The U.S. Now Planning A Fourth Attempt To Oust Hugo Chavez:
By Stephen Lendman
04/19/06 "ICH" -- -- This essay has a duel purpose. I began it
initially to explain how sophisticated and effective the
dominant corporate media is in programming the public mind to
believe whatever message they deliver regardless of whether it's
true which it rarely is. I chose the title Reeducation 101 -
Defogging and Reversing the Corporate Media's Programming of the
Public Mind which I'm now using as the heading of my
introductory section. Along with that discussion, I then planned
a detailed case study example of how they're doing it by
demonizing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias with a
building and resonating drumbeat of invective in advance of the
US government's fourth attempt to oust him. That discussion
follows my introductory section.
REEDUCATION 101 - DEFOGGING AND REVERSING THE CORPORATE MEDIA'S
PROGRAMMING OF THE PUBLIC MIND
Does any reader of online progressive web sites still watch,
listen to or read anything from the corporate media? If so, how
do you stand it without having a good supply of stomach soothers
and strong headache relief handy. I thought most everyone with
enough smarts and common sense understood that this collective
institutional juggernaut's mission is to sedate and seduce us -
a sort of one, two punch. They mostly do it with diverting and
distracting entertainment. Is that what it's called? You 'coulda
fooled me with what's on all my 300 + cable channels I don't
watch except when I go to bed and need something mind numbing to
make me sleepy. The only reason I have them all is I live in a
building that subscribes to the cable service, and everyone gets
them, like it or not.
Except for three classical music channels without talk or
commercials I love, everything in their lineup is a vast
wasteland, especially what passes for so-called "news and
information" by the on-air names you know well and I needn't
list. They're all an assault on our sensibilities in their all
out effort to fog our minds with round the clock propaganda,
lies, distortion and sanitizing. What they do isn't journalism,
it's stenography. And what they don't report is usually more
important than what they do. They know, as does our government,
that if all or enough of us understood what's really happening,
not the rot and mush they fill our heads with, there'd be a
revolution in the streets. How could the public with full
knowledge of what our government is up to ever go along since
all of it only benefits the rich and powerful and does it at our
expense.
The mind manipulation and thought control comes at us from all
directions in print and on the airwaves. In the US (and really
the world) the newspaper known as the "Gray Lady" and referred
to as "the newspaper of record" leads the way - the New York
Times. I call them a US "Pravda." They're the closest thing we
have in this country to an official ministry of information and
propaganda. They've been going at it for over 150 years, and
nobody does it better or with more influence. Remember Judith
Miller and her daily WMD scare reports.....straight from the
White House and Pentagon in final copy printable form. The Times
calls this "all the news that's fit to print." You don't not
want to hear what I call it, but this newspaper has clout around
the world. Whatever lead stories they report get picked up and
are spread almost everywhere. Especially here on TV where the
state of our news, information and trumpeting punditry assault
our nerve endings. Those who run it and report on it never met a
piece ofstate propaganda they didn't love and want to tell us
about ad nauseam - in between frequent 5 minute long commercial
breaks trying to sell us everything we don't need and never knew
we wanted until they told us.
A noted US media critic once said about them "they have
everything to sell and nothing to tell." And I heard noted
British journalist Robert Fisk say on air to an interviewer
commenting on the dismal state of our corporate media that "you
really have a problem in this country." He meant the dominant
media is so corrupted and complicit with US policies hostile to
the public interest and welfare here and abroad that we have a
desperate need for an effective antidote to their poison. Amen.
There's even a flood of material on TV called "video news
releases" or VNRs. Now get this. These are all government agency
produced propaganda releases or corporate commercials disguised
as real news - but you're not supposed to know it. What they all
are is "fake news." There's a ton of this stuff all over the
airwaves. The TV networks and local stations love 'em because
they all come pre-packaged and free of charge, saving all that
production time and cost. Then combine that with all the rest of
TV news, information and punditry and it's enough to drive a
teetotaler to drink or worse. You have to get away from this
stuff, and I'll tell you how. It's not that hard - just turn off
your TV and cancel your corporate owned newspaper and magazine
subscriptions. Call a friend instead, visit a neighbor, talk to
your wife or husband, spend time with your kids. You'll discover
a whole new world. You may even get to love it. Also, spend more
time online in the right places, like the web site you're now
reding this on, and start to read a little - most important, the
right things.
THE RIGHT PATH TO FOLLOW IS STRAIGHT AHEAD
My purpose in writing this column is to provide an antidote to
those of you still victimized by and under the spell of the
scourge of corporate media mind control (too many I know).
You're in their prison of your own mind. I've got the key, and
if you want your freedom back, follow me into the light of day
and fresh air with an unnamed case study example of one of the
victims who wrote to the editor of another noted and superb web
site I write commentaries for. The editor asked me to respond,
and I did. What follows below is that response reworked to apply
to all others with similar views to the letter writer.
For those of you who want to come along and happen to be
ex-smokers like I am (for the last 31 years), remember how much
sweeter life became once you kicked the habit and could go a
whole day without coughing and wheezing. And you no longer got
short of breath every time you walked up a flight of stairs
either. For me it was like being reborn. For the many of you
unafflicted by the poison of the media giants, read on just for
the fun of it. I'll respond to my case study victim and others
like him and try to save them from themselves. I'll also cover
what he addressed in his letter response - what the US may be up
to in the ongoing very real soap opera pitting this country
against Hugo Chavez.
A CASE STUDY - I'LL CALL MY SUBJECT MR. X
This response is for Mr. X and all the others who think like
him. This man wrote a critical letter about Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez to the web site editor I referred to above. In it he
claimed he hadn't run across any reports about Chavez and
Venezuela for a long time, but then went on to label him with a
string of vicious and baseless epithets. In my response to him,
I asked where was he getting his information other than from
those reports he said he hadn't run across.
Of course, there's been a steady drumbeat of anti-Chavez
rhetoric in the corporate media that even includes language
comparing him to Hitler. When you hear that and lots more, you
know things have gotten very serious and likely to be followed
by big time mischief against the person named. I've quoted lots
of anti-Chavez invective in other articles I've written from
various high officials like Donald Rumsfeld. Now there's a
credible source. Obviously Mr. X is getting this propaganda
message and believes it. How else could he have become so
opinionated about the man. But like all other victims of mind
control he's got it all disturbingly wrong. The truth based on
the facts, not propaganda and lies, is just the opposite of what
he believes and is spouting. I suggested he listen up, and that
truth really would set him free and all others who think like
him.
Mr. X then went on to say Venezuela is insignificant to the US.
I responded just like Iraq wasn't and Iran isn't? What does he
think they do there? Just produce coffee and cocoa, have
carnivals and hold parades? I asked him if he couldn't detect
some common denominator among these three countries? Not that
they're all non-English-speaking, are located on different
continents from the US, are defenseless against a large-scale US
military assault, and pose no military threat whatever to us or
anyone else. All that's true I told him, and everyone with an
unfogged mind knows it. I then asked if I really needed to spell
out for him why they're important to us - I mean the most
obvious reason (not the more complex ones) I literally heard a
10 year old explain right before our illegal aggression against
Iraq -- IT'S THE CRUDE DUDE....O-I-L.....BLACK GOLD.....TEXAS
"TEA".....THE VITAL OXYGEN THAT KEEPS THE COUNTRY AND WORLD
RUNNING. Try driving to the market without it or taking the bus
to work. Or growin all the food we eat either. These three
countries are floating on an ocean of it, were and are governed
by leaders who wouldn't and won't hand it all over to us so
voila....... public enemies 1, 2 and 3.
I then explained that based on the best available estimates
Venezuela ranks number one in the world in total oil reserves
even ahead of Saudi Arabia if their extra-heavy reserves are
added to their "light sweet" or conventional ones. The latter
are easily refined while the former must be substantially
upgraded before refining is possible. If both types are counted,
the best estimates of total oil reserves in the world are:
Venezuela - about 350 billion barrels (by some estimates it's
much higher than that), Saudi Arabia - 262 billion, Canada - 179
billion (mostly extra-heavy), Iran - 126 billion (all "light
sweet") and Iraq - 115 billion (also all the good stuff). I
asked Mr. X if the fog was beginning to lift and if he really
thought the US would ever settle for less than total control of
those combined reserves and those of every other key oil
producing country as well. It's called "resource wars", the
stakes are very high, and we're playing for keeps including
waging war on the world to get it. It' not about getting all the
oil we need (as long as it lasts), it's about controlling it all
to decide who else gets it, how much and at what price. Along
with rising world tension, a big reason the price is high today
(nearing $70 a barrel as I write) is because we want it to be
high to enrich our big oil mafia buddies - you know, the Exxon-Mobils
of the world. Unless you understand "the way things really are"
you'll be victimized like Mr. X and believe everything you hear
or read in the corporate media.
MR. X SWALLOWED THE PARTY LINE PROVING AGAIN YOU CAN FOOL SOME
OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME
Mr. X claimed Hugo Chavez is a "fearless, gutless little wimp of
a dictator." And paranoid too. I informed him this FGWD paranoid
was elected and reelected democratically by significant
majorities and did it in the face of considerable US funding and
support for the opposition and the fiercest, most vicious and
hostile unrelenting dominant corporate media assault against him
both times, beforehand, in between and still ongoing now and
growing in intensity. It's so extreme in vitriol down there it
makes our hostile corporate media almost look like pussy cats.
It didn't work. Venezuelans aren't as uninformed as the
somnambulant and mind-fogged US public. They support and voted
for a man who promised them a better future and actually
delivered it. Why would they ever want to give that up? Ever
know a US politician who did that? A couple here or there who
try, but NEVER one with any power or who could or did deliver.
There's a presidential election coming up in Venezuela at the
end of this year. Now get this. A new poll was just conducted
and here's how Chavez did against his potential or likely
rivals. It was conducted by the Venezuelan Institute for Data
Analysis (IVAD): the score was Chavez 82.7% and closest rival
(at present) Julio Borges of the Primero Justicia (Justice
First) party 8.9%. I used to do marketing research and some
polling right out of graduate school 46 years ago as a newly
minted MBA (before they got popular) and know something about
it. Unless you do it properly, you can get some awfully
unreliable results, so instead of the usual + or - 3 or 4% it
could be two or three times that making the numbers worthless.
But with these lopsided results, why bother with any poll.
Anyone following what's happening in the country knows the
people love Chavez and will never democratically elect someone
else if he's running. Of course, the rich hate him because he's
making them pay their fair share and is sing the country's oil
wealth to help his people instead of handing it over to the big
US oil mafia, other giant US transnationals and the Venezuelan
elite. That's why the US hates him too and feels that way even
more so for a bigger reason. He represents the greatest of all
threats we know - a good example that may spread like a heavenly
virus liberating the oppressed people of other countries in the
region and beyond whose leaders sold them out to the US and our
giant corporations.
So with the opposition knowing they haven't a chance in
December, they've begun their latest anti-Chavez demonization
campaign. They're trying to blame him for the kidnappings and
brutal murders of three children of a wealthy
Venezuelan/Canadian family and other social disturbances being
hyped in the corporate controlled media to stir up the public,
scare them and try to make them want a change in government to
protect them better. It's just a new version of the same dirty
business they've pulled before that failed. It won't work this
time either. Chavez supporters (Chavistas) at least must suspect
the US is orchestrating this mischief and has no compunction
about carrying out kidnappings and brutal murders themselves or
finding lots of local takers at the right price to do it for
them. This isolated violence on the Venezuelan streets is just a
minuscule version of what's going on now in Iraq under the US
led and directed "Salvador death squad option" using Iraqi
proxies to carry out car bombings, mosqe attacks and lots more
to foment a civil war, try to divide the country and supposedly
make it easier to rule. It won't work there either where the
situation is out of control, the war is lost and we know it, and
in British journalist Robert Fisk's words (who I quoted earlier
above): the US "must leave, can't leave and will leave." Sooner
or later, likely the latter after many tens of thousands more
innocent Iraqi deaths and lives and families destroyed and the
devastating physical and psychological toll on many or most of
our demoralized and defeated forces there. I'm writing more
about that in another article I'm now working on.
US authorities and the go-along corporate media in both
countries also claim Chavez is responsible for the recent
pelting of US ambassador William Brownfield's car with eggs and
tomatoes. I wouldn't have wasted a rotten one of either on him
even though the ambassador was provokingly and literally
cruising for a bruising in a poor neighborhood he had no
business being in. He may or may not have gotten it from US
stooges sent in to do it. The poor there certainly had every
reason to do it. This is a man who recognizes the opposition and
not the legitimate Venezuelan government. Chavez has threatened
to expel him from the country and has every right to do it if he
keeps pulling these stunts. The ambassador has said he will
(meaning deliberate provocation), so look for more fireworks
ahead as things heat up more between Washington and Caracas. Of
course, this unambassadorial man deserves whatever he gets and
more, especially in light of the growing anti-Chavez vitriol
coming from high level US officials s well as the current
"military exercise" provocation ongoing close by offshore as
well. Things are clearly coming to a head with a showdown
possible and even likely before the year end election.
Let me spell out what's happening now as the US with 100%
certainty is heading toward a fourth showdown confrontational
attempt to oust Hugo Chavez and possibly try to assassinate him
this time. For those of you, like Mr. X, who believe what they
read in the (corporate) papers or see on the evening news, let
me do a little defogging and lay the truth on you. I know the
playbook very well. I should, I've seen it played out enough
times before and watch it every day now in Iraq in its most
extreme form. It's not Hugo Chavez or his supporters creating
social unrest on the streets. This is classic CIA, National
Endowment of Democracy (NED), USAID and IRI (International
Republican Institute) mischief likely carried out by their
complicit anti-Chavez Venezuelan proxies. These are the ones
with the most to gain if Chavez is no longer president and one
of their own is. I'm talking about the rich and well off, the
same ones who tried it before and failed.
US attorney and author Eva Golinger closely monitors Bush
administration activities to subvert the Chavez government. She
uncovered top secret CIA documents obtained through Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests revealing US involvement through
CIA, NED and USAID complicity to overthrow Hugo Chavez in the
two day aborted 2002 coup. In an interview published by Ultimas
Noticias on April 10 she revealed she now has documents proving
the US bankrolls the Venezuelan opposition and has tried to work
with Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Austria and Spain to form an
anti-Chavez alliance. Her information comes from a report
published April 5 by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights
and Labor, an agency of the US Under Secretary of State for
Democracy and Global Affairs. The report details US efforts to
fund and build Venezuelan opposition political parties. Golinger
noted different strategies being planned to oust Hugo Chavez
including by possible US military invasion and mentioned the
presence of US military baes in the region where 40,000 troops
are now stationed. She also uncovered increased US financial
support for "supposed NGOs" and communications with opposition
politicians on subjects like assassination and torture. Finally,
Golinger explained there's a link between the FBI and police
officials in the Caracas municipalities of Chacao and Baruta,
both run by mayors opposed to Hugo Chavez.
In addition to Golinger's reports, there's credible evidence of
Colombian paramilitaries elicitly entering Venezuela in
provinces bordering the two countries to promote or commit
violence and destabilize the Chavez government. All of this is
serious and escalating mischief that's likely to get worse as
the US moves ahead in its fourth attempt to forcibly remove Hugo
Chavez from office by whatever means planned. At this point, we
don't know if it will even get further off the ground, let alone
succeed, because of Chavez's strong support among the people,
his government allies and the Venezuelan military. We do know
the US orchestrated anti-Chavez demonization campaign will
likely fail as have other past attempts against him. Why?
Because the Venezuelan people overwhelmingly support and will
fight to keep him as the president who gave them extraordinary
social programs that have improved their lives and given them a
direct say through participatory democracy in how the government
is run. Why would they ver risk giving that up or not do all in
their power to prevent anyone from taking them away. So when the
anti-Chavez propaganda campaign fails again, look for the
mischief-makers to go back to the drawing board and try "plan
two."
It may be and there's now talk the main opposition parties will
pull out of the election in December and let Chavez run
unchallenged - that is, if the fireworks haven't culminated
before then. If it happens, it will be a replay of the December,
2005 legislative elections when those same parties quit the race
because they knew they'd be embarrassed by the heavy vote
against them. If there's a repeat performance this year, they'll
blame it on President Chavez as they did last time using
whatever concocted reasons they can come up with. But just like
last December, it will again be sore looser talk, a weak-kneed
effort to demonize the victor and a line of baloney the
Venezuelan people won't buy. I'll give them the real reason, but
they'll never use it. Chavez will win because the great majority
love him and the wonderful social programs and participatory
democracy he's brought them. They won't give them or him up and
will fight to keep them and him to avoid returning to the past
policies of everything fo the rich and powerful and nothing for
the poor and desperate people. Hugo Chavez is their man, their
savior, and they'll keep him as long as he wants the top job.
HOW'D YOU LIKE TO LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY WITH A LEADER AND
GOVERNMENT WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE
The great majority of the Venezuelan people would and here's
why. Any idea what it's like to be impoverished, not know where
your next meal is coming from, live in a shack for a home or not
even have that much, and have no access to even minimum medical
care or education? These people do. Ask them, they'll explain it
to you. Hugo Chavez has given them what they never had before.
Think they won't fight to keep it and him? Wouldn't you in their
place if the alternative was desperate poverty? That's what 80%
of them had before, they're still poor and deprived, but
everyone gets free: first rate health and dental care and
education through as high a level as they can attain. They also
get subsidized food, the legal right they never had before to
own the land their homes were built on and lots more. The result
is a significant improvement in the lives and welfare of the
Venezuelan poor that comprise the great majority of the
population and Chavez's base of support. The population is
healthier, no one eed go hungry, and Illiteracy in the country
is almost nil. In the US it's around 20%, and millions more can
barely read and write at a grammar school level.
Also in the US, our land of opportunity and richest country in
the world, we have 46 million people with no health insurance,
many millions more with too little and by conservative estimates
12 million American families, over 10% of all households,
struggle to feed themselves and often go hungry. They can't
afford the high price of insurance that keeps becoming more
unaffordable or even to buy enough food for their families. They
should be getting federal aid, but how can they when our
government spends all it has and can borrow on imperial wars of
conquest without end to enrich big corporations. The cupboard is
bare for anything else, so we're all on our own, like it or not.
If the country had a motto or slogan it might be you can have
anything you want as long as you can pay for it. If not, you're
on your own. It's called "the free market." Ask one of the
millions of poor, single black mothers with young children how
"free" it is and what it's like trying to figure out how to get
the next meal on te table and pay the rent. She could only dream
of the way things are in the land of the Bolivarian Revolution
and a leader who really cares about all his people - if she knew
about it.
I told Mr. X above and then reminded him again that the "US
boggie man" he made light of has already tried three times and
failed to oust President Chavez and is clearly now planning a
fourth attempt that may include a military assault with depleted
uranium (DU) weapons that would contaminate a vast area with
toxic, deadly and irremediable radiation where they're used.
They might even decide to up the ante and try out in real time
their newest toy - so-called "bunker-buster mini nukes" that
aren't mini but sure are nukes - anywhere from one third to two
thirds as potent as a Hiroshima bomb. They've planning to test
these new weapons in the Nevada desert shortly or are already
doing it without telling us. When they do, I wouldn't want to be
standing around in the next county or maybe even next state. And
that's even without the devastating fallout that will
contaminate a vast area beyond the test site. That's the kind of
"boogie man" I'd be "paranoid" about. I'm already paranoid about
it, and I live inthe heart of the beast and am one of the
privileged. I also live downwind in both directions - from those
bomb test sites and all the horrendous policies coming out of
the Capitol.
HERE COME THE MARINES AND MAYBE A LITTLE "SHOCK AND AWE"
Want more evidence about what may be in the works. It's come to
light that the US has plans called "Operation Bilbao" that look
like, walk like and make sounds like a plan to forcibly
overthrow the Chavez government. Want more? I briefly mentioned
an ongoing close by US military exercise above. The US Navy sent
an aircraft carrier strike group of four ships, 60 aircraft and
6,500 marines to the Caribbean and South American waters for a
"major" training exercise. It's holding it now about 50
kilometers from Venezuelan territory (about 30 miles). All four
ships are capable of launching cruise missiles that may be armed
with nuclear warheads. I told Mr. X this is a deliberately
provocative and hostile act and to imagine the reaction here if
China or Russia were doing this 30 miles off the California
coast. I added I could include more examples of how the US is
stepping up its efforts against Hugo Chavez but hoped what I
detailed above was enough. I also explained that I hope I've
provided enough documnted proof that once again the US
government is improperly and illegally acting to subvert a
foreign leader and his government and, in this case, doing it to
a twice democratically elected leader loved by the great
majority of his people.
IT ALL GOES BACK TO THE POWER OF THE MESSAGE
Now let me bring this full circle and go back to my opening
salvo against the dominant US corporate media. I told Mr. X that
if he or anyone else relies on them for their news and
information, they're guaranteed not to get any. That's not their
job. Their job is to set you up, play you for a fool and make
you a patsy (and a pretty dumb one at that) to believe even the
most outrageous rot they put out. Like those "now you see 'em,
now you don't" WMD or Saddam being linked to al Queda (he and
bin Laden are mortal enemies and hate each other). I knew there
weren't any WMD in the mid-90s. How? It was reported in the news
most people didn't listen to or forgot that Saddam's trusted
son-in-law who was in charge of all his weapons, including those
WMD, defected to the West, was debriefed and spilled the beans
that they were all destroyed around the time of the Gulf war. It
was a tactical decision since they were useless anyway against
the overwhelming US force Saddam was helpless to defend against.
What aout Saddam knocking over the "twin towers." I like that
one even more, but a legion of chumps called the gullible public
will believe anything the corporate media feeds 'em - even the
need to check under your bed every night 'cause Saddam (or Hugo)
may be there ready to pounce as soon as you doze off. People
will believe anything.
IT REALLY HAPPENED ONCE - A REAL LIFE CASE STUDY
Real life case in point. In 1938 a now famous science fiction
radio program was broadcast in the US called War of the Worlds
starring Orson Welles. There was no TV then so the effect it had
was amazing even without the visuals the corporate media now
know are so essential. It was about a Martian invasion of the
earth that included a fake news bulletin that a "huge flaming
object" landed on a farm near Grovers Mill, New Jersey. Orson
Welles was a terrific actor and so weren't the others
apparently. They were so good it created a mass panic among
those listening who really believed the Martians had come and
would do them in. People actually packed the roads, hid in
cellars, got out their guns if they had any and even wrapped
their heads in wet towels to protect themselves against "Martian
poison gas." This now famous broadcast that also created a
national scandal proved an important point. The very
sophisticated folks who run the dominant media can even make a
lot of seemingly intelligent people beliee almost anything made
up out of whole cloth. That media and its PR cousins have honed
their craft and are now so expert at it that if the best of
their past counterparts were still alive, like Nazi Joseph
Goebbels, he and they would be aghast to see how amateurish they
were compared to the "geniuses" now doing it -- to Mr. X and all
the others like him out there with their minds thoroughly fogged
and programmed. He and they are all victims of sinister mind
control, and I've been trying to remove the spell, bring you all
into the light and deliver you into the glorious world of
knowing the truth and being free at last from the poisonous and
hypnotic power of the dominant and complicit corporate media.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog address at
www.sjlendman.blogspot.com
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