CIA plan attack on Venezuela during referendum

Operation Tenaza is a very alarming plan that aims to destabilize
Venezuela and overthrow (again) its legitimate and democratic (and very
popularly support) president. The plan will fail, primarily because it has
been discovered, but it must be denounced around the world as an
unacceptable violation of Venezuela's sovereignty.

US foreign policy involves psyops....all the secret stuff to destablise opponents, well described in fiction by 'A Very British Coup', well know from many examples, may be it stretchs to splitting left parties and movements in the UK, haven't got the evidence and the left seems quite good at splitting on own but Britain is runway uno for the US military, a useful military base....so keeping domestic opposition divided would be useful.

Also strong link between the Atlanticist Social Democrat Party and right wing old labour from the US

On this area in a British context have a look at 'Notes from the Borderland'

Mullin notes in a Guardian article looking at the possibility of a very British Coup:

In August 1985 the Observer revealed that an MI5 officer, Brigadier Ronnie Stoneham, was to be found in room 105 at Broadcasting House. His job? Stamping upturned Christmas trees on the personnel files of BBC employees he deemed to be unsuitable for promotion. Students of A Very British Coup will know that my head of MI5, Sir Peregrine Craddock, was also vetting BBC employees. What's more, he also had a spy on the general council of CND - and in due course the MI5 defector Cathy Massiter revealed that there had indeed been such a spy. His name was Harry Newton.

Finally, in 1987 Peter Wright, a retired MI5 officer, caused a sensationwith his claim that he and a group of MI5 colleagues had plotted to undermine the Wilson government. Suddenly the possibility that the British establishment might conspire with its friends across the Atlantic to destabilise the elected government could no longer be dismissed as leftwing paranoia. From here.

I met Eva Gollinger for all of three minutes she wrote the book outlining evidence of US involvement in the 2002 Venezuelan coup 'The Chavez Code'....looks like they have another one planned for next weekend....look out for the media part, a wave of anti-chavista nonsense....those of us alive in the 1970s remember all the Tony Benn media nonsense, could he have been the British Hugo, the CIA would have shot him first and made it look like a moped accident.



CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela
November 28th 2007, by Eva Golinger

Image:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/files/images/2007/11/chvezcnn_portada.jpg


An internal CIA memorandum has been obtained by
Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy in Caracas that reveals
a very sinister - almost fantastical, were it not true - plan to
destabilize Venezuela during the coming days. The plan, titled "OPERATION
PLIERS" was authored by CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was
addressed to CIA Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is
stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a Regional
Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated November 20, 2007,
references the "Advances of the Final Stage of Operation Pliers", and
confirms that the operation is coordinated by the team of Human
Intelligence (HUMINT) in Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different
scenarios that the CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming
referendum vote on December 2nd. The Electoral Scenario, as it's phrased,
confirms that the voting tendencies will not change substantially before
Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES) vote in favor of the
constitutional reform has an advantage of about 10-13 points over the NO
vote. The CIA estimates abstention around 60% and states in the memo that
this voting tendency is irreversible before the elections.

Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the public
relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been funding with more
than $8 million during the past month - funds that the CIA confirms are
transfered through the USAID contracted company, Development Alternatives,
Inc., which set up operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for
Transition Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and
political parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to these
propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS), that
include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent polls that show
the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote, which is false. The CIA
also confirms in the memo that it is working with international press
agencies to distort the data and information about the referendum, and
that it coordinates in Venezuela with a team of journalists and media
organized and directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico
Ravell.

CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden two
different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the referendum and
refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote wins. Though these
strategies appear contradictory, Steere claims that they must be
implemented together precisely to encourage activities that aim toward
impeding the referendum and at the same time prepare the conditions for a
rejection of the results.

How is this to be done?

In the memo, the CIA proposes the following tactics and actions:

* Take the streets and protest with violent, disruptive actions across
the nation
* Generate a climate of ungovernability
* Provoke a general uprising in a substantial part of the population
* Engage in a "plan to implode" the voting centers on election day by
encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN" in their centers to
agitate others
* Start to release data during the early hours of the afternoon on
Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of election
regulations)
* Coordinate these activities with Ravell & Globovision and
international press agencies
* Coordinate with ex-militar officers and coupsters Pena Esclusa and
Guyon Cellis - this will be done by the Military Attache for Defense
and Army at the US Embassy in Caracas, Office of Defense, Attack and
Operations (DAO)

To encourage rejection of the results, the CIA proposes:

* Creating an acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote will
win for sure
* Using polling companies contracted by the CIA
* Criticize and discredit the National Elections Council
* Generate a sensation of fraud
* Use a team of experts from the universities that will talk about how
the data from the Electoral Registry has been manipulated and will
build distrust in the voting system

The CIA memo also talks about:

* Isolating Chavez in the international community
* Trying to achieve unity amongst the opposition
* Seek an aliance between those abstentionists and those who will vote
"NO"
* Sustain firmly the propaganda against Chavez
* Execute military actions to support the opposition mobilizations and
propagandistic occupations
* Finalize the operative preparations on the US military bases in
Curacao and Colombia to provide support to actions in Venezuela
* Control a part of the country during the next 72-120 hours
* Encourage a military rebellion inside the National Guard forces and
other components

Those involved in these actions as detailed in the CIA memo are:

* The CIA Office in Venezuela - Office of Regional Affairs, and
Officer Michael Steere
* US Embassy in Venezuela, Ambassador Patrick Duddy
* Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO) at the US Embassy in
Caracas and Military Attache Richard Nazario

Venezuelan Political Parties:

* Comando Nacional de la Resistencia
* Accion Democratica
* Primero Justicia
* Bandera Roja

Media:

* Alberto Federico Ravell & Globovision
* Interamerican Press Society (IAPA) or SIP in Spanish
* International Press Agencies

Venezuelans:

* Pena Esclusa
* Guyon Cellis
* Dean of the Simon Bolivar University, Rudolph Benjamin Podolski
* Dean of the Andres Bello Catholic University, Ugalde
* Students: Yon Goicochea, Juan Mejias, Ronel Gaglio, Gabriel Gallo,
Ricardo Sanchez

Operation Tenaza has the objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in
Venezuela against the government of President Chavez that will justify an
intervention of US forces, stationed on the military bases nearby in
Curacao and Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code: as
Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia, where the US has
operative, active and equipped bases that have been reinforced over the
past year and a half in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.

The document confirms that psychological operations are the CIA's best and
most effective weapon to date against Venezuela, and it will continue its
efforts to influence international public opinion regarding President
Chavez and the situation in the country.



For the full text in Spanish, see:
http://www.aporrea.org/tiburon/n105390.html