Posted on 10/25/2001 3:40:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
`If it were a snake, it would have bit you.'' That's the age-old response for failing to see the obvious. I think of that adage as our undivided attention is riveted on the other side of the world. The fact is, one of the biggest bastions of terrorism is not a world away, but right under our nose. A two-hour flight from Miami will land you in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world.
Nearby, the tri-border area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is a lawless place where members of Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups linked to Osama bin Laden are probably planning other terrorist attacks. And from the bottom of South America straight up to U.S. border cities flows a pipeline of illegal drugs and weapons.
This is not the far-away, distant Middle East; this is our neighborhood in the Western Hemisphere.
As my predecessor, the late Sen. Paul Coverdell, often stated: We ignore our neighbors at our own peril. Our foreign policy in the Americas has been conducted in fits and starts, driven mainly by crises.
We have failed to tend to the region, and cracks have appeared in what just five years ago was an emerging shield of democracy, security and economic opportunity. Today Argentina is on the verge of financial collapse. Oil giant Venezuela has a president who is openly hostile to the United States. Nicaragua is on the verge of electing a former communist with strong ties to Libya and Iraq. Civil unrest, unemployment and crime are on the rise in many Latin American democracies.
But what should concern us most is that this region is home to well-established, well-financed criminal networks -- with better resources than the governments that are trying to stop them. A third of the world's identified terrorist groups have operations in Latin America. In 1993, surface-to-air missiles were found in the suburbs of Managua. This summer, Irish Republican Army bomb-making experts were seen ca- vorting with Colombian rebels.
So, what can we do?
Install a strong diplomat for the top Western Hemisphere post at the State Department. The Senate needs to send the message that we understand this region and that we take seriously the security threat it poses. It is deplorable that we have stalled in filling this critical job when our president and secretary of state have been urging us to do so.
Continue increasing security along our borders. Just think what might have happened if authorities had not stopped an Algerian terrorist at the Canadian border in December 1999, before he had a chance to carry out his plan -- bin Laden's plan -- to blow up a millenium celebration with his carload of explosives.
Obtain better intelligence and greater cooperation among our allies in the region. We should focus on isolating terrorists and their backers with economic weapons and strategic alliances. Coverdell agreed with current Western Hemisphere Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd that we should establish a regional security alliance patterned after similar arrangements we formed after World War II. I am encouraged that the Organization of American States recently passed a similar resolution of security cooperation in support of the United States. We should build on this momentum.
Hit drug and terrorist groups through strong money-laundering legislation, such as that just passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The Treasury Department now is implementing the drug-kingpin legislation passed last year. This legislation targets American individuals and companies that willingly do business with drug dealers, terrorists or other enemies of the United States. Now we must back up this law with enough resources to make it a viable tool.
While bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan, his lesser-known lieutenants are two hours away from Miami. Soon, this snake is going to bite us. It is time to shift some of our focus closer to home, on these volatile, hostile countries harboring terrorists right under our nose.
Zell Miller is a Democrat U.S. senator from Georgia. ©2001 The Washington Times
Bush nominee deserves better than old grudges --Otto Reich was nominated on July 12 to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric Affairs. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has not even bothered to schedule a confirmation hearing for Reich, and has no plans to do so. The reasons have nothing to do with Reich's competence or qualifications, and everything to do with Connecticut SEN. CHRIS DODD'S affinity for Cuba's Fidel Castro and the communist Sandanista regime in Nicaragua.
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Otto Reich topped the list of 18 nominees Secretary of State Colin Powell said he would like to see confirmed before the Senate adjourns for the year. Congress' recess may begin in November.
Powell submitted the list in a letter dated Monday to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A hearing on Reich's nomination as assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs has been held up while Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., looks into Reich's work as a State Department official, an ambassador to Venezuela in the 1980s and a lobbyist...---Powell Backs Latin American Nominee
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There is one thing Bush should do-
RECESS APPOINTMENTS. Daschle should stop frickin around, and Bush should call the Dems on this kind of baloney with appointments.
Daschle is holding up the function of our government because he doesn't want Democrats petty bull to be seen in the light of the present crisis.
That aside, the one thing I cannot figure out about Zell Miller, though, is why he continues to carry that (D) beyond his name. His actions and intentions have been (R) for a while now. Very few (D)'s recognize the threat from SA, or simply refuse to acknowledge it.
Can he be a DINO?
However, never trust anyone that has been a (D) as long as he has. Even if he later switches parties.
He's a politician.
We learned it as "If it was a dog it would've bit you." In fact, my Mom said it frequently, since at any one time any one of her six kids would be unable to find something that was right in front of his or her face.
I guess Moms do things a little differently in Georgia.
I don't think Zell will ever change parties (during term) - he's different than most politicians - he has a conscience. But I hope that next time he's elected he'll be noted as "Miller (GA-R)".
Gee, now who was in the oval office when all this happened? I forget.
The Cubans are not the only foreigners to interfere with Senate confirmation. Oscar Arias, former Costa Rican president and Nobel peace laureate, delivered an assault on Reich in a Los Angeles Times article ("A Nominee Who Stands for War"). This appointment, Arias contended, exalts "hard-line ideology over flexibility and bipartisanship." He brazenly demanded that Bush "find another candidate for the job."
Arias's bill of particulars against Reich is a watered-down version of wild attacks by The Nation magazine and other left-wing sources that are circulating on Capitol Hill. Republican senators see the hand of Janice O'Connell, longtime foreign relations aide to Democratic Sen. Christopher Dodd (who simultaneously is launching a campaign for better United States 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, left behind in Austria, perished in the Holocaust. [End Excerpt]
We need more statesmen. I'm afraid the U.S. Senate doesn't have any.
Hopefully Otto Reich can get past Chris Dodd's obstruction.
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