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Election Season 2014

And it has brought us to this trainwreck called ObamaCare and we have bankrupted our kids and grandkids!

We are now headed into the 2014 Election Season and common sense and conservatism are on the rise. Please stand-up and be counted!

Reading Collusion: How the Media Stole the 2012 Election is a great place to start!

The Founding Father's Real Reason for the Second Amendment

And remember the words of Thomas Jefferson "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." See Video of Suzanna Gratia-Hupp’s Congressional Testimony: What the Second Amendment is REALLY For, below (u-tube HERE).

The Leaders Are Here... Palin, Cruz, Lee, Paul, Chaffetz....

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Can You Really Still Believe That None of These People Would Have Done a Better Job???

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Showing posts with label START Treaty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label START Treaty. Show all posts

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Iran Just Shipped Missiles to Venezuela. Hello? Is This Thing On?

A massive security threat just blossomed, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an MSM or administration official who cares… And as this was happening your Congress just passed the START Treaty, which everyone “in the know” knows has weakened us and puts us in danger!!

Recent revelations about hostile incursions into South America have raised alarm in those who care about U.S. interests and security, particularly in America’s hemisphere. They have also raised questions about whether the Monroe Doctrine — America will tolerate no hostile incursions in her own hemisphere — is dead. These revelations have been, for the most part, ignored by those who care little for American sovereignty and security, such as the MSM and apparently the Obama administration.

Among the two most alarming revelations is the already completed sale and delivery, to Venezuela by Russia, of nearly 2,000 advanced, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles capable of hitting aircraft as high as 19,000 feet. Equally and perhaps more alarming is an October agreement between Iran and Venezuela. The agreement establishes a joint ground-to-ground missile base on Venezuelan soil and calls for the sharing of missile technology and the training of technicians and officers. In addition, Venezuela may use the missiles as it chooses for “national needs” and in case of “emergency.” Several types of missiles will be deployed, giving Venezuela the ability to strike targets throughout South and Central America and throughout the U.S.

The dangers arising from the Marxist, cult-of-personality rule of Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez are many. These weapons are only the largest and most destructive purchased or finagled by Chavez. He has also purchased an enormous number of Russian assault rifles — the real thing, fully automatic military rifles, not the non-existent “assault weapons” of gun control imaginations and press releases — and related weapons and ammunition.

Keep in mind that these are only the sales and transfers about which American authorities and the public are aware.

With these weapons, Chavez can dominate the region. The consequences for U.S. and hemispheric security should be obvious to those who care about such things, but again, seem to entirely escape the Obama administration. But there are more direct, immediate threats.

Several pundits have suggested that Venezuela’s shoulder-fired ground-to-air missiles might be carried into the U.S. if they were broken down into smaller pieces. Nonsense. Such weapons are self-contained and come complete with their own hardy, weatherproof hard cases which are easily small enough to be smuggled across the southern border without further disassembly. Anyone familiar with the vast size and wildly varied terrain of our southern border, compared to the small number of Border Patrol officers assigned to guard it, understands that smuggling anything across the border, including entire vehicles and thousands of people, is in many places merely a matter of walking across. Many are unaware that environmental regulations prevent the Border Patrol from doing what they are charged to do — patrol — in large areas. Also little known is the federal land grab the Democrats hope to sneak into law in the current lame-duck session of Congress that would greatly increase the number and acreage of federal lands and related environmental restrictions, making even more of the border region off limits to the Border Patrol — but certainly not to terrorists, drug smugglers, and illegal aliens.

So out of control is the border that in some areas of Arizona, the federal government has posted signs advising Americans that drug cartels and human smugglers have taken control, warning that they should stay out for their own safety. To date, the Obama administration’s primary response, apart from surrendering control of American territory, has been to sue Arizona for daring to try to protect its citizens by passing a law that mirrors federal law. A few hundred troops have been sent here and a few hundred there, but these troops are not armed for battle and empowered to capture those who would harm us.

It must be assumed as fact that Chavez is not only able but more than willing to equip terrorists and drug cartels, organizations with whom he has long-standing relationships, with weapons including shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. His agreements with and public embrace of Iran, the single most active state sponsor of terrorism already responsible for the loss of an untold number of American lives, leaves no room for doubt. It would be surprising if such weapons, accompanied by terrorists, were not already on American soil.

American commercial airliners are uniquely vulnerable to such weapons. Most vulnerable on takeoff and landing, slow-moving aircraft are easy targets, targets that will crash in the heavily populated suburbs surrounding most modern airports, racking up even higher death tolls. A few individual attacks could all but completely paralyze American commerce and wreck an economy already brought to its knees by two years of Obamanomics. Coordinated, simultaneous multi-city attacks could easily exceed the 9/11 death toll and would not require the attackers to become martyrs.

Designed to be used by conscript troops in the field with little training, such missiles can be prepared, shouldered, and fired within seconds. A terrorist might simply step out of a vehicle along the periphery of an airport, shoulder and sight the missile, fire, and step back into the vehicle. By the time the missile strikes its target, he would already be driving away from the area, alive and ready to strike again.

We have been fortunate that the FBI has recently intercepted a number of homegrown terrorist bomb plots. However, missile attacks need not involve anyone currently living in America. A sufficient number of terrorists could simply slip across our southern border and drive to their assigned points of attack. Such attacks would be virtually impossible to intercept. In addition, the Russian missiles now in Venezuelan hands are so common as to render it very unlikely that an attack could be traced back to Chavez. The same would be true of any small arms smuggled across the border to be used in attacks at shopping malls, theaters, schools, or other places where large numbers of potential targets congregate.

Medium-range ground-to-ground missiles based in Venezuela are another matter entirely. Armed only with conventional explosive warheads, there would be little motivation for Venezuela or Iran to use them, as even under Barack Obama, massive retaliation would be at least possible. The equation is swung more in favor of use with biological or chemical warheads. But with nuclear warheads, use becomes even more likely. What is almost certain is that nuclear warheads would allow substantial blackmail capability, giving Iran and Venezuela a free hand not only in South and Central America, but in the Middle East as well. And all that is apparently keeping Iran from producing such warheads is a computer virus.

We have missile defenses, but in this situation they cannot save us.

One of the advantages for America, so to speak, of a Soviet missile attack was the 30-minute time from launch to impact, providing substantial time to detect and several opportunities to destroy an incoming missile. The shorter the time frame of missile flight, the fewer the opportunities. Ideally, missiles should be killed during the boost phase while still over enemy territory by such means as airborne laser platforms, platforms for which the Obama administration has cut funding. After the boost phase, missiles become harder still to locate and shoot down — but we do have limited capability to do this. As they are falling back to Earth, we have substantial capabilities, such as the land-based Patriot system and various shipboard systems. But unfortunately, their range is limited. They are area defense weapons. If they’re not in the right place at the right time, no defense. Most such systems are currently protecting our troops and allies.

And of course, Mr. Obama has all but ended advancement in design, testing, and deployment of missile defense systems.

The obvious response is to locate and obliterate as many of Venezuela’s anti-aircraft defenses, including shoulder-fired missiles, as possible and as often as necessary. Any attempt to build military installations in concert with Iran should likewise be met with utter obliteration. The chance of this occurring under President Obama is essentially zero — that is why we are facing a growing crisis, one barely mentioned by the MSM and apparently ignored by the Obama administration.

Weakness invites war; strength deters it. Never has America been stronger, with greater and more overpowering war fighting technology, and never has she had weaker, more ineffective leadership. Were this not so, what nation would dare America to repeat, even exceed, President Kennedy’s response to the Cuban Missile Crisis? If Barack Obama allows such blatant threats in America’s backyard, what if anything could possibly provoke him to act in her defense? Hugo Chavez and  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believe the answer is nothing.

Mike McDaniel is a former police officer, detective, and SWAT operator.

Source:  Pajamas Media

"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." – Mark Twain 1866

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Strategic Defense: BHO vs. America

Phyllis Schlafly

… the "First Lady of the Conservative Movement," and the Founder of the invaluable Eagle Forum, has penned a great editorial I received in my inbox today, "Obama STARTS to Disarm America." It is a great editorial, and I strongly recommend that all 9.12'ers read it and then share your thoughts below (After the Documentary Trailer at the bottom).

Whatever one thinks of the Obama Regime, one cannot ignore the threat to American National Security posed by the policy decisions of the current occupant of the White House. I honestly believe that Barack Hussein Obama is a traitor, and his actions are those of an enemy to America, and have been since he was first installed in the White House.

The timeline appears to have been accelerated thanks to the fact that America is waking up to the loss of their freedoms, and the radical extremists in the Obama Regime, and the powers behind it, recognize that their window of opportunity to overlay a global governance regime onto America is beginning to close. By this time next year, it may be nearly impossible for them to impose their vision of American enslavement upon us, and by this time in 2013, I honestly believe they'll either be in a position of iron-fisted control, or out of power, attempting to once again shape-shift into a new identity. Either way, we MUST do our best to throw a wrench in the works of the Obama regime's attempts to "collapse the system."
Please INVITE your friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, church congregation members, customers/clients, and other peers to join us!

The wisdom of food storage, energy independence (including at your own home, as in solar panels, wind energy, solar water heaters, etc.), and general preparedness is now much more apparent and personal, and our need to be prepared is far more urgent than even a month ago. It might be a good time to look into  FoodInsurance.com, like Glenn Beck recommends, for all who don't have a guaranteed supply of food to last them a year or more. And if one has nothing saved up, food-wise, gold-wise, or other-wise, but can see what is coming, nothing will bring peace of mind like the ability to eat, no matter what. When I got my first order from FoodInsurance.com, I felt like Glenn talks about feeling when he's advertising for them on the radio: the burden which began to lift off of my shoulders is surprisingly heavy. In my case (as I'm sure it is in many of yours), with a wife and three kids, the burden to provide, whatever comes, weighs heavily in a time such as now. If you can't afford Gold (and even if you can), if you don't yet have food security, it's a good idea to get food you don't have to worry about rotating, because it will still be good in one year or twenty; regardless of how this turns out, at some point the wisdom of preparedness will be as obvious as the nose on one's face. Honestly, if things get bad enough, many believe that food will be worth its weight in gold. A starving man will definitely part with whatever he has to in order to survive, and even more so if he has a starving wife and starving children.

Please also remember to prepare go-packs (a backpack with everything you'd need to survive on foot, in case you must leave your home on short notice). And try to store clothing, shoes, fuel, water, toothpaste, soap, etc. in addition to food - if this happens soon, you won't want to have to divide your resources among other essentials like soap, shampoo, Q-tips, toothbrushes/heads, toilet paper, etc. Don't forget copies of the Constitution & Declaration and other essential publications. See our Preparedness Group for more.

But enough of my words. Here's Phyllis Schlafly:
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Join Eagle Forum

Obama STARTS to Disarm America

May 28, 2010  -  by Phyllis Schlafly

Would you be satisfied if your only access to a computer was to try to boot up one that hadn't been used or tested since 1992? That's the predicament of our nuclear deterrent on which we depend for our ultimate physical survival.

On April 8 in Prague, President Obama signed what is called the New START bilateral arms control agreement. It reads like it was written by the Russians and has nothing good in it for the United States. 
Obama is demanding a rush to ratification, after which we can then discover the details of what the treaty requires. Does that remind you of the procedure used for Obamacare?

If there ever were a need for the Senate to read the bill and for the Senate to use its "advice" power as well as its "consent" power, this is it, including reading the treaty's protocols and annexes. Harry Reid's Senate promptly held one hearing, but heard only from treaty advocates, not from its critics.

In the globalist world that Obama inhabits, he dreams of a nuclear-zero world. But his "world without nuclear weapons" would be a world where the United States is a sitting duck for nukes fired by a rogue nation.

The treaty allows Russia to build new and modern weapons to reach New START limits, whereas the United States is locked into reducing its current number. That means Russia will have new and tested weapons, but the U.S. will be stuck with its current, out-of-date, untested warheads.

We live in a dangerous world in which bad guys respect strength and weapons, and disdain weakness and disarmament. Yet, Obama is already presiding over the steady obsolescence of our aging deterrent, a failure to test our weapons, and the phasing out of our skilled workforce to sustain them.

The fantasy that our abandonment of nuclear weapons will inspire other nations to follow our example is so foolish that it can only be described as nuts. When the Cold War thawed and the U.S. and the old U.S.S.R. dramatically reduced their nuclear warheads, that encouraged proliferation, with India, Pakistan, North Korea, Syria and Iran trying to join the nuclear club.

New START allows the United States to have only as many nuclear warheads as Russia can afford to build. And Russia gets to set the count of weapons.

Equal ceilings on warheads are ridiculous because, while Russia only has to defend its own people, our allies all over the world count on us for protection. If the treaty prohibits us from having weapons to fulfill those expectations, they will try to build their own.

The treaty does not limit tactical nuclear weapons, leaving Russia with a 10-to-one numeric superiority, which Russia has threatened to use in regional conflicts. We could build more tactical missiles, but there is no chance Obama will do that.

New START gives up the verification, on-site inspections and monitoring of production that were requirements of previous treaties. Whatever happened to Ronald Reagan's maxim, "Trust but verify"?

Obama has made it clear that his eagerness for a nuclear-zero world also means a world without any defense against nuclear weapons. He has cut spending for missile defenses and killed or moth-balled the few innovative programs we have to knock down incoming rockets in their boost phase.

Ever since President Reagan announced his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) in 1983, the Kremlin has tried to ban all U.S. missile defenses. The Kremlin brags that it achieved this goal in New START.

This treaty gives Russia a veto over all U.S. defenses against incoming missiles. Article V contains a binding clause that we "shall not convert and shall not use ICBM launchers and [submarine-launched ballistic missile] launchers for placement of missile defense interceptors therein."

Article XIV confirms this prohibition, stating that any party can withdraw from New START if "extraordinary events ... have jeopardized its supreme interests." Russia explained that this means it will stick with New START "only if the [U.S.] refrains from developing its missile defense capabilities quantitatively or qualitatively."

The wisdom of the Founding Fathers is available to save us from New START folly, i.e., the constitutional provision that ratification requires approval by two-thirds of Senators. That's the provision the globalists hate the most.

The Council on Foreign Relations complained in print on May 1, 2008 that "the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress a critical voice in the ratification of treaties and endorsement of global institutions, complicates U.S. assumptions of new international obligations." 
Our Constitution can save us from New START if 34 Senators will stand up for America.

Further reading:

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You may also wish to host a local screening of the excellent, if brief, missile defense documentary, 33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age, ASAP, to raise awareness of this, and to help recruit and awaken Americans to the cause of defending America:

33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age

Video:  33 Minutes: Protecting America in the New Missile Age

h/t to Jared Law – 9.12 Project

Call you Senators NOW and tell them:  “NO” on the Start Treaty!!

As Republicans Cave, START Treaty on Track to Pass (Tomorrow, Wednesday)

Please call your Senators now and ask them to vote NO on START Senators from your State.  or call the Congressional Switchboard: today at 202-224-3121.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

STOP START: Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

STOP THE START TREATY:  Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

The New START Treaty must NOT be ratified! Contact all Senators today!!

Excerpt:

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons...

Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

By Juan Forero

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 11, 2010; 6:19 PM

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.

The United States feared that the missiles could be funneled to Marxist guerrillas fighting Colombia's pro-American government or Mexican drug cartels, concerns expressed in U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and first reported in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

It had been unclear how many of the Russian SA-24 missiles were delivered to Venezuela, though the transfer itself was not secret. Chavez showed off a few dozen at a military parade in April 2009, saying they could "deter whatever aerial aggression against our country." A high-level Russian delegation told American officials in Washington in July of that year that 100 of the missiles had been delivered in the first quarter of 2009.

Then earlier this year, Russia reported to the U.N. Register of Conventional Arms, which records the transnational sale of weaponry, that the deal totaled 1,800 missiles.

The U.N. registry did not reveal the model of the delivered weaponry. But the American commander for military forces in Latin America, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, publicly expressed concern this year that Venezuela was purchasing as many as 2,400 of the missiles, also called the IGLA-S.

Matt Schroeder, a missile expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said the missiles are among the most sophisticated in the world and can down aircraft from 19,000 feet.

"It's the largest recorded transfer in the U.N. arms registry database in five years, at least. There's no state in Latin America of greater concern regarding leakage that has purchased so many missiles," he said, referring to reports of Venezuelan arms flowing to Colombian guerrillas.

The database also shows that from 2006 through 2008, Russia delivered to Venezuela 472 missiles and launching mechanisms, 44 attack helicopters and 24 combat aircraft, purchases funded by Venezuelan oil sales.

A self-styled Socialist who claims that successive U.S. governments want to topple him, Chavez told his countrymen during the 2009 military parade that "we don't want war with anyone, but we are obligated to prepare." Months later, in December 2009, he said in a nationally televised address that "thousands of missiles are arriving" but did not say what kind.

Secret American cables said that the United States was concerned about the Chavez government's acquisition of Russian arms, which also included attack helicopters, Sukhoi fighter planes and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

A State Department cable on Aug. 10, 2009, to embassies in Europe and South America said Russian sales to Venezuela total "over $5 billion last year and growing." There was also concern about Spain's plans to sell aircraft and coastal patrol boats to Venezuela.

The cables show how both the Bush and Obama administrations tried to stop the arms sales by highlighting the possibility that the weapons could end up with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a rebel group that Colombian officials say has received material support from Chavez's government.

"In early March, Secretary Clinton raised the sale with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov," the August 2009 cable says, referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russia's foreign minister.

A cable from Washington to Moscow dated Feb. 14, 2009, said FARC computer files seized by Colombia's army indicated that Venezuela tried to facilitate arms market deals for the rebels. It expressed fear that missiles acquired by the FARC, which is mired in the drug trade, could wind up with Mexican cartels that "are actively seeking to acquire powerful and highly sophisticated weapons."

Chavez has long denied that his government assists the FARC. A spokeswoman for the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington said diplomats there could not respond to the allegations by U.S. officials. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas did not respond to phone calls.

The August 2009 cable notes that Russian ammunition sold to Venezuela was found in FARC hands and that U.S. officials raised the issue with Russian diplomats visiting Washington.

The American efforts to derail Russian and Spanish arms sales to Venezuela appeared to strain U.S. relations with both countries.

In a meeting in Moscow in 2005, Anatoliy Antonov, who oversaw disarmament issues for the Russian foreign ministry, told a U.S. Embassy official that Washington was trying to restrict Russian access to the arms market.

The United States also urged Spain to halt the sales of patrol boats, ocean-going corvettes, C-295 transport planes and patrol aircraft to Venezuela, a deal the Spanish government said was worth $1.7 billion and would help revive the country's shipbuilding industry.

The Spanish cemented the sale of the vessels to Venezuela, but the United States blocked the sale of the aircraft because they used sophisticated American electronics.

Irked that Washington had halted the aircraft sale, the foreign minister at the time, Miguel Angel Moratinos, lamented that the United States "did not recognize Spain's positive steps but only focused on negative episodes in the relationship," according to a cable written by the ambassador in January 2006.

"We are the eighth-largest power in the world but the USG treats us like a fifth-rate power," Moratinos told the ambassador, referring to the U.S. government.

Senators from your State.  *   U.S. Government on Twitter *  United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121

Monday, December 13, 2010

STOP START: Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

STOP THE START TREATY:  Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

The New START Treaty must NOT be ratified! Contact all Senators today!!

Excerpt:

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons...

Venezuela acquires 1,800 antiaircraft missiles from Russia

By Juan Forero

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 11, 2010; 6:19 PM

BOGOTA, COLOMBIA -

Russia delivered at least 1,800 shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to Venezuela in 2009, U.N. arms control data show, despite vigorous U.S. efforts to stop President Hugo Chavez's stridently anti-American government from acquiring the weapons.

The United States feared that the missiles could be funneled to Marxist guerrillas fighting Colombia's pro-American government or Mexican drug cartels, concerns expressed in U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and first reported in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

It had been unclear how many of the Russian SA-24 missiles were delivered to Venezuela, though the transfer itself was not secret. Chavez showed off a few dozen at a military parade in April 2009, saying they could "deter whatever aerial aggression against our country." A high-level Russian delegation told American officials in Washington in July of that year that 100 of the missiles had been delivered in the first quarter of 2009.

Then earlier this year, Russia reported to the U.N. Register of Conventional Arms, which records the transnational sale of weaponry, that the deal totaled 1,800 missiles.

The U.N. registry did not reveal the model of the delivered weaponry. But the American commander for military forces in Latin America, Air Force Gen. Douglas Fraser, publicly expressed concern this year that Venezuela was purchasing as many as 2,400 of the missiles, also called the IGLA-S.

Matt Schroeder, a missile expert at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, said the missiles are among the most sophisticated in the world and can down aircraft from 19,000 feet.

"It's the largest recorded transfer in the U.N. arms registry database in five years, at least. There's no state in Latin America of greater concern regarding leakage that has purchased so many missiles," he said, referring to reports of Venezuelan arms flowing to Colombian guerrillas.

The database also shows that from 2006 through 2008, Russia delivered to Venezuela 472 missiles and launching mechanisms, 44 attack helicopters and 24 combat aircraft, purchases funded by Venezuelan oil sales.

A self-styled Socialist who claims that successive U.S. governments want to topple him, Chavez told his countrymen during the 2009 military parade that "we don't want war with anyone, but we are obligated to prepare." Months later, in December 2009, he said in a nationally televised address that "thousands of missiles are arriving" but did not say what kind.

Secret American cables said that the United States was concerned about the Chavez government's acquisition of Russian arms, which also included attack helicopters, Sukhoi fighter planes and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.

A State Department cable on Aug. 10, 2009, to embassies in Europe and South America said Russian sales to Venezuela total "over $5 billion last year and growing." There was also concern about Spain's plans to sell aircraft and coastal patrol boats to Venezuela.

The cables show how both the Bush and Obama administrations tried to stop the arms sales by highlighting the possibility that the weapons could end up with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a rebel group that Colombian officials say has received material support from Chavez's government.

"In early March, Secretary Clinton raised the sale with Russian FM Sergey Lavrov," the August 2009 cable says, referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russia's foreign minister.

A cable from Washington to Moscow dated Feb. 14, 2009, said FARC computer files seized by Colombia's army indicated that Venezuela tried to facilitate arms market deals for the rebels. It expressed fear that missiles acquired by the FARC, which is mired in the drug trade, could wind up with Mexican cartels that "are actively seeking to acquire powerful and highly sophisticated weapons."

Chavez has long denied that his government assists the FARC. A spokeswoman for the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington said diplomats there could not respond to the allegations by U.S. officials. The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry in Caracas did not respond to phone calls.

The August 2009 cable notes that Russian ammunition sold to Venezuela was found in FARC hands and that U.S. officials raised the issue with Russian diplomats visiting Washington.

The American efforts to derail Russian and Spanish arms sales to Venezuela appeared to strain U.S. relations with both countries.

In a meeting in Moscow in 2005, Anatoliy Antonov, who oversaw disarmament issues for the Russian foreign ministry, told a U.S. Embassy official that Washington was trying to restrict Russian access to the arms market.

The United States also urged Spain to halt the sales of patrol boats, ocean-going corvettes, C-295 transport planes and patrol aircraft to Venezuela, a deal the Spanish government said was worth $1.7 billion and would help revive the country's shipbuilding industry.

The Spanish cemented the sale of the vessels to Venezuela, but the United States blocked the sale of the aircraft because they used sophisticated American electronics.

Irked that Washington had halted the aircraft sale, the foreign minister at the time, Miguel Angel Moratinos, lamented that the United States "did not recognize Spain's positive steps but only focused on negative episodes in the relationship," according to a cable written by the ambassador in January 2006.

"We are the eighth-largest power in the world but the USG treats us like a fifth-rate power," Moratinos told the ambassador, referring to the U.S. government.

Senators from your State.  *   U.S. Government on Twitter *  United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121