The Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry Monday issued a communique expressing that “the government of the United States climbs to new heights of cynicism and shamelessness, when it tries to tie Venezuela to its particular vision of international terrorism.”

In this way, the Venezuelan Chancellery reacted to the US move to ban the sales of weapons to Venezuela for considering that Hugo Chàvez Government is not “cooperating enough” to fight terrorism.

“Behind its despicable accusations is a useless campaign of shame designed to isolate Venezuela, destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for an attack,” said the communique.

The Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry ensured that, among other plans, Washington intends to handicap Venezuelan defenses. “There is too much clarity to obscure it with accusations and shameless acts,” the document added.

“We ratify that Venezuela will not succumb to pressures. It will firmly resist the attacks of this nature and counsels not to confuse the cowardly and opportunistic expressions of some, with the will of the people. This is an error that they have committed recently with other people that pay dearly with their dignity, but who also must pay with the price of aggression.”

The communique stressed that Venezuela “not hesitate to close its fist to respond to aggression, verbal as well as material, as undertaken by an immoral government with an aggressive nature.”

“If not ‘collaborating’ means not supporting the virtual genocide that it (US) practices against the Iraqi people and failing to condemn it with all one’s might before all the possible forums, then under no concept or pretext Venezuela is not willing to ‘collaborate.'”
eluniversal.com

Welcome to London, President Chavez!
President Hugo Ch‡vez of Venezuela will today become the second head of state–after the Queen–to be welcomed to London’s City Hall. When it comes to the social transformation taking place in Venezuela, the political qualifications often necessary in our imperfect world can be set aside. It is crystal clear on which side right and justice lies. For many years people have demanded that social progress and democracy go hand in hand, and that is exactly what is now taking place in Venezuela.

Pentagon covert ops have left the CIA in the dust for some time. ‘The Defense Department is building up an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organizations are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised,’ William Arkin wrote for the Los Angeles Times in 2002. ‘The increasingly dominant role of the military, Pentagon officials say, reflects frustration at the highest levels of government with the performance of the intelligence community, law enforcement agencies and much of the burgeoning homeland security apparatus. It also reflects the desire of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to gain greater overall control of the war on terror’. Insulated from outside pressures, armed with matchless weapons and technology, trained to operate below the shadow line, the Pentagon’s black world of classified operations holds out the hope of swift, decisive action in a struggle against terrorism that often looks more like a family feud than a war.
kurtnimmo.com

Between about 40,000 and 100,000 civilian deaths have resulted so far from our war in Iraq and its inevitable aftermath. Blair and Bush justify these deaths. They do so partly by the line of thinking that these deaths were not intended by them or our men. They did not intend to kill innocent people. They would have chosen to avoid it if this had been possible consistently with their goal.

This claim of rightness is moral nonsense. It is worse than that. It is moral viciousness.
counterpunch.org

…The main plan calls for a rolling, five-day bombing campaign against 400 key targets in Iran, including 24 nuclear-related sites, 14 military airfields and radar installations, and Revolutionary Guard headquarters.

At least 75 targets in underground complexes would be attacked with waves of bunker-buster bombs.

Iranian radar networks and air defence bases would be struck by submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles and then kept out of action by carrier aircraft flying from warships in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf.
theherald.co.uk

…Russia has opted for democracy. There are no serious indications that it will deviate from this strategic direction. But the purely Russian nuances, such as stronger statehood or tougher morality will manifest themselves with time. Finally, as any sovereign state, Russia will be defending its interests in the world arena – the stronger the country, the tougher its policy. There is nothing to be scared of. But it would be logical to expect Russia after some time to have strategic interests near U.S. borders. After all, doesn’t Ms. Rice talk today about U.S. strategic interests at the Russian borders? The U.S. is certainly right about globalization.
en.rian.ru

MOSCOW, May 10 (RIA Novosti) – President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that a ruble-denominated oil and natural gas stock exchange should be set up in Russia.

Speaking before both chambers of parliament, cabinet members, and reporters, Putin said: “The ruble must become a more widespread means of international transactions. To this end, we need to open a stock exchange in Russia to trade in oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for with rubles.”

“Our goods are traded on global markets. Why are not they traded in Russia?” Putin said.
en.rian.ru

Iran to require oil payments in euros
TEHRAN, May 15 (UPI) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Friday that in July Iran will abandon dollar payments for its oil and natural gas exports in favor of euros.

The move comes amid a standoff between Tehran and Washington over Iran’s nuclear fuel enrichment program. The Bush administration insists the program is cover for a nuclear weapons program, a charge that Iran denies.

All current international oil transactions on the New York Mercantile Exchange and London’s International Petroleum Exchange are priced in dollars.

Middleeastforex.com reported May 13 that Ahmadinejad announced the change Friday during a visit to Baku, Azerbaijan.

Many political observers see the decision as an attempt to pressure Washington, which is attempting to line up other U.N. Security Council members to act against Iran for its nuclear policies.

Iran has also proposed establishing a euro-based Iranian oil bourse to compete with NYMEX and the IPE. The proposal was first put forward in the beginning of the Third Development Plan (2000-2005), and began to receive serious attention in 2005.

Some observers speculate that the Iranian switch to euros could negatively affect the dollar, as many central banks from oil importing nations could choose to stock up their currency reserves with euros rather than dollars.

US asks Pak to abandon gas project with Iran
ISLAMABAD: The US has asked Pakistan to abandon the seven billion dollar gas pipeline planned to Pakistan and India ahead of next week’s visit by a high-level Iranian delegation, a newspaper reported on Monday.

“The US has asked Pakistan to distance itself from the pipeline, but the leadership is adamant in its refusal to the constant US demands,” The Nation quoted a senior government official as saying.

Iran and Pakistan have said the project would forge ahead despite US reservations. Pakistan said the project is vital to meet the country’s growing energy needs.

The Pentagon’s defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.

The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.

Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed “ludicrous”.

A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.

The new scheme is a brainwave of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technological superiority of the US military.
bbc.co.uk

Darpa’s Far-Out Dreams on Display
…Mighty Isis: Darpa wants to start planning for a blimp, three times the size of Goodyear’s, that would keep watch over an entire city.

Hovering 70,000 feet above ground, the ISIS (PDF) airship (short for Integrated Sensor Is Structure) would use a giant, flexible radar antenna to give, in the words of Darpa program manager Larry Correy, a “dynamic, detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield: friendly, neutral or enemy.”

“We will apply this technology to track people emerging from buildings of interest and follow them as they move to new locations,” said Darpa’s Paul Benda. “Imagine the impact it will have if ISIS tracks the movement of individuals for months. Hidden webs of connections between people and facilities will be revealed.”

Such a system is meant to keep tabs on urban combat zones — abroad, of course. But there’s no reason ISIS couldn’t float over New York or Chicago or Kalamazoo.

US pharmaceutical companies have long known that the potential market for their products is limited by the finite number of sick people; so they have turned to the healthy for further expansion of their markets, using exploitative, fear-inducing advertising techniques.
mondediplo.com

…I just got back from meeting with Chavez, as you know, and you showed our interview a few weeks ago. He’s offered the U.S. $50-a-barrel oil. That’s a third off of what we’re paying right now. Now, you would think our president would be down in Caracas kissing Hugo Chavez’s behind and saying, ‘Thank you, thank you for dropping the price of oil by a third, and let’s make a deal,’ because Chavez wants a deal.

But he’s not doing that, our president, even though the high prices are costing about a million jobs right now. And the reason he’s not is that what Chavez will not do is that Chavez will not return the money. It’s not about petroleum, it’s about petrodollars, as I explain in the book. In other words, when George Bush rides around King Abdullah in his little golf cart on the Crawford ranch, he’s not trying to get Abdullah’s oil. Abdullah can’t drink the stuff. He’s got to sell it to us and Japan. But Abdullah takes the money back from the — when you fill up your SUV, you give your money to Saudi Arabia, the big oil companies, Saudi Arabia. But then he returns it the form of petrodollars, and that is what is funding George Bush’s mad spending spree.

We have a president who has racked up $2 trillion in extra debt, you know, stone sober, apparently. And someone’s got to pay for that. And basically we’re paying for it by effectively an oil tax, which is returned to us, because the Gulf states and our other trading partners are now buying up $2 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds and debt. So, in other words, they’re recycling the money back and paying for George Bush’s spending spree on ending inheritance taxes, you know, several wars, etc.

Now, Hugo Chavez says, ‘I’ll give you cheap oil, not only to the poor, but to everyone. But I’m not giving you back the money. That money is going to stay in Latin America to build our nations.’ And he just withdrew $20 billion out of the U.S. Federal Reserve. You have to understand, this is a punch in the face of the U.S. administration, far more than withholding oil, withholding and withdrawing petrodollars, as I explain in the book, and that’s why you have that little nice floater from — balloon thrown out by Reverend Robertson, Pat Robertson, saying ‘Hugo Chavez thinks we’re trying to assassinate him, and I think we ought to just go and do it,’ because they have got to get that — it’s not that they need that oil, they need that oil money. And if they can’t get it, they have to eliminate Hugo Chavez.
democracynow.org

Venezuelan President promises fuel to the needy and proclaims ‘final days of the North American empire’ before visit to Britain today.

Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez arrives in London today with an extraordinary promise to offer cut-rate heating oil for needy families in Europe, modelled on a similar campaign in the US which has been seen partly as a bid to embarrass President George Bush.
Last night Chavez also issued a taunting obituary for the ‘American empire’ on the eve of a visit where he will be shunned by Downing Street but welcomed by London Mayor Ken Livingststone.

Chavez said in Vienna yesterday that the ‘final hours of the North American empire have arrived … Now we have to say to the empire: “We’re not afraid of you. You’re a paper tiger.”
guardian.co.uk