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President Hugo Chavez, fresh from his meeting with the Queen of Anti-Americans, Cindy Sheehan, took another shot at the United States saying he would lock up embassy officials caught spying. Chavez accused the officials of having connections to Venezuelan military officers suspected of espionage for the Pentagon.

These allegations of US spying and threats of taking action against Americans are the latest in a series of Chavez saber-rattling tirades. In December, he threatened to expel US military advisors helping the Venezuelan military to combat drug trafficking in Venezuela. Chavez became enraged when he discovered that Venezuelan army officers has helped American military advisors to remove shoulder-held rockets and launchers from the country.

Chavez, an ally of communist Cuba and friend of dictator Fidel Castro, called President George W. Bush "Mr. Danger." He's repeatedly accused the Bush Administration planning to overthrow. When the rabid leader survived a 2002 coup by anti-socialist Venezuelan's, he claimed that the coup was backed by the US government, but he has yet to show any evidence of such "backing."

"We have uncovered a case, another espionage case," Chavez told an audience at the World Social Forum where most of the globe's communists, socialists and generally wacky America haters assembled. One of the "stars of the show" was Cuba's National Assembly Speaker Ricardo Alarcon.

While discussing this with a friend who's a Cuban-American, he said he believed Chavez's bluster was calculated win him praise with the American left, whom he believes are his allies in the new Socialist Revolution in the Americas.

"I warn the U.S. government ... the next time we detect an officer or a civilian official, above all US military officers, trying to get information from our armed forces, we're going to lock them up," he said to a reporter from Reuters.

Venezuelan officials claim that they possess secret evidence that US Embassy workers were in cahoots with a group of Venezuelan military officers in order to pass Venezuela's secrets to the Pentagon.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman told Reuters that "we still have received no official contact from the Venezuelan government on that matter. We are in the dark as to what the details of the charges are."

US intelligence officials say Chavez's accusations of plots are populist rhetoric meant to shore up his support among poor voters. His critics South America and within the Beltway believe he's a threat to democracy in Venezuela and overseas.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel -- no relation to Democrat Congressman Charlie Rangel -- said several low-ranking Venzuelan army officers had been discovered leaking secrets to the United States.

But Chavez's government has failed to reveal how many officers were actually involved or have officials confirmed that anyone has been detained.

In what appears to be headed towards a Stalinist purge, Alonso Medina, an attorney for one man detained in the investigation, said his client, Jacinto Nouel, is a former firefighter and dentist and he's beed jailed on charges of spying and threatening the security of the military.

The lawyer told reporters that the prosecutors accused Nouel of ties to the US Embassy after he received documents from his son-in-law -- a retired Venezuela naval officer -- living in Miami. Medina said the documents were a CD-ROM with public information about Spanish aircraft. The keyword is public information. The CD contains unclassified information easily available on the internet.

Venezuela's president has become increasingly angry with the United States over its purchase of Spanish transport and maritime surveillance aircraft as it modernizes its armed forces through agreements with Russia, Brazil and Spain. US State Department officials prevented the sale of the Spanish aircraft to Venezuela. Under an agreement, Washington can veto transfer of US aircraft or weapons parts to third parties. The US rationale for blocking the transaction is the concern that Venezuela's military buildup is destabilizing that region of Latin America.

Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org).