THE US NOW PLANNING A FOURTH ATTEMPT TO OUST HUGO CHAVEZ

by Stephen Lendman

This essay has a duel purpose. I began it initially to explain how sophisticated and effective the dominant corporate media is in programming the public mind to believe whatever message they deliver regardless of whether it’s true which it rarely is. I
chose the title Reeducation 101 - Defogging and
Reversing the Corporate Media’s Programming of the
Public Mind which I’m now using as the heading of my
introductory section. Along with that discussion, I
then planned a detailed case study example of how
they’re doing it by demonizing Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez Frias with a building and resonating
drumbeat of invective in advance of the US
government’s fourth attempt to oust him. That
discussion follows my introductory section.

REEDUCATION 101 - DEFOGGING AND REVERSING THE
CORPORATE MEDIA’S PROGRAMMING OF THE PUBLIC MIND

Does any reader of online progressive web sites still
watch, listen to or read anything from the corporate
media? If so, how do you stand it without having a
good supply of stomach soothers and strong headache
relief handy. I thought most everyone with enough
smarts and common sense understood that this
collective institutional juggernaut’s mission is to
sedate and seduce us - a sort of one, two punch. They
mostly do it with diverting and distracting
entertainment. Is that what it’s called? You ’coulda
fooled me with what’s on all my 300 + cable channels I
don’t watch except when I go to bed and need something
mind numbing to make me sleepy. The only reason I
have them all is I live in a building that subscribes
to the cable service, and everyone gets them, like it
or not.

Except for three classical music channels without talk
or commercials I love, everything in their lineup is a
vast wasteland, especially what passes for so-called
"news and information" by the on-air names you know
well and I needn’t list. They’re all an assault on
our sensibilities in their all out effort to fog our
minds with round the clock propaganda, lies,
distortion and sanitizing. What they do isn’t
journalism, it’s stenography. And what they don’t
report is usually more important than what they do.
They know, as does our government, that if all or
enough of us understood what’s really happening, not
the rot and mush they fill our heads with, there’d be
a revolution in the streets. How could the public
with full knowledge of what our government is up to
ever go along since all of it only benefits the rich
and powerful and does it at our expense.

The mind manipulation and thought control comes at us
from all directions in print and on the airwaves. In
the US (and really the world) the newspaper known as
the "Gray Lady" and referred to as "the newspaper of
record" leads the way - the New York Times. I call
them a US "Pravda." They’re the closest thing we have
in this country to an official ministry of information
and propaganda. They’ve been going at it for over 150
years, and nobody does it better or with more
influence. Remember Judith Miller and her daily WMD
scare reports.....straight from the White House and
Pentagon in final copy printable form. The Times
calls this "all the news that’s fit to print." You
don’t not want to hear what I call it, but this
newspaper has clout around the world. Whatever lead
stories they report get picked up and are spread
almost everywhere. Especially here on TV where the
state of our news, information and trumpeting punditry
assault our nerve endings. Those who run it and
report on it never met a piece of state propaganda
they didn’t love and want to tell us about ad nauseam
in between frequent 5 minute long commercial breaks
trying to sell us everything we don’t need and never
knew we wanted until they told us.

A noted US media critic once said about them "they
have everything to sell and nothing to tell." And I
heard noted British journalist Robert Fisk say on air
to an interviewer commenting on the dismal state of
our corporate media that "you really have a problem in
this country." He meant the dominant media is so
corrupted and complicit with US policies hostile to
the public interest and welfare here and abroad that
we have a desperate need for an effective antidote to
their poison. Amen.

There’s even a flood of material on TV called "video
news releases" or VNRs. Now get this. These are all
government agency produced propaganda releases or
corporate commercials disguised as real news - but
you’re not supposed to know it. What they all are is
"fake news." There’s a ton of this stuff all over the
airwaves. The TV networks and local stations love ’em
because they all come pre-packaged and free of charge,
saving all that production time and cost. Then
combine that with all the rest of TV news, information
and punditry and it’s enough to drive a teetotaler to
drink or worse. You have to get away from this stuff,
and I’ll tell you how. It’s not that hard - just turn
off your TV and cancel your corporate owned newspaper
and magazine subscriptions. Call a friend instead,
visit a neighbor, talk to your wife or husband, spend
time with your kids. You’ll discover a whole new
world. You may even get to love it. Also, spend more
time online in the right places, like the web site
you’re now reading this on, and start to read a little
– most important, the right things.

THE RIGHT PATH TO FOLLOW IS STRAIGHT AHEAD

My purpose in writing this column is to provide an
antidote to those of you still victimized by and under
the spell of the scourge of corporate media mind
control (too many I know). You’re in their prison of
your own mind. I’ve got the key, and if you want your
freedom back, follow me into the light of day and
fresh air with an unnamed case study example of one of
the victims who wrote to the editor of another noted
and superb web site I write commentaries for. The
editor asked me to respond, and I did. What follows
below is that response reworked to apply to all others
with similar views to the letter writer.

For those of you who want to come along and happen to
be ex-smokers like I am (for the last 31 years),
remember how much sweeter life became once you kicked
the habit and could go a whole day without coughing
and wheezing. And you no longer got short of breath
every time you walked up a flight of stairs either.
For me it was like being reborn. For the many of you
unafflicted by the poison of the media giants, read on
just for the fun of it. I’ll respond to my case study
victim and others like him and try to save them from
themselves. I’ll also cover what he addressed in his
letter response - what the US may be up to in the
ongoing very real soap opera pitting this country
against Hugo Chavez.

A CASE STUDY - I’LL CALL MY SUBJECT MR. X

This response is for Mr. X and all the others who
think like him. This man wrote a critical letter
about Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to the web site
editor I referred to above. In it he claimed he
hadn’t run across any reports about Chavez and
Venezuela for a long time, but then went on to label
him with a string of vicious and baseless epithets.
In my response to him, I asked where was he getting
his information other than from those reports he said
he hadn’t run across.

Of course, there’s been a steady drumbeat of
anti-Chavez rhetoric in the corporate media that even
includes language comparing him to Hitler. When you
hear that and lots more, you know things have gotten
very serious and likely to be followed by big time
mischief against the person named. I’ve quoted lots
of anti-Chavez invective in other articles I’ve
written from various high officials like Donald
Rumsfeld. Now there’s a credible source. Obviously
Mr. X is getting this propaganda message and believes
it. How else could he have become so opinionated
about the man. But like all other victims of mind
control he’s got it all disturbingly wrong. The truth
based on the facts, not propaganda and lies, is just
the opposite of what he believes and is spouting. I
suggested he listen up, and that truth really would
set him free and all others who think like him.

Mr. X then went on to say Venezuela is insignificant
to the US. I responded just like Iraq wasn’t and Iran
isn’t? What does he think they do there? Just
produce coffee and cocoa, have carnivals and hold
parades? I asked him if he couldn’t detect some
common denominator among these three countries? Not
that they’re all non-English-speaking, are located on
different continents from the US, are defenseless
against a large-scale US military assault, and pose no
military threat whatever to us or anyone else. All
that’s true I told him, and everyone with an unfogged
mind knows it. I then asked if I really needed to
spell out for him why they’re important to us - I mean
the most obvious reason (not the more complex ones) I
literally heard a 10 year old explain right before our
illegal aggression against Iraq — IT’S THE CRUDE
DUDE....O-I-L.....BLACK GOLD.....TEXAS "TEA".....THE
VITAL OXYGEN THAT KEEPS THE COUNTRY AND WORLD
RUNNING. Try driving to the market without it or
taking the bus to work. Or growing all the food we
eat either. These three countries are floating on an
ocean of it, were and are governed by leaders who
wouldn’t and won’t hand it all over to us so
voila....... public enemies 1, 2 and 3.

I then explained that based on the best available
estimates Venezuela ranks number one in the world in
total oil reserves even ahead of Saudi Arabia if their
extra-heavy reserves are added to their "light sweet"
or conventional ones. The latter are easily refined
while the former must be substantially upgraded before
refining is possible. If both types are counted, the
best estimates of total oil reserves in the world are:
Venezuela - about 350 billion barrels (by some
estimates it’s much higher than that), Saudi Arabia -
262 billion, Canada - 179 billion (mostly
extra-heavy), Iran - 126 billion (all "light sweet")
and Iraq - 115 billion (also all the good stuff). I
asked Mr. X if the fog was beginning to lift and if he
really thought the US would ever settle for less than
total control of those combined reserves and those of
every other key oil producing country as well. It’s
called "resource wars", the stakes are very high, and
we’re playing for keeps including waging war on the
world to get it. It’s not about getting all the oil
we need (as long as it lasts), it’s about controlling
it all to decide who else gets it, how much and at
what price. Along with rising world tension, a big
reason the price is high today (nearing $70 a barrel
as I write) is because we want it to be high to enrich
our big oil mafia buddies - you know, the Exxon-Mobils
of the world. Unless you understand "the way things
really are" you’ll be victimized like Mr. X and
believe everything you hear or read in the corporate
media.

MR. X SWALLOWED THE PARTY LINE PROVING AGAIN YOU CAN
FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME

Mr. X claimed Hugo Chavez is a "fearless, gutless
little wimp of a dictator." And paranoid too. I
informed him this FGWD paranoid was elected and
reelected democratically by significant majorities and
did it in the face of considerable US funding and
support for the opposition and the fiercest, most
vicious and hostile unrelenting dominant corporate
media assault against him both times, beforehand, in
between and still ongoing now and growing in
intensity. It’s so extreme in vitriol down there it
makes our hostile corporate media almost look like
pussy cats. It didn’t work. Venezuelans aren’t as
uninformed as the somnambulant and mind-fogged US
public. They support and voted for a man who promised
them a better future and actually delivered it. Why
would they ever want to give that up? Ever know a US
politician who did that? A couple here or there who
try, but NEVER one with any power or who could or did
deliver.

There’s a presidential election coming up in Venezuela
at the end of this year. Now get this. A new poll
was just conducted and here’s how Chavez did against
his potential or likely rivals. It was conducted by
the Venezuelan Institute for Data Analysis (IVAD): the
score was Chavez 82.7% and closest rival (at present)
Julio Borges of the Primero Justicia (Justice First)
party 8.9%. I used to do marketing research and some
polling right out of graduate school 46 years ago as a
newly minted MBA (before they got popular) and know
something about it. Unless you do it properly, you
can get some awfully unreliable results, so instead of
the usual + or - 3 or 4% it could be two or three
times that making the numbers worthless. But with
these lopsided results, why bother with any poll.
Anyone following what’s happening in the country knows
the people love Chavez and will never democratically
elect someone else if he’s running. Of course, the
rich hate him because he’s making them pay their fair
share and is using the country’s oil wealth to help
his people instead of handing it over to the big US
oil mafia, other giant US transnationals and the
Venezuelan elite. That’s why the US hates him too and
feels that way even more so for a bigger reason. He
represents the greatest of all threats we know - a
good example that may spread like a heavenly virus
liberating the oppressed people of other countries in
the region and beyond whose leaders sold them out to
the US and our giant corporations.

So with the opposition knowing they haven’t a chance
in December, they’ve begun their latest anti-Chavez
demonization campaign. They’re trying to blame him
for the kidnappings and brutal murders of three
children of a wealthy Venezuelan/Canadian family and
other social disturbances being hyped in the corporate
controlled media to stir up the public, scare them and
try to make them want a change in government to
protect them better. It’s just a new version of the
same dirty business they’ve pulled before that failed.
It won’t work this time either. Chavez supporters
(Chavistas) at least must suspect the US is
orchestrating this mischief and has no compunction
about carrying out kidnappings and brutal murders
themselves or finding lots of local takers at the
right price to do it for them. This isolated violence
on the Venezuelan streets is just a minuscule version
of what’s going on now in Iraq under the US led and
directed "Salvador death squad option" using Iraqi
proxies to carry out car bombings, mosque attacks and
lots more to foment a civil war, try to divide the
country and supposedly make it easier to rule. It
won’t work there either where the situation is out of
control, the war is lost and we know it, and in
British journalist Robert Fisk’s words (who I quoted
earlier above): the US "must leave, can’t leave and
will leave." Sooner or later, likely the latter after
many tens of thousands more innocent Iraqi deaths and
lives and families destroyed and the devastating
physical and psychological toll on many or most of our
demoralized and defeated forces there. I’m writing
more about that in another article I’m now working on.

US authorities and the go-along corporate media in
both countries also claim Chavez is responsible for
the recent pelting of US ambassador William
Brownfield’s car with eggs and tomatoes. I wouldn’t
have wasted a rotten one of either on him even though
the ambassador was provokingly and literally cruising
for a bruising in a poor neighborhood he had no
business being in. He may or may not have gotten it
from US stooges sent in to do it. The poor there
certainly had every reason to do it. This is a man
who recognizes the opposition and not the legitimate
Venezuelan government. Chavez has threatened to expel
him from the country and has every right to do it if
he keeps pulling these stunts. The ambassador has
said he will (meaning deliberate provocation), so look
for more fireworks ahead as things heat up more
between Washington and Caracas. Of course, this
unambassadorial man deserves whatever he gets and
more, especially in light of the growing anti-Chavez
vitriol coming from high level US officials as well as
the current "military exercise" provocation ongoing
close by offshore as well. Things are clearly coming
to a head with a showdown possible and even likely
before the year end election.

Let me spell out what’s happening now as the US with
100% certainty is heading toward a fourth showdown
confrontational attempt to oust Hugo Chavez and
possibly try to assassinate him this time. For those
of you, like Mr. X, who believe what they read in the
(corporate) papers or see on the evening news, let me
do a little defogging and lay the truth on you. I
know the playbook very well. I should, I’ve seen it
played out enough times before and watch it every day
now in Iraq in its most extreme form. It’s not Hugo
Chavez or his supporters creating social unrest on the
streets. This is classic CIA, National Endowment of
Democracy (NED), USAID and IRI (International
Republican Institute) mischief likely carried out by
their complicit anti-Chavez Venezuelan proxies. These
are the ones with the most to gain if Chavez is no
longer president and one of their own is. I’m talking
about the rich and well off, the same ones who tried
it before and failed.

US attorney and author Eva Golinger closely monitors
Bush administration activities to subvert the Chavez
government. She uncovered top secret CIA documents
obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests revealing US involvement through CIA, NED and
USAID complicity to overthrow Hugo Chavez in the two
day aborted 2002 coup. In an interview published by
Ultimas Noticias on April 10 she revealed she now has
documents proving the US bankrolls the Venezuelan
opposition and has tried to work with Brazil, Peru,
Mexico, Austria and Spain to form an anti-Chavez
alliance. Her information comes from a report
published April 5 by the US Bureau of Democracy, Human
Rights and Labor, an agency of the US Under Secretary
of State for Democracy and Global Affairs. The report
details US efforts to fund and build Venezuelan
opposition political parties. Golinger noted
different strategies being planned to oust Hugo Chavez
including by possible US military invasion and
mentioned the presence of US military bases in the
region where 40,000 troops are now stationed. She
also uncovered increased US financial support for
"supposed NGOs" and communications with opposition
politicians on subjects like assassination and
torture. Finally, Golinger explained there’s a link
between the FBI and police officials in the Caracas
municipalities of Chacao and Baruta, both run by
mayors opposed to Hugo Chavez.

In addition to Golinger’s reports, there’s credible
evidence of Colombian paramilitaries elicitly entering
Venezuela in provinces bordering the two countries to
promote or commit violence and destabilize the Chavez
government. All of this is serious and escalating
mischief that’s likely to get worse as the US moves
ahead in its fourth attempt to forcibly remove Hugo
Chavez from office by whatever means planned. At this
point, we don’t know if it will even get further off
the ground, let alone succeed, because of Chavez’s
strong support among the people, his government allies
and the Venezuelan military. We do know the US
orchestrated anti-Chavez demonization campaign will
likely fail as have other past attempts against him.
Why? Because the Venezuelan people overwhelmingly
support and will fight to keep him as the president
who gave them extraordinary social programs that have
improved their lives and given them a direct say
through participatory democracy in how the government
is run. Why would they ever risk giving that up or
not do all in their power to prevent anyone from
taking them away. So when the anti-Chavez propaganda
campaign fails again, look for the mischief-makers to
go back to the drawing board and try "plan two."

It may be and there’s now talk the main opposition
parties will pull out of the election in December and
let Chavez run unchallenged - that is, if the
fireworks haven’t culminated before then. If it
happens, it will be a replay of the December, 2005
legislative elections when those same parties quit the
race because they knew they’d be embarrassed by the
heavy vote against them. If there’s a repeat
performance this year, they’ll blame it on President
Chavez as they did last time using whatever concocted
reasons they can come up with. But just like last
December, it will again be sore looser talk, a
weak-kneed effort to demonize the victor and a line of
baloney the Venezuelan people won’t buy. I’ll give
them the real reason, but they’ll never use it.
Chavez will win because the great majority love him
and the wonderful social programs and participatory
democracy he’s brought them. They won’t give them or
him up and will fight to keep them and him to avoid
returning to the past policies of everything for the
rich and powerful and nothing for the poor and
desperate people. Hugo Chavez is their man, their
savior, and they’ll keep him as long as he wants the
top job.

HOW’D YOU LIKE TO LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY WITH A LEADER
AND GOVERNMENT WORKING FOR THE PEOPLE

The great majority of the Venezuelan people would and
here’s why. Any idea what it’s like to be
impoverished, not know where your next meal is coming
from, live in a shack for a home or not even have that
much, and have no access to even minimum medical care
or education? These people do. Ask them, they’ll
explain it to you. Hugo Chavez has given them what
they never had before. Think they won’t fight to keep
it and him? Wouldn’t you in their place if the
alternative was desperate poverty? That’s what 80% of
them had before, they’re still poor and deprived, but
everyone gets free: first rate health and dental care
and education through as high a level as they can
attain. They also get subsidized food, the legal
right they never had before to own the land their
homes were built on and lots more. The result is a
significant improvement in the lives and welfare of
the Venezuelan poor that comprise the great majority
of the population and Chavez’s base of support. The
population is healthier, no one need go hungry, and
Illiteracy in the country is almost nil. In the US
it’s around 20%, and millions more can barely read and
write at a grammar school level.

Also in the US, our land of opportunity and richest
country in the world, we have 46 million people with
no health insurance, many millions more with too
little and by conservative estimates 12 million
American families, over 10% of all households,
struggle to feed themselves and often go hungry. They
can’t afford the high price of insurance that keeps
becoming more unaffordable or even to buy enough food
for their families. They should be getting federal
aid, but how can they when our government spends all
it has and can borrow on imperial wars of conquest
without end to enrich big corporations. The cupboard
is bare for anything else, so we’re all on our own,
like it or not. If the country had a motto or slogan
it might be you can have anything you want as long as
you can pay for it. If not, you’re on your own. It’s
called "the free market." Ask one of the millions of
poor, single black mothers with young children how
"free" it is and what it’s like trying to figure out
how to get the next meal on the table and pay the
rent. She could only dream of the way things are in
the land of the Bolivarian Revolution and a leader who
really cares about all his people - if she knew about
it.

I told Mr. X above and then reminded him again that
the "US boggie man" he made light of has already tried
three times and failed to oust President Chavez and is
clearly now planning a fourth attempt that may include
a military assault with depleted uranium (DU) weapons
that would contaminate a vast area with toxic, deadly
and irremediable radiation where they’re used. They
might even decide to up the ante and try out in real
time their newest toy - so-called "bunker-buster mini
nukes" that aren’t mini but sure are nukes - anywhere
from one third to two thirds as potent as a Hiroshima
bomb. They’ve planning to test these new weapons in
the Nevada desert shortly or are already doing it
without telling us. When they do, I wouldn’t want to
be standing around in the next county or maybe even
next state. And that’s even without the devastating
fallout that will contaminate a vast area beyond the
test site. That’s the kind of "boogie man" I’d be
"paranoid" about. I’m already paranoid about it, and
I live in the heart of the beast and am one of the
privileged. I also live downwind in both directions -
from those bomb test sites and all the horrendous
policies coming out of the Capitol.

HERE COME THE MARINES AND MAYBE A LITTLE "SHOCK AND
AWE"

Want more evidence about what may be in the works.
It’s come to light that the US has plans called
"Operation Bilbao" that look like, walk like and make
sounds like a plan to forcibly overthrow the Chavez
government. Want more? I briefly mentioned an
ongoing close by US military exercise above. The US
Navy sent an aircraft carrier strike group of four
ships, 60 aircraft and 6,500 marines to the Caribbean
and South American waters for a "major" training
exercise. It’s holding it now about 50 kilometers
from Venezuelan territory (about 30 miles). All four
ships are capable of launching cruise missiles that
may be armed with nuclear warheads. I told Mr. X this
is a deliberately provocative and hostile act and to
imagine the reaction here if China or Russia were
doing this 30 miles off the California coast. I added
I could include more examples of how the US is
stepping up its efforts against Hugo Chavez but hoped
what I detailed above was enough. I also explained
that I hope I’ve provided enough documented proof that
once again the US government is improperly and
illegally acting to subvert a foreign leader and his
government and, in this case, doing it to a twice
democratically elected leader loved by the great
majority of his people.

IT ALL GOES BACK TO THE POWER OF THE MESSAGE

Now let me bring this full circle and go back to my
opening salvo against the dominant US corporate media.
I told Mr. X that if he or anyone else relies on them
for their news and information, they’re guaranteed not
to get any. That’s not their job. Their job is to
set you up, play you for a fool and make you a patsy
(and a pretty dumb one at that) to believe even the
most outrageous rot they put out. Like those "now you
see ’em, now you don’t" WMD or Saddam being linked to
al Queda (he and bin Laden are mortal enemies and hate
each other). I knew there weren’t any WMD in the
mid-90s. How? It was reported in the news most
people didn’t listen to or forgot that Saddam’s
trusted son-in-law who was in charge of all his
weapons, including those WMD, defected to the West,
was debriefed and spilled the beans that they were all
destroyed around the time of the Gulf war. It was a
tactical decision since they were useless anyway
against the overwhelming US force Saddam was helpless
to defend against. What about Saddam knocking over
the "twin towers." I like that one even more, but a
legion of chumps called the gullible public will
believe anything the corporate media feeds ’em - even
the need to check under your bed every night ’cause
Saddam (or Hugo) may be there ready to pounce as soon
as you doze off. People will believe anything.

IT REALLY HAPPENED ONCE - A REAL LIFE CASE STUDY

Real life case in point. In 1938 a now famous science
fiction radio program was broadcast in the US called
War of the Worlds starring Orson Welles. There was no
TV then so the effect it had was amazing even without
the visuals the corporate media now know are so
essential. It was about a Martian invasion of the
earth that included a fake news bulletin that a "huge
flaming object" landed on a farm near Grovers Mill,
New Jersey. Orson Welles was a terrific actor and so
weren’t the others apparently. They were so good it
created a mass panic among those listening who really
believed the Martians had come and would do them in.
People actually packed the roads, hid in cellars, got
out their guns if they had any and even wrapped their
heads in wet towels to protect themselves against
"Martian poison gas." This now famous broadcast that
also created a national scandal proved an important
point. The very sophisticated folks who run the
dominant media can even make a lot of seemingly
intelligent people believe almost anything made up out
of whole cloth. That media and its PR cousins have
honed their craft and are now so expert at it that if
the best of their past counterparts were still alive,
like Nazi Joseph Goebbels, he and they would be aghast
to see how amateurish they were compared to the
"geniuses" now doing it — to Mr. X and all the others
like him out there with their minds thoroughly fogged
and programmed. He and they are all victims of
sinister mind control, and I’ve been trying to remove
the spell, bring you all into the light and deliver
you into the glorious world of knowing the truth and
being free at last from the poisonous and hypnotic
power of the dominant and complicit corporate media.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog
address at http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/