[Mb-civic] Venezuela Gets the Florida Treatment

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0811-02.htm

  Published on Wednesday, August 11, 2004 by CommonDreams.org  

Venezuela Gets the Florida Treatment

Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in Caracas 
this Sunday?
 
by Greg Palast 
  
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy: Unlike Mr. 
Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a majority of the vote. 

Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo 
thinks the US and British oil companies that pump the crude ought to pay 
more than a 16% royalty to his nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't 
even acceptable as a tip at a New York diner. 

Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR president has to go. 
This is none too easy given that Chavez is backed by Venezuela's poor. And 
the US oil industry, joined with local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority 
of Venezuelans remain poor. 

Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's recall vote. That 
is, if the elections are free and fair. 

They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me what appeared to 
be confidential pages from a contract between John Ashcroft's Justice 
Department and a company called ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is 
part of the War on Terror. 

Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer money, to ChoicePoint in a 
no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private information on every citizen of 
half a dozen nations. The choice of which nation's citizens to spy on caught 
my eye. While the September 11th highjackers came from Saudi Arabia, 
Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab Emirates, ChoicePoint's menu offered records 
on Venezuelans, Brazilians, Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How 
odd. Had the CIA uncovered a Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers 
across the border with exploding enchiladas? 

What do these nations have in common besides a lack of involvement in the 
September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is in the throes of major 
electoral contests in which the leading candidates -- presidents Lula Ignacio 
da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of Argentina, Mexico City mayor Andres 
Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's Chavez -- have the nerve to challenge the 
globalization demands of George W. Bush. 

The last time ChoicePoint sold voter files to our government it was to help 
Governor Jeb Bush locate and purge felons on Florida voter rolls. Turns out 
ChoicePoint's felons were merely Democrats guilty only of V.W.B., Voting 
While Black. That little 'error' cost Al Gore the White House. 

It looks like the Bush Administration is taking the Florida show for a tour 
south of the border. 

However, when Mexico discovered ChoicePoint had its citizen files, the 
nation threatened company executives with criminal charges. ChoicePoint 
protested its innocence and offered to destroy the files of any nation that 
requests it. 

But ChoicePoint, apparently, presented no such offer to the government of 
Venezuela's Chavez. 

In Caracas, I showed Congressman Nicolas Maduro the ChoicePoint-
Ashcroft agreement. Maduro, a leader of Chavez' political party, was 
unaware that his nation's citizen files were for sale to U.S. intelligence. But he 
understood their value to make mischief. 

If the lists somehow fell into the hands of the Venezuelan opposition, it could 
immeasurably help their computer-aided drive to recall and remove Chavez. 
A ChoicePoint flak said the Bush administration told the company they 
haven't used the lists that way. The PR man didn't say if the Bush spooks 
laughed when they said it. 

Our team located a $53,000 payment from our government to Chavez' recall 
organizers, who claim to be armed with computer lists of the registered. How 
did they get those lists? The fix that was practiced in Florida, with 
ChoicePoint's help, deliberate or not, appears to be retooled for Venezuela, 
then Brazil, Mexico and who knows where else. 

Here's what it comes down to: The Justice Department averts it's gaze from 
Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in Venezuela. So it's only fair to ask: 
Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror -- or a war on democracy? 

Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, 'The Best 
Democracy Money Can Buy.' This commentary is based on 'Tango 
Terrorists,' in the new chapter of the book's Expanded Election Edition 
(Penguin 2004). For Palast's reports on Venezuela for the Guardian of Britain 
and his exclusive interview for BBC Television with President Hugo Chavez, 
go to www.GregPalast.com 

###
 

© Copyrighted 1997-2004
www.commondreams.org
 

-- 
You are currently on Mha Atma's Earth Action Network email list, option D 
(up to 3 emails/day).  To be removed, or to switch options (option A - 
1x/week, option B - 3/wk, option C - up to 1x/day, option D - up to 3x/day) 
please reply and let us know!  If someone forwarded you this email and you 
want to be on our list, send an email to ean at sbcglobal.net and tell us which 
option you'd like.



Action is the antidote to despair.  ----Joan Baez
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20040811/bca0b68c/attachment.html