Saturday, August 30, 2008

Selling Out The American Way

The US, after funding the Chinese research on exactly the best way to run a totalitarian police surveillance state are now ready to spread this new vision of democracy inaction to a myriad of fledgling authoritarian states.

Our newest customer is none other than Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, a leader we hear constantly decried in the media as a military dictator, heavy handed and oppressive, with goals of exploitation and domination. Earlier in the year, following a US backed invasion and glitter show into Ecuador with the intent to cripple revolutionary militant group FARC, (and get some war on terror face time for our presidential candidates) most of the beltway was ready to label Venezuela as a so called "Terrorist State", which would have required (not recomended) a total embargo and possible blockade of the south american country. It is likely if it wasnt for our own hunger for Venezuelan oil, we would have gone that route and heightened already high tensions in the Américas.

Now, as a memo leaked last month shows, we are more than happy to provide them with millions of dollars of opressive technology, to ensure that their power over their own people remains stable and iron fisted. God forbid we allow the scales of world power to tip towards self determination, no matter what the alternatives might be. Why, freedom might spread like wildfire, to any number of US backed bannana republics in South America and around the World.

Years of CIA covertly created puppet states would be at risk...

The memo shows a sale agreement for millions worth of telephone tapping and other surveillance equipment to the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez. The multi-million dollar quotation, addressed to the Venezuelan Director General of Military Intelligence has been verified with military sources. The shipment includes bulk mobile telephone interceptors, satellite telephone interception stations, direction finding trucks, micro-sized video spy cameras, and hundreds of other billable items including training for Venezuelan intelligence officers at the defense contractor's compound in Miami, Florida.

The contractor, Phoenix Worldwide Industries, briefly describes itself on its public website (which lists only its law-enforcement, not intelligence services) as follows:
"Although Phoenix Worldwide Industries has been in business for many years, until now, we've kept ourselves a secret to meet the classified data requirements of the U.S. government intelligence, investigative, and enforcement agencies that have been our principal clients.

Phoenix appears not to have even had a public website until 2006. As the contractor's offer to the Chavez government was made prior to this date, its hiding from the public, but not from foreign governments, hints that the company was fearful exposure of its activities could result in a tightening of export controls or a reduction in domestic surveillance programs. The willingness of the contractor to export to Venezuela also suggests that regimes more sympathetic to the United States may have received advanced surveillance technology, as we strive to create a global police state. Export familiarity is revealed by three transportation recommendations in the Chavez quotation:

Transportation Method No. 1: Commercially available air transport via 747 Combi direct flight from Miami to Caracas, Venezuela via the U. S. State Department Security Impound at Miami International Airport - Phoenix will deliver the ordered items to Miami International Airport at no charge to the Venezuelan Government.
Transportation Method No. 2: Contract Transportation with the U. S. Air Force (MAC) Military Airlift Command (Phoenix has the availability of Homestead Air Force Base which is four (4) miles from its Manufacturing Plant No. 4). Phoenix will deliver the ordered items to Homestead Air Force Base at no charge to the Venezuelan Government.
Transportation Method No. 3: Transportation with the Venezuelan Air Force Military Airlift Command (Phoenix has the availability of Homestead Air Force Base which is four (4) miles from its Manufacturing Plant No. 4). Phoenix will deliver the ordered items to Homestead Air Force Base at no charge to the Venezuelan Government.
You can read the Agreement here: http://file.sunshinepress.org:54445/venezuela-us-phone-tapping-equipment-quotation.pdf

This is the man Barack Obama labels as a dangerous demagogue, stating:
"Demagogues like Hugo Chavez have stepped into this vacuum of a failed US Latin America policy. His predictable yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, and checkbook diplomacy offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past."

Well that sounds like something Barack should know about, right? Though in all fairness i guess all politicians must be familiar with the concept of false promises. Promises like a right to and a responsibility to spread freedom, Democracy, Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Theres a video on google about why the last Superman movie dropped the last part of Superman's famous slogan, "For Truth, Justice, and the American Way." In it the actor tries to say that the phrase was dropped because superman belongs to the world, and not just the United States, that the American ideals on which superman was based have grown and spread around the world, but the fact is, and the real reason it was removed was that we have let down the world and seem to have grown imperially past those ideals, and to most of the world, it would be shocking to see those three concepts in one sentence.

This is something we must change, if not for the world, for ourselves, if not for ourselves, for our children.

There must be a new American Hero.

You.

1 comment:

Dan Willis said...

You seem to imply the US Government is supplying and funding the formation of police states in South America, China, and across the world. Now - I'm not saying they're not, but the articles/links you posted as sources didn't seem to say that. They seemed to say that US companies were selling surveillance technology to these countries, which I am aware of. Do you think we should have embargoes stopping the sell of "precious technology" to these foreign states? Should the government be the one who can decide what is sold to whom? Did it turn out well when we did it to Cuba? I hope these don't sound like sarcastic questions, because I assure you they are legitimate. I'm not sure what I would do if I had influence in the situation... you want freedom for everyone, but does stopping someone's freedom to sell to someone else in order to keep a larger group of people "free" make sense? Also, the link to the Phoenix company's site is not correct or not working for some reason.

-dpw