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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY Former top CIA analysts Kathleen and Bill Christison give CounterPunchers the real scoop on the Israel lobby and precisely how powerful it is. Read how US presidents from Wilson, through FDR to Truman were manipulated by the Zionist lobby; how Israel bent LBJ, Reagan and Clinton to its purpose; how Bush's White House has been the West Wing of the Israeli government; how Washington's revolving doors send full-time Israel lobbyists from think-tanks to the National Security Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier, exclusive to CounterPunch newsletter subscribers, is a MUST read. CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! |
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Today's Stories June 13, 2006 Jennifer Van
Bergen June 12, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Patrick Cockburn Mike Marqusee Lee Sustar Robert Fisk Michael J. Smith Felice Pace Jennifer Loewenstein Website of the Day
June 10 / 11,
2006 Robert Fisk Diane Christian Joe Allen Ralph Nader Fred Gardner Dave Lindorff Dave Zirin /
John Cox Dennis Perrin Greg Moses John Chuckman Michael J. Smith Roger Burbach Ira Moskowitz Sam Bahour Seth Sandronsky Michael Berg Kirsten Roberts Ron Jacobs Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Website of the
Weekend
June 9, 2006 Alexander Cockburn Paul Craig Roberts Gary Leupp Eric Ruder Evelyn Pringle Mickey Z. Michael J. Smith Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
June 8, 2006 Chris Floyd Michael Dickinson Ron Jacobs William S. Lind Joshua Frank Missy Comley Beattie Lloyd Williams Bill Christison Website of the Day
June 7, 2006 Dave Lindorff Sunsara Taylor John Walsh David MacMichael Mickey Z. Evelyn Pringle Myles Palmer Laura Ribeiro Website of the Day
June 6, 2006 Diane Christian Paul Craig Roberts Ralph Nader Norman Solomon Darmont / Genovali Manuel Garcia,
Jr. Subcomandante Marcos Patrick Cockburn Website of the Day
June 5, 2006 Bruce Jackson Chris Floyd Michael Neumann Heather Gray William Hughes David Swanson Alexander Cockburn Website of the Day
June 3 / 4, 2006 Robert Fisk James Petras Rosemary Radford Ruether Harry Clark Jeffrey St. Clair Ron Ridenour Ron Jacobs Fred Gardner Peter Montague John Walsh Greg Moses Sean Donahue Mike Whitney Dave Patten Ali Khan Robert Dotson,
MD Hammond Guthrie St. Clair / D'Antoni Poets' Basement Website of the
Day
June 2, 2006 Kathy Kelly Alan Maass Mickey Z. Dave Lindorff Chris Kutalik Sunsara Taylor Sam Husseini Mike Ferner Website of the
Day
June 1, 2006 Brian Cloughley David Peterson Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Mike Whitney Paul Rockwell Clifton Ross Kevin Zeese Website of the
Day
May 31, 2006 Dave Lindorff Joshua Frank Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz P. Sainath Ramzy Baroud Seth Sandronsky Mickey Z. Ralph Nader Jeffrey St. Clair Website of the Day
May 30, 2006 Lee Ballinger Jonathan Cook Gary Leupp John Ross Robert Jensen Michael Dickinson Michael Carmichael Tim Wise Harry Browne Website of the
Day
May 27 / 29,
2006 Paul Craig Roberts Kathleen Christison Kathy Kelly Christopher
Reed Lawrence R. Velvel Tom Barry Gary Leupp Col. Dan Smith Ron Jacobs Don Fitz Fred Gardner Peter Montague Raymond Garcia John Farley Seth Sandronsky Tia Steele Lenni Brenner Dr. Susan Block Scott Michael Perey Jeffrey St. Clair Poets' Basement Recipe of the
Weekend Website of the Weekend
May 26, 2006 Col. Douglas
MacGregor Brian J. Foley Michael Dickinson Missy Comley Beattie Pierre Tristam Joe Allen Kona Lowell Roger Burbach Website of the
Day
May 25, 2006 Les AuCoin Jeff Halper Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Bob Wing Elise Gould Robert Bryce Website of the Day
May 24, 2006 Michael Donnelly Patrick Cockburn Lucinda Marshall Dave Lindorff Shmuel Rosner Moshe Adler Heather Gray Pratyush Chandra Paul Craig Roberts Floyd Rudmin Website of the Day
May 23, 2006 Paul Craig Roberts Sharon Smith Sunsara Taylor Joel Whitney Alice Cherbonnier Ron Jacobs Kristen Ess Patrick Cockburn Website of the
Day
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June 13, 2006 Bush Administration Blasts Chavez, Positive Results Be DamnedVenezuela Holds the Line on Drug TraffickingBy GABRIEL GARCIA U.S. specialists are currently awaiting the White House's next drug certification report, which is normally released in September, to see whether the Bush Administration will continue to use the document as a political tool rather than a piece of objective research. In the summer of 2005, Venezuelan officials suspended collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) over Caracas' allegations that the U.S. agency had engaged in spying. In response, Washington decertified Venezuela as a cooperative anti-narcotics partner, and labeled it as one of two countries worldwide which "failed demonstrably to make substantial efforts" in the anti-drug campaign. However, the decision to blacklist Venezuela in the "war on drugs" was an unalloyed hoax. The Bush Administration's accusation that Venezuela had failed to implement anti-drug measures drawn up by U.S. policymakers did Caracas an injustice. It was a judgment inspired more by political differences rather than a genuine critique based on legitimate drug-trafficking issues. In fact, the administration's finding was little more than Washington sensing an opening to take another jab at Chávez's Venezuela for its insolent attitude. This is not surprising considering that the decertification process is so self-serving and political that it is held in low esteem worldwide because of its lack of transparency and its indifference to evidence which challenges the White House's simplistic verdict against the leftist regime.
Contrived Charges Washington's decision to decertify Venezuela was a calumnious attempt to use ostensibly non-political means to achieve ideological ends. Since the drug certification process is ultimately a presidential endeavor, there is every reason to believe that the legitimate facts of the matter were never included in the decision, considering President Bush has pegged his Venezuelan counterpart as, aside from Castro, his number one hemispheric foe. According to acting Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Ambassador Nancy Powell, "the [U.S.] President determined that the Government of Venezuela had not addressed the increasing use of Venezuelan territory to transport drugs to the United States." But her claim merely transposed the responsibility for making the accusation to the U.S. president, and did not definitively authenticate Venezuela's role in the drug trade. Indeed, there is ample evidence that Venezuelan President Chávez has been as vigilant over this issue as any of the "partner" nations supposedly cooperating with Washington. The allegations against Caracas are all the more slanderous when laid next to other official U.S. compilations of data. Statistics provided by the U.S. International Narcotics Control Strategy Reports (INCSR) in 2005 gave positive marks for Venezuela's anti-narcotics efforts. These accolades are even more impressive considering that Venezuela's neighbor, Colombia, represents the world's largest cocaine producer in the world. Such difficulties notwithstanding, the Chávez administration actively takes steps to interdict drug supplies, to destroy drug production sites, and to formulate agreements with other regional countries to combat drug trafficking.
Geographically Cursed Even if stringent border controls
or more transparent security were in place, geography has damned
Venezuela to an inevitable role as one of the transshipment points
since its border with Colombia is almost impossible to control.
As Jesse Chacón, Venezuela's Minister of Interior and
Justice, stated "We are neither major producers nor major
consumers, but our geographic position makes us a country of
transit." In early 2006, a drug bust in Mexico served to
confirm Venezuela's unfortunate reality about its relatively
peripheral role in the international drug trade. On April 5,
2006 a DC-9 twin engine jet originating from Caracas landed in
Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine with
a worth of about $100 million in street value. Operating on tips
from U.S. and Venezuelan authorities, the Mexican army was awaiting
the plane's arrival in order to conduct an inspection. Although
a few airport officials tried to block the search of the plane
with fraudulent allegations of a potentially explosive oil leak
on the plane, authorities were able to seize the aircraft's illicit
cargo. Although the pilot of the plane managed to escape, officials
took into custody the co-pilot and some suspect airport personnel.
Efforts against the Drug Trade Over the past few years, Venezuelan authorities have been increasingly successful in intercepting drug shipments. The 2005 INSCR report supports these findings, with statistics from 1998 to 2004 indicating that over that period seizures rose from 8.6 tons to 19.07 tons. According to Venezuelan government sources, 58.5 tons of cocaine, 18.3 tons of marijuana, 869 pounds of heroine and 766.7 pounds of crack were intercepted in 2005, which representing an 87% increase from the previous year hardly the mark of a lackadaisical or uncooperative anti-narcotics effort. In 2004, the Venezuelan government's
arrests and seizures led to the disruption of two major drug
trafficking operations: the Hasbun and Luis Alberto Ibarra cartels.
The Hasbun group was responsible for multi-ton cocaine shipments
to the U.S. via Venezuela and Mexico. Under the leadership of
the Venezuelan Prosecutors Drug Task Force (PDTF), twenty-four
traffickers were captured and seven of the group were killed
in the course of numerous raids which led to the confiscation
of about six metric tons of cocaine. The Luis Alberto Ibarra
cartel was also subjected to heavy pressure from Venezuelan authorities.
According to the INCSR, the PDTF coordinated an investigation
that involved the collection of evidence, obtainment of controlled
delivery orders, overall surveillance, and arrests of members
of the organization who provided testimony against Ibarra. The
investigations ultimately led to his arrest and extradition,
with a U.S. court eventually sentencing him to 21 years in a
U.S. prison. A State Department report notes that David Kelley,
U.S. Southern District judge of New York "praised the cooperation
between several U.S. enforcement agencies and Venezuelan judicial
police in investigating the case." The report notes the
additional arrests of 17 members of Ibarra's criminal organization,
underlining Venezuela's achievements in the war against organized
crime. A Multi-Front Struggle Moreover, the Venezuelan government
recently implemented legislation aiding in the fight against
drug trafficking and domestic drug consumption. In 2005, Venezuela
passed the Organic Law Against Illicit Traffic and Consumption
of Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, as well as the Organic
Law Against Organized Crime. These laws stipulated that those
who traffic and harbor drugs and illegal chemical substances
will be subject to six to eight years in prison. The punishment
will be increased if the offender is a government official, a
member of the National Guard, a judicial authority, or anyone
who impersonates such individuals. In addition, Venezuela's National
Commission Against the Illegal Use of Drugs (CONACUID) was renamed
to the National Anti-Drug Office (ONA) and given financial, administrative,
and functional autonomy as a co-participant in the effort. Whether
these laws will be consistently applied remains an open question.
Nonetheless, the legal foundation now exists to aid authorities
in their fight against drug trafficking. International Cooperation Furthermore, Venezuela has
promoted multilateral cooperation in the war against drugs, agreeing
in 2005 to various treaties involving anti-narcotics operations.
During that year Venezuela signed an accord with France and Spain
to process satellite images that detect illegal airstrips and
airplanes carrying drugs. Also, the Spanish government agreed
to sell twelve aircraft, eight patrol boats, and two maritime
patrolling aircraft to Venezuela for use in the anti-narcotics
efforts, against much U.S. opposition. Washington actively sought
to block the sale, despite Chávez's assertions that the
equipment would be used to survey areas and interrupt any drug-related
activity. Furthermore, in 2005 Colombia and Venezuela signed
a pact which pledged to create greater cooperation between the
two countries' authorities and develop more effective enforcement
mechanisms against drug trafficking. In 2006, foreign officials
from Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain congratulated Caracas
for successfully challenging drug smuggling operations. According
to the Xinhua news service, Holland's Elsa de Costa commended
Luis Correa, head of the ONA, for "his collaboration in
ways that are both opportune, efficient and optimal, in everything
related to the joint anti-drug fight." Challenges Ahead Prospects of corruption - much of it inherited by Chávez - clearly poses a test for Venezuela's crackdown on the drug flow. Personnel at the Maiquetia International Airport are reported to have witnessed numerous incidences of corruption amongst employees. The Miami Herald states that up to an estimated $2 million in bribes are paid monthly by drug traffickers to airport officials, as well as some members of the National Guard and the police. Other techniques, such as using passengers or couriers to transport drug cargo, are also employed by the cartels. Venezuelan authorities will need to pay closer attention to such activities and introduce new measures in order to effectively end these practices. Even so, there have been convincing steps taken by Venezuela against corruption. Earlier this year, 60 anti-drug officers were fired after charges of mishandling or losing confiscated drug supplies. Luis Correa, head of ONA, reported that "they ordered a complete cleanup of the CICP anti-drug squad; that means the removal from the director to the last officer," indicating that Venezuelan officials are highly motivated to target long-practiced corrupt procedures in law enforcement. Misleading Claims The Venezuelan government has clearly undertaken comprehensive steps to combat drug trafficking through domestic operations as well as multilateral efforts. These moves must be maintained and improved upon in order to continue interrupting drug flows primarily originating from Colombia. Simply putting the blame on Venezuela's inherited weak and often venal judicial system will not suffice. Chávez has moved aggressively to deal with the narcotics problem, and even official U.S. statistics indicate this. The claim that Venezuela is any less cooperative or vigilant in its anti-drug efforts than other area nations which were not decertified is nothing more than a tendentious invention. The long list of investigations, arrests and legislation which have been undertaken by the Chávez government are not suggestive of a country that is failing "to meet international treaty obligations." The incontrovertible conclusion is that without any justification, Washington deliberately discredits Venezuela's anti-drug efforts, defaming a nation whose major pecado is its laxity in the war on drugs, but rather its willingness to defy the will of Uncle Sam on repeated occasions over the issue of not so much drugs or terrorism or human trafficking, but of sovereignty. Gabriel Garcia is a research associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.
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from CounterPunch Books! The Case Against Israel By Michael Neumann  Grand Theft Pentagon: Tales of Greed and Profiteering in the War on Terror by Jeffrey St. Clair          Sick of sit-on-the-Fence speakers, tongue-tied and timid? CounterPunch Editors Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair are available to speak forcefully on ALL the burning issues, as are other CounterPunchers seasoned in stump oratory. Call CounterPunch Speakers Bureau, 1-800-840-3683. Or email beckyg@counterpunch.org.                    |
