Gunson & Ekvall, Inc.?
A Brit Reporter's Undisclosed Venezuela Conflicts
With Unabridged Letters from Phil Gunson and Eric Ekvall
by Al Giordano of NarcoNews
December 23, 2002
First, we will introduce the actors in this report on what
happens when foreign media organizations don't apply enough
scrutiny on their English-language correspondents in Latin
America.
Eric Ekvall is a political consultant in Venezuela who used
to work for the state-owned oil company PdVSA and the Ford
Motor Company. He popped up last April, during the brief
coup d'etat in Venezuela, defending Dictator-for-a-Day
Pedro Carmona in an article by Juan Forero of the New York
Times.
Phil Gunson refers to himself as a "freelance
correspondent" in Venezuela. He has written during the past
month for the Miami Herald, the St. Petersburg Times, MSNBC
(online only) and the Independent of London. He has also
been interviewed recently on NPR and on WAMU radio in
Washington DC about the events in Venezuela (parts of those
interviews are quoted below).
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The two men have a relationship related to Gunson's
"journalism" that - after they were given the opportunity
to come clean by Narco News - neither Gunson nor Ekvall
were willing to disclose.
Additionally, Gunson has an undisclosed conflict of
interest, or at least the appearance of a conflict of
interest (all journalistic codes of ethics prohibit such
nondisclosure), with the key source that he quoted last
April 11th to blame the still unsolved sniper
assassinations of that day on supporters of the government
of President Hugo Chávez in Venezuela: His source for that
uncorroborated statement - part of the justification for
the coup d'etat - was Eurídice Ledezma, who Gunson has told
sources (but did not disclose in his article) was his
former girlfriend; a rapidly pro-coup reporter in
Venezuela, also - coincidentally? - a vocal defender of
Dictator-for-a-day Pedro Carmona.
Asked about this apparent conflict, Gunson sent a
"response" to Narco News (published in full and uncensored
below) in which he issued no denial or clarification of
that serious allegation. He simply did not address it at
all.
There are other serious problems with Gunson's reports out
of Venezuela last April and again this month. Many of his
statements appear to us to have been made in a knowingly
false manner.
More - a lot more - about Gunson in a moment...
Prologue: Ekvall's Para-Journalists
There is a fourth player in Venezuela (who like Gunson and
Ekvall is not a native Venezuelan) who has been a party to
some of these correspondences: Michael Rowan, former
business associate of Ekvall and columnist for the pro-coup
daily El Universal in Caracas.
Last June, I received a letter from Rowan, claiming to be
writing a column for El Universal, asking me how I make my
living and from what sources. Of course I answered him
right away. I think this is a question that every
individual in public life - including journalists - should
answer, and I answered Rowan immediately: those sources are
already disclosed on our links and disclosures page:
While offering mine, I also asked Rowan to make his own
disclosure: Why, if he was a newspaper columnist for El
Universal, did he send me his letter from the same email
address used by partisan political consultant Erik Ekvall?
And didn't he see a conflict-of-interest in using a shared
email account with a political spin-doctor?
Rowan replied that his business relationship with Ekvall
was strictly in the past, and that the shared email account
was merely a holdover from that relationship. The question
from Narco News must have concerned both men, because both,
soon after, changed their email addresses.
Rowan also replied, aggressively, accusing me of being
unwilling to disclose my sources of income because I had
simply given him a link to where the information had
already been disclosed to all readers, reporters and
columnists, including him.
Noticing that Rowan wasn't the brightest bulb on the block,
I then took the careful time to spell it all out for him;
repeating, specially for him, the same facts that already
appeared on our links page. Since I live below the poverty
level by United States standards, and own no house, no car,
no credit card, and put virtually every cent I can muster
into the work of Narco News anyway, I also had some fun
explaining to Rowan that I sometimes make a few extra bucks
playing my Dobro guitar and singing in nightclubs.
Rowan, finding no scandal to write about, then claimed he
was going to write a nice little column about my guitar and
me, and people who dedicate our lives to our principles.
But to paraphrase Aimee Mann, I'd rather be played by a
pro: Of course I did not believe him - I figured he was
merely on an intelligence gathering mission for Ekvall and
whatever undisclosed clients are behind Ekvall - and my
skepticism was confirmed when Rowan's supposed column never
appeared.
Fast forward to October 2002: Ekvall pops up on the isle of
Jamaica, during the respected and important Mind States
conference "for a consciousness-expanding seminar unlike
anything you've ever experienced before," where one of my
disclosed supporters was also slated to attend. There in
Negril, Jamaica, Ekvall asked a lot of questions about Al
Giordano and did his usual lobbying-complaining about me as
well. I find it extremely entertaining that Ekvall can
afford to go to Jamaica to this conference (the listed cost
was $1,300; well worth the price; wish I could have
afforded it) on entheogenic plants and hallucinogenic
drugs, even as Ekvall claims that Chávez has destroyed the
economy of Venezuela.
Then came the December 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela.
Apparently, whatever Ekvall was doing in Negril, Jamaica,
he didn't take any of the lessons to heart, nor was his
consciousness sufficiently expanded, obviously. Because
despite the blood of 50 Venezuelans on his hands still from
last April - through his defense of their butcher, Carmona
-Ekvall is back at the pro-coup spinning wheel once again.
Gunson & Ekvall, Inc.?
Ekvall showed up on the Narco News radar screen again this
month, via a Letter to the Editor sent December 19th by
"freelance correspondent" Phil Gunson.
Gunson sent an email addressed "dear narco news" to
complain about Narco News Associate Publisher Dan Feder's
December 18, 2002 report: AP's One-Sided Venezuela
Coverage: On 'Desk Reporters' Who Phone-in the Spin.
That letter from Gunson is published, uncensored and in
full, below.
I found the letter curious, additional to its weak
arguments, because Feder's report did not mention Gunson
(and Gunson's response was very defensive: perhaps he took
the reference to desk reporters who phone-in the spin a bit
personally?) and also because of who he Cced it to:
political consultant Erik Ekvall.
I thought, "what the hell is a 'journalist' doing Ccing his journo-to-journo letter to a partisan political
consultant?" Others - like Authentic Journalist Lucy
Komisar - also received a copy of the letter; whether that
was Ekvall acting as Gunson's consultant, spinning the
letter, I don't know: Neither of these guys, offered the
opportunity, would answer my question about the details,
although both sent me emails that indicated they had
received the questions.
I had already noted that Gunson's "reporting" - and
interviews he gave on two United States radio programs -
had reflected Ekvall's pro-coup spin on recent history in
Venezuela. The two seem to speak with one voice. I found
this quite curious.
Upon further investigation, I found that Gunson had, last
April, quoted Ekvall's spin on Venezuela's state-owned oil
company, without disclosing that Ekvall had previously been
a consultant to that company.
Upon still further investigation, I found another
undisclosed conflict of interest in a very key report by
Gunson during the coup last April in Venezuela: that his
sole source for an uncorroborated accusation of a political
assassination was - according to what Gunson told sources,
and that I'm told appears in a book about Venezuela by
Richard Gott - Gunson's former girlfriend, Eurídice
Ledezma, a rabidly pro-coup journalist and defender - like
Ekvall - of Dictator-for-a-Day Carmona, whom she calls
"Pedro."
The harmony in which each of these players sing - Ekvall,
Gunson, Rowan, and Ledezma - in favor of the dictator
Carmona's coup d'etat, with knowing distortions in their
published statements regarding Chávez and Venezuela, is
very troublesome precisely because the nature of these
relationships is undisclosed.
Even more troublesome, is the fact that once offered the
opportunity to clear the air on their undisclosed
conflicts-of-interest, both Ekvall and Gunson didn't come
clean. (At least Rowan, last June, admitted he had been a
business associate of Ekvall's. But Ekvall and Gunson have
simply stonewalled.)
Troublesome, too, is that in their "responses" to my offers
to disclose and come clean, the script of both Gunson and
Ekvall's letters to me this week is virtually identical.
Both are published in full and uncensored below. Now let's
examine their mutual party line.
Through the Looking Glass
Gunson has compared, in his published work, the situation
in Venezuela to Alice in Wonderland, that wonderful Lewis
Carroll story that begins Chapter IV with Alice
encountering two identical characters, which remind us of
Ekvall and Gunson: Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
In the case of Ekvall and Gunson, it's just as hard to pull
them apart.
THEY were standing under a tree, each with an arm round the
other's neck, and Alice knew which was which in a moment,
because one of them had "DUM" embroidered on his collar,
and the other "DEE". 'I suppose they've each got "TWEEDLE"
round at the back of the collar,' she said to herself.
They stood so still that she quite forgot they were alive,
and she was just going round to see if the word "TWEEDLE"
was written at the back of each collar, when she was
startled by a voice coming from the one marked "DUM".
'If you think we're wax-works,' he said, 'you ought to pay,
you know. Wax-works weren't made to be looked at for
nothing. Nohow.'
'Contrariwise,' added the one marked "DEE", 'if you think
we're alive, you ought to speak.'
Like Alice, I wondered if these two dumplings were alive or
if they were what they appeared to be. And so I spoke to
Ekvall and Gunson. I asked them questions: Like a reporter
does. I gave each of them the chance to respond, to clear
the air.
Ekvall fired off two responses, offering little to no
disclosure, which he ended by declaring:
"End of conversation."
Gunson got is response in an hour or so before deadline,
which he concluded with:
"This correspondence is over."
Touchy, eh? It was Gunson who started the conversation,
after all. He dragged Ekvall into it, but he doesn't want
to continue now that he's been asked some important
questions about his undisclosed conflicts. No problem:
We'll continue it with Civil Society.
The similarities in their "responses" are striking.
- Both Gunson and Ekvall refused to answer legitimate
questions or disclose their conflicts and potential
conflicts.
Ekvall: "Al, I owe you no explanations whatsoever about how
I make my living, who my clients are, or how I choose to
spend my leisure time."
Gunson: "I'm not stupid enough to lend credence to your
show-trial (or your unpleasant little publication) by
taking part in it."
Keep in mind, kind readers: Gunson - "stupid enough" to
have gotten caught in two undisclosed conflicts of interest
this year regarding his Venezuela reporting - demands
answers from others as a reporter. But when he's asked
questions, he turns into the proverbial guy who tries to
cover the camera with his hands. Ekvall, last June, sicked
Michael Rowan on me from Ekvall's email address, demanding
that I answer their questions - I answered them
forthrightly, of course, not having anything to hide. But
turn the table, and these guys become whining defensive
hypocrites
- Both Gunson and Ekvall, in lieu of offering full
disclosure, chose instead to play make-believe
psychiatrists (this was my favorite part of their spin)...
Gunson: "I really don't know what unresolved childhood
traumas lie behind your desperate need to be taken
seriously and to bring other people down. And I have
neither the time, the inclination nor the professional
skills to help you get over them."
Ekvall: "I understand the business about the absent,
irresponsible, derelict-in-his-duties father, and how this
can lead to persecution-cum-crusader complexes, and how the
whole stew entrains this zealous desire to trash authority
under all its guises.... In short, I can relate."
Huh? I never mentioned my childhood or other such personal
matters to either of these guys. Why would I? I think
Ekvall probably bases that on my mention last summer, in an
essay on Eminem, that like many people I'm the product of a
single-mom household. The rest of his fantasy he can look
up in his self-help books under the word "projection."
Gunson, meanwhile, outdoes even Ekvall on the "projection"
front: He spent April and December of this year trying to
take down an elected president by creating the simulated
conditions for a coup d'etat, but he accuses me of trying
"to bring other people down."
Oh, right, I forgot: This is Wonderland: So that's why I'm
smiling like the Cheshire Cat?
- Deepening their practice of pop-psychology, both Ekvall
and Gunson wrote me out prescriptions for their diagnoses:
Ekvall:
"you ought to get more sleep, relax, go for a walk,
play the guitar more (I'm a guitar player myself), listen a
little less to Eminem and a little more to, oh, The
Incredible String Band, for example."
Gunson:
"First of all, you really need to start taking
yourself less seriously. Self-importance combined with
paranoia can lead to stress-related diseases. Chill out a
little. I've come across people like you before, Al, though
never in such an advanced stage of decomposition. The
trouble with the internet is that it gives ignorant
loudmouths a platform to address the whole world."
Kind reader, did you catch that hostility to the Internet -
and most people who use it - on Gunson's part?
"The trouble
with the internet," he complains,
"is that it gives ignorant loudmouths a platform to address the whole world."
Actually, Gunson should know, the whole world tunes in or
out as it wishes. To read something on the World Wide Web,
you have to actively go look for it. When millions of
readers have looked for and found Narco News, its not as if
our coverage has been forced upon them; they tune in here
voluntarily.
Gunson clearly misses the good old days, when simulating
reporters like him could control the story as Power wanted
it told from any Third World outpost. The real "trouble
with the Internet" is that it has provided all of us with
more ability to scrutinize Gunson's (and others') knowingly
false reports, and to correct them. (The Internet also led
us to discover him in the act of an undisclosed
relationship with political consultant Ekvall... well,
understandable that Gunson neither likes nor understands
the Internet, especially not this month.)
Listen to their elitism: The world was a better place
without the Internet nor Eminem, they say: Violent coups
d'etat, good; Internet and rap music, bad. Wonderland,
indeed!
It's also a distinctly elitist form of speaking in "code"
to dismiss working-class or poor critics with psychobabble,
and thus avoid the merits of the critique. The problem for
them is that their "code" is well understood by the working
and poor majorities in every land.
Well, anyway, Narco News has sure got the hornet's nest
stirred up. These guys are like a tea-party salon full of
blue-haired old biddies when a mouse runs in the room: all
up on their chairs screaming!
- Ekvall and Gunson, while describing Narco News as so
"little" and "laughingstock" as not to matter, then
portrayed themselves as victims being "bullied" and "picked
on" by The Little Website That Could.
Gunson:
"are you brave enough to publish this in full? or
are you just a playground bully?"
Ekvall:
"Go find someone else to pick on."
Jeez, these guys are sensitive. Ya can't touch 'em even
with the petal of a rose without hearing their pitched
screams.
Well, kind reader, you can read their words below, in full
and uncensored.
I urge you to give careful reading, as well, to my
questions to Gunson - the questions he is afraid to answer.
Remember these questions next time you read anything by
Phil Gunson. In any case, reading Gunson through an
educated lens will provide you with a pretty good indicator
of the day's spin by pro-coup political consultant Erik
Ekvall.
The dimmer bulbs of the Commercial Correspondents Caste of
Caracas have their panties all up in a bunch over Narco
News. Hooray and Merry Christmas! To that we say: You ain't
seen nothin' yet.
Open Letter and Questions to Phil Gunson
Dear Phil Gunson,
Thank you, again, for your letter, and for agreeing to an
interview by email.
Your reports over the past month from Venezuela for the
Christian Science Monitor, MSNBC (online only), and the
Miami Herald - the daily newspaper of coup plotters and
oligarchs throughout Latin America - and the interviews you
granted last week to NPR and WAMU radio, have raised many
questions about you and your work.
Some of these questions began last April, after your
"report" in the St. Petersburg Times became the basis for
many "statements of fact" that Venezuelan President Hugo
Chávez's supporters shot at demonstrators from rooftops on
April 11, 2002.
Your report caused a lot of bloodshed. If your report was
knowingly false, well, let the heavens fall and the truth
be known.
This is your opportunity to clear the air.
I plan on publishing these questions on Monday, December
23, 2002.
You are of course invited to provide answers before or
after that date, and I will publish your response,
uncensored, whenever you send it.
According to my information and belief, all of these
questions are based on accurate information. If you feel
that any of these questions are based on incorrect
information, I invite you to submit proposed corrections
prior to Monday, December 23, 2002, at 10 a.m. eastern
standard time. I think I'm being very fair with you to make
you that offer.
By way of introducing this Q & A, I want to preface my
questions with the kind of full disclosure on my part that
I am now going to ask from you.
There are some matters that are very important to this
hemisphere and I, like you, have opinions on them. I don't
claim "objectivity," and I distrust "journalists" who claim
it, because they indicate from the get-go that they are not
reporting accurately on the subject they should know best:
them selves.
The only truly ethical position for journalists is to
disclose our biases.
So, I'll tell you, Phil Gunson, right off the bat: I favor
democracy. I favor fair and free elections. I agree with
all the major national and international monitoring and
human rights organizations that have rated the six
Venezuelan elections of the past four years as fair and
free. Regarding Venezuela elections of the past four years,
there's no question of that fairness, not in the way that
there are lingering questions and controversies over the
"elections" in Colombia or even in the United States.
I also believe that coups d'etat have left a long dark
shadow over América for the past 30 years. Perhaps my
opinion on this was formed early in life when I attended
Georgetown University with Juan Pablo Letelier, whose
father, Chilean minister Orlando Letelier, as you know, or
should know, was assassinated in Washington DC as part of
an ongoing coup.
I don't understand how any human being or journalist could
not be biased, or disclose his or her bias, about whether
he or she is for or against such brutal crimes against
humanity.
Coups d'etat by the elites have resulted to be the single
most damaging factor against authentic democracy, human
rights, civil rights and liberties, press freedom, and
political participation, by the marginalized poor and
working majorities, in América. Even the threat of coup is
harmful to all these values, because it creates an
atmosphere of fear that makes authentic democratic
participation impossible. I am not impartial about coups -
whether imposed by military, economic or media elites - I
oppose them, tooth and nail, with the best antidote to
coups: the facts and the truth.
I disclose these views to my readers every day I publish.
They know where I stand. There's no confusion there. And
this has led to a wonderful relationship of trust and
credibility between my readers and I, and the large number
of colleagues in journalism who have publicly - not just
privately - endorsed, praised, or openly quoted from my
work.
I don't see the same level of disclosure on your part, and
some of my questions are aimed at giving you the
opportunity to disclose. Believe me: you'll feel much
better about yourself when you do disclose.
Our mutual friend Lucy Komisar wrote me noting that you
worked in Central America in the 1980s. Like you, I was in
Central America in the 1980s. Like you, I have reported
from Mexico and Venezuela. Like you, I have reported from
other Latin American countries. I have also reported
extensively on courts, crime and politics within the United
States. I have reported extensively from Capitol Hill and
about many elections. I know how political consultants try
to spin reporters from Washington to Caracas to other
American capitals.
The top political consultants know, from experience, that
they can't spin me. You can talk to Democrat James
Carville, or Republican Mary Matalin, to Republican Ron
Kaufmann, or Democrat Mike Whouley, or any of scores of
other spin-doctors active in the United States. And you can
suggest to them, as you suggest in your letter to me, that
I am somehow "parroting" anybody's "line" but my own, and
these giants of spin who can't agree with each other on
lunch will universally laugh at you and mock you for such
an absurd and ignorant accusation. Go ahead: I invite you
to ask around. I've been through that fire. I'm a known
quantity. You're not a known quantity. If you're an honest
man, you'll retract such a snide self-serving accusation.
If my views end up corresponding with those voiced by any
party to a conflict, it's because they are my views,
independently and skeptically formed by investigating the
facts. I don't care who agrees with me, or who does not. I
do care that I agree with my conscience. You should try
that sometime, Phil.
I also believe, based on my long experience, that there are
two kinds of reporters: Those that don't know better, and
those that should know better. Reporters like you and me
have clearly been around long enough that we can't plead
ignorance of basic realities. To that extent, I expect more
from someone like you, who worked in Latin America for
years and should know the score. You're not in the category
of someone like Alexandra Olson of AP who may or may not
just be naīve and unaware of the consequences of her
shallow undisclosed and hateful biases. After all these
years Phil, if you don't know what your biases are, you
should know. And you should disclose them. Now is the time.
Think of these following questions as a wonderful
opportunity for Phil Gunson to come clean.
Now I'll begin with my questions:
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Q: Your letter to me of yesterday, December 18, 2002, was
CCed to political consultant Erik Ekvall, a partisan player
during last April's coup attempt, and also during this most
recent coup attempt in December. Quick, before Ekvall has a
chance to answer for you: Why did you send Ekvall a copy of
your supposedly personal correspondence?
Q: It is well known among the reporters covering Venezuela
in the category of "those who should know better" that
Ekvall is a player for one side of the conflict, the
anti-democracy side: Ekvall, to my knowledge, and I've
offered him the chance to deny it without response, is a
consultant to the Ford Motor Company (PUBLISHER'S UPDATE:
Ekvall did respond, after this letter was sent, and informs
that he's an ex-consultant to Ford, a gig he left on March
15, 2002; he offered no other corrections or
clarifications), a former consultant to PdVSA - the
Venezuela state oil company - and part of the group ousted
by the Chávez government: Someone clearly with an axe to
grind; someone well known to reporters as a pathologically
dishonest person and who openly defends coups d'etat and
tries to spin or fool the press toward his mercenary view.
What role does Erik Ekvall have as a party in a letter you
sent that billed itself as a letter from one journalist to
another?
Q: You're obviously aware of Ekvall's partisan pro-coup
role in the events of April 2002: You quoted him back then,
in an April 15, 2002, article in the St. Petersburg Times.
You called Ekvall
"a longtime American political analyst in
Caracas," as if he were simply an impartial "analyst" and
not a partisan player with his own interests and axes to
grind. You quoted him without disclosing that he had been a
consultant to PdVSA, the very agency he was commenting on
that day. And you quoted him with an obviously partisan
statement, complaining that Chávez
"thinks he can get away
with anything." Now you have CCed Ekvall an email that
purports itself as a discussion between journalistic
colleagues. Don't you think that looks a little strange,
Phil, to include a partisan political consultant, known for
his pro-coup mercenary position, as a party to your letter
to Narco News? Please explain what role he has in this
conversation.
Q: Sorry to ask forward questions - this form of conducting
interviews has helped strengthen my reputation for never
being successfully spun by anyone - but, I ask: Do you use
Ekvall as your own volunteer political consultant? Or does
he use you as "his" reporter? In other words, are you now
in "damage control" mode after your embarrassing
performance of December and are you now having him review
even your personal correspondence? Is Ekvall the individual
who forwarded your email to others like Lucy Komisar? Or
was that somebody else? Is he now your own personal
spin-doctor? (And, if so, why don't you choose somebody
more talented, effective, and credible than the widely
discredited Ekvall? After all: a political consultant who
is pro-coup and hostile to democracy can and should become
a liability to anyone's campaign in the present and
future.)
Phil, I don't mind that you CC him or anyone else. I just
think that if you are going to call yourself a journalist
you must disclose this obviously too-close-for-comfort
relationship you have with Ekvall, and the reasons for it.
Please disclose the nature of your relationship with Ekvall
that is so close that you include him as a party to your
correspondence with another journalist. Do you think that
serious journalists make partisan political consultants a
party to their correspondence with other journalists
without explaining why? Don't you think that gives him a
power over you that should be unethical for any journalist
to allow?
Q: Now let's move on to another player in the Venezuela
conflict who you quoted at a very key moment in history
last April: Eurídice Ledezma. You know Eurídice, don't you?
I understand that Richard Gott's book - sorry, I don't have
a copy, but is that true or not? - about Venezuela and
Chávez alludes to this undisclosed relationship. What is
the nature of your relationship - past or present - with
Ms. Ledezma?
Q: On April 12, 2002, again in the St. Pete Times, you
quoted Ms. Ledezma on the coup-day events in Caracas:
"'No one was expecting it. It was an ambush,' said local
journalist Eurídice Ledezma, who described seeing
plain-clothed snipers firing from the roof of the Caracas
town hall, a bastion of government supporters."
Eurídice Ledezma was your sole source for your story that
blamed the sniper attacks of April 11th - the provocation
that was used to justify a coup d'etat - on government
supporters and as such her words became the basis for
repeated claims all over the world, including among
corporate "press freedom" groups, that the gunfire came
from
"a bastion of government supporters."
Eurídice Ledezma even claimed to the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) in New York that the bullet that took the
life of journalist Jorge Tortoza was fired from City Hall.
Wow. What incredible eyesight she must have! It's
particularly impressive - I'm speaking sarcastically and
indignantly (of course I'm not impressed) - now that
everybody acknowledges that shots were fired from many
directions during that massacre.
Your undisclosed friend Eurídice Ledezma spun you that
"plain-clothed snipers" fired the shots.
A day later, the Committee to Protect Journalists in New
York quoted the same Eurídice Ledezma claiming that a
"military sniper" shot our colleague Tortoza.
Did you ever ask your friend Eurídice Ledezma which type of
person fired the shot? Was it a "military sniper"? Or was
it a "plain-clothed sniper"? It can't be both, can it,
Phil? Or was she just making it up to cause the
justification for a coup?
Subsequently, journalists who are hardly friends of the
Chávez administration, such as those at the daily Tal Cual,
documented that the gunshots came from various buildings,
including a hotel. Certain facts are undisputed: Some of
the gunmen were apprehended that day by the Chávez
government's law enforcement authorities and they were held
in detention. Later that day, Chávez was deposed by the
coup d'etat, and Pedro Carmona was named as the un-elected
dictator. It was during Carmona's brief rule that those
gunmen were set free. In retrospect, if those gunmen had
really been "Chavistas," do you believe that Carmona's
regime would have set them free? What is your explanation
for why the coup set the sniper-assassins free? That should
be interesting.
Q: Why didn't you disclose on that terrible day that your
sole uncorroborated source to imply blame for those tragic
assassinations on one side of the conflict has been someone
you've identified to others as your "former girlfriend"?
Those are your words, aren't they?
Q: As the self-proclaimed "former boyfriend" of Eurídice
Ledezma, you of course had to know that she was a rabidly
partisan player already in the conflict. The magazine she
works for, Exceso, is an ultra right wing rag of zero
credibility, explicitly anti-democracy in its editorial
position. Is this the same Eurídice Ledezma who later
praised Dictator-for-a-Day Pedro Carmona in the same Exceso
magazine, writing,
"I don't believe that Pedro would have
formed part of a conspiracy for the route of a military
coup"? Note the first-name basis with our dear dictator
"Pedro." ¡Guácala!
She also wrote,
"he didn't commit a crime." Uh, Phil,
reality-check time: Pedro Carmona abolished Congress, the
Supreme Court and the Constitution: If your friend and
foundation-stone source for all the disinformation that
stemmed from your April 12th report has as cloudy a sense
of perception as that statement reveals, and you already
knew this person, how could you have been so spun by her?
Well, okay, this Eurídice Ledezma was with you years ago in
Mexico, wasn't she? Please correct me if I am in error, but
I don't think that I am.
Beyond your dishonest failure to disclose your personal
relationship with your source (Uh, Phil, journalistic
careers rightfully go up in smoke over that kind of
maneuver) why didn't you disclose her known partisan
position when quoting her on something so incendiary as an
implication that the bullets came from one party in the
conflict?
Q: Given the fact that this dishonest implication then
spread around the world before the truth could put its
pants on, and had horrible consequences for the turn of
events - justifying a coup that assassinated 50 opposition
leaders in two days, and tortured various of them according
to major human rights organizations; a coup that within
hours abolished Congress, the Supreme Court and the
Constitution's rule - why have you never clarified,
corrected or disclosed the whole truth about your April
12th report?
Q: As a veteran reporter, were you somehow not aware of
what the consequences of that simulated "report" and its
lack of disclosure subsequently created the conditions that
led to the assassinations of at least 50 Venezuelans?
Q: Phil: As Authentic Journalist Mario Menéndez - my friend
and victorious co-defendant - often says, people's true
character emerges during times of moral crisis. April 2002
revealed a lot about all of us who are journalists
reporting on Venezuela. December 2002 turns out to be a
grand "second opinion" as the doctors say. You don't really
come out of this lookin' so good, chap.
Moving on from April - your ghost of Christmas past - to
December - your ghost of Christmas present - and your
expressed concern about one-sidedness in reporting (which
seems hollow in light of these allegations, let's look at
some of your own public statements in recent days.
Let's take a hard look at your comments made last week,
December 12th, via telephone interview on the Diane Rehm
Show on WAMU in Washington. The very elegant and fabulous
Diane Rehm opened the interview by asking you to
"describe
for us, if you can, what's going on."
You replied that,
"the country is virtually in a halt. In
fact I was just writing here that in a way President Chávez
is like one of those cartoon characters who run off the
edge of cliffs and all of a sudden find that there's
nothing beneath their feet."
Three days later, Letta Taylor, Latin American
correspondent for Newsday, quoted another partisan
political actor in Venezuela, Janet Kelly:
"'Remember those
cartoons with Sylvester and Tweety Bird, or the Road
Runner?' asked Janet Kelly, a Caracas-based political
analyst. 'There's a moment when they run over the canyon
and are suspended in air and look at the audience as they
suddenly realize they're going to fall. That's Chávez.'"
To be fair, that statement appeared very shortly after your
own, but it does raise an eyebrow or two, because smart
political consultants don't, in my long experience with
them, just steal quotes from journalists without
attributing them. They have to work with us, after all: The
professionals take every opportunity to credit us when they
quote from us. So I must ask: Who is ghostwriting for who?
Are you the original author of that simile? Or is political
consultant Janet Kelly? Or is there perhaps some other
author ghostwriting for both of you?
Q: Do you know Janet Kelly? Please disclose the nature of
any relationship you have with that political consultant
who sings in such cartoon-loving harmony with you.
Q: If you are, in fact, the real author of that cartoon
simile, are you going to take any action against Ms. Kelly
for copyright infringement without attribution?
Q: About the simile itself: No matter who authored it, or
who took dictation, what did you mean by,
"Chávez is like
one of those cartoon characters who run off the edge of
cliffs and all of a sudden find that there's nothing
beneath their feet"?
Q: If powerful economic forces like the Commercial Media,
the overpaid ex-managers of the state owned oil company, or
others, try to push someone "off the edge of cliffs" how
does this simile work in which you claim that someone had
"run" off the cliff?
Q: I know these are essentially literary questions, but
we're both writers, Phil, please indulge and educate me:
What did you mean by the idea that Chávez
"all of a sudden
find(s) that there's nothing beneath their (sic) feet"?
Q: Has it not been shown, again in December as in April,
that Chávez has the Organization of American States, the
Venezuelan Constitution, and significant masses of the
people behind his survival as elected president? Suddenly
even the New York Times editorial position is beneath his
feet! Beep beep! Do you think, now, a week later, that your
(or Janet's) simile - with which you led your MSNBC (online
only) story - didn't quite describe what has truly happened
in recent days? Does this perhaps suggest to you that your
political analysis has, ahem, been incorrect in this month
of December? How did you get steered so far from reality?
Q: Moving on - in your same December 12 interview with
Diane Rehm - you said:
"Chavez is making no secret of the fact that he's seeking
to impose ah what he calls the a revolution which is a
strange kind of - as an editor of mine called it the other
day - kind of gaseous concoction of kind of half-digested
Marxism with some military nationalism thrown in, even a
couple of strands of fascism, and this is something that
really I think most of the Venezuelan people feel that they
didn't sign up for when they voted for him in 98 and again
in 2000. Uh, they finally realized that he's serious about
this and uh they want to get rid of him before he has a
chance to implement it."
I have a number of questions about this statement. The
first is: Who was the "editor of yours" who demonstrated
such a bizarre uneducated bias to his or her writer? Was it
an editor from Coup Plotters' Daily (The Miami Herald)? Or
was it an editor from another of the companies you work
for? Which one?
Q: Phil, do you really think that you used the F-word -
"fascism" - in a responsible or accurate manner in this
case?
After all, most reasonable people don't consider a country
that has had six fair and free elections over four years,
with zero journalists in jail (except for a Community Radio
journalist, Nicolas Rivera, tortured and kidnapped by rogue
pro-coup Municipal Police forces last June; but you've
never reported that most serious attack on press freedom,
have you?), where even April's known coup plotters walk the
streets in freedom, to be somehow "fascist" at all?
To the contrary, Phil, most reasonable people would
consider the actions of the Dictator-for-a-Day of last
April, Pedro Carmona, to have been those of a truly fascist
regime. The fascist behavior in Venezuela has been on the
part of the owning class, not of the elected government.
Fascist behavior could certainly be observed in the
behavior of the previous Venezuelan regimes, in the
massacre of 1989 committed by then-President Carlos Andres
Peres, now one of the "opposition leaders" trying to
destabilize democracy in today's Venezuela. Do you think
you showed your grand self-proclaimed impartiality and
wisdom by bandying about the word "fascism" in that context
the other day on United States radio? And if so, why?
Q: As a journalist, I must ask you: If you have an editor
who uses the word "fascism" in such an irresponsible and
partisan manner, do you really think this editor would
allow you to report the whole truth? Or do you tailor your
"reports" to meet the ignorant and incendiary bias of your
boss in this case? C'mon, Phil, we're both experienced
journalists. We both know how it works. I'm my own editor
now: I don't have that problem. But you do still have that
problem, don't you? So how do you deal with such an
irresponsible editor if you want to tell the truth?
Q: You also said - and I'm amazed at how many distortions
you are able to squeeze into a single phrase - that Chávez
seeks to "impose" a "revolution." Is "impose" the right
verb for someone working within a framework of an elected
legislature and working Constitution? Did you mean to say
"propose" instead of "impose"? And if not, please, by all
means, explain why.
Q: You also said in that same statement that you
"think
most of the Venezuelan people feel that they didn't sign up
for (a revolution) when they voted for him in 98 and again
in 2000." Ahem. Are you trying to say that Chávez didn't
use the word "revolution" and similar rhetoric in his 1998
campaign? Are you claiming that he didn't do it again in
his 2000 campaign? Are you claiming that he didn't do it
again in the four other election campaigns of the past four
years? My memory - and the archived record - indicates that
he used that language from the beginning to end, that the
voters heard it loud and clear and signed up for it at the
ballot box six times in four years. You knew that, didn't
you, Phil?
And here is where we return to my point about
"journalists
who should know better." You also know, or should know,
that the average Washington DC radio listener, to whom you
spoke to in that interview, was probably not aware of those
details. And this is why I think you are a simulator and no
longer a "journalist": You know, or should know, the effect
that your distortions have on people in foreign lands who
may not be following the situation as closely as those of
us who know the score. And you still chose to distort
instead of report. Why should any reader or listener trust
you when you go to such acrobatic leaps, as one who should
know better, to fool those who may not know better?
Q: Diane Rehm, the radio host, fortunately, was not fooled
by your antics, was she? She asked you:
"But Chavez does
have support among the poor?" And you answered that,
"most
of his remaining support is concentrated among the poor,
that's true, he possibly has according to opinion polls
somewhere between 25 and 30 percent of the electorate. But
I think it's wrong to analyze it just in terms of a rich
and poor battle. But when you remember that something like
65% of Venezuelans are living in poverty - and incidentally
that figure has risen since Chavez came to power - um then
you realize that its not the case that all his opponents
are among the rich."
This is also in the category of a situation in which you
either know, or should know, better. As a reporter with
experience in Latin America, you know, first, that polls
down here are more often than not inaccurate, invented, and
one of the ways that the rich manipulate the poor. You also
know, or should know, that accurate polling in countries
where the majority of people don't have telephones is
virtually impossible. You also know, or should know, that
the same commercial media pollsters who release such
"polls" predicted Chávez's defeat in 1998. They were wrong
then as now. You also know, or should know, that at least
one major pollster in Venezuela told the Los Angeles Times
this year that he wanted Chávez to be assassinated, and
that the "polling class," in its parasitical and historic
oligarchic relationships with the Commercial Media owning
class and the old political class - and coup-mongers like
your pal Ekvall - is part of the same simulation machine.
You also know, or should know, that accurate polling in a
polarized country, where a dictator - Pedro Carmona - and
his still at-large brownshirts from Alfredo Peņa's
municipal police and those of other "opposition" mayors and
governors, had recently - last April - rounded up,
tortured, illegally arrested and assassinated many
individuals on one side of the conflict.
Who, in their right mind, Phil, is going to tell a total
stranger from a suspect elitist polling company that they
support Chávez when the penalty for others who have said so
has death at the hands of coup plotters?
Q: But just for the sake of argument, let's imagine that
poll, showing 36% (not 25 to 30 as you claimed) support for
Chávez, even under those adverse conditions, is somehow
accurate. We both know it's not, but let's just play along
with it, for kicks. What if it were true? Mark Weisbrot has
made an interesting historic parallel. On that same radio
show, where he said he found your stance "ominous,"
Weisbrot noted that in 1983, during a recession in the
United States, President Ronald Reagan's support in U.S.
public opinion polls sank to 36%. A year later, Reagan was
re-elected by a landslide. Polls are not elections. Is it
fair to call for coup d'etat based on commercial polling
numbers?
Q: Also on the Diane Rehm show, you said, and I quote:
"I believe that the only way that Chavez will eventually
leave is when the armed forces tell him to do so as they
did back in April."
Let's have some full disclosure, Phil: You're talking about
a coup d'etat. Are you in favor? Or are you opposed to the
scenario you outlined? Your words certainly sounded like
those of a cheerleader.
I disclose to my readers and public where I stand. I am
opposed to that scenario of military coup cheered by Phil
Gunson on WAMU. You owe your readers and your public a
similar disclosure. For the record: Where do you stand?
Q: You also said, in that same interview, that
"the
Venezuelans are going to have to do it themselves and
unfortunately the president will not listen to anyone
except the military."
That sounds like a pretty clear statement of what you
favor. And if listeners got the wrong impression, I offer
you the opportunity to correct that statement. Was that
statement an accurate portrayal of your position? And, if
not, what will you do to correct it?
Q: You made similar statements, two days earlier, on
National Public Radio's All Things Considered program.
There, on December 10th, you said,
"last night what we saw
was perhaps the worst example so far of something, a
phenomenon that we've seen before, which is concerted
attacks on different media organizations by mobs that are
clearly organized by the government. For example, the mobs
in most places were led by deputies, by congresspeople,
belonging to the ruling party. And in the middle of the,
ah, these activities, these attacks, the interior minister
went on television basically justifying them."
I'm going to tell it to you straight, Phil. I think you
reveal some very disturbing and undemocratic weaknesses
both as a journalist and as a human being in that
statement.
First, you call public protests that, at least in Caracas,
were peaceful,
"attacks on different media organizations by mobs."
Do you think that the people should not have the right to
demonstrate outside of private-sector institutions like
Commercial TV stations? And if you feel that way, why don't
you? And if not, why do you distort the news by calling a
peaceful assembly an "attack"?
Q: You also stated that these "mobs" were
"clearly organized by the government." You are aware, or should be
aware, of facts to the contrary.
For example, on public Internet sites for days prior to
December 9th, there were various calls and a major open
letter by at least 20 Venezuelan community groups addressed
to Chávez demanding that he revoke the licenses of the
distorting Commercial TV stations. Chávez didn't do that.
The people were frustrated. They were asking their
government for help against a destabilizing and dishonest
commercial media tyranny of the airwaves, and the Chávez
government did not respond.
In my analysis - as someone who is in daily contact with
many of those people from Civil Society who are not
government officials - the masses got ahead of the
government on this one, and the Chávez government could not
hold them back. At those demonstrations they were chanting,
demanding:
"Chávez: Govern!" They were angry at him, too,
for allowing the pro-coup manipulations of Globovision, of
Venevision, of RCTV, and the rest. In any case, their open
letter and other public demands for action by Chávez prior
to those demonstrations are archived on the Internet.
I also saw, on live TV, the statement by Diosdado Cabello
of the Chávez government, urging people to be peaceful, to
be nonviolent. To the contrary of your fabricated
explanation to the United States public, Phil, he was not
there "justifying" the protests (as if protests need
justifying): He was there pleading for peace, for no one to
harm anyone else. And no human life was harmed, was it?
The only evidence you cite for your claim that the "mobs"
were
"clearly organized by the government" other than
Cabello's speech, was the presence of members of Congress.
Phil: I've covered members of Congress in many lands. They
see a crowd moving, they go to join it: That is, after all,
part of their job. They're from the legislative branch of
government, not the executive. They have every right to
protest at TV stations, too!
Phil, don't you think that you've gone off the deep end
with your "conspiracy theory" view of the situation? You
transparently state that any action by any poor person,
worker, and now legislator, against coups and media
distortion, is "organized by the government."
I think, with these statements, you reveal a tremendous
rich kid's bias against the poor. And that, given the
difference in pigmentation between you and so many of the
Venezuelan poor, I think you have to address your own
inherent racism and class hatred.
Please don't answer
"but some of my best friends are dark-skinned Venezuelans."
You either know better, or
should know better. The oligarchy in Venezuela, now that
the poor aren't willing to be slaves any more, are, truly,
suffering psychological problems. Don't kid yourself: as a
British freelance correspondent for powerful newspapers in
the United States, you are, by definition, a member of the
Caracas oligarchy as much as any foreign Viceroy throughout
history. You have privilege and power that the individual
members of those "mobs" (your words, not mine) have never
known. And with statements like the ones you've made,
you're demonstrating to the world that you have become a
member of an oligarchy that has always included foreigners
like Ekvall and you. Why do you call the opposition
demonstrators "protestors" and the other side "mobs"? What
is the distinction that defines each term?
Q: Do you think that maybe it's time for you to take one of
those racism sensitivity courses that are all the rage at
First World newspapers these days? I would be happy to
contribute to any costs involved. As one journo to another,
as one human being to another, I think you need it badly if
you are going to continue in this profession, particularly
in Latin America where these matters or race and class are
finally coming to light as never before.
Q: Why do you repeatedly say, in almost all of your
articles, that an owner and management imposed lockout is
somehow a "General Strike"? Do you understand the historic
and common definition of that term?
Q: Why have you not reported on the collapse of that
misnamed "strike" as stores have reopened throughout the
country and Christmas shoppers are bustling through the
streets and malls?
I have other questions, but perhaps this is enough for now.
Some of my questions contain, of course, my opinions that
you are free to contest or counter with your own opinions.
But I think that you do owe specific answers to each
question.
I feel I am being very fair to you by showing you the text
of this letter prior to publication, to give you every
opportunity to speak to the issues, facts and opinions
expressed. I am also willing to publish your response to
these questions in full and uncensored form.
If I don't hear from you by Monday 10 a.m., Eastern
Standard Time, I will post the questions exactly as they
are written here. If you feel that any of the questions
must be amended based on corrections of fact, I think four
days is sufficient time for you to respond. To my belief,
these opinions I express here are based on what my sources
have told me, and on publicly available information.
You're a veteran: You know that four days is a very
reasonable amount of time to respond. We all have our
deadlines. Of course, you may also respond after Monday if
you wish - the door will be held open - but the questions
will be published on Monday.
And, believe me, the people in many lands are going to want
answers. Please, if you still call yourself a journalist,
provide them in the spirit of full disclosure.
Salud,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
narconews@hotmail.com
Uncensored "response" from
freelance reporter Phil Gunson:
>From: "philgunson@cantv.net"
>Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 09:32:13 -0400
are you brave enough to publish this in full? or are you
just a playground bully?
Full text of attachment:
Al
Here is my response to your "interview questions". Please
keep your promise and publish it in full.
First of all, you really need to start taking yourself less
seriously. Self-importance combined with paranoia can lead
to stress-related diseases. Chill out a little.
I've come across people like you before, Al, though never
in such an advanced stage of decomposition. The trouble
with the internet is that it gives ignorant loudmouths a
platform to address the whole world.
Fortunately, grown-ups know that only in the school
playground is something "truer" if you shout it louder and
use more bad words.
Your techniques are the lie, the half-truth, the smear, and
guilt by association. Although the two Joes (McCarthy and
Stalin) are long dead, their techniques live on.
I'm not stupid enough to lend credence to your show-trial
(or your unpleasant little publication) by taking part in
it. No one whose opinion matters to me would mistake you
for a genuine seeker-after-truth.
You presume to lecture us about journalistic ethics, but
you don't even have the minimal courtesy to stick to your
own "embargo". So much for your "generous offer" to take my
comments into account.
A cursory glance at your ill-informed, poorly-researched
attempts to tell us what is "really" going on in Venezuela
reveals you to be a purveyor of half-digested propaganda.
Why not come out from behind your desk (which, of course,
happens to be in another country) and feel the tear-gas and
the plastic bullets?
On second thoughts: stay well away. Your mind is made up -
we wouldn't want to bother you with the facts. After all,
they get in the way of a good story, don't they?
After nearly a quarter-century writing and broadcasting
about Latin America, I'm perfectly happy to let my record
stand for itself. No self-appointed thought-policeman can
tell people what to think about me.
I really don't know what unresolved childhood traumas lie
behind your desperate need to be taken seriously and to
bring other people down. And I have neither the time, the
inclination nor the professional skills to help you get
over them.
Being libelled by you is - in the immortal words of British
Labour politician Dennis Healey - like being savaged by a
dead sheep.
Go right ahead. Give it your best shot. Just don't send me
any more emails. This correspondence is over.
Phil Gunson
Full text of Gunson's first
letter to Narco News...
>From: "Phil Gunson"
>CC: Eric Ekvall
>Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002 18:15:40 -0400
dear narco news,
your contributions to the important and necessary critique
of foreign press coverage of venezuela would carry much
more weight if you didn't fall into the trap of repeating
government propaganda as if it were the "true" story the
media are suppressing.
both sides use evidence-free claims of evil conspiracies by
the other - and expect us to swallow them uncritically.
it's often hard to sift through this garbage and find
anything resembling the "truth" of what's going on.
for instance, the government's line that its opponents are
all a bunch of well-heeled fascists whose "strike" is
merely a cover for a coup plot is as much of an
exaggeration as the opposition claim that the entire
country is united against the "dictator" chavez.
the fact that one or two government spokesmen have claimed
that gouveia was paid by the opposition doesn't turn it
into a "credible theory" - especially when the only
impartial evidence we have (including that from gouveia's
former landlords) suggests he had links with the
government.
the fact that the metropolitan police shot pro-chavez
demonstrators after 11 april - while true enough - should
be a reason for pursuing them through the courts, not
sending the army to take over the police (thereby violating
the constitution and worsening an already chronic crime
situation in caracas).
your version of what is "really" happening in venezuela
merely parrots the government's - and that's not good
enough. this is the same government that (for instance)
covered up the presence of montesinos in venezuela, for
reasons that are still unclear. it is a government that
repeatedly violates its own constitution, whilst constantly
proclaiming it to be the finest in the world.
so come on, narco news - you can do better than that.
criticise us by all means. but don't use the very methods
you despise (sloppy, one-sided reporting) in order to do
it.
saludos from caracas
Phil Gunson
(freelance correspondent)
Responses from political
consultant Erik Ekvall:
>From: "Eric Ekvall"
>CC: "Phil Gunson"
>Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 09:34:16 -0400
>Get your facts straight (again), Al -- Phil's been living
here for almost
>three years.
Giordano's first reply to Ekvall:
From: "Alberto M. Giordano"
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2002 9:52 AM
Duly noted.
Glad to hear you don't contest the facts from this
paragraph:
"Interestingly, the only person he visibly CCed his letter
to was Erik Ekvall, the April 2002 war criminal, political
consultant hostile to democracy, former advisor to the
state owned oil company, and, last I checked, consultant to
the Ford Motor Company (at least during last April's coup
attempt). Ekvall is the spin-doctor who popped up in last
April's NYT puff piece by Juan Forero on Dictator-for-a-Day
Pedro Carmona, defending the cretin who abolished Congress,
the Supreme Court and the Constitution all in one day."
Ekvall's response to Giordano's
reply, Cced to Michael Rowan:
>From: "Eric Ekvall"
>CC: "Michael Rowan"
>Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 19:01:58 -0400
Fact: I resigned the Ford account March 15. (But to a
devious, paranoid, seeing-fascists-under-every-rug mindset
such as yours, I suppose this is just additional
confirmation that by March 15 I was deeply involved in
planning the April 11 coup, and for the purpose of
protecting my "sponsors" and maintaining appearances, was
attempting to sideline my erstwhile client from negative
exposure by resigning only weeks before.)
The rest isn't "facts", just your opinion. And opinions, as
you know, are like assholes.....
Al, I assume that making the world safe for anarchy (you
flatter yourself as an anarchist, I see) and an eventual
dictatorship of the proletariat (or "the masses" -- your
preferred term for what I think of as citizens), requires
nonstop vigilance, but IMHO you ought to get more sleep,
relax, go for a walk, play the guitar more (I'm a guitar
player myself), listen a little less to Eminem and a little
more to, oh, The Incredible String Band, for example.
The rage, the vitriol, the bile -- that all-consuming hate
that permeates so much of what you write -- it's not good
for the soul. I understand the business about the absent,
irresponsible, derelict-in-his-duties father, and how this
can lead to persecution-cum-crusader complexes, and how the
whole stew entrains this zealous desire to trash authority
under all its guises... In short, I can relate. But
history doesn't have to be destiny. And this kind of stuff
clouds the mind.
If it's any comfort to you, the same thing is happening to
Chavez. In fact, the Savonarola-like tactics and language
you use against those you've targeted for "clean-up" (your
words) remind me of something a close ally and collaborator
of Chavez, who finally jumped ship in disgust earlier this
year, said of his erstwhile idol:
"Poor Hugo, he doesn't
know how to distinguish adversaries from enemies."
And, this one is really from the heart: despite what is
probably a slavish following among the
don't-confuse-me-with-the-facts-my-mind's-made-up "left",
who, in their ignorance, believe that the enemy (Chavez) of
my enemy (The White House/US foreign
policy/globalization/Israel/multinational
corporations/WTO/you-name-it) is my friend, you're in the
process of becoming an international laughingstock with
your Comintern-speak, scorched-earth support of what has
become the most corrupt and brazenly authoritarian regime
in Latin America. The truth of his regime will come out,
and sooner than later. Patience, Al.
It's too bad, because the initial objectives (as I
understand them) of NN were to give no quarter to the
immoral, corrupt, nonsensical and counterproductive 30+
-year USA-sponsored War on Drugs. Now that's a cause worth
fighting for. Why don't you focus more on that, where at
least you seem to understand the basics and have proven
your mettle under fire? Because on Venezuela, you're way,
way out of the ballpark, amigo.
Eric
Giordano's response to Ekvall:
Heh. Touched a defensive chord there, eh?
In sum: You refuse to disclose your sources of income, but
expect to be believed in your characterizations of them.
You sound like a consultant with plenty to hide, Ekvall.
You're also quite paranoid. I have no statuatory power, no
police, no prison, no guns, none of the instruments
necessary for what reasonable people define as Inquisition,
jury, prosecutor, commissar, whatever (and you think I'm
the paranoid one? Ha! You slay me!). All I've got is words,
and the only ones that hurt are the true ones.
Anyway, you can blame Gunson. He dragged you into this
round. And implicated himself in unethical activity for a
journalist by doing so.
Ekvall the War Criminal feels "picked on," by nothin' more
than words and questions. Amazing, but not surprising.
Have a nice Christmas. In spite of all your efforts, it
came this year!
Al Giordano
Ekvall's "final" response
(also Cced to Michael Rowan):
>From: "Eric Ekvall"
>CC: "Michael Rowan"
>Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 19:01:58 -0400
Al, I owe you no explanations whatsoever about how I make
my living, who my clients are, or how I choose to spend my
leisure time.
But I will let you in one one disappointing little secret:
I have no clients in Venezuela, or abroad, for whom I have
been working with any interest in the outcome of the
current political struggle being waged in this country, and
am not, nor have I been since Chavez came to power, on the
payroll of, nor have I received compensation from in any
way shape or form, any interest with a score to settle with
Chavez.
Get it? Clear enough for your little inquisitor's brain?
Your self-appointed role as grand jury, public prosecutor
and political commissar, all rolled into one, may impress,
or intimidate, some but to me you're just a megalomaniacal,
self-promoting gasbag. You're wasting your time with me,
Al. Go find someone else to pick on.
End of conversation.
- Al Giordano at Narco News
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