An enemy from within our boarders is engrained in our daily life and most American’s are left unaware.  Associated Press release dated 19 June 2006 reports: “Venezuela —President Hugo Chavez's plans to build the first Kalashnikov factory in the Western Hemisphere. Chavez further stated “his government bought 100,000 Russian-made AK-103 assault rifles and a license from Moscow to make Kalashnikovs and ammunition, to defend the nation against "the most powerful empire in history" — the United States.” How is such a small country able to spend vast amounts of money to defend against what they consider American arrogance? Simple, the Government of Venezuela, fully owns and operates CITGO Gas company. Every CITGO Gas station in the United States is has as its parent company or owner of independent franchises, the Government of Venezuela. Every tank full of gas, every soft drink or bag of chips is helping to fund a Government that views us as a risk and is arming themselves against what they consider an imminent attack by the United States. We have frozen assets of terrorist organizations; blocked oil sales against those we thought were a threat to us and tracked down those who supported foreign Government terrorism. Yet we have CITGO Gas stations popping up on street corners across the U.S..  Visit http://www.citgo.com/AboutCITGO.jsp to learn the truth. An excerpt of that web page states: “The company is owned by PDV America, Inc., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., the national oil company of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.” I do not understand how we let a company own gas stations in America, then use the resources earned from that income to arm themselves and profess us an evil empire. Next time you need gas and look at your old favorite, CITGO, give them a drive by and go to an American owned Gas company that keeps our dollars inside our borders, drilling and possessing American oil, providing jobs for Americans. Not helping to arm a country that views us as an evil empire.