[A-List] US imperialism: Monroe doctrine

[Keaney Michael]

Friends of terrorism

Bush's decision to bring back Otto Reich exposes the hypocrisy of the
war against terror

Duncan Campbell
Friday February 8, 2002
The Guardian

His name may sound like that of a character from a Mel Brooks musical
but Otto Reich is real enough. He has just been appointed by President
Bush as assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs -
and both the manner of his appointment and the role he will now play
have profound implications for a part of the world often disregarded
since September 11.

Over the last year President Bush has attempted to bring back into
office people who were discredited during the US interventions in
Central America in the 1980s and 1990s. One such appointment was that of
Elliott Abrams, who had two convictions in 1991 for misleading Congress
about the so-called Iran-contra affair. He was pardoned by President
Bush's father in 1992 and now enjoys the title of head of the "office of
democracy and human rights". Another was John Negroponte, the former US
ambassador to Honduras, who was accused by his predecessor of turning a
blind eye to the atrocities committed there against leftists because it
was felt necessary to remain on good terms with the Honduran government.
Negroponte was quietly confirmed as US ambassador to the UN shortly
after September 11. But the third appointment is by far the most
controversial and potentially divisive.

Otto Reich is a rightwing Cuban American whose key policy objective is
the overthrow of Fidel Castro's regime and whose support base is the
Cuban-American community in Florida. President Bush's brother, Jeb, is
depending on this community's votes and backing as he runs for
re-election as governor of the state later this year.

Otto Reich came to prominence during the Reagan administration when he
was appointed head of the office of public diplomacy within the state
department. According to the national security archives, Reich used this
role to pursue his own agenda to such an extent that in 1987 the
Comptroller-General of the US, a Republican appointee, found that some
of the efforts of his office were "prohibited, covert propaganda
activities ... beyond the range of acceptable agency public information
activities". A letter of September 30 1987 concluded that Reich's office
had violated "a restriction on the state department's annual
appropriations prohibiting the use of federal funds for publicity or
propaganda purposes not authorised by Congress".

He staffed his unit with CIA and Pentagon "psychological warfare"
specialists and discredited journalists whose work the Reagan
administration did not like. His office wrote bogus editorial pieces
under the names of Nicaraguan contras and got them published in the
mainstream media. He reported directly to Oliver North.

Reich also served as US ambassador to Venezuela and was alleged to have
used his influence to try and get a US visa for a convicted terrorist,
Orlando Bosch, jailed in Venezuela in 1976 for the bombing of a Cubana
airliner with 73 people on board. Bosch had already been convicted of a
terrorist attack in Miami on a Polish merchant vessel bound for Cuba and
jailed in the US.

According to US justice department records: "the files of the FBI and
other government agencies contain a large quantity of documentary
information which reflects that, beginning in the early 1960s, Bosch
held leadership positions in various anti-Castro terrorist organisations
... Bosch has personally advocated, encouraged, organised and
participated in acts of terrorist violence in this country as well as
various other countries."

Amazingly, Bosch was granted a pardon by George Bush senior in 1990 and
is now in Florida, apparently untroubled by the current president's
commitment to rooting out terrorism in all its forms. Although many
countries seek Bosch's extradition he remains free, protected by the
same government that warns other countries that they are either for or
against terrorism.

The Democrats on the Senate foreign relations committee had already made
it clear that they would oppose Reich's appointment, not least because
of the Bosch factor. So President Bush made a "recess appointment" at
the beginning of January, which meant that he could side-step the Senate
confirmation and avoid the damaging questions which Reich would be
asked.

That a terrorist (by any definition of the word) such as Bosch should
receive a blessing from the Bush family is revealing enough. That
President Bush has decided to protect Reich from questioning on the
subject by avoiding exposing him to the Senate foreign relations
committee is just as disturbing. So what has Reich's relationship with
Bosch actually been?

Ann Louise Bardach, who knows as much about this area as any journalist
in the US, writes about Reich in her forthcoming book, Cuba
Confidential: "a half dozen declassified CIA and state department cables
leave little doubt that Reich used his position to lobby for Orlando
Bosch, a man who the Bush justice department had concluded had
participated in more than 30 terrorist actions."

When the Guardian reported the allegations about the Reich-Bosch
connection last year, the US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage
wrote to deny the report, insisting Reich had advised that Bosch was
ineligible. "It is unfair and destructive to the US democratic process
that the president's nominees be pilloried," wrote Armitage. The letter
must have made Reich chuckle since he himself was a master of the art of
pillorying his opponents through the dishonest use of his office.

But the whole point of the Senate hearings was that these cables and
Reich's role in them would have been exposed. Reich has been extremely
coy about his relationship with Bosch. In response to the Senate foreign
relations committee's question, "Do you consider Orlando Bosch to be a
terrorist?", Reich wrote: "I do not have sufficient knowledge of Mr
Bosch's criminal activities to pass judgment on his legal status." This
is impossible to believe.

Reich later moved into the corporate lobbying business to work on behalf
of Bacardi rum, which has paid him $600,000, according to the New York
Times. Bacardi has an enormous financial stake in the overthrow of
Castro, as it would allow them to take over their old distilleries.
Although Reich is no longer employed by Bacardi, you do not have to be a
cynic to see a dangerous conflict of interest. He also participated in
drawing up the Helms-Burton legislation which has fiercely tightened the
US embargo on Cuba, a mean-spirited operation that strips Cuba of
copyright protection and is opposed by almost every other country in the
world.

The contra war which Reich so heartily endorsed was an attempt to
overthrow a democratically elected government, often using attacks on
civilian targets. The Bosch affair also highlights the strange double
standards involved in condoning terrorism against Cubans while abhorring
it elsewhere. The US has chosen to keep al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners
in Cuba at their Guantanamo Bay base. So while men accused of terrorism
are kept on land acquired in an old colonial war and held by force, a
safe haven is given to a man happy to promote terrorism against Cuba.

Colombia, Argentina and Peru are in crisis. There are plenty of
qualified Latin American hands who could have filled Reich's post and
helped build bridges. President Bush's choice is a sad echo of the
shabby days that so discredited his father's and Ronald Reagan's
administrations in their dealings with Latin America.

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,646835,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney at mbs.fi