Room
for a View
Friends
of Terrorism
Bush’s Decision to Bring Back Otto Reich
Exposes the Hypocrisy of the War Against Terror
By Duncan Campbell . Edited by Lorna Tychostup
illustration by carl welden 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 right-wing Cuban American whose key policy objective
is the overthrowing 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 organizations
... Bosch has personally advocated, encouraged, organized 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 thirty 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 Qaeda 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.
© Guardian Newspaper Ltd.
|
