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Well, well. It seems that, at last, US media and authorities are catching up with some indisputable facts about Hugo Chavez's diplomats in the USA. The Miami Herald reports today that Martin Sanchez, Venezuela's Consul in San Francisco (previously in Chicago), has drawn the attention of the US State Department, for his link to Aporrea.org, a site he created in 2003, that regularly publishes antisemitic views, and has called supporters of Hugo Chavez to identify, challenge and denounce in public Venezuelan Jews.
But there's more about Sanchez. As I relayed to Ed Lasky from the American Thinker, there is no evidence in Venezuelan Official Gazette (where diplomatic appointments need be published to become legal) of Martin Sanchez having been appointed as Consul in Chicago, or in San Francisco. Therefore on what visa is he in the US, on a tourist visa or on a diplomatic one? If on a diplomatic one, and considering that there is no evidence confirming him as such in Venezuela's official gazette, isn't that misrepresentation?
This is of course no news to me, for I have been reporting about Martin Sanchez meteoric rise since, erm, November 2004. That's five years ago, so there's no point in rehashing old news. However, now that US authorities have been alerted by the Anti-Defamation League, it would be worth mentioning another apologist of Hugo Chavez, colleague of Martin Sanchez in Venezuelanalysis.com, married to Chavez's Consul in New York city, and involved in spreading the chavista gospel in US academia: Gregory Wilpert, a.k.a Greg Wilpert. Wilpert was seen very close to Noam Chomsky, during his last visit to Venezuela, and was instrumental in the propaganda letter sent by academics-for-Chavez to Human Rights Watch. Wilpert, a German-American, and probably Venezuelan, national, is very active in the distribution of propaganda in the US, yet he is not registered with the Foreign Agent Registration Unit of the US Department of Justice, as he should.
Wilpert has also misrepresented himself in communications with Human Rights Watch. Ernesto Mora, Media Relations Manager of Brooklyn College, in reply to my questioning about Wilpert's credentials replied in August:
Alek, We are in receipt of your email requesting more information on Prof. Gregory Wilpert. Professor Wilpert does not work at the Brooklyn College campus but for the Worker Education program.
This was confirmed by Professor and Chairperson Sally Bermanzhon, who wrote also in August:
Gregory Wilpert was hired in spring 2008 as an adjunct at the Grad Ctr for Worker Education located at 25 Broadway in Manhattan.
So then again, as in the case of fraudster Eva Golinger, we see how chavista agents lie about their credentials, and act with absolute freedom and impunity, while in clear violation to US legislation.
Update 26 November 2009: Gregory Wilpert has written to let me, and my readers, know that he has not misrepresented himself. His 'clarification' follows:
Just to let you and your readers know: To say that I work for Brooklyn College is not a misrepresentation. The Graduate Center for Worker Education is a part of Brooklyn College. My department chair is Sally Bermazohn, of BC's department of Political Science. The people you spoke to merely clarified that the physical location where I teach is not in the Brooklyn College campus, but I am still am employee of CUNY's Brooklyn College. The only reason I do not provide the full name of where I teach is that it's awfully long: Brooklyn College's Graduate Center for Worker Education.
Frankly, I don't know where to begin. Gregory Wilpert is yet to admit that he is married to a chavista official (Carol Delgado de Wilpert, Hugo Chavez's Consul in NY). Gregory Wilpert is yet to admit that he edits a website created by a chavista official (Martin Sanchez, Hugo Chavez Consul in San Francisco, formerly in Chicago). Gregory Wilpert is yet to admit that said website is funded with Venezuelan public money. Gregory Wilpert is yet to admit that he acts as a propaganda agent for Hugo Chavez in US soil. Gregory Wilpert is yet to admit that every single one of his opinions, with regards to Venezuela, is compromised by his marital and professional relations.
Gregory Wilpert wrote to me once saying he was doing what he did "because he believed in it". At my repeated questioning of his true motives, he is a German-American after all, he kept mum about his personal and professional relations with the Chavez regime. That to me is indicative of utter intellectual dishonesty. Besides, I still fail to understand why is it so difficult for these bloody advocates of Chavez to admit their relations to their paymaster, lest of course to maintain a pretence of independence and individuality in order to lend credibility to their propaganda. Were HRW to receive a letter from a bunch of people that, having no official relation to Chavez, are protesting a report that exposes the gross human rights violations that take place in Venezuela, it would surely address it on its merits, as it has done. But that wasn't a letter written out of genuine concern, it was a concerted effort led by propaganda agents, such as Gregory Wilpert, similar to the many instances whereby "upset readers" would write letters to editors of media outlets to criticise coverage, when in fact it was a response to emails sent from the Venezuela Information Office to its "rapid action" team, instructing to do so.
These people are very vocal in their support, but they will deny to the death, unless evidence pops up, that they are in any manner related to Hugo Chavez's regime. This has been the case with Eva Golinger, Michael Shellenberger and his sidekick Ted Norhaus, Roy Carson, Eric Wingerter and all of the propagandists of the now defunct Venezuela Information Office, Ken Livingstone (until evidence emerged that he was working as a consultant for Hugo Chavez), Calvin Tucker, Mark Weisbrot, Joe Kennedy, Sean Penn (until he admitted that he traveled around in PDVSA planes), mind you, all of them deny having anything to do with Chavez, yet the evidence shows that they have all, in one way or another, benefitted from Venezuelan taxpayers money, be it plane rides, salaries, expenses-paid trips, hospitality, funds, donations, energy deals, publishing, publicity, etc.
Is it fear to demonstrate friendship, admiration, and support to a man that calls terrorist Carlos The Jackal a national hero? Is it fear to the maxim "guilty by association" or "tell me who your friends are..."? Do these people dread the conclusions that any rational individual would arrive at, upon discovering their fanaticism about a warmongering, militaristic dictator that supports and befriends terrorists and rogues, has run Venezuela to the ground, and takes his cues from one of the world's most brutal dictators?
