Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua say the US is using the international relief operation in Haiti as a cover-up for a military takeover.
Bolivian President Evo Morales said that he will request an emergency UN meeting to reject what he calls the US military occupation of Haiti.
“It’s not right that the United States should use this natural disaster to invade and militarily occupy Haiti,” Morales told a press conference on Wednesday.
“If you have all these problems with the injured and the dead from the earthquake, you have to go there to save lives, and you don’t do that from a military standpoint,” he added.
An outspoken critic of US policies, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez also had accused Washington of occupying Haiti “under the guise of the natural disaster.”
Nicaragua also has taken a similar stance toward US with respect to the situation in Haiti.
The United States is deploying up to 20,000 troops to Haiti. US servicemen have taken control of the country’s international airport.
The Pentagon has sent one of its biggest aircraft carriers to Haiti, along with other navy and coast guard vessels.
On Friday, Arturo Valenzuela, the US assistant secretary of state for Western hemisphere affairs rejected that the US was occupying Haiti.
“Haiti is a sovereign country, everybody respects Haiti’s sovereign country, the United States respects Haiti’s sovereignty,” said Arturo Valenzuela.
Using presstv as source is just the same as using fox news or cnn: you just don’t do it. Well maybe cnn is better because at least they don’t sound retarded at their attempted “journalism”. Look at press’s polls and stories like “Report: US weapon test aimed at Iran caused Haiti quake”: http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116834§ionid=351020104 .
I check your blog daily and especially appreciate your original pieces but using Iran state’s sponsored propaganda as sources is annoying. Just because it’s coming from Iran doesn’t mean it’s true.
@anonymous: Just because it’s coming from Iran doesn’t mean it’s true.
ABSOLUTELY! This is why I did not re-print the quake weapon story. Press TV is not a source I trust, at least not more than any other source.
The value I see in Press TV is that it is not controlled by the USraelian empire, that is the main thing. I see it like a Telesur if you want, or a Russian Pravda. But that does not mean that I trust it. It just means that they will publish stuff which I might be interested in.
I will say that I do not see Press TV as being reflective of Iranian state propaganda, mainly because it has an English speaking audience. The real state propaganda in Iran will be directed at the Farsi language media.
Lastly, I think that comparing Press TV to FOX or CNN is a little bit of hyperbole. FOX and CNN are, I think, no better and no worse than the rest of the US corporate media and by that I mean that they are all part of a single propaganda machine.
Press TV is far more limited in its scope. I would compare it to Ha’aretz at least in its relationship to the goverment of Iran (or Israel, in the latter’s case).
I watched Press TV very carefully during the “Gucci revolution” recently and it was quite clear that Press TV took a very careful position, if only because they did not know who would prevail. But if they had been a dedicated government propaganda outlet they would have gone down the “thunder and lightening” road.
In conclusion I would only suggest the following: Just because it is coming from Iran does not mean that it’s NOT true either.
Kind regards,
VS