The government of Colombia says that when it conducted a raid into Ecuador to destroy a terrorist camp there, it seized a laptop that contained a number of communications to and from the "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia." The communications are pretty interesting; among other things, they seem to connect Venezuela's Hugo Chavez to the Communist rebel group. No surprise there.

Most intriguing to an American reader are the references to Barack Obama:

References to U.S. diplomatic overtures are scintillating, if vague.

In a Dec. 11 message to the secretariat, Marquez [FARC's contact with Chavez, who lives in Venezuela] writes: "If you are in agreement, I can receive Jim and Tucker to hear the proposal of the gringos."

Writing two days before his death, Reyes [FARC's "foreign minister"] tells his comrades that "the gringos," working through Ecuador's government, are interested "in talking to us on various issues."

"They say the new president of their country will be (Barack) Obama," he writes, saying Obama rejects both the Bush administration's free trade agreement with Colombia and the current military aid program.

Reyes writes that his response to the Americans was that the United States would have to publicly express these positions.

This needs to be taken with a grain of salt, obviously. But it would be nice if a reporter would ask Obama whether his staff has been engaging in diplomatic outreach to a Communist group bent on overthrowing a U.S. ally. Or--who knows?--maybe the "gringos" are from the CIA, conducting, as is their wont, their own foreign policy.

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Posted by John at 7:12 PM  |    |