Wednesday, September 10, 2003

SONS OF BITCHES AND OTHER USUAL SUSPECTS

Raven is stirring a bit of milk into his tea. This is an affectation he has taken up only recently, and I do not intend to share it with him.

“Did you know that Nixon called Salvador Allende a bastard and a son of a bitch?”

Raven, the asker of disingenuous questions.

I didn’t hear him say it, Rave. But I believe it. Nixon had a very dirty mouth. In fact, about the only clean talk I remember from him was when he said, “I am not a crook”—and that was a lie. In the Checkers Speech, I think it was. Along with referring to his wife, the long-suffering Pat’s “good republican cloth coat.”

“Checkers?”

Don’t you remember? That was the Nixons’ dog.

“Oh, yeah. How could I forget that much-maligned long-suffering beast? Anyway, in today’s LA JORNADA Helms of the CIA reports Nixon called Allende both of those after he won the 1970 election in Chile.”

Nixon and Kissinger were gunning for Allende from Day 1. Between the CIA and the Nixon Dirty Tricksters, and his not having a majority in the Chilean Congress, Allende was a Sisyphean stone rolling uphill during his whole almost-3-years in office.

“Listen to how they describe the “democratic way” Allende was removed from the presidency:

‘Eight million dollars were spent secretly between 1970 and the military coup of 1973, according to the Church Report—during which time the CIA and US military officers established contacts with Chilean military officers with the end of gathering intelligence and permitting the US to enter into communication with the group with the most possibility of taking the power from Allende. The collaborationist press, headed by the right-wing daily “El Mercurio”, was the voice of the terror campaign that contributed to the political polarization and financial panic of the time. Also strikes and terrorist attacks were financed, and shortages of necessary items were created, and a galloping inflation set in.

‘Philip Agee, ex-CIA agent, confessed years later: “The agency, by financing truckers and businessmen to organize against Allende (stopping the flow of merchandise and paralyzing the country) could create the appearance of chaos and disorganization which always is attractive to right-wing military leaders who advocate order and discipline. This creates the opportunity for them to intervene to restore order, peace and dignity to the nation.”’”

Sounds fishily like Caracas 2002, doesn’t it? In addition to military and CIA funds channelled to Venezuelan “opposition” groups, almost a million bucks on the books was given them by the US government through the National Endowment for Democracy. Are there any more figures on the Chilean buy-off?

“Yeah. It says here:
‘The sabotage of Allende was gigantic: US aid that in 1965—during the government of Eduardo Frei—was 35 million dollars, dropped to a million and a half in 1971. And from a record 234.6 million dollars in credits from Eximbank to Chile in 1967, the number fell to zero in 1971, at the same time as Chile was given the lowest credit rating. The Inter-american Development Bank, which early in 1970 loaned Chile 45.6 million dollars, loaned Chile 2.1 million in 1972, at the same time that the World Bank loaned Chile exactly one dollar. The Club of Paris, pressured by the US, refused to renegotiate the enormous debt Allende inherited from his predecessors.’”

Nothing like a big time slap in the face, right?

“This article indicates that the plan of Allende’s government that was extremely worrisome to Washington was that its goal was to improve the living conditions of the people by way of a fair redistribution of income, and by way of the ballot box to advance toward democratic socialism. When it looked like Allende might actually receive a majority in the Congress is he was able to complete his government’s plan, all the alarms went off in the White House, the Pentagon and the CIA. Nixon said to do everything posible to bring Allende down.”

Great guy, Nixon—running around like a latter-day Perry at the same time, opening up China for exploitation by the West.

“Yeah, but Kissinger was the one who wrote the plan. And even then all the money the US used to buy people didn’t stop Allende's party from receiving more votes in March of 1973 than they did when he was elected in 1970.”

So that’s when the decided to take him out. He had said that only being shot would he not implement the people’s program. And they decided to take him at his word.

“That’s right. It says here: ‘In Washington they filed their sights for “D Day”—the day of the coup. All they needed was to define the date and the person to head it. The date was September 11, 1973. It was headed by general Augusto Pinochet.’”

And the rest, as they say is history. Unfortunately, it is a history that the Usual Suspects (aka the CIA, the White House and the Pentagon) keep trying to repeat in Venezuela, where another president is struggling to program dignity for his people. Last week, in a particularly cynical gesture, US Ambassador to Venezuela Charley Shapiro marched over to the National Election Commission and offered it the services of the same folks that stole the presidential election for George W. Bush 3 years ago.

“Some nerve!”

Raven pours his milk-laden tea down the kitchen sink’s drain.

I hope his tea is the only thing going down the drain.

*************
In memory of Salvador Allende, who died in La Moneda, Santiago de Chile, Sept. 11, 1973. An enormously destructive Sept. 11th brought to us by the Usual Suspects--the CIA, the White House and the Pentagon--just 28 years before they gave us Sept. 11, 2001--with its destructive pyrotecnics and its even more destructive aftermath. Thanks guys.