by emptywheel
Maybe I wasn't far off the other day when I speculated that, if we launched a strike on Iran, Venezuela might assist Iran in wielding the Oil Weapon. Because today, in what could be a parody of Bush's worst manufactured intelligence, we see this story (hat tip JMM) claiming Venezuela and Iran just signed a--get this--uranium deal. Let's review the familiar signs, shall we?
Allegation of one country selling uranium to another which already has a significant supply of uranium?
Check.
Publication of that allegation via a known conservative mouthpiece?
Check.
Reliance on opposition figures to support the allegation?
Check.
Look, don't get me wrong, Chavez is a demagogue. A populist demagogue, but still a demagogue. But when transparently self-interested opposition figures and the discredited CIA you float such laughable assertions, you begin to look clownish by comparison. More and more, when Chavez makes accusations like this ...
"Now they say I am sending uranium to make atomic bombs from here, from the Venezuelan Amazon to send directly to the Persian Gulf," Mr. Chavez said during a meeting at a military club on Tuesday. "This shows they have no limit in their capacity to invent lies."
... I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly.
This story appears to be nothing more than an attempt to take recent agreements between Iran and Venezuela and fluff them up as evidence of some kind of military alliance between the two countries in the hopes that such fluff will convince the US to intervene in Venezuela.
The deal was part of a package of agreements, most of which were announced during a visit last month to Caracas and Cuba by Iranian parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad-Adel. The two countries also established a joint $200 million development fund and signed bilateral deals to build homes and factories, and exploit petroleum.
[snip]
Retired Venezuelan Vice Adm. Jose Rafael Huizi-Clavier said the mining arrangements negotiated last month with Iran are broad and unspecific and could easily include uranium.
Other critics of Mr. Chavez point out that Venezuela recently voted against reporting Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for its uranium-enrichment program and that Mr. Chavez in recent months has attempted to purchase his own civilian-use nuclear technology from Argentina.
By the end of the article, the opposition figures quoted in the article almost admit as much, an attempt to portray these relations as the casus belli that will get the US involved in Venezuela.
Former Venezuelan Defense Minister Raul Salazar said the country's support of Iran's nuclear program was pushing relations with Washington past "the point of no return."
Well, I guess if you're going to launch a war for which you've got no military in order to dominate oil supplies for the foreseeable future, you might as well go for broke. Let's go after all the unfriendly oil suppliers, shall we?
Some of our national treasury is going to pay off these so-called opposition leaders around the world to say things aligned with Bush's plan for global war. These are paid propagandists obviously. They have already tried to oust Chavez politically and it didn't work. Next Negroponte, the evil genuis of dark ops, will send a squad to do what they do best.
OT, can't click onto FireDogLake. Waaaaaa. Anyone else having problems?
Posted by: GrandmaJ | March 14, 2006 at 10:45
Can't they at least get some new scritwriters?
Posted by: Mimikatz | March 14, 2006 at 10:54
GrandmaJ
I suspect they're switching over to the new cafepress site. There was a RH post over there this morning, but now it's gone.
Posted by: emptywheel | March 14, 2006 at 11:31
Don't be fooled! This is Chavez's way of backing out of Citgo's discounted heating oil deal! He's going to send uranium to Iran, and in a couple of years, he hopes they'll nuke New England's LIHEAP recipients!
It's a devious plot. A devious, slow-developing plot.
Posted by: Kagro X | March 14, 2006 at 11:42
Elizabeth Cheney, the Vice President's daughter (and mother of his four grandchildren), oversees an $85 million State Department program described by the New York Times as "a drive to bring Iranian scholars and students to America, blanket the country with radio and television broadcasts and support Iranian political dissidents."
The program received only $10 million last year. I could only wonder what was really going on when I heard Condoleezza Rice claim (falsely) on NPR a few weeks ago claim that it was "impossible" for students to play Mozart and Beethoven in some parts of Iran, and that the program could bring Iranian music students to New York or Los Angeles. $85 million buys a lot of piano lessons! But more to the point, Chalabis don't come cheap.
Posted by: QuickSilver | March 14, 2006 at 11:45
QS
No, and I've read that Rummy used some of the INC's money to fund some of his black ops. Just launder it through the compliant exile group.
Posted by: emptywheel | March 14, 2006 at 11:53
You forgot Fidel, ew. Chavez and Castro are compañeros. Venezuela sends yellowcake to Tehran, Tehran sends nuclear-tipped Shahab-3s to Havana.
Get. with. the. program.
Posted by: Meteor Blades | March 14, 2006 at 12:16
Grandma J,
Looks like the new site is up at - and not linked yet to the old URL. Check it out everyone!
Link to Firedoglake
Posted by: McGee | March 14, 2006 at 12:24
Also looks like the comments section at Firedoglake isn't refreshing properly - I'm guessing that's why there is no link from the old URL yet....
Posted by: McGee | March 14, 2006 at 12:35
Thanks McGee, MimiKatz. McGee, when I use your link, I get,"This account has exceeded its CPU total."
Thanks for the post ew.
Posted by: John Casper | March 14, 2006 at 13:07
Thanks McGee, now that fdl link works for me.
Posted by: John Casper | March 14, 2006 at 13:10
MB
Don't laugh. I'm reminded of the campaign they launched against Fulton Armstrong, not long before they ruined Plame's cover. Working all hemispheres, these folks are. Who says they can't warmonger in the Eastern Hemisphere and warmonger in the Western Hemisphere and still chew gum?
Posted by: emptywheel | March 14, 2006 at 13:34
MB
Everything old is new again. Instead of the old guns/rum-slaves-sugar triangle, we now have the doctors/oil-uranium-nukes triange.
Posted by: viget | March 14, 2006 at 14:32
Bush Administration:
"Now if we can only find a way to implicate the Democrats as well, then we're good for the elections."
Posted by: cathy | March 14, 2006 at 15:03
With this crew in power, ew, I assume that even my snark may turn out to be true.
Posted by: Meteor Blades | March 14, 2006 at 16:35
IRAN is the 2006 Mid-term elections narrative. Who knew that the Bush Administration was into recycling ;-)
Posted by: Jon | March 14, 2006 at 18:05
"There is no website configured at this address is the message I get when I try to log onto FDL."
Posted by: susan | March 14, 2006 at 23:55
Emptywheel,
Here's a link to story by Juan Cole on your various Iran threads. All about all the various bogus pretexts for preventive war coming out of the Bush crowd.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060313_fishing_for_a_pretext_in_iran/
Perhaps Rummie should just have a bunch of inmates taken out from Abu Ghraib and have them gunned down in a radio station in Basra and then have them found, complete with incriminating planted evience that they were working for the Al Quds Division of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
Posted by: John Shreffler | March 15, 2006 at 09:32
Semi-on-topic
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Posted by: Mohammad Fahim Shahsamand | April 03, 2006 at 06:35