E-mail to the US State Dept re "U.S. may add Venezuela to list of terrorist states"

Yesterday McClatchy Newspapers published an article entitled "U.S. may add Venezuela to list of terrorist states" in which we were told

"The Bush administration has launched a preliminary legal inquiry that could land Venezuela on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism, following reports of close Venezuelan links with Colombian rebels, a senior government official has confirmed...
The legal review comes after Colombia captured four computers belonging to a guerrilla leader in a March 1 raid into Ecuador."

The article then states "The documents suggest the Venezuelan government was in the process of providing $300 million to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC."

Firstly, the 'documents' do no such thing, and secondly, as anyone who is even half computer literate knows, once someone is possession of someone else's laptop they can alter any document they wish and if you are asking me to trust the Columbian government and armed forces then either you are naive in the extreme or seriously intellectually-challenged.

The article continued:

"The U.S. and Colombian governments and the European Union have officially designated FARC as a terrorist organization, but Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said publicly that he considers it a legitimate insurgency." Right and could someone please tell me why the US designation is supposed to be accepted by all countries?

"A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the subject, said government lawyers had been asked to clarify "what goes into effect in terms of prohibitions, or prohibited activities," with the state sponsor designation." In other words will they still be able to receive oil imports or will they have to conduct yet another illegal regime change operation that will provoke yet another genocide?

"The official was reluctant to predict if the FARC computer discoveries will lead to sanctions, noting U.S. investigators first must corroborate their veracity." Quite. The first intelligent thing anyone has said.

Anyway, here is e-mail I sent off to the US State Dept. this morning. I don't expect a reply of course, although if I suddenly disappear and cease to blog you'll know who's got me...I've never been to the Caribbean...

"Sirs,

I read an article in McClatchy Newspapers today saying that the "Bush administration has launched a preliminary legal inquiry that could land Venezuela on the U.S. list of nations that support terrorism".

I was wondering how this can be, considering the definition of terrorism used by the State Dept, which refers exclusively to "subnational groups or clandestine agents". (Source: Patterns of Global Terrorism. Washington: Dept. of State, 2001: vi)

If, however, one takes the definition as described in the US Code TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 113B > § 2331 as being the correct definition, then why has the USA itself not been added to the list and the CIA declared a terrorist organisation?

Considering all the facts in the public domain about the actions of that organisation, the CIA, there can be no doubt that it fits the description perfectly of a terrorist organisation, and consequently the country that controls, finances and gives it its orders must also be considered a nation that supports terrorism."