Venezuela gets the Florida treatment: VENEZUELA FLORIDATED

[Guest guest]

> Venezuela gets the Florida treatment

>

> VENEZUELA FLORIDATED

>

> Tuesday, August 10, 2004

> Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in

> Caracas this Sunday?

by Greg Palast

>

> Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's

> jealousy: Unlike Mr.

> Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a

> majority of the

> vote.

> Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve

> rivaling Iraq's.

> And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies

> that pump the crude

> ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his nation

> for the stuff. Hey,

> sixteen percent isn't even acceptable as a tip at a

> New York diner.

> Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR

> president has to

> go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is

> backed by Venezuela's

> poor. And the US oil industry, joined with local

> oligarchs, has made

> sure a vast majority of Venezuelans remain poor.

> Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming

> Sunday's recall vote.

> That is, if the elections are free and fair.

> They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie

> faxed to me what

> appeared to be confidential pages from a contract

> between John

> Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called

> ChoicePoint, Inc., of

> Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on Terror.

> Justice offered up to $67 million, of our taxpayer

> money, to ChoicePoint

> in a no-bid deal, for computer profiles with private

> information on

> every citizen of half a dozen nations. The choice of

> which nation's

> citizens to spy on caught my eye. While the

> September 11th highjackers

> came from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon and the Arab

> Emirates,

> ChoicePoint's menu offered records on Venezuelans,

> Brazilians,

> Nicaraguans, Mexicans and Argentines. How odd. Had

> the CIA uncovered a

> Latin plot to sneak suicide tango dancers across the

> border with

> exploding enchiladas?

> What do these nations have in common besides a lack

> of involvement in

> the September 11th attacks? Coincidentally, each is

> in the throes of

> major electoral contests in which the leading

> candidates -- presidents

> Lula Ignacio da Silva of Brazil, Nestor Kirschner of

> Argentina, Mexico

> City mayor Andres Lopez Obrador and Venezuela's

> Chavez -- have the nerve

> to challenge the globalization demands of George W.

> Bush.

> The last time ChoicePoint sold voter files to our

> government it was to

> help Governor Jeb Bush locate and purge felons on

> Florida voter rolls.

> Turns out ChoicePoint's felons were merely Democrats

> guilty only of

> V.W.B., Voting While Black. That little 'error' cost

> Al Gore the White

> House.

> It looks like the Bush Administration is taking the

> Florida show for a

> tour south of the border.

> However, when Mexico discovered ChoicePoint had its

> citizen files, the

> nation threatened company executives with criminal

> charges. ChoicePoint

> protested its innocence and offered to destroy the

> files of any nation

> that requests it.

> But ChoicePoint, apparently, presented no such offer

> to the government

> of Venezuela's Chavez.

> In Caracas, I showed Congressman Nicolas Maduro the

> ChoicePoint-Ashcroft

> agreement. Maduro, a leader of Chavez' political

> party, was unaware that

> his nation's citizen files were for sale to U.S.

> intelligence. But he

> understood their value to make mischief.

> If the lists somehow fell into the hands of the

> Venezuelan opposition,

> it could immeasurably help their computer-aided

> drive to recall and

> remove Chavez. A ChoicePoint flak said the Bush

> administration told the

> company they haven't used the lists that way. The PR

> man didn't say if

> the Bush spooks laughed when they said it.

> Our team located a $53,000 payment from our

> government to Chavez' recall

> organizers, who claim to be armed with computer

> lists of the registered.

> How did they get those lists? The fix that was

> practiced in Florida,

> with ChoicePoint's help, deliberate or not, appears

> to be retooled for

> Venezuela, then Brazil, Mexico and who knows where

> else.

> Here's what it comes down to: The Justice Department

> averts it's gaze

> from Saudi Arabia but shoplifts voter records in

> Venezuela. So it's only

> fair to ask: Is Mr. Bush fighting a war on terror --

> or a war on

> democracy?

> ---

> Greg Palast is author of the New York Times

> bestseller, 'The Best

> Democracy Money Can Buy.' This commentary is based

> on 'Tango

> Terrorists,' in the new chapter of the book's

> Expanded Election Edition

> (Penguin 2004). For Palast's reports on Venezuela

> for the Guardian of

> Britain and his exclusive interview for BBC

> Television with President

> Hugo Chavez, go to www.GregPalast.com

> ============================================