Russia Arming Venezuela in Anticipation of an Expected U.S. Invasion?

It's amazing to me that the mainstream and cable news station can have every advantage in reporting news that is important and still somehow miss a story like this. Even if the premise of the story, that the US intends to invade Venezuela, is false, it is still pretty damn important to know that our "good friend" Putin is arming our neighbor to south in the face of embargo we've placed on that country. Couple this with another story about how Russia is promoting Venezuela for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council and you begin to have clear picture of what is happening outside of Lebanon. People, we need to start paying attention because it's stories like this that act as canaries in the mindshaft and warn us that WWIII is definitely building.

The Russian Federation and Venezuela on July 27, 2006 have negotiated and approved the sale of 24 aircraft and 53 helicopters—about a $1 billion (U.S.) deal—to Venezuela, as part of an ongoing landmark event, defying the American threats and demands to halt all weapons transfers and any future deals between Russia and Venezuela. Russia has already supplied and started delivering portions of a 100,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles ordered by Venezuela and Russian attack helicopters to Venezuela. This deal has further entrenched Russian-Venezuelan cooperation, partnership, and the strategic shift of Russia replacing the United States as the military hardware supplier of Venezuela. The securing of this military hardware agreement between Russia and Venezuela is a sign of the fermenting geo-strategic confrontation or rivalry between the Russia and the United States.

The United States slapped the weapons embargo onto Venezuela referring as justification to the strategic partnerships and alliances of Venezuela with Iran and Cuba. The U.S. weapons embargo on Venezuela started in May, 2006, and has including the U.S. putting pressure on Spain and Brazil to halt their agreements to supply military equipment to Venezuela. Venezuela has responded that the U.S. embargo is illegitimate in violation of previous agreements between Venezuela and the United States, and based on a premise for an American offensive against Venezuela.

Venezuelan Army and Naval aircraft are almost all totally American manufactured, while the Venezuelan Air Force, with the most significant air fleet out of the three forces, had 177 U.S. manufactured aircraft out of a total fleet of 277 aircraft prior to the major military purchases from Russia. Venezuela has traditionally purchased its weaponry from the United States. Venezuela in 2005, alone, purchased about $34 (U.S.) million worth of U.S. military equipment. It is significant to note that just $30.5 (U.S.) million of these purchases were C-130 cargo plane spare parts.

The American embargo seems to be a deliberate tactic that is part of strategy to disarm Venezuela, a notable source of fossil fuels and an influential state in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Venezuelan military’s F-5 Freedom Fighters, F-16 Falcons, C-130 cargo planes and American attack helicopters would for all practical purposes eventually be neutralized. That is why Venezuela immediately sought other defence manufacturers, which ultimately resulted in Russia replacing the United States in equipping the Venezuelan military.

Possible Transfer of Venezuelan F-16 Falcon Squadron to Iran

What is interesting is that in response to the U.S. weapons embargo on Venezuela, the Venezuelan government has declared that it is considering transferring Venezuela’s F-16 Falcon squadron and other U.S. manufactured military aircraft to the Iranian military. The United States blasted the Venezuelan idea saying that base on the 1982 sale and deal between the United States and Venezuela for the F-16 Falcons Venezuela could not sell the planes to a third party, in this case Iran, without US approval, which the United States would definitely not give.

The Venezuelan government maintained that the sale of the F-16 Falcon squadron is perfectly possible because the United States had violated and breached the contract by not honouring the obligation of supplying Venezuela the aircraft parts that Venezuela has paid for and as agreed upon purchase by Venezuela and the United States.

The sale has been deemed by Western analysts to give no significant tactical benefit to Iran because of the fact that Iran is also under an American embargo and has no access to the spare parts needed to keep the aircraft operational, but then again the Iranian military has been reported to successfully reengineer old American military hardware and is highly secretive. President Hugo Chavez is due in Tehran, Iran and Venezuela might just sell portions of their U.S. manufactured aircraft that are being replaced with Russian manufactured aircraft to Iran.

The Venezuelan government has rapidly been shifting all its links and reliance away from the United States, all but the export of oil to the thirsting U.S. market which has also been outlined as an eventual strategic goal for Venezuela too. Deals have been negotiated for industrial and energy projects with both Russia and Iran. The rerouting of Venezuelan oil from the United States to China has been envisioned as part of the ultimate goal of Venezuela as a member of a solidifying energy alliance between Venezuela, Russia, and Iran. This is why the United States has tagged President Hugo Chavez and the Venezuelan government as a threat to American energy security. As a result relations between Venezuela and the United States have been deteriorating.

During February, 2005 the Venezuelan government publicly accused the U.S. government of plotting to assassinate President Chavez, something that the Venezuelan media has reported that the U.S. Ambassador to Venezuela admitted the U.S. government was aware of, but not a party too.

In Russia, during his July meetings, the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez triumphantly declared to the media that when the American blockade was imposed to weaken Venezuela for eventual U.S. invasion the Russian government had offered support to Venezuela. President Chavez and the Venezuelan government have clearly articulated that they are preparing the Venezuelan military to repel U.S. aggression, which is a widely held belief throughout Venezuela and neighboring Columbia. In Argentina, during the Summit of the Americas, President Chavez even told thousands of sympathetic Latin American demonstrators that U.S. plans to invade Venezuela in are in full preparation.

A statement released on March 8, 2005 and signed by almost 400 Venezuelan journalists accused the U.S. government and media of a campaign to prepare the basis for a U.S. military attack on Venezuela to control it natural resources, namely oil. Tensions were further heightened when Venezuela detected the secret presence of “US Marines, along with military planes and amphibious vehicles” on the Caribbean island of Curacao, part of the Dutch Antilles, just 75 km from the Venezuelan mainland during March, 2006, which the U.S. Ambassador in Caracas apologized for as a “lack of communication” between the Venezuelan and American governments.

Since the start of 2005, Venezuela has laid the strategic foundations of a new national security doctrine and an expanded military capability that is based on the core assumption that the greatest threat to Venezuelan sovereignty is the United States. Venezuela has also created a military reserve program that is projected to mobilize 2.6 million citizens in the defence of Venezuela from an American attack.

The Venezuelan national security doctrine, much like the Cuban national security doctrine, is primarily designed to oppose the anticipated U.S. military invasion is an asymmetrical war. Besides the expected U.S. military invasion, the Venezuelan national security doctrine has been drafted to meet a U.S. contrived war with Colombia, and internal armed insurgency sponsored by the United States. A mutual defence pact with Cuba has also been integrated into the Venezuelan national security doctrine and Venezuela has created special police elite paramilitary groups that operate independently from the regular command of the Venezuelan military.

Amnesty: Iran to stone woman to death by end of month

What can one say about this...the mullahs of Iran are animals, absolute animals. This is representative of all the reasons why Israel is right to take the fight to Hezbollah and not sit around watching the animals make the final preparations for total war against the West.

A young woman is at imminent risk of execution by stoning for adultery, according to the international human rights group Amnesty International.

Ashraf Kolhari, a 37-year-old mother of four has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for five years, Amnesty said in a statement on Thursday.

“On or around July 2006, she received the order for the implementation of her sentence, and is reportedly due to be executed by stoning by the end of July”, the rights group said.

Kolhari had an extra-marital affair after her divorce request was rejected by the court, reportedly on the basis that she had children, and therefore had to resume living with her husband, the statement said.

“She was sentenced on two charges; the first was for participating in the murder of her husband, for which she received a sentence of 15 years imprisonment; the second was for adultery as a married woman, for which she was sentenced to execution by stoning. Article 83 of the Iranian Penal Code stipulates that the penance for adultery by a married woman with an adult man is execution by stoning”, it said.

President Bush Hates My Wife

With the Middle East going up in flames, North Korea launching missiles aimed at Hawaii (and falling far short) and China gearing up militarily for a showdown with the West, it can be hard to focus on domestic issues that really matter to us in everyday life. Somewhere between trying to convince a sovereign nation and their foe terrorist organization to have a ceasefire, President Bush snuck his very first veto passed a distracted populace.

President Bush carried through today (July 19th) on his long-stated threat and vetoed legislation that would have permitted federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

The president, in exercising the first veto of his presidency, said the research amounts to murder, but patient advocacy groups and many medical researchers said it holds extraordinary promise to help cure disease. source

Here we have a man who has never met a spending bill he hasn’t passed but got all uppity and indignant when somebody, say congress, had the audacity to want to move the field of medical science ahead a few years. I am particularly galled by this news not only because I think his reasoning is flawed but also because I cannot stand when a politician panders to his base to the exclusion and detriment of the rest of us.

Now I’m not going to start sounding off like John Edwards or John Kerry did in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential Election and proclaim that if this bill had passed, tomorrow would be the end of disease as we know it. First, the bill only forbids federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, leaving that domain strictly to the private sector. Given the public sectors propensity for slowing things down to a fault and screwing things up to a fair-thee-well, that may be a blessing in disguise. Presumably there will still be federal funding available for all the other various stem cell research being conducted across the country. In addition, though scientists are very positive on the potential of stem cell research to cure various diseases, non-embryonic stem cell research is no slouch either.

Still, none of this excuses Bush’s sad and rather obvious attempt to curry favor with the Christian fundamentalists in this country that are probably the single biggest threat to science since the Dark Ages of Europe. Playing to a crowd of people whom generations ago hung women they thought were witches and executed others for saying the world was round rather than flat, President Bush said, “This bill would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others. It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it.”

Of course by saying this he is assuming we are all in agreement about when human life begins and what it means to be a human life. The ilk he was pandering to would tell you that life begins at conception and that life is as precious as say my wife’s life. Mind you, wife is 26 years old and has had all the experiences that make her a unique individual as opposed to a series of genes in a fertilized egg.

This debate begs the question, is all human life equal. If Bush is to be believed here, he certainly seems to think so. He will tell you that the above egg is as important as my wife’s life. In the eyes of our fair president, both the egg and my wife are of equal value. I can assure you, she’d disagree with that equation.

My wife was born with and developed over her years a series of genetic disorders, which, some day, if the advances in stem cell research are allowed to bloom, may in fact be curable. In order of her afflictions, she’s had chronic ear and throat infections since the age of 1 and these days has tubes in her ears, which she can’t get water in and make flying in an airplane an arduous chore. She developed asthma between the ages of 4 and 5, which then only compounded the infections issue.

At the age of 12, before women’s science was a well-studied field, she developed Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

PCOS is a health problem that can affect a woman’s menstrual cycle, fertility, hormones, insulin production, heart, blood vessels, and appearance. Women with PCOS have these characteristics:

*high levels of male hormones, also called androgens

*an irregular or no menstrual cycle

*may or may not have many small cysts in their ovaries. Cysts are fluid-filled sacs.

PCOS is the most common hormonal reproductive problem in women of childbearing age.

Unfortunately for my lovely wife, at the aforementioned tender age of 12, she had cysts on her ovaries the size of a small nerf football. Incidentally, her father at the time thought she was faking it so she wouldn’t have to go to school. You can only guess what this sort of ordeal might do to ones psyche.

Giving a 12 – 13 year old girl birth control pills (specifically to stop the production of cysts, not because she was having teenage sex) back in 1992 in a semi-rural town in Ohio was for her an embarrassing and scarring incident in this young girls life but that was not even the worst yet to come. At 15 years old she developed, again from crap genetics, both Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and Osteoarthritis.

The former is defined as, “a type of autoimmune thyroid disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys the thyroid gland. The thyroid helps set the rate of metabolism, which is the rate at which the body uses energy. Hashimoto’s stops the gland from making enough thyroid hormones for the body to work the way it should. It is the most common thyroid disease in the U.S.”

It is also a precursor to cancer, especially in her family.

The latter is defined as, “the most common type of arthritis, especially among older people. Sometimes it is called degenerative joint disease or osteoarthrosis.

Osteoarthritis is a joint disease that mostly affects the cartilage (KAR-til-uj). Cartilage is the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint. Healthy cartilage allows bones to glide over one another. It also absorbs energy from the shock of physical movement. In osteoarthritis, the surface layer of cartilage breaks down and wears away. This allows bones under the cartilage to rub together, causing pain, swelling, and loss of motion of the joint. Over time, the joint may lose its normal shape. Also, bone spurs--small growths called osteophytes--may grow on the edges of the joint. Bits of bone or cartilage can break off and float inside the joint space. This causes more pain and damage.

People with osteoarthritis usually have joint pain and limited movement. Unlike some other forms of arthritis, osteoarthritis affects only joints and not internal organs.”

Now you can imagine what that must have like for a teenager to have been afflicted with a disease that one should not be getting until they are much older.

My wife would also go on to develop insulin resistance, the precursor to diabetes, severe allergies to pollutants and environmental elements (grass, trees, cats, etc.), Temporo Mandibular Joint (TMJ), and genetic obesity. Despite these challenges she managed to find a way to live, become an optician, own a house and find man who loves her.

But her president, cause he owes his current position of high power to the Bible Belt, seems to not care whether or not she has these problems or if she lives or dies. These are the consequences for making such a shortsighted decision. Bush has accomplished nothing more than causing my wife possibly more years of discomfort, psychological pain, possible bankruptcy to pay for all of her medications and the sadness of knowing that the most powerful man in the world cares not for her well being.

Again, embryonic stem cell research is not the miracle cure of the future, but it is part and parcel of the scientific community dedicated to helping people like my wife live a life that is worth living. Not the life of a fertilized egg, but the life of a real live energetic and productive modern woman. If that is not worth the price of a few votes then Mr. Bush nor any politician who believes this tripe deserves to be a public servant.

Relations with Iran is strategic area of Tajikistan’s foreign policy

This is why isolating and sanctioning Iran in the end won't work. There are too many other developing countries from Central Asia to the Far East, to Latin America, that don't have the skittish feelings toward an Iranian nuclear bomb that we do here in the West. Simply put, you cannot isolate a country when plenty of countries have no compulsions about doing business them. As it stands, Tajikistan have already joined a list of countries enabling Iran that includes Russia, China, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and good 'ole Cuba.

I believe that the only way we're going to solve the Iranian question without a full-scale invasion is to take advantage of the popular discontent and foment democratic revolution. It's not as sexy as nuclear war but no solution is perfect.

Tajikistan pays special attention to cooperation with Iran as it believes that the relations with that country is one of strategic guidelines in its foreign policy, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov said on Tuesday, opening his meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Tajikistan and Iran have common historical roots, on which our relations are being built,” Rakhmonov said. “We considered Iran as a friendly and reliable partner as of the moment we regained our independence,” he added.

The Tajik leader believes that the current meeting will give a fresh impetus to further development of bilateral cooperation, first of all in the economic and humanitarian spheres.

In spite of good potential of that cooperation, there are reserves for its enlargement and boosting, Rakhmonov said.

During the meeting, he drew attention of his Iranian counterpart to the opportunities opening up for Tehran in cooperation in the sphere of hydropower production and other spheres of economy.

After holding talks in an enlarged format with participation of delegations of the two countries, the sides will approve a final statement and sign five intergovernmental documents on energy, transport and agriculture.

Bank of China Freezes N.Korean Accounts

Most of the news these days rightly concerns the escalating conflict between Israel and the terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah. However, we cannot and should not take our eyes off of China and more to the point, North Korea, whom not long ago was testing ballistic missiles aimed at Hawaii.

The following article states that China has frozen N. Korean assets at the behest of the US. It's not a full-scale invasion nor a complete denunciation of PRK activities and aggressions but it is at the very least a gesture to show some solidarity by China with the West. The least of peace offerings and a sign that China is trying to work with us. Now whether this will amount to anything is probably a fools hope but as I've seen before, we live in a world of gestures and signs rather than actions.

This of course is why the UN is still so very popular with a certain segment of the population.

The Bank of China has frozen North Korea’s accounts at a branch in Macau due to Pyongyang’s counterfeiting and money laundering activities, it emerged Monday. It is the very BOC branch where South Korea's National Intelligence Service transferred US$200 million to the North to guarantee the success of the first North-South summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and then-president Kim Dae-jung in 2000. U.S. pressure on the Macau-based bank Banco Delta Asia last year to freeze North Korean accounts reignited conflict between the U.S and the North.

Grand National Party lawmaker Park Jin said a former high-ranking U.S. official told him about the Chinese bank’s decision when Park visited Washington last week. A South Korean government official later confirmed the account, saying Beijing could not turn down Washington’s demand to clean up dubious accounts since it is well aware of the importance of improving financial transparency for the sake of trade. Analysts say that is one reason behind the recent rift between North Korea and its long-term ally over the North’s missile tests.

Park said the North moved its accounts to other banks in Zhuhai, China after Banco Delta Asia took the action last year. The U.S nonetheless continued its investigation of the Bank of China and persuaded it to halt all transactions with North Korea, he said. “I heard from Washington sources that North Korea counterfeits yuan as well as U.S dollars, so China had no choice but to impose restrictions on North Korea,” the opposition lawmaker added.

Israel Won't Rule Out Full-Scale Invasion

Russia and the rest of the known universe can condemn Israel all they want, at the end of the day, they are doing what needs to be done and what should have been since the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The sooner Western nations realize that militant Islam is at war with us and we should respond in kind, the sooner we can end this conflict. It continues to go on the way it does precisely for the reasons Russia, et. al. want the Israeli's to show "restraint" in dealing with these infantile Islamic fundamentalist guerillas. While we the Western world rest on laurels, show restraint, and give away territory, they attack as much as they can. I not only fully support what Israel is doing, I would hasten to ask, how long before they attack Syria and really do some damage?

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day. Israel, meanwhile, refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Israeli warplanes also launched new airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after daybreak Thursday, followed by strikes in the guerrilla's heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.

The strikes came a wave of bombings Wednesday killed as many as 70 people, according to Lebanese television, making it the deadliest day since the fighting began on July 12.

Russia sharply criticized Israel over its onslaught against Lebanon, now in its ninth day, sparked when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Israel's actions have gone "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation" and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

At least 306 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli campaign began, according to the security forces control room that collates casualties. In Israel, 29 people have been killed, including 14 soldiers. The U.N. has said at least a half million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

In developments on the evacuation of Lebanon, U.S. Marines landed in Beirut Thursday to help Americans onto a Navy ship bound for Cyprus in the second mass U.S exodus from the battle-torn country.

About 40 U.S. Marines arrived at a beach just north of Beirut in a landing craft and picked up 300 Americans who they ferried to the amphibious assault ship USS Nashville just off the coast. The Nashville is supposed to sail for Cyprus with about 1,000 Americans.
Hundreds of people, some with shirts draped over their heads to protect themselves from the sun, gathered on the beach. A U.S. Embassy official, speaking through a megaphone, pleaded for patience, reassuring the crowd that all those who registered to be evacuated would be assisted.
"We are frustrated and disappointed, but we are O.K.," said Bob Elazon, an Illinois resident who complained that the U.S. evacuation was badly organized.

Elazon, who left his native Lebanon 34 years ago, was with his 20-year-old daughter, Anna, who was visiting the country for the first time. His wife departed just before the fighting erupted.

Meanwhile, the first plane carrying U.S. evacuees landed outside Baltimore early Thursday, and eager family members waited to greet the 145 Americans aboard the charter flight from Cyprus.

Some 900 Americans arrived in Cyprus early Thursday aboard a luxury cruise ship - the first mass U.S. evacuation from Lebanon since the Israeli airstrikes started more than a week ago.

It was among dozens of cruise ships evacuating thousands of foreigners from Lebanon. Some 8,000 of 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon have asked to leave. So many people were leaving Lebanon that boats were forced to line up outside Beirut harbor and had to wait before docking in Cyprus.

Israel's series of small ground forays across the border have aimed to push back Hezbollah guerrillas who have continued to fire rockets into northern Israel despite more than a week of massive Israeli bombardment against them - raising the question of whether air power alone can suppress them. Guerrillas fired 25 rockets into Israel on on Thursday, which caused no casualties.

But the guerrillas have been fighting back hard on the ground, wounding three Israeli soldiers Thursday a day after killing two. On Thursday, an Israeli unit sent in to ambush Hezbollah guerrillas had a fierce gunbattle with a cell of militants.

In another clash, just across the border from the Israeli town of Avivim, guerrillas fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank, seriously wounding one soldier. Hezbollah said in a statement that its guerrillas destroyed two Israeli tanks as they tried to enter the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras, across from Avivim.

Israel has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, reluctant to send in ground troops on terrain dominated by Hezbollah.

But an Israeli army spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Israel also broadcast warnings into south Lebanon on Wednesday telling civilians to leave the region, a possible prelude to a larger Israeli ground operation.

"There is a possibility - all our options are open. At the moment, it's a very limited, specific incursion but all options remain open," Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Lebanese government is under international pressure to deploy troops in the south to rein in Hezbollah guerrillas - but even before the fighting many considered it too weak to do so without deeply fracturing the country.

An Italian paper quoted Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Thursday as making his strongest statement yet against the Shiite militant group. But Saniora's office quickly said he was misquoted.

The Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted him as saying in an interview that Hezbollah has created a "state within a state," adding: "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire," Saniora told

But Saniora issued a statement denying the statement. He said he told the paper that the international community must help press Israel from Chebaa Farms, a small border area that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah points to as proof of the continued need for armed resistance.

Saniora told the paper that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms," the satement said. There was no immediate comment from the Italian paper.

A day earlier, Saniora issued an urgent appeal for a cease-fire, saying his country "has been torn to shreds." On Wednesday, warplanes pounded areas in the south where Hezbollah operates - but civilian residential neighborhoods bore the brunt, with dozens of houses destroyed.

Dallal said Israel had hit "1,000 targets in the last 8 days - 20 percent were missile launching sites and the rest were control and command centers, missiles and so forth."

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan insisted the Israeli army never targets civilians but has no way of knowing whether civilians are in an area they are striking. "Civilians might be in the area because Hezbollah is operating from civilian territory," Nehushtan said.

He said that Hezbollah has fired more than 1,100 rockets at civilian areas in Israel since the fighting erupted and that 12 percent - or about 750,000 people - of Israel's population currently live in areas that can be targeted by the guerrilla group.
Israel said its airstrikes so far have destroyed "about 50 percent" of Hezbollah's arsenal - and it has been trying to take out its top leaders.

Wednesday evening, the Israeli military said that aircraft dropped 23 tons of explosives on on what the military believed was a bunker used by senior Hezbollah leaders in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Hezbollah said none of its members were hurt in the strike and denied a leadership bunker was in the area, saying a building under construction to be a mosque was hit.

Hezbollah has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to the Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told CNN on Thursday said his country would not issue a statement about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."