Clinton W. Taylor has a troubling piece in The American Spectator online analyzing a Spanish media report (spotlighted Friday by Barcepundit) about possible sales of WMD to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

Taylor writes:

President Chavez may be a thuggish autocrat, but he isn’t stupid enough to use chemical or biological weapons against American civilians, at least directly. He may see them as insurance against the possibility of an American invasion; however, the United States demonstrated in Iraq that threats of chemical retaliation will not deter us should we decide to invade.

A more likely scenario is the use of these WMD’s for international extortion against South American governments. Chavez’s alleged links to Colombia’s narcoterrorist FARC and to Evo Morales’s cocaleros in Bolivia suggest he could find a vector for the weapons should he need one. The implicit threat of arming insurgent groups with WMD’s may compel these governments — especially the precarious democracy in Bolivia — to accommodate Venezuela’s policies or to reject ours…

…Meanwhile the United States should demand some answers from Spain. Most importantly, is this information accurate, or has Europa Press just published the Spanish equivalent of the Rathergate memos? These allegations are sufficiently disturbing that Europa Press needs to publish the entire leaked report, and submit it to the world’s scrutiny.

Barcepundit has much more. Fausta at The Bad Hair Blog writes about Venezuela’s Oil-for-Food-like scheme.

See also Aleksandr Boyd on Spain’s violations of EU regulations in selling arms to Venezuela.

And Captain Ed explains why it matters:

If Spain has decided to start exporting chemical and radioactive materials to unstable dictators like Chavez, then the US needs to reconsider its relationship with the Spaniards pronto. This report needs further investigation to determine its accuracy and the current status of the materials in question. Given Chavez’ hostility of late to the US and his coziness to Cuba, we might find that material deployed against us in the near future.

Posted in: Rathergate

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