In a sleazy hotel room, "Brittany," then aged 16 and drugged into oblivion, waited for the men to arrive. Her pimps sent as many as 17 clients an evening through the door.

A "john" could even pre-book the pretty young blonde for $1,000 a night, sometimes flying in and then flying out from a nearby airport.

None of this happened in Bangkok or Costa Rica, places that have become synonymous with sex tourism and underage sex.

It took place in Atlanta, the buckle of the U.S. Bible Belt, where the world's busiest passenger airport provides a cheaper, more convenient and safer underage sex destination for men seeking girls as young as 10.

"Men fly in, are met by pimps, have sex with a 14-year-old for lunch, and get home in time for dinner with the family," said Sanford Jones, the chief juvenile judge of Fulton County, Georgia.

A new federal law passed in 2003 ensures that American sex tourists landing on foreign soil and hiring prostitutes under the age of 18 can get 30 years in prison.

But in Georgia, punishment for pimping or soliciting sex with a girl under 18 is only five to 20 years, according to Deborah Espy, the Deputy District Attorney of Fulton County.

"Men are coming to Atlanta to have sex with a child," said LaKendra Baker, project manager for the Center to End Adolescent Sexual Exploitation (CEASE).

Half of the street-level prostitutes in Atlanta are believed to be under 18, according to experts.

Others are booked through Internet sex sites and from social sites like Black Planet, where girls innocently post profiles, said Baker.

Just in March, police arrested a Canadian man meeting a 14-year-old girl he found through the Internet, said Cathey Steinberg, executive director of the Juvenile Justice Fund, which funds treatment for abused girls and prevention.

Another man drove from North Georgia, with a bag containing a teddy bear, a love note and condoms, snorting methamphetamine on the way.

He expected a 13-year-old girl, but instead found Heather Lackey, a corporal with the Peachtree City Police Department.

"People are stunned that Atlanta's the No. 1 sex center in the country," said Steinberg.

The FBI has identified 14 U.S. cities as centers for the sexual exploitation of children. In addition to Atlanta, they are Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

RUNAWAYS AT MOST RISK

In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States, according to a University of Pennsylvania study.

Most youths caught up in the sex trade are runaways, like Brittany, whose 19-year-old "rescuers" soon demanded a return on their investment.

"I didn't have any place to go. My mom hated me for what I was doing to the family," said Brittany, who did not want to be identified by her real name.

Up to 90 percent of runaways are believed to end up as prostitutes, with a third lured into prostitution within 48 hours. Some are sold into sexual slavery by their parents, according to a 2005 study by the Atlanta Women's Agenda.

Some get seduced by recruiters. Pimps use handsome young men and sometimes girls as fronts.

"A 16-year-old controlling a group of girls will not face the same penalties an adult would receive," said Patricia Crone, director of the Office of Juvenile Justice Demonstration Project.

Once snagged, the grooming process begins. Typically, the pimp's friends sleep with her, then come threats, beatings and gang rapes. Caresses and gifts, including drugs and alcohol, follow abuse, the Atlanta Women's Agenda study found.

Brittany said she was showered with fancy dinners, clothes and methamphetamine. But she also describes horror. "It made me feel dirty. It was demeaning," said Brittany.

The sex slaves are trafficked in and out of cities to supply sporting events, conventions or rap concerts.

During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, one man kept boys and hosted sex parties nightly, said Baker of the group CEASE.

The pimps even held an annual "Player's Ball" in Atlanta in 2003, openly buying and selling women and naming a "Player of the Year," according to the Atlanta Women's Agenda study.

The risks are worth it. While there are few reliable statistics, child sexual exploitation is believed to be the world's third-biggest money maker for organized crime, said Stephanie Davis, policy adviser to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

One reason for the demand is the false assumption that youths are disease-free.

On the contrary, with tissues not fully developed, they are more prone to lacerations. HIV infections among females aged 16 to 21 are 50 percent higher than for men, a 1998 study in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes reported.

Atlanta has won two new federal grants to establish units to fight the trafficking of underage sex slaves and to hire more undercover detectives, said Carole Morgan, director of the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy.

But the experts fear that may not be enough.

"It won't stop until people say, 'My city isn't safe for kids anymore,'" said Crone.

"This is a place where you can buy, sell or rent kids. It must be stopped."

Blackwell is the frontrunner for Ohio's Republican nomination for governor. The first African-American to hold statewide office, the former mayor of Cincinnati made millions in deals involving extreme right-wing "religious" radio stations.

As part of his campaign filings he has been required to divulge the contents of his various stock portfolios. Blackwell says that in the process he was "surprised" to learn he owned Diebold shares. According to central Ohio's biggest daily, the conservative Republican "Columbus Dispatch," Blackwell claims his multi-million-dollar portfolio has been handled "by a financial manager without his advice or review."

Blackwell says he gave verbal instructions to a previous fund manager about which stocks not to buy, but failed to do so when he brought in a replacement. He claims the new manager bought 178 Diebold shares in January 2005 for $53.67/share. He says 95 shares were sold sometime last year, and that the remainder were sold this week after Blackwell conducted an annual review of his portfolio. He says both sales resulted in losses.

Prior to the 2004 election, Blackwell tried to award a $100 million no-bid contract to Diebold for electronic voting machines. A storm of public outrage and a series of lawsuits forced him to cancel the deal. But a substantial percentage of Ohio's 2004 votes were counted by Diebold software and Diebold Opti-scan machines which frequently malfunctioned in the Democratic stronghold of Toledo. Many believe they played a key role in allowing Blackwell to steal Ohio's 20 electoral votes -- and thus the presidential election -- for Bush. Walden O'Dell, then the Diebold CEO, had pledged to "deliver" Ohio's electoral votes to Bush.

Blackwell has since continued to bring in Diebold machines under other multi-million dollar contracts. In 2005, while he owned Diebold stock, Blackwell converted nearly half Ohio's counties to Diebold equipment.

Those machines have been plagued by a wide range of problems, casting further doubt on the integrity of the Ohio vote count. A number of county boards of elections are trying to reject Diebold equipment. Two statewide referendum issues on electoral reform were defeated in 2005 in a vote tally that was a virtual statistical impossibility. The deciding votes were cast and counted on Diebold equipment.

In recent months, Blackwell has ordered all 88 county boards of elections to send into his office the memory cards that will be used in the primary election, in which Blackwell expects to win the gubernatorial race. There is no effective statewide monitoring system to protect those cards from being rigged.

Matt Damschroder, the Republican chair of the Franklin County (Columbus) Board of Elections, has also reported that a key Diebold operative told Damschroder he made a $50,000 contribution to Blackwell's "political interests" while Blackwell was evaluating Diebold's bids for state purchasing contracts. Blackwell denies the contribution was made to him.

Damschroder is former chair of the Franklin County GOP. He says former Diebold contractor Pasquale "Patsy" Gallina boasted of making the contribution to Blackwell. Damschroder himself has publicly admitted to personally accepting a $10,000 check from Pasquale, made out to the Franklin County GOP. That contribution was made while Damschroder was involved in evaluating Diebold bids for county contracts.

Damschroder was censured but not removed from office. On Election Day 2004, Franklin County voting officials told the Free Press that Blackwell and Damschroder were meeting with George W. Bush in Columbus. AP accounts place both Bush and Karl Rove unexpectedly in Columbus on Election Day. Damschroder has denied that he met personally with Bush, but refuses to clarify whether or not he was at GOP meetings with Bush in attendance on Election Day.

An eyewitness ally of Blackwell told a small gathering of Bush supporters, with a Free Press reporter present, that Blackwell was in a frenzy on Election Day, writing percentages and vote totals on maps of rural Republican counties, attempting to figure out how many votes, real or manufactured, Bush would need to overcome the exit poll results in Cleveland and Columbus.

Meanwhile Blackwell has run one of the most vicious primary campaigns ever seen in Ohio politics. A series of expensive television ads have assaulted Blackwell's GOP opponent, Attorney General Jim Petro, vehemently charging him with extreme corruption and dishonesty. GOP operatives fear Blackwell's attacks could shatter the party.

Now Blackwell's Diebold revelations have both Petro and the state's extremely feeble Democrats jumping for joy. Petro, who has a large portfolio of his own, says he will pursue the question of whether Blackwell has broken the law. "Considering Ken Blackwell's history with Diebold, I think this warrants further investigation to remove any hint of impropriety," says Petro campaign manager Bob Paduchik.

Democratic candidate Ted Strickland has reported no stock portfolio at all. "If [Blackwell] doesn't know what's going on with his own checkbook, why in the world would voters want him to be in charge of the checkbook as governor?" asks Democratic spokesperson Brian Rothenberg.

The common statewide wisdom is that "Ken Blackwell will never lose an election in which he is in charge of the vote count."

But Ohio Democrats never seriously questioned Blackwell's rigged 2004 vote count that put Bush back in the White House. They've mounted no serious campaign challenging Blackwell's handling of the tally in 2005. They've presented no plan for guaranteeing the integrity of the upcoming 2006 November election, which will again be run by Blackwell, even though he may be the GOP nominee.

Attorney-General Petro has become Blackwell's sworn enemy. A rugged campaigner with extensive statewide connections, it's not likely Petro would quietly accept an election being stolen from him. That might explain Blackwell's vehement attacks on his fellow Republican.

But having accused his cohort of widespread corruption, and with a long history of scornful contempt for all those who challenge him, Blackwell's own Diebold revelations have opened a Pandora's Box. What comes flying out could affect state and national politics for years to come.
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman are co-authors of "How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election and Is Rigging 2008". They are co-editors, with Steve Rosenfeld, of "What Happened in Ohio?" soon to be published by The New Press.

At issue is a hug Savannah said she got on the playground from a friend named Sophie. Savannah hugged Sophie back. The hugs resulted in Savannah having to write a letter, complete with teacher corrections, that read, "I touch Sophie because she touch me and I didn't like it because she was hugging me. I didn't like when she hugged me."

"She said, 'I'm really sad that I got in trouble for hugging,'" Brier said.

"I can understand if boys are playing rough or kids are pulling each other around -- that's one thing. But when kids are being affectionate, I mean hugging, hey, they shouldn't be disciplined over it and they shouldn't be lying in letters making the kid say the opposite that they don't like to hug," Marino said.

School Superintendent Mark Masterson told NewsCenter 5 there was a "dispute of the facts between a hug and a lifting of a child off the floor." The superintendent said the school reported "one girl bear hugged another girl and lifted her off the ground. The aide who was monitoring told the teacher. The teacher asked several students to write a note to their parents and describe what happened."

Savannah said she did not lift her classmate off the ground.

"They're trying to accuse her now, basically," Brier said.

Savannah's parents said it should have never gone this far, and want an apology from the school. The family said they are so upset they'll start looking for a new school for their daughter to attend.

On September 15, 2004 Magnequench shuttered its last plant in Indiana, fired its 450 workers and began shipping its machine tools to a new plant in China. "We're handing over to the Chinese both our defense technology and our jobs in the midst of a deep recession," says Rep. Peter Visclosky, a Democrat from northern Indiana.

It gets stranger. Magnequench is not only moving its defense plants to China, it's actually owned by Chinese companies with close ties to the Chinese government.

Magnequench began its corporate life back in 1986 as a subsidiary of General Motors. Using Pentagon grants, GM had developed a new kind of permanent magnet material in the early 1980s. It began manufacturing the magnets in 1987 at the Magnequench factory in Anderson, Indiana.

In 1995, Magnequench was purchased from GM by Sextant Group, an investment company headed by Archibald Cox, Jr-the son of the Watergate prosecutor. After the takeover, Cox was named CEO. What few knew at the time was that Sextant was largely a front for two Chinese companies, San Huan New Material and the China National Non-Ferrous Metals Import and Export Corporation. Both of these companies have close ties to the Chinese government. Indeed, the ties were so intimate that the heads of both companies were in-laws of the late Chinese premier Deng Xiaopeng.

At the time of the takeover, Cox pledged to the workers that Magnequench was in it for the long haul, intending to invest money in the plants and committed to keeping the production line going for at least a decade.

Three years later Cox shut down the Anderson plant and shipped its assembly line to China. Now Cox is presiding over the closure of Magnequench's last factory in the US, the Valparaiso, Indiana plant that manufactures the magnets for the JDAM bomb. Most of the workers have already been fired.

"Archie Cox and his company are committing a criminal act," says Mike O'Brien, an organizer with the UAW in Indiana. "He's a traitor to his country."

It's clear that Cox and Sextant were acting as a front for some unsavory interests. For example, only months prior to the takeover of Magnequench San Huan New Materials was cited by US International Trade Commission for patent infringement and business espionage. The company was fined $1.5 million. Foreign investment in American high-tech and defense companies is regulated by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS). It is unlikely that CFIUS would have approved San Huan's purchase of Magnequench had it not been for the cover provided by Cox and his Sextant Group.

One of Magnequench's subsidiaries is a company called GA Powders, which manufactures the fine granules used in making the mini-magnets. GA Powders was originally a Department of Energy project created by scientists at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab. It was spun off to Magnequench in 1998, after Lockheed Martin took over the operations at INEEL.

In June 2000, Magnequench uprooted the production facilities for GA Powders from Idaho Falls to a newly constructed plant in Tianjin, China. This move followed the transfer to China of high-tech computer equipment from Magnequench's shuttered Anderson plant. According to a report in Insight magazine, these computers could be used to facilitate the enrichment of uranium for nuclear warheads.

GA Powders isn't the only business venture between a Department of Energy operation and Magnequench. According to a news letter produced by the Sandia Labs in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Sandia is working on a joint project with Magnequench involving "the development of advanced electronic controls and new magnet technology".

Dr. Peter Leitner is an advisor to the Pentagon on matters involving trade in strategic materials. He says that the Chinese targeted Magnequench in order to advance their development of long-range Cruise missiles. China now holds a monopoly on the rare-earth minerals used in the manufacturing of the missile magnets. The only operating rare-earth mine is located in Batou, China.

"By controlling access to the magnets and the raw materials they are composed of, US industry can be held hostage to Chinese blackmail and extortion," Leitner told Insight magazine last year. "This highly concentrated control-one country, one government-will be the sole source of something critical to the US military and industrial base."

Visclosky and Senator Evan Bayh asked the Bush administration to intervene using the Exon-Florio Amendment to the 1988 Defense Appropriation Act to pry the Chinese money out of the company and force Magnequench to keep its factories in Indiana.

There was precedent for just such a presidential move. In 1990, George H.W. Bush ordered the state-owned China National Aerospace and Export Company to divest its interest in Mamco Manufacturing of Seattle, reportedly because of concern that the Chinese firm could have use Mamco to acquire jet fighter engine technology. The directive came from Bush three months after CATIC had seized control of Mamco. When after six months the Chinese company refused to relinquish its interest in Mamco, Bush ordered the Treasury Department to place the company in receivership and barred the Chinese officials from having any access to its facilities.

Unlike his father, Bush 2 declined to respond to the pleas from Visclosky and Bayh. The Treasury Department, which could have intervened to stop the move, also refused to act. Visclosky says that he also contacted the Pentagon. Its procurement officials admitted to him that Magnequench was the only domestic supplier of the smart bomb magnets (Hitachi holds the other contract), but that it had no idea that company was owned by the Chinese or that it was packing up for Tianjin.

As the doors closed on its Valparaiso plant, a memo came from Magnequench executives advising that its HQ will be soon be relocated from Indianapolis to Singapore. No word on yet whether Cox is moving too.

And yes, when the Republicans made a mountain out of what turned out in the end to be a pretty small molehill concerning transfers of satellite technology to China in Clinton time, they said it might be grounds for impeachment. William Safire wrote lots of columns on the matter. Not a bleat from Safire now.

This article is excerpted from Jeffrey St. Clair's new book, Grand Theft Pentagon.

The accident occurred near the Great Bay, an inland tidal estuary, Winona said.

Dodds, one of the Democratic challengers to U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley, left a Democratic committee meeting in Somersworth, N.H., and was traveling to Portsmouth to meet with a campaign fiscal agent, with whom Dodds was to finish some federal election commission filings, Winona said.

"He never showed up for the [8:30 p.m.] meeting.

"Someone witnessed his car leaving Spaulding turnpike" and called Dover police, who showed up soon afterward but have still been unable to locate the congressional candidate, she said. "The weather conditions were not the best. It was a little slippery."

Winona ruled out the possibility that alcohol or drugs were involved in Dodds' disappearance.

"He is a totally clean-living guy," she said. "He doesn't drink or smoke or anything."

The candidate has pledged to walk the "entire [congressional] district to hear the concerns of the people that Jeb Bradley has forgotten about," according to Dodds' Web site.

Dodds is the chief financial officer of Accent Magazine and the vice chairman of the Rye, N.H., school board, according to his Web site. He and his wife have two daughters.

Dodds is described as 6 feet 3 inches tall, and weighing 180 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Anyone who witnessed the accident or has information about Dodds is asked to call New Hampshire state police at 603-679-3333.

The nomination requires Senate confirmation.

At a news conference to introduce the nominee, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said a lot of people had been considered for the vacancy, but Paulison was the only one he wanted to recommend to Bush.

"I think it would be a mistake to suggest that there were people who were approached and asked to take the job and turned it down, because the decision about who I would recommend wasn't made until fairly recently," Chertoff told reporters.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Bush was turning to Paulison after seven candidates for director or another top FEMA job pulled out of the running.

The candidates were said to be unconvinced the administration was serious about fixing FEMA or that there was enough time to get it done before Bush's second term ends in January 2009.

The Times said that of the 30 most senior jobs at FEMA, 11 were filled by officials appointed on an acting basis. It said Kentucky Republican Rep. Harold Rogers (news, bio, voting record), chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees the Homeland Security Department's budget, threatened last week to hold up action on the budget bill until the top jobs at FEMA were filled.

At the news conference, Chertoff announced three other senior FEMA appointments. He acknowledged "a number" of people were in jobs on an acting basis, but said he expected to fill those positions soon.

"We're on a path now to get about 95 percent of the vacancies filled in the department by June 1, which is kind of our target date," Chertoff said.

The hurricane season starts on June 1.

The agency faces heavy criticism for its rebuilding role after Katrina devastated New Orleans and killed more than 1,300 people.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said on Monday he would urge Chertoff to replace the FEMA team in charge of setting up travel-trailer villages that have sprung up to house residents whose homes were damaged.

The demand was sparked by a weekend fracas in which security guards threatened homeowners opposed to a temporary housing site.

"I'm pleased that Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate are working together to get a comprehensive immigration bill," President George W. Bush said in a statement welcoming the accord.

At a press conference Thursday, Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist also hailed the agreement, saying: "We've had a huge breakthrough ... that will lead us to the conclusion of passing a very important bill."

In a nod to conservatives concerned about security, the Senate bill also includes billions of dollars for new border patrol agents, and would slap tougher sanctions on employers who hire illegal workers, among other enforcement measures.

However, stalwart Republicans condemned the bill and vowed to defeat it.

"I do not believe a plan of this nature can pass the House," said Republican Representative Tom Tancredo, one of the most outspoken critics of immigration reform in Congress.

Tancredo called the Senate bill "miserable public policy."

Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who also opposes the deal, said it defies logic to offer lenient immigration conditions to some undocumented workers and tougher terms to immigrants in the country for a shorter time who have committed the same infractions.

"Bifurcating how long you've broken the law, I don't think is the way to go," she said.

Other Republicans continued to denounce the bill as rewarding undocumented immigrants by providing them "amnesty," and vowed to try to change the legislation by amending it.

The measure crafted by Republican senators Chuck Hagel and Mel Martinez would allow undocumented residents who arrived in the United States five years ago or earlier to obtain legal status if they meet various requirements, including passing a criminal background check and having been employed in the United States for at least three of the previous five years.

Congressional officials estimate that about seven million people fall into this category.

Undocumented residents living in the United States for less than five years but more than two years could obtain a temporary work visa under the legislation, but they first must exit the country and would be fingerprinted and processed at a land port of entry.

These immigrants, numbering between 2.5 and 3.0 million, would be given priority in applying for US residency over future immigrants entering as temporary workers.

The between 1.0 and 1.5 million undocumented immigrants who have been in the United States for less than two years would be required to return to their countries of origin, and would receive no preferential treatment over other would-be emigrants to the United States.

Lawmakers said a vote on the Senate legislation could occur by late Friday -- just before Congress goes on a two-week break.

A fractured US legislature has debated immigration reform for weeks, while nationwide demonstrations have seen millions of people call for lenient reforms as Congress contends with how best to seal the lengthy southern border with Mexico and what to do with the estimated 11.5 million undocumented workers living in the United States.

Conservative Senator Sam Brownback called the roiling immigration debate "probably the most divisive issue in America today."

"I hope this compromise ends up bringing us together, and I believe it can," he said.

Before becoming law, the bill that the Senate is expected to approve must still be reconciled with a more draconian one passed by the US House of Representatives, which would have made it a felony to be an undocumented immigrant in the United States.

Many analysts said the debate goes to the heart of what it means to be an American in a country that has long prided itself on being a nation of immigrants.

The top Senate Democrat, Harry Reid, said the real breakthrough was for immigrants in his home state of Nevada and throughout the country who work low-wage jobs in pursuit of "the American dream."

"They're working in the kitchens in Las Vegas, cleaning the grease pits, they're parking cars," he said.

"These are jobs that they have wanted and wanted them badly enough to come to America, to leave their families, their homes, their churches, their schools, to come here and take a chance on the American dream."

Senators worked feverishly to reach a compromise before the two-week recess starts on April 7.

And although he hailed the accord, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said much work remains.

"We still have broken borders, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "The broken borders need to be fixed."

Washington's hostile policy towards the government of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez gains increasingly worrying momentum. In a recent document, the Pentagon called the "resurgence of authoritarian and populist movement in some countries like Venezuela [a] source of political and economic instability". Such a statement is even more worrying, since the US Defence Department hardly ever cites countries in its strategic study (Quarterly Defence Review), published every four years; that department only limits itself to address general tendencies [1].

Some days before, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, had compared Hugo Chavez to Hitler before Washington's National Press Club: "In Venezuela, we have Chavez, who possesses lots of money that stem from oil. He was legally elected, as Hitler was. Then, he has consolidated his power and is now working along Fidel Castro, Mister Morales and others ", he said. [2]. "We have seen how some populist leaders have attracted the people in those countries, as well as elections such as that of Evo Morales in Bolivia, which are clearly worrying" he concluded [3].

Venezuela's response was not long awaited. Vice-president José Vicente Rangel strongly condemned Rumsfeld aggressive statements: "We are not willing to passively accept that our government [...] be attacked with impunity by people who are fully disqualified from the political, moral and ethical points of view, as the gang of the US Hitler, George Bush " [4].

In the same direction, the director of intelligence services John Negroponte, accused Venezuela of "launching a militant foreign policy in Latin America, which includes the supply of oil at preferential prices in exchange for allies". At the same time, he stigmatized the international TV channel Telesur, whose role is that of breaking the CNN supremacy in the continent. He told a senate committee that "Venezuela is the main challenge to security in the hemisphere" and that Washington's priority is to block at any price the re-election of Hugo Chavez in December, 2006. At last, he threatened Bolivia, which "continues to give ambiguous signs about its intentions" [5].

"The militant foreign policy" advocated by John Negroponte refers to Venezuela's solidarity cooperation, which allows many poor nations in the region to purchase fuel at preferential tariffs. The Prime Minister of Grenada, Keith Mitchell, signed an energy cooperation agreement with President Hugo Chávez, which stipulates the supply of 1,000 barrels of oil daily with a 50 percent discount over the market price. Venezuela has also send a group of military and civil engineers to Grenada in order to repair schools damaged by hurricanes. The integration model promoted by the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), fully contrary to the ultra-liberal and destruction-oriented Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), has strongly irritated the White House [6].

In the face of open threats by the Bush administration, Venezuela has decided to reinforce its defence capacity by purchasing fighter aircrafts in Spain. But, Washington has prohibited the José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to sell Venezuela the military equipment, outfitted with US technology, since the total sale calculated in 2 billion dollars could "contribute to the destabilization of Latin America", according to Sean McCormack, spokesperson of the US State Department [7]. Also in that same direction, Brazil rejected the US prohibition by stating that it would proceed to sell 20 planes to Venezuela [8].

According to Washington, the sale of weapons to Venezuela would imply the risk of regional destabilization. McCormark explains that the "concerns focus on what we consider an exaggerated militarization of Venezuela" [9].
Meanwhile, the US company Lockheed Martin has just released several F-16 planes to Chile and it expects to send another eight of those planes to that country this year. Chile now possesses the most modern aircraft fleet in Latin America with that posing no inconvenience for the Bush administration, which is only obsessed about the progressive reforms undertaken by Caracas [10].

Along with the significant purchase of necessary weapons for the defence of his nation (100,000 infantry guns and 15 helicopters purchased in Russia), President Chávez has decided to create an army with one million volunteers in order to face and eventual US military invasion of Venezuela. The Bolivarian government has decided to follow the Cuban example in terms of its preparation for war. "Why did the gringos invade half of the world except Cuba? In Cuba all the people [are ready] and trained to defend each corner of their national territory and the Cuban Revolution", said Chávez [11].

The United States have also launched a campaign of espionage and promotion of internal subversion by using its embassy in Caracas, with the aim of destabilizing the country, which has increasingly experienced social advancements achieved by the Chávez government. "Some low-ranking officers used to provide the Pentagon with information", said the Venezuelan Vice-president. US military attaché John Correa, who had made contact with those officers to conspire against Venezuelan authorities, was expelled from the country [12]. As to the Venezuelan military, they were all tried for having cooperated with a foreign power [13].

In retaliation, Washington declared Jenny Figueredo Frias, head of the cabinet of Venezuelan ambassador to Washington Bernardo Alvarez, person non grata and, at the same time, admitted that it was an arbitrary measure: "This decision is in response to the expelling by Venezuela of Commander John Correa, naval attaché at the US embassy in Caracas", said the spokesperson of the US State Department [14].

Tony Blair, a loyal and unconditional ally of the Bush administration proved his full subordination to Washington during a weekly session of the British Parliament. Labor party parliamentarian Colin Burgon faced the Prime Minister: "I am sure that your share the satisfaction many labor party lawmakers feel about the left-oriented shift of Latin America [with the coming to power of ] governments that fight for the interests of the majority and not for the interests of a minority". Later, he asked Blair: "Would you agree that it would be bad for us to admit that our policy towards those countries, especially nations like Venezuela, be drawn up by the rightist republican agenda of the US government?" [15].

In a surprising way, Anthony Blair replied: "Up to certain extent", in an attempt to justify his statement by affirming that it was "important that the Venezuelan government should understand that if it wants the respect of the international community, it must abide by the rules of the international community". Evidently, we have to understand that "international community" here means "the United States", whose "rules" must be enforced with no discussion at all. For Prime Minister Blair, the sovereignty of Britain ends where US interests begin [16].

Washington's concern is currently based on Hugo Chávez, since he symbolizes Latin America's political renovation by using national resources in the benefit of less favoured social classes. The Venezuelan government has just approved an impressing salary increase for public officials, which ranges from + 34 percent to + 61,8 percent and that stands for a 47 percent average increase. The Venezuelan government also raised minimum salaries for private employees up to 15 percent. Since the year 2000, the minimum salary in Venezuela has been raised each year from 20 to 30 percent. All the population has been benefited with incomes stemming from the country's economic growth, which went up to 9,4 percent in 2005 [17].
In contrast, in France, the fifth World power with a highly praised social model, the salaries of public officials was only raised by 1 percent in 2005. Private sector wages registered a 0,6 percent increase in real terms (2,8 pecent increase minus 2,2 percent inflation). "21st Century socialism", promoted by President Chávez is not to be applied soon in France, where the government has undertaken a merciless anti-social policy since 2002 [18].
In the same way, one billion bolivares (Venezuelan currency) was destined to the "Barrio Adentro III" mission, a government-led free-of-charge and universal medical program. The money will allow the purchase of 30,932 medical equipment (ambulances and others). The fund, which stems from an oil surplus, is directly invested in the social sector [19].
The only-of-its-kind public health system developed in Venezuela thanks, among other factors to the assistance given by 15,000 Cuban doctors, has allowed for 163 million medical consultations; that is, 8 consultations per person. The "Barrio Adentro I" mission has saved 31,186 lives thanks to the setting up of 1,012 popular medical offices in the poorest regions, which will be joined by another 20, 359 similar facilities. The "Barrio Adentro II" mission has created 100 integral diagnosis centers, which provide comprehensive medical assistance; while another 500 similar centres are being built throughout the country. At last, with the implementation of the "Miracle Mission" led by Cuba, more than 176,000 Venezuelans who had lost their sight as a consequence of cataracts, were submitted to free-of-charge eye surgery by Cuban specialists [20].

Unemployment has continue to decrease in Venezuela from 13,2 percent in June 2005 down to 11,4 percent in December that year. The efficient government policy has allowed 367,199 people to find a job [21].

UNESCO recognized the outstanding social achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution by awarding President Hugo Chávez the José Martí International Prize. The distinction stresses the efforts made by Chávez in favour of Latin American and Caribbean unity, as well as the preservation of regional identities, traditions and cultures [22]. In effect, Venezuela provides its neighbors with oil at preferential tariffs, as well as some US zones, such as Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island. Inhabitants of those regions, abadonmed by the Bush administration, will be able to purchase fuel at 40-percent subsidized tariffs by Venezuela's Citgo subsidiary. "That will translate into the saving of some million dollars for the people of Vermont", said Erin Campbell, spokesman of Vermont [23].

On February 6, the Bush administration released its budget project for 2007, which includes significant increase in funds for the defence, internal security and foreign affairs. The US defence budget surpasses all records with a total of 439,3 billion dollars; that translates into a 6,9-percent rise respect to last year. At the same time, the budgets dedicated to health, justice, education and other sectors were drastically decreased. For instance, 141 social programs will undergo reductions or be interrupted. A 65-billion-dollar reduction is expected to affect the Medicare program, which provides medical attention to the elderly or physically impaired people. Pensions are also be deeply affected. Two contrary models of society face each other, the one in Caracas and the other in Washington. In the first the wellbeing of the population is at the center of the national program, while in the other, the development of the military industrial complex continues to be the absolute prioritiy [24].

While the Bush administration is willing to do just anything in order to avoid a new electoral victory by Hugo Chávez on December 3, 2006, Venezuela continues to implement reforms aimed at further improving the standard of living of the population. Its prestige in the continent is proportionally direct to the twilight of US influence in the region. The reason for that is quite simple: while Venezuela has destined 28 billion dollars in terms of external assistance for its neighbors for a seven-year term-an annual average of 3,6 billion dollars-, the United States has announced a massive decrease of its contribution for the year 2007, with a 28,5-percent fall in the assistance for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean, a 10-percent fall in medical assistance and an 11-pecent decrease of its financial contribution to the Organization of American States (OAS). Messages also opposed each other in this area: Caracas contributes 3,6 billion dollars annually as part of its assistance for Latin America, while Washington expects to decrease its 1,2 billion-dollar economic support [25].

The Bolivarian government successfully challenges the neo-liberal doctrine, which is unsustainable in social, economic and political terms and that explains the anger of the White House. Despite several aggressions and threats coming from the U.S., President Chávez launched signs of opening to Washington by saying: "If they change that attitude, we will respond in the same way. Everything can be improved [...] if they show respect for our sovereignty, respect for our decisions". However, is not very probable that reason and dialog lie in the heart of the belligerent Bush administration [26].