Over the weekend I had a email exchange with Todd McSween. I'm sure everyone remembers him. Anyway, in the old days, Todd thought very highly of Roy's take on things, telling me he had a lot of contacts with influential people in the Vz government.

So I decided to touch down with Todd again to ask his opinion on the RC article of Tuesday 10/19. Todd had interesting insights about Roy and other insights about what's going on in Vz. Most have been discussed in this forum but I'll bullet them anyway to reinforce how sharp many of our posters are.

>Roy is now tied to Agapov.

>Some of Roy contacts within the Vz government despise Crystallex. Yes, Todd used the word depise.

>The validity of the article should be viewed through this prism.

>Todd has been told that Natalie Garcia has been threatened with a lawsuit for continued slander.

>When Chavez talks about nationalizing Las Cristinas, there are so many other areas involved besides our little part of the world that his words could mean almost anything.

>The national assembly has already recommended the immediate go ahead of Las Cristinas and stated Crystallex was following the contract properly.

>Todd evidently interviewed Gutierrez who told him that the Vz government had drawn up a broad economic development plan for the whole region that now would be put into play because of the influx of Chinese and Russian money.

>Talks have been proceeding expeditiously with Bellanger who has mentioned that another other opportunity-I assume inside Vz-has made itself present.

>In relation to Chavez's upcoming announcement, Hugo is on record as saying, "....everyone is going to be pleasantly surprised." Todd said this is a direct quote.

Before posting the above, I emailed Todd early Sunday night to get his permission to do so. When I arrived home late Sunday, an email was waiting for me. You'll never guess who had called him in the interim. Duh, it was Roy.

Roy called Todd to ask him how much he thought Crystallex was going to ask for in arbitration. In their give and take Todd asked who was the source of his information for his latest article. Roy responded that it was the third in command but refused to say who that was. Evidently, Natalie Garcia used the same source.

Todd and I share the same conclusion that it seems to be a little fishy that the source would be someone who was supposedly told to shut the hell up until Hugo returns.