Editor's Note: Eva Golinger published this article a few days prior to the December 2nd vote on Constitutional Reform. In it she discloses a CIA memo authored by CIA Agent, Michael Middleton Steer. Now that the vote on reforms is over we observe that some of Steer's recommendations to his Washington boss were put into action while others were not. These disclosures obviously are important for Venezuela's counter intelligence. It's important for the public to understand that Washington continues to have every intention to bring down the democratically-elected government of Venezuela. - LMB

"WHO KILLED HIM?"

Last night CNN en Espa�ol aired the above image, which captions at the bottom "Who Killed him?" by "accident". The image of President Chavez with the caption about killing him beneath, which some could say subliminally incites to assassination, was a "production error" mistakenly made in the CNN en Espa�ol newsroom. The news anchor had been narrarating a story about the situation between Colombia and Venezuela and then switched to a story about an unsolved homicide but - oops - someone forgot to change the screen image and President Chavez was left with the killing statement below. Today they apologized and admitted it was a rather "unfortunate" and "regrettable" mistake. Yes, it was.

On a scarier note, 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.

Selected reader reactions to this article on Eva's Blog

November 28, 2007 5:24 PM  
Democracy Lover said...
Obviously TWR is in the camp of those who think overthrowing a popular democratically elected President is a way that the United States can show how we love freedom and democracy.

I would certainly think Chavez would be fully justified in ending diplomatic relations with the US and deporting all Embassy personnel and their CIA hangers-on. There is little question that if another nation hatched a plot like that to interfere with a US election, the Bush government would do no less (unless they were the ones doing it again).

Venezuelan citizens who are actively involved in efforts to depress the vote, interfere with the vote, or intimidate voters should be arrested and charged.

Chavez is absolutely entitled to take any steps necessary to halt foreign interference in the internal affairs of his nation, and he should do so with all deliberate speed.

November 28, 2007 8:28 PM  
ayacucho said...
twr, your comment is the perfect example why the people in the civilised world just "love" Americans and their politics.

Viva Venezuela y su revoluciòn bolivariana
viva Hugo Chávez Frías !

November 28, 2007 9:05 PM  
investigative journalist said...
Hi Eva, great job. I did not really expect any military action this soon but I can see why they are seizing this opportunity. There will already be alot of chaos even without CIA help so it is perfect timing for a military takeover. Keep the faith, hope for a miracle, gary

November 28, 2007 10:21 PM  
Lisa said...
Oh my, the word straight from Langley, Virginia.

It is laughable how ameriKKKan dogs still think their stupid tactics will work. Sorry, but more and more people have become suddenly politically mature by observing your war crimes in Iraq and how you have no regard whatsoever for international law.

November 28, 2007 10:44 PM  
diamondman007 said...
I'm happy to say that the military industrial banking/media complex is being totally exposed on all fronts. The problem for the leadership of this fascist world government system is that they are all inbred demented filth and they are imploding due to their own evil delusions.

The CIA works at the behest of the Rockefeller/Rothschild banking cartel and they were forced to leave Venezuela by Chavez. They want total control of the planet and all of it's natural resources then, they plan on killing 80-90% of the world population.

Chavez, is the only world leader with the courage to stand-up to their power and they hate him for it. He took-on the world bank and the IMF and won.

The Bush/Cheney/Clinton cabal are all controlled by their banking masters and they will do whatever they are told with regard to Chavez.

It's going to get real ugly and will spin out of control in the next year or two, maybe sooner.

The neo-fascists that now control the US government will create yet another pretext or "staged event" like 9/11 to blame on Chavez so they can use military action. However, they will need to bring the US under marshal law first and take total control of all decent and protest within the US.

The more cornered these criminals get the more deadly they will become. 2008, will be the year that all living hell breaks loose around the world. Next year will be the most ominous and dangerous 12 months thus far in human history.

Enjoy every minute of every day...

December 2, 2007 1:42 AM  
Jason said...
Hello Eva

I have a lot of respect for you and the work that you are doing. I wanted to ask you something...

I spoke to the side of my family in Caracas who are pro-Chavez yesterday and they surprised me as even they were against the proposed changes to the constitution and said they would be voting NO. There is a lot of anxiety surrounding some of the proposals that are maybe just too radical for people to ratify. The idea of the State taking kids away from their parents when they reach a certain age and having state control over the kids in order to educate them is causing particular alarm and outrage it seems. I must admit I am still trying to find more info on this proposal to understand just exactly what has been proposed. Can you shed some light on this proposal?

Many thanks for your time

December 2, 2007 3:02 PM  
Jason said...
Further to my last comment; it appears that U.S. companies are behind much of the anti-reform propaganda that was spread prior to the referendum vote.

One of the most scandalous was an anonymous two-page spread in the country�s largest circulation newspaper, Últimas Noticias, which claimed about the Constitutional Reform:

�If you are a Mother, YOU LOSE! Because you will lose your house, your family and your children (children will belong to the state).�

The illegal ad, which was caught and suspended by the Venezuelan National Electoral Council (CNE) after a few days in the press, has received relatively high-profile attention in the Venezuelan press, and even Chavez joked about it last Friday on the nightly pro-Chavez talk show, La Hojilla. What appears to have gone completely ignored, however, is the fact that the ad itself was placed by an organization which has at its core, dozens of subsidiaries of the largest US corporations working in Venezuela.

The problem appears to be that many thousands of Venezuelans, many of them Chavez supporters, have bought the exaggerations and lies about Venezuela�s Constitutional Reform that have been circulating across the country and the impact that this propaganda has on today�s vote could be key.

As I said earlier, my own family in Caracas have been frightened by the exaggerations enough to turn against the reforms and withdraw their support.

For more info see http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2904

December 2, 2007 3:05 PM  
Wadner Pierre said...
Thank you for revealing this. The CIA has used a similar strategy in Ayiti. We have posted on HaitiAnalysis.com

December 3, 2007 9:44 AM  
hi0u91e9 said...
Interesting article eva

its quite a clever strategy the US are employing. Destabilise the country through propaganda that argues that Chavez is an opponent of democracy (mixed with more insidious attempts at destabilisation, threats of violence, attacks on democratic processes etc) and then when destabilisation does occur and Chavez is forced into a situation where he has to declare a state of emergency- bang- the US appear to have been right all along. from there we presume less clandestine operations can begin

http://www.chavezcode.com/2007/11/operation-pliers.html