[Mb-civic] Regime Change By Assassin? Easier Said Than Done - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Regime Change By Assassin? Easier Said Than Done.

By Lynne Duke
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; Page C01

So Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition, thinks the United 
States should assassinate Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.

Let's see. What are our options? The 30-year-old Senate reports of the 
Church committee give us some options.

How about a vial of poison, as ordered up for a proposed U.S. 
assassination in 1960 of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Or 
perhaps supply some weaponry to a local hit squad, as Washington did for 
those who bumped off Dominican leader Rafael Trujillo.

And let us not overlook Fidel. Oh Fidel, that tough Castro case in Cuba. 
Through the 1960s, there were eight -- count 'em, eight -- separate U.S. 
plots to kill him. MOs included a mob hit, poisoned cigars, an exploding 
seashell and a skin diving suit contaminated with deadly fungi, not to 
mention various rifles and explosives in the hands of Castro-hating 
Cuban exiles.

Yet Castro remains with us -- which may prove the point that 
geopolitical hits are folly or, at least, never easy.

Chavez, wouldn't you know, was in Cuba yesterday, visiting Castro when 
the Robertson controversy broke. Robertson and some in the Bush 
administration believe Chavez is Castro's spawn. And Chavez has pumped 
himself into heroic status with frequent predictions that the United 
States wants him dead. Robertson, in a tirade against the oil-rich 
leader, said that Washington should give Chavez what he wants.

But seriously.

It is rare that a public figure would publicly advocate such a 
radioactive course of action as assassination, which is why the 
collective eyebrow has been raised over Robertson's statements.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/23/AR2005082301406.html
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