[Sometimes I think the only difference between Stratfor and lbo-talk (besides our political views, of course) is that they can read the local papers in a lot more languages. And read the defense weeklies the way Doug reads the financial papers. So all that's keeping us from ipo-ing ourself is a dozen courses from Berlitz :o)]
[www.stratfor.com/world]
1800 GMT, 990902 Venezuela - Col. Claudio Torchetti, a former
Venezuelan intelligence agent, told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat
paper that Iraq had financed the presidential campaign of Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez. The September 1 article stated that under the
terms of the 1994 deal, Chavez promised to foment trouble in South
America in order to "irritate" the U.S. in exchange for Iraqi
financial backing, cooperation in the oil industry and assistance with
chemical and nuclear weapons programs.