Venezuela is a growing threat under the radical leadership of Hugo Chavez. This is another unstable country on whose oil we depend, like Saudi Arabia and others even worse.
The oil-rich but politically unstable nation of Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists, say senior U.S. military and intelligence officials. Bush administration aides see this as an unpredictably dangerous mix and are gathering more information about the intentions of a country that sits 1,000 miles south of Florida.Middle Eastern terrorist groups are operating support cells in Venezuela and other locations in the Andean region. A two-month review by U.S. News, including interviews with dozens of U.S. and Latin American sources, confirms the terrorist activity. In particular, the magazine has learned that thousands of Venezuelan identity documents are being distributed to foreigners from Middle Eastern nations, including Syria, Pakistan, Egypt, and Lebanon.
Venezuela is supporting armed opposition groups from neighboring Colombia; these groups are on the official U.S. list of terrorist organizations and are also tied to drug trafficking. Maps obtained by U.S. News, as well as eyewitness accounts, pinpoint the location of training camps used by Colombian rebels, a top rebel leader, and Venezuelan armed groups.
Cubans are working inside Venezuela's paramilitary and intelligence apparatus. The coordination between Cuba and Venezuela is the latest sign that Venezuelan President Chavez is modeling his government on Castro's Cuba.
As noted here last February, Insight magazine had an earlier story on the connections between Chavez's Venezuela and our enemies Iraq, Libya, and Iran. At least Iraqi agents won't be part of the problem anymore.
Oil imports from risky countries are an ongoing problem:
Monthly data on the origins of U.S. crude oil imports in July 2003 has been released and it shows that four countries each exported more than 1.2 million barrels per day or more of crude oil to the United States (see table below). The top sources of U.S. crude oil imports in July 2003 were: Saudi Arabia (1.835 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.689 million barrels per day), Canada (1.594 million barrels per day), and Venezuela (1.220 million barrels per day). Rounding out the top ten sources, in order, were Nigeria (0.804 million barrels per day), Angola (0.517 million barrels per day), Russia (0.479 million barrels per day), United Kingdom (0.420 million barrels per day), Kuwait (0.169 million barrels per day), and Colombia (0.161 million barrels per day).Crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia were the eighth largest amount ever and are at a record pace of 1.870 million barrels per day for the year, while crude oil imports from Mexico were the third highest average ever from that country. Iraqi exports of crude oil began arriving again in July, averaging 67 thousand barrels per day, while crude oil imports from Russia in July were the largest ever recorded. Total crude oil imports averaged 10.059 million barrels per day in July, an increase of 0.109 million barrels per day from June and a record high for the month and the third largest amount ever. The top four origins accounted for 63 percent of U.S. crude oil imports in July, while the top ten sources accounted for 88 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports.
Latest data via the Dept. of Energy
When thinking about the national security implications of energy supplies and the tradeoffs with environmental risk, consider this statement about offshore California's potential, where new leasing and production is shut down by environmental activism.
Thirty-six (36) of the 79 OCS leases offshore California are undeveloped. These leases, for which unproven reserves are estimated to be 1 billion barrels of oil and over 500 billion cubic feet of gas, are organized into nine units and one non-unitized lease. The undeveloped leases are generally dispersed through an area in which production has been occurring for over 30 years and development of the producing leases is continuing. Projects have been proposed for a number of the undeveloped leases. However, the future of the undeveloped leases is in question as a result of litigation.Posted by Alan at October 1, 2003 06:49 AMvia the U.S. Minerals Management Service