CIA's Correa Gets Cover Blown in Venezuela

FROM SOUTH AMERICA: The Venezuelan government says a US diplomat is a CIA spy. Joseph Correa,the US Naval Attache at the embassy in Caracas, is accused of inciting rebellion during a failed coup and working through Venezuelan naval officers to steal top secret documents.

Venezuelan VP Jose Vincent Rangel (no relation to US Sen. Charlie) says Correa skipped town - after first spiriting his assets to Miami - when he got called to a "meeting" by the Venezuelans. Sounds like he smelled a rat. The reports say he was the CIA's top dog there - which seems doubtful to me. A station chief personally running low-level assets? From an attache desk? With no cutouts? C'mon. But maybe it's a small shop, I don't know.

This, of course, feeds into Presidente Chavez's persecution complex brilliantly, and helps him to explain to his people why he is stockpiling weapons for, well, a war. Oh wait - a glorious effort to repel a capitalist, imperialist invader.

Despite Pat Robertson's assasination order, the boys at the Pentagon say the US simply doesn't have the troops to spare. Even though their boss disagrees.