Seems like the politicians all went to the same school or all read the same books . . . or maybe have the same advisors???
Smoke screens are nothing new in the political world. I've always shaken my head when the major political issue in the USA has been something lame like "Traditional Family Values" or other more contemporary red herrings (I'm not really up on the latest) rather than the real problems such as national debt, immigration, education, etc.
Lets face it, all governments bury their dirty laundry. The US (as most governments) downplay their past and present association with scummy folks (including Saddam Hussain) and present themselves as righteous. Venezuela has discovered a cleaver way to call the US on an issue of terrorism and, lets face it, air piracy and attacks on civil targets are fundamentally wrong regardless of who does it or the what the political aims are. So today the Venezuela looks good and the US is embarrassed, but there's always tomorrow. I think the spin-makers in Caracas and Washington are working overtime.