Isn't Ms Chao married to the Senate's minority leader?

It would appear so.

from News Corp.

That outfit gets slimier by the Day.

and he loses the protection of his powerful allies.

He should have been convicted long, long ago for his ties to the most brutal, and sleaziest criminals in the world. just like others in his family, his cabinet, his party, etc.

Hideous, slimy little scuzzball. Has a bloody personal record against the human race.

[center]

Birds of a feather.[/center]

...just as the Uribe drugs/death squads Mafia mated with the Bush Junta.

I have to say, though, that, at first blush, I was surprised. The "laundering" of Uribe, thus far, appeared to be a CIA project, and specifically a Leon Panetta project (Bush Senior crony, member of his Iraq Study Group, 'old CIA') aimed at covering up Junior's trail in Colombia.

Panetta's first visible travel as CIA Director was to Bogota, amidst rumors of a Uribe coup to stay in power, and though Panetta pretty clearly yanked Uribe from the stage, he landed Uribe on a silk cushion, with cushy academic sinecures at Georgetown and Harvard, a prestigious appointment to an international legal commission (the one investigating Israel's shooting up of a peace boat), help putting death squad witnesses out of the reach of Colombian prosecutors (by 'midnight' extraditions to the U.S., on mere drug charges, and 'burial' in the U.S. federal prison system by complete sealing of their cases--an unusual procedure--over the objections of Colombian prosecutors), and help getting Uribe's spy chief, Maria Hurtado, the hell outa Dodge ('political asylum' in the U.S. client state of Panama--she is wanted by Colombian prosecutors for questioning about Uribe's illegal spying operations in Colombia--spying on judges and prosecutors, among others--and probable spying to draw up 'hit lists' of trade unionists and others for the death squads--very likely with the aid of the U.S. embassy).

In short, CIA coddling and protection of Junior's crime boss in Colombia.

Re Georgetown: A human rights Jesuit in Colombia wrote to his Jesuit brethren at Georgetown begging them not to honor Uribe whom, he said, has been tied to the death squads from early in his career--they ignored him. There were student protests; those, too, were ignored. (note: George Tenet is a Georgetown alumnus).

Re Harvard: I don't know if anybody connected to Harvard objected, but then Harvard is where they teach our young legal students to "look forward not backward" on the crimes of the rich and powerful. There were students who objected--God bless 'em--and helped serve Uribe a subpoena to testify in the Drummond Coal death squad case (re use of rightwing death squads to solve their 'labor problem'), but then the U.S. State Department wrote to the judge urging him not to force Uribe to testify and implying that there were 'national security' reasons. (Har-har.)

In short, not just CIA coddling and protection of Junior's crime boss in Colombia, but an all-out U.S. government effort to protect this murderous, filthily corrupt mafia boss/Bush Junta 'made man' (some 70 of whose closest political associates, including family members, are already in jail or under investigation, in Colombia, for ties to the death squads, drug trafficking, illegal spying and all manner of serious corruption). And you gotta figure that this was part of the deal that Obama made to become president--one of the deals, anyway, and probably the most important one--not to prosecute, or even investigate, Bush Junta principles for their many, many horrible crimes. Uribe apparently has that protection as well.

Questions: Is there a CIA connection to News Corp? How did this further "laundering" of Uribe occur? Was it just the natural union of News Mafia and Drugs/Death Squads Mafia? Or did it have CIA help (i.e., is it part of Uribe's blackmail of the U.S. government, re what he knows about Bush Junta crimes in Colombia)?

A subtler question--perhaps to address a subtler situation (that is, are Panetta/Obama/Clinton trying to jettison Uribe?): Rather than the CIA being matchmaker for the dark wedding of Murdock and Uribe, did Uribe flee to Murdock from the less than enthusiastic protection of Panetta/the U.S. government?

There ARE some signs that, to be able to pursue U.S. "free trade for the rich" in Latin America, without having to go to war over it, the U.S./Obama administration perceived the need to "clean up" the U.S. act in Latin America. Latin America is undergoing an historic leftist democracy revolution with goals of independence, sovereignty and social justice. This revolution includes major LatAm powers--Brazil and Argentina in addition to Venezuela (with an almost in Mexico as well) and many other elected leftist governments (Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay*, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras,* and recently Peru). This 'clean up' act likely started with Panetta's vetting and approval of Manual Santos as president of Colombia (a milder and apparently non-criminal rightwinger, whose very first act in office was to make peace with Venezuela), to replace the famously corrupt, warmongering Uribe.

'Cleaning up' the Bush Junta's vile efforts to counter this leftist democracy revolution is not an easy task. The vileness has included, for instance, hyper-militarization of Colombia and use of the Colombian military and its closely tied rightwing death squads to murder trade unionists and other advocates of the poor; the bombing of a FARC guerrilla camp (with 500 lb. U.S. "smart bombs&quot on Ecuador's border which almost started a war between the U.S./Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela; Rumsfeldian "dirty tricks" such as trying to smear the presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador as "terrorist lovers" with patently falsified evidence; reconstitution of the U.S. 4th Fleet (mothballed since WWII) in the Caribbean (which Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, said was "a threat to Brazil's oil" (not just Venezuela's))--and more. And it appears quite likely that the coup in Honduras--which occurred only six months into the Obama administration--was designed by the Bush Junta to sabotage Obama's stated policy of "peace, cooperation and respect" in Latin America (among other motives).

I think that, basically, what the Obama/Panetta (or is it Panetta/Obama?) policy has turned out to be is a very complicated, intricate, high-wire act to pursue the same transglobal corporate goals (as the Bushwhacks) in LatAm but perhaps not--or likely not--the crime goals, such as consolidation of the cocaine trade and direction of its trillion+ dollar revenue stream to U.S. banksters and other beneficiaries (with maybe News Corp. added to that possible beneficiary list?).

However, Santos is trying to "turn" the drug trade legit. He openly advocates legalization. This could be (and I would say, likely is) a Big Pharma plan to move into the trade and monopolize it, after Uribe/Bush did the ground work of consolidation (including brutal displacement of FIVE MILLION peasant farmers). And THAT is the sort of thing that WOULD appeal to Obama, in my opinion. Just forget about all the bloodshed and mayhem of the U.S. "war on drugs"--as if it didn't happen, as if massive crime was not part of it--and "launder" the whole thing into a Big Pharma boondoggle.

Complicated, intricate, high-wire act over a pit full of poisonous snakes. Why do it? Doesn't seem like a place for honest "freedom and democracy" lovers to be.

One final question: Is Uribe attempting to "launder" himself--from mafia boss/'made man' into corporate CEO (perhaps re Big Pharma), via News Corp.? (Perhaps as a Bush Cartel corporate operative?) CIA/U.S. coddling/protection has left Uribe free to plot his return to power in Colombia (he and Santos--despite both being rightwingers--are enemies). (Note: 'Rightwinger' is hardly adequate to describe Uribe--he is an out and out fascist as well as a crime boss). However, Colombian prosecutors are on Uribe's tail. And there is evidence that the Obama administration is (maybe) cooperating with them (for instance, giving them access to the death squad witnesses in U.S. custody). This may be conditioned upon their ignoring evidence of U.S./Bush Junta collusion on Uribe's crimes and evidence of outright U.S./Bush Junta crimes--so it may be only partial cooperation, but still, it could mean that the situation in Colombia is "too hot" for Uribe and his plan to return to power.

I've been wondering if Uribe was counting on a Romney/fascist win here in which case all obstacles to his return to power will be removed. But, plugged in, as he is (to the Bush Cartel, for instance) he may know things we don't know, for instance, that Romney is not going to win, and that means that he has had to look at other options (such as Big Pharma CEO for legalization, or replacing Murdock as Head of "Big Lie" News?). Something else he may know: That although Panetta/Obama protected him to a point--while they arranged for U.S./Bush Junta crimes to be covered up--he is now vulnerable to prosecution and who would believe him if he started pointing the finger at Junior (or, say, Rumsfeld, or William Brownfield, U.S. ambassador to Colombia during the Bush Junta)?

Well, a lot of people would believe him, actually, but it wouldn't exonerate him in the least. And such disclosures would put his life in serious peril.

So, did he need other protection and other career options, and "Big Lie" News came to his rescue? Or is this just an extension of CIA/Panetta protection along the lines outlined above?

Given our very, VERY secretive government, it may be hard to answer these questions, but I think we must try.

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*(I think the Honduran coup was designed by the Bushwhacks but since it serves transglobal corporate and war profiteer interests, Obama simply didn't have the power to stop it. The question of "did he want to?" (stop it) is rather overwhelmed by the on-going murders of labor leaders, journalists and others, by rightwing death squads in Honduras. The Obama team colluded in this rape of Honduran democracy--which is why Lula da Silva, in his last speech in office, in 2010, said, "The U.S. has not changed," and why Lula's successor, Dilma Rousseff (tortured by the U.S.-backed junta in Brazil when she was a young woman) gave Obama such a cold reception when he visited Brazil (that, and the drone bombing of Libya, which Obama--incredibly--decided to announce while he was in Brazil).

(THEN, recently, the rightwingers in Paraguay imitated the coup in Honduras (fake "constitutional crisis&quot and overthrew their elected leftist president. The collusion of elements of the U.S. government, on Honduras, was blatantly obvious (though Obama collusion was not clear--Clinton arranged a fake election, under martial law, run by the U.S. State Dept, to legitimize the coup, and that seemed to satisfy him). U.S. collusion on Paraguay is not clear--as yet--but the coup government has reversed policy and is welcoming the U.S. military to Paraguay, and Paraguay is clearly now a U.S. client state smack in the heart of South America with elected leftist governments on every border. Will it--like Honduras in the past, and Honduras now--be the stepping stool for U.S. interference (plots, coups, death squads, 'contras') against its neighbors?)