I say, "Well, okay, if you say so."
I've written many times about this stuff because I was personally involved in a US-based "missionary" group called the ICA in Venezuela in the 1970s. This ecumenical "cultural" and "humanitarian" organization, which also operated under the name, "The Ecumenical Institute," was in fact a US spy outfit, a fact whose volunteers (a bunch of gringo do-gooders like I was) were completely unaware of.
I became suspicious because we regularly met with "sponsors" who were high-ranking Venezuelan generals and other military men, Venezuelan bank owners, high-level Venezuelan government people and high-level US embassy people ... but we were working on a humanitarian development project -- nothing to do with military and political stuff. I often asked the organizers who financed the projects (over 150 worldwide at the time) and who paid for all that traveling back and forth from the USA and the different countries.
I never received and answer ... but when I met the founder and chairman of the ICA, Joseph Matthews, in Prados del Este, one of the wealthiest areas of Venezuela, I realized that indeed, this was a US spying operation. I asked him outright and in public ... and he leered at me as if he wanted to kill me and told me to shut up and turned away. He did not threaten me with words, but with his military-marine eyes.
Two weeks later I came down with a serious and debilitating disease, similar to leukemia ... and I was asked by the chief organizer, a Maryknoll priest, to kindly leave the organization and go "take care of my health problem." Good for me. I spent the next month in and out of clinics in Caracas ... and nobody could find what it is I had.
Only now, as I write this article, I get a sudden flash ... "Was I poisoned by these guys?"
Hummm ... I wonder. I finally had to leave Venezuela, after almost two years of being there, and go unhappily back to Canada. It took specialists over one year to find what I had ... and they were utterly surprised when they finally discovered what it was ... a highly developed form of Toxoplasmosis. I was treated with cancer/AIDS drugs ... and survived with minimal damage to internal organs. I'm now wondering if this is the way the CIA (note the similarity to ICA) poisons people without it being noticed? It is a very difficult disease to diagnose because it rarely develops to an extreme state as it did in my case.
Anyways, back to the matter at hand.
A recent (February 8, 2008) ABC News article entitled, "Exclusive: Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to 'Spy' on Cubans, Venezuelans - U.S. Embassy Official's 'Spy' Request Violated Long-Standing U.S. Policy" says it all. For all you doubting Thomases out there ... please read the article ... it comes directly from the horse's mouth (those who were asked to spy) and it is comfirmed by the US government (the Embassy that was involved).
There is lots of fascinating information ... and even if the US government and the Peace Corps and/or The Fulbright Scholarship people say that they are not involved in spying, don't believe them. They certainly aren't going to say, "Oh, yes, we are fronts for the CIA."
Think of it this way ... if the US Embassy did in fact try to recruit spies within the Peace Corps and the Fulbright thing, and if it happened on at least two separate reported occasions ... then how many times did the same thing happen without it being reported?
I won't get into the whole article for it is quite long, but I will present a few of the most damming and questionable (as in, yeah, sure, my foot) quotes ... and here they are (below) and pay attention to some of the details, such as:
- The Fulbright program receives its funding from the U.S. State Department and the Peace Corps is a federal agency (Oh, what a surprise?)
- The State Department says any such request was "in error" (Oh, sorry, I didn't really mean to ask you to spy, no, no ... I meant fly ... ha! ha!)
- We take this very seriously and want to stress this is not in any way our policy (Choke)
- But the State Department insists that neither group has the obligation to act in an intelligence capacity (Oh, yes, we believe you Satanas ...)
- He said it had to do with the fight against terrorism (What? Cuban and Venezuelan medical doctors are terrorists?)
- A fourth Fulbright scholar declined repeated requests for an interview on the subject. (Ahummm ... cough-cough ... cough-cough-cough.)
"Read the Peace Corps' full statement."
Yes, trust, right. Trust Americans? My big foot. The longer I live, the more I investigate, the less I trust Americans of any kind, and I mean any kind. And I certainly wouldn't trust any group which is financed by the US State Department or the US government, and that includes The Peace Corps and the Fulbright thing ... oh yes ... and any US-based Christian missionary group or any US-based cultural or academic group established in Venezuela (I will write about these at a later date to expose them and what they do.). Personally, I would kick them all out of Venezuela, immediately and without question ... and ship them back to their stinking country in animal cages, do-gooders included.
Continued ... "Like many of the Peace Corps workers, van Schaick is carrying out his research in the Santa Cruz countryside, where a number of Cuban doctors are deployed providing free medical services as part of Cuba's solidarity with its socialist ally, Bolivia's President Evo Morales. The accusations are likely to reverberate in Bolivia, especially given the already shaky relationship between the Bush administration and President Morales' two-year-old government. 'These are serious incidents that we will investigate thoroughly,' says Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca in an interview. 'Any U.S. government use of their students or volunteers to provide intelligence represents a grave threat to Bolivia's sovereignty.' ... Three of the other four Fulbright scholars currently in Bolivia say they were never asked about Cubans or Venezuelans in their briefings. A fourth Fulbright scholar declined repeated requests for an interview on the subject."
Now do you doubters believe me when I say that the US government uses missionary organizations and other do-good organizations as spying fronts? Oh ... and medical "humanitarian" organizations as well. I know because I personally know a CIA agent who does precisely that type of work ... a medical doctor-spy on "humanitarian" missions. Great and wonderful people, huh? Real trustworthy, filled with heart, humanity, respect, love, caring and good intentions, right? My eye.
Anyways ... I have written about this stuff so often that it makes me sick to even think about it. It makes me sicker every time I hear of another incident ... and to just think how many incidents are not being reported ... to protect the reputations of the the most hated people on this planet ... the biggest liars, thieves, rapists and murderers this world has ever known, The Americans.
Yeah, the American People should be proud of themselves.
Yup ... yup ... yup ...
Oscar Heck
oscarheck111@yahoo.com
You really have to think in class terms and not in nationalist/chauvinist terms. Fact is, there are good and bad people in every country -- and class is the best and most objective way to begin sorting them out. So blanket statements about all USAmerican are rather counterproductive, don't you think? You want the venezuelans or bolivians to ship out all the north american Leftists too? I think not.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with El Che: the more one indulges in blanket condemnations of races, nationalities, etc., the more one serves the class enemy, rather than the working class, who make up the overwhelming majority of every country.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that workers in any given country can act against their class interest: indeed, I would argue that, with few exceptions (such as in Venezuela) we all do...and even when we make the effort not to, it's a lot of work to cut through the bullshit and transcend the ruling-class ideology with which we are bombarded day in and day out...
Rather than indulge in racial, national, religious etc. hatred, which only helps to reenforce ruling-class ideology, why not instead follow Hugo Chavez' brave example, going time and time again around the ruling class, directly appealing to the working people of every country...especially in the USA, where the shadow of fascism stalks the land, despite the razzle-dazzle of "free elections." We USAmerican anti-fascists are going to need all the help we can get if, as is increadingly likely, we are plunged into the long, dark, cold fascist night.
Bear in mind that it was a nationalist split from the German Socialist Party that became the Nazis: from Marx and Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, right up to the present time, the perils of "National Socialism" were recognised long before they made their historical appearance. Let none of us fall into that trap.
Oscar: I read of your possible poisoning and I remember the case of Mike Ruppert, late of "From The Wilderness:" your case was some time before his, was it not? He too was possibly poisoned in Venezuela, and treated in Canada. Did you manage to get in touch with him, as information on your case might have helped him with his? Of course, this is the first I've read about your case, and I read about Mike's about a year ago...
I wish I could say that Canada is qualitatively different from the USA...I concede that, as Michael Moore pointed out, its healthcare system may be far more rational...but the reportage that I get from Canadians who have long been under shadow of Canada's equivalent of DHS is that such differences should in no way blind us to the far greater similarity to the USA, in both good and bad aspects. Some Canadians come across with a "holier than thou" attitude: I'm priviledged to correspond with those who don't, which once again clearly evinces the fallacy of blanket condemnations.
What we must always be wary of is class-collaborationism of any type: I've come across this fallacy in many forms, including where I least expect it (learn something new every day!) but, once again, we must keep in mind that we are attacking class rule rather than specific individuals: in that way, we open ourselves up to self-criticism of our own roles in perpetuating the class division of society, without which our analysis is incomplete and, ultimately, flawed.
To those who seek clarity in the confusion in which the Bolivarian Revolution now finds itself on the way to socialism, I would quote a Canadian professional revolutionary with whom I correspond, who updated Lenin's "all power to the Soviets!" to read:
All power to the Consejos. All of it. Now!
Hasta pronto, y a la victoria, siempre, MKO.