Group circulates e-petition to Congress about EADS CASA and Chavez

A new electronic petition has gone online, urging Congress to stop doing business with EADS CASA because of the company's involvement with the Chavez regime in Venezuela and other issues. The sponsoring website compares EADS CASA to the CITGO oil company, which is owned by the Venezuelan government.

The petition, on www.SecuretheHomeland.org, exhorts readers to "Stop Congress from funding a foreign company that's arming Chavez."

A graphic shows a C-295 labeled, "Hugo Cargo."

Notice of the petition went out in today's TownHall.com e-newsletter. The petition says, in part, "American motorists who gas up at CITGO are sending cash directly to CITGO’s owner: the regime of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

"While consumers can choose not to buy CITGO gasoline, some people in Congress have found another way to help – by funding a European defense company that’s helping modernize Chavez’s military.

"That company is part owned by the French and Russian governments. Its lobbyists in Washington have convinced Congress to buy its patrol planes for the Coast Guard.

"Now it’s lobbying for billions of dollars more in taxpayer money to build a tactical transport plane for the United States Army and Air Force."

Readers may fill out an online form and send an electronic petition to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Virginia) and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-California), as well as "the man who is behind the EADS CASA deal: Senator Richard Shelby."

The website links to other sites concerned with Venezuela and the aircraft company, including this one, Casacrash.com.