JOE LIEBERMAN SHOWS UP IN BOGOTA TO SUPPORT URIBE AGAINST HUGO CHAVEZ AND FARC

Now who appears today in Bogota to buoy up Colombian president Alvaro Uribe but Joe Lieberman, the "independent" senator from Connecticut. First it was Condoleeza Rice a few days ago, now Lieberman. I can only guess that the same person(s) who sent Condi also sent Joe.

Bush and Cheney are so angry that their "enemy," Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, was the one who secured the release of the two Colombian ladies who were held hostage by FARC. The American leaders seem obsessed to deny Chavez some of the world's gratitude that they are sending Joe Lieberman to say that Uribe is their man, notwithstanding that Uribe has done nothing to secure the release of the other hostages other than make bellicose and militaristic threats against FARC.

Put this Lieberman visit together with the sentencing of an extradited FARC leader to 60 years in a U.S. federal penitentiary, and we get the picture of a United States government that has no idea of what is happening in Colombia.

What will the FARC do in response to the 60-year sentence? FARC holds several hundred hostages, including at least three Americans whose plane crashed in the Colombian jungles some three years ago. Will FARC let them go as a humanitarian gesture? Or will it take revenge for the 60-year sentence of one of its leaders?

The answer is clear and against the interest of all of the hostages. The U.S. sentences a FARC leader to a harsh sentence. FARC will redouble its efforts to maintain captivity of its hostages, and the hostages will be held captive for the rest of their natural lives.