Via superb Venezuela blog DE comes this, a response by Chavez General Staff member Rear Admiral Luis Cabrera to a question about a possible Al Qaeda threat against Venezuela’s oil facilities:
“It should be seen how truthful that information is….it sounds illogical that Al Qaeda, that is against the North American imperialism would go against a State that is precisely fighting that hegemony, although differently.”
He went on to define “differently” as “with the Constitution, with legality, with morality and with the truth” as opposed to terrorism. Charming.
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COMMENTS / 8 COMMENTS
Younghusband added these pithy words on 16 Feb 07 at 12:02 pmOn a related note, the last edition of The Economist had an interesting article on the Muslim/Socialist alliance.
ckrisz added these pithy words on 16 Feb 07 at 2:53 pmNothing more than Socialists and leftists doing their bit to stick up for a religious minority which the Right has attacked. See the Dreyfus affair and the long identification of Jews with the Left (including the radically harmful conflation of Jews and Bolshevism).
Obviously there is a conflict between Islamism and leftism, but most leftists do not believe the majority of Muslims in Western societies are secret Islamists out to subsume Western civilization, a concept which is becoming received wisdom among certain xenophobic elements on the Right, especially in Europe.
Joe added these pithy words on 16 Feb 07 at 8:51 pmMaybe al Qaeda can learn something from Venezuela: it’s better to be a blowhard then to blow things up.
Curzon added these pithy words on 17 Feb 07 at 4:14 amckrisz: Also keep in mind the modern Jewish labor-socialist intellectual tradition, which is also an important factor.
Joe: Maybe!
snow added these pithy words on 17 Feb 07 at 10:42 am“Nothing more than Socialists and leftists doing their bit to stick up for a religious minority which the Right has attacked.”
Most conservatives recognize that the West is being attacked by a small minority of Muslim nuts (though sympathy for those nuts in the Muslim community is uncomfortably high in some places). It may be a good thing that reasonable leftists are trying to prevent extreme rightists from going overboard in a backlash, but that certainly hasn’t stopped some leftists from going overboard the opposite way and to support Muslim terrorist groups. Preventing a backlash against innocents is one thing, supporting the enemy is another.
A.E. added these pithy words on 18 Feb 07 at 12:06 amSupposedly there’s a bizarre Hezbollah offshoot operating in Latin America. There’s no link whatsoever to the Middle East. It’s just a mix of old leftist fighters and left-leaning students who are attempting to appropriate the Hezbollah “brand name” for themselves. The Institute for Counter-Terrorism has a report on it. It’s a socialist/Islamist fusion—-or at least a pathetic attempt at it considering the participants’ ignorance of Islamic practice.
A.E. added these pithy words on 18 Feb 07 at 4:04 amThere’s actually a bizarre Hezbollah offshoot operating in Latin America. No actual Hezbollah members involved—it’s a group of leftists who are trying to appropriate the Hezbollah “brand name.” The Institute for Counter-Terrorism has a report on it.
Lexington Green added these pithy words on 18 Feb 07 at 4:42 amThis guy is merely stating the obvious. Venezuela’s government has decided to be the enemy of the USA, and so has Al Qaeda. So they are objectively allies.
Ckrisz says: “Nothing more than Socialists and leftists doing their bit to stick up for a religious minority which the Right has attacked.”
No. This guy in Venezuela did not talk about Muslims as a religious minority, he specifically said that Al Qaeda is not going to attack his country because they are both fighting the USA. Socialists and Leftists are not sticking up for a religious minority when they specifically say that a terrorist organization is doing the same thing they are doing.
