The Forward reports that the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela (known by its Spanish acronym CAIV) has criticized the Weisenthal Center for misinterpreting Hugo's words and failing to consult them before attacking Chavez. This might be a little bickering between the local leadership and American Jewish community leadership. It has happened before. The CAIV head insists that thy are not afraid of anything and have criticized anti-Semitism in the Venezuelan media.

Whatever their motivations, the CAIV leadership is wrong. There is really little doubt as to the meaning of what Chavez said. Miguel Octavio, in his excellent blog The Devil's Excrement writes:

Chavez remarks about the descendants of the killers of Christ controlling the world, which in Catholic countries has always referred to precisely the Jews, no matter what the revisionists who visit this blog wants to suggest...

Also, there is the broader context. Hugo's friendship with Iran, his previous actions against the Jewish community in Venezuela, his long relationship with Argentine Fascist anti-Semite Norberto Ceresole have not earned Chavez the benefit of the doubt.

The Hajj, the holy pilgrimage to Mecca undertaken by Muslims was the scene of a vast tragedy today when crowds stampeded and hundreds were crushed (latest estimate I've seen is 345 killed.) Earlier this week there was another disaster at the Hajj when a building collapsed, killing 76. A quick review shows that these tragedies are common at the Hajj. Hundreds were killed in a stampede two years ago, for example.

I am reminded of a story about Adam Michnik, a famous Polish philosopher/dissident (as a high school student his activities came to the attention of the Politburo in Moscow.) Michnik was wondering why the powers that be didn't simply send in the Cossacks to crush Solidarity, when he ran into the ex-wife of a top official in a public library. She mentioned that the heat was out in her building. Michnik realized then that the Polish Communist regime was doomed. Having lost all shreds of popular credibility, it could not even provide the essentials for its elites.

Governance of Islam's holiest places in Mecca and Medina is a core element in the Saudi regime's legitimacy - and yet it cannot manage the site effectively. This is a regime at the end of its rope. (The same principle may apply to Iran, which cannot keep planes carrying its top leaders from crashing - see my recent post - and did an abysmal job at earthquake relief in Bam in 2003.)

Granted, modern democracies also make mistakes. Witness Katrina or Japan's relief efforts after the Kyoto quake in 1995. But, modern democracies correct themselves. After Katrina, preparations for Rita were far more extensive. The Kyoto quake led to an earthquake in Japanese politics.

The Hajj tragedies happen year, after year, after year. Muslims are usually described as being fatalistic - but eventually they will become exhausted with this ongoing incompetence. One interesting source of change could Western (and Westernized Muslims) who are frustrated with the unpredictable and chaotic situation when they arrive.

In the past the Hajj was one of the great pillars that maintained a worldly, cosmopolitan Islamic civilization. Now, in its tragedies, it also exemplifies the predicament of the Muslim world.

The Devil's Excrement, an excellent English-language Venezuelan blog reports that a truck carrying radioactive materials was stolen. The blogger is surprised that this is only attracting attention from local law enforcement, and not receiving appropriate high-level attention.

This was not enriched uranium that could be used to make atomic bomb. But it could be used for a dirty bomb. Venezuela is not far from Columbia, where this hemisphere's most dangerous terrorist group, the FARC, is based. Reportedly under Chavez the FARC has had a fairly free hand to operate in Venezuela. The FARC is also a highly innovative terrorist group that has consistently invested in new technology, including constructing their own submarines.

There is no evidence suggesting the theft was anything more than ordinary crime, but the complex, unstable situation prevailing in Venezuela and neighboring Columbia makes the situation a concern. Also, the fact that radioactive materials are so vulnerable to theft is not reassuring.

Chavez has expressed an interest in acquiring nuclear capabilities for Venezuela (nerve-wracking in light of his friendship with Iran.) But in light of this recent incident, the international community would be unwise to bless this particular initiative.

The Daily Standard, the online publication of The Weekly Standard just posted the following article I wrote on Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's Christmas Eve speech.

Blast From the Past
Hugo Chávez veers into anti-Semitism while explaining how to create a workers' paradise.
by Aaron Mannes
01/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

ON CHRISTMAS EVE, Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez's Christian-socialist cant drifted into anti-Semitism. "The world is for all of us," he said, "then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendents of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendents of the same ones that kicked Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession all of the wealth of the world . . . "

These sentiments were not new and Chávez, for his part, has long associated with anti-Semitic figures. One of Chávez's early mentors was the Holocaust-denying Argentine social scientist Norberto Ceresole. Shortly after ascending to the presidency, Chávez wrote to the imprisoned terrorist known as Carlos (who is a Venezuelan national) calling him a distinguished compatriot. In 2000 Chávez became the first head of state to meet with Saddam since the first Gulf War; he even received a Human Rights Award from Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. In December, Chávez hosted a meeting of the U.N. Committee for the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

But most seriously, Chávez has established an alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran, which has long been the leading state sponsor of terrorism internationally and against Israel. When then Iranian President Mohammed Khatami visited Caracas in March 2005, Chávez voiced his support for Iran's nuclear program and awarded Khatami Venezuela's highest honor, the Order of the Liberator. (There is a Simon Bolivar Street in Tehran.) During this visit the two countries signed 20 agreements to cooperate on economic development projects. These warm relations have continued under the new Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has explicitly called for Israel's destruction.

Chávez's anti-Semitism is not restricted to rhetorical support for others, though. In late 2004, after a state prosecutor (and Chávez ally), was assassinated in a car bombing, the state-run television darkly referred to Mossad links to the killing. Venezuelan security forces raided a Jewish private school in Caracas as the school day was beginning. No evidence of any connection to the car bombing was found. It surely cannot be a coincidence that the raid occurred while Chávez was visiting Iran.

Carlos Blanco, writing in the leading Caracas daily, El Universal, noted that, "When a Jew is attacked for being such, we enter a zone of total and absolute risk for the free thinking and existence of all, Jews and non Jews alike." His fears have been borne out.

SINCE CHAVEZ'S FIRST ELECTION IN 1998, Venezuela's ranking in the Freedom House survey of World Freedom has dropped from Free to Partly Free. The report states that in 2004, "Chávez devoted considerable attention during the year to advancing his influence over the judicial system, media, and other institutions of civil society." Chávez's measures include media laws that could be used to imprison reporters for insulting public authorities and institutions and packing the Supreme Court by expanding its membership from 20 to 32 justices. The Chávez government has also undermined property rights by imposing price controls on staples (leading to the predictable shortages) and seizing "underused" ranches without compensation.

Chávez also expanded on these broader ambitions in his Christmas Eve address. According to Chávez, Jesus was "the first socialist of our era . . . and for that they crucified him." He exhorted Venezuelans to be ready "to sacrifice ourselves for others, for the country, for the collective . . . that is how we will save our country and we will help save the world from here."

Most tellingly, he called for the building of a utopian paradise on earth:

To leave the room of poverty is to arrive at a life of dignity, where there is no misery, nor poverty is the Kingdom of God that Christ came to tell us, the Kingdom of Equality, of love, of justice. We have to build that kingdom here, because it is totally false that this Kingdom is in the clouds and that one goes there when one dies. Lie! . . . No, heaven and hell are here among us.

THE LANGUAGE AND SENTIMENTS are distressingly familiar. But Chávez appears determined to initiate his Utopian revolution and buoyed by record oil prices, he has the resources to pursue this vision in Venezuela and to export his revolution throughout the region. Within Venezuela he has launched numerous initiatives. Some, such as building new medical facilities throughout the country, seem laudable (although Fidel Castro provides the medical staffs). Other initiatives are eccentric, such as the government's printing and free distribution of 1 million copies of the classic novels Don Quixote and Les Miserables. Some programs expand Chavez's authority, such as the establishment of Bolivarian Circles. These armed citizen militias were ostensibly formed to defend the country against a U.S. invasion, but have been deployed for violent confrontations with anti-Chávez protestors.

Regionally, Chávez funds radical groups and buys allies with cash and subsidized oil. He has sticks to accompany these carrots. Chávez is funding a regional satellite TV network--a Latin Al Jazeera--to broadcast his vision. Chávez also provides safe havens for Latin America's largest terrorist organization, FARC. His rhetoric and interference in other nations' internal affairs have sparked several high-profile spats with other Latin American nations, most recently with Mexico and Peru.

Internationally Chávez is seen as a populist loudmouth and while his anti-Semitism is condemned, much of his rhetoric is ignored as braggadocio. But his forays into anti-Semitism are merely symptoms of a broader, dysfunctional worldview. Chávez appears intent on replaying the most disastrous political projects of the last century.

Aaron Mannes, author of the TerrorBlog and Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations (Rowman & Littlefield-JINSA Press), researches terrorism at the Maryland Information and Network Dynamics Laboratory at the University of Maryland. Opinions expressed here are his own.

© Copyright 2005, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.

A plane carrying several top Pasdaran officers crashed in northwestern Iran today. The Pasdaran, or the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, was created after the 1979 revolution as an alternate military force to Iran's traditional military (which was suspected of harboring many loyalists to the old Shah.) Whereas the military is charged with guarding the nation's territory, the Pasdaran is the guardian of the revolution. With over 100,000 men at arms it is a serious military force. It has an international operations branch, the Qods (Jerusalem) force which has been involved in numerous terrorist attacks. In particular, it has mentored Hezbollah - providing training, equipment, and even personnel for their operations. Domestically the Pasdaran are linked to the Baseej, internal militias that crackdown on anti-regime activity. Finally, the Pasdaran have taken charge over Iran's nuclear program.

The loss of the Pasdaran's commander and deputy commander of Ground Forces as well as several other top commanders is a substantial blow. (It is a bit surprising that the regime would allow so many top commanders to fly together. Major U.S. corporations frequently have top executives fly separately to reduce the risk of a major tragedy and loss of knowledge and skill.)

Plane crashes are very common in Iran, only a month ago an Iranian military place carrying journalists crashed in Tehran. This is due, in great part because international sanctions prevent Iran from purchasing replacement parts for their aging air fleet, much of which was purchased by the Shah before the 1979 revolutions.

Recently The Atlantic Monthly ran an article on taking covert action against Iranian nuclear scientists to stymie Iran's nuclear program. Israel used these tactics against Iraq's program in the 1970s. Scientific endeavors rely heavily on individuals with specialized skills. The loss of such individuals can be very painful for the program.

This is not to say that this crash was linked to any covert activity - only that it is something to consider - seriously and quickly.