amy: elliott abrams, the u.s. special envoy to venezuela, testifying before the house foreign affairs committee chaired by new york democrat eliot engel. abrams was later questioned by congressmember ilhan omar of minnesota. >> mr. adams, in 19 91 that you pleaded guilty to two counts of withholding information from congress regarding your involvement in the iran-contra affair, for which you are later pardoned by president george h.w. bush. i fail to understand why members of this committee or the american people should find any testimony that you give today to be truthful. folks if i can respond to that. folks it wasn't a question. it was not a question. to my time.e right >> it is not right. >> it is not a question. to reply.mitted >> that was not a q question. thank you for your participation. on february 8, 1982, you testified before the senate foreign relations committee about u.s. policy in all salvador. in that hearing, you dismissed as common as per began of report about the massacre of -- in which more tha

well elliott abrams appointment was a clear signal from the trumpet ministration in. from bolton and they all go back a long time i mean elliott abrams is a convicted felon he lied to congress he violated u.s. laws to maintain the iran contra arms sales to counter revolutionary somoza national guardsmen who functioned as the as the security forces for the somoza dictatorship before the revolution in seventy nine elliott abrams has been carrying out and exercising regime change options in latin america he's a main primary hawk to overthrow the the cuban government you had john bolton at the same time talking about the church the troika of tyranny reminding us of ronald reagan's axis. the evil empire and george w. bush's axis of evil in two thousand before the invasion of iraq elliott abrams is a clear signal that the us is probably going to go to war against venezuela especially if they're cool plans don't work out i believe that's what's on the agenda. elliott abrams is there for one purpose and one purpose alone and that's to initiate a confrontation with venezuela t

point out there elliott abrams of course we all know from the reagan era what he did in latin america he basically helped institue and then cover up all the death squads in el salvador seventy thousand people were killed in el salvador by the salvadoran government children rates the only comparable force in terms of how gruesome their murders were is isis in the modern era so you know gross stuff there here is a headline as well from vanity fair in two thousand and eight about elliott abrams the gaza bombshell after failing to anticipate hamas is victory over fatah in the two thousand and six palestinian election the white house cooked up yet another scandalously kovar in self defeating middle east the bottle part iran contra part bay of pigs with confidential documents corroborated by outraged former and current u.s. officials the author reveals how president bush congolese surprise deputy national security advisor elliott abrams backed an armed force under fatah strong man muhammad dahlan touching off a bloody civil war in gaza leaving hamas stronger than ever so that's quads are hi

appoints elliott abrams ok and here we have the progressive news loving trump for once again invading a country because just like the british empire and the spanish empire they had their religious missionaries who were like we're just we were going to save some more savages or so. you know we don't like you right wing people but we're good and we're going to go deliver these people some god and well here we have the same thing as you know the rachel maddow of the world think that we're going. and you know you know some sort of left wing ideologies and this is going to be great but elliott abrams that's bringing it so i want to point out that elliott abrams of course we all know from the reagan era what he did in latin america he basically helped institue and then cover up all the death squads in el salvador seventy thousand people were killed in el salvador by the salvadoran government children were raped the only comparable force in terms of how gruesome their murders were is isis in the modern era so you know gross stuff there here is a headline as well from vanity fair in two thous

policy towards venezuela elliott abrams was recently appointed u.s. special envoy to venezuela and has previously held the position assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs it's alleged he was involved in a coup attempt in venezuela in two thousand and ten two and he's also been accused of shipping weapons weapons to nicaraguan rebels under the guise of humanitarian aid back in the nine hundred eighty s. assistant secretary of state elliott abrams has defended his role in authorizing the shipment of weapons on a humanitarian aid flight to nicaraguan rebels saying the operation was strictly by the book. comeback so i guess now max blumenthal at max in license will that do you think madeira has a good excuse to block they say and to suspects that the u.s. could use the humanitarian crisis as a cover for military plans. well you know i was in. implausible leave already yesterday where tens of thousands of venezuelans were lining up to sign a declaration to the american people declaring their opposition to u.s. intervention a

and elliott abrams has quite a history in latin america south of the us border apparently was convicted for misrepresenting and essentially lying to congress regarding his that work and support for organizations in nicaragua that engaged in violent terrorism with the intention of overthrowing the sandinista government during the one nine hundred eighty s. elliott abrams was also apparently involved in the shipping in of weapons into nicaragua under the guise of humanitarian aid now the foreign minister of venezuela spoke and he pointed out that these humanitarian aid convoys seem to have some rather suspicious content here is what he said. and here we also have trunks and let me tell you that when the truck was inspected there wasn't just food and medicine in the truck there was a quip in for barry keys there was nails. this is what was in the truck nails wire when security forces inspected this is what they found so he was going over the fact that it appears that these trucks supposedly containing humanitarian aid had other content within them content that could have been use

bush's axis of evil in two thousand before the invasion of iraq elliott abrams is a clear signal that the us is probably going to go to war against venezuela especially if they're cool plans don't work out i believe that's what's on the agenda. elliott abrams is there for one purpose and one purpose alone and that's to initiate a confrontation with venezuela that's very dangerous even though the venezuelan government is mired in a profound economic crisis and facing enormous economic sanctions the people of venezuela including many people in the opposition don't fancy a war they don't fancy the united states dictating who their government's going to be they don't look kindly at the right wing colombian government with its paramilitaries beginning to carry carrying out screw machine activities which will be a pretext at the border that's very very serious this could blow up in the united states mexico bolivia of course cuba are standing with venezuela de lima group is basically functioning as a proxy or as an extension of american power again the u.s. has no legal right to carry out th

wars and central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual us invasion of venezuela and so in many ways this is seen as a trojan horse for us invasion. the us there remain still in china support of the south declared me to one quiet day and with washington piling the pressure on nicholas madore a failure of the lights during one of his recent speeches preved an easy target. if. the lights are going off from the jury mafia in venezuela. to work right now we're building a. thank you is there a little light show going on there i have full faith in our intelligence agencies if they just turn off the light it is our chance and. there are ok yes ok. i want you to go. now the u.s. ambassador to chamouni has called for nato to be strengthened because as he puts it russia's on the doorstep is p. tolliver a pole

wars on central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual us invasion of venezuela and so in many ways this is seen as a trojan horse for us invasion. the us though remains staunch in its support of the self declared leader one and with washington piling the pressure on nicholas modo a failure of the lights during one of his recent speeches proved an easy target. back to work right now are we building up america. is there a little light show i have. in our intelligence agencies if they just turn over. there it's ok yes ok. french police are investigating anti semitic graffiti that appeared on the window of a jewish bagel shop in paris or for some were quick to point the finger at yellow vest protesters as reports outrage yet another sematic attack in paris the latest in the fourth decent of the city th

and elliott abrams has quite a history in latin america south of the us border and he apparently was convicted for misrepresenting and essentially lying to congress regarding his that work and support for organizations in nicaragua that engaged in violent terrorism with the intention of overthrowing the sandinista government during the one nine hundred eighty s. elliott abrams was also apparently involved in the shipping in weapons into nicaragua under the guise of humanitarian aid now after we heard from the various countries that are on the security council we then heard from a number of other countries because under rule thirty seven of the un procedures under the u.n. procedures these various countries were then allowed to speak for the first among them was venezuela and we heard from the venezuelan foreign minister who had quite a bit to say about the allegations being leveled against his country by the international media by the united states and others this is some of what we heard from the venezuelan foreign minister. and here we also have trucks and let me tell you that

special representative for venezuela now elliott abrams he essentially took to the floor he accused the that israel and government. of blocking humanitarian aid he called for more sanctions against the country here's some of what we heard from elliott abrams. of general and call on member states to consider what resources and tools they have to contribute to venezuelan democracy and to pressure the illegitimate woodrell regime to peacefully step down we ask that others join us in sanctioning those who've been involved in the violence over the last weekend and who are fattened. well the spoils of them are dural regimes corruption and it's important to note that elliott abrams has quite a history in latin america he was actually convicted of lying to congress about his role in cooperating and coordinating with forces in nicaragua and other parts of latin america that violated human rights and engaged and engaged in other atrocities elliott abrams himself was involved in the shipping of weapons into nicaragua under the guise of humanitarian aid now later in the meeting elliott abrams accus

you remember our good buddy elliott abrams he was one of the ronald reagan era types who found himself in hot water when he was convicted of lying to congress over the iran contra affair he was later pardoned by george w. bush which is out of the game is played here in washington but mr abrams duties in the reagan administration didn't end with just secretly selling arms to iran to fund contras and a note he also focused on supporting brutal human rights violating armed anti-communist groups which was us latin american policy at the time it was this record of our boy and brooms that representative omar felt needed to be acknowledged in a wednesday house foreign affairs committee hearing on the current situation in venezuela let's take a listen to how this played out. doing that massacre some of those troops bragged about raping a twelve year old girl before they killed the. girls before they killed them you later said that the u.s. policy in el salvador was a fabulous achievement do you think that massacre. was a fabulous achievement that happened under our watch that is a ridi

when you look at the people that have surrounded him pale bolton the new addition to the team elliott abrams it seems like more of a combination of the bush and obama administration foreign policy there's nothing really an authentic call there and it seems like when we look at the claim that he does not like foreign interventions well he's full geared up in public steaming ahead for regime change in venezuela which the game is a contradiction to what he ran on so how do you account for this is he held hostage by the deeds the deep state he's indifferent to it how do you account for it go ahead george. well what trump did when in twenty sixteen and he made his slogan america first what he meant by that was that america would rectify the problems that it had been suffering from from many years so he would address the deindustrialization of america the financialization of the economy. he would address the immigration problem which is basically driven down wages for many decades and he would address the. the growth of china that china is now becoming the major economic power. potentially much st

violent acts including assassinations and other activities now it's also important to note that elliott abrams has a long record in latin america and for example many critics of elliot abrams have pointed out that in nicaragua he was involved in the smuggling in of weapons under the guise of humanitarian aid and he was convicted for lying to congress about certain activities in latin american support for certain organizations in central america nicaragua and elsewhere and now it's important also to know that we have heard from the secretary of the russian state security council indicating that the united states seems to be planning some kind of military intervention in venezuela this is what we heard from a russian official. soon sarcasm and arrogance towards the missouri when people the u.s. is preparing a military invasion of an independent state. special forces to put three coup landing u.s. schools to some of the facts indicate that the pentagon is strengthening its troops in the region legally elected president. the people understand this will hence the reaction the refusal to accept the

juan: i want to ask you about the significance of elliott abrams being the special envoy to venezuelathe history of abrams in central and south america. he has a long, sorted history -- .ordid history he provided military support to the dictator who was later convicted of genocide. -- wasresponsible for found guilty during the iran contrary, of lying to congress about the reagan administration's efforts to provide aid despite a profession -- congressional ban. abrams has a long history to leaders in latin america and they know what he does. for him coming in n at this sta. david: that is one of the most disturbing things that is happenened then i -- the last couple of weeks. , the u.s. presidential administrations do things that they do not seem to really be aware of the object of that vote and sent up alarm bells in the region. this is the point that really told me that the trump administration is sort of making venezuela part of its foreign almost part of make america great agagain type foren policy. elliott abrams was the architect inone of the darkest periods u.s.s.-latin america

wars and central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual us invasion of venezuela and so in many ways this is seen as a trojan horse for u.s. invasion. there's been a spike in violence against farmers in south africa we've got the details and speak to some of the victims of this. we're witnessing something quite remarkable in the night twenty nineteen we're watching a country for a test bed and a nineteenth century bubble really for. almost two hundred years they're going to crash into the twenty first century as if they're just being teleported into the twenty first century. in a world of big partisan lot and conspiracy it's time to wait to dig deeper to hit the stories that made history media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the back and shout

wars and central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual us invasion of venezuela and so in many ways this is seen as a trojan horse for u.s. invasion still to come this hour taking on trump of his twitter pictures we have from an iranian photographer who is unhappy with the u.s. president using her property online we'll have details on that after the break. join me every first week on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see a. few days states does that all the time it always tries to influence elections when people who are running who are friendly to the united states are running against people who are unfriendly we certainly did that all through central america and south america for many many years we know that these effo

is orchestrating and we can certainly see that with elliott abrams guilty first at norma's crimes in central america actually convicted in the u.s. for his crimes there were in genocides and wanted in el salvador and guatemala and this is what elliott abrams wants to again or going on under the cover of a humanitarian intervention so he said you don't to see u.s. sanctions removed it looks like the opposite could be happening your security advisor john bolton the threatening new sanctions against venezuela so it looks like the u.s. could be doubling down on this what do you anticipate the u.s. will do next. well there are certainly attempting with threats and arrogant intimidation to get the venezuelan government to collapse and venezuelan government and many countries around the world who are coming to their assistance. i do think that there's going to be real resistance to those but of course u.s. economic power is capable of exerting a normal pressure and great hardship on the people of venezuela we should take note that in venezuela today there's more than six million families wh

wars and central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual u.s. invasion of venezuela and so in many ways this is seen as a trojan horse for u.s. invasion. syria is demanding action from the u.n. security council after accusing the u.s. led coalition of killing sixteen civilians and injuring schools more in a bombing attack on the border with iraq. online fabric twenty nineteen the u.s. led coalition committed a new crime against innocent syrian civilians is we're playing targeted a civilian camp in the village of who's in the countryside of the governor of there is or sixteen civilians including seven children were killed and seventy civilians most of them women and children were injured syria again calls on the un security council to stand up against these crimes and attacks and to shoulder its respon

on the program under thanks for your company this hour washington special envoy for venezuela elliott abrams is ruling talks with president material will this make it harder to resolve the crisis. absolutely what we're seeing from abrams is just shameless deplorable on behalf of us interventionism you wear thin period isn't it i mean there's really no debate here it's immoral it's illegal and you know of that as a venezuelans have said they're not going to have their arm twisted by this sort of our naked aggression there's another aspect to this so i want to get your thoughts on under secretary of state mike pompei oh he went as far to claim i think it was worth fox news and then to hear that iran is interfering in venezuela and hezbollah has active selves in the country any truth to that do you think. that sounds a lot like accusations of. saddam hussein having w m d's as we know there are a plethora of trojan horses near the us government in the trump administration is using including humanitarianism humanitarian intervention in spreading democracy. but you don't have to be a left socialis

wars and central america the proxy wars during which elliott abrams was overseeing several death squads and their genocidal humanitarian violations the venezuelan see this aid delivery especially in the in the light of abrams history of using aid as a cover for delivering arms to proxy forces as a violation of venezuelan sovereignty as an actual us invasion of venezuela. well the us though remain stone to support towards the south declared leader one quiet oh and washington piling the pressure on nicolas maduro a failure of the lines during one of his recent speeches proved an easy target. back to work right now rebuilding america. is there a little light show. in our intelligence agencies if they just turn off the light. there ok. and just a message has been found scrawled on jewish bagel shop in the french capital some have been quick to point the finger at the yellow vest amazement reports outrage after yet another on t. sematic attack in paris the latest was in the fourth decent of the city the german wood for jews was sprayed across this bagel shop near the old jewish quarter. and

elliott abrams was also apparently involved in the shipping in of weapons into nicaragua under the guise of humanitarian aid now the foreign minister of venezuela spoke and he pointed out that these humanitarian aid convoys seem to have some rather suspicious content here is what he said. in here we also have trucks and let me tell you that when the truck was inspected there wasn't just food and medicine in the truck there was a quick one for barricades there was nails. this is what was in the truck nails wire when security forces inspected this is what they found we have information from friendly countries like cuba and russia and the weapons are being bought in eastern europe to be given to the opposite. with the aim of seizing an armed intervention in venezuela so he was going over the fact that it appears that these trucks supposedly containing humanitarian aid had other content within them content that could have been used for violence and destabilization in venezuela he also brought photographs before the un security council showing and seeming to indicate that essentially these ai

last two decades supporting a violent rule in two thousand and two remember you know what mr elliott abrams reportedly giving the green light to go ahead for the opposition to out as you like to present what shall i say concern about what are the intentions the united states what is the agenda. as we speak right now because we know richard branson the british billionaire has his come to that he's arranged sort of a live aid style consider isn't it encouraging the venezuela minute trying to turn against me do or i just think it will have much impact yeah i mean we just all the the new york times reported yesterday that. who is a former intelligence chief or child as a reporter they defected however he had broken with the government in twenty seven so this is hardly a new development that the reality on the ground is that no major that is one military official actually commanding troops had the fact is a lot of the side of mr why don't you know this is you know this reveals a certain desperation on the part of why though in washington that one month and they're still not able to actually you

the fact that elliott abrams is still out running for u.s. foreign policy and military policy is there should be like on a goal center on a big quite standard the people of america will be rising up as like not this mean iraq costing us real value to their rooms you know you show him a bit quite a while and he would shrink like the wicked witch of the west in a bucket full of tears guys badness he's a well a terrorist all right well we're going to take a break from all these terrorists like elliott abrams and when we come back much more coming your way don't go away. but the numbers. matter you have over one trillion dollars. more than ten point zero or more and. eighty five percent of whom will be old bridge eight percent world market. which in some way one hundred to one hundred three first or second person and we rose to twenty thousand. china's building two point one billion dollars you don't work with don't let the numbers will. the only number you need to remember one one business you know for a minute one and only boom but. you know wo

clearly a gentle soul that is elliott abrams. that he was in charge of he was very instrumental in delivering weapons to the nicaraguan contras during the iran contra affair and that he did he did that specifically he was charged with those of hiding those weapons and humanitarian aid shipments so abrams have to sell himself he can cry all he wants about how mean it is to remember people who remember this but he admitted to funneling weapons and testimony after the scandal broke no you know what there's too many connections i rather be safer than sorry. or. u.s. president donald trump recently declared a national emergency to secure the billions he needed to fund his great southern border wall the pentagon hundreds of billions of dollars thrown at them every year despite some of the worst accounting practices this side of the juries the mob and have surprisingly with all this money being thrown around we are rapidly running out of money for the victims of nine eleven yes the nine eleven victim compensation fund is officially runn