Hey, Chief! What About Chavez The Terrorist?

President Obama and (as he loves to put it--repeatedly) "his team" had best take a second, longer, and much closer look at Hugo Chavez and his merry crew of friends and colleagues both inside and without the "Bolivarian Revolution." The president's previously expressed view that Hugo (The Mouth of the South) Chavez does not represent a threat to the US or its interests just does not square with reality.

The finding the other day by the Spanish judiciary holding a direct linkage existed between Chavez's regime, the narco/criminal/insurgent group FARC, and the Basque separatist insurgent entity ETA is but one more (almost superfluous) nail in the Obama version of the Rodney King Dictum: "Can't we just all get along together?" Mr King's plaintive cry was both touching and justifiable; for the president of the United States to echo it in practice is destructive of national interest and appropriate only to someone living in an alternative reality.

For reasons both personal and political Hugo Chavez must oppose the US, must be hostile to its interests, must operate in any and all ways possible to undermine American efforts and policies both in the region, and, if possible, elsewhere in the world. He is personally more hostile to the US than were such obvious American foes as Stalin and Hitler. For them the opposition was merely business, the requirement of policy per se. For Chavez the motivations come from some deep personal well of antipathy as well as the dictates of politics.

As the Spanish judge noted in his findings Chavez's regime engaged the services of both FARC and ETA in the task of pursuing targets marked for assassination. The assassinations were intended to terrorize opponents of Chavez both internal and foreign based--most notably the president of Columbia, Uribe. In short, Chavez is the sponsor of terrorism.

Chavez and his regime have cultivated close and growing ties with Hezbollah and Hamas as well as the chief sponsor of these groups, Iran. The "Bolivarian" government has provided facilities and support to representatives and agents of both Hezbollah and Hamas. This means he is just as much a sponsor of terrorism as Iran.

There is an increasing body of information showing that operatives of both jihadist groups are working closely with assorted narcotrafficker syndicates in Venezuela, which has become an increasingly critical shipment point for product destined to both Europe and North America. This development implies that Hamas and Hezbollah personnel as well as their Iranian or Syrian "advisors" will have increasing access to the sophisticated smuggling systems established to funnel contraband into the US.

The evidence was clear a year ago. It is far more so today. Venezuela is a state sponsor of terrorism. The only missing link when Mr Obama took office was a straightforward finding by a court of competence to the effect that Venezuela aided, abetted, or engaged in the use of terror as an instrument of state policy.

There is no missing link now thanks to the ability and courage of a single Spanish judge. And, make no mistake about it, the judge was correct. His correctness has been underscored by the howls and squeals of protest and denial originating in Caracas. The desperate wiggling of Chavez and Company is seen best with the recycling of the Interpol discredited Venezuelan assertion that evidence extracted from the laptop once belonging to FARC's number two honcho by the Columbian government more than a year ago was counterfeit.

Sorry, Hugo, that wingless airplane will not fly. Interpol is not, as you allege, a mere tool of the Yankee imperialists. Your position to the contrary is akin to the Iranian allegation that the IAEA has been taken over by the US.

The time has come for a change in American policy. It is time to add Venezuela to Iran, Cuba, Sudan, and Syria as a state which sponsors terrorism. It is time for the consequences of that designation to be applied to Caracas and environs. To put it bluntly, it is time for the Obama administration and the president to encounter one more unpleasant reality: Hugo Chavez and his regime are hostile to the US and a clear threat to its interests in the region as well as here at home.

A nice smile and a quick willingness to say, "I am not George W. Bush," does not win friends nor influence states. These politically valuable features do not make the US any less likely to be threatened or even attacked by those who wish us ill. That group includes not only Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, or Islamists only; it includes Venezuela's Maximum Leader as well.

Mr Obama, Hugo Chavez and his "Bolivarian Revolution" have met the test as a state sponsor of terrorism. Don't you have the intellectual and moral courage necessary to match that of a single Spanish judge and accept reality as it has been shown to be?