History can always be used when investigating the scene of a crime. Investigators evaluate what happened and then piece the puzzle together be going back in time looking for evidence. It is hard to do on the criminal’s first crime, but when the same criminal continues their crime-spree, the investigators look for trends that help them accelerate and even be able to predict their next move.
The same can be said for the post-WWII US Empire. Within a few years it established their way of controlling the reach of the empire. It was decided that the US would not follow directly in the steps of the British Empire which tended to control other countries directly through an imperialistic form of control, but the US would use other more covert methods towards control.
Off the cuff, one thinks first of sanctions (like the US did to Japan before Pearl Harbor), and then on to propaganda to further agitate those opposed to the regime within the target country, and even using the UN to paint these countries as global lawbreakers.
Another method is going to the very heart of a country’s infrastructure that impacts everyday living to continue the agitation, the power grid.
As Moon of Alabama pointed out the other day:
The U.S. is well know for cyberattacks as well as for attacks on electricity networks. In 2012 it knocked Syria off the internet when it ‘bricked’ the central router in Syria while attempting to install malware. In 2015 it systematically bombed Syria’s power plants.
This is only the most recent concerning Syria. Do you remember what the US did to Iran’s centrifuges? This occurred about a decade ago that turned out to be a secret U.S-Israeli cyberwar strike on Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and elsewhere. The Stuxnet virus we introduced into Natanz put 1,000 centrifuges out of action, from a random worker’s USB drive as these devices were not on any network. The worm found the controlling software and inserted itself into it, seizing control of the centrifuges. Stuxnet carried out two separate attacks. First, it made the centrifuges spin dangerously fast, for about 15 minutes, before returning to normal speed. Then, about a month later, it slowed the centrifuges down for around 50 minutes. This was repeated for several months eventually causing these centrifuges to physically fail.
Unintended consequences followed as by 2010 this virus spread globally!
What does this have to do with Venezuela? Well, from the 2016 & 2017 sanctions the US placed on that country was followed up with more rhetoric during 2018. While the US is the biggest importer of the declining oil output from Venezuela, India and China come in at #2 and #2 and would be more than willing to pick up the slack for cheap oil.
The US was actually encouraged when it was announced that Venezuela would no longer sell its oil using USD in September of 2017. The decision is similar to that once made by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who dropped the dollar in favor of the euro a few years prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Countries that do this are well aware of the risks involved in shunning the US Empire.
This cycle will continue as it has in previous regime change attempts the US has engineered. I am sure the “greater good” propaganda will be flown as the citizens of Venezuela suffer, but a lot of it depends on how much truth emerges in these critical weeks before the US steps up the “need” for regime change.
This tidbit did not go unnoticed in the past few days as Moon of Alabama again points out:
When the first outage happened U.S. Senator Marco Rubio eagerly mocked the government of Venezuela. He also mentioned that some backup generators failed:
Marco Rubio @marcorubio – 22:18 utc – 7 Mar 2019
ALERT: Reports of a complete power outage all across #Venezuela at this moment.
18 of 23 states & the capital district are currently facing complete blackouts.
Main airport also without power & backup generators have failed.
#MaduroRegime is a complete disaster.After the first outage the government of Venezuela said that it was caused by a cyberattack on the automated control system but gave no further details:
Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Maduro’s government planned to bring “proof” of US involvement in the blackout to a UN Human Rights envoy who is set to visit the country in the coming days.
Rodriguez pointed to the Rubio tweet:
‘How did Marco Rubio know that backup generators had failed? At that time, no one knew that,’ the Bolivarian government official asked.
The Venezuelan government should contact the Russian cybersecurity specialists at Kaspersky Lab who are well known for detecting U.S. produced malware like the one used for the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment plant. Kaspersky is highly respected in the international cybersecurity scene. Should it confirm that a U.S. attack malware caused the problem the U.S. will find it difficult to deny.
Yes, since there is history, a M.O. (modus operandi – a method of procedure), it will be fairly easy to identify the US fingerprints on this. Maybe that is why, as late as today, the US now states that their “regime change” timeline is not defined.
While one thinks that an electrical outage is not a big deal, one should know that attacks on electricity networks greatly affect the civilian population with hospitals being are hard to run without electricity depending on emergency generators. This also cuts off the civilian population to the Internet, to know what is really going on in their country and in the world:
It should be noted that in the Korean War, the US bombed dams to unleash great swaths of destruction on the civilian population. The blow-back of this kind of manipulation is a civilian population that will accept a bad government over the one that is doing this. Even in our own Civil War (War Against Southern Independence), these atrocities embittered people for generations.
But Sherman’s and Sheridan’s legacy lives on in the US Empire’s tactics. Both the Obama and the Trump administration, rejected international attempts to ban cyberattacks that “indiscriminate or systemic harm to individuals and critical infrastructure”:
All members of the European Union signed the agreement. Australia and Turkey joined the United States in declining.
…
Israel, which along with the United States conducted the most sophisticated cyberattack in history, the Stuxnet attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, also declined to sign.
Bottom line:
Why Venezuela? Why now? Well, all the indicators show that the US petro-dollar is in trouble, countries have left or are starting to create ways to leave. From this site shows those smart countries who are aware of history and making preparations:
The list of the 23 countries which are creating new swap lines outside of the dollar include China, Russia, India, and surprisingly, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. This means that the Eurozone itself is abandoning the dollar, and preparing for transition to a new central banking system.
To facilitate the transfer of currencies and swap lines, there needs to be a bank of sufficient size and stature to aid in handling of this monumental task. One year ago, China, along with the BRICs nations of Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa, loaned money to a new financial institution they established and labeled the BRICs bank. This bank was created with the intention of bypassing the dollar, and allowing free trade to occur between nations without the need to trade for dollars first, as is currently the format under the petrodollar system.
Russia, China and Iran already have their own way to trade since 2012, and attempted regime change by the US Empire in Syria was a strategic effort towards reversing this trend. These actions only make the Empire look more desperate. As Ron Paul pointed out how we got to this point:
“In essence, we declared our insolvency in 1971. Everyone recognized some other monetary system had to be devised in order to bring stability to the markets. Amazingly, a new system was devised which allowed the U.S. to operate the printing presses for the world reserve currency with no restraints placed on it– not even a pretense of gold convertibility! Realizing the world was embarking on something new and mind-boggling, elite money managers, with especially strong support from U.S. authorities, struck an agreement with OPEC in the 1970s to price oil in U.S. dollars exclusively for all worldwide transactions. This gave the dollar a special place among world currencies and in essence backed the dollar with oil.
The empires demise will probably take decades, but the writing is on the wall. Few empires have been able to willingly let go of its dominate role in global affairs. The USSR is a great example of a peaceful move towards the release of central power, just waiting for those in the US to use history to see that this might be the best way forward.
Reality is a b*tch, but learning from history can allow people groups to emerge into a better spot, but it will take a brave generation to accomplish.
Is there a generation of Americans that are up to this challenge?
Time will tell. Hang on, the surf’s up dude, we are in wild times.
-SF1
Author Swamp Fox, thank you for this post. Its very inspiring.