Bono: black ops VC
New York Post [Page Six] - July 10, 2006
BONO, the Irish rock star touted for a Nobel Peace Prize because of
his advocacy for Third World debt relief, is being blasted by lefties
for investing in a video game that depicts Venezuela as a banana
republic led by a “power-hungry tyrant.”
The president of Venezuela is, in fact, Hugo Chavez, a darling of the
left not only for his Marxist domestic policies, but his virulent
anti-American diatribes.
Bono is in the hot seat because a private equity firm he established
invested $300 million in Pandemic Studios, the Los Angeles-based
maker of the game, “Mercenary 2: World in Flames.”
Players assume the role of a mercenary sent to a fictitious
Venezuela, where a dictator has seized control of the country and its
oil. The gun-for-hire is instructed, “If you can see it, you can buy
it, steal it, or blow the living crap out of it.”
Jeff Cohen - author of “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in
Corporate Media” who’s just back from a trip to Venezuela - told Page
Six, “It’s hard to fathom why an artist who claims to be about new
paths to justice for developing countries would be mixed up in a
computer game that glorifies stale, old mercenary approaches.”
Dave Lindorff - co-author with Barbara Olshansky of “The Case for
Impeachment,” just released by St. Martin’s Press - told us, “This
kind of right-wing war game plays to the propaganda message that the
[George] Bush White House has been pushing for years: that Chavez is
a dictator oppressing his people . . . Bono should use his financial
interest in the company to kill it, or better, he should pull out
entirely as an investor, and condemn such imperialist garbage.”
Gabriela Ramirez, a stalwart supporter of Chavez in the Venezuelan
National Assembly, told the Associated Press the game “sends a
message to Americans, ‘You have a danger next door, here in Latin
America, and action must be taken.’ It’s a justification for an
imperialist aggression.”
But it’s Chavez who sounds aggressive. He started recruiting and
training a people’s militia earlier this year, claiming it would
fight the “war of resistance” against the U.S. invasion he predicts
will come. In this fantasy, he’s the Che Guevara-type fearless
martyr. Maybe he should design his own video game and get Bono to
finance it.
Bono’s reps did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.