Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

[kyonides]

Here's the article published at 13:15 on 11.11.10.

Normally, anyone here would say it's OK to get some concurrence in the zone to deliver an alternative for the Panama Canal and get some profits out of it, it what any good business man would do if they think the project is viable / possible, right? But what happens after you learn about the region where the new canal is supposed to be built? You'll possibly believe or sense there's something awkward, abnormal, especially if Chavez and Iran are behind it. Even so who should care about it if you don't live nearby? Well, people living in Panama, and now also in Costa Rica, will think it's a threat to their economy, or even their sovereignty. Besides who would ever like to let Venezuela and Iran, two states where people's rights aren't respected and protected as much as they should and both of their presidents could have been elected by (ab)using (of) their own fake votes machinery and other dirty tactics? Let's not forget that there's no way that Nicaragua will ever get the benefits from keeping a new canal open if Venezuela and Iran will take almost of their money and keep it in their own fat pockets.

I wonder why a country like Nicaragua, supported by Chavez and the Iranians, even dare to think they can use their neighbor's land to establish military camps, chop rain forests, build trenches and possibly hide antiaerial missiles silos and launchers and build a canal without the permission of the other nation, that already lost some ha of forests of a national park and never agreed with them on letting the Nicaraguan dredge the river and throw the rests of the former river bed on Costa Rican soil...

The worst thing about this is that the Nicaraguan partially convinced several American countries of thinking this is just another border conflict based on the lack of marks that clearly define the actual location of the border and not a reckless invasion of the territory of Costa Rica. Actually there's no border conflict but an invasion going on there, the international court in The Hague already determined in July 2009 that the now invaded sectors of the Calero island belongs to Costa Rica. So what's their excuse for a misbehavior like this one? I hope other countries soon realize that waiting any longer to get the Nicaraguan and the Costa Rican hold conversations where they could negotiate some treaty or anything else is nothing but "#$"#$"& since the Nicaraguan army is destroying an island, an ecosystem that doesn't belong to them and are getting closer to achieving their goal of building the damned canal. Let's not forget that there's almost no way the Nicaraguan will get the benefits from building and keeping it open if Venezuela and Iran will just take their money from them and keep it in their own fat pockets.

[toad]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

Personally I doubt very much that there is anything to this story. But if it were true, I couldn't blame Chavez even I wanted to. Heck, I'd do the same.

And while Chavez is the new bad kid on the block for the far right, Venezuela's human rights record is not all that different to that of countries they actively support. So chose your words wisely, kyonides.

Also ask yourself the question of who is reaping the benefits from the Panama canal. If you want to condemn this new venture (if indeed there is one) then you should use the same yard stick as for the old one - not a politically motivated motive.

Anyway, thanks for sharing this article.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

From the article:

The apparent engineering project was surprisingly placed under the supervision of Eden Pastora, better known as "Commandante Cero", a hero of the former Sandinista underground. This was a hint that the work had more than a simple engineering purpose.

Two weeks ago, Pastora went to a farm of a Costa Rican citizen in the Calero Island area and told the farm owner that the area belonged to Nicaragua. The farm owner objected and subsequently farm workers were allegedly beaten and farm animals were allegedly killed. The farm owner called Costa Rican police who arrived and reported to their commanders that Nicaraguan troops had entered Costa Rican territory and raised a Nicaraguan flag.

Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla last week called for a special session of the Organization of American States, located in Washington, but, after a day of talks, no resolution was reached. During the talks, Venezuela supported Nicaragua's position while Panama strongly opposed it.

Costa Rica has no army. Moral: those that beat their swords into plowshares will plow for those who do not.

The political mix is confusing. So, some musing...

China controls the Panama Canal, and their political influence in South America has risen dramatically since they took control of the canal and all that passes through it. Iran would have little trouble moving WMDs through the canal. China supports Marxist regimes and opposes those which favor personal freedoms over State control. Chavez is doing his best to convert his country into a Marxist State and, for all practical purposes, has succeeded. Iran is certainly not Marxist and its Theocracy violently opposes Western Democracies and Atheist States. Iran, Venezuela and Nicaragua make strange bed fellows. And, Venezuela is two countries away from Nicaragua and so has no direct land interest in the proposed canal since they can ship through the Panama canal.

So, IMO, their interest has to be political. What could those three states do? Iran would be a supplier of nuclear technology and weapons. Nicaragua, a latent Marxist state with definitely Marxist leaders, allied with Venezuela and both armed by Iran, could squeeze Costa Rica out of existence, using the pretext of border conflicts. Nuclear weapons possessed by the three would make intervention by the USA problematic, especially with a Chinese client state on Costa Rica's Southern border raising the risk of confrontation with China. Venezuela complicates matters by using their Iranian technology to sweep past Columbia. The USA continues to be over stretched with conflicts in two other locations. They are also over stretched financially. In a classic chess fork, they would have to drop their activities in Iraq and Afghanistan to focus on events South of their border. In the vacuum created by the withdrawal of US troops, the Iranian supported Taliban would sweep into Afghanistan and at the same time subvert the Pakistani government, creating a third radical fundamentalist state in the Mid-East. The Islamic radicals would then focus on Western India and northward into Southern Russia, while continuing agitation in Egypt and Turkey, two Islamic nations which are still democracies to some degree.

The US really doesn't need the Panama canal. They have several East-West interstate highways which can carry goods between the coasts much faster and more economical, and we now have massive cargo planes and rails to carry even bigger loads more quickly. China doesn't need the canal, and never did. They can send cargo boats East or West on open oceans to reach either coast of North America. Likewise, the USA can send cargo boats from either coast to reach any place in the world without going through the canal. Venezuela needs the Panama canal to send and receive goods from the Pacific region, but their real export is Marxism to South American states. Iran doesn't need the canal for commerce. Their primary export are Islamic families with a religiously inspired dogma to migrate to Western nations and multiply. Muslim clerics are already bragging that the Germany and the EU will be a Caliphate by 2050, and America not long afterwords. Time will tell.

[Detonate]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

We need a new "Monroe Doctrine".

[dibl]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

We need a new "Monroe Doctrine".

+1


and a President to deliver the news.

[skunk]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

In the vacuum created by the withdrawal of US troops, the Iranian supported Taliban would sweep into Afghanistan and at the same time subvert the Pakistani government, creating a third radical fundamentalist state in the Mid-East.

Last I heard, the Taliban were a group of fanatic Sunni muslims, with a religious hatred directed towards the regime in Iran, where the ruling majority is Shiite. The mad mullahs in Tehran are far more nervous about the Taliban winning in Afghanistan than we are.

Don't ever forget than the name Taliban is derived from the pashtun word for student -- all those students that the CIA armed and funded and trained to make roadside bombs and shoot down helicopters so they could defeat the Russians while Reagan was running the show.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

.....
Last I heard, the Taliban were a group of fanatic Sunni muslims, with a religious hatred directed towards the regime in Iran, where the ruling majority is Shiite. The mad mullahs in Tehran are far more nervous about the Taliban winning in Afghanistan than we are.

Don't ever forget than the name Taliban is derived from the pashtun word for student -- all those students that the CIA armed and funded and trained to make roadside bombs and shoot down helicopters so they could defeat the Russians while Reagan was running the show.

And, they've often claimed that the explosives in their EID's were carry-over from the materials supplied to them by the US during 1980's war against the USSR, but ABC reported that "Iran Caught Red-Handed Shipping Arms to Taliban".

Iran and the Taliban had been fierce enemies when the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, and their apparent collaboration came as a surprise to some in the intelligence community.

"I think their goal is to make it very clear that Iran has the capability to make life worse for the United States on a variety of fronts," said Seth Jones of the Rand Institute, "even if they have to do some business with a group that has historically been their enemy."

The coalition analysis says munitions recovered in two Iranian convoys, on April 11 and May 3, had "clear indications that they originated in Iran. Some were identical to Iranian supplied goods previously discovered in Iraq."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/po...105728878.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1779435/
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010...aks-iraq-docs/
Nigeria threatens action against Iran over arms smuggling

[Detonate]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

It seems unreasonable to think the Taliban is fighting us with munitions supplied by us to fight the Russians. Those would have been used up years ago. They must be receiving supplies from somewhere.

[kyonides]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

Yeah, from Russian (due to corruption and poverty or lack of better job opportunities for former soldiers, scientists, etc.) and some Islamic states that support terrorism or other unorthodox ways of dealing with foreign powers.

BTW, Venezuela, Equator (or Ecuador), Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua form a new organization (of Marxist-like states) that's known as the ALBA and are already trying to implement their own common currency. Venezuela could use Panama canal of course, but it wouldn't pay a cent to use one to export their products to other countries with coasts on the Pacific Ocean if Nicaragua, a minor ally, had one.

Besides building a new canal shouldn't also mean by default that they're granted the right to invade and keep military camps in foreign territory, especially if they know that invaded territory belongs to a small nation that has no army or navy and is no threat to the security of any other country in the world. Actually that region of Costa Rica was invaded even before the Costa Rican government stated the nation desperately needed the assistance of any friendly nation that could help them find survivors of Thomas or at least their bodies and distribute food, medicines and other stuff in regions that aren't accesible by land nowadays due to landslides, floods and destroyed roads and bridges. Obviously, Nicaragua wasn't one of those countries that were allowed to send humanitarian help to Costa Rica.

The Organization of American States already stated that Nicaragua should withdraw from Calero island and the Nicaraguan president is not interested in doing so because "they're fighting narcotraffic (drug smugglers)" (actually arresting and kidnapping ranchers and fishermen in Costa Rican seas and rivers) and pointed at Mexico, Colombia, Panamá and even Costa Rica of being narco-controlled states. I don't think I should be the one that needs to choose words wisely, the Nicaraguan should be the ones that should refrain from making blasfemous statements like these ones.

Iran is one of the states that already confessed they want the USA to disappear because they call it evil. That's why I'm sure they won't stop trying to knock the USA off balance in any way. Remember that Iran and Venezuela export oil so they can do a lot of damage to the world's economy!

[kyonides]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

From November the 20th on Nicaragua has an Iranian ambassador living there, dealing with the local politicians. And some people said Iran couldn't be interested in such a "forgotten" country...

[GreyGeek]

Re: Iran, Venezuela plan to build rival to Panama Canal

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend"

It makes strange bedfellows.