Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Chavez - a worse threat than bin Laden?

A former consultant to Bill Clinton says the U.S. is very naive about the threat posed by Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez, who he believes is at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden.

Douglas E. Schoen is co-author of the recently released book entitled The Threat Closer to Home: Hugo Chavez and the War Against America. Along with co-author Michael Rowan, Schoen documents how the American government has shrugged off South American politics for nearly 40 years while Venezuela has grown into an unprecedented threat.

Chavez is a "bad actor," says Schoen. "He's been a bad actor for a long time, and he's been supporting, aggressively, Hamas in their battle with Israel in the Gaza strip. He's called what Israel's done a holocaust," he points out. "He's been a supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran, and he has his own 'axis of evil,' which is designed to undermine and destabilize the United States." He adds that he is unsure what kind of Venezuelan policy Barack Obama is going to pursue.

"[It is] anyone's guess. We don't know. He's had very, very little to say about Venezuela. He has said that he will sit down without preconditions with anyone. That presumably includes Chavez," the author contends. "That's not a good sign, but we will see. Hopefully, he will put Venezuela where it belongs on the list of state sponsors of terrorism." Schoen believes Chavez is a dangerous threat, so he co-wrote the book to warn the American people.


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