Tom Harkin has always been a big supporter of every Communist dictator who has come down the pike:
Posted on 11/01/2006 8:13:02 PM PST by GodGunsGuts
Ortega's Return? By Frank J Gaffney Jr. FrontPageMagazine.com | November 1, 2006
This Sunday, the people of Nicaragua will cast votes that may elect their next president in the first round of balloting. Depending on their choice, that exercise in democracy may be the last for some time to come – if the winning candidate reverts to form and ushers in a new era of authoritarianism in a country too long afflicted by his misrule.
According to the polls, all other things being equal, Daniel Ortega – the communist revolutionary whose repressive regime ruled in Managua in the 1980s – might be able to exploit divisions in the democratic opposition, rigged electoral arrangements and a transparently fraudulent political make-over as a “centrist” to return to power.
The price tag associated with such a development will likely be measured in more than a loss of political freedom and economic opportunity at home. It would surely translate as well into dire financial repercussions for a population accustomed to the infusion of vast sums (by some estimates as much as $850 million per year) through remittances from Nicaraguans living in the United States.
There is ample precedent for a U.S. government crackdown on such payments should Ortega’s Sandinista (or FSLN) party win an outright victory in Sunday’s balloting. Just as Saudi “charities” and other informal money-transfer mechanisms suspected of ties to terrorism became the focus of American law enforcement and intelligence agencies after 9/11, the reemergence in Managua of a government that was once deeply involved with, and supportive of, international terrorist organizations and their state-sponsors will compel Washington to take measures to limit flows of funds to an Ortega regime.
This is especially true insofar as the Sandinistas’ ties to terror-sponsoring states are not simply a matter of historical record. The close relationships with America’s enemies that once prompted Ronald Reagan to brand Ortega’s government as “one of the world’s principal refuges for international terrorists” and a “partner of Iran, Libya, North Korea, and Cuba in a campaign of international terror” have continued during the FSLN’s years out of executive power.
Of special note are the bonds between the Sandinistas and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez. In Nicaragua, as in other nations throughout the hemisphere, Chavez has been supplying funds and operatives to help his fellow anti-American radical leftists secure power. Should these machinations succeed this weekend in a key Central American nation as they previously have in Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, a powerful new impulse will be given to the subversive regional agenda long pursued by Chavez’s ailing mentor, Fidel Castro.
The worrisome national security implications of an Ortega victory in this weekend’s balloting – in which he need only receive 35% of the vote to avoid a run-off – have already raised alarms on Capitol Hill. Senior congressional figures, including the chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee and the International Relations Terrorism Subcommittee, Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Ed Royce, respectively, have written top officials like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urging that contingency plans quickly be drawn up to address, among other things, the danger that remittances might wind up in the wrong hands.
As Messrs. Hoekstra and Royce put it in a letter to Secretary Rice this week:
A return to power by Daniel Ortega and the FSLN would leave the U.S. government without a reliable Nicaraguan partner to satisfy security issues of mutual concern. We share U.S. Ambassador to Nicaragua Paul Trivelli’s assessment that an Ortega victory would force the United States to fully “re-evaluate” relations with Nicaragua. In anticipation of this development, we encourage the State Department, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security and other appropriate agencies, to begin the process of reviewing this bilateral relationship, including all forms of assistance, as well as the unregulated movement of remittances from the United States to Nicaragua.
The point in expressing such concerns is not to dictate to Nicaraguans who to elect. Rather, it is to underscore that there may be real and, indeed, exceedingly high costs associated with the election of a certain candidate, the notorious “El Comandante, Daniel Ortega – costs of which most voters in Nicaragua may be insufficiently aware.
Should the strong bilateral relationship that has developed in recent years between Washington and Managua – a relationship rooted in no small measure in the two governments’ close cooperation on counterterrorism matters – be destroyed this Sunday, the people and economy of Nicaragua will surely be adversely affected. It is imperative that fair notice be served now, lest a lack of pre-election transparency about the repercussions of a Sandinista victory become a post-election pretext for the anti-American activities that Ortega and his FSLN will put into practice once back in power.
ping
John Kerry's old friend is making a comeback, I see. The only difference between the two is that Kerry is a more committed communist.
That aside, it seems another ghost from Kerry's past has fallen out of his over-stuffed closet. Perhaps John F(ing) Kerry should clean it out. How about starting with signing that 180, Johnny boy?
Then we can go from there to the many treasonous acts commited over the years. It's too bad Johnny hasn't been rotting in prison long ago for crimes against this nation, then these things wouldn't be happening now.
Thanks John. I wonder how many other enemies of America that you have had treasonous meetings with and given aide to, are going to be falling out of that overstuffed closet of yours to rally together against us...
Just think...while John (F*ing) Kerry was meeting with Ortega, Teddy Kennedy was meeting with the KGB!
Kerry, Harkin, and post #7.
Maybe you're thinking of Manuel Noriega.
Now that Kerry's schedule has been cleared, perhaps he and Tom Harkin can hop a plane to Nicaragua for the festivities. Anyone know if Jimmy Carter will be certifying the vote?
Kerry (allegedly) signed the 180, but won't release it to anyone but one of his friendly Boston Globe reporters. Although we'll never see it, he can claim he signed it. I'm sure Tim Russert will consider it a promise kept.
Kerry, you may recall, somehow managed to privately negotiate with the North Vietnamese during the Paris Peace Talks, while he was on his honeymoon. How does THAT happen?
John VC Kerry?
Where's my "Kansas City" .mp3 to link
Say the secret word and kill half a dozen US Senators....
Glad you two are up on the Daniel Ortega - Manuel Noriega names. That is a confusing combination.
Noriega was President George HW Bush's trophy from Panama
Ortega appeared to be John VC Kerry's lover from that photograph
[Ortega appeared to be John VC Kerry's lover from that photograph]
Lol, all that from a handshake or am I missing something?
Look at Kerry's adoring eyes, his face, his body lanquage in that photograph
First time I saw that photo and John Kerry and Tom Harkin and Harkin's wife I thought something was very strange about Kerry
I guess you are more alert to those things.
Yes. More information efforts were needed for follow-through.
Daniel Ortega had a brother.
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