“Just do whatever you want. Nobody’s gonna stop you.”

This is yet another excellent interview, this one with John Kiriakou, who, like Ben Norton, is extraordinarily well-informed and extremely capable of imparting his knowledge. Lee Camp does a very good job of feeding him questions and topics.

LIVE: Former CIA Officer John Kiriakou on Venezuela, 9/11 & More! by Lee Camp − Unredacted Tonight (YouTube)

I learned the following about the mission to kidnap Maduro,

• The U.S. had zero casualties. Kiriakou says that that wouldn’t have been possible without complicity on the part of at least some Venezuelans, who were almost certainly on the CIA payroll.[1]
• He thinks that the vice president was probably in on it, simply because of how conciliatory she is after the kidnapping versus how fire-breathing she was before.[2]
• The U.S. went out of its way to bomb Chavez’s tomb, which had been turned into a political-information and tourist destination. WTF.
• The U.S. will not be “occupying” Venezuela. The country is bigger than Austria, Germany, and France combined, and it’s mostly jungle.
• Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves—centuries worth—but it’s also the dirtiest oil in the world.
• The U.S. administration seems to have gotten away with it, as the only other possible poles of the multipolar world have either not reacted—China—or have just expressed dissatisfaction—Russia.
• Congress hasn’t said or done anything.
• The U.S. populace doesn’t care about war crimes.
• Neither does anyone in Europe.
• Macron cheered it on!
• Merz needs more time to think about it.
• The Labour Secretary in Great Britain only chastised that this kind of thing might “embolden other countries.” She is so deliciously unaware of her own bias. But this is typical for Europeans: The problem is never the U.S. The problem is always whoever the U.S. says it is. So, this lady is dutifully afraid that the U.S.‘s master stroke of piracy and criminality might be emulated by the true criminals and enemies of the world: Um….checks with the U.S….ah, yes, of course: China, Russia, Iran, Cuba … who else? Oh, you’ll get back to me? Ok. I’ll wait here.
• Kiriakou: “Just do whatever you want. Nobody’s gonna stop you.”
• Jeffrey Sachs:

  “The issue before the council today is not the character of the government of Venezuela. The issue is whether any member state by force, coercion, or economic strangulation has the right to determine Venezuela’s political future or to exercise control over its affairs. This question goes directly to article 2, section 4 of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.”

Finally, here’s a long, worthwhile citation about refining capacity and how the U.S. has been mostly successful in controlling Venezuela’s ability to capitalize on its oil reserves by manipulating refining capacity.

“John KiriakouKiriakou: Until 2017, where were the only refineries on Earth that could clean Venezuelan oil? They were in Houston, Texas. And in 2017, the first Trump administration effectively shut down the Venezuelan oil industry. And we mothballed those refineries.

“But the world didn’t just screech to a halt. China and India immediately built their own refineries to handle Venezuela’s dirty oil. But the Chinese did it right. The Chinese built a refinery in China, but they also built one in the Caribbean. The Indians built one in India and they’ve been shipping Venezuelan oil to India to refine it there. The Chinese were ready to do it right there in the Caribbean. The refinery is built, but it hasn’t yet been opened.

“Well, now they don’t need a refinery because whatever oil Venezuela lifts is going to come to the United States. We don’t have to occupy the oil fields in order to control Venezuela’s oil or to control the economy. We just have to insist with a very stern look and a pointing finger that oil comes to the United States.

“So, why did I bring up Iran in this? First of all, this was a big “fuck you” to the Chinese. But secondly, virtually the only leverage that Iran has in international affairs today is the ability to close off the straight of Hormuz. Right? Something like 60% of the world’s oil flows out of the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. It’s […] four miles across. So it’s easy to block the straight of Hormuz.

“So in the event of you know something terrible happening, if the Iranians needed to do something to pressure Western economies—and especially the US economy—closing the straight of Hormuz presumably with Russian and/or Chinese consent would be the only thing that they have to do. Well, now we don’t need Iranian oil. We have all the Venezuelan oil we could use for the next 500 years. So, it further weakens Iran.”

I find this information useful and fascinating but I’m not quite convinced about the reasoning. I think he might be putting more thought into it than the Trump administration has. Isn’t the U.S. a net exporter of oil? Or is that fossil fuels, including natural gas? And if Venezuelan crude is so heavy, then what’s the point of getting that as well as the already heavy crude extracted from shale through fracking? And wouldn’t bringing more oil on the market depress prices, leading to a shale-fracking being economically unviable?

Now maybe I’m putting more thought into this than the Trump administration has. 🙃 At any rate, I still have a bunch of open questions, so I take this information with a pinch of salt.