Chávez decree tightens hold on intelligence -- Just another petty dictator

[Lord Undies]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3377497

BobbyVan (418 posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:19 PM
Original message
Chávez decree tightens hold on intelligence -- Just another petty dictator
   
CARACAS, Venezuela: President Hugo Chávez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country's intelligence agencies, provoking a fierce backlash here from human rights groups and legal scholars who say the measures will force citizens to inform on one another to avoid prison terms.

Under the new intelligence law, which took effect last week, Venezuela's two main intelligence services, the DISIP secret police and the DIM military intelligence agency, will be replaced with new agencies, the General Intelligence Office and General Counterintelligence Office, under the control of Chávez.

The new law requires people in the country to comply with requests to assist the agencies, secret police or community activist groups loyal to Chávez. Refusal can result in prison terms of two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.

"We are before a set of measures that are a threat to all of us," said Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, a justice on Venezuela's top court, in a rare public judicial dissent. "I have an obligation to say this, as a citizen and a judge. This is a step toward the creation of a society of informers."

<snip>

In some ways, the changes would merely refine the control Chávez already exerts over intelligence operations. His government has already used voter registration data to purge employees deemed disloyal to the president from the intelligence agencies and other parts of the civil service.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/03/america/03venez....

Let's see you defend this, Fascisthunter.

Truth2Tell  (1000+ posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Do you know the definition of "dictator?" nt   
   Edited on Mon Jun-02-08 11:36 PM by Truth2Tell
Edit to add some perspective.

The eliminated DISIP and DIM had been created by presidential decree in 1969 with the purpose of, in the minister’s opinion, “obeying the capitalist vision that existed in that era.”

These institutions were notoriously repressive during their nearly four decades of existence. It was widely speculated that they coordinated directly with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported anti-Castro Cuban terrorists, such as Luis Posada Carriles, who is currently wanted by Cuba and Venezuela for the 1973 bombing of an airliner and is now living in the U.S.

Before Wednesday, intelligence agencies had not been regulated by federal intelligence law.

More: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3505

Chavez was granted the authority to do this by the Venezuelan legislature. When a country undergoes revolutionary change, a rational re-tooling of it's intelligence agencies is well warranted.

We could only dream of such a thing next year in America.

Edit again to add: The citizen involvement provisions in this decree are unrelated to the intelligence overhaul. They refer to crime, not political dissent. It's like a crime watchers program. I don't like snitch programs any more than anyone else, but this is hardly authoritarianism or "dictatorship". It still doesn't even approach the level of authoritarianism or executive power in America.

Simon Romero is a lying shill. He's worse than Judith Miller or Michael Gordon combined. His coverage of Venezuela for The Times is the most dishonest of any beat in that paper. And that says a lot.

BobbyVan (418 posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. The analysis you cite was written before the law had been made public
   "The text of the new law is not available to the public yet."

Therefore, it's irrelevant, and does not refute the major charge of the NYT/IHT article, specifically that citizens may now be compelled to become informants on one another.

BobbyVan (418 posts) will die soon trying to Speak Truth To Morons.
   

[Lord Undies]

thunder rising  (1000+ posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:46 PM
Response to Original message
3. Yes indeed we need to throw Chavez out and install a good guy like Pinochet
Or any of the other pro-American psycho killers we have installed. You're intelligence is as weak as your insight.

BobbyVan (419 posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Did I suggest any of that?
The fact that you feel compelled to impute those motives to me tells me that you're afraid to address the underlying argument.

and the thot plickens....
   

[Rebel]

Truth2Tell  (1000+ posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Do you know the definition of "dictator?" nt   
   Edited on Mon Jun-02-08 11:36 PM by Truth2Tell
Edit to add some perspective.


Chavez was granted the authority to do this by the Venezuelan legislature. When a country undergoes revolutionary change, a rational re-tooling of it's intelligence agencies is well warranted.

We could only dream of such a thing next year in America.

Not that I want to draw this parallel, but hmm, you mean like Bush and Iraq, moonbat? 

[Mr Mannn]

Truth2Tell  (1000+ posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Do you know the definition of "dictator?" nt   
 
Chavez was granted the authority to do this by the Venezuelan legislature. When a country undergoes revolutionary change, a rational re-tooling of it's intelligence agencies is well warranted.

We could only dream of such a thing next year in America.

Liberals dream of their turn to instigate a Stalinist purge. Too bad the people of America are still armed.

[franksolich]

Would there be any particular reason my fellow alum Skins deleted this bonfire?

[BlueStateSaint]

Would there be any particular reason my fellow alum Skins deleted this bonfire?

 

H5!

Maybe the USSS . . . 

[InfamousAndy]

Liberals dream of their turn to instigate a Stalinist purge. Too bad the people of America are still armed.

Even more than that, are they implying that they would like their 'Dear Leader' to rule by decree?

[jinxmchue]

Truth2Tell  (1000+ posts)         Mon Jun-02-08 11:22 PM
Response to Original message
1. Do you know the definition of "dictator?" nt   
   Edited on Mon Jun-02-08 11:36 PM by Truth2Tell
Edit to add some perspective.


Chavez was granted the authority to do this by the Venezuelan legislature. When a country undergoes revolutionary change, a rational re-tooling of it's intelligence agencies is well warranted.

We could only dream of such a thing next year in America.

Not that I want to draw this parallel, but hmm, you mean like Bush and Iraq, moonbat? 

Hey, it's cruel and unusual punishment to exposed the DUmp monkeys to their hypocrisy.

[dandi]

Missing Topic
 
If you have any questions, please contact the site administrator.
Click here to go back to previous page.

That must've been a helluva bonfire. They pulled the whole thing.