By Ruth Needleman for Portside – These paranoid words could easily belong to Donald Trump. They were uttered, however, by his prototype, Richard Nixon, on Friday September 6, 1970. He is sounding off against Salvador Allende in Chile, two days after the election, but almost two months before Congress would ratify his presidency, necessary because Allende had less than 50% of the vote. Allende, nonetheless, became the first socialist to be elected democratically on a program to build socialism peacefully. Even though Nixon was referring to Chile, he said Latin America, because for him, the many countries south of the Rio Grande were really just one, and the whole continent in his mind (and in the mind of every U.S. president) belonged to the U.S. “Latin America is not gone,” he muttered, “and we want to keep it.” Nixon might have been a very entertaining “tweeter”! Nixon’s entire administration, including the CIA, lied to the Senate, denying it had any involvement in Chile, when, in fact, the U.S. was the strategic power behind the coup and all the disruptions and violence that proceeded it.
By Whitney Webb for MintPress News. Ernesto Villegas, Venezuela’s Communications and Information Minister, stated that the attack was intended to be part of an attempted coup led by extremist groups within the opposition, with full U.S. government support said to be behind them. Villegas’ assertion that the U.S. was involved in this attack is not based on mere speculation. Pérez has been known to work for Miguel Rodríguez Torres, a former general and former minister of Venezuela’s Department of Interior Relations, Justice and Peace who is currently being investigated for his ties to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the CIA. The charges first surfaced when the Venezuelan news agencyÚltimas Noticias obtained an official DEA document that described Rodríguez Torres as a “key information provider” for the agency and recommended that he be secured as a protected source for the DEA and U.S. government. It also noted that 40 percent of his assets and wealth are held in the U.S. under his wife’s name.
By Staff of Tele Sur – According to the Bolivarian leader, the U.S. government wrote up a coup scenario for opposition leader Julio Borges. A day before opposition leaders convened more protests in Caracas calling for the ouster of Venezuela’s government, the country’s leader has accused the United States of working with right-wing leaders towards a coup. “The U.S. government, the State Department has given the green light, the approval for a coup process to intervene in Venezuela,” President Nicolas Maduro said, speaking from the Miraflores Palace. Maduro said that security forces had arrested an “armed commando group sent by the opposition in order to attack the mobilization called by the right-wing for Wednesday to generate violence and deaths in the country.” An investigation has been opened to determine who is behind the plan. According to the Venezuelan leader, who also pointed to a U.S. State Department statement issued Tuesday evening warning of an “international response” should “peaceful protests” face repression, the U.S. government wrote up a coup scenario for opposition leader Julio Borges.
By Michael Goldstein for Huffington Post. Trump’s base should be our base, this CIA stuff entrenches them in his camp. Further, unlike typical fascists, he has not built mass organizations or gangs of thugs to intimidate his opposition, but what is happening now could change that. We may be willing to look the other way while the Deep State tries to do what the Democratic Party could not, but do you think those who favored Trump aren’t noticing? Check out The Breitbart News piece headlined “The Deep State Bumps Off General Flynn. Who’s the Next Target?” Attempts to subvert an election Trump voters feel they won under the longstanding rules of the game can only solidify their sense of being beleaguered by a liberal establishment. Moreover, such attempts give them reason to self-organize and set up their own brutal gangs or militias, since their victory is being threatened by demonstrably undemocratic means. … we don’t get better democracy by letting the agencies so practiced at subverting governments overseas pull us out of a bad situation at home by doing it here.
By Staff for Washington’s Blog. Former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich said Tuesday: “The American people have to know that there’s a game going on inside the intelligence community… at the bottom of all this is the fact that there are those that seek to separate US from Russia to reignite the cold war… that’s what’s at the bottom of all this ….What’s going on in the intelligence community with this new president is unprecedented. They’re making every effort trying to upend him.” And, Glenn Greenwald said “Even if you’re somebody who believes that both the CIA and the deep state, on the one hand, and the Trump presidency, on the other, are extremely dangerous, as I do, there’s a huge difference between the two, which is that Trump was democratically elected and is subject to democratic controls. . . But on the other hand, the CIA was elected by nobody. They’re barely subject to democratic controls at all. ”
By Jon Rappoport for Jon Rappoport’s Blog – This is a coup. This is equivalent to declaring a national state of emergency, including martial law: the DHS, if it deemed it necessary, could utilize armed agents to enforce the new directive and take over states’ offices that resist. Election-processes belong to the states. But not anymore. And of course, with this awesome new power, the DHS could intercede, behind the scenes, in the voting process and rig elections. There is an additional aligned factor at work in this op: the proposed elimination of the Electoral College—yet another measure designed to “federalize” the election process. Most people are entirely ignorant of the fact that the Constitution was a pact among states.
By James Tweedie for Morning Star – VENEZUELA’S socialist government exposed at the weekend the right-wing opposition’s plans for a coup, set to begin on Wednesday. United Socialist Party (PSUV) parliamentary group vice-president Diosdado Cabello presented evidence of the conspiracy — dubbed “Plan Rock ’n’ Roll” — to reporters on Saturday. That followed a press conference by the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) coalition on Friday night where leaders made veiled threats against the government.
By Staff of Tele Sur – This is the most recent move by the Senate-imposed government of Brazil to privatize key industries in the country. Brazil’s chamber of deputies approved Wednesday to privatize the country’s offshore pre-salt assets and allow multinationals to own exploration rights, a move social organizations argue will put the country’s natural resources in foreign hands.
By Janine Jackson for FAIR. In a September 22 speech to an elite foreign policy group in New York City, Brazil’s legislatively installed president, Michel Temer, made the startling admission that President Dilma Rousseff was removed from office because of her position on economic policy, rather than any alleged wrongdoing on her part. Speaking to the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, a group of “opinion leaders” and corporate executives with interests in Latin America, Temer said: “And many months ago, while I was still vice president, we released a document named “A Bridge to the Future” because we knew it would be impossible for the government to continue on that course. We suggested that the government should adopt the theses presented in that document called “A Bridge to the Future.” But, as that did not work out, the plan wasn’t adopted and a process was established which culminated with me being installed as president of the republic.”
By Janine Jackson for FAIR – A crawler at the top of the New York Times website announced “Breaking news: Dilma Rousseff, accused of misconduct as president, has been impeached, ending the power struggle consuming Brazil.” That sounds like an unlikely outcome, even to those who haven’t been able to follow all the twists and turns of events in Brazil. But what accounts for the difference between those who see something being resolved in recent political events, and those who see something being violated?
By Staff of Tele Sur – Former president of the chamber of deputies and mastermind of President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, Eduardo Cunha, lost his seat in the lower house Monday night that had so far given him immunity against judicial proceedings over corruption charges. Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of his removal with 450 votes for impeachment, nine abstentions and 10 votes against, when the approval required only 257 deputies, with a minimum of 420 attending the vote.
By Staff of Tele Sur – The U.S. has been actively supportive of the interim government, with many of its Cabinet members already close to the U.S., according to WikiLeaks documents. The United States has been essential in legitimizing Brazil’s impeachment process—widely described by others as a soft coup—and has played a hand in propping up the interim government. Many members of interim President Michel Temer’s government have enjoyed close relations with the U.S., which is “supportive of the Brazilian interim government beyond being silent,”
By Staff of Tele Sur – Accused of mishandling the nation’s fiscal budget, the Senate began the process against President Dilma Rousseff in December 2015. But Brazil’s political crisis dates back to 2014 when Rousseff was re-elected as president for the second time in October 2014 amid a recession, with high inflation and unemployment rising in the country. At the same time, the biggest corruption scandal in Brazilian history, “Operation Car Wash,” shook the Brazilian political elite including members of both parties in the ruling coalition
By Staff of RSF – Reporters Without Borders (RSF) deplores the growing persecution of critical media in the week since the 15 July coup attempt in Turkey. With the government’s response seeming more and more like a witchhunt, journalists have been subjected to arrests, seizures of entire newspaper issues and a menacing state of emergency. “No one disputes the Turkish government’s legitimate right to defend constitutional order after this abortive coup but democracy, for which hundreds of civilians gave their lives, cannot be protected by trampling on fundamental freedoms,” said Johann Bihr, the head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk.
By Isil Sariyuce and Angela Dewan for CNN – Istanbul (CNN)Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the nation is imposing a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of last week’s bloody coup attempt. Erdogan met Wednesday with his national security council and council of ministers, the latter of which approved the state of emergency recommendation “The purpose of the declaration of the state of emergency is, in fact, to be able to take the most efficient steps in order to remove this threat as soon as possible, which is a threat to democracy…
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