Obama and FARC

By Thomas Lifson

Investor's Business Daily, for which my admiration is great, has noticed something potentially very important in captured documents released by the government of our ally Colombia, currently fighting a Marxist guerilla insurgency commonly known by the initials FARC:

Admittedly, it pales compared with other material from the dead thug's computer - such as FARC efforts to obtain uranium or Hugo Chavez's $300 million support.

But the little Obama reference within the 15 FARC letters released by the Colombian government signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors. It's not the first time, and Obama has yet to distance himself.

In a Feb. 28 letter, FARC chieftain Raul Reyes cheerily reported to his inner circle that he met "two gringos" who assured him "the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support 'Plan Colombia' nor will he sign the TLC (Free Trade Agreement)."

Aside from some interesting possibilities about who these "gringos" are - a congressional delegation did visit Ecuador and an international leftist "congress" was held in Quito around this time - the real question is why anyone secretly consorting with FARC would be able to speak for presidential candidate Obama.

There is more, and readers should examine the entire IBD editorial. It raises some very important questions.

But one cannot jump to the conclusion that the gringos in question have any official connection to Obama. For all we know, they are American leftist radicals who believe that they know the real Obama in ways that ordinary American voters do not. Perhaps they read something into the aesthetics embraced by the campaign -- a sort of a nod and a wink to the radical left. Or perhaps they are familiar with Obama's background as an Alinsky-inspired community organizer. Or maybe Bill Ayers told them he is "one of us." Who knows where they got their ideas about Obama's real sympathies.

But whoever the gringos may be, the questions that IBD raises ought to be raised. Of course, any TV journalist brave enough to ask a hardball question now knows that Tom Shales and others of his ilk will savage them.