Memories of 1983 and an NPR Report on Russian Activity in Latin America

From the Olympics to computing, from news to politics, the Russians are everywhere in the news or more accurately the Anti-Russian propaganda campaign is everywhere. This is by far the worst we've seen in forty years, since the tense period accompanying Reagan's ascent to the US presidency. Almost immediately he began a rapid military buildup and a series of aggressive military Psyops directed against Russia. The US pushed the Russian security perimeter by air, land, and sea. At that time the Soviets were in dire fear of an American First Strike and became very edgy and the tension led to events like the shootdown of KAL 007.

An Informal ECT Alliance and the Bolivian Coup

Fernando Camacho and Jeanine Añez both represent Right-wing Christian forces at work in Latin America. Both are Roman Catholic and yet in many ways embody the Evangelical style and appeal to its audience. With the flight of Morales in November 2019, both figures were connected to episodes in which Bibles were held up high accompanied by proclamations of the return of Christianity to Bolivia.

In North America Evangelicals and Roman Catholics began to work in concert back in the 1980's and 1990's and while the relationship in Latin America has proven rocky, there are hints that politics and culture war are bringing them together.

Pompeo, Venezuela's Religious Institutions and Evangelical Exploitation

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/exclusive-pompeo-opens-up-about-venezuelas-opposition-says-keeping-it-united-has-proven-devilishly-difficult/2019/06/05/85385a33-8eae-4ba5-a9ac-6b7b8c3d5762_story.html?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo got caught on tape and his comments only confirm what many of us have already known.

In addition to admitting that the CIA was attempting to overthrow Maduro during his tenure as head of the CIA, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo now admits that the CIA has sought to utilise religious institutions.

This should make every Christian shudder.

Unfortunately many Evangelicals will not understand that statement and in fact heartily embrace such collaborations.

The Church in a Time of Endless War, Imperialism and the Destruction of Societies

The recent Al Jazeera verdicts in Egypt are an exclamation point on the total collapse of the Arab Spring. They represent a final expression of the perversion and subversion of this vast regional movement which five years later is all but over and must be reckoned a failure.

The Role of Conservative Think Tanks (3/3)

Heritage also used organizations like Citizens for America to move money around. This is one of the many shell games played by these organizations. Create multiple entities...it's all the same people...but use them in different ways to obfuscate what you're doing, We also see a similar tactic used by many well known 'ministries' in creating a 'for-profit/taxable' activist wing and using the non-profit to support it.

The Role of Conservative Think Tanks (2/3)

The Reagan Doctrine and Rollback

 

Heritage's policy was to reject the Cold War doctrine of Containment and certainly reject Nixon and Kissinger's Detente. They called their doctrine Rollback and singled out numerous countries for this doctrine to be implemented. At this point a quick rundown of the list would be helpful. These are the specific countries Heritage targeted for Rollback and a few comments amount the goals and results.

The Role of Conservative Think Tanks (1/3)

Think tank policy and influence is pretty public. It's just slightly out of the mainstream. The influence easy to find but you'll have to turn to articles and books. You're not going to find the mainstream media explaining the system. They never do that. But for example just listening to a more serious news outlet like NPR you will constantly hear references to groups like Heritage and of course the liberal Brookings Institution (which Colson famously wanted to bomb). Many scholars from Heritage, Hudson, Hoover, AEI, CATO and other groups are regularly interviewed and consulted. The think tanks are in many ways the voice for policy and ideology. They tend to be more candid than politically minded officeholders.

Allies and Enemies: The Power of the United States.

America can even thwart and in some cases betray its own allies and has a long record of doing so.

This story dates back to July when an American CIA official, wanted by the Italians for participating in the Rendition programme and accused of snatching a man off the streets of Milan was arrested in Panama. There was an international warrant for his arrest issued by the Italians.

The agent Robert Lady was picked up at the Panamanian border and presumably would have been extradited to Italy. But then suddenly, he's released and put back on a plane for the United States.