While we are all worried about Bush and Cheney's intentions to invade Iran, another potential "war" is looming. Reuters reported last week, when Columbia invaded Ecuador, that a computer belonging to a guerrilla of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, was found in the jungle. On it they found documents that show "deep ties" between Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez and the FARC, a Columbian rebel group funded by drug money and labeled a terrorist group.
 
Interpol has authenticated the veracity of the computer's contents. However, Greg Palast is calling this an out-and-out falsehood. Palast, an investigative reporter, dug through all the crap. He found that the message that Bush's buddy, President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia, is claiming was from Chávez, said that he'd sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million – which they’re using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb. Columbia is using this to provoke a war with Venezuela to stop WMDs. Sound familiar?
 
Palast read the messages, in English and Spanish, and there is only one that mentions Chávez. It says, " . . . With relation to the 300, which from now on we will call 'dossier,' efforts are now going forward at the instructions of the boss to the cojo [slang term for ‘cripple’], which I will explain in a separate note. Let’s call the boss Ángel, and the cripple Ernesto." Notice that the message only says "300" and not "$300." Palast points out that recently FARC negotiated a prisoner exchange which involved 300 prisoners. The memo goes on to say, "To receive the 3 freed ones, Chávez proposes 3 options: Plan A. Do it to via of a ‘humanitarian caravan’; one that will involve Venezuela, France, the Vatican[?], Switzerland, European Union, democrats [civil society], Argentina, Red Cross, etc." Columbians claims "Angel" is the code name for Chávez, but in the next sentence Chávez is named by his name. So why use his name in one sentence and a code name in another?
 
Palast seems to suggest that this is a run-up to our getting involved in a war against Venezuela, Chávez being Bush's dire enemy and Venezuela having lots of oil. Bush is wasting no time. "A U.S. Navy jet violated Venezuelan airspace . . . in what the South American country said was a provocation coordinated with neighboring Colombia. . . The Pentagon said a Navy aircraft on a counternarcotics mission had navigation problems that led it to stray into Venezuelan airspace on Saturday." (Reuters)
 
Keep on eye on the rhetoric. If Bush is stymied in his attempts to invade Iran, he might just go after Venezuela. After all, we get a lot more oil from Venezuela than we do from Iran. (See Energy Information Administration)