Caracas or Bust

With his country in economic turmoil and facing unprecedented international pressure, the reasons for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's latest Caribbean excursion are hardly a mystery. As an international outcast under increasing pressure due to his nuclear program, Ahmadinejad is understandably anxious to reinforce ties with the few allies he has left. And at a moment of escalating tensions with Washington, amid Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, the temptation to push back against the United States by showing up in its so-called "backyard" is irresistible.

Ahmadinejad's sixth official trip to Latin America since coming to power in 2005 includes stops in Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, and, of course, Venezuela. The Bolivarian Republic has been the Iranian president's window to the region -- the obligatory stop on all his trips to Latin America.

If Ahmadinejad's goal is to annoy Washington, he shouldn't have much trouble. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, dubbed Ahmadinejad's visit the "tour of tyrants." She charged it was aimed at "expanding the Iranian threat closer to our shores" and has promised closed briefings. His diplomatic excursion should also provide new campaign fodder for Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, who have recently taken sharp aim at the administration's passivity in the face of what they claim is the growing activism of Iran and Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere.

But if Ahmadinejad's chief aim is to ratify and extend Iranian influence in Latin America, he might be setting himself up for disappointment. Overall, the region is living through a moment of enormous self-confidence. Most countries are today politically independent of the United States and relish the breathing space they didn't have in the era of greater U.S. tutelage. There is no sign that any of the major countries -- those outside the narrow, Venezuelan-led coalition -- have an interest in aligning themselves strategically with any other power, least of all Iran.

No one doubts that Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chávez, have forged a mutually convenient geopolitical alliance over the past seven years. Both are skilled provocateurs, fiercely intent on curtailing Washington's economic and political influence in the world. Since he came to power 13 years ago, Chávez has focused on building an anti-U.S. coalition in the Americas, reflected in Ahmadinejad's itinerary this week.

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VISIONTUNNEL

12:03 AM ET

January 10, 2012

Antics of Mineral Rich Despots & Hatefilled Marxist Regimes

That is what can be expected from these mineral rich despots of middle east and Freedom hating Marxist dictators of the world.

Instead of working for betterment of their people they go on to side with other dictators to strike at democracies, globalized markets, practices and ideals of individual freedom.

There is a well entrenched history of such conflict extending and violence loving characters from Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi, Ortega, Fidel Castro, Kim Il Sung and many others.

Two forces perennially opposed to democracy and individual freedom have joined hand long back to bleed and suffocate the common enemy.

There is a great similarity between inherent intolerance of Islamic fanatics towards non-believers and Marxist pathological hatred towards the capitalism. The Muslim extremists and the infantile Marxists were never impressed by the very idea of equality before the law. Rather they have multiple reasons to hate the very concept. The Islamic governments have history of enthusiastically assigning non-believers to second-class or "dhimmi" status, and reduced legal rights. The analogy is similar in the legions of Marxists who believe that socialist societies should deny the basic political liberties to the despicable capitalist forces.

Acting out the old script, Venezuelan Marxist strongman Hugo Chavez had admired the 9/11 attack. He publicly told media that he was against terrorism. But in his TV broadcast, he stated that "The United States brought the attacks upon itself, for their arrogant imperialist foreign policy."

In private, he said to have gone even further still; proclaiming admiration for the terrorist attacks.

" - With 9/11, Bin Laden showed the whole world that he was a force to be reckoned with.”

This was disclosed by General Pedro Pereira, the highest-ranking general in the Venezuelan air force, who was still a Chavez loyalist in 2001. Pedro defected in 2003 and revealed terrorist links between Al Qaeda and Hugo Chavez. The man who controls the largest oil reserves in the Western hemisphere gave $1 million to the world's most wanted terrorist right after the 9/11 attacks.

Taking the cue from Chavez on September 12, 2001, his supporters publicly burned the Stars and Stripes in the main square of Caracas in an outburst of gleeful satisfaction over the attacks.

Very soon Venezuela emerged as a major transit point for drug supplies to Europe, through West Africa. Cocaine cowboys now use Airplanes as the preferred means of trans-continental drug-shipping. Almost all of the aircraft drug seizures that have been made in West Africa, had departed from Venezuela.

http://www.chowk.com/Religion/Al-Qaeda-Marxists-and-Cocaine-Cowboys

SAM FROM CALIFORNIA

8:13 PM ET

"Freedom hating"

American Imperialism has killed more people in Latin America, and Iran too, via coups, supporting paramilitary death squads and intelligence-based meddling. They did not care if the government was democratic. 200,000 indigenous campesino farmers were butchered by American-backed death squads in Guatemala to stop the "freedom-hating" communists, presumably by a "freedom-loving" "Democracy-loving" dictatorship. They were far more brutal than those "democracy-hating" Sandanistas down in Nicaragua. And that is just one example. Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Colombia ... the American-backed dictatorships which loved the free market so much tended to be among the least democratic countries in that part of the world! When the poor are free to vote for who they want to, they often pick the "Marxists" you decry. Who is the real anti-democratic force?

NICHOLAS WIBBERLEY

5:41 AM ET

Here we go again

Another diatribe of suspicion and negativity about Iran. Hezbollah is a freedom movement, its only ‘enemy’ is Israel and the only reason for that is Israel is on Palestinian land and eating up what’s left like a mould. There is no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapon program, if there were it would have been located by one of innumerable Western spy outfits and publicised by the IAEA. Let’s face it, Iran is simply inconvenient to US and Israeli regional policies. The air would be much clearer if everyone acknowledged that perfectly simple, clear as daylight fact instead of confounding it with screeds of obfuscation about WMDs, human rights, and democracy, which make the perpetrators look not only duplicitous, not that they need demonise Iran to achieve that, but silly as well

3:40 PM ET

Comet

The US supports Israel in every conceivable manner so it’s really an extension of Hezbollah’s ‘enemy’. As for being a fool about Iran try this LINK. The point is that neither you nor I know, all we can do is accept evidence that presents a case as beyond reasonable doubt. I have seen no evidence to persuade me beyond reasonable doubt that Iran is building nuclear weapons and I consider her innocent until proven guilty. If you have such evidence, please share it.

SPOOD

5:43 PM ET

Here we go again, blowing sunshine up our proverbial behinds

>>Hezbollah is a freedom movement, its only ‘enemy’ is Israel

Unless you happen to be Lebanese, then they are the proxies for the former imperial occupiers Syria and their sugardaddies Iran.

>>>Let’s face it, Iran is simply inconvenient to US and Israeli regional policies.

And those of Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt. The last three having to deal with proxy forces who are wholly owned subsidiaries of Iran in its attempt to undermine regional governments and extend its political reach.

Of course when it comes to demonizing Iran, they do a great job all by themselves. In fact, its their intention to appear as the bogeyman of the Middle East. A peaceful Iran will collapse under the weight of demographics, which work heavily against the old guard. Without a conflict whipped, their government has a tougher time making excuses for the brutal repression of its people.

11:25 PM ET

Spood

There is a danger in confusing the leaders of a country with its people, particularly as the distinction is daily ever more clear and bloody. My earlier comment was a plea for straightforward acknowledgment that Iran appears inconvenient, primarily to the US and Israel but, as you indicate, others too. If they want to bomb Iran and reduce her to the traumatic state of Iraq, they have the means to do so and should just get on with it instead of dressing it up with fantasy weapon threats and a spurious moral crusade. The Iranians are an ancient and cultured people and could have made their own coherent political and humanitarian advance through the 20th century had they not suffered consistent and merciless interference from Westerners salivating over their resources. Even at this stage, the neat thing to do would be to repair the bridges since geographically and in many other ways, Iran could be a good ally for the US. If you purpose to respond further, may I ask you please to resist scatological interpolations as I find them distressing.

FRANK - OUTREACHR.COM

7:53 AM ET

Chavez and Iran's Ahmadinejad JOKE about attacking U.S.

Are they joking? according to the guardian Chavez and Iran's Ahmadinejad JOKE about attacking U.S. with 'a big atomic bomb'

They could be serious, it is scary !

Foreign Policy Magazine

Is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's latest tour of Latin America a waste of time?

BY MICHAEL SHIFTER | JANUARY 9, 2012

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