WHILE CARACUS BURNS Sen. Dodd's petulance threatens national security--[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. [End Excerpt]
Free Otto Reich[Excerpt] While the eyes of the world focus on the Middle East, the war on terror has its targets in this hemisphere, too. Unfortunately, President Bush's designated envoy to the Americas must fight this country's shadowy enemies with both hands tied behind his back. Otto Reich, Bush's nominee for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, is being held hostage by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) who refuses to hold a confirmation hearing on Reich's candidacy. Dodd apparently would rather brood over Reich's performance in the Reagan administration than permit him to address these clear-and-present dangers today: Venezuela. Hugo Chavez, the increasingly erratic president of this key U.S. oil supplier, has declared himself "a Maoist" and befriended pro-terrorist dictators. A Caracas-based, anti-Chavez group called the National Emergency Coalition published a veritable Chavez photo album in the September 25 Washington Times. In one picture, Chavez rides in Saddam Hussein's Mercedes with the Iraqi thug at the wheel. During an August 2000 visit, Chavez called Iraq "a model" for Venezuela.
In another snapshot, Chavez hugs Iranian President Mohammed Khatami and says, "We have sister revolutions with equal struggles and the same destiny." Elsewhere, Chavez embraces Muammar Qaddafi and calls Libya "a model of participatory democracy." Chavez greets Fidel Castro as well and says that Cuba and Venezuela are "swimming together toward the same sea of happiness."
Chavez also appears to be arming Colombia's Marxist FARC rebels. Colombian defense officials say that between January 1998 and July 2000, they captured 470 clandestine FAL rifles stamped with the insignias of Venezuela's military and its arms manufacturers.
Cuba: Castro's worker's paradise seems to be a giant O'Hare Airport for suspected terrorists. As counterterrorism consultant Paul Crespo reported in the Nov. 5 issue of Insight, three Afghans detained in the Grand Caymans shortly after the September 11 attacks allegedly arrived there from Cuba. Two others, allegedly linked financially to al Qaeda, were stopped in Panama bound for Cuba. …Snip…
"I need Otto Reich in place," Secretary of State Colin Powell pleaded with senators on October 3. Eight weeks later, Reich's State Department office literally remains empty, its desk unoccupied and bookshelves bare. Even as an overworked career diplomat juggles crucial security and economic matters in Reich's absence, Dodd could care less.
"That nomination's not going anywhere. That's the end of it," Dodd recently snapped. He has hurled at Reich a number of easily refuted ethical charges pertaining to his 1980s service as director of State's Office of Public Diplomacy and as Ambassador to Venezuela. However Dodd will not let his subcommittee hear Reich defend himself. Perhaps Dodd fears looking foolish once Reich demonstrates his innocence. [End Excerpt]