, such celebration may have proved to be premature as progress has since reached a standstill, which perhaps was the intended outcome all along. On Tuesday, Honduran Congressional leaders postponed calling the legislative body out of recess in order to verify the accords, and it remains to be seen whether they will even bother to endorse the agreement, especially after the State Department so effectively sabotaged the peace process.

... Since the day of the coup, the OAS and Latin American heads of state have doughtily insisted that the results of the November elections would not be recognized without Zelaya’s prior restitution. While the U.S. has threatened not to recognize the election, some commentators began to express doubts about the bona fides of such assertions. Suspicions were confirmed when, in an interview with CNN en Español, Shannon claimed that the U.S. will recognize the upcoming elections with or without Zelaya’s return. This unsettling point can be viewed as the crucial moment where Washington’s true intentions became apparent.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), who placed a hold on Obama’s nomination of Arturo Valenzuela as Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs over the Obama administration’s handling of the crisis, claims that Secretary of State Clinton confirmed Shannon’s remarks in a phone call, allowing him to release the hold, which had removed Valenzuela from the front lines.

The State Department’s lack of fidelity to restoring the constitutionally elected Zelaya provides a clear glimpse into the U.S.’s commitment to democracy in the region.

A Sad Moment for Honduras

The U.S. has, until now, played a particularly tepid role in resolving the crisis. While the OAS and nearly all Latin American states condemned the coup in the harshest of terms and called for Zelaya’s unconditional return, the Obama administration did neither for weeks, conducting itself in a depressingly desultory manner.

In a particularly egregious public remark, Secretary of State Clinton described Zelaya’s attempted July return from his forced exile as “reckless,” rather than praising him for having the guts to dare to retake his presidency.

Eventually, the U.S. aligned itself with the rest of the region, denounced the coup, canceled visas of Honduran leaders, and suspended a small portion of aid to Honduras, which later grew to a larger figure.

However, it failed to utilize its unrivaled hemispheric clout to exert pressure in a timely and consistent fashion on the de facto government, which still continues to receive millions of dollars in non-humanitarian aid from Western sources. Such foot-dragging by the U.S. has prevented the region from putting down the coup with the decisive response it deserves.

Much more remains to be done to mitigate the damage being dealt to Honduran society by the de facto regime. Human rights abuses continue unabated as the opposition is routinely intimidated and beaten by a repressive state apparatus, led by the notorious former Battalion 3-16 [publicly known 1980s death squad which assassinated the political opposition as the Reaganites used Honduras as a base from which to wage war against the civilians of Nicaragua] commander, Billy Joya, disgracefully enough now Micheletti’s security advisor. A state of exception was declared from September 28th to October 19th that suspended five constitutional rights, including habeas corpus, freedoms of the press, association, circulation, and freedom from unwarranted search and arrest. It was only lifted after U.S. and worldwide outrage condemned the de facto government for violating the Honduran Constitution...

...The failures in Honduras are a further indication that rather than presenting a bold, new, and enlightened policy in Latin America, Clinton and Obama’s conduct in dealing with the region has projected a shocking willingness to travel along the same discredited diplomatic ruts of the Bush administration.

In fact, the U.S. has a responsibility to the Honduran people to use whatever means necessary to reestablish a legitimate government and assure that the ouster of a democratically-elected president will not be accepted nor tolerated under any circumstances.

It seems that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' member states don't care too much for Colombia saying "Fuck you losers" and walking out of a meeting because CIDH members and human rights workers who had been illegally spied on by the Colombian government and that information likely passed to death squad narco-paramilitaries had the temerity to ask, "WTF? Are you investigating this?"

El jueves, en una decisión sin precedentes, el Estado colombiano representado por el embajador ante la OEA, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, se retiró de una de las audiencias ante la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos.

En ella, la ONG de Derechos Humanos Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear buscó demostrar que sus miembros han sido víctimas de una persecución sistemática por parte del DAS.

El Gobierno dijo que no había sido informado de la audiencia y, por lo tanto, se retiraba. La decisión causó un evidente malestar en los miembros de la Comisión, quienes insisten en que Colombia fue notificada a tiempo y como debe ser.

La situación agravó el malestar que hay entre la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanoss (CIDH) y el Gobierno colombiano, que ha crecido desde hace unos meses cuando la Comisión se enteró de que el DAS estaba espiando a uno de sus miembros. Francisco Santos estará en la CIDH el lunes para hablar del tema.

So, the Colombian government has its national intelligence agency spy on the entirety of the non-Uribe 'opposition' including human rights workers, lawyers, international diplomats -- including the CIDH members themselves, who formally complained via the OAS when they found evidence of this -- and when they bring this up at a, um, CIDH meeting, Colombia's response is to say "We weren't told you'd be talking about this, and by the way this happened years ago, why didn't you bring this up before anybody knew about our secret electronic surveillance?"

(Slick Uribe's excuse, as always, is that the activities of this major agency for whom he nominated every director and they operated out of meetings in his own Presidential offices, and every one of the last 5 directors is either under arrest or criminal investigation, 1 of them for using the DAS agency to promote paramilitary murder of labor organizers and a professor, is to say, 'Hey, it had nothing to do with me, these were just rogue criminal elements.' You know. Plausible deniability, from the Reagan scoundrels.)

The fact that this was all done with U.S. provided electronic surveillance equipment in the name of the anti-guerrilla / anti-drug war means of course that the U.S. press is routinely uninterested in covering this.

Someone please take Jorge Castañeda's peyote away, he's seeing funny colors again:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/221461

Who the hell is he calling "caudillos"? Oh look--it's the "good left/bad left" faux dichotomy rearing its damn fool head again!

Oh, you know, one-man sleeper cell/bomb Medina etc. etc: http://michellemalkin.com/

By the way, how is the wingnut crowd reacting to this Texas shooting thing?

We were wondering where you were, and since you never respond to emails, we just decided to go ahead with a comments section chat :P

In other news, the US and Mexico claim to be coming out of the recession. A little premature?