The Globe and Mail has an interesting story on Rev. Pat Robertson’s call for the assissination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which includes statements from US government officials “distancing” themselves from Robertson’s “doctrine of assassination.”
The self same government responsible for the 1963 slaying of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and several attempts to kill Fidel Castro. In 2001, George W. Bush gave the CIA an explicit go-ahead to carry out covert missions to assassinate Osama bin Laden and his supporters around the world, effectively lifting a 25-year ban on such activities. (See the list below of US-back assassination plots since World War II.)
According to some reports, the US government which was closely involved the failed coup in Venezuela last year had plans “neutralize” Chavez if he was reelected (which he was, of course).
Oh, but now the US has Executive Order 12333, which says “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” So I guess Hugo doesn’t have to worry about the toxin-spiked cigars, exploding conch shells, even a wet suit slathered with fungus spores, all of which the US government tried to use against Chavez’s buddy Fidel.
The most hilarious response was from war criminal and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: “Our department doesn’t do that kind of thing, it’s against the law.” I guess Rummy draws the line at the torture of prisoners, killing of civilians, and leading illegal wars.
The most stupid response to the affair had be from Senator Richard Lugar, who accused Chavez of creating the network to spread his left-wing message across the continent. Duh!
In response to Robertson’s rant, Hugo, said, “I don’t even know who this person is.”
Chavez then offered to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline. “We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States,” he told reporters at the end of his Cuba visit.
The Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA owns Citgo, which has 14,000 gas stations in the United States.
Just for the record, here’s a list of prominent foreign individuals whose assassination (or planning for same) the United States has been involved in since the end of the Second World War. The list does not include several assassinations in various parts of the world carried out by anti-Castro Cubans employed by the CIA and headquartered in the United States. (Source: <a href=”http://www.powells.com/biblio/72-1567512534-0″Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum.)
- 1949 – Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
1950s – CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of more than 200 political figures in West Germany
to be “put out of the way” in the event of a Soviet invasion
1950s – Chou En-lai, Prime minister of China, several attempts on his life
1950s, 1962 – Sukarno, President of Indonesia
1951 – Kim Il Sung, Premier of North Korea
1953 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
1950s (mid) – Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader
1955 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
1957 – Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
1959, 1963, 1969 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
1960 – Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
1950s-70s – José Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life
1961 – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, leader of Haiti
1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
1961 – Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
1960s-70s – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, many attempts on his life
1960s – Raúl Castro, high official in government of Cuba
1965 – Francisco Caamaño, Dominican Republic opposition leader
1965-6 – Charles de Gaulle, President of France
1967 – Che Guevara, Cuban leader
1970 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile
1970 – Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
1970s, 1981 – General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
1972 – General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence
1975 – Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
1976 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica
1980-1986 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life
1982 – Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran
1983 – Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan Army commander
1983 – Miguel d’Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
1984 – The nine comandantes of the Sandinista National Directorate
1985 – Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)
1991 – Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
1993 – Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader of Somalia
1998, 2001-2 – Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
1999 – Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
2002 – Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Islamic leader and warlord
2003 – Saddam Hussein and his two sons
2005 – Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela (?)
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