Jim Geraghty, National Review
Captain Ed spotlights a Christian Science Monitor article that says tensions between Colombia and Venezuela and Bolivia have calmed in the past few weeks... with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez acting strangely conciliatory.
Venezuela has since restored full diplomatic relations with Colombia, and Ecuador says it intends to. But there's uneasiness in the capitals of Caracas and Quito about what else may be revealed by the FARC laptops -- and how Colombian President Alvaro Uribe intends to use it, analysts say...
Both Chavez and Correa are now warning that tensions in the Andes will not fully ease unless Colombia agrees to keep quiet about what's on the computers. . . .
Only a fraction of what is on the computers -- believed to contain thousands of files -- has been released to the public. Following up on one of the comments on that Hot Air thread, I found the following in NRO's archives:
On January 5, [2003] Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's former personal pilot dropped a bombshell that has been ignored by just about every major U.S. news organization: The Venezuelan president, according to the pilot, gave al Qaeda a substantial sum of money following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. . . .
The first attempt to transfer the money fell through, but in late September 2001 Venezuelan Vice President Diosdado Cabello decided to funnel the money through Venezuela's ambassador in India, one Walter Marquez. The Taliban received the money and publicly acknowledged receipt of $100,000 in "humanitarian aid." "The rest went straight to al Qaeda," claims Diaz Castillo. "That is, $900,000."
Would a FARC laptop have some sort of confirmation of this tale, or subequent contact between Chavez' regime and al-Qaeda? The Colombians found something on that laptop that has Hugo Chavez suddenly backing down and playing nice. Chavez himself "jokes" that next the Colombians will say they found a photo of him, the leader of FARC, and Osama bin Laden.
Hmmmm...
Obviously, we may never know what else was found on that laptop, and this is speculation. But if a tie is established between Chavez and al-Qaeda (and I grant that's a big "if") how will Americans look upon Barack Obama's pledge to conduct face-to-face diplomacy with Chavez, without preconditions? |