[southnews] US Coup Planned for Venezuela?
 
Resent-Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 16:48:37 -0600 (CST)

Operation Pliers, and laid out in the letter to Hayden by an
undercover operative named Michael Steele, who reportedly works in
the US Embassy as a regional affairs officer, was intercepted by
Venezuelan intelligence and released publicly on state TV yesterday.

News Not Fit to Print: US Coup Planned for Venezuela?

By Dave Lindorff

OpEdNews November 29, 2007

The New York Times had a news article about Venezuela in Thursdays
edition, but it was about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez saying
he would cut diplomatic ties with neighboring Colombia. There wasnt
a word about a memo from a CIA operative in Caracas to CIA Director
General Michael Hayden, uncovered yesterday, outlining a plan for
interfering with a Venezuelan referendum set for Dec. 2, and laying
out the steps for instigating and backing a coup.

The plot, called Operation Pliers, and laid out in the letter to
Hayden by an undercover operative named Michael Steele, who reportedly
works in the US Embassy as a regional affairs officer, was intercepted
by Venezuelan intelligence and released publicly on state TV
yesterday.

In the Nov. 20-dated letter, Steele refers to an $8 million US-funded
in-country propaganda campaign against Chavez and the referendum,
already being implemented, which is designed to institutionalize
many of Chavezs socialist reforms and to permit him to continue to
run for president beyond his current two-term limit. He proposes
trying to stall the referendum, which pro-Chavez forces are expected
to win handily, and failing that, to then promote a campaign to
refuse to accept the results. Steele further confirms that the
agency is working with international news agencies in an effort to
distort reports about the referendum and the reforms. (CNN had to
apologize for a mistake which led to the words Who killed him?
superimposed over a photo of Chavez broadcast on CNNs Spanish-language
international broadcast in Venezuela. Was this a deliberate
CIA-inspired black-op?)

Among the tactics Steele recommends in his letter are:

* Promoting street demonstrations and violent protests * Creating
a climate of ungovernability * Provoking a general uprising * Working
through the US military attachi at the embassy to coordinate with
ex-military officers and former coup plotters against Chavez.

Even more darkly, the letter calls for initiating military actions
to support opposition mobilizations and strategic building occupations,
involving US military bases in neighboring Curacao and Colombia to
provide support, and even taking control of parts of Venezuela in
the days after the referendum, while encouraging a military rebellion
inside the Venezuelan National Guard.

The CIA communication has been reported in articles filed by the
Associated Press, but the Times and other major US news organizations
have not mentioned it