Venezuela Rejects Iraqi Presence at OPEC

yahoo.comnews ^ | July 26, 2003 | AP Business

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela, which opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, won't recognize Iraq's delegation to an Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting July 31, the oil minister said Friday.

Rafael Ramirez said no Iraqi official would be allowed to attend any OPEC meeting until an "internationally recognized" government is in place.

"They can't attend the OPEC meeting," he said. "Perhaps some Arab states might meet with them informally."

Venezuela is the world's No. 5 oil producer. President Hugo Chavez's government condemned the U.S. invasion against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"There will be no official contact between Venezuela and Iraq," Ramirez said.

Representatives from OPEC nations were to discuss global oil markets at the Vienna meeting and consider possible adjustments to current production levels of 25.4 million barrels per day.

Ramirez said that world oil supply and demand are balanced. "We are in equilibrium," he said.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chavez prefers dictators.

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Wall Street Journal July 25, 2003 - Flying Too High, Venezuela Shops for MiGs*** As to the letter, Mr. Santos seems to have been on solid ground. Colombian security analyst Alfredo Rangel Suárez tells me he has seen the text and in a column last week in Colombia's El Tiempo, he described its contents. Contrary to Mr. Santiago's claims, it was not a casual inquiry.

"The request from Venezuela to the Russian factory is very specific: Fifty combat aircraft, with multifunctional Zhuk-M liquid crystal 6X8 inch radar, with navigation and weapons control systems that insure the use of six types of air-to-air missiles, three classes of guided air-to-surface missiles, in addition to bombs and 30 caliber guns," wrote Mr. Rangel Suárez. "Additionally, it asks that ten of the planes be delivered within 18 months of the contract signing and also that it include a tailor-made maintenance center for MiGs in Venezuela." The letter was sent to the director general of Russian MiG Aeronautic Corporation, Nicolai Nikitin and signed by Venezuelan Air Force commander Régulo Anselmi, according to an El Tiempo report.***

Chavez Plans for Terrorist Regime***During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, now is the effective head of the army.

Possibly thousands of Arab terrorists as well as Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards, some of whom can't even sing the words to the Venezuelan national anthem. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.

"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Ferreira tells Insight, claiming that Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Chavez gave instructions to destroy records on 10 suspected Hezbollah fund-raisers conducting suspicious financial transactions in the islands of Margarita, Aruba and Curaçao, and the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, according to Ferreira. The Venezuelan president also dissolved key military counterterrorist units by firing 16 highly experienced, U.S.-trained intelligence officers at the time of the terrorist plane attacks in New York City and Washington. Circulos Bolivarianos leader Lina Ron celebrated the event by burning an American flag in the center of Caracas. ***

[dedicated]

chavez and castro should be added to the axis of evil...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Decembe2 29, 2000 - Fidel, Saddam and Hugo --An improbable but growing friendship of three military revolutionaries***Mr. Chávez is the most intriguing new leader to emerge in Latin America since Mr. Castro - and he is the lynchpin between Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam. Although Cuba had been sending doctors and health workers to Iraq for years, there had not been any major contacts between the two countries until Mr. Chávez appeared on the scene. This fall, Mr. Chávez became the first democratically elected foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the Gulf War, ostensibly to invite Mr. Saddam to a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But it also was an in-your face gesture toward the United States.***

[Diogenesis]

"This just in. Venezuela' Lenin Ramirez Sanchez, electrical engineer from the Central University of Venezuela,
and brother of "Carlos the Jackal", is director of the oil ministry.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Carlos and Osama Jackal book hails militant Islam as the new 'revolution' ***Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez, praises Osama Bin Laden's "shining" example in a selection of writings from his prison cell in France which went on sale on Thursday.***

November 2001 - Remember, a name is for life ***Some years ago, a Venezuelan lawyer with Marxist sympathies named his three sons Vladimir, Illich and Lenin. Well, if revolutionaries were what he wanted, he certainly got his wish with one: Illich Ramirez Sanchez grew up to be the international terrorist better known as Carlos the Jackal. Who knows what effect being named after a Russian Bolshevik had on the boy? Let's hope that baby Osama doesn't feel he's got something to live up to. ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

'Jackal' book praises Bin Laden*** One of the world's best-known terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s has written a book lauding the man suspected of masterminding the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States.

Carlos the Jackal, whose real name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez, praises Osama Bin Laden's "shining" example in a selection of writings from his prison cell in France which went on sale on Thursday.

A convert to Islam since his imprisonment for three murders, Sanchez preaches "revolutionary Islam" - which is the title of his book - as the new, post-Communist answer to what he calls US "totalitarianism".

The book, excerpts of which have been published by Le Monde newspaper, has also raised questions over how it could have seen the light of day as the French prison system is supposed to strictly control all correspondence between inmates and the outside world.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[hchutch]

FYI ping.

Chavez needs to get capped.

[wayoverontheright]

This is a mistake. If OPEC can't control the burgeoninig quantity of Iraqi crude, they might as well sell the building in Vienna.

Along with Russia's refusal to come to the table, Iraqi oil will suffice to bust the cartel IMHO.

[SpinyNorman]

No problem. I am sure we could find something to do with all that Iraqi oil. Maybe use it to replace our dependence on Venezuelan oil? You know, the "reliable" oil "producer" that left us high and dry last winter?

I second the vote on "two in the hat" for Hugo.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

This could begin the break up of OPEC.
Once Chavez is booted out the door, Venezuela can follow suit.