Defector: Chavez gave $1 million to al-Qaida

Recent high-level Venezuelan military defectors say President Hugo Chavez gave $1 million to al-Qaida shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States.

Air Force Maj. Juan Diaz Castillo, formerly a pilot for the Venzuelan leader, was smuggled to Miami last week where he is warning the U.S. of what he calls Chavez's dismissal of the constitution and his ties to terrorism in collaboration with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

"I must warn America about Chavez," Diaz said. "He is a danger, not just to his own people but to the whole region."

Castillo is one of more than 100 military officers who have quit the Chavez regime as the president tries to hang on to power amid a month-long general strike that has cut off oil exports, his primary source of income.

For the past 77 days, many of the officers have relocated to Plaza Altamira, a major square in Caracas, vowing to protest along with thousands of Venezuelans until Chavez leaves. Calling themselves members of a pro-democracy resistance movement against Chavez, the officers have set up a website in English, MilitaresDemocraticos.com, through which they warn of the president's alleged efforts to make the country a terrorist state.

Among the resisters are the former military attache in Washington, Enrique Medina Gomez; former head of the navy, Hector Ramirez; ex-U.N. attache for Venezuela, Carlos Alfonzo Martinez; the inspector general of the National Guard; and nearly 30 other generals.

In addition to his purported al-Qaida links, Chavez has traveled to Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, China and Libya to build ties and is supporting FARC, the revolutionary groups in Colombia opposed by U.S. troops.

Diaz says Chavez transferred $1 million to the Taliban through Venezuelan Ambassador Walter Marquez in New Delhi, designating $900,000 to al-Qaida for its relocation efforts and $100,000 to the then-Afghan government for food and clothing, according to MilitaresDemocraticos.com.

The story was the top headline in Sunday newspapers across Venezuela, further galvanizing popular resistance to Chavez.

Over the weekend, threats on Diaz's family at his home in Valencia, Venezuela, prompted him to have them moved to an undisclosed location with the help of colleagues in the resistance movement, according to an American businessman who helped bring Diaz to the U.S.

Diaz is a "man of highest integrity," who has risked his life to speak out, Shane Conner told WND.

Conner has made numerous trips to Venezuela in the past two years and developed close contacts among some of the military resisters. The owner of ki4u.com, he sells radiation protection equipment to governments, militaries and private individuals.

Diaz, who piloted the president's Airbus jet, said he was put in charge of an initial plan in September 2001 to transport cargo to the Taliban via three Hercules C-130 airplanes. According to Diaz, however, Chavez's chief of staff decided instead to only send money after learning that the cost of transportation outweighed the value of the goods.

Asked for a response to claims of Venezuela's ties to al-Qaida and terrorism, the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said that as a rule it does not comment on allegations of that kind.

Diaz said that Chavez sent the aid to open a direct channel of communication with al-Qaida.

"It was a way of telling Osama bin Laden that he had a friend in Hugo Chavez," he said, according to MilitaresDemocraticos.com.

The Venezuelan leader had tried unsuccessfully to contact al-Qaida through Libya, Diaz said.

The military resisters note that Chavez disappeared during the 48 hours after the 9-11 attacks. After emerging, he told foreign reporters he opposed terrorism but said on Venezuelan television that the "United States brought the attacks upon itself, for its arrogant imperialist foreign policy."

Chavez expressed admiration for the attacks in private, according to Gen. Pedro Pereira, formerly the highest-ranking general in the Venezuelan air force and still a Chavez loyalist in 2001.

"With 9-11, bin Laden showed the whole world that he was a force to be reckoned with. This impressed Hugo to no end," the general remembered, according to MilitaresDemoraticos.com.

The day after the attack, Chavez supporters held a celebration in which they burned the American flag in the main square of Caracas.

After scrapping the plan to transport supplies to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, responsibility for the mission was handed over from Diaz to Carlos Otaiza, brother of Army Capt. Elieza Otaiza Castillo, former head of Chavez's secret service.

Diaz, though he no longer was in charge, still "saw a lot of what was going on" from his vantage point in the presidential palace.

The cash was transferred in late September to Marquez in India, since Venezuela does not have representation in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Diaz said that on Oct. 3, 2001, a Venezuelan government representative contacted Kris Janowski of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Pakistan to inform him of a humanitarian delivery for the Taliban to create a cover story for the cash designated for al-Qaida.

"In the last few months of 2001, and all throughout 2002, more and more Arabs started arriving" in Caracas, Diaz said, according to MilitaresDemocraticos.com.

The Arabs received special treatment from Chavez, Otaiza and Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, former head of the Interior and Justice Ministry under Chavez and now, according to the Venezuelan press, a "party boss in the Chavez political machine" who has operated under multiple identities.

Diaz, noting that revelation of these facts and others put military resisters in even greater danger, said an attempt was made on his life on Dec. 16 by Chavez's secret service, the DISIP, on the freeway between Caracas and his home in Valencia.

The major went underground and was smuggled out of the country in the hull of a fishing boat on Christmas Eve by friends in the resistance movement. He stayed in Curazao, in the Dutch Antilles, until he could arrange safe passage to the United States.

Chavez is growing increasingly desperate in his hold on power, Diaz says, refusing to allow free and democratic elections and vowing to stay in power until "at least 2021."

"Referendum to remove me? That is not possible; don't waste time. I will not go in a referendum. I say that to the country and the world. It's like this: I won't go," Chavez said in November.

"It sounds bizarre, but Chavez is a bizarre man," Diaz said, according to MilitaresDemocraticos.com. "He was already starting to go off the rails in 2001, and he wanted direct contacts to all the major terror groups in the world."

Two Miami radio-show hosts known for playing outrageous pranks on the air got Chavez on a private line yesterday by pretending that Castro was calling him from Havana, the Miami Herald reported.

Conner said the military resisters' stakeout at Plaza Atalmira has focused and re-energized a resistance that became dispirited and fragmented after the failed coup attempt in April.

On his most recent trip, last month, Conner described the people who represent the resistance in the square as "elderly couples with canes, families and kids with bicycles, all waving the flag."

Conner points out that as the world's fifth largest oil producer, many Venezuelans enjoy a prosperous lifestyle but have seen it erode under the past five years of Chavez rule. Even the poor, who were Chavez's base of support, are turning against him as promises go unfufilled.

Nevertheless, while the dire economic situation was once the focus of opposition, since the military began making its revelations, Chavez's purported terrorist ties and "Cubanization" of the country have taken center stage.

"These people know exactly what they are up against," Conner said. "Most of the banners have a theme of 'No Cuba here!'"

"They love their country and are trying to get it back," he said. "Their weapons are their voices and banging pots and pans."

The protests have not gone on without a backlash, however. Conner said that on the evening of Dec. 6, he heard what sounded at first like fireworks from the crowd below his hotel room overlooking Plaza Altamira.

Suddenly, he realized the sounds were not part of the protest as a dozen staccato shots soon were followed by screams. When he looked out the window, he saw hundreds of unarmed civilians running and diving for cover.

To his amazement, however, less than 40 minutes later, about one-third of the original crowd of 2,000 came back into the open, while the blood was "still wet and glistening," and defiantly resumed their program, he said.

Noting that cameras relayed the scene around the nation, Conner said he hoped the event would later be seen as the turning point for the end of the Chavez regime.

The recently published global attitude survey by the Pew Research Center in Washington shows 82 percent of Venezuelans have a favorable attitude toward the U.S., the highest of all 44 countries polled.

Finally, starting to get a little traction here now, this story was THE headline news all across Venezuela Sunday...

Pass it on now to everybody/anybody you can think of in the govt and media and we can help avert another Cuba that'd be 1,000 times worse than Castro's wildest dreams!

I spent a lot of time with Major Castillo last month at the Altamira Plaza in Caracas, along with the other top Venezuelan officers who have left Chavez recently. I found them to be men of integrity who are deeply concerned about the fate of their country under the Chavez regime and they have put their lives on the line to expose the attempted Cubanization of it by him. They, IMO, need to be heard far & wide. (See my first posting on FR from down there here.)

More on why what happens in Venezuela should matter to us here in the USA, well beyond just stable oil supplies, is also here at these recent FR posts of articles direct from Chavez top military officers who have recently left him in protest of his actions/plans/goals. They know what's really going on, from the inside, and are now telling all...

More Facts Uncovered in Chavez - Al Qaeda Collaboration

9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge

Terror Threat from Venezuela: Al Queda Involved

Chavez bio-weapons lab in Venezuela for Saddam and Castro

And, still more direct from a new english version of their own web site by clicking this banner below...

-Shane

The officer offered to have Chávez call Castro back, but the secretary explained that the Cuban was in a secret location and could not be phoned. The officer gave the radio station the number of Chávez's private line.

''Hello Fidel!'' booms Chávez.

''Did you receive my letter?'' asks Castro.

''Of course I received it,'' replies Chavez. ``I spoke with Germán.''

''I'm all set to collaborate with you,'' Castro says.

As the nonsequiturs start, El Vacilón fakes trouble on the line to disguise the rejoinders that don't make sense.

''Yes, brother, how's it going?'' Chávez asks.

''I'll do what you're asking me to,'' Castro replies.

''I don't understand,'' a bewildered Chávez says.

''But I'm going to be harmed, I confess to you,'' Castro says.

Silence from Chávez. Castro goes on: ``Everything's set for Tuesday.''

''Everything's set for Tuesday,'' Chávez repeats, obviously befuddled. ``I don't understand.''

Santos then breaks in and announces they were calling from Miami. Complete silence from Chávez. Santos launches into a tirade: ''Terrorist! Animal! Murderer!'' plus a few choice four-letter nouns. ``You're finishing off the Venezuelan people!''

Santos then hangs up.

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