A curious statement from a State Department spokeswoman suggests that the United States is now in possession of the laptop and hard drives seized by the Colombian military when it killed FARC leader Raul Reyes:
There could be far-reaching ramifications if reports about the contents of the laptop are substantiated by the U.S. government. First and foremost, reports state that laptop files show that Hugo Chavez’s government offered FARC $300 million in assistance. If true, Venezuela could be designated a state sponsor of terrorism. The imposition of trade sanctions would follow. And while such a designation does not automatically lead to a complete cut-off of trade, we currently don’t do a whole lot of business with the countries already on the list: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. The United States consumes about 20.7 million barrels of oil per day, more than 10 percent of which comes from Venezuela. Designating Venezuela a sponsor of terrorism could potentially have a serious effect on the U.S. energy supply. The laptop also contained a bizarre memo referring to the possibility of improved relations with the U.S. if Barack Obama is elected president. It will be interesting to see if the U.S. government’s review of the laptop and its contents sheds any more light on this item.
