World's Most Dangerous Leaders

These four pose the greatest threat to America.

Hugo Chávez

Any roll call of the world's despots is depressingly long. But only a handful of leaders threaten the security of countries well beyond their borders. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, is the latest ruler to emerge from this pack. Rabidly anti-American, Chávez is intent on stirring up trouble -- and he's getting the help of some menacing thugs he counts as friends.

Last September, Americans got a surreal introduction to Hugo Chávez. In an address before the UN General Assembly in New York, Venezuela's president launched into a tirade against the previous day's speaker, George W. Bush. "Yesterday," he intoned, "the devil came here. Right here." He made the sign of the cross, then added, "And it smells of sulfur still today." Many of the diplomats laughed and applauded. Chávez went on to charge that the United States "doesn't want peace" and denounced its "system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war."

His rant made headlines, but it was hardly news to those who have followed Chávez through the years. In other venues, he's referred to Bush as a drunkard and a terrorist, and not long ago derided Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an illiterate and sexually frustrated woman.

While Chávez's rhetoric is often odious and his behavior clownish, we can't afford to ignore him. Secretary Rice says Chávez is "one of the most dangerous men in the world." His goals are a direct challenge to the United States and its allies: to forge alliances with America's foes, including the world's most unsavory regimes and terrorist groups; to undermine U.S influence by leading an anti-American coalition of countries; to spread oil wealth throughout the region to buy support and promote leftist governments; and to build an outsize military, supposedly to resist an American invasion. "He has this tremendous drive for power, and he's looking to oppose the U.S. agenda in Latin America and throughout the world," says Michael Shifter, vice president of the nonpartisan organization Inter-American Dialogue.

Chávez was elected Venezuela's president in December 1998 -- after failing to topple the government six years earlier. In short order, he eliminated the Venezuelan Senate and stacked the Supreme Court with loyal "Chávistas." Last winter, after reelection to another six-year term, he declared he would rule by decree for 18 months, not subject to the approval of legislators in the National Assembly. "This is what dictators do," says Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. "They systematically consolidate power."

And wielding that power, Chávez is proving more and more of a menace to the world, especially the United States. Oil is his chief weapon. Fourteen percent of America's imported oil comes from Venezuela, which sits atop the most massive oil fields outside the Middle East. If that supply were cut off, as Chávez has often threatened, the U.S. economy would suffer a blow as America scrambled to make up for the loss of about one and a half million barrels of oil a day.

Major Threat to America

Most analysts believe Chávez can't afford to take this step in the short term because Venezuela sells over 50 percent of its oil to the United States. But Chávez is trying to shake that dependency by planning a pipeline to the Pacific coast and increasing sales to China and India.

Meanwhile, soaring gas prices have fattened Venezuela's coffers, and Chávez is using this wealth to make friends with America's enemies. In a deal with Castro, Chávez has arranged for Cuba to get some 90,000 discounted barrels of oil a day in exchange for as many as 20,000 Cuban health workers. With guidance from Castro's intelligence service, Chávez last year promoted the successful presidential candidacies of Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Evo Morales in Bolivia, both of whom are Socialists often hostile to U.S. interests. Elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean, he spreads discounted oil and cash around to assist his bid to break the continent free from American influence.

"We will never know the full extent of his influence because he's got bagmen who are able to deliver vast sums of money to people he thinks are potential allies," says Roger Noriega.

Chávez has courted Syria's leader, Bashar al-Assad, and openly praises Hamas -- the Syrian-backed Islamist group that has engaged in terror strikes against Israel. The Anti-Defamation League sees growing anti-Semitism in Venezuelan society, promoted by inflammatory rhetoric from Chávez. During Israel's recent war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Chávez charged the Israelis with "committing genocide" and said they "criticize Hitler but have done something far worse."

Chávez has also been cultivating a relationship with the regime of North Korea's Communist dictator, Kim Jong-il. In 2005, a North Korean military delegation reportedly met with officials in Caracas to discuss selling intermediate-range ballistic missiles to Venezuela. Its Nodong 1 model would be capable of hitting Puerto Rico.

Most worrisome to American officials is the deepening relationship between Chávez and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian factories are popping up in Venezuela, and there is now a direct flight between Teheran and Caracas. On a state visit to Teheran last year, Chávez declared his support for the Iranian nuclear program and said Venezuela would stand by Iran anytime and under any condition. Ahmadinejad has gone to Caracas twice in the last year and a half, and even received from Chávez the Libertador Medal, the highest honor bestowed by Venezuela on visiting dignitaries. Chávez has also publicly praised Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror organization with a global reach.

Keeping Chávez in check will be no easy matter. The United States would like to rally opposition to Chávez in the region, but his populism has widespread appeal. A greater possibility is that Chávez will undermine his legitimacy as a democratically elected leader by seizing more and more power.

The United States does have one strong lever: Over time, it could shrink Chávez's petroleum revenues by ending America's dependence on Venezuelan oil. This would be especially devastating for Chávez, since he relies on vast oil profits to pay for his popular social programs and investments. Disappoint the masses, and he could be in trouble.

For now, though, Chávez is firmly in charge -- and that portends plenty of trouble. "For Chávez, Latin America is too small a region," says Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue. "He needs a bigger stage, and he wants to be a global player. He's going to be a major threat to America."

Kim Jong-il, North Korea

Vitals:

• 65 years old.
  
  
• North Korea's "Dear Leader" since 1997.
  
  
• Portly and very short, with platform shoes and a bouffant hairdo to add height.
  
  
• A reclusive with a history of hedonistic indulgences, including forcibly recruiting women to serve in private "pleasure brigades."
  
  
• According to former CIA psychologist Jerrold Post, a "malignant narcissist" who "can't really empathize with the pain and suffering of others." Seemingly indifferent to three million deaths from starvation during a decade-long (and ongoing) famine, caused largely by his disastrous control of North Korea's economy.

Rap Sheet:

• Has turned North Korea into the third-largest exporter of opium and heroin and a major methamphetamine trafficker.
  
  
• Promotes big-time counterfeiting business, including a flood of bogus $100 bills (in collusion with Iran) so expertly produced that the U.S. Treasury had to change its design.
  
  
• A major exporter of ballistic missiles and their technology, particularly to Iran.
  
  
• Has a reported store of chemical and biological weapons.
  
  
• Believed to have enough reprocessed plutonium for perhaps a half-dozen nuclear weapons.

Future Threat:

• Developing an intercontinental missile capable of reaching the western United States.
  
  
• Might assist Iran and other nations hostile to the United States in their quest for nuclear technology.
  
  
• Could transfer nuclear technology, for much-needed cash, to terror groups like Hezbollah and Al Qaeda.
  
  
• Has weapons of mass destruction available to use against the 30,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
  
  
• Probably least predictable ruler if he feels threatened.

Bashar al-Assad, Syria

Vitals:

• 41 years old.
  
  
• Syria's president since 2000. Death of older brother -- who was intended heir to their father, Hafez al-Assad -- opened the door to the post.
  
  
• London-trained ophthalmologist who'd shown little interest in politics or military.
  
  
• Initially allowed more press freedom and released some political prisoners, a period known as Damascus Spring.
  
  
• Pressed by father's intimate allies, clamped down on dissent to protect Assad family dominance.

Rap Sheet:

• Has actively assisted Islamic jihadists traveling through Syria into Iraq to fight American soldiers. David Schenker, an Arab specialist who worked for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, estimates that 90 percent of the suicide bombers who have killed Americans and Iraqis managed to enter Iraq via Syria.
  
  
• Closest ally in region is Iran, which shares the Shi'ite religious base with his family's Alawite sect, a minority population within Shi'ism.
  
  
• Enamored of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and provides his terror organization with sophisticated Syrian arms, including antitank weapons and antipersonnel rockets that have killed dozens of Israelis.
  
  
• Believed by Western intelligence to possess nerve gas, and is developing biological weapons.

Future Threat:

• If Iran were to unleash Hezbollah against American interests, U.S. troops would face terrorists armed with Syrian weapons.
  
  
• Likely to keep ignoring warnings of the international community and continue to sponsor international terrorism and develop WMDs.
  
  
• According to Peter Brookes, a former CIA operative now with the Heritage Foundation, Syria's leadership "seems to be racing the mullahs of Iran to succeed Saddam Hussein's Iraq as the Middle East's most vile regime."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran

Vitals:

• 50 years old.
  
  
• Holds PhD in engineering and traffic transportation planning.
  
  
• Member of student-run Islamic Students Association, which planned seizure of U.S. embassy in Teheran in 1979.
  
  
• Joined the Revolutionary Guard during Iran-Iraq War in mid-1980s, and later the Guards-spawned Qods Force, formed to spread -- by force, if necessary -- Ayatollah Khomeini's vision of a new Islamic world.
  
  
• Entered politics in the early 1990s, first as a town mayor, then as a provincial governor.
  
  
• Elected mayor of Teheran in 2003, gaining followers as a populist railing against government corruption. Became Iran's president in 2005 with support of conservative clerics.

Rap Sheet:

• Almost certainly took part in planning of U.S. embassy seizure in 1979. Five former American hostages claim he was one of their captors.
  
  
• Suspected by Austrian government of participating in 1989 assassination of a Kurdish dissident in Vienna.
  
  
• Has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and has labeled the Holocaust "a myth."
  
  
• Supports Palestinian and Shi'ite terrorist groups, including Hezbollah.
  
  
• Has infiltrated several thousand Iranian soldiers and political operatives into Iraq, where they reportedly have safe houses and arms caches.
  
  
• Defies United Nations by continuing a program to enrich uranium and, potentially, build nuclear weapons.

Future Threat:

• A nuclear Iran could be emboldened to step up terrorism, including turning Hezbollah loose on American targets worldwide.
  
  
• Could threaten to block flow of Persian Gulf oil through the Strait of Hormuz, affecting 20 percent of the world's supply.
  
  
• Could sabotage U.S. efforts in Iraq through influence on Iraq's Shi'ite leaders.
  
  
• Could encourage strikes on American forces by Iraqi Shi'ite groups supplied by Iran.
  
  
• Could welcome conflict as part of belief that apocalyptic war will precede the return of the Shi'ite messiah, known as the Mahdi.