Reliable Sources: Jeff Gertz

There's a war on, you know, and information on global foreign policy and military doings is at a premium. Fortunately, Bill Gertz of The Washington Times is available.

Gertz is easily one of the best-connected and most knowledgeable resource for all things military.

Case in point, where else have you seen this?:

Moscow-Caracas axis

The Washington Times reported last week that the Bush administration secretly had protested to Russia its plan to sell Venezuela more than 100,000 AK-47 automatic rifles.

The story included an anonymous State Department official saying the fear is the weapons will be used to arm militias in Venezuela and left-wing rebels in South America.

The story had repercussions. The day it ran, the State Department put on the record to reporters its objections to the sale. Both Moscow and Caracas lashed out at the State Department. And then, the designer of the ubiquitous assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, spoke out. Interfax caught up with him this week in Abu Dhabi.

"We have been blamed and will be blamed for many things," Mr. Kalashnikov said. "We need to treat these accusations critically, as they are, as a rule, prompted by the Americans' desire to bar us from entering new markets."

He added, "I believe we need to continue to promote our Russian weapons on foreign markets, because they must safeguard peace and friendship between nations."

Gertz is the snopes.com of the Defense Department, and for that, he's one of MoltenThought's Reliable Sources.