Homs Remains Under Artillery Assault For 20th Day; Assad's Crackdown Continues

The City of Homs has now been under constant artillery barrages and attacks by Bashar al-Assad's security forces for 20 days and there's no sign of any letup. Assad's forces are intensifying their attacks, and the body count continues rising on a daily basis.

The UN no longer keeps track of the casualty figures because their officials can't guarantee their own safety, so casualty figures are derived from news reports (both the official government propaganda type and the opposition Twitter, blog, and satellite report chatter), human rights groups that operate in the country, and the only thing that is certain is that civilians continue being murdered by the regime.

The attacks on Homs are not precision attacks against military targets, but are instead attacks that hit civilians all too frequently. Civilians are the targets, which means that Assad's regime is engaging in crimes against humanity and war crimes in violation of Geneva Conventions and other international law. Even the United Nations Secretary General and other top human rights officials at the UN are cognizant of the criminal acts by the Assad regime.

The report, handed to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, was compiled by a panel of three investigators who said that they had not been allowed to enter Syria to conduct their inquiries at first hand but had relied on a total of 369 interviews with victims, witnesses, defectors and other people with “inside knowledge” of the situation. They had also examined photographs, video recordings and satellite imagery to corroborate some witness accounts.

The report was published as Syrian security forces continued their shelling of besieged areas of the central city of Homs for a 20th successive day on Thursday, despite a growing outcry and international calls for the creation of humanitarian corridors to reach the sick, the wounded and the frail.

The newest bombardment, reported by activists, came on the eve of a major international gathering Tunisia to seek a way out of the crisis. Some reports from Homs said government forces in tanks had pressed into contested areas where opponents of the government say hundreds of trapped civilians have died in one of the deadliest campaigns in nearly a year of violent repression by the government of President Assad. The United Nations report seemed likely to add weight to those conclusions, arguing that Syria was now “on the brink” of civil war and “the continuation of the crisis carries the risk of radicalizing the population, deepening inter-communal tensions and eroding the fabric of society.”

The document spoke of torture and killing of civilians.

“The commission received credible and consistent evidence identifying high- and mid-ranking members of the armed forces who ordered their subordinates to shoot at unarmed protesters, kill soldiers who refused to obey such orders, arrest persons without cause, mistreat detained persons and attack civilian neighborhoods with indiscriminate tanks and machine gun fire,” the investigators said.

Yet, the UN is powerless to do anything more than write a strongly worded letter because Russia and China continue to hold a veto threat against any action in the Security Council that might even provide the option to use military action to force Assad to stop his brutal crackdown. That's despite the fact that the recognition of war crimes and crimes against humanity demands that the UN act under the terms of international law, including the Genocide Convention and Geneva Conventions.

There are also accusations by French leader Nicholas Sarkozy that the Syrian military deliberately targeted journalists, including the attacks that killed American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

Wounded protesters brought to hospitals are reportedly being tortured, and children are among those killed.

While Russia and China are the most important backers to Assad's regime, they're not alone. Besides Iran, it appears that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has decided to throw his support behind Assad and his brutal regime.

UPDATE:
The UN has gone beyond what it has previously state in regards to crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria to say that the actions are being directed by the highest levels of Assad's government.

"The commission is satisfied that a reliable body of evidence exists that, consistent with other verified circumstances, provides reasonable grounds to believe that particular individuals, including commanding officers and officials at the highest levels of government, bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations," the report said.

In other words, these aren't the actions of rogue local security forces run amok but rather the coordinated actions of a government engaging in crimes against their own countrymen.

Chavez Admits To Cancer Surgery in Cuba; Venezuela Wonders What Comes Next

It's taken [T]hugo Chavez a couple of weeks, but he's finally come out and admitted that the reason he has been missing in action from the airwaves and media appearances for the past month has been the result of cancer surgery and recovery in Cuba.



It's rather telling just how serious the situation is that he has been silent for so long and that the military has had to come out and say that they will guarantee the ongoing safety and security.

General Henry Rangel Silva said on Friday the military would guarantee constitutional order during Chavez's absence for treatment in Cuba. The president, he said, would be home "soon" and was still in charge.

"We have seen our comandante thinner than usual but still standing. The truth is he is getting better, he's fine," Rangel told state television. "The country is calm."

The usually vivacious Chavez, 56, confirmed in a stern speech on Thursday he had surgery in Cuba to remove a cancerous tumor and was receiving more treatment. He said he needed time to recover before returning to Venezuela to run his self-styled revolution.

A fiery critic of the United States, Chavez will miss events marking Venezuela's 200th anniversary of independence from Spain. He had to cancel a regional summit planned for the momentous July 5 date.

Markets have generally reacted positively to news of Chavez's health problems, on the presumption they improve the chances of a more business-friendly government.

It's a sad day for democracy in Venezuela that everything has to hinge on Chavez's health; there's no line of succession and his underlings try to put on a veneer of calm when they have no idea what comes next.

It's also telling that Chavez had to go to Cuba for treatment; does Venezuela not have doctors and cancer care? Perhaps that was the result of Cuba being far more secretive about Chavez's condition and that he could get treatment without the prying eyes of media outlets. However, his prolonged absence spurred questions about his health condition.

I don't know, but this seems to be the position being taken by Chavez's apparatchik's and military:

Venezuela Wonders About [T]Hugo Chavez's Future

Venezuelans continue wondering about the health of Hugo Chavez, who remains in an undisclosed hospital in Cuba for an undisclosed ailment. The secrecy surrounding Chavez's health and his condition is particularly troubling since Chavez has spent years accumulating power and undermining democracy in the country.

It's little wonder then that his brother, a physics professor of all things, is claiming that Venezuelans support Hugo and that they should be willing to take up arms to continue Hugo's government.

"The revolution was born in the Bicentennial era, and it made it through elections and we want it to continue that way, following a peaceful path that allows us to build Bolivarian socialism, but aware of the dangers that beset us and that the enemy does not rest, we can not forget as authentic revolutionaries, other methods of struggle.... It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle."

Adan Chavez's comment adds to the threat made by General Rangel Silva late last year, when he said the military may not accept an opposition electoral victory.

Adan's comments must also be taken in context of a potential power struggle within the Chavista ranks. With the possibility that President Chavez will be weaker when he returns to power in a few weeks (not to mention quiet questions about succession), there is a struggle for control and influence within the Chavez ranks to fill that power vaccuum. While only Vice President Elías Jaua would be the legitimate constitutional successor for the president, others including Adan think they are better suited for power. Adan wants to make sure the military will be on his side if and when a struggle within the Chavista ranks breaks out.

While the death-watch appears to have started, Chavez supporters are out in force to try and dampen speculation about his health condition. They further claim that reports of cancer are also overblown or false.

The problem for Chavez's supporters is that someone who is normally omnipresent on Venezuelan television and radio with daily addresses and announcements has been pretty much absent from the airwaves since June 10. The level of secrecy surrounding his health condition and whereabouts are similarly strange.

Whither Venezuela's Chavez?

Hugo Chavez hasn't been seen in public in more than two weeks. He apparently fell ill while in Cuba and is believed to be in critical condition. Officially, he is being treated for a pelvic abscess, but no one knows what his true condition or ailment is.



Ever since [T]hugo came to power, he's cultivated a cult of personality and attempted to consolidate power in himself. He's surrounded himself with nothing but yes men, and with that situation, no one knows who exactly would assume power should Chavez not recover - or if he's incapacitated for any significant period of time.

The departure of Chavez for so long, particularly from the airwaves that he commandeers frequently in Venezuela, has prompted a heated debate over who would, or should, be in charge of the country. In a government that political analysts say is filled with yes-men who rarely question his decisions, Chavez’s illness has exposed the lack of any reliable leader to replace him.

“He has been centralizing power during 12 years now, putting himself in the foreground as the only and indispensable leader,” Demetrio Boersner, a historian and former Venezuelan diplomat, said by phone from Caracas. “So right now, there is no personality within the governing party that seems like the logical substitute in case it would be necessary to replace him.”

The government’s official account is that Chavez began suffering from abdominal pain during a meeting with Fidel Castro in Havana and was rushed to surgery.

Chavez, who turns 57 next month, soon phoned Venezuela’s main state television station to say he was recovering and there was no “malignant” illness. Officially, the government said that Chavez underwent surgery for a “pelvic abscess,” which is pus in the abdomen brought on by infection or other causes. Government officials said the president continued to sign bills and govern from Cuba, Venezuela’s closest ally.

“We don’t know what this pelvic abscess is about,” said Fernando Coronil, author of “The Magical State,” a book about pre-Chavez Venezuela. “He mentioned that there was some biopsy. There is no malignancy. But given the secrecy and given the delicate situation, we don’t know if that’s actually accurate.”

Since Chavez’s first explanation after the surgery, the only purported messages have been from the president’s Twitter account, the latest on Friday, when he sent a “big hug to my soldiers and my beloved people.”

His brother, Adan, said on Wednesday that Chavez was recuperating. He said the president would remain in Havana for 10 to 12 days, which would put Chavez back in Caracas in time for a previously scheduled summit of Caribbean nations.

[T]hugo Chavez Seeks Power To Rule By Decree Once Again

Venezuelan strongman [T]hugo Chavez is at it again. He's calling on the National Assembly to grant him more power than he would be allowed to wield by circumventing the incoming Assembly that is comprised of more opposition groups. Chavez claims the power is necessary to deal with a series of natural disasters and the ongoing economic malaise:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday asked congress to grant him special powers to enact laws by decree for one year, just before a new legislature takes office with a larger contingent of opposition lawmakers.

The measure would give the president the ability to bypass the National Assembly for the fourth time since he was first elected almost 12 years ago.

Vice President Elias Jaua made the request on Chavez's behalf, saying the president will use the authorization to ensure fast-track approval of laws aimed at helping the nation recover from severe flooding and mudslides that left thousands homeless and in government shelters.

"The measures we have to take are deep. Almost 40 percent of the country was affected" by the heavy rains, Jaua said.

It is expected to win easy approval in the outgoing legislature dominated by Chavez allies.

Chavez's opponents accuse him of using the natural disaster to impose socialist-inspired measures and undermine the power of newly elected opposition lawmakers.

Chavez's economic policies have brought about serious trouble for Venezuela, and the "reforms" will further undermine individual rights and protections. It's a power grab, using the natural disasters as a pretext.

Iran-Venezuela Relations Firm Up

Some reports are indicating that Iran and Venezuela are firming up their relations, and that Iran is even stationing intermediate range missiles in the country.

According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an "emergency". In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for "national needs" – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers

Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions. Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran. These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti[2], it found one: Venezuela.

Novosti reports the words of Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think tank on international arms trade, saying that if the S-300 deal with Venezuela goes through, Caracas should pay cash for the missiles, rather than take another loan from Russia. "The S-300 is a very good product and Venezuela should pay the full amount in cash, as the country's budget has enough funds to cover the deal ," Korotchenko said. Moscow has already provided Caracas with several loans to buy Russian-made weaponry, including a recent $2.2-mln loan on the purchase of 92 T-72M1M tanks, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment.

The sides plan on building the new base some time in 2011.


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Drudge has ramped up the hype on the story, claiming that the missiles could hit the US. Assuming that the Venezuelans station their missiles at the closest point relative to the US, they'd still be outside the range of hitting the continental US. A missile flying from Caracas to Key West, Florida would have to travel 1373 miles or 1193 nautical miles. The Shahab missile's top range may be 932 miles, which means that it may barely make it - it's at the extreme range and Iranian missile technology isn't exactly known for its reliability or accuracy (then again, neither is its photo editing skills in covering up the unreliability of its missiles and rockets).

That doesn't mean that the Iranian missile threat is nonexistent. Those missiles could still threaten US bases in Puerto Rico, Guantanamo Bay, or US interests throughout the Carribean including the US Virgin Islands and our allies in Latin America.

This is all part of a continuing attempt by the Iranians to sow discord and spread its anti-US message around the world. It has found a fellow-traveler in the form of Hugo Chavez, who regularly lambastes the US and has a long record of suppressing dissent.

The report also once again reinforces the need for the US to continue work on missile defense technologies to deal with threats such as these.

[T]hugo Jumps on the Genocide Bandwagon

It's the fashionable season to blame Israel for carrying out a genocide against Palestinians. The latest to throw out this claptrap is none other than Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez. Chavez has been real busy lately, cozying up with the Iranian regime (which coincidentally has a corner on the genocide business - alternatively blaming Israel for committing genocide and calling for Israel's destruction - genocide). Here's what Chavez had to say:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinian people, telling a French newspaper that the bombing of Gaza late last year was an unprovoked attack.

"The question is not whether the Israelis want to exterminate the Palestinians. They're doing it openly," Chavez said in an interview with Le Figaro published on Wednesday.

The Venezuelan president, who has just completed a tour of Middle Eastern and Arab countries, brushed aside Israeli assertions that its attack on Gaza was a response to rocket fire from Islamist group Hamas which rules the coastal enclave.
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"What was it if not genocide? ... The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians," Chavez said, adding that sanctions should have been slapped on Israel.

Israel launched an offensive against the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, with the declared aim of curbing rocket fire from the region into southern Israel.

The land, sea and air assault lasted 22 days, and left some 1,300 Palestinians dead, according to medical sources.

So, what exactly was Chavez's context? He claims that Israel's Operation Cast Lead was genocide - completely ignoring the reason that Israel responded as it did - the thousands of rockets and mortars fired at Israelis for months.

Chavez claims that Israel has a right to exist, but then goes on talking about Palestinian rights, which but for Palestinian fecklessness, would have had a state alongside Israel back in 2000. Palestinians have self-determined, they chose the more extreme Hamas and jihad when Hamas rose to power, and which took over Gaza from Fatah in 2005. From that point forward, Hamas has sought ever more conflict with Israel, with the terror group treating Gazans as nothing more than cannon fodder. For all the claims of 1,200 Palestinians killed, the overwhelming majority were Hamas terrorists, and of the rest, most were killed because Hamas purposefully operated in densely populated areas.

Objectively, Israel is not carrying out genocide. Gaza's population continues growing and but for Palestinian terrorism, the security fence and Israeli military responses would not be necessary. Palestinians aren't wanting for food or anything else, but their leadership continues to agitate for jihad and unending war to secure Israel's destruction.

That's who Chavez sides with, and Iran would love nothing more than to push its own agenda at the same time.

Russians Testing President Obama

Like JFK all those years ago, the Russian leaders have determined that President Obama is out of his league and think that they can bully him into making concession after concession. The latest in a string of tests for the new Administration is that the Russians are looking to stage long range bombers from Cuba and Venezuela.

Some may see this as a direct response to the US plans to station missile defense systems in Eastern Europe, but there's a whole world of difference between stationing a defensive missile system and providing bases for offensive weapons systems like long range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons and heavy payloads for use against the US and our allies in the region.

The fact is that the Russians know that Obama is likely to back down, despite the nature of the weapons systems involved. Socialism is on the march, and Obama isn't likely to stand in the way, despite the destructive effects the socialists have on those under its firm grip. Venezuela and Cuba are both destitute regimes that think that the US can be pushed around these days and I fear that they're right.

Obama has already signaled that he's more than willing to throw our Eastern European allies under the bus, even after the Bush Administration said that missile defense systems would be stationed there so as to provide all of Europe with protection from rogue missile attacks from the likes of Iran (who has been working towards developing a reliable long range missile capable of hitting Europe and all of the Middle East).

The Russian positioning of long range bombers in Latin America is designed to see what the Obama Administration is willing to do to protect US interests in the region, and they want to see what they can get away with. The Russians tried doing the same with the Bush Administration with a temporary stationing of two bombers in Venezuela. That was for show, but that symbolic act was the base on which the current measures are being taken. It's a long way from a symbolic positioning of aircraft to a regular basing of those bombers in close proximity to the US.

It will be interesting to see how the Administration plays this. I'm not holding my breath. I expect him to pretty much ignore this.

Fear Is the Mind Killer

It's quite instructive to see how President Obama is using fear to demand passage of the porkfest "stimulus" package that will not deliver stimulus in a timely fashion. It isn't even a focused effort. Obama is using a shotgun approach and hoping that something hits that he can hang his hat on to show that this mess has done something to stimulate the economy, even though it is a government stimulus package.

This is so fundamentally different than what FDR did during the Great Depression, when Roosevelt realistically portrayed the economy and focused on the positives to induce spending and growth and economic development. Roosevelt sought to avoid panic, while Obama is describing the situation as catastrophic when it is not the case.

Obama is going in the completely opposite direction by warning of far more catastrophic damage to the economy if the stimulus and TARP 2, the wrath of TARP, doesn't come to pass.

Failing to act may lead to a catastrophe. So, what will acting in a grossly irresponsible and fiscally harmful manner do?

It will make it worse. That's what the CBO says.

Yet, we're supposed to believe that the recession will get worse unless we not only go through with porkfest 2009, but TARP 2, the wrath of TARP, and a player to be named later.

That's at least $2 trillion in spending that Obama wants to unleash without one care what it does to the economy. His only support for such massive spending is the fear of doing nothing, even though experts believe that this recession will end later this year even without any stimulus package.

We have examples of what massive government spending and irresponsible policy have wrought. It's called Japan from the 1980s onwards. They've had a crummy economy for years on end because the government stuck its piehole where it didn't belong, and the private sector suffered horribly for it. Of course, Obama claims that the Japanese government failed in its stimulus package because it didn't sufficiently spend enough money. By that reasoning, even the amounts Obama is talking about aren't going to be enough, and he will demand more.

That's why we're hearing Obama and Treasury Secretary Geithner talk about the need for yet another TARP bailout package, which may cost another $1 trillion.

We're going to repeat that same mistake, except Obama hopes that his presence will change things. I've reported on such nonsense before - it's what socialists and Marxists say every time they get their hands on the engines of economy. They will change things and make them right, and all they succeed in doing is destroying economies and causing untold misery.

It's what happened in Zimbabwe. It's what is happening in Venezuela and a whole laundry list of countries around the world who suffered under the socialist delusions that this time - with the right people in charge - socialism will prevail.

Obama's politics and those of the Democrats are expanding government like never before and it undermines the market system and your liberty and freedoms. It puts the federal government in greater control over the economy in ways never before envisioned by the Founding Fathers, and in ways that even FDR would never have contemplated.

UPDATE:
And the Senate Democrats, plus Republicans Collins, Snowe, and Specter, have now gone and thrown its lot in with the trillion dollar porkfest. The final vote was 61-37 approving this nonsense. It's no wonder that the markets are tanking.

Not only did Tim Geithner's little talk about TARP 2 sound the wrong message, but the markets reacted in a bad way.

The markets had been looking for an outcome because they want certainty. They've gotten it. The markets will certainly continue trending down because the porkfest will suck the life out of the private sector.

UPDATE:
Fear is the economy killer. At no time in the past 60 years has the government solution to a recession been a multitrillion dollar plan that is unaffordable and pork-laden. Yet, the Democrats continue pushing the meme that this is the worst crisis in history, and can top the Great Depression unless immediate action is taken.

The statistics tell a different tale.

Slouching Towards Collapse

Venezuela continues slouching towards disaster and [T]hugo Chavez's socialist plans for his country are going down in flames as he no longer has the oil revenues flowing to prop up his plans. Chavez doesn't have the money to pay the contractors who keep the oil industry churning along.

Venezuela’s state oil company is behind on billions in payments to private oil contractors from Oklahoma to Belarus, some of which have now stopped work, even as President Hugo Chavez funnels more oil revenue to social programs.

Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, says unpaid invoices jumped 39 percent in the first nine months of last year — reaching $7.86 billion in September. And that was when world oil was selling for $100 a barrel.

With prices plummeting by more than half, PDVSA is trying to renegotiate some contracts. But analysts say hardball tactics to reduce charges from crucial service providers could backfire by lowering Venezuela’s oil output. And foreign debt markets are reflecting jitters about Venezuela’s finances.

Chavez doesn't have the money to pay for his military expansion, the oil industry, and the folks he needs to buy the votes of in the elections scheduled for later this year. Without the pork projects he hopes will bide him more time among the poor who rely upon such things, Chavez wont have anything to offer Venezuelans other than the usual amount of socialist claptrap and blaming everyone but himself for Venezuela's problems.

Meanwhile, the situation in Zimbabwe isn't improving either. The cholera epidemic shows no signs of letting up as 69,000 cases are now reported.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change's decision to create a unity government with President Robert Mugabe could give authorities a better chance of tackling the disease that has deepened Zimbabwe's hardships.

Zimbabwe's health system has collapsed under an economic crisis that has left eight in 10 people out of employment in the once prosperous country. Poor medical facilities and sanitation have helped spread the cholera.

More than half of Zimbabwe is surviving on food aid and the population is also struggling with the world's highest inflation rate of over 231 million percent as of July last year.

Zimbabwe's parliament passed a constitutional bill last week to allow a coalition government of Mugabe and opposition rivals to be set up under a deal to end the political and economic crisis.

That's a far too optimistic picture of the situation in Zimbabwe given that Mugabe has refused to give up power and the opposition led by Morgan Tsvangirai isn't going to have the power to actually alter the economic policies that led Zimbabwe to ruin. Tsvangirai's deal with Mugabe only allows some foreign assistance to flow, but doesn't address the underlying fundamental problems with the economy, which are due entirely to Mugabe's socialist redistribution policies that have led the country to ruin.

Operation Cast Lead: Day 20

The Hamas terrorists continue firing rockets into Israel, and continue attacking Israeli forces operating in Gaza from UN positions. This should come as no surprise. UNRWA admits that they've had Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists on their payroll for years and have been freely teaching anti-Semitic and anti-Israel propaganda in the UNRWA-operated schools. As FoxNews reports:

The United Nations agency that administers a school in Gaza where dozens of civilians were killed by Israeli mortar fire last week has admitted to employing terrorists to work at its Palestinian schools in the past, has no system in place to keep members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad off its payroll, and provides textbooks to children that contain hate speech and other incendiary information.

A growing chorus of critics has taken aim at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in recent years, although momentum on Capitol Hill has been slow. But last week’s incident, which Israel maintains was prompted by Hamas operatives firing mortars at Israelis from a location near the school, has prompted some lawmakers to scrutinize the U.N. agency.

UNRWA isn't the solution. It's a huge part of the problem. It has condoned the activities of terrorists and provides them with safe havens from which to operate, including schools and the very refugee camps that UNRWA administers.

So, it should come as no surprise that Hamas thugs were firing on Israeli positions from in the vicinity of UNRWA administrative buildings in Gaza. Israel responded to Hamas anti-tank fire with attacks of its own. The NYT reports that UN officials (namely Chris Guiness) were told by unnamed Israeli officials that the attack was a mistake. MSNBC says that Ehud Barak told the UN that there had been a "grave mistake", but the Jerusalem Post contradicts that statement claiming that Israel was justifiably firing on terrorists operating in the vicinity of UNRWA facilities. Carl in Jerusalem has more on this. If Hamas or other terrorists were firing on Israeli positions from UNRWA facilities, Israel is more than justified under international law to return fire. Terrorists do not get the benefit of doubt.

Reports also indicate that the nearby hospital was hit by gunfire. Hamas has no care for human life, and purposefully uses human shields to maximize the body count. Israel has sent five of its firetrucks to assist in dousing the fires at the UNRWA headquarters.

The UN continues to push out nonsensical and morally bankrupt statements such as the death toll in Gaza being unbearable. If that's the case, why isn't the UN demanding that Hamas cease attacking Israel and laying down its arms as it operates from within UNRWA administered locations throughout Gaza? But for the Hamas war against Israel, Israel would not be forced to defend itself by going after Hamas terrorists inside Gaza.

Where is the UN and ICRC to demand access to Gilad Shalit. He's been held by Hamas for more than 2.5 years, and the only reason that he's being held by Hamas is so that Hamas can demand Israel release hundreds of terrorists in exchange for Shalit. Where are the demands by the UN or other human rights groups for Hamas to engage in a humanitarian gesture by releasing Shalit unconditionally. The reason is simple. No one expects the terrorists to engage in humanitarian gestures. That's why Hamas continues violating each and every 3-hour Israeli ceasefire allowing humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. It's why it's sheer folly for Israel to consider any longer ceasefire when Hamas will use that time to regroup and rearm.

That's because the UN too is part of the problem and its organization is riddled with the same anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment that we see from Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups.

Venezuela is the latest country to break off relations with Israel. [T]hugo Chavez is close warm personal friends with Iran's Ahmadinejad (who's busy calling for the Arab world to cut relations with Israel), so it should come as no surprise that he's doing his friend's bidding. The same goes for Bolivia's Evo Mendes, who broke off relations with Israel yesterday. Never mind that all three countries are busy funding terrorists and call for Israel's destruction.

As per the NYT report, Israeli human rights groups were ignoring Hamas terrorist attacks and tens of thousands of documented terrorist incidents - each and every instance a war crime - and instead are seeking to find war crimes against Israel:

Also on Wednesday, nine Israeli human rights groups called for an investigation into whether Israeli officials had committed war crimes in Gaza. The groups say that tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza have nowhere to flee, the Gaza health system has collapsed, many people are without electricity and running water, and some are beyond the reach of rescue teams.

“This kind of fighting constitutes a blatant violation of the laws of warfare and raises the suspicion, which we ask be investigated, of the commission of war crimes,” the groups said in a news conference on the 19th day of the war.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, who spent Tuesday in Gaza City, agreed that the situation with civilians was dire but said that the principal hospital was making do with medical supplies, and that doctors, working around the clock, were mostly coping with the flow of the wounded.

Let's ignore the Hamas use of human shields, attacking from civilian areas, putting civilians at risk, purposefully targeting Israeli civilians, and calls to genocide and ethnic cleansing of Israel. Instead, these "human rights groups" stand human rights on its head and attack a nation's right to defend itself from attack. Hamas is responsible for the events in Gaza, and but for the rocket attacks, Israel would not have responded. Indeed, Israel didn't respond to the rocket attacks for years, and didn't respond to the hundreds of kassam attacks during the last ceasefire, which is why Hamas continues to believe that it can and will destroy Israel.

If Israel injures or kills civilians accidentally, it rushes to apologize. Hamas attacks civilians purposefully and cheers gleefully when Israelis die. Yet the media, the human rights groups, and the diplomats ignore this crucial difference. Do mistakes happen during wars? Yes. Do civilians get killed during wars? Yes. Do terrorists deserve the benefit of doubt. Absolutely not. The death toll in Gaza is higher precisely because Hamas seeks to maximize the casualties by operating outside the bounds of the laws of war and the Geneva Conventions.

Where can Gazans flee? Egypt doesn't want them. Israel left Gaza in 2005 precisely to see whether Gaza could live in peace with Israel. Gazans have to choose between war and coexistence; and that means finally standing up against Hamas and Islamic Jihad. They have a choice to make, and knowing how Palestinians have chose in the past, they will again choose Hamas and terrorism, despite the terrible toll.

UPDATE:
Israeli operations killed five Hamas terrorists, who happened to be bodyguards to one of the Hamas bigwigs, Mahmoud Al Zahar. Arab reports suggest that the IDF has Zahar's home surrounded. Israellycool has the details and more extensive updates.

The Muqata reports that Israeli soldiers came under fire from UNRWA positions and from buildings being used by journalists, which explains why Israel returned fire to those locations and their vicinity. Hamas is using journalists and the UN as cover to carry out their terror operations and hopes that Israel kills civilians, UN officials and/or journalists to further Hamas propaganda aims.

Muqata also has this report:

12:12 PM Italian reporter, one of the first members of the foreign press allowed into Gaza claims that there is no real humanitarian crisis in the strip and, surprisingly enough, reports in the Arab media are greatly exaggerated. This is in line with G.S.S. Yuval Diskin's statement for a couple weeks ago. (source in Hebrew)

UPDATE:
UNRWA is claiming that Israel fired on the warehouse using white phosphorus (WP). Expect to see whining and seething from the human rights groups that this is somehow a human rights violation or war crime, when Israel is within its rights to use WP.

There's nothing controversial about the use of WP, other than the fact that Israel is using it. It isn't an illegal weapon, it isn't a chemical weapon, and nations the world over have it in their arsenals. Human rights groups and anti-Israel groups are trying to make it controversial, but they're treading on thin ice. They're hoping that the repeated mention of it creates outrage and forces Israel to stop using yet another tool in their defense.

UPDATE:
Expect to hear complaints about how Israel killed Hamas' interior minister.

Hamas' interior minister, Said Siam, considered one of the most senior members of the Palestinian group's leadership, was killed Thursday afternoon in an Israeli air strike on his brother's home in Gaza City, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Siam's brother Ayad and the head of Hamas' security organization in Gaza, Salah Abu Sharah, were also killed in the strike. Palestinian sources reported that 20 other people were injured in the attack.

Siam, 50, is the most senior Hamas figure assassinated in Operation Cast Lead so far, and is the most senior Hamas figure killed by Israel since the assassination of Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi in April 2004.

People will attempt to claim that there's a difference between Hamas military and political wings, but that's a smokescreen. Both are Hamas and both are dedicated to the same goal. What are the Siams' role in Hamas? These guys organized the top level terror infrastructure.

UPDATE:
Hamas is now more accepting of a ceasefire? I guess when your top terrorists are dying in airstrikes, you reconsider your alternatives - a hudna lets you regroup, rearm, and prepare for the next battle. Of course, note too that Hamas wants to do everything possible to make the ceasefire one-sided. It claims to be doing so in the name of the Palestinian people, but if that ever were the case, Hamas would not have started a rocket war against Israel and attempted to negotiate a peace deal on the basis of the 2000 Camp David outlined proffered by Ehud Barak. In fact, Palestinians could have already had their state if they offered up counterproposals rather than rockets and mortars and suicide bombers in response to the Barak offer. Instead, we've got nothing but death, pain and misery because Arafat refused to provide a counteroffer to Barak, and Arafat, the PA, Fatah and Hamas launched into another Intifada.

UPDATE:
Photo review time.
Palestinians transport wounded people. I'd get hurt just attempting to ride in a car like that.

If Israel really wants you dead, here's what they do to your home. That was the home of a major Hamas terrorist. That's a clarion call that terror masters understand. Despite their bravado, they're cowards at heart and aren't keen on dying. They'd much rather have others die for them - the more Palestinians who die, the better since Hamas doesn't have a clue how to govern but it churns out the propaganda like clockwork.

Propaganda masquerading as captions.

Chavez Cuts Off Cheap Heating Oil Program Stunt Because He Can't Afford It

[T]hugo Chavez, the socialist leader of Venezuela is having to scale back his socialist operations and among the first to go is his attempts to lure Americans to believe his socialist claptrap.

He's had to stop the low cost oil program in the US. Crashing oil prices meant that Chavez didn't have the money on hand to run the program. Of course, Chavez doesn't have the money to expand his military either, so it's a win-win proposition for those who see Chavez's bellicose statements and his repeated efforts to undermine the Venezuelan democracy by granting himself greater powers at the expense of the people.

Chavez is an economics nitwit, peddling his socialist visions, and Venezuela's economy was already reeling from Chavez's economic programs, so that the worldwide slowdown and lowered demand for oil has meant that Chavez doesn't have the money to spend on his socialist cause.

Hardest hit aren't the people who had been taking advantage of the free oil program, but the useful idiot Joe Kennedy, who had been shilling for Chavez for years. Jammie notes that Kennedy is getting the cold shoulder not only from Americans, but Chavez isn't exactly reaching out to him either.

Chavez Seeks Unlimited Reelections As Economy Crashes Around Him

Give [T]hugo Chavez credit. Once he's picked out a course of action, nothing is going to stop him from attempting to bring it to fruition. In his case, it's not only seeking totalitarian powers and a lifetime presidency, but destroying the economy of Venezuela and its neighbors through socialism and price controls.

Chavez is limited from running for reelection after 2013, but that's not stopping him from trying to get the laws changed.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, is barred from running again when his current term expires in 2013. He sought to abolish term limits last year, but Venezuelan voters rejected the bid, voting down a package of proposed constitutional changes.

"Last year, when we lost the referendum, I said I should accept the majority's decision," the former paratroop commander told a crowd of red-clad government supporters at a rally in Caracas. But now, he added, "I say you were right: Chavez will not go."

Any new attempt at a reform, which must be approved in a nationwide referendum, would open a new front for tensions between government-backers and their rivals — many of whom warn that Chavez wants to be president for life.

Opposition leader Gerardo Blyde said Chavez's plan to end presidential term limits would be overwhelmingly defeated.

At the same time, Chavez's economic policies are having a disastrous spillover effect into Colombia. Much of the recent growth in Venezuela's economy was due to oil revenue, and with the decline in oil prices, Venezuela simply doesn't have money to burn and Colombia's economy is reliant on Venezuela even as they are rivals:

That boom, part of a seven-fold surge in Colombian exports to its northern neighbor that helped drive the peso to a nine- year high in June, is coming to an end as Venezuela’s oil-driven economic expansion careens toward a bust.

“Time to tighten the belt,” says Hernandez, whose company, Marroquinera SA, has been exporting to Venezuela since 1985.

The looming slowdown in trade will deepen the peso’s 30 percent slide against the dollar since mid-June and make it the worst-performing currency in Latin America over the next year, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. say. When Venezuela last fell into a recession, in 2002, Colombian shipments to its second-biggest trading partner sank 38 percent, helping spark a 21 percent rout in the peso.

There’s going to be “a major drop in Venezuelan demand for Colombian products,” said Boris Segura, a Latin America economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. “That’s a clear and imminent risk.”

That's one of the reasons that Colombia needs to have closer trade ties with the US; not only to bolster US ties in Latin America, but to thwart Chavez's ambitions for the region.

Venezuela Votes With Mixed Results

[T]hugo Chavez didn't get the sweeping endorsement he hoped would carry his socialist policies into action with a compliant parliament waiting to rubber stamp them into effect. The opposition won nearly half the popular vote, but only 5 of 22 provinces.

In power for almost a decade, the popular anti-U.S. president won 17 of 22 states, but the opposition held onto the two states it won at the last regional elections four years ago, picked up three more and won the powerful mayoralty of the capital Caracas.

Opposition candidates were helped by widespread voter complaints the government has done too little to control some of the world's worst murder rates and Latin America's highest inflation rate.

The overall mixed results triggered a public relations battle as each side fought to seize the momentum by persuading Venezuelans it was the victor in an election where a high 65 percent of voters cast ballots.

The outcome of the post-election tussle could determine whether Chavez has the backing to realize his reelection goal or follow through on threats to spread his nationalizations program by seizing assets from landowners or food companies.

Needless to say, this is a good thing for the Venezuelans, who must be realizing by now that Chavez's economic policies are ruining their economy and he can't simply blame the US for all that ails his country.

Venezuela's economic woes are self inflicted - from the nationalization of industries to price controls that have sent inflation spiraling out of control and caused shortages of food and other goods.

Chavez can't afford to put his grandiose plans to rework the economy in his warped image because the price of oil has collapsed but he continues to gear his socialist rhetoric to those who are among the most poor and downtrodden, and yet they're seeing the least benefit from Chavez's policies because he simply doesn't understand basic economics.

UPDATE:
Ed Morissey has a similarly upbeat assessment of the vote as being a bigger defeat for Chavez than I note. Chavez will continue to scheme at pushing through his agenda by any means necessary, and this vote will likely cause him to redouble his efforts, which include intimidating the opposition.

Venezuela Votes

Venezuela is voting in municipal elections and it once again holds the future of Hugo Chavez's socialist agenda in the crosshairs.

Chavez has said the vote — held one year after he suffered his first electoral defeat — could decide "the future of the revolution, the future of socialism and also the future of Hugo Chavez."

Early turnout was high as Venezuelans formed long lines to cast ballots for governors, mayors and other local officials.

After a decade in office, Chavez still enjoys widespread popularity and has maintained control of most local posts. But last year's defeat of his attempt to abolish term limits has energized the opposition, which has sought to capitalize on complaints about rampant crime, corruption and inflation.

The vote could either hand Chavez another setback or help him lay the groundwork to extend his rule beyond 2013, when his six-year term ends.

Chavez said after casting his ballot that Venezuela's democracy is "demonstrating its strength once again" and that its automated voting system is one of the most "transparent, quickest, most secure in the world."

He urged all to respect the outcome and said, "We're prepared to recognize any result."

Pre-election polls showed Chavez's candidates leading in a majority of races, while the opposition was ahead or in tight races in several of Venezuela's most populous states.

Aquiles Vera, a 47-year-old construction worker who voted in a Caracas slum, said he supported Chavez's candidates and believed the president's ability to stay in office was at stake.

Let's just say I'm not exactly trusting Chavez to keep his word that he'll abide by the outcome of the vote if it goes against him. He's already shown that he's more than willing to try and circumvent the vote by attempting to push through laws to extend the term of his office, and impose his socialist agenda regardless of the damage it has already done to the Venezuelan economy.

He Speaks From Experience

[T]hugo Chavez is back in the news. He thinks that the US needs a new constitution because the current one doesn't quite work.

Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that included visits to China and Russia, he said: "I think the United States should start a constituent process to create a constituent assembly, a new truly democratic model."

A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt a new constitution.

"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".

"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.

Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime in oil-rich Venezuela.

Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.

Chavez is an expert on this.

He tried to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution, coerce the legislature into giving him more power, and has used and abused what power he has to usurp capitalists in his country by nationalizing one industry after another.

Chavez is a socialist. Constitutions are useful only inasmuch as they enable accumulating still more power.

It's still more ironic to see that he's looking to foreign countries to buy laptops and pre-fabricated houses.

The entire computer industry was built by capitalists who invented the technologies in the US, promulgated companies that would expand and move the technology to the forefront so that you can now find low cost computers in every corner of the planet.

Henry Ford capitalized on the assembly line to reduce costs and standardize products so that the masses could buy one of his cars. Other capitalists took those lessons and now churn out prefab homes.

Yet, Chavez slams capitalism at every turn. Without the capitalists building the infrastructure and technology he craves, he would have nothing but a big puddle of oil on which his nation rests.

[T]hugo Strikes Again

This time, he's expelled two people who work with Human Rights Watch, which as the name implies, looks at situations around the world and complains about human rights violations. There's plenty of them in Venezuela, and the thug in charge, Hugo Chavez, has been clamoring for more power to turn the country into a socialist basket case.

Armed men in uniforms apprehended José Miguel Vivanco, a Chilean citizen who is the Americas director for the New York-based group, and Daniel Wilkinson, an American who is deputy director for the Americas, and placed them on a flight to São Paulo, Brazil, where they arrived on Friday morning.

“About 20 men, some of them in military uniform, intercepted us when we arrived at our hotel after returning from dinner Thursday night,” Mr. Vivanco said in a telephone interview from São Paulo. He said he struggled briefly with the security officials when he tried to send a message on his BlackBerry to The New York Times about the expulsion.

The officials then disabled the BlackBerries of the two men and prevented them from contacting anyone in Venezuela, including diplomats from the embassies of Chile or the United States. “They informed us of our apprehension and told us they had entered our rooms and had packed our belongings,” Mr. Vivanco said.

The expulsion, broadcast partly on state television here, comes at a time of increasingly erratic actions by Mr. Chávez. In the last week, he expelled the American ambassador, rounded up military officers and accused them of plotting to kill him and clashed with the Vatican over its granting of political asylum to a political opponent.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr. Vivanco violated the law by entering the country on a tourist visa to do human rights work. The ministry also said that Human Rights Watch, which is an outspoken critic of the Bush administration, was acting in concert with the United States government in a campaign of aggression against Venezuela.

He's well on his way, but it's easier when you don't have people looking over your shoulder to expose your thuggish policies. Human Rights Watch and the US government don't see eye to on a whole lot, but even HRW can't be blind to what Chavez is doing.

Venezuela Slouches Towards Socialism

The slow creep to socialism continues in Venezuela, where [T]hugo Chavez's latest move is to seek to nationalize the fuel distribution companies in the country. Private companies would have 60 days to negotiate a deal with the government, or else face expropriation of their assets.

Venezuela's state-run oil company would control all fuel distribution but would not nationalize gas stations, under a bill that received initial approval in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
Final approval is expected later this week.

This is what the socialists and leftists in the US would love to do - get private companies out of the energy business.

And as usual among the left, Chavez demonizes the oil companies and whatever profits they make. That's on top of the other industries that Chavez already has nationalized. There is more to come:

The law gives distributors 60 days to negotiate the sale of their businesses to the government or face expropriation. It also forces distributors to sell storage tanks and gasoline pumps to PDVSA, and to relinquish their brand names.

A PDVSA subsidiary controls 49 percent of fuel distribution in Venezuela, with the rest controlled by private companies, according to industry representatives.

Under Chavez, the government has nationalized Venezuela's largest telephone, electricity, steel and cement companies and has assumed majority control over four major oil projects.

Also Wednesday, the president said in talks with the Mexican ambassador, the government negotiated a deal that will let Venezuelan authorities take full control of Mexican cement company Cemex SAB's local plants.

Chavez will not be satisfied until all industry is nationalized and firmly within his iron grip.

Venezuleans Finally Catching On to Chavez's Socialism

Hugo Chavez has been trying to turn Venezuela into a socialist dictatorship in his own image for years. His thugs have repeatedly taken to the streets to beat the opposition into submission, though he's not managed to cow the legislature into granting him dictatorial power just yet.

His efforts have stalled precisely because a combination of factors, including a stagnant economy despite high oil prices. Chavez continues to press for the kind of reform that would place still more power in his hands as part of "reform":

Riot police used tear gas Wednesday to block hundreds of Venezuelans protesting the latest moves by President Hugo Chavez to concentrate his power. The demonstrators said a blacklist of opposition candidates and a series of socialist decrees are destroying what's left of their democracy.

Though the protest of about 1,000 people chanting "freedom!" was small compared to past marches, there is a growing public outcry over the sidelining of key government opponents ahead of state and local elections in November.

Chavez opponents also are outraged by 26 laws the president just decreed, some of them mirroring the socialist measures voters rejected in a December referendum.

"We said in the referendum that we didn't want that, and now he's put it in the decrees," said protester Josefina Bravo, a 59-year-old who wore a sticker reading "No means no" on her baseball cap. "That's the problem we have: All the powers are concentrated in the president."

We've seen these tactics before, and the results are invariably the same - the people suffer tremendously as the dictatorship and his inner circle benefits. It's happened in Zimbabwe and it will happen here as well.

Colombia Reveals Video of Hostage Rescue

Colombia has released video showing portions of the hostage rescue operation that freed Ingrid Betancourt, three American contractors, and 11 Colombian soldiers.



It's curious that Colombia is being criticized by some quarters for relying on American and possibly Israeli intel to help plan and/or carry out the rescue operation.

At a news conference here with dozens of journalists, the government also defended the rescue as a Colombian effort after reports that American and Israeli advisers had taken part.

“Not a single foreigner participated,” Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said. But he acknowledged that the American military had provided a surveillance plane to monitor the operation, as well as tracking technology placed on the helicopter used to spirit the hostages away that could emit distress signals.

He also said Israel had helped Colombia reorganize its intelligence services in the past.

While Colombia receives more than $600 million a year in security and antinarcotics aid from the United States, any perception of a more in-depth American role in the rescue would be likely to inflame emotions in neighboring countries like Venezuela, where political supporters of President Hugo Chávez openly support the FARC.

Mr. Santos added that the Colombian intelligence agents sent into the jungle, who numbered more than a dozen and included at least one woman, fooled the guerrillas into believing that they were part of a polyglot humanitarian mission intended to transfer the captives elsewhere in the country at the request of a senior FARC commander.

The rescuers included an agent pretending to be Italian, another supposed to be from the Middle East and a third who performed his role as an Australian so convincingly, according to Mr. Santos, that he invoked the spirit of Crocodile Dundee.

Even the video itself was part of the ruse, shot by two agents pretending to be television journalists. The Colombians’ three-minute video captured some of the despair, trickery and euphoria involved in the operation.

It seems that the anti-Americanism runs deep among the journalists, who pestered the Colombian officials over foreign assistance despite the fact that it's clear that Hugo Chavez and Venezuela have been busy supporting FARC for years.

Venezuela has been supporting that terrorist group and Chavez has been intent upon expanding his influence in Latin America, so the fact that the Colombians have effectively carried out this operation is a big black eye for Chavez's designs. That follows nothing but a series of setbacks for Chavez relating to Colombia and FARC since the Colombians killed a major FARC leader and captured all manner of intel, including a laptop containing links between FARC, Venezuela, and even a meeting between FARC terrorists and a so-far unnamed Democratic party operative possibly linked with the Obama campaign.