Breaking News: Venezuela not actually a threat to US national security

Just ahead of the Summit of the Americas, the Obama administration has acknowledged what everyone knew to be true all along: that it lied when it declared Venezuela a threat to US national security. “The United States does not believe that Venezuela poses some threat to our national security,” announced Benjamin J. Rhodes yesterday.

They've only done this, of course, because the backlash was swift and strong and came from virtually the whole of the region (even some in the Venezuelan Right objected to the characterization) and beyond.

The excuse being peddled is that the threat-language was “completely pro forma,” which mischaracterizes the meaning of “pro forma” in a manner most harmful to legality and democracy. What they did was intentionally lie in order to take measures that wouldn't be allowed in the absence of the lie, and they did so with the support of the US corporate media, who are all too happy to play along with government lies. And even now that they've publicly admitted the claim that was the basis for the sanctions decree was false, the decree hasn't been rescinded. Because that's how they roll. Who's the threat, again?