http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/02/15/venezuela.oil.reut/index.html

Venezuela to beef up security after al Qaeda threat

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters)

February 15, 2007

— Venezuela's defense minister said Thursday that the nation would reinforce security measures after a branch of al Qaeda called for attacks on suppliers of oil to the United States.

Venezuela provides around 11 percent of U.S. oil imports despite diplomatic tensions between Caracas and Washington over leftist President Hugo Chavez's self-styled socialist revolution.

Gen. Raul Baduel told reporters that security and intelligence agencies would "take actions and implement previously established security plans, but reinforce them with the goal of guaranteeing security."

He called for calm and said Chavez would provide further instructions about how to deal with the threat.

A Saudi wing of al Qaeda, in a statement posted Wednesday on a Web site, called for attacks on suppliers of oil to the United States to cut off vital oil supplies. (Full story)

Luis Cabrera, a military adviser to the president, earlier had questioned the authenticity of the threat in comments published by local media.

He said it was illogical that "al Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony."

Venezuela's interior minister said on Wednesday the government was ready to carry out any investigation necessary to ensure the continued functioning of the nation's oil industry.

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