Yes!!!
Janice O'Connell.
And so far I've found this:
Dodd's real problems with Bolton go beyond the U.N. While Democrats temporarily controlled the Senate in 2001, Dodd helped delay for two months Bolton's confirmation as under secretary for arms control. Bolton was finally confirmed, 57 to 43, with Dodd voting no.
A year later on May 6, 2002, Dodd exploded when Bolton's address to the Heritage Foundation reported "at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort" in Cuba, sending technology "to other rogue states."
This revelation, Bolton has said, was long delayed by the presence at the Pentagon of a Castro spy, Ana Belen Montes, as senior Cuban intelligence analyst.
Bolton's disclosure threatened efforts by Dodd and his longtime Foreign Relations Committee staffer, Janice O'Connell, to normalize relations with Cuba. Dodd demanded a hearing with Bolton in
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/14/bolton/
Let's turn kcvl loose on her: Janice O'Connell
Howlin, you are so bad...lol!
Janice O'Connell has been with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee since 1977, worked for Senator Frank Church, Senator Claiborne Pell, and since 1986 for Senator Dodd. Worked in opposition to Contra aid and military assistance to El Salvador, supported restoration of civilian rule in Haiti, worked on legislation to end sanctions on food and medicines to Cuba, and to lift travel restrictions on American travel to Cuba.
Janice O'Connell has for a long time in the Senate been a force for rational policy and sensitive and humane American behavior in the hemisphere.
******
January 9, 2002
It is common knowledge in the Senate that Dodd has ceded responsibility to Janice O'Connell, his longtime foreign relations aide. O'Connell is one of the anonymous senior congressional staffers who dictate policy -- in her case, Latin America policy. She has spawned a collection of scalps of diplomats who do not conform to her left-of-center ideology. For example, the estimable Foreign Service professional Michael Kozak, now ambassador to Belarus, was blocked by O'Connell from the Panama portfolio.
Dodd and O'Connell have spent months opposing Reich on the basis of a disputed General Accounting Office (GAO) report that Reich in 1985, heading the Office of Public Diplomacy for Latin America, ran a "prohibited covert propaganda campaign" on behalf of the Nicaraguan Contras. Those charges never emerged when the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Reich by voice vote in 1986 as ambassador to Venezuela. But since the fall of Nicaragua's leftist regime in 1990, O'Connell and her friends have vowed to keep Reich from public office.
The newer, widely published allegation that Reich in Caracas tried to gain entry into the United States of accused anti-Castro Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch has been categorically denied by the State Department. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has notified publications who reported this charge that Reich "did not urge the Department of State to issue a visa to an accused terrorist. On the contrary, under his direction, the U.S. embassy advised the Department of State that it believed (Bosch) was ineligible for a visa."
These accusations and their rebuttals could have been aired in an open hearing, but Dodd would not activate that forum. Instead, as he did with me Sept. 29, he hints that "we may see another candidate emerge" from the White House, adding: "I'm not the only person (who opposes him). Nor is it just a Democratic opposition."
In truth, however, the president and Secretary of State Colin Powell have been firm in supporting Reich. Nor has Dodd enjoyed much success recruiting Republicans. The only GOP senator publicly opposed to Reich is Michael Enzi, a low-profile first-termer from Wyoming who nearly always votes conservative. On Dec. 20, Enzi joined Dodd in asking Bush not to make a recess appointment of Reich, citing the outrageous premise that "he has not gone through the requisite committee process."
State Department sources say Dodd convinced Enzi that Reich, a Cuban-American, would block the supposed cornucopia of farm exports to Cuba. But the Cuban embargo is up to George W. Bush, not Otto Reich. That is the president's responsibility, as is selecting who will serve in his administration.
Robert Novak
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Robert Novak Sun-Times Columnist
April 14, 2005
Excerpt:
Why did Monday's Democratic assault on John Bolton at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have so little to do with how he would perform as U.S. ambassador at the United Nations and so much about Cuban biological warfare? It may be partially explained by tactical considerations. But the more significant reason is Sen. Christopher Dodd's long-range goal of normalized relations with Fidel Castro.
Coordinated Democratic grilling of Undersecretary of State Bolton avoided stigmatizing him as a conservative critic of the widely unpopular U.N. Leading the attack on Bolton, Dodd even said he agreed with much of Bolton's criticism of the world organization. Only Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) could not restrain herself from declaring how ''outrageous'' it was to put a conservative U.S. representative at the U.N.
The other Democrats followed Dodd's lead in dwelling on a 2002 speech by Bolton alleging Cuba's development of germ warfare for export to rogue nations. The link to the U.N. was that another exaggerated weapons-of-mass-destruction claim would further undermine U.S. credibility there. However, Dodd was following his regular practice of attacking anti-Castro officials, having barred Senate confirmation of Otto Reich as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and driven him from the government.
Dodd's real problems with Bolton go beyond the U.N. While Democrats temporarily controlled the Senate in 2001, Dodd helped delay for two months Bolton's confirmation as undersecretary for arms control. Bolton was finally confirmed, 57 to 43, with Dodd voting no.
A year later on May 6, 2002, Dodd exploded when Bolton's address to the Heritage Foundation reported ''at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort'' in Cuba, sending technology ''to other rogue states.'' This revelation, Bolton has said, was long delayed by the presence at the Pentagon of a Castro spy, Ana Belen Montes, as senior Cuban intelligence analyst.
Bolton's disclosure threatened efforts by Dodd and his longtime Foreign Relations Committee staffer, Janice O'Connell, to normalize relations with Cuba. Dodd demanded a hearing with Bolton in the dock, but Secretary of State Colin Powell would not make Bolton available.
Dodd renewed the fight when President Bush named Bolton to the U.N., exposing grave disputes inside the national security bureaucracy. Bolton was accused of bullying State Department analyst Christian Westermann, who claimed Bolton exaggerated Cuba's germ warfare potentialities. Bolton has charged that Westermann went behind Bolton's back to undermine his case while his Heritage speech was being cleared by intelligence.
May 2, 2002
Chris Dodd's vendetta
Excerpt...
Dodd may be less interested in protecting democracy in Venezuela than in settling old scores with Reich. That seems out of character for the easy-going, politically ambitious Connecticut senator. But Dodd's longtime adviser on Latin American affairs, Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer Janice O'Connell, has not forgiven Reich for his aggressive support for Nicaraguan Contras. She also sees the Cuban-born Reich as an obstacle to warm relations with Castro's Cuba.
O'Connell impresses on State Department officials that she represents the permanent government whose word must be heeded by temporary presidential appointees. When Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage went to Capitol Hill to confer with Dodd last week, O'Connell was at the senator's side.
As chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee dealing with the Western Hemisphere, Dodd refused even a hearing on Reich's nomination. Reich took office this year as a recess appointment to avoid the confirmation process, but President Bush plans to submit the nomination again in 2003. When a Reich supporter asked Dodd whether he would convene a hearing giving him a chance to refute charges spread by the senator's staff, Dodd replied: "Over my dead body." The Venezuelan fiasco now has generated new accusations.
I asked one senior U.S. intelligence official whether the CIA had a hand in the coup, and he replied: "I assure you that if we did, we wouldn't have made such a mess of it." While the Agency surely lacks the capability of removing hostile regimes in Iran or Guatemala as in Cold War days, neither is it capable of making the mess in Caracas. This was an amateur affair with the brief succession to president of businessman Pedro Carmona concocted by billionaire Venezuelan oil families, on the telephone from Miami.
While pro-Chavez legislators in Caracas have blamed Washington for plotting a coup, Chavez's minister of defense has denied it. "I think this is reckless," Jose Vicente Rangel said last week. Nor were reports accurate that Reich telephoned Carmona during his two-day reign. Charles Shapiro, the career diplomat newly installed as U.S. ambassador in Caracas, did call Carmona at Reich's instruction in two futile efforts to dissuade him from dissolving the National Assembly.
Last week, I interviewed two non-political eyewitnesses to the tumultuous events in Venezuela: a newspaper reporter and a police officer. They described in detail the course of events that led to Chavez's removal and restoration. There was no mention of a hidden hand from Washington.
The surest signal was the lack of uproar, outside of Havana, about Yankee intervention. The false dawn of Hugo Chavez's removal was greeted with relief in private corridors of power throughout the hemisphere -- as it was by Venezuela's people. Objective observers believe his popularity has diminished radically as he has driven down the economy.
None of this in itself will save Otto Reich. Dodd's vendetta poses a threat because of a potential stab in the back from career foreign service officers at the State Department. Reich must rely on constancy from the president and the secretary of state, who share his views and support his positions.
Robert Novak
Otto-da-Fé
Castro and Dodd wage an inquisition against a Bush nominee.
BY MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
Saturday, June 23, 2001
Excerpt...
According to people familiar with the situation, longtime Dodd staffer Janice O'Connell, who also slugged it out with Reaganites over Central America, has a key role in the "get Reich" effort. Asked about this, she wanted to know if she was off the record. When the reply was "no," she said: "I have no comment. I simply prepare the report and the members vote."
Ms. O'Connell's views are well known. On the TransAfrica Forum Web site, TransAfrica President Randall Robinson introduces Ms. O'Connell at a roundtable, noting her "opposition to Contra aid and military assistance to El Salvador" and support for "restoration of civilian rule in Haiti," which means she backed U.S. military intervention to return avowed Marxist Jean Bertrand Aristide to power.
http://tinyurl.com/cspql
Bush isn't falling for Fidel
By Robert Novak
February 25, 2002
Excerpt...
Janice O'Connell lasts forever. O'Connell is a veteran Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer who (sponsored by Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut) relentlessly presses for normalization with Castro.
She approves personal service contracts by the U.S. mission in Cuba and recently warned a staffer there that his aggressive distribution of books and radios would get him kicked out of the country. O'Connell was instrumental in stalling the installation of Bush's nominee as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs: Cuban-born Otto Reich, a former ambassador to Venezuela.
Janice O'Connell, longtime foreign relations aide to Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd (who is launching a campaign for better U.S. relations with Castro). Such disparate anti-Reich sources as Castro, Arias and O'Connell share a common animosity. They cannot forgive Reich for his persistent Reagan administration role in keeping the contras alive, assuring the ultimate fall of Nicaragua's Marxist dictatorship. Arias specifically bemoans Reich's ''allegiance to the Reagan administration's hard-line policies toward Central America.''
The assault by the Cuban Communists is particularly noxious in its fascist and Nazi name-calling. Reich's father, an Austrian Jew, fled Hitler's Anschluss in 1938 for Cuba, where Otto was born. His grandparents died in the Holocaust.
Arias was just as far off the mark. He said that Reich successfully lobbied the Clinton administration on behalf of Lockheed Martin to permit the sale of F-16 warplanes to Chile; in fact, Reich did not go to work for the company until after the ban on high grade weaponry had been lifted. Contrary to Arias, Reich never was even accused of wrongdoing in supporting the contras under Reagan.
The settling of old scores on Nicaragua also has targeted John Negroponte, Bush's nominee as ambassador to the United Nations. While an active Contra supporter as ambassador to Honduras in the '80s, Negroponte is a less inviting target than Reich.
One influential conservative Republican senator thinks Reich may be the sacrificial lamb to appease Senate Democrats. He notes that Secretary of State Colin Powell, on Fox News June 17, lavishly praised Negroponte but said nothing about Reich. The explanation may be that Powell was asked about Negroponte but not Reich. A recent meeting between White House aides and Senate GOP staffers agreed there should be a vigorous effort on Reich's behalf. Veteran Republican operative Tom Korologos was asked last week to add Reich to the pack of Bush nominees he is shepherding. George W. Bush may be underestimated again, this time by his own conservative base. Naming Reich to head Latin American policy was an act of solidarity with Reaganism. That Castro targeted Reich validates the choice.
http://tinyurl.com/aox2c
Venezuela's Gathering Marxist Storm
Excerpt...
Also helping to keep Chavez in power has been the attention of Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), at the time of the brief coup the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, and his chief foreign-policy aide, Janice O'Connell. Columnist Robert Novak wrote in April that Dodd and particularly O'Connell hold a grudge against Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich, a conservative and anticommunist. This antagonism to Reich in particular, and conservatives generally, fuels Dodd's aggressive stance on U.S. policy in Latin America.
Novak reported and Insight sources confirm that, with the Democrats in control of the Senate, O'Connell made it clear to career officials in the State Department that it was she who was calling the shots on U.S. policy in Latin America. As a result, career State Department officials were unwilling to take risks by supporting the democratic opposition in Venezuela for fear of retribution by O'Connell. Foreign policy insiders say that during the 48-hour period when Chavez was removed from the presidency, Dodd's office was very active - and successful - at guaranteeing that Washington did nothing to assure Chavez's permanent ouster. "Dodd clearly called the shots on Latin America policy," said one State Department official. "There is no conservative counterbalance to Janice O'Connell in the Senate now that Jesse Helms is gone." O'Connell did not return telephone calls seeking comment for this article.
http://tinyurl.com/eydso
WHILE CARACAS BURNS SEN. DODD'S PETULANCE THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY
By Wall Street Journal
Thursday, December 13, 2001
Excerpt...
Mr. Dodd knows that Mr. Reich would be confirmed if he got to the Senate floor, which is why he wants to block even a hearing. He and Latin America aide Janice O'Connell bear a grudge against the Cuban-American going back to their days on opposite sides of the battle over Central America. But rather than face that difference squarely, Mr. Dodd's strategy has been to smear Mr. Reich's reputation, accusing him in a letter to this paper of, among other things, being soft on terrorism. U.S. officials say the public record refutes those charges, which may be why Mr. Dodd doesn't want Mr. Reich to get his chance to make his case in the Senate.
We keep wondering when Mr. Dodd's Democratic betters are going to call him to account for such behavior. It'd be nice to know, for example, how Florida Democrats Bob Graham and Bill Nelson feel about this treatment of a Cuban American. Tom Daschle recently met with Mr. Reich, but the majority leader has been reluctant to overrule his party's junior barons when they get the bit in their mouths.
Mr. Reich originally had been George Bush's nominee to be Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs in 2001. He had the votes to be confirmed. But Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd and his first lieutenant on the Senate foreign relations committee, Janice O'Connell, blamed Cold-War warrior Reich for the defeat of the Nicaraguan Sandinistas in the late 1980s and were determined to block his nomination.
Vicious mud slinging ensued. At least one sloppy, lazy "journalist" spread rumors that Mr. Reich had ties to a Cuban terrorist. Mr. Dodd also whispered to Senate colleagues that the nominee was going through a hostile divorce and hiding assets from his wife. None of the charges stuck for the simple reason that they lacked merit. Finally, Mr. Reich reports that Ms. O'Connell told another Hill staffer that she had a plan to make it financially impossible for him to take a government job by raising questions about the sale of his private consulting business. Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Reich was scheduled to receive payments over four years, something State Department lawyers told him was completely legal and ethical. But Mr. Reich tore up the contract anyway. Out of mud, Mr. Dodd simply refused to allow the confirmation hearings to proceed.