U.S. General Dismisses Venezuelan Government links with Colombian Guerrill

[Say_What]

<clips>

In an interview published today by The Miami Herald, U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, dismissed recent reports that suggest links between the Venezuelan Government and Colombian guerrillas, and that the Chavez administration is providing assistance to Arab terrorists from the Middle East and other terrorists.

Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon serves as director of operations at the Pentagon's U.S. Southern Command (Southcom) located in Miami. He recently acted as deputy chief of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

A recent U.S. News & World Report article claims that President Hugo Chavez is “flirting with terrorism.” The article cites "unnamed U.S. government sources,” claiming that the Venezuelan Government is providing identity cards to Arab radicals, which can then be used to enter the U.S. and carry out terrorist attacks in North American territory. The article, titled “Terror Close to Home,” by Linda Robinson, appeared in the October 6 issue of U.S. News and World Report also accuses the Chavez administration of being host to Cubans operating inside Venezuela's paramilitary and intelligence apparatus.

"I have no reason to believe that," said Mixon to the Miami Herald, adding that they have no details about which borders terrorists are crossing.

"We certainly don't have any information that they are being supported by any other government in the region," the general said.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1060

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Miami Herald article clips

....Mixon, who met with editors and reporters at The Herald, also dismissed recent reports that suggest Venezuela has links with rebels in neighboring Colombia and is providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists.

According to a recent U.S. News & World Report article, Venezuela is providing identity documents similar to Social Security cards that could be useful to radical Islamic groups and is host to Cubans operating inside Venezuela's paramilitary and intelligence apparatus.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/americas/6967450.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. I wonder which character is more credible

Linda Robinson, who apparently can cook our information with a right-wing spin, or the director of operations for the U. S. Southern Command?

Mixon's biography:
http://www.southcom.mil/pa/Bios/bioJ3.htm


Here's a review of Linda Robinson's "fair and balanced" reporting on Venezuela:
~~~~ link ~~~~

Here's bio. info. on Linda Robinson:
Linda Robinson, Latin America bureau chiefof U.S. News & World Report since 1989, has shown unusual skill and tenacity at focusing the attention of American readers on the region. She has traveled throughout Latin Americaand the Caribbean, reporting and writing over 200 articles on such varied topics as refugee crises, guerrilla conflicts, drug trafficking, electoral upsets, coup attempts, squatters’ movements and trade accords. She has visited Cuba 20 times and interviewed Fidel Castro twice, as well as many other Latin American presidents. Her reporting anticipated the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989 and the electoral defeat of the Sandinistas in 1990, and her investigative work includes exposés of money laundering by Panamanian President Guillermo Endara, improprieties at Radio Marti, links between Mexican Raul Salinas and Colombian cartels, and U.S. plans for invading Cuba in the 1960s. Robinson has written freelance articles for magazines such as World Policy Journal, Survival, and Foreign Affairs, and is the author of Intervention or Neglect, a book about Central Americaand Panama. She was senior editor at Foreign Affairs quarterly, and a writer and editor at the Wilson Quarterly. She frequently addresses public audiences and foreign policy groups, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
http://www.aporrea.org/dameletra.php?docid=5065

Looked up the International Institute for Strategic Studies, hmmm, found the following:

The Institute’s annual turnover is £4 million. The major elements of expenditure are research (30%), operations (24%), publications (20%), administration (10%), the Library (8%) and miscellaneous (8%) The Institute raises money as follows: research is supported by a wide range of international bodies and foundations which fund programmes and fields of study (35%). Membership income is received from both Individual Members and Corporates (25%). The Institute’s publications from syndication, subscription or sold as individual journals and books raise 20%. The trading company earns 5%, investments 10% and miscellaneous receipts The Institute accepts no general support funding from Governments, but does receive funding for the organisation of meetings and for research from Government departments.
http://www.iiss.org/funding.php?PHPSESSID=93e6b2586d431ecf452a5e81e35406cb

O.K. I found something interesting, in that Condoleeza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz choose this organization for framing their official statements!
"Remarks at the International Institute for Strategic Studies,"


Remarks at the International Institute for Strategic Studies

Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
International Institute for Strategic Studies
London, United Kingdom
June 26, 2003



Released by the White House, Office of the Press Secretary

This is a wonderful opportunity to speak to such a distinguished group of thinkers -- and to be able to do so on the soil of one of America's oldest and truest allies is a special honor.

I feel a personal affinity for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, because -- like the Institute -- I got my start studying strategic weapons and arcane terminology like "throw weights" and "MIRVs". And, like you, I've subsequently branched out into other areas of strategic studies. (snip/...)
http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/rm/2003/21989.htm

and Paul Wolfowitz:
http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2003/sp20030531-depsecdef0265.html

Found the International Institute for Strategic Studies gets funding from the Smith Richardson Foundation.
http://www.mediatransparency.org/search_results/info_on_any_recipient.php?recipientID=1581


Found this information in a quick grab on the Smith Richardson Foundation:

"Another Harriman/Bush friend is, Eugene Stetson('34), he was an assistant manager for Prescott Bush at Brown Brothers, Harriman's New York office. He organized the H. Smith Richardson Foundation. The foundation, in the late 1950s, participated in the "domestic-covert" "psychological warfare" CIA "MK-Ultra" operation. The Richardson Foundation helped to finance the testing of "psychotropic drugs including LSD" at Massachusetts, Bridgewater Hospital , "the center of some of the most brutal MK-Ultra tortures."

During the Iran-Contra operations, the H. Smith Richardson Foundation was a "private donors steering committee", working with the National Security Council to co-ordinate the office of "Public Diplomacy". This was an effort "to propagandize in favor of and run cover for the Iran-Contra operations, and to coordinate published attacks on opponents of the program." The H. Smith Richardson Foundation, also runs the "Center for Creative Leadership", at Langley to "train leaders of the CIA" and another near Greensboro, North Carolina, that trains CIA, Secret Service Agents and "virtually everyone who becomes a general" gets this 'training'".
(snip/...)
http://www.trunkerton.fsnet.co.uk/more_dodgy_goings_on.htm

Ha ha ha ha. Gulp.

This definitely tells me U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon probably knows quite a bit more, or at least may be more tempted to tell the truth, concerning Venezuela, maybe, than Linda Robinson!

[David__77]

2. There are SANE generals.

I am glad that the "utopianist" neo-conservative column doesn't have a lock on the generals.