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CIA Operation "Pliers" Uncovered in Venezuela
Psyop aims to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow
President Chavez
By Eva Golinger
11/29/07 "Global
Research," --- - An internal CIA memorandum has been
obtained by Venezuelan counterintelligence from the US Embassy
in Caracas that reveals a very sinister - almost fantastical,
were it not true - plan to destabilize Venezuela during the
coming days. The plan, titled "OPERATION PLIERS" was authored by
CIA Officer Michael Middleton Steere and was addressed to CIA
Director General Michael Hayden in Washington. Steere is
stationed at the US Embassy in Caracas under the guise of a
Regional Affairs Officer. The internal memorandum, dated
November 20, 2007, references the "Advances of the Final Stage
of Operation Pliers", and confirms that the operation is
coordinated by the team of Human Intelligence (HUMINT) in
Venezuela. The memo summarizes the different scenarios that the
CIA has been working on in Venezuela for the upcoming referendum
vote on December 2nd. The Electoral Scenario, as it's phrased,
confirms that the voting tendencies will not change
substantially before Sunday, December 2nd, and that the SI (YES)
vote in favor of the constitutional reform has an advantage of
about 10-13 points over the NO vote. The CIA estimates
abstention around 60% and states in the memo that this voting
tendency is irreversible before the elections.
Officer Steere emphasizes the importance and success of the
public relations and propaganda campaign that the CIA has been
funding with more than $8 million during the past month - funds
that the CIA confirms are transfered through the USAID
contracted company, Development Alternatives, Inc., which set up
operations in June 2002 to run the USAID Office for Transition
Initiatives that funds and advises opposition NGOs and political
parties in Venezuela. The CIA memo specifically refers to these
propaganda initiatives as "psychological operations" (PSYOPS),
that include contracting polling companies to create fraudulent
polls that show the NO vote with an advantage over the SI vote,
which is false. The CIA also confirms in the memo that it is
working with international press agencies to distort the data
and information about the referendum, and that it coordinates in
Venezuela with a team of journalists and media organized and
directed by the President of Globovision, Alberto Federico
Ravell.
CIA Officer Michael Steere recommends to General Michael Hayden
two different strategies to work simultaneously: Impede the
referendum and refuse to recognize the results once the SI vote
wins. Though these strategies appear contradictory, Steere
claims that they must be implemented together precisely to
encourage activities that aim toward impeding the referendum and
at the same time prepare the conditions for a rejection of the
results.
How is this to be done?
In the memo, the CIA proposes the following tactics and actions:
- Take the streets
and protest with violent, disruptive actions across
the nation
- Generate a climate
of ungovernability
- Provoke a general
uprising in a substantial part of the population
- Engage in a "plan
to implode" the voting centers on election day by
encouraging opposition voters to "VOTE and REMAIN"
in their centers to agitate others
- Start to release
data during the early hours of the afternoon on
Sunday that favor the NO vote (in clear violation of
election regulations)
- Coordinate these
activities with Ravell & Globovision and
international press agencies
- Coordinate with ex-militar
officers and coupsters Pena Esclusa and Guyon Cellis
- this will be done by the Military Attache for
Defense and Army at the US Embassy in Caracas,
Office of Defense, Attack and Operations (DAO)
To encourage rejection of
the results, the CIA proposes:
- Creating an
acceptance in the public opinion that the NO vote
will win for sure
- Using polling
companies contracted by the CIA
- Criticize and
discredit the National Elections Council
- Generate a
sensation of fraud
- Use a team of
experts from the universities that will talk about
how the data from the Electoral Registry has been
manipulated and will build distrust in the voting
system
The CIA memo also talks
about:
- Isolating Chavez in
the international community
- Trying to achieve
unity amongst the opposition
- Seek an aliance
between those abstentionists and those who will vote
"NO"
- Sustain firmly the
propaganda against Chavez
- Execute military
actions to support the opposition mobilizations and
propagandistic occupations
- Finalize the
operative preparations on the US military bases in
Curacao and Colombia to provide support to actions
in Venezuela
- Control a part of
the country during the next 72-120 hours
- Encourage a
military rebellion inside the National Guard forces
and other components
Those involved in these
actions as detailed in the CIA memo are:
- The CIA Office in
Venezuela - Office of Regional Affairs, and Officer
Michael Steere
- US Embassy in
Venezuela, Ambassador Patrick Duddy
- Office of Defense,
Attack and Operations (DAO) at the US Embassy in
Caracas and Military Attache Richard Nazario
Venezuelan Political
Parties:
- Comando Nacional de
la Resistencia
- Accion Democratica
- Primero Justicia
- Bandera Roja
Media:
- Alberto Federico
Ravell & Globovision
- Interamerican Press
Society (IAPA) or SIP in Spanish
- International Press
Agencies
Venezuelans:
- Pena Esclusa
- Guyon Cellis
- Dean of the Simon
Bolivar University, Rudolph Benjamin Podolski
- Dean of the Andres
Bello Catholic University, Ugalde
- Students: Yon
Goicochea, Juan Mejias, Ronel Gaglio, Gabriel Gallo,
Ricardo Sanchez
Operation Tenaza has the
objective of encouraging an armed insurrection in
Venezuela against the government of President Chavez
that will justify an intervention of US forces,
stationed on the military bases nearby in Curacao and
Colombia. The Operation mentions two countries in code:
as Blue and Green. These refer to Curacao and Colombia,
where the US has operative, active and equipped bases
that have been reinforced over the past year and a half
in anticipation of a conflict with Venezuela.
The document confirms that psychological operations are
the CIA's best and most effective weapon to date against
Venezuela, and it will continue its efforts to influence
international public opinion regarding President Chavez
and the situation in the country.
Operation Tenaza is a very alarming plan that
aims to destabilize Venezuela and overthrow (again) its
legitimate and democratic (and very popularly support)
president. The plan will fail, primarily
because it has been discovered, but it must be denounced
around the world as an unacceptable violation of
Venezuela's sovereignty.
The original document in English will be available
in the public sphere soon for viewing and authenticating
purposes. And it also contains more information than has
been revealed here.
For the full text in
Spanish, see:
Operación Tenaza: Informe confidencial de la CIA devela
plan de saboteo al referéndum del 2 de diciembre
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