MEMO REVEALS U.S. INTERFERENCE IN VENEZUELAN REFERENDUM

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

JAMES PETRAS, COUNTERPUNCH - On November 26, the Venezuelan government
broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the
CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and
which will influence the referendum this Sunday.

The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was
addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The
memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and
updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human
Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the
forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of
the elected Chavez government. . .

The memo recommends that Operation Pincer (be operationalized. OP
involves a two-pronged strategy of impeding the referendum, rejecting
the outcome at the same time as calling for a 'no' vote. The run up to
the referendum includes running phony polls, attacking electoral
officials and running propaganda through the private media accusing the
government of fraud and calling for a 'no' vote. Contradictions, the
report emphasizes, are of no matter. . .

www.counterpunch.org

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||