Chavez Assassination Row Erupts

[Gold9472]

Chavez assassination row erupts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4178608.stm

8/23/2005

A row has erupted over a call by US religious broadcaster Pat Robertson for the US to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Visiting Cuba, Mr Chavez would not be drawn but his deputy said Mr Robertson had made "terrorist" remarks and the country was studying its legal options.

The US State Department said the comments were "inappropriate" and did not reflect the policy of the US.

Mr Robertson's remarks come amid tense relations between the two countries.

President Chavez is a regular critic of the US, which regards Venezuela as a possible source of instability in the region.

Mr Chavez has accused Washington of conspiring to topple his government and possibly backing plots to assassinate him. US officials have called the accusations ridiculous.

'Criminal statement'
Mr Robertson, 75, said on Monday's edition of the 700 Club: "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability."

"We don't need another $200bn war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator.

"It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

When asked in Havana what he made of the call, the Venezuelan president said: "I haven't read anything. We haven't heard anything about him.

"I don't even know who that person is."

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said this was a "criminal statement" and the way Washington responded to the remarks would put its anti-terrorism policy to the test.

"It's huge hypocrisy to maintain this discourse against terrorism and at the same time, in the heart of that country there are entirely terrorist statements like those."

The vice-president also said the Organization of American States could take up the case, saying an inter-American anti-terrorism accord includes provisions against inciting others to kill.

State department spokesman San McCormack said Mr Robertson was speaking as a private citizen and that the US administration did not share his views.

"Any allegations that we are planning to take hostile action against the Venezuelan government are completely baseless," Mr McCormack said.

"We have been very clear that this is not the policy of the United States."

Venezuela is the fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier of oil to the United States.

[beltman713]

You know, it might very well be illegal to go on TV and call for the assassination of a head of state.

[Gold9472]

You know, it might very well be illegal to go on TV and call for the assassination of a head of state.

What about declaring war on National TV?

[somebigguy]

You know, it might very well be illegal to go on TV and call for the assassination of a head of state.
You are correct, it is illegal to threaten the president in any way, even if you're joking. This guy broke the law, but nothing new there, the bible thumping, neocon, fools break the law all the time with little repercussions.

[ehnyah]

I'm afraid. I live in a nation verging on the sort of violence and hate experienced in Nazi Germany
Pat Robertson Wants to Kill Hugo Chávez

I'm afraid. I live in a nation verging on the sort of violence and hatred experienced in Nazi Germany. Most Americans dislike it when you make these sorts of easy comparisons. I mean, our leaders are not Nazis, they don?t goose-step around, wear death head sticker pins, or round up people and execute them en masse. Even so, the same sort of mental illness afflicting the Nazis (and the people of Nazi Germany) is now working like a slow acid on our so-called leaders-both political and religious-and the almost effortlessly brainwashable psyche of the average American who has no idea what it means when he slaps a "Support Our Troops" magnetic ribbon on the ass-end of his gas-guzzling pickup truck or SUV. Like the Nazi masses, our TV-zombified and consumer-crazed masses have no idea what their leaders are actually doing, and resent it mightily when they are reminded. Give them a peacenik like Cindy Sheehan and millions (not all but enough to make a difference) want her slowly grilled, or at least prosecuted as a traitor.

Now we have the demented little "religious" leader Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of the democratically elected leaders of foreign countries, specifically Venezuela. Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson suggested on-air that American operatives assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to stop his country from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism," reports USA Today. "We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability," Robertson said Monday on the Christian Broadcast Network?s The 700 Club.

Of course, Hugo Chávez and Venezuela have nothing to do with "Muslim extremism" and the sort of "communist infiltration" Robertson is talking about is nothing more than millions of poor people finally receiving health care and education after decades of neglect and outright thievery at the hands of a tiny rich and parasitical elite. I suppose the sort of "communism" Robertson is babbling about is the fact there are Cuban doctors working in the barrios of Venezuela. If that's communism, we need it here, where millions of people are without health care precisely because they are working for corporations that harbor the same parasitical and sociopathic mentality as the rich elite in Venezuela.

"We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator," Robertson added. "It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with." In other words, according to this "man of Christ," the United States, not unlike Nazi Germany, believes it has the right to kill people and steal their stuff, in this instance a whole lot of oil. Unfortunately, there are more than a few Americans who buy into this way of thinking-especially now that gas is approaching three dollars a gallon. American exceptionalism (same as the sort of German exceptionalism Hitler exploited) demands everybody in the world kiss our fat asses? or else they will be on the receiving end of "shock and awe" or assassination. "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future," declared Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State under Clinton (who was a "liberal" mass murderer as opposed to a "conservative" mass murderer). Hitler said about the same, albeit with a bit more theatrics and aggressive oratory.

Of course, the corporate media will let Pat Robertson slide. Because the people who own the newspapers and mega-media news stations and cable networks basically agree with Robertson-if you stand in the way of America, if you turn your natural resources over to starving people, you will eventually be on the receiving end of nightmarish military death and mass murder scenarios dreamed up by sadists and perverts in the Pentagon. For, as George Bush Senior told NBC Nightly News on February 2, 1991, "What we say goes." If you disagree, you may get killed-and so will your kids, pet dog, neighbors, and anybody who happens to be in the vicinity when a thousand pound "smart" bomb hits your neighborhood, directed by a computer-wielding psychopath sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned room at the US Central Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida.

As morbid as it may sound, the good news is that Pat Robertson is old and will die soon enough, and thus we will not have to endure his paranoid diatribes much longer. But the bad news is that there are plenty of young converts ready to take his place. It appears the United States is locked on a path of self-destruction-and will take a lot of innocents with it in the process-and a lot of us here in the Land of the Brave Couch Potato will suffer for the sins of our "leaders" in the not too-distant future.

It was much the same for the hapless German people after Hitler and his murderous crew escaped justice through suicide. It's the people who invariably suffer for the crimes of their leaders.

http://kurtnimmo.com/blog/?p=919



A message came in from a reader this morning that is appropriate here.

--

Lord of the Flies

"I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world." - Ezra Taft Benson, October 1988.

As a young lad in school, I was required to read William Golding's masterpiece, Lord of the Flies. Whilst superficially simple, Lord of the Flies is in fact a highly complex novel. Golding uses the story of a group of English schoolboys marooned on a deserted tropical island to explore the existence of evil and violence in human nature, like the evil referred to in the quote from Benson above.

At the time of writing the book, Golding was devastated by the genocide committed by the Germans and, to a lesser extent, the Japanese during the Second World War. He found it difficult to believe that civilized people could be capable of the atrocities committed. Golding tended to believe that mankind was not inherently evil; rather that evil behavior was the result of ignorance and superstition. The apparent behavior of Nazi Germany caused Golding to rethink his ideas and in Lord of the Flies he attempts to explore and understand why people who are supposedly civilized can embrace evil.

Golding, who was a British prep school teacher, observed his students and came to believe that far from being naturally good, humankind was basically evil and that it was only the rule of law and civilization and the threat of punishment that kept people from behaving in an evil manner.

In his resulting novel, Golding allows the boys' barbarity and evil to increase. When Jack and his hunters kill a boar, they leave the pig's head impaled on a stake, arguably as the ultimate symbol of their descent into savagery. The head is soon rotting and covered with flies, hence the title of the book.

You may remember back to May 2004. At the time, there was a morbid fascination in an American's beheading: Nick Berg.

Of course, all of that is old news and completely forgotten by now. But at the time, I had to wonder: "Had the head of Nick Berg, held aloft by supposed Al Qaida operatives, become this age's 'Lord of the Flies'?

"The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy."

Do you weep for the end of innocence and the darkness of man's heart?

Society around us is descending into savagery, but together we can remain sane in this increasingly crazy world.

As always,

Live Free and Keep Thinking!

All the best,
Michael Haupt

http://www.livejournal.com/users/mparent7777/2150651.html

[ehnyah]

The 700 Club (according to Wikipedia, where much of this information can be found) is editorially pro-Israeli, believing the creation of the Jewish state to be an end times sign. The 700 Club has on Jewish guests such as Michael Medved and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who share its conservative Judeo-Christian beliefs.

Pat Robertson has received a number of honours and you may care to make a note of these, as they presumably support similar thinking!

1975 The Distinguished Merit Citation from The National Conference of Christians and Jews

1978 Department of Justice Award from the Federal Bureau of Investigation

1979 National Conference of Christians and Jews - Distinguished Merit Citation

1984 Man of the Year Award from the Women's National Republican Club

1985 National Association of United Methodist Evangelists

1988 Man of the Year by Students for America

1989 Christian Broadcaster of the Year by the National Religious Broadcasters

1992 One of America's 100 Cultural Elite by Newsweek Magazine

1994 Defender of Israel Award from the Christians' Israel Public Action Campaign for those who have made major contributions in strengthening U.S.-Israel relations

2002 State of Israel Friendship Award from the Zionist Organization of America

If the U.S. and British governments, led by the "Middle East Invaders" are serious about putting a stop to people who encourage violent acts to support their views, they can start with Pat Robertson and any organization that supports (or awards) him. If they don't, they can forget about trying to "control" anyone else, because it will clearly show who it is they really want to keep quiet!

More:

Pat Robertson - There's no fool like an old fool!

http://www.profindpages.com/news/2005/08/23/MN1126.htm