Cochise
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- Jan 13, 2010
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Venezuela Rocked By 7.2 Magnitude Rumor! (BoRev.Net)
This seems to have effectively been a complete fabrication. The claim first seems to have been made by a Venezuelan blogger in an anonymous post (made by someone with the username “patria grande”) on a state-owned network’s (Vive TV) website. This is then seized upon by an anti-Chavez Spanish newspaper called ABC (he’s not well-liked among some circles in Spain and is occasionally mocked with anti-Indian epithets), which reports a statement by the government itself, claiming that “The anti-American government of Venezuela, in his usual paranoia against the U.S. empire, says the earthquake in Haiti is ‘clearly the result of a U.S. Navy test’ and stresses that ‘a U.S. experimental earthquake devastated the Caribbean country.’”
This is then grabbed in the U.S. media by Fox News, which claims that the blog post is a “press release” and insinuates that Chavez himself is behind it, noting that “the Venezuelan strongman's state mouthpiece ViVe TV shot out a press release saying the 7.0 magnitude Haiti quake was caused by a U.S. test.” It’s also added that the story was taken down from the network’s website (the reason being that it was a blog post that had no actual endorsement by the network, as was being implied, but that wasn’t reported).
Russia Today then progresses beyond this to a claim that Chavez himself accused the U.S. of having engineered the earthquake, referring to the same ABC story and claiming that “Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it's Haiti's disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is ... destroying and taking over Iran.” ABC never actually quoted anything of the sort because no such statement existed. Regardless, this is then grabbed by various U.S. Internet sources:
OpEdNews - Diary: Hugo Chavez: Haiti Earthquake Caused by U.S. Tectonic Weapon Test
U.S. earthquake weapon used on Haiti says Chavez
Hugo Chavez Blames U.S. For Earthquake In Haiti, Claims “Tectonic Weapon” Was Used [Video Included] Hip-Hop Wired
Venezuelan president: US tectonic weapon caused Haiti quake Boing Boing
Interestingly, this even finds its way to Counterpunch, hardly a right-wing source: http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff01272010.html
Though again, this can’t be taken as an endorsement by the likes of Alexander Cockburn or senior Counterpunch staff any more than the blog post was an endorsement by the state-owned network.
So this is the equivalent of claiming that a statement was made directly by Gordon Brown because BBC picked up a blog post that was later deleted when it was misrepresented as a piece endorsed by the network itself.
However, the dissemination of anti-Chavez propaganda has an important role in discrediting his complaints about U.S. military buildup in the neighboring country of Colombia (and his claims in general, for that matter), since it could simply be depicted as another one of his laughable conspiracy theories. For example, this is the consequence of its dissemination as a standard talking point among anti-Chavez Internet posters:
It could also be used as a basis for military action against Venezuela if depicted as a hostile threat. For example, this is used by the likes of Investors.com to claim that,
“Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has gone off the deep end again, claiming the U.S. engineered the Haiti earthquake. It's a laughable malevolence, of course. But given the spectacular U.S. aid effort, it's also a threat.”
The propaganda machine at work.
This seems to have effectively been a complete fabrication. The claim first seems to have been made by a Venezuelan blogger in an anonymous post (made by someone with the username “patria grande”) on a state-owned network’s (Vive TV) website. This is then seized upon by an anti-Chavez Spanish newspaper called ABC (he’s not well-liked among some circles in Spain and is occasionally mocked with anti-Indian epithets), which reports a statement by the government itself, claiming that “The anti-American government of Venezuela, in his usual paranoia against the U.S. empire, says the earthquake in Haiti is ‘clearly the result of a U.S. Navy test’ and stresses that ‘a U.S. experimental earthquake devastated the Caribbean country.’”
This is then grabbed in the U.S. media by Fox News, which claims that the blog post is a “press release” and insinuates that Chavez himself is behind it, noting that “the Venezuelan strongman's state mouthpiece ViVe TV shot out a press release saying the 7.0 magnitude Haiti quake was caused by a U.S. test.” It’s also added that the story was taken down from the network’s website (the reason being that it was a blog post that had no actual endorsement by the network, as was being implied, but that wasn’t reported).
Russia Today then progresses beyond this to a claim that Chavez himself accused the U.S. of having engineered the earthquake, referring to the same ABC story and claiming that “Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez has once again accused the United States of playing God. But this time it's Haiti's disastrous earthquake that he thinks the U.S. was behind. Spanish newspaper ABC quotes Chavez as saying that the U.S. navy launched a weapon capable of inducing a powerful earthquake off the shore of Haiti. He adds that this time it was only a drill and the final target is ... destroying and taking over Iran.” ABC never actually quoted anything of the sort because no such statement existed. Regardless, this is then grabbed by various U.S. Internet sources:
OpEdNews - Diary: Hugo Chavez: Haiti Earthquake Caused by U.S. Tectonic Weapon Test
U.S. earthquake weapon used on Haiti says Chavez
Hugo Chavez Blames U.S. For Earthquake In Haiti, Claims “Tectonic Weapon” Was Used [Video Included] Hip-Hop Wired
Venezuelan president: US tectonic weapon caused Haiti quake Boing Boing
Interestingly, this even finds its way to Counterpunch, hardly a right-wing source: http://www.counterpunch.org/kozloff01272010.html
Though again, this can’t be taken as an endorsement by the likes of Alexander Cockburn or senior Counterpunch staff any more than the blog post was an endorsement by the state-owned network.
So this is the equivalent of claiming that a statement was made directly by Gordon Brown because BBC picked up a blog post that was later deleted when it was misrepresented as a piece endorsed by the network itself.
However, the dissemination of anti-Chavez propaganda has an important role in discrediting his complaints about U.S. military buildup in the neighboring country of Colombia (and his claims in general, for that matter), since it could simply be depicted as another one of his laughable conspiracy theories. For example, this is the consequence of its dissemination as a standard talking point among anti-Chavez Internet posters:
The Levite tribe of the hollow Earth did it.
Chavez is a certifiable kook no doubt - but he has some in America who agree with him, at least in part. Cynthia McKinney - remember her? Former Congresswoman of Georgia's 11th district who struck a cop because he dared stop her to ask her who she was and who, since being voted out of Congress, has been doing other kooky things, now writes that the Haiti relief is really an invasion. Kooks of a feather...?
Is this is not proof that Chavez is a babbling imbecile... I don't know what is.
It's time for Chavez to be committed to a lunatic asylum.
On the plus side, this will surely cause apoplexy among the daily kos crowd who took every opportunity to fellate Chavez when he was calling Bush the devil.
Sounds like a plot out of a Dan Brown book, lol
It could also be used as a basis for military action against Venezuela if depicted as a hostile threat. For example, this is used by the likes of Investors.com to claim that,
“Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has gone off the deep end again, claiming the U.S. engineered the Haiti earthquake. It's a laughable malevolence, of course. But given the spectacular U.S. aid effort, it's also a threat.”
The propaganda machine at work.