<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2003 By: Roy S. Carson

VHeadline.com editor & publisher Roy S. Carson writes: In the latest ploy by elements in Venezuela's rabid opposition, millions of computer-virus carrying emails have been sent scurrying across the face of the planet purporting to be from Venezuelan embassies and institutions in electronics guerrilla warfare labeled "background chatter" by foreign intelligence agencies.

In a curious parallel with an Iraqi pre-invasion scenario, the emails ... which mostly trace back to servers in Caracas and/or exile Cubans in Miami ... appear on the surface to come from Venezuelan embassies, consulates or other related institutions with partial messages where full context would be contained in attachment.  But beware!  If your firewall or virus protection software is not up-to-date, clicking on the attachment could introduce a computer-virus which will wipe out your system in minutes if not seconds.

During the month of May 2003, VHeadline.com Venezuela itself detected 14,405 attempted hacker intrusions of our website ... 10,216 of them were "high-rated" (meaning they were able to penetrate 20% through our firewall but not more than 40%) 33 were "priority" (meaning they penetrated further than 40% but not more than 55%).  In just 24 hours last week we recorded more than 200 attempts to introduce computer viruses through email attachments (which we unequivocally do NOT open unless we know the sender)

In any case all "friendly" files are virus-checked before they're opened but we prefer NOT to receive attachments of any kind unless they are clearly labeled from identifiable sources and known to be free from infection.

The indications therefore are that there are certain elements which wish to cause irreparable damage not only to VHeadline.com Venezuela as a truly independent service of news & views from Venezuela, but to thousands upon thousands of pro-constitutional Venezuelan internauts as well.

Why all the effort?  Why the attempt to muzzle what's truly happening in Venezuela ... why resort to Venezuela's particular brand of MBWs?

Of course, sabotage is nothing new to the Venezuelan political-economic scenario after (or even before!) last December-January's supreme failure by the opposition to bring the democratically-elected government to its knees.  Electronic warfare reached its all-time peak in the days and weeks prior to the April 11, 2002 coup d'etat which saw the imposition of Dictator-for-a-day Pedro Carmona Estanga.

The latest surge in subversive electronic warfare is simply the latest round in attempts by rogue elements in Venezuela's opposition to seek out and destroy anything that can even remotely be misinterpreted as negative to their psychotic hatred of the duly-elected Head of State and their total rejection of Constitutional Law and democratic order.

"If only these people would use their intellectual capacities and command of technology to help make Venezuela a better place in which to live, everybody might benefit," a Venezuelan security source tells VHeadline.com.  "We have to waste so much time and effort dealing with their sabotage that more useful resources and efforts must unfortunately deflected to this branch of crime prevention from routine maintenance of law and order."

How do security services know the electronic warfare originates with Venezuelan opposition elements?

IC sources say it's the logical conclusion from the level of IT know-how required to spread computer viruses while putting up a myriad of ruses to avoid detection.  "It's not exactly the level you'd expect to come from under-educated poor people in the barrio-slums: firstly they do not have the computers; secondly, they do not have the telecommunications capacity or level of education and thirdly, they are forced to spend so much time trying to eke out a living that they simply would not have enough time or resources to even make a feeble attempt at it.

On the other hand, hot-beds of anti-government dissent at leading universities, combined with funding from anti-government sources in private industry, the corrupt trade union movement and traditional commercial and government black bag operations out of the United States are the most logical origins of subversive perpetrators who are already being fast-tracked for investigation by Venezuelan State Political & Security (DISIP) and Military Intelligence (DIM) experts.

"It used to be that Spanish-language internet mailing lists such as Atarraya were used to back-channel disinformation but this has been superceded over the last few years by offshore online chatrooms which mostly function as communication channels for the already anti-government converted to preach hatred to like-minded souls."

While Venezuelan IC keeps an eye on the chatrooms and has been successful in logging thousands of the most vitriolic abusers, there is no intent to take action against dissenters until they reach the point where they factually break the law ... "just like the CIA, FBI and other law enforcement agencies in the USA and elsewhere, we keep records of fringe elements and get to know exactly who we are dealing with against the possibility that they go 'loco' and take their obsessions into another sphere!"

"There's a tremendous MBW capacity on the Venezuelan internet!"

MBW?  Male Bovine Waste, otherwise known as BS!

Meanwhile, using the latest technology and basic common sense in email and other communications procedures, we at VHeadline.com will continue to endeavor to defend freedom of speech and press freedoms as they are enshrined in the 1999 Venezuelan Constitution and international fora.

Roy S. Carson VHeadline.com Venezuela

Friday, June 6, 2003 Posted: 1240 GMT ( 8:40 PM HKT)

What a sad sight these opposition deputies are! -- President Hugo Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN-AP) -- President Hugo Chavez accused opposition legislators on Thursday of using violence to "sabotage" the discussion of pending laws. His accusation comes a day after a scuffle broke out between rival lawmakers.

"What a sad sight these opposition deputies are! They go to parliament to sabotage a session when patriotic deputies are trying to approve laws necessary for the country," said Chavez.

Pro-government and opposition lawmakers exchanged insults, shoved each other and some even traded punches in the National Assembly on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a crowd of "Chavistas," as the president's supporters are known, staged a rowdy protest outside the legislature.

Opposition lawmakers accused the ruling party, which controls 84 of the unicameral assembly's 165 seats, of attempting to amend the debate rules without taking the opposition's observations into account.

The change in rules, they argued, was meant to speed up approval of a law to regulate what television and radio stations can and cannot broadcast. Critics say the legislation could be used to quash freedom of expression.

Ruling party lawmakers convoked a special congressional session to be held in El Calvario, a park in a poor and dangerous downtown Caracas district, on Friday.

The opposition said they will not attend the session because it was not approved with a required simple majority but decided unilaterally by assembly president Francisco Ameliach, a close Chavez ally.

'An ambush'?

Pedro Alcantara, a member of the Democratic Action opposition party, said the ruling party was planning "an ambush" against the opposition by armed Chavez supporters during the session in El Calvario.

The district is generally considered pro-Chavez.

Opposition leaders are occasionally harassed, and sometimes even attacked, by radical Chavez backers as they enter and leave the legislature. On Wednesday, two dozen opposition lawmakers chose to wait for police escorts and an end to the protest before leaving the building.

The ruling party plans to vote to amend the debate rules on Friday.

In a related development, ruling party lawmaker Nicolas Maduro said government opponents are planning to bribe a pro-Chavez lawmakers in an attempt to break the "Chavista" majority.

"We have information they are offering one million dollars so a deputy leaves the country," said Maduro. He refused to give details of the alleged plan.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, April 28, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

National Assembly deputy Tarek William Saab has once again become the butt of lunatic opposition supporters, as he went for a coffee in a store on Avenida Francisco de Miranda. A group of women from the Parque Canaima apartments encircled him, calling him an assassin and shouting anti-Chavez slogans. 

"Since I didn't leave, they became even angrier and mustered supporters via cell phones ... I was surrounded by employees from neighboring offices." 

The deputy's wife and children were insulted and a group of men threatened to give him a sound beating ... "it was not just an example of intolerance but bestiality." 

Saab has thanked the Chacao Police  for rescuing him but adds that he was annoyed that one police agent took a photo when he was being led away circled by police cordon. 

The Movimiento Quinta Republica (MVR) deputy was manhandled and physically threatened when arrested during the April 12 coup last year ... himself and his children have been subject to jibes and fear several times ... one such incident took place in a Caracas restaurant.

<a href=www.heraldo.es>Heraldo.es

"Venimos desde hace mucho tiempo estudiando cada guerra, cada tecnología y cada cosa de lo que hay que hacer", dijo Castro, en referencia a la caída del régimen iraquí. "Nosotros estamos preparados".

COLPISA. La Habana | Fidel Castro aseguró que Cuba se enfrenta a "provocaciones que pretenden conducir a un conflicto y a una agresión militar de Estados Unidos, pero no bajamos la guardia un minuto, ni un día, ni un segundo". El presidente cubano aseguró que si el país es ocupado "sería la guerra de los 100 años". Mientras, la Iglesia Católica, organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos y familiares de los tres ejecutados el viernes protestaron por la aplicación de la pena capital.

En los últimos 40 años, las relaciones entre La Habana y Washington nunca fueron fáciles, pero se resintieron considerablemente tras la llegada a la isla, el pasado mes de septiembre, de James Cason, el nuevo jefe de la Sección de Intereses, quien criticó abiertamente al régimen y apoyó a los disidentes.

Ante la escalada de la tensión, Castro aprovechó una intervención durante un acto conmemorativo del golpe de estado de Venezuela para advertir que ante una posible ocupación militar , "la resistencia durará 100 años". "Venimos desde hace mucho tiempo estudiando cada guerra, cada tecnología y cada cosa de lo que hay que hacer", dijo en referencia a la caída del régimen iraquí. "Nosotros estamos preparados", enfatizó.

El presidente cubano, añadió que conocen el precio de una guerra "y no la desea", pero insistió en que "este es un país que lo pueden ocupar todo lo que quieran", pero "sería la guerra de los 100 años". Castro , de 76 años, recordó que Estados Unidos ha intentado, sin éxito, durante 44 años liquidar la Revolución pero dijo que no hay que "bajar la guardia". Según Castro , los estadounidenses pueden hacer "todas las guerras y crímenes que quieran", pero "no saben nada, no tienen talento político, no pueden ganar una sola batalla política, lo que tienen es poder, fuerza, tecnología".

<a href=usinfo.state.gov>Washington File 03 April 2003

(Says assassination of journalists remains serious problem in hemisphere) (620)

Washington -- The assassination of journalists continues to represent a serious problem for freedom of expression and information in the Americas, says a human rights officer for the Organization of American States (OAS).

Eduardo Bertoni, whose title is Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, said in a report released April 2 that assassinating journalists violates the right to life and "leaves all other social communicators in a state of extreme risk and vulnerability."

Bertoni said that "sadly," many of the crimes against journalists go unpunished. Freedom of expression, he continued, "is one of democracy's most cherished rights. Yet practices unfortunately exist in the hemisphere that seek to restrict it."

During 2002, Bertoni said 10 media workers were assassinated in OAS member states while they were exercising their professional duties. In addition, Bertoni said the "arbitrary use of criminal slander and libel charges to stifle criticism of civil servants continued and scant progress was noted regarding the promulgation of laws to protect the right of access to information, a matter vital to transparency in public affairs."

Bertoni's findings follow the March 31 release of the U.S. State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2002, which documented that freedom of expression and freedom of the press are being restricted in such countries as Cuba, Venezuela, and Haiti.

In Cuba, for example, the State Department said the regime of Fidel Castro continued to harass, threaten, arbitrarily arrest, detain, imprison, and defame journalists and other members of independent professional associations. It also said Cuba limited the distribution of foreign publications and news, and maintained strict censorship of news and information to the public.

In Venezuela, the Department said press freedom "deteriorated significantly" during 2002 and that violence and threats of violence against the media increased markedly, as did government intimidation. As a result, self-censorship by the Venezuelan media was thought to be widespread.

Intimidation of journalists also continued to be a problem in Haiti. The Department reported attacks on journalists by supporters of the Haitian government, and that the country's legal system provided limited protection or redress. Journalists were accused of destabilizing the government and often subjected to anonymous threats of kidnapping and murder, while police and government officials often failed to protect journalists during civil unrest. The Department pointed out that the OAS said the "murder of journalists in Haiti, along with a large number of complaints regarding harassment and threats against journalists, the media, and other social communicators, have created an unfavorable environment for freedom of expression."

Bertoni, the OAS special rapporteur, praised those countries which have provided financial backing and other support to strengthen his office's activities --a list which includes the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, and Sweden. Such backing, he said, is "indispensable" to the office's "proper functioning and execution of mandated activities."

The official concluded in his report that freedom of expression remains restricted in many countries of the region. Democracy, he said, "demands a sweeping freedom of expression, which cannot take root under the shadow of state mechanisms still in place to curb its unfettered exercise."

To improve the situation, Bertoni recommended that assassinations, kidnappings, threats, and intimidation against social communicators be investigated. He also called for revoking laws concerning criminal contempt, defamation, libel, and slander, and the passing of legislation to allow for access to information.

Bertoni congratulated journalists, social spokesmen, and defenders of human rights, among others, who have "demonstrated courage and determination in their struggle not to be muzzled in the exercise of this most fundamental right" to freedom of expression.

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

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