Looking for a moment beyond Texas, to points further south…

The vice president of Colombia charges that FARC rebels have been trying to build a dirty bomb, trying to get their hands on 100 pounds of uranium.

Colombia’s FARC guerrilla movement was trying to get hold of radioactive material to make a “dirty bomb”, Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos said on Tuesday.
Santos told the United Nations Conference on Disarmament that materials found on computers of Raul Reyes, the deputy commander of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), showed the group was in negotiations to get hold of radioactive matter for a bomb.

The Columbian government also charged that “computer documents showed financial support from the FARC for Mr. Chávez of Venezuela, going back to the time Mr. Chávez spent in prison after an unsuccessful coup attempt in Caracas in 1992.”

If the allegations from the Colombian government are true, that that Chavez is financially supporting extremists seeking to build a dirty bomb, does Barack Obama’s pledge to hold face-to-face negotiations with Chavez without preconditions look even more unwise?

If the allegations are true, what precisely is the difference between negotiating with Hugo Chavez and some other extremist who wants to finance the construction and use of a dirty bomb, like Osama bin Laden?