Iran and Venezuela: A Dangerous Alliance
The United States should discourage her enemies and encourage her friends.
If Iran does not already have nuclear weapons, it is getting very close. There is substantial dispute over how much notice there might be of Iran’s actual production of a nuclear weapon capable of missile delivery. It is the position of the United States that there will be substantial warning, yet Israel thinks there will be very little:
“We’re all looking at the same set of facts,” one senior Israeli intelligence official said on a recent visit to Washington, talking about the exchanges with Mr. Obama’s national security team. “We are interpreting them quite differently than the White House does.”
In the past, Israel has been more perceptive in this area than has been the United States.
Venezuela and Iran have been allies for quite some time, and their relationship has become more intimate. Venezuela recently agreed to provide 20,000 barrels of gasoline per day to Iran. This seems a bit odd; Venezuela has been importing gasoline due to difficulties experienced with its state-run refineries and oil fields and is considering an increase in the (extremely low, subsidized) domestic price of gasoline. According to Venezuelan President Chávez:
[Payment for the gasoline] will be deposited in a fund established in Iran and will serve to finance the purchase of equipment and technology.
Venezuela is also thinking seriously about establishing nuclear facilities:
According to PressTV, a Tehran-based, English-language television channel, Chavez also said Venezuela is working on a plan for a “nuclear zone” in Venezuela, with Iranian assistance.
This, in the context of a declaration by Iranian President Ahmadinejad that “Iran and Venezuela share the important mission of helping oppressed, revolutionary nations and of extending the anti-imperialist front across the planet.” From the standpoint of the folks living in the United States and in Latin America, Venezuela with an atomic bomb would be worse than Iran with an atomic bomb. Venezuela hardly needs nuclear facilities for peaceful purposes. Neither does Iran.
In a lengthy article, Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau expressed substantial concern over current strengthening of the Iran-Venezuela alliance, noting that the two countries have grown increasingly close in recent years. The article deals principally with banking and the probable use of Venezuelan banks to launder money from Iran to facilitate Iranian importation of proscribed materials and technology. This problem relates to the banking relations which persist between Venezuela and the United States. However, the article also notes:
My office has learned that over the past three years, a number of Iranian-owned and controlled factories have sprung up in remote and undeveloped parts of Venezuela. These factories have emerged in small towns in interior Venezuela with a lack of basic infrastructure and simple amenities like restaurants and groceries. The lack of infrastructure is offset by what experts believe to be ideal geographic locations for the illicit production of weapons.
The article is scary and should throw into question the recent efforts directed by the United States at appeasing both countries. The hands-off approach of the Obama administration during the recent brutally suppressed and now dying protests against the Iranian reelection of Ahmadinejad and the decidedly hands-on and highly intrusive approach to the so-called coup in Honduras are examples of this appeasement. It appears to be completely irrelevant how free, open, and transparent the scheduled November Honduran elections will be. There appears to have been no softening of the United States position that the results of the elections will not be recognized unless Zelaya is returned to power.
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Dan Miller graduated from Yale University in 1963 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1966. He lives in a rural area in Panama.
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9 Comments
1. ETAB:Obama’s foreign policies are extremely disturbing. What is his agenda?
First, he has routinely and almost childishly, insulted the leaders of key US allies, such as the UK, France, Canada.
Then, he denigrated the US, defining it pr-Obama, as essentially a ‘rogue state’ and constantly apologizing for its pre-Obama transgressions.
He ‘honeyed-up’ to the Islamic tribal states, bowing to the Saudi King, giving a Cairo speech filled with intellectually dishonest tales of Muslim scientific achievements – ignoring the Saudi worldwide funding of radical Islamic mosques, ignoring the truth about the repression of science and reason in the Islamic states.
He’s rejected the reality of jihadist terrorism and its agenda of take-over of Western culture.
He’s supported the ex-Honduran president’s attempt to violate the Honduran constitution and set up a dictatorship. And one that is allied to the dictatorship of Venezuala.
He’s removing missile defense bases from Eastern Europe – a territory that Russia wants to regain.
He’s ignored the Iranian people’s public desires for free and honest elections and is ignoring Iran’s nuclear agenda and its intention of taking over the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Egypt).
What is Obama’s agenda?
Obama is actually enabling a global alliance of Russia-Iran-Venezuala. Each of these states has a clear and public agenda of inserting an imperialist military and political control over neighbouring states in their area. Obama’s actions are enabling this imperialism.
What’s going on?
Sep 17, 2009 - 6:22 am 2. dan:The Islamic Revolution and the Bolivarian Revolution, directed by the KGB state in the Kremlin and supported by Communist China?
So… one of these things is not like the other. I wonder, perhaps it is a case of “Muslim clothes, Communist heart” in Iran? And of course we have a Red Army honor guard and high-level Russian dignitaries attending the 40th anniversary of Qaddafi’s coup in Libya. Meanwhile, the US retreats from its support of Eastern Europe, and puts its Afghan operations increasingly at the mercy of Russia and its little statelettes Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, & etc. And of course no one has yet definitively solved the riddle of the ship Arctic Sea.
So. Is it tending toward some general strategic crisis, or is it just to increase the revenue of a few thousand disgusting individuals in ruling cliques? And second, what is the status of Marxism-Leninism among these people?
Sep 17, 2009 - 6:31 am 3. Dan Miller:It was revealed today that the United States is terminating plans for a “missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia.” As noted here, this “represents the appalling appeasement of Russian aggression and a willingness to sacrifice American allies on the altar of political expediency.”
New day, same feces.
Sep 17, 2009 - 6:35 am 4. dan:Oh – and let’s not forget Obama has set the agenda of the next UN Security Council meeting as “nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.” Whose? Undoubtedly ours, since we have shown irrevocably that we cannot prevent states like North Korea, Pakistan, and probably Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Of course we have absolutely no idea how to deal with Russia, since for all the Nunn-Lugar nonsense Russia has now fielded a new road-mobile ICBM and new SLBMs. I agree ETAB – what is all this? People say perestroika was not a deception – and yet how would the world be any different now if it had not been? And of course now Japan has elected its very own Obama. I wonder whether he has Leninist associations or inclinations. The Japanese attitude toward the Pacific Rim security structure will be decisive in the coming few years, and it appears to favor retreat and dependency.
Things may not appear dire or determined at the moment, but it sure seems as though – feels as though – the geostrategic clock is ticking much faster lately.
Sep 17, 2009 - 6:38 am 5. Ruvy:Don’t worry, Dan. Events are going just as predicted – in that ancient tome you prefer not to look at, the Hebrew Bible.
But it ain’t going to be pretty. Delusionary visions are common for leaders who will be overthrown or who will die in office, so the delusions of the American leaders are a good indicator of the future. You are probably better off in Panamá than in the States, mi amigo. You chose to leave, and you chose wisely. See if you can get your kids out, if you have any.
As for the upcoming Security Council session the idea is to defang the Israeli nuclear weapons cache. A bigger threat to mankind can not be imagined, you realize. IN the meantime, the Persians will get to enjoy “peaceful” nuclear power plants….
Sounds like a great 5770 coming up!
Sep 17, 2009 - 7:36 am 6. David W. Lincoln:Dan, expecting Agent Zero and his zombies to do a 180 makes a leopard changing its spots look easy.
Aren’t there enough Americans, living outside the United States, to declare a government-in-exile? Because the objections you raise rise higher than the interests of those who want to rise by tearing down others. Obama and crew are wrong. Period. End of sentence.
Because, if Obama started telling the truth, who
Sep 17, 2009 - 7:51 am 7. goy:in their right mind would believe him? How many
times has he used words where he determines the meaning, thereby making himself look good, regardless of what the conventional meaning of those words are.
Slightly OT, it’s kind of fascinating to look at Mossadegh’s usurpations in Iran (Persia) and note the eerie similarity between his machinations and Chavez’. They could do one of those “History Repeats Itself” 45’s on it – like they did on the Lincoln/Kennedy assassinations back in the 60s.
Mossadegh, despite his secular policies, was one of the heroes lauded during the 1979 revolution. So it’s no surprise Ahminadinnahjacket and the mullahs have developed such a close bromance with Chavez.
Sep 17, 2009 - 11:01 am 8. gordo12:Many warned of the intentions of Obama. Very few listened. Very few are listening now. Sadly, those that oppose and those that decided not to listen will be disposed of. This is the way. Use the foot soldiers, then after the war send them to their death.
Obama is an evil that we allowed. Now only God can save us.
Sep 18, 2009 - 11:21 am 9. Norm Hecht:Dan:
Your wisdom is exceeded only by your sailing and SCUBA abilities. While I have been very pessimistic about O, I think he is vulnerable. The elderly in the US vote more heavily than any other demo segment. I do not think that anything that occurs in foreign affairs will shift the liberal Democratic free loaders and non-tax payers, but the elderly terrified of Medicare cuts just may save us. We will see in Nov 2010. Keep writing.
Sep 29, 2009 - 8:56 am