Counterterrorism Blog

ABC News has reported that U.S. authorities remain deeply skeptical about Colombia's charges that FARC was seeking to obtain materials for a dirty bomb. According to ABC, U.S. law enforcement officials want to scrutinize the entire cache of Raul Reyes-related computer documents to assess them for their impact on U.S. drug trafficking cases against FARC. Clearly the U.S. will also want to review the computer data bases to assess for themselves whether the data backs up Colombia's claims about FARC links to other terrorist groups and to efforts to acquire nuclear material for a dirty bomb.

The review of the known facts undertaken by Aaron Mannes remains the only meaningful public analysis of the allegation, and in my view, he makes a convincing case that the evidence revealed so far shows FARC ready to smuggle uranium but does not support the dirty bomb allegation.

That said, FARC's apparent interest in uranium smuggling provides further reason, if any were needed, for close intelligence focus on FARC's ties to other terrorist groups, and for undertaking as detailed an analysis of Venezuelan funding of FARC as the facts allow. Hugo Chavez held a minute of silence on his television show on March 2 for the slain FARC commander. Hopefully, the captured computer information, when fully analyzed and disseminated, will provide documentary testimony about whatever has been going on between Chavez and FARC, providing a set of common facts for further international action to respond to the ongoing Andean crisis.