Brains vs Alexander Boyd: The Cheetah and the Hyena
AxisofLogic.com editor & publisher Les Blough writes: Imagine a healthy, powerful cheetah sunning herself and her cubs on the savannah in Botswana at midday. Suddenly, her nostrils flare, picking up the foul scent of a hyena approaching. She turns to see the approach, but quickly discounts him, as long as he keeps his distance.
He approaches nearer and begins yelping and whining.
He circles and approaches ever more closely until she and her cubs receive a waft of the funky smell of carrion from his grinning breath. The cheetah continues to ignore him knowing the power of one effortless and powerful swipe. That night, the hyena camps close by, making his presence known throughout the night. The next day as the cheetah leaves with her cubs, he follows. Day after day the scavenger continues to follow, attempting to use foolish deceptions and trickery to get to her cubs.
As days pass in the African sun, he follows and becomes more bold in his approaches. Then one fateful day, he sprinted in close enough to nip at a cub, yelping and whining with odious breath. In a single moment, the normally mild- tempered cheetah uncoiled her muscles and flew at him with blinding speed, nailing the hyena at a moment when he foolishly forgot who and where he was.
These are the images that came to my mind when I received an email today from Eva Golinger, Venezuelan-American attorney referent to one Aleksander Boyd ... a very loud mouthpiece, self-appointed to write from his website in the UK for those who oppose the Chavez government in Venezuela.
Boyd recently approached the cheetah one too many times and overstepped himself, a mistake often blindly made among the arrogant.
There are activists for peace, some I love dearly, who will no doubt be offended at my approving use of such violent images. Some may ask, "But aren't you supposed to be 'non-violent'?"
I answer, "Well, most of the time, we are." But I remind them that even the Tao te' Ching teaches us how to be wise when making war. Over the last several years, this cheetah has exhibited more patience than anyone should expect.
The time was overdue for Ms. Golinger to swat this hireling of the Venezuelan opposition upside the head and put him in his place. When one does a simple search on Boyd's website, using the name "golinger", 51 entries appear, each loaded with vitriolic suggestions, innuendo, accusations and threats, in attempts to defame her good name. On March 5 and again on March 25, Boyd attacked Ms. Golinger's credentials, IRS status and general integrity.
She finally replied with the following "swat" for this media hyena,
received at Axis of Logic on March 25, 2005:
To: Aleksander Boyd, Vcrisis
From: Eva Golinger, Attorney at Law
Subject: TO PUBLISH - STOP THE DEFAMATION AND LYING MR. BOYD!
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005
Mr. Boyd: I respectfully request you now cease and desist your persistent publications defaming my name, although I know that you will not because you are nothing more than a lowlife resentful individual.
First of all, I am in the process of re-doing MY webpage entirely, which is why things are being moved around.
Second of all, I have always paid for the website, not Jeremy, though he initially registered it. We have moved it to my name because it is my responsibility.
Third, the Venezuela Solidarity Committee, a registered NON-PROFIT in the State of New York, with ALL ITS PAPERWORK IN ORDER, has not be active for more than one year, has not received any donations during that period and is currently in a process of dissolution because I no longer desire to have a non-profit organization that I do not have time to manage.
Precisely for that reason, references to its existence have been taken down. It has nothing to do with your endless ridiculous ranting, but rather my own busy schedule.
Fourth, I have never violated ANY law. As I told you before - you must be very dense because you can't seem to understand - any legal work I did in the State of New York before obtaining my New York license was under the authority of a supervising attorney.
Read the regulations well, since you seem to like doing so, and you will see that law graduates - lawyers - can do legal work under the authority of a supervising attorney.
Fifth, I am a Firm Member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, though membership is voluntary. I am a member of the New York Bar Association, the New York Women's Bar Association, the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association, the New York County Lawyer's Association and so on. Just because you have nothing to show for yourself in life, not even a decent job or profession, does not mean that everyone else is as inept as you.
Finally, after all your time spent harassing and threatening me, you have proved yourself to me a despicable, disgusting individual. I feel sorry for your children for having such a rotten, resentful, angry father.
Eva Golinger
Attorney at Law
Abogada
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While we often critique the corporate media for doing the same thing, we rarely write expose‚ on those who support the antics of the U.S.-led empire in the alternative, Internet media. In this case, we make an exception for the second time. On January 5, 2005, I co-authored an article with Carlos Herrera, Bolivarian Activist, in which I described Boyd and quoted from some of his writing: Malicious communications and internet terrorism .
Boyd is not to be compared in size or power with the leaders of the opposition - not even close. He possesses neither the wealth nor cunning of those who are in leadership. To my knowledge, the most important job he has ever held was as a bell hop for the Sanderson Hotel in London. He lost that job in 2003. On his website he claims to have once been a law student: "In September of 2.000 I enrolled in Birkbeck College to read Geology, the idea behind it was to get a degree from the University of London and move back to Venezuela to work for PDVSA".
Apparently, Boyd failed in this endeavor, but leaves the reader with the impression that he is a law student.
On a less personal level, anyone who reads Boyd's rants on VCrisis can easily see that he has no sense or concern for journalistic integrity. His work rests upon innuendo and half-truths throughout and therefore misleading. For one example, Boyd is fond of suggesting that everyone who supports Chavez is in the pay of the government. He even tries to suggest that the work of lobbyist Patton Boggs, somehow performs illegal work when the same kind of lobbying is completely normal on Washington. It's a throwaway, rhetorical argument, but leaves impressions of corruption and wrong doing. It's always been interesting to me that when well documented, logical arguments are lacking, those in support of the empire frequently accuse foreign governments of "corruption" - which then become one of the "talking points" of the stooges who support the US global corporate empire. But before we go on with Boyd's media practices, let's take a look at his heroes among "The Opposition" in Venezuela.
Mr. Boyd's Heroes
It has been well-established that the opposition to the Bolivarian government in the Republic of Venezuela consists of a very small and very wealthy minority who were once the ruling class who held 80% of the Venezuelan people in poverty for 40 years prior to the presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias. The sixth segment of my current series on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Touching the Revolution - will be dedicated to "The Opposition" - the people in Venezuela who once comprised the ruling class and oppose the presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias. In that segment, I will try to provide a fair description of the entire spectrum of this opposition, including their concerns, fears and verbatim interviews I conducted among them in Altamira in February. Generally, what I found in my surveys and interviews among the opposition is that everything is not as "black and white" as some people report among both sides - those in support of Chavez and those who are opposed.
There were some among the opposition I interviewed who openly told me they think the only solution to the "problem of Chavez" is "a bullet in the head" -- words that would get you hard time were they to be uttered in public by a US citizen about our president. There are others who live among the Venezuelan opposition who will tell you they support Chavez when asked privately, but not when asked in front of their friends. Between those two poles, there is a lot of gray. Again, I will provide more detailed coverage on the opposition in the Touching the Revolution series.
The leaders of the opposition are an interesting cast of characters. The purpose of this report is not to address their failed coup d‚ etat attempt in 2002, their Managerial Strike/shutdown of the Venezuelan oil industry for 3 months in 2003 and their failed attempt to bring down President Chavez in the referendum of 2004. Rather it is to address the continuing media attacks and threats against President Chavez and the government he leads by people like Boyd. When the opposition owns and controls the entire private media in Venezuela - a credit to Chavez' respect for a free press - one can only understand their assaults on the Internet as intended to also convince the English-speaking world of their views. Some of the characters in leadership of this seeming unrelenting attack are now infamous. Let's take a look for a moment at some examples of Aleksander Boyd's heroes:
There is Pedro Carmona Estanga who usurped the seat of president for one day during the 2002 coup attempt, before the people brought Hugo Chavez, their elected president back, from a Carribean Island where he was taken in a plane registered in the U.S. Estanga fled to Columbia where he lives under political asylum. Estanga still his fingers in the pie by email and phone from Bogota. He is in cahoots with ex-President Carlos Andres Perez (New York, Dallas and Florida resident) who was the object of Chavez' February 1992 coup.
Carlos Andres Perez got political asylum in the Dominican Republic but has since taken up residence with the mother of his two children in Manhattan just overlooking Central Park. He has a stroke recently and was admitted to Presbyterian Hospital where he has made a recovery but still conspires with George W. Bush to overthrow Chavez.
There is Carlos Fernandez, a multi-millionaire who was is a transport company boss from Valencia before becoming president of Fedecamaras (Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce) after Estanga went into hiding. Fernandez is currently a resident in Florida, seeking asylum in the United States.
Carlos Ortega is another wealthy member of the gang that attempted the 2002 coup against Chavez. Carlos Ortega is the leader of the corrupt Trade Union Confederation. He got asylum in Costa Rica was kicked out and returned incognito to Caracas where he was arrested with false ID documents last month and is currently being held awaiting trial.
Corina Machado is the leader of SUMATE - the organization that is being funded by NED to bring Chavez down. She is also now facing trial in Venezuela but is free pending her appearance in court.
Aleksander Boyd is one of the loudest and vitriolic mouthpieces for this set of characters. Boyd is essentially a wannabee cheerleader for these thugs although I‚ve never seen them give him any recognition as such. I have hesitated to write about Boyd in the past because I am reluctant to draw any more attention to his rants than necessary. However, as an editor of a media outlet that places great importance on the developments in Venezuela, I have finally decided to respond to this opposition hireling since he seems to have found a permanent platform for ranting and raving which lead to misconceptions and misunderstanding of what is really happening in Venezuela.
Calls for violence and assassination
On November 2, 2004, Boyd's Editor‚s Note openly stated in Vcrisis:
"Yesterday I had a conversation with someone about Venezuela and its problems. Given the peculiar characteristics of our crisis, my interlocutor asked "what‚s the solution then?" And I replied "when elected politicians treat one as an animal, how on earth can be expected that one behaves as a gentleman? The solution in my view is clear and simple: violence."
Calling for violence in Venezuela is a common practice among opposition leaders. For example, a number of the Venezuelan opposition have fled to take up residence in Miami. They can be fairly likened to the disgruntled Cubans in Miami who would love nothing more than a US. invasion of the place they call their homeland. On October 22, 2004, Orlando Urdaneta made a call to "take out Chavez" using an Israeli hit squad, a scope and a rifle. Maria Elvira Salazar hosts the show, "Maria Elviara Confronta" on TV cable channel 22 in Miami. Orlano Urdaneta is former presenter of Globalvision and Televen in Venezuela. What does the U.S. government or Great Britain do about calls for assassination of the head of a foreign government? Nada. They allow it and given their support for the overthrow of President Chavez, I think we can say they welcome these calls for violence and assassination.
When reading Boyd's writings about himself on his website, one cannot escape his uncontrolled rage. Certainly, we often write with the energy derived anger and other emotions. But when the anger distorts objectivity and facts, it can no longer rightly be considered "journalism."
We can see Boyd's anger expressed in a small portion of his long auto-biographical tribute to himself on Vcrisis:
"I have spent endless hours Œfighting‚ electronically with the legion of leftist talebans who think that they posses the absolute truth about my country, whilst living comfortably in industrialized societies. [Note that Boyd is living in London] What really pisses me off about that lot is that in their preconceived and sterile mind I am an oligarch; an agent of the neocons; a putschist. They are not capable of comprehending that I may have rebelled against Hugo Chavez simply because he is absolutely useless and his actions -or lack thereof- have driven us out of our beloved country.
They haven‚t got a clue about me or my background yet they affirm that I‚m part of the Venezuelan status quo. In that regard I can almost feel the rage that Bolivar felt when he came to be educated in Europe, only to find that many individuals in this so-called civilized world were so full of rubbish that it was simply impossible to withstand their self-righteousness. And so he set out to kick them out of his country."
On March 18, 2004, Boyd wrote:
"I wish I was Genghis Khan, I wish I had eaten my half-brother. Therefore the scum of this earth a.k.a. Hugo Chavez and followers would not be willing to piss me off. Ergo they would be extremely careful of not treading on my rights.
Attempts to conquer commanded by me would encounter nothing less than total submission owing to the sheer fear that my presence would cause. That is today my surreal and unachievable dream. When I read the comments of CNE‚s Francisco Carrasquero or the rulings of top magistrate‚ Ivan Rincon Urdaneta or the arguments of people‚s defender‚ Isaias Rodriguez I wish I was Genghis Khan. I wish I was the Khan an order my hordes to capture them and pour melted silver into their eyes."
Boyd's criticisms of President Chavez are typical of those I found in my interviews among many (not all) members of the opposition in Venezuela. When asked why they are opposed to Chavez, I hear things like, "Because he's a monkey" (a racist epithet referring to his dark skin); "Because he's stupid"; "He's a communist!"; "He's a friend of Fidel Castro!"; "He's going to turn our country into another Cuba!" and other vapid complaints, but rarely if ever any cogent, rational discussion of the issues.
Here are a list of adjectives, Boyd uses to describe President Chavez: coupster, putschist, criminal, non democrat, apatrida (translation fails me), directly responsible for very many deaths, patron and benefactor of terrorists, communist, neo fascist, utterly corrupt, racist, womanizer and other defamatory terms.
Boyd Breeds Bigotry
Boyd received a not-so-welcome party in Vienna when he led a meeting in Vienna in May, last year titled "Communications Media & Information Processes: The Venezuelan Case" held by the self-proclaimed "Vienna Pro-Venezuela Group". Boyd is a member of the group in London. On this event, VENPRES reported: After incidents that occurred in Vienna (Austria), May 11, the Venezuelan opposition has suffered a new defeat in its intent to create negative opinions of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution in foreign countries.
Consider a report on the event, titled Coup cheerleader Aleksander Boyd faces hate-Venezuela setback in Austria on a meeting held by Boyd in Vienna on May 11, 2004. The report describes a group of activists who protested, outside the meeting:
"Under the slogan 'We won't allow fascist organizations to appear in Austria and try to justify to our society the abuses that the opposition coup leaders commit in Venezuela,' the youths distributed informational material explaining Venezuela's private communications media's manipulations.
"A large group of youth drew pictures of dead bodies at the entrance to the Institute to represent the many deaths that the opposition's destabilizing acts have caused in Venezuela.
"According to the press release, Boyd tried to justify the private communications media's conduct ... but he was harshly criticized by the majority of the participants, who refuted his statements with strong, logical arguments.
"During his presentation, Boyd tried to justify the 'right' of the media to promote military pronouncements and the coup d'etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ... and to lie or manipulate the information, all in the name of 'freedom of expression.'
"These statements served to unmask to the public the true fascist, antidemocratic, and unconstitutional concepts supported by opposition coup-promoters. 'Rather than freedom of expression and information, what they wish to promote is freedom of media owners to lie and act as power brokers to defeat the legitimate government elected by the people of Venezuela'.
"According to information released by the Venezuelan Embassy in Vienna, the Socialist Youth Party of Austria and the Movement "Hands Off Venezuela" had demonstrated on May 11 in front of the Latin American Institute headquarters in Vienna, where a meeting entitled 'Communications Media & Information Processes: The Venezuelan Case' was being held by the self-proclaimed 'Vienna Pro-Venezuela Group' lead by Aleksander Boyd ... a member of the same group in London.
The opposition to Boyd's meeting in Vienna is reminiscent of the many times activists have gathered in the United States to protest meetings and parades by the KKK.
On Holoscan.com one of the bloggers wrote, "btw, I thougt (sic) [Eva] Golinger was much older" and provided the URL for her photograph and resume'. He continued, "..this, unfortunally (sic), explains many things...perhaps, pulpita (one of the bloggers) could hang out with Eva, and release some pent up agression (sic)?" The bloggers continue by writing, "Golinger is a whore. Just your type ...", and "go ahead, talk to Eva, perhaps she can give you what you dont' give your wife".
Aleksander Boyd participated in this vulgar discussion, writing, "I suggest we send her revolutionary resume and pic to reconocelos.com" - a hate website that posts pictures of those who support Chavez. The term, "recononcelos", means "recognize them".
On his website, Aleksander Boyd posts the following disclaimer:
Disclaimer
"Our pages are not meant to be a substitute for any professional investment advice, academic research, or journalistic endeavor . The opinions of others do not necessarily represent our own. We are not specialists in politics, economics, or law. Everything contained on our pages reflects our criteria regarding pertinent information, but we do not claim responsibility for the opinions or facts published herein.
Aleksander Boyd"
To my editorial/publisher mind, his disclaimer amounts to nothing less than a total abrogation of responsibility for the trash he writes and publishes. In addition to his absolute destruction of the King's English, he fails to abide by any commonly accepted standards for objective reporting of the facts. Moreover, he hasn't a hint of the rules of formal debate in what he calls, "analysis". There is no admission of his set of assumptions, no internal consistency in his apology and all of his writing can be fairly described as rhetorical diatribe. As long as the leadership of the opposition to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is led by hyenas like Aleksander Boyd, neither, the cheetah nor the Chavez government has anything to fear from him.
The same can be said for those of Boyd's ilk in the privately-owned media in Venezuela who invest so many US taxpayer dollars in their effort to depose President Chavez. But the calls for violence and assassination from Boyd and others among these thugs is something that deserves attention - first and foremost, attention by the US and UK Justice Departments.
On March 21, 2005, I among others received the following notice from Mr. Boyd:
To whom it may concern,
I have been advised that you have published on your website an article by Mr. Carlos Herrera, which contains my telephone numbers and contact details. As you are the editor and publisher of williambowles.info, I respectfully request for said data to be removed immediately from your website for I have not given Mr Herrera permission to publish my contact details.
After finding out with the UK Information Commissioner's office I learned that publication of personal data, without express consent of the person in question, is prohibited according to the Data Protection Act. As such I expect for these personal details to be removed from your website at once.
Dear Mr Bowles,
I do appreciate your correction of my contact information. However I ask you to remove completely my details from your website for I have not given you my authorisation to be publishing such details.
Cordially,
Aleksander Boyd
William Bowles, one of the recipients from this letter responded:
Re: Contact details on your website
Dear Mr Boyd,
The info in the piece is publicly available to anyone and it's perfectly legal to make it available, I checked with the government Website. I quote
"No obligation under the DPA arise where the information relates to businesses, companies or other organisations."
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=1038&expmovie=1
I obtained the information by doing a WHOIS on the PAIRNIC Website, the company that you have your domain registered with (you can do the same with my domain should you so choose).
Go well
William Bowles
After Boyd made similar demands and threats, Roy Carson, Editor of VHeadline.com patiently replied:
"Les Blough reprinted the Carlos Herrera article from VHeadline -- he did NOT remove anything -- he used the article AFTER it was amended -- with links to the public access details -- so I think Les will be expecting an apology from said Aleksander Boyd before the night is out. Incidentally the amendment was made only after hysterical threats and abuse in a long-distance call from London to Vancouver which was logged by my ISP!
They asked me to make the amendment and I conceded only after they had insisted and got from Boyd an assurance that he would not hold them in any way legally responsible for the details (not that there was much risk of that anyway!) He is going over the top because the tables have been turned on him and he is finally getting a taste of his own vile medicine".
- Roy Carson, Editor, VHeadline.com
On February 27, 2005, I wrote Boyd to ask him about one of his articles on the arrest of a FARC leader by the Chavez government. I was interested in what he had to say about this arrest since he, like the US government, has accused Chavez of supporting FARC as "terrorists". It was the first and only time I attempted to communicate with him. Boyd replied to my email with a personalised attack on another editor, some additional ad hominem and concluded:
"Keep reading Mr Blough you might actually learn something about my country and also it may give you a hindsight into the thinking of the majority of Venezuelans."
By "the majority of Venezuelans", does he refer to the overwhelming majority who voted for President Chavez 9 times in national elections and referrenda? I didn't bother to reply.
Is a criminal offense being committed by Boyd under Venezuela Law?
The Criminal Law Bill, recently approved by the Venezuela National Assembly, has various amendments. One of the most important changes is in Article 140, which penalizes any resident in Venezuela who, directly or indirectly, receives anything (from money or the supply of food to technological apparatus) that can be used "to the detriment" of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from any country, group or foreign association.
This provision leaves it to the judge to decide what is or is not detrimental to the Republic; whether funds from an international foundation for carrying out activities in defense of freedom and democracy in the country received by a Venezuelan NGO would be so considered, for example.
There are also provisions for sanctioning anyone who disrespects the President of the Republic with a prison term of between 6 and 30 months and, what is worse, "the punishment will be increased by one third if the offense was proffered publicly."
This law is perfectly understandable to us, given the unrelenting barrage against the government by 5 or 6 wealthy businessmen who own the private media in Venezuela - all with close links to the global corporate empire and the Bush administration.
We also understand that receiving money "to the detriment" of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by Venezuelan nationals living abroad is also covered in this Bill. This means that if Boyd is receiving money from the US to finance his site, which is indeed detrimental to the Bolivarian Republic as outlined above, or if there are insults against Chavez on his site, or attributable to him in a web log, for example, this is a criminal offense. If someone were to take out a writ -- and any citizen can do this in the Bolivarian republic -- then Boyd could well be detained when he sets foot in Simon Bolivar International Airport. This is worth thinking about, and someone could take this action if it considered by well-versed legal experts, that a criminal offense has been committed under Venezuelan law.
Obviously, it is up to Attorney Golinger what she wants to do about Boyd's defamations against her professional integrity published in Vcrisis. However, being the hot head that he is, Boyd writes with typical disdain and arrogance, as if he is "untouchable":
"The most vocal spin doctor of coupster Hugo Chavez in the USA is a person who keeps misrepresenting and lying about her profession, credentials, tax-status and connections to the Venezuelan regime; nothing but prevarications and distortions should be expected from Eva Golinger."
I am sure that Attorney Golinger will take her own informed legal decisions about this sentence in her own good time.
We applaud Eva Golinger for her straight-forward rebuke and detailed, factual corrections to the decept and disinformation, published knowingly and with aforethought by Aleksander Boyd. We also acknowledge her words to Boyd:
"I respectfully request you now cease and desist your persistent publications defaming my name, although I know that you will not because you are nothing more than a lowlife resentful individual".
Aleksander Boyd is a bully in his Vcrisis schoolyard. When bullies bully, sometimes we are compelled to bully back. Mr. Boyd and other disgruntled media personalities among those who would bring down the Chavez government by very undemocratic means, will continue their unfounded rants, but perhaps we have done our bit to assist Attorney Golinger in putting Mr. Boyd and his website prattle into their proper perspectives. Long live the cheetah!
This article was originally published at AxisofLogic.com
Eva Golinger is a Venezuelan-American attorney based in New York, specializing in immigration and international human rights law. She has been conducting an investigation into the US involvement in the coup d'etat against President Chávez of Venezuela in April 2002 and other subsequent destablization attempts.
Read about Eva Golinger's excellent investigative work on Axis of Logic relative to the Washington-based, National Endowment for Democracy and their funding of the Venezuelan opposition. You can reach Attorney Golinger at evagolinger@hotmail.com. You can also read more about her work on VHeadline.com
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He approaches nearer and begins yelping and whining.
He circles and approaches ever more closely until she and her cubs receive a waft of the funky smell of carrion from his grinning breath. The cheetah continues to ignore him knowing the power of one effortless and powerful swipe. That night, the hyena camps close by, making his presence known throughout the night. The next day as the cheetah leaves with her cubs, he follows. Day after day the scavenger continues to follow, attempting to use foolish deceptions and trickery to get to her cubs.
As days pass in the African sun, he follows and becomes more bold in his approaches. Then one fateful day, he sprinted in close enough to nip at a cub, yelping and whining with odious breath. In a single moment, the normally mild- tempered cheetah uncoiled her muscles and flew at him with blinding speed, nailing the hyena at a moment when he foolishly forgot who and where he was.
These are the images that came to my mind when I received an email today from Eva Golinger, Venezuelan-American attorney referent to one Aleksander Boyd ... a very loud mouthpiece, self-appointed to write from his website in the UK for those who oppose the Chavez government in Venezuela.
Boyd recently approached the cheetah one too many times and overstepped himself, a mistake often blindly made among the arrogant.
There are activists for peace, some I love dearly, who will no doubt be offended at my approving use of such violent images. Some may ask, "But aren't you supposed to be 'non-violent'?"
I answer, "Well, most of the time, we are." But I remind them that even the Tao te' Ching teaches us how to be wise when making war. Over the last several years, this cheetah has exhibited more patience than anyone should expect.
The time was overdue for Ms. Golinger to swat this hireling of the Venezuelan opposition upside the head and put him in his place. When one does a simple search on Boyd's website, using the name "golinger", 51 entries appear, each loaded with vitriolic suggestions, innuendo, accusations and threats, in attempts to defame her good name. On March 5 and again on March 25, Boyd attacked Ms. Golinger's credentials, IRS status and general integrity.
She finally replied with the following "swat" for this media hyena,
received at Axis of Logic on March 25, 2005:
To: Aleksander Boyd, Vcrisis
From: Eva Golinger, Attorney at Law
Subject: TO PUBLISH - STOP THE DEFAMATION AND LYING MR. BOYD!
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005
Mr. Boyd: I respectfully request you now cease and desist your persistent publications defaming my name, although I know that you will not because you are nothing more than a lowlife resentful individual.
First of all, I am in the process of re-doing MY webpage entirely, which is why things are being moved around.
Second of all, I have always paid for the website, not Jeremy, though he initially registered it. We have moved it to my name because it is my responsibility.
Third, the Venezuela Solidarity Committee, a registered NON-PROFIT in the State of New York, with ALL ITS PAPERWORK IN ORDER, has not be active for more than one year, has not received any donations during that period and is currently in a process of dissolution because I no longer desire to have a non-profit organization that I do not have time to manage.
Precisely for that reason, references to its existence have been taken down. It has nothing to do with your endless ridiculous ranting, but rather my own busy schedule.
Fourth, I have never violated ANY law. As I told you before - you must be very dense because you can't seem to understand - any legal work I did in the State of New York before obtaining my New York license was under the authority of a supervising attorney.
Read the regulations well, since you seem to like doing so, and you will see that law graduates - lawyers - can do legal work under the authority of a supervising attorney.
Fifth, I am a Firm Member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, though membership is voluntary. I am a member of the New York Bar Association, the New York Women's Bar Association, the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association, the New York County Lawyer's Association and so on. Just because you have nothing to show for yourself in life, not even a decent job or profession, does not mean that everyone else is as inept as you.
Finally, after all your time spent harassing and threatening me, you have proved yourself to me a despicable, disgusting individual. I feel sorry for your children for having such a rotten, resentful, angry father.
Eva Golinger
Attorney at Law
Abogada
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
While we often critique the corporate media for doing the same thing, we rarely write expose‚ on those who support the antics of the U.S.-led empire in the alternative, Internet media. In this case, we make an exception for the second time. On January 5, 2005, I co-authored an article with Carlos Herrera, Bolivarian Activist, in which I described Boyd and quoted from some of his writing: Malicious communications and internet terrorism
Boyd is not to be compared in size or power with the leaders of the opposition - not even close. He possesses neither the wealth nor cunning of those who are in leadership. To my knowledge, the most important job he has ever held was as a bell hop for the Sanderson Hotel in London. He lost that job in 2003. On his website he claims to have once been a law student: "In September of 2.000 I enrolled in Birkbeck College to read Geology, the idea behind it was to get a degree from the University of London and move back to Venezuela to work for PDVSA".
Apparently, Boyd failed in this endeavor, but leaves the reader with the impression that he is a law student.
On a less personal level, anyone who reads Boyd's rants on VCrisis can easily see that he has no sense or concern for journalistic integrity. His work rests upon innuendo and half-truths throughout and therefore misleading. For one example, Boyd is fond of suggesting that everyone who supports Chavez is in the pay of the government. He even tries to suggest that the work of lobbyist Patton Boggs, somehow performs illegal work when the same kind of lobbying is completely normal on Washington. It's a throwaway, rhetorical argument, but leaves impressions of corruption and wrong doing. It's always been interesting to me that when well documented, logical arguments are lacking, those in support of the empire frequently accuse foreign governments of "corruption" - which then become one of the "talking points" of the stooges who support the US global corporate empire. But before we go on with Boyd's media practices, let's take a look at his heroes among "The Opposition" in Venezuela.
Mr. Boyd's Heroes
It has been well-established that the opposition to the Bolivarian government in the Republic of Venezuela consists of a very small and very wealthy minority who were once the ruling class who held 80% of the Venezuelan people in poverty for 40 years prior to the presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias. The sixth segment of my current series on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela - Touching the Revolution - will be dedicated to "The Opposition" - the people in Venezuela who once comprised the ruling class and oppose the presidency of Hugo Chavez Frias. In that segment, I will try to provide a fair description of the entire spectrum of this opposition, including their concerns, fears and verbatim interviews I conducted among them in Altamira in February. Generally, what I found in my surveys and interviews among the opposition is that everything is not as "black and white" as some people report among both sides - those in support of Chavez and those who are opposed.
There were some among the opposition I interviewed who openly told me they think the only solution to the "problem of Chavez" is "a bullet in the head" -- words that would get you hard time were they to be uttered in public by a US citizen about our president. There are others who live among the Venezuelan opposition who will tell you they support Chavez when asked privately, but not when asked in front of their friends. Between those two poles, there is a lot of gray. Again, I will provide more detailed coverage on the opposition in the Touching the Revolution series.
The leaders of the opposition are an interesting cast of characters. The purpose of this report is not to address their failed coup d‚ etat attempt in 2002, their Managerial Strike/shutdown of the Venezuelan oil industry for 3 months in 2003 and their failed attempt to bring down President Chavez in the referendum of 2004. Rather it is to address the continuing media attacks and threats against President Chavez and the government he leads by people like Boyd. When the opposition owns and controls the entire private media in Venezuela - a credit to Chavez' respect for a free press - one can only understand their assaults on the Internet as intended to also convince the English-speaking world of their views. Some of the characters in leadership of this seeming unrelenting attack are now infamous. Let's take a look for a moment at some examples of Aleksander Boyd's heroes:
There is Pedro Carmona Estanga who usurped the seat of president for one day during the 2002 coup attempt, before the people brought Hugo Chavez, their elected president back, from a Carribean Island where he was taken in a plane registered in the U.S. Estanga fled to Columbia where he lives under political asylum. Estanga still his fingers in the pie by email and phone from Bogota. He is in cahoots with ex-President Carlos Andres Perez (New York, Dallas and Florida resident) who was the object of Chavez' February 1992 coup.
Carlos Andres Perez got political asylum in the Dominican Republic but has since taken up residence with the mother of his two children in Manhattan just overlooking Central Park. He has a stroke recently and was admitted to Presbyterian Hospital where he has made a recovery but still conspires with George W. Bush to overthrow Chavez.
There is Carlos Fernandez, a multi-millionaire who was is a transport company boss from Valencia before becoming president of Fedecamaras (Federation of Chambers of Industry & Commerce) after Estanga went into hiding. Fernandez is currently a resident in Florida, seeking asylum in the United States.
Carlos Ortega is another wealthy member of the gang that attempted the 2002 coup against Chavez. Carlos Ortega is the leader of the corrupt Trade Union Confederation. He got asylum in Costa Rica was kicked out and returned incognito to Caracas where he was arrested with false ID documents last month and is currently being held awaiting trial.
Corina Machado is the leader of SUMATE - the organization that is being funded by NED to bring Chavez down. She is also now facing trial in Venezuela but is free pending her appearance in court.
Aleksander Boyd is one of the loudest and vitriolic mouthpieces for this set of characters. Boyd is essentially a wannabee cheerleader for these thugs although I‚ve never seen them give him any recognition as such. I have hesitated to write about Boyd in the past because I am reluctant to draw any more attention to his rants than necessary. However, as an editor of a media outlet that places great importance on the developments in Venezuela, I have finally decided to respond to this opposition hireling since he seems to have found a permanent platform for ranting and raving which lead to misconceptions and misunderstanding of what is really happening in Venezuela.
Calls for violence and assassination
On November 2, 2004, Boyd's Editor‚s Note openly stated in Vcrisis:
"Yesterday I had a conversation with someone about Venezuela and its problems. Given the peculiar characteristics of our crisis, my interlocutor asked "what‚s the solution then?" And I replied "when elected politicians treat one as an animal, how on earth can be expected that one behaves as a gentleman? The solution in my view is clear and simple: violence."
Calling for violence in Venezuela is a common practice among opposition leaders. For example, a number of the Venezuelan opposition have fled to take up residence in Miami. They can be fairly likened to the disgruntled Cubans in Miami who would love nothing more than a US. invasion of the place they call their homeland. On October 22, 2004, Orlando Urdaneta made a call to "take out Chavez" using an Israeli hit squad, a scope and a rifle. Maria Elvira Salazar hosts the show, "Maria Elviara Confronta" on TV cable channel 22 in Miami. Orlano Urdaneta is former presenter of Globalvision and Televen in Venezuela. What does the U.S. government or Great Britain do about calls for assassination of the head of a foreign government? Nada. They allow it and given their support for the overthrow of President Chavez, I think we can say they welcome these calls for violence and assassination.
When reading Boyd's writings about himself on his website, one cannot escape his uncontrolled rage. Certainly, we often write with the energy derived anger and other emotions. But when the anger distorts objectivity and facts, it can no longer rightly be considered "journalism."
We can see Boyd's anger expressed in a small portion of his long auto-biographical tribute to himself on Vcrisis:
"I have spent endless hours Œfighting‚ electronically with the legion of leftist talebans who think that they posses the absolute truth about my country, whilst living comfortably in industrialized societies. [Note that Boyd is living in London] What really pisses me off about that lot is that in their preconceived and sterile mind I am an oligarch; an agent of the neocons; a putschist. They are not capable of comprehending that I may have rebelled against Hugo Chavez simply because he is absolutely useless and his actions -or lack thereof- have driven us out of our beloved country.
They haven‚t got a clue about me or my background yet they affirm that I‚m part of the Venezuelan status quo. In that regard I can almost feel the rage that Bolivar felt when he came to be educated in Europe, only to find that many individuals in this so-called civilized world were so full of rubbish that it was simply impossible to withstand their self-righteousness. And so he set out to kick them out of his country."
On March 18, 2004, Boyd wrote:
"I wish I was Genghis Khan, I wish I had eaten my half-brother. Therefore the scum of this earth a.k.a. Hugo Chavez and followers would not be willing to piss me off. Ergo they would be extremely careful of not treading on my rights.
Attempts to conquer commanded by me would encounter nothing less than total submission owing to the sheer fear that my presence would cause. That is today my surreal and unachievable dream. When I read the comments of CNE‚s Francisco Carrasquero or the rulings of top magistrate‚ Ivan Rincon Urdaneta or the arguments of people‚s defender‚ Isaias Rodriguez I wish I was Genghis Khan. I wish I was the Khan an order my hordes to capture them and pour melted silver into their eyes."
Boyd's criticisms of President Chavez are typical of those I found in my interviews among many (not all) members of the opposition in Venezuela. When asked why they are opposed to Chavez, I hear things like, "Because he's a monkey" (a racist epithet referring to his dark skin); "Because he's stupid"; "He's a communist!"; "He's a friend of Fidel Castro!"; "He's going to turn our country into another Cuba!" and other vapid complaints, but rarely if ever any cogent, rational discussion of the issues.
Here are a list of adjectives, Boyd uses to describe President Chavez: coupster, putschist, criminal, non democrat, apatrida (translation fails me), directly responsible for very many deaths, patron and benefactor of terrorists, communist, neo fascist, utterly corrupt, racist, womanizer and other defamatory terms.
Boyd Breeds Bigotry
Boyd received a not-so-welcome party in Vienna when he led a meeting in Vienna in May, last year titled "Communications Media & Information Processes: The Venezuelan Case" held by the self-proclaimed "Vienna Pro-Venezuela Group". Boyd is a member of the group in London. On this event, VENPRES reported: After incidents that occurred in Vienna (Austria), May 11, the Venezuelan opposition has suffered a new defeat in its intent to create negative opinions of Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution in foreign countries.
Consider a report on the event, titled Coup cheerleader Aleksander Boyd faces hate-Venezuela setback in Austria on a meeting held by Boyd in Vienna on May 11, 2004. The report describes a group of activists who protested, outside the meeting:
"Under the slogan 'We won't allow fascist organizations to appear in Austria and try to justify to our society the abuses that the opposition coup leaders commit in Venezuela,' the youths distributed informational material explaining Venezuela's private communications media's manipulations.
"A large group of youth drew pictures of dead bodies at the entrance to the Institute to represent the many deaths that the opposition's destabilizing acts have caused in Venezuela.
"According to the press release, Boyd tried to justify the private communications media's conduct ... but he was harshly criticized by the majority of the participants, who refuted his statements with strong, logical arguments.
"During his presentation, Boyd tried to justify the 'right' of the media to promote military pronouncements and the coup d'etat against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ... and to lie or manipulate the information, all in the name of 'freedom of expression.'
"These statements served to unmask to the public the true fascist, antidemocratic, and unconstitutional concepts supported by opposition coup-promoters. 'Rather than freedom of expression and information, what they wish to promote is freedom of media owners to lie and act as power brokers to defeat the legitimate government elected by the people of Venezuela'.
"According to information released by the Venezuelan Embassy in Vienna, the Socialist Youth Party of Austria and the Movement "Hands Off Venezuela" had demonstrated on May 11 in front of the Latin American Institute headquarters in Vienna, where a meeting entitled 'Communications Media & Information Processes: The Venezuelan Case' was being held by the self-proclaimed 'Vienna Pro-Venezuela Group' lead by Aleksander Boyd ... a member of the same group in London.
The opposition to Boyd's meeting in Vienna is reminiscent of the many times activists have gathered in the United States to protest meetings and parades by the KKK.
On Holoscan.com one of the bloggers wrote, "btw, I thougt (sic) [Eva] Golinger was much older" and provided the URL for her photograph and resume'. He continued, "..this, unfortunally (sic), explains many things...perhaps, pulpita (one of the bloggers) could hang out with Eva, and release some pent up agression (sic)?" The bloggers continue by writing, "Golinger is a whore. Just your type ...", and "go ahead, talk to Eva, perhaps she can give you what you dont' give your wife".
Aleksander Boyd participated in this vulgar discussion, writing, "I suggest we send her revolutionary resume and pic to reconocelos.com" - a hate website that posts pictures of those who support Chavez. The term, "recononcelos", means "recognize them".
On his website, Aleksander Boyd posts the following disclaimer:
Disclaimer
"Our pages are not meant to be a substitute for any professional investment advice, academic research, or journalistic endeavor . The opinions of others do not necessarily represent our own. We are not specialists in politics, economics, or law. Everything contained on our pages reflects our criteria regarding pertinent information, but we do not claim responsibility for the opinions or facts published herein.
Aleksander Boyd"
To my editorial/publisher mind, his disclaimer amounts to nothing less than a total abrogation of responsibility for the trash he writes and publishes. In addition to his absolute destruction of the King's English, he fails to abide by any commonly accepted standards for objective reporting of the facts. Moreover, he hasn't a hint of the rules of formal debate in what he calls, "analysis". There is no admission of his set of assumptions, no internal consistency in his apology and all of his writing can be fairly described as rhetorical diatribe. As long as the leadership of the opposition to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is led by hyenas like Aleksander Boyd, neither, the cheetah nor the Chavez government has anything to fear from him.
The same can be said for those of Boyd's ilk in the privately-owned media in Venezuela who invest so many US taxpayer dollars in their effort to depose President Chavez. But the calls for violence and assassination from Boyd and others among these thugs is something that deserves attention - first and foremost, attention by the US and UK Justice Departments.
On March 21, 2005, I among others received the following notice from Mr. Boyd:
To whom it may concern,
I have been advised that you have published on your website an article by Mr. Carlos Herrera, which contains my telephone numbers and contact details. As you are the editor and publisher of williambowles.info, I respectfully request for said data to be removed immediately from your website for I have not given Mr Herrera permission to publish my contact details.
After finding out with the UK Information Commissioner's office I learned that publication of personal data, without express consent of the person in question, is prohibited according to the Data Protection Act. As such I expect for these personal details to be removed from your website at once.
Dear Mr Bowles,
I do appreciate your correction of my contact information. However I ask you to remove completely my details from your website for I have not given you my authorisation to be publishing such details.
Cordially,
Aleksander Boyd
William Bowles, one of the recipients from this letter responded:
Re: Contact details on your website
Dear Mr Boyd,
The info in the piece is publicly available to anyone and it's perfectly legal to make it available, I checked with the government Website. I quote
"No obligation under the DPA arise where the information relates to businesses, companies or other organisations."
http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=1038&expmovie=1
I obtained the information by doing a WHOIS on the PAIRNIC Website, the company that you have your domain registered with (you can do the same with my domain should you so choose).
Go well
William Bowles
After Boyd made similar demands and threats, Roy Carson, Editor of VHeadline.com patiently replied:
"Les Blough reprinted the Carlos Herrera article from VHeadline -- he did NOT remove anything -- he used the article AFTER it was amended -- with links to the public access details -- so I think Les will be expecting an apology from said Aleksander Boyd before the night is out. Incidentally the amendment was made only after hysterical threats and abuse in a long-distance call from London to Vancouver which was logged by my ISP!
They asked me to make the amendment and I conceded only after they had insisted and got from Boyd an assurance that he would not hold them in any way legally responsible for the details (not that there was much risk of that anyway!) He is going over the top because the tables have been turned on him and he is finally getting a taste of his own vile medicine".
- Roy Carson, Editor, VHeadline.com
On February 27, 2005, I wrote Boyd to ask him about one of his articles on the arrest of a FARC leader by the Chavez government. I was interested in what he had to say about this arrest since he, like the US government, has accused Chavez of supporting FARC as "terrorists". It was the first and only time I attempted to communicate with him. Boyd replied to my email with a personalised attack on another editor, some additional ad hominem and concluded:
"Keep reading Mr Blough you might actually learn something about my country and also it may give you a hindsight into the thinking of the majority of Venezuelans."
By "the majority of Venezuelans", does he refer to the overwhelming majority who voted for President Chavez 9 times in national elections and referrenda? I didn't bother to reply.
Is a criminal offense being committed by Boyd under Venezuela Law?
The Criminal Law Bill, recently approved by the Venezuela National Assembly, has various amendments. One of the most important changes is in Article 140, which penalizes any resident in Venezuela who, directly or indirectly, receives anything (from money or the supply of food to technological apparatus) that can be used "to the detriment" of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela from any country, group or foreign association.
This provision leaves it to the judge to decide what is or is not detrimental to the Republic; whether funds from an international foundation for carrying out activities in defense of freedom and democracy in the country received by a Venezuelan NGO would be so considered, for example.
There are also provisions for sanctioning anyone who disrespects the President of the Republic with a prison term of between 6 and 30 months and, what is worse, "the punishment will be increased by one third if the offense was proffered publicly."
This law is perfectly understandable to us, given the unrelenting barrage against the government by 5 or 6 wealthy businessmen who own the private media in Venezuela - all with close links to the global corporate empire and the Bush administration.
We also understand that receiving money "to the detriment" of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by Venezuelan nationals living abroad is also covered in this Bill. This means that if Boyd is receiving money from the US to finance his site, which is indeed detrimental to the Bolivarian Republic as outlined above, or if there are insults against Chavez on his site, or attributable to him in a web log, for example, this is a criminal offense. If someone were to take out a writ -- and any citizen can do this in the Bolivarian republic -- then Boyd could well be detained when he sets foot in Simon Bolivar International Airport. This is worth thinking about, and someone could take this action if it considered by well-versed legal experts, that a criminal offense has been committed under Venezuelan law.
Obviously, it is up to Attorney Golinger what she wants to do about Boyd's defamations against her professional integrity published in Vcrisis. However, being the hot head that he is, Boyd writes with typical disdain and arrogance, as if he is "untouchable":
"The most vocal spin doctor of coupster Hugo Chavez in the USA is a person who keeps misrepresenting and lying about her profession, credentials, tax-status and connections to the Venezuelan regime; nothing but prevarications and distortions should be expected from Eva Golinger."
I am sure that Attorney Golinger will take her own informed legal decisions about this sentence in her own good time.
We applaud Eva Golinger for her straight-forward rebuke and detailed, factual corrections to the decept and disinformation, published knowingly and with aforethought by Aleksander Boyd. We also acknowledge her words to Boyd:
"I respectfully request you now cease and desist your persistent publications defaming my name, although I know that you will not because you are nothing more than a lowlife resentful individual".
Aleksander Boyd is a bully in his Vcrisis schoolyard. When bullies bully, sometimes we are compelled to bully back. Mr. Boyd and other disgruntled media personalities among those who would bring down the Chavez government by very undemocratic means, will continue their unfounded rants, but perhaps we have done our bit to assist Attorney Golinger in putting Mr. Boyd and his website prattle into their proper perspectives. Long live the cheetah!
This article was originally published at AxisofLogic.com
Eva Golinger is a Venezuelan-American attorney based in New York, specializing in immigration and international human rights law. She has been conducting an investigation into the US involvement in the coup d'etat against President Chávez of Venezuela in April 2002 and other subsequent destablization attempts.
Read about Eva Golinger's excellent investigative work on Axis of Logic relative to the Washington-based, National Endowment for Democracy and their funding of the Venezuelan opposition. You can reach Attorney Golinger at evagolinger@hotmail.com. You can also read more about her work on VHeadline.com
VHeadline.com remains 100% independent of all political factions in Venezuela
-- our aim is to report what's happening without submitting to lawlessness
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VHeadline.com Venezuela is a wholly independent e-publication promoting democracy in its fullest expression and the inalienable right of all Venezuelans to self-determination and the pursuit of sovereign independence without interference. We seek to shed light on nefarious practices and the corruption which for decades has strangled this South American nation's development and progress. Our declared editorial bias is most definitely pro-Constitutional, pro-Democracy and pro-VENEZUELA.
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