Chavez claims to have a US mercenary in custody...

[Basenshukai]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/11/wo...tml?hpt=ila_c1

Caracas, Venezuela (CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that the U.S. man arrested and accused of being a possible "mercenary" told authorities he was a former Marine.

The man was detained this month while illegally trying to cross the border from Colombia into Venezuela, according to the president.

"The man has military training and is refusing to provide information. That's suspicious," Chavez said, according to a government statement.

Little is known about the detainee, including his name. Chavez has said that the U.S. citizen "had all the appearances of a mercenary." He had a passport with stamps from recent years in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Germany, Great Britain, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, the president said. Chavez said the man carried a notebook and had tried to destroy some pages of it when he was arrested. U.S. officials are operating on the assumption that Chavez's forces have someone in custody, a U.S. government source told CNN on Friday. The source said U.S. officials have reached out to the Venezuelan government on the matter, but haven't received information.
Chavez, who is running for reelection, has repeatedly accused U.S. officials and members of Venezuela's opposition of plotting to destabilize the country's government.

[Inflexible Six]

If the above is true--and I suspect some of it is or he wouldn't be crowing about it--I hope the American in question is returned safely.

[Manic]

This is very odd; in my opinion Chavez is very paranoid at this point. A mercenary was captured with passport stamps to many countries including the Dominican Republic? The other countries listed make sense but Dominican Republic does not fit. I will research this a bit more, thanks for the info.

[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by Manic

This is very odd; in my opinion Chavez is very paranoid at this point. A mercenary was captured with passport stamps to many countries including the Dominican Republic? The other countries listed make sense but Dominican Republic does not fit. I will research this a bit more, thanks for the info.

Please follow the rules and post your intro an fill out your profile as outlined in the email you received.

[RB]

Originally Posted by Manic

.... A mercenary was captured with passport stamps to many countries including the Dominican Republic? The other countries listed make sense but Dominican Republic does not fit. I will research this a bit more, thanks for the info.

Your lack of SA is telling 25th ID. "Mercenary" is not the word I'd use. A retired 7th Group DoD contractor (like me) who traveled back and forth to both sand boxes and took a vacation in Dom Rep would meet your qualls as a mercenary? I think not. Tell us how your research goes.

Prayers out for this trooper's safe return.

[Manic]

Originally Posted by RB

Your lack of SA is telling 25th ID. "Mercenary" is not the word I'd use. A retired 7th Group DoD contractor (like me) who traveled back and forth to both sand boxes and took a vacation in Dom Rep would meet your qualls as a mercenary? I think not. Tell us how your research goes.

Perhaps you have misunderstood what I was trying to say RB. I was articulating what Chavez had said about "Capturing a Mercenary" as he calls it.
So far he has not shown any evidence of having anyone in custody.
if this is true; I do wish his safe return home.

Well as far as my lack of SA... what can I say, I might lack some if not all.

I mean not disrespect to anyone, I have respect for all you guys.

[RB]

No worries Manic. Tonz of us are working stiffs trying to make a living and pay the mortgage, just like everyone else. Didn't mean to come off like a stiff neck.

any updated news on the captive?

[Manic]

Tell me about it, Making a living nowadays is getting harder and harder.


So far this is what's going around:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CARACAS (Reuters) - Two U.S. diplomats on Wednesday visited an American man jailed in Venezuela whom President Hugo Chavez says he suspects of being a mercenary, the U.S. Embassy said.

"We have been granted consular access to a detainee. We were just told this morning 'he is ready to see you now,'" an Embassy official told Reuters.

Implying a U.S.-backed, anti-government plot was afoot less than two months before a presidential election, Chavez announced the detention last week, saying an American citizen of Hispanic descent had been found entering illegally from Colombia.

He sought to destroy some coordinates in a notebook at the time of his arrest, and has resisted interrogation beyond identifying himself as a former U.S. Marine, Chavez has said.

Foes have scoffed at Chavez's statements, saying it is typical of him to invent tales of foreign-inspired aggression against him at election time. Washington has given no detailed information on the case, beyond pressing for consular access.

Though there have been constant diplomatic flare-ups between Washington and Caracas since the ferociously "anti-imperialist" Chavez took power in 1999, the latest incident does not appear to be mushrooming into a major dispute.

Chavez, 58, is fighting for another six-year term at the October 7 vote, but faces a vigorous campaign from a united opposition candidate, Henrique Capriles. Chavez also has been undergoing cancer treatment in the past year.

Privately, Western diplomats in Caracas say the roots of the problem were probably in neighboring Colombia, not Venezuela, with the American apparently fleeing some sort of problem there.

U.S. President Barack Obama, also seeking re-election in November, has kept a low-profile line on Venezuela this year despite calls from his rival, Mitt Romney, to take a tougher stance against Washington's fiercest critic in the region.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[RB]

If Chavez had a captive, it would be in his best interests to post a face, an ID card, interview with the captive, foto of the notebook that the captive tried to destroy. Unfortunately in this day and age that information wouldn't be hard to fabricate, but would be hard to push and prove through diplomatic channels.

Methinks this is election year anti-American rhetoric BS in an effort to garner sympathetic votes. What he doesn't realize is the value of instant information readily available on, oh, the internet, and that his people hate his guts, want him gone gone gone, and can follow the information that he's putting out vs. what the world sees as the truth.

Good luck to Venezuela. If you elect him again, you get everything you deserve.