Tuesday, May 16, 2006

American insanity; Cowardly Democrats. Bush-Cheney CHUMMY with terrorist DICTATOR Qadafi; but paint duly elected Venezuela president as "enemy"

American insanity; Cowardly Democrats. Bush-Cheney CHUMMY with terrorist Libya DICTATOR Momar Qadafi; but they paint duly Elected Venezuela president as a 'terrorist sympathizer."

Of course, the all-important question is, "What does the Lieberman-Sulzberger-AIPAC wing of the Dem. Party feel about casting Momar Qadafi as a good-guy?" For, the Lord knows, the Democrats dare not do anything without the approval and props of the AIPAC/neo-con wing of the party.

For those who wonder, the usual rule of thumb is, "You can predict where the AIPAC lobby is, and hence the Democrat Party, based on the bigger opponent AIPAC can get Uncle Sam to face off against." Thus, Libya and Qadafi being "small potatoes" compared to Iraq and Iran, the AIPAC lobby, and hence the Democrat Party, are "OK" with Vice President Cheney, Pres. Bush, and the neo-con AEI lobby (et al) with casting Qadafi as a "good guy," and Chavez as "THE ENEMY."

With Dr. Kissinger and the Democrat Party's blessings, LET US BRING AMERICAN DEATH SQUADS BACK to South America!


U.S. to Restore Diplomatic Ties With Libya
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer Mon May 15, 7:58 PM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060515/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_libya

WASHINGTON - The United States will restore full diplomatic relations with Libya and remove it from a list of terrorism sponsors, the Bush administration said Monday, rewarding Moammar Gadhafi's government for renouncing weapons of mass destruction and cooperating in the hunt for terrorists.
 

"Today's announcements are tangible results that flow from the historic decisions taken by Libya's leadership" to renounce terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in announcing moves long sought by Libya.

While announcing expanding ties to one oil exporter, the United States clamped down on another. The State Department announced later that it is banning arms sales to Venezuela because of what it says is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez's government for counterterrorism.

The announcements came as the West grasps for carrots or sticks to counter what it claims is a growing risk of nuclear proliferation in Iran. Although the United States is not now dangling the promise of normal diplomatic relations with Iran, it pointed to Libya's decision as an international example.

"The United States hopes that states with even more threatening WMD and missile programs will see Libya's experience as a model to emulate," a State Department fact sheet on the Libya deal said.

By taking Libya off the terrorism sponsorship list, the Bush administration clears the way for broader economic ties with the oil-producing nation during a period of record-high gasoline prices in the United States.

Assistant Secretary of State David Welch said a search for oil was not behind the decision, and noted that U.S. companies have been able to operate in Libya since some sanctions were lifted in 2004.

"This decision is undertaken because they've addressed our national security concerns," Welch said.

The United States withdrew its last ambassador to Libya in 1972. Remaining U.S. employees pulled out and the Tripoli embassy was shut down after a mob attacked and set fire to it in December 1979.

The relationship hit its nadir following the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Libya was held responsible for the bombing, which killed 270 people, most of them American.

Libya was also implicated in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin nightclub frequented by U.S. soldiers, killing two Americans, and the bombing of a French airliner in 1989 that killed 170.

Gadhafi surprised the world in late 2003 when he swore off terrorism and announced plans to dismantle his country's weapons of mass destruction programs. Libya was eager to end the international isolation and economic hardships from United Nations and U.S. sanctions in the Pan Am case, and Gadhafi concluded the weapons programs were best used as a bargaining chip.

The United States will upgrade its diplomatic office in Tripoli to a full embassy, following a 15-day waiting period and discussions with Congress, the State Department said. Libya would be removed from the list of countries the United States considers to be state sponsors of terrorism following a 45-day public comment period.

Libya will also be omitted from a list released later this week of nations that fail to cooperate with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, Rice said.

The State Department praised Libya's cooperation in getting rid of its weapons, and in helping the United States in the search for al-Qaida and other terror suspects in the Middle East and North Africa.

"This was not a decision that we arrived at without carefully monitoring and assessing Libya's behavior," Welch told reporters.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Shalgham told The Associated Press the move was not a surprise. The United States had said it planned to restore full diplomatic relations by the end of last year, but the announcement was held up by a last round of checks of Libya's compliance, officials said.

"In politics there is no such thing as a reward but there are interests," Shalgham said when asked if the restoration of ties was an incentive to Libya to further cooperate with the United States.

Families of the Pan Am victims have sometimes disagreed with U.S. policy on Libya, and with one another. With a few exceptions, victims' families accepted terms of a financial settlement reached with Libya after it took responsibility for the Pan Am bombing in 2003. Families have received more than $1 billion.

Libya had agreed to pay an additional $2 million per family upon its removal from the terrorism list, but it is not clear whether Tripoli will be bound to that pledge because it was hinged to a deadline that the United States missed.

"We have mixed emotions because there has been real progress, but as of today Libya has not fully lived up to its commitments to the United States and the victims of terrorism," a statement on behalf of most families of Pan Am 103 victims said Monday.

Libya remains a largely autocratic state with limited personal and press freedoms.

"Libyan citizens are still not able to influence politics or the political process in any meaningful way, and the state demands total conformity," a Freedom House report said last year.

In Venezuela, there has been a nearly total lack of cooperation with anti-terrorism for the last year, the State Department 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 be banned.

Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, far ahead of Libya at No. 21, but 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.

Just last month, the State Department used its annual report on international terrorism to accuse 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.

___

On the Net:

State Department fact sheet on Libya and WMD:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/66245.htm

U.S. Energy Information Administration ranking of international oil exporters:

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/dnav/pet/pet_move_impcus_a2_nus_epc0_im0_mbblpd_m.h
===============================================

U.S. Orders Ban of Arms Sales to Venezuela
By GEORGE GEDDA Associated Press Writer
May 15, 2006, 10:33PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3865753.html

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is banning arms sales from the U.S. to Venezuela, America's fifth-largest source for oil imports, because of what it says is a lack of support by President Hugo Chavez's government for counterterrorism activities.

The U.S. action signals a further deterioration in relations with Venezuela, though Chavez shrugged it off and said he did not plan retaliation. The U.S. sold Venezuela less than $34 million worth of military equipment last year, a relatively tiny amount, mostly for spare parts for cargo planes.


State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday the United States was concerned about Venezuela's close relations with Iran and Cuba, both of which are on the department's list of state sponsors of terror.

"If you have a reasonable or rational expectation that somehow information that you share with them might make its way to just the groups that you're trying to combat, that's certainly negative," McCormack said.

He said the United States is also concerned about Venezuela's ties with two leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Both have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the United States.

Chavez, on a visit to London, dismissed the U.S. move as irrelevant. "This doesn't matter to us at all," he told The Associated Press. He pledged efforts to find a solution to the problem.

Labeling the United States an "irrational empire," Chavez said it has a "great capacity to do harm to the countries of the world." Chavez previously has called President Bush a terrorist and has accused the United States of plotting to overthrow him.

Earlier, at a London news conference, 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 have nuclear energy," he said.

The arms sale ban affects U.S. sales and licensing for the export of defense articles and services to Venezuela, including the transfer of defense items, said Darla Jordan, a State Department spokeswoman.

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.

John Pike, director of the defense think tank globalsecurity.org of Alexandria, Va., said the primary impact of the new U.S. ban would be in cutting off spare parts for Venezuela's American-made aircraft, which include F-5 Freedom Fighters, F-16 Falcons, cargo planes and helicopters.

Venezuela's air force has 277 aircraft, of which 177 are U.S.-made, he said. There also are significant numbers of U.S.-made aircraft in Venezuela's army and navy, he said, adding that navy aircraft are almost entirely U.S.-made.

"It would ground a significant fraction of their air force," Pike said.

The State Department has expressed concern in the past about what it contends is an arms buildup by Venezuela, including the purchase of 100,000 rifles from Russia.

The department took note Monday Venezuela's "multibillion-dollar arms acquisition program."

Venezuela has accused the United States of pursuing a double standard on the terrorism issue. It points to the U.S. refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, who is wanted in Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane.

Posada, an anti-Castro Cuban, has denied involvement in the bombing, which killed 73 people. He has been detained for the past year in Texas for illegally entering the country.

Thomas Shannon, who heads the State Department's Latin America bureau, said the administration had concluded that it could not tell Congress that Venezuela was cooperating in counterterrorism activities in any meaningful way.

"This was a step we took with great reluctance," Shannon said in response to a question during an appearance at George Washington University.

He also noted that the administration already had "decertified" Venezuela for lack of cooperation in combating drug trafficking. "We are now at the same point concerning terrorism," Shannon said.

Antoine Halff, an oil analyst at Fimat USA in New York, said it was too soon to determine how the oil market would react, though he anticipated a possible short-term increase in oil prices. He added that the U.S. has ample supplies right now and that any potential retaliatory action by Venezuela would be tempered by the fact that global demand appears to be weakening.

Indeed, crude-oil futures declined more than 3 percent Monday, falling below $70 a barrel, amid signs that high prices were slowing consumption in the United States.

___

AP Diplomatic Writer Barry Schweid and AP Business Writer Brad Foss contributed to this story.

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