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Tuesday, Nov 24, 2009
In September 1987, Reich cabled that local newspapers had reported on a letter "ostensibly sent by Orlando Bosch to the sponsors of the Fifth Conference of Cuban Intellectual Dissidents" in which Bosch "thanks his 'compatriot Otto Reich' for his efforts which have the same goals as the Congress. FYI: Amb. Reich and US Embassy have had no contact with Bosch." Reich notes that even though this letter supposedly from Bosch thanked the Conference "for honoring him with an invitation to serve as president of the meeting," before the conference, Reich said, he had been informed that its sponsors wanted nothing to do with Bosch. "From our perspective, looks like a case of Cuban-Soviet disinformation."
To Reich's defenders, the September 1987 cable speaks for itself. To his detractors, it's a matter of Reich covering his ass, trying to obscure evidence of his relationship with his grateful terrorist "compatriot."
After the Venezuelan government declined to appeal the Bosch case any further, in November 1987 Bosch was freed. "Bosch was released under very strange circumstances," says former State Department executive Smith, who says that word in diplomatic circles was that an anti-Castro Cuban-American organization had bribed Venezuelan authorities to obtain Bosch's freedom.
Regardless, there he was. What to do with him? The Venezuelan government wants "to be rid of Bosch as soon as possible," Reich cabled. "There is the possibility that he could be deported from whence he came: the U.S." He asked for "the Department's opinion as to Bosch's eligibility for a visa, should he request one." The media, he said, was reporting that Bosch's family in Miami anticipated that he would soon return to them. In December 1987, Reich cabled Bosch's birth and immigration information to the State Department, presumably so officials could prepare a visa for him.
This is what Dodd characterizes as Reich having "queried Washington on several occasions concerning the eligibility" of Bosch "to enter the U.S. He also forwarded the information in connection with Bosch's immigrant visa application, an essential requirement to his legal reentry and permanent residence in the U.S."
Smith, who left the State Department in 1982 because of disagreement with the Reagan administration's policies in Central America, says that the nonclassified cables are no smoking gun, though they certainly indicate that Reich was proactively trying to obtain a visa for Bosch. "It's just a routine cable to initiate action on a visa," Smith says. But he wonders why Reich was trying to obtain a visa for a terrorist whom the State Department didn't want to let into the U.S.
In the confidential questions and answers between Reich and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Reich said his inquiries on behalf of Bosch were routine. Embassies, he said, are required "to refer all visa applications that could involve ineligibility on the grounds of terrorist activity to the Department for an advisory opinion."
The committee's questions probed further, trying to explore Reich's psyche much in the same way supporters of a Palestinian state are frequently queried about terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. "Do you consider Orlando Bosch to be a terrorist? Do you believe that individuals who hijack commercial flights, including Cuban commercial flights, are terrorists?"
In response, Reich engages in some questionable parsing. "According to Department of State cable traffic," Reich writes, "there is reason to believe that Mr. Bosch has been personally involved in terrorist acts." This is not really an answer, though, because pro-Bosch activists regularly argue that State Department records have been tampered with by pro-Castro elements. "I do not have sufficient knowledge of Mr. Bosch's criminal activities or record of convictions to pass judgment on his legal status," Reich goes on. "I do consider that persons who blow up a civilian aircraft are committing an act of terrorism."
It's evasive language that the Wall Street Journal editorial page, which passionately defends Reich, would assuredly not find acceptable if used to describe al-Qaida.
