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  • U.S. bans weapons sales to Venezuela

    U.S. bans weapons sales to Venezuela
    Listed as ‘country of concern’ on terrorism; Chavez earlier ripped U.S.

    MSNBC News Services
    Updated: 3:00 p.m. ET May 15, 2006
    WASHINGTON - The United States is imposing a ban on weapons sales to Venezuela because of what it claims is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez’s leftist government on counterterrorism efforts, the State Department said Monday.

    The Bush administration will also list Venezuela — the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States — as a “country of concern” in the war on terrorism, an official told NBC News, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    The label is not as severe as being listed as a “state sponsor of terror,” but it reflects what the State Department reported in April about Venezuela in its annual terror report.

    “Venezuelan cooperation in the international campaign against terrorism remained negligible,” the report said. “President Hugo Chavez persisted in public criticism of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, publicly championed Iraqi terrorists (and) deepened Venezuelan collaboration with such state sponsors of terrorism as Cuba and Iran.”

    The report also accused Chavez of having an “ideological affinity” with two leftist guerrilla groups operating in neighboring Colombia, the FARC and the National Liberation Army. The United States considers both to be terrorist organizations.

    ‘ Doesn't matter to us’
    Chavez brushed aside the arms ban, saying “this doesn’t matter to us at all.”

    The Venezuelan leader, on a visit to London, also said his government would not respond with punitive measures such as travel restrictions.

    “It’s the empire and it has a great capacity to do harm to the countries of the world,” he said, referring to the U.S. as “irrational."

    For almost a year, there has been a nearly total lack of cooperation with anti-terrorism, State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan said. As a result, U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, will not be permitted, she said.

    War of words
    Relations between Chavez and the Bush administration have sharply deteriorated. Chavez has called Bush a “terrorist,” and denounced the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

    Earlier Monday, Chavez rejected U.S. claims that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing a nuclear bomb. “I don’t believe that the United States or anyone else has the right ... to prohibit that a country has nuclear energy,” he said at a news conference in London.

    Chavez, an ally of Cuba’s Fidel Castro, has repeatedly accused the United States of trying to overthrow him to seize his country’s vast oil reserves. U.S. officials have denied that and accused him being a threat to democracies in the region.

    ‘Final hours of the North American empire’
    Chavez counters that the United States is the country to be wary of.

    In a two-hour speech Saturday while in Vienna, Austria, for a summit on Latin America, Chavez said that the “final hours of the North American empire have arrived.”

    “So now we have to say to the empire: ‘We’re not afraid of you. You’re a paper tiger,’” he said.

    The U.S. sanctions came the same day that the Bush administration said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Libya, whose president, Moammar Gadhafi, had once been vilified by the United States.

    Coincidentally, Chavez and Gadhafi will be meeting in Tripoli on Tuesday.

    Gadhafi, whose country is a major oil producer like Venezuela, has in recent years toned down fiery anti-American rhetoric and opened its industry to Western investment. Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, has by contrast led a campaign to tighten state control over his nation's energy sector.

    ‘No oil’ if U.S. attacks
    Venezuela is the world’s No. 5 oil exporter and relies on crude sales for about half of state revenues. High oil prices have helped Chavez pour billions into projects for the poor as part of his proclaimed socialist revolution.

    Chavez has said Venezuela will continue exporting petroleum to U.S. ports, “unless they attack us, in which case there will be no oil.”

    But he is also looking to diversify away from the United States as he seeks to increase oil exports to Latin America, the Caribbean and energy-hungry China.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12801930/
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Venezuela Weighs Selling U.S. Jets to Iran

    CARACAS, Venezuela

    Venezuela is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, perhaps Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government, a military official said Tuesday.

    Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior adviser to Chavez, told The Associated Press he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country.

    Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes."

    Even before the U.S. announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16s.

    Chavez has previously warned he could share the U.S. jets with Cuba if Washington does not supply parts for the planes. He also has said he may look into buying fighter jets from Russia or China instead.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by troung
      Chavez has said Venezuela will continue exporting petroleum to U.S. ports, “unless they attack us, in which case there will be no oil.”
      One of his most brilliant statements.

      Here and I thought that even as USN fighter-bombers were roaring over Venezuelan army bases and the LCACs and LCUs were inbound to the beaches, there would still be oil tankers cheerfully filling up at their terminals and heading for the United States.

      Oh wait, that's after the invasion.
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • #4
        Venezuela Charges U.S. Blocking Arms Sales Is Meant to Weaken Country in Preparation for Attack

        By FABIOLA SANCHEZ


        CARACAS, Venezuela May 16, 2006 (AP)— Venezuela charged Tuesday that a U.S. decision to block arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government was meant to weaken it in preparation for an attack.
        The Foreign Ministry rejected Washington's explanation of the decision; that the Chavez government was failing to support counterterrorism activities.
        The State Department on Monday cited Venezuela's close relations with Iran and Cuba, both of which are on the department's list of state sponsors of terror.
        It also expressed concern about ties between Venezuela the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the United States and two leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia.
        "These despicable accusations are based on a futile campaign to discredit and isolate Venezuela, to destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for an attack," the ministry said in a statement early Tuesday. "They want to put Venezuela under conditions so it's incapable of defending itself."
        Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said Monday that the allegations were "oft-repeated but never demonstrated" by Washington.
        Chavez has called President Bush a terrorist and often accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him charges denied by U.S. officials, who call the Venezuelan leader a destabilizing influence in the region.
        The State Department has objected to Venezuelan arms deals involving equipment incorporating U.S.-made components, and it has tried to block Venezuela's purchase of 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia.
        Venezuela says such purchases are meant solely for self-defense.
        State Department figures show Venezuelan purchases of U.S. defense equipment in 2005 came to $33.9 million, of which $30.5 million was for C-130 cargo plane spare parts. It was not clear whether such purchases will be barred under the new rules.
        The U.S. action signaled further deterioration in relations with Venezuela. The Bush administration has already "decertified" Venezuela for alleged lack of cooperation in combating drug trafficking.

        Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

        http://abcnews.go.com/International/...ory?id=1967827



        Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez prepares to deliver his address to business leaders, academics and diplomats at Banqueting House in London, Monday May 15, 2006. Chavez on Monday brushed aside America's suspension of arms sales to his country, saying "this doesn't matter to us at all." The U.S. on Monday announced it was imposing a ban on arms sales to Venezuela because of what it claims is a lack of support by Chavez's government for counter terrorism efforts, State Department officials said. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
        To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

        Comment


        • #5
          Does this clown ever learn?

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Wraith601
            Does this clown ever learn?
            Sadly...No!
            When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin

            Comment


            • #7
              Wow, chavez is like Fidel Castro....ON STEROIDS!

              btw, wats the deal with Chavez and American oil companies? i dont know too much about the topic, but did Chavez throw out American oil companies from his oil fields? wats the deal?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by troung
                Venezuela Weighs Selling U.S. Jets to Iran

                CARACAS, Venezuela

                Venezuela is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, perhaps Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government, a military official said Tuesday.

                Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior adviser to Chavez, told The Associated Press he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country.

                Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes."

                Even before the U.S. announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16s.

                Chavez has previously warned he could share the U.S. jets with Cuba if Washington does not supply parts for the planes. He also has said he may look into buying fighter jets from Russia or China instead.
                And what will Iran or China do with F-16's that they cannot either reverse engineer or get spares for? This Chavez is an idiot and the fact that he is popular inhis country reflects the IQ of his people

                Comment


                • #9
                  I'm usually distrustful of Strategypage after a few people here pointed out it's...um, limitations.
                  But I thought this was a fairly decent article...by Strategypage standards:


                  May 17, 2006: The threat by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez selling 21 of Venezuela's F-16 fighters to Iran, has gained press attention. However, this is a threat that is largely empty in terms of potential harm to the United States.

                  The F-16s in question were acquired in 1983 and 1984, and are technically the F-16A/B Block 15 (F-16s currently in service with the US Air Force are F-16C/D Block 50s, with the F-16E/F Block 60 being built for the UAE). The planes in question are twenty years old – and for the F-16, that is very old indeed. These aircraft are not equipped with the latest radars, air-to-air missiles, or jammers. And, in the eight years since Chavez took power, they have not been getting much in the way of logistics thanks to the freeze in relations (upsetting the country which makes the spare parts for your combat aircraft is not a good idea).

                  That said, Chavez's threat to sell them to Iran is meant to generate headlines, and to symbolically hurt the United States. But this move, while it would violate various export agreements, really will not hurt the United States militarily, even if Iran were to get all 21 of these F-16s. The planes would be going from a country with very limited logistical support ability for the F-16 (Venezuela) to one with practically no ability to support F-16A operations at all.

                  For instance, none of Iran's planes currently in service use the Pratt and Whitney F100 engine that the Venezuelan planes use. Nor does Iran have any aircraft that use the APG-66 radar on the F-16A. Iran could use rear-aspect Sidewinders from its F-5 force, along with 20mm cannon ammo from its force of F-4s, but when something on the airplane breaks, Iran will have to cannibalize, and that means that 21 F-16s will quickly drop to a much lower figure – as past experience with Iran's force of F-5s, F-4s, and F-14s has shown. Venezuela could send over what spare parts and missiles (including older all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinders), but the missiles will have a finite shelf life. Expired missiles are generally unhealthy for people who try to use them.

                  In other words, if Chavez is able to sell the planes to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime in Iran, he will have sold 21 planes which will rapidly become a world-class maintenance and logistical headache for their new owners. But they will not be Chavez's logistical headache, and he can use the proceeds from the sale to, at a minimum, defray the cost for new fighters from Russia or China. – Harold C. Hutchison ([email protected])
                  http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htp.../20060517.aspx
                  “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    if he 's willing to put these falcons on ebay, I might consider buying it :)

                    Comment

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