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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
As the Bush administration tries to push through controversial State Department nominee Otto Reich, critics suggest the White House has a troubling double standard when it comes to fighting evil.
Jan 11, 2002 | The pilot was understandably panicked. Nine minutes after takeoff, a nitroglycerin bomb placed by terrorists had detonated in one of the plane's lavatories.
"We have an explosion aboard, we are descending immediately!" he yelled to the control tower. "We have fire on board! We are requesting immediate landing! We have a total emergency!"
The plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean. A Barbados newspaper later offered witness descriptions of the plane going down, "bouncing on the water first, then flipping over as a wing dipped into the ocean and plunging deep into some 1,800 ft. of water."
All 73 passengers and crew died. Local fisherman zoomed to the site and plucked body parts from the surf. Surely no one at the time could have imagined that a U.S. State Department nominee would eventually stand accused of having tried to help the alleged mastermind of the terrorist act.
But 25 years later, the details of the explosion have come back to haunt the Bush administration, creating the present firestorm over the nomination of Cuban exile Otto Reich as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. The plane in question wasn't American or Delta or United Airlines -- it was Cubana de Aviacion Flight 455, on its way from Bridgetown, Barbados, to Havana Oct. 6, 1976. None of the passengers was American. Some Cuban government officials perished in the plane, but most of the dead were civilians, including some North Koreans, Guyanese, and 24 Cubans -- many of whom were teenagers -- who belonged to the national fencing team.
It was the worst terrorist attack ever committed against Cuba. Some might use "terror" to describe Communist dictator Fidel Castro's oppression of the Cuban people, of course, but that doesn't fit the definition of terrorism that's prevailed since Sept. 11. The current definition would, however, apply to Dr. Orlando Bosch, a longtime Castro opponent and the alleged mastermind of the bombing of Flight 455. Now 75 years old and living freely in Miami, Bosch has reemerged to highlight a nasty irony in U.S. policy making: that while some kinds of terror provoke the United States to war, as in Afghanistan, others appear to be tacitly accepted by many American leaders, especially those trolling for votes in South Florida.
The controversy over Bosch revolves around allegations that Bush appointee Otto Reich tried to help him enter the U.S. after he was freed from a Venezuela prison for his involvement in the bombing of Flight 455. Then Ronald Reagan's ambassador to Venezuela, Reich tried to use his office, Democratic critics charge, to at the very least help obtain a visa for Bosch to enter the U.S., despite State Department objections.
To be fair, it should be noted that Democrats have opposed the Reich appointment since Bush made it last July, mostly based on Reich's role in the Iran-Contra scandal, as well as for concerns outlined by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee's Western Hemisphere subcommittee, who recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that Reich "lacks good management skills, sound judgment, appropriate sensitivity to potential conflicts of interest, the confidence of other governments in the region, and the ability to bridge partisan divisions in the Congress." A Journal editorial accused the liberal Dodd of drumming up nonsensical charges against the conservative nominee to serve his penchant for "refighting Cold War battles." Dodd had even refused to allow Reich a hearing. But after Sept. 11, Reich's opponents had a new weapon: The U.S. campaign against terrorism, Dodd and liberal foreign policy groups now argue, should prevent the appointment of a man widely believed to have abetted a terrorist.
Now, the Bush administration appears to be playing hardball. This month, before Congress reconvenes, the White House may make Reich a "recess appointment," doing an end run around the usual Senate confirmation process. The administration disputes the charges against Reich, and accuses Dodd of denying the appointee his right to answer his critics in a confirmation hearing.
