Re: Bush's man at the UN: a slice of Negroponte's "career" (fwd)

Who is Otto Reich?

Call the White House, and the Foreign Relations Commitee today to urge
rejection of this nomination: 202-456-1111

April 1, 2001 

By Caryn Mandelbaum, Cuba Program Coordinator 
He was a key actor in the Iran-Contra scandal under the Reagan
Administration, working in the Office of Public Diplomacy with White House
aide, Lt. Col. Oliver North. Under Reich's control the US State Department
reportedly contracted a tax-exempt foundation, the International Business
Communications, with a half million dollars for research which was later
spent on arming the Nicaraguan contra rebels. 
He drafted and assisted in writing fraudulent op-ed articles in newspapers
such as "The New York Times" and "The Washington Post" in order to illicitly
misinform and influence the US public, Congress and media under the guise of
a Nicaraguan general. 
Otto Reich is currently the president of the US-Cuba Business Council and
the Resource Management Account (RMA), a lobbying firm whose clients include
the tobacco industry, Bacardi Martini Inc, and Lockheed (defense technology
manufacturers). RMA has received $100,000 from British American Tobacco and
$600,000 from Bacardi Martini, according to Federal Elections Commission
disclosures. 
Along with Bacardi Martini lawyers, Reich wrote the Helms-Burton Act of
1996, which allows US nationals (including Cuban-Americans) to sue foreign
companies "trafficking" on former US land in Cuba. As a lobbyist for
Lockheed, Reich has sought to sell F-16 fighter aircraft to Chile; this move
would end the two-decade ban on the sale of high-technology arms to Latin
American. 
ACTION:
Clearly Bush's nomination for the Assistant Secretary of Western Hemisphere
Affairs has many conflicts of interest that would affect his objective
diplomacy in the Latin American region. At a time where heightened tension
is afflicting the region surrounding Colombia and globalization is dragging
the economies of Latin America into environments of depressions, the Western
Hemisphere cannot gamble with Cold War politicians. Call, write, or fax
members of Foreign Relations Committee today. 
We recommend, in order of descending effectiveness, a phone call to the DC
office, call to district office, fax, letter, email. 
Republican Members: 

NC 
Sen. Jesse Helms (R) Chair 
202-224-6342 (DC office) 
919-856-4630 (district office) 
fax: 202.228.1339 
jesse_helms@helms.senate.gov <mailto:jesse_helms@helms.senate.gov>  
403 Senate Dirksen Building 
Washington, DC 20510 
IN 
Sen. Richard Lugar (R) 
202-224-4814 (DC office) 
317-226-5555 (district office) 
fax: 202.228.0360 
senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov <mailto:senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov>  
306 Senate Hart Building 
NE 
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) 
202-224-4224 (DC office) 
402-758-8981 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.5213 
webmail@hagel.senate.gov <mailto:webmail@hagel.senate.gov>  
346 Senate Dirksen Building 
OR 
Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R) 
202-224-3753 (DC office) 
503-326-3386 (district office) 
fax: 202.228.3997 
senator_gsmith@exchange.senate.gov
<mailto:senator_gsmith@exchange.senate.gov>  
367 Senate Dirksen Building 
WY 
Sen. Craig Thomas (R) 
202-224-6441 (DC office) 
307-261-5172 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.1724 
craig@thomas.senate.gov <mailto:craig@thomas.senate.gov>  
522 Senate Hart Building 
TN 
Sen. Bill Frist (R) 
202-224-3344 (DC office) 
615-352-9411 (district office) 
fax: 202.228.1264 
senator_frist@frist.senate.gov <mailto:senator_frist@frist.senate.gov>  
565 Senate Dirksen Building 
RI 
Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R) 
202-224-2921 (DC office) 
401-528-5294 (district office) 
senator_chafee@chafee.senate.gov <mailto:senator_chafee@chafee.senate.gov>  
505 Senate Dirksen Building 
VA 
Sen. George Allen (R) 
202-224-4024 (DC office) 
senator_allen@allen.senate.gov <mailto:senator_allen@allen.senate.gov>  
KS 
Sen. Sam Brownback (R) 
202-224-6521 (DC office) 
913-492-6378 (district office) 
fax: 202.228.1265 
webmail@brownback.senate.gov <mailto:webmail@brownback.senate.gov>  
303 Senate Hart Building                Democrat Members: 

DE 
Sen. Joseph Biden (D) 
Ranking Member 
202-224-5042 (DC office) 
302-573-6345 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.0139 
senator@biden.senate.gov <mailto:senator@biden.senate.gov>  
221 Senate Russell Building 
MD 
Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D) 
202-224-4524 (DC office) 
410-962-4436 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.1651 
senator@sarbanes.senate.gov <mailto:senator@sarbanes.senate.gov>  
309 Senate Hart Office Building 
Washington, DC 20510 
CT 
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D) 
202-224-2823 (DC office) 
860-240-3470 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.1083 
senator@dodd.senate.gov <mailto:senator@dodd.senate.gov>  
448 Russell Building 
Washington, DC 20510 
MA 
Sen. John Forbes Kerry (D) 
202-224-2742 (DC office) 
617-565-8519 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.8525 
john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov <mailto:john_kerry@kerry.senate.gov>  
421 Senate Russell Building 
WI 
Sen. Russ Feingold (D) 
202-224-5323 (DC office) 
608-828-1200 (district office) 
fax: 202.224.2725 
webpage@feingold.senate.gov <mailto:webpage@feingold.senate.gov>  
716 Senate Hart Building 
MN 
Sen. Paul David Wellstone (D) 
202-224-5641 (DC office) 
651-645-0323 (district office) 
fax: fax:202.224.8438 
fax: 202.224.8567 
wellstone.senate.gov/webform.html <http://wellstone.senate.gov/webform.html>

136 Senate Hart Building 
CA 
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D) 
202-224-3553 (DC office) 
415-403-0100 (district office) 
senator@boxer.senate.gov <mailto:senator@boxer.senate.gov>  
112 Senate Hart Building 
NJ 
Sen. Robert Torricelli (D) 
202-224-3224 (DC office) 
973-624-5555 (district office) 
fax: 415.956.6701 
senator_torricelli@exchange.senate.gov
<mailto:senator_torricelli@exchange.senate.gov>  
113 Senate Dirksen Building 
FL 
Sen. Bill Nelson (D) 
202-224-5274 (DC office) 
850-942-8415 (district office) 
senator@billnelson.senate.gov <mailto:senator@billnelson.senate.gov>  
U.S. Courthouse Annex 
111 N. Adams St. 
Tallahassee, FL 32301   



        ----------
        Von:  Peter Grimes [SMTP:p34d3611@jhu.edu]
        Gesendet:  Samstag, 5. Mai 2001 09:32
        An:  WSN
        Betreff:  Bush's man at the UN: a slice of Negroponte's "career"



        NEW RIPPLES IN AN EVIL STORY
        by Sister Laetitia Bordes, s.h.

        John D. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee as the next ambassador
to
        the United Nations?  My ears perked up.  I turned up the volume on
the
        radio.  I began listening more attentively.  Yes, I had heard
correctly.
        Bush was nominating Negroponte, the man who gave the CIA backed
Honduran
        death squads open field when he was ambassador to Honduras from 1981
to
        1985.

        My mind went back to May 1982 and I saw myself facing Negroponte in
his
        office at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa.  I had gone to Honduras on
a
        fact-finding delegation.  We were looking for answers.  Thirty-two
women
        had fled the death squads of El Salvador after the assassination of
        Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980 to take refuge in Honduras.  One of
them
        had been Romero's secretary.  Some months after their arrival, these
women
        were forcibly taken from their living quarters in Tegucigalpa,
pushed
        into a van and disappeared.  Our delegation was in Honduras to find
out
        what had happened to these women.  John Negroponte listened to us as
we
        exposed the facts.  There had been eyewitnesses to the capture and
we
        were well read on the documentationthat previous delegations had
gathered.
        Negroponte denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of these women.
He
        insisted that the US Embassy did not interfere in the affairs of the
        Honduran government and it would be to our advantage to discuss the
        matter with the latter. Facts, however, reveal quite the contrary.
        During Negroponte's tenure, US military aid to Honduras grew from $4
        million to $77.4 million; the US launched a covert war against
Nicaragua
        and mined its harbors, and the US trained Honduran military to
support
        the Contras.

        John Negroponte worked closely with General Alvarez, Chief of the
Armed
        Forces in Honduras, to enable the training of Honduran soldiers in
        psychological warfare, sabotage, and many types of human rights
        violations, including torture and kidnapping. Honduran and
Salvadoran
        military were sent to the School of the Americas to receive training
in
        counter-insurgency directed against people of their own country. The
CIA
        created the infamous Honduran Intelligence Battalion 3-16 that was
        responsible for the murder of many Sandinistas.  General Luis Alonso
        Discua Elvir, a graduate of the School of the Americas, was a
founder and
        commander of Battalion 3-16. In 1982, the US negotiated access to
        airfields in Honduras and established a regional military training
center
        for Central American forces, principally directed at improving
fighting
        forces of the Salvadoran military.

        In 1994, the Honduran Rights Commission outlined the torture and
        disappearance of at least 184 political opponents.  It also
specifically
        accused John Negroponte of a number of human rights violations. Yet,
back
        in his office that day in 1982, John Negroponte assured us that he
had
        no idea what had happened to the women we were looking for.  I had
to
        wait 13 years to find out.  In an interview with the Baltimore Sun
in1996
        Jack Binns, Negroponte's predecessor as US ambassador in Honduras,
told
        how a group of Salvadorans, among whom were the women we had been
        looking for, were captured on April 22, 1981 and savagely tortured
by
        the DNI, the Honduran Secret Police, before being placed in
helicopters
        of the Salvadoran military. After take off from the airport in
        Tegucigalpa, the victims were thrown out of the helicopters.  Binns
told
        the   Baltimore Sun that the North American authorities were well
aware
        of what had happened and that it was a grave violation of human
rights.
        But it was seen as part of Ronald Reagan's counterinsurgency policy.

        Now in 2001, I'm seeing new ripples in this story.  Since President
Bush
        made it known that he intended to nominate John Negroponte, other
people
        have suddenly been "disappearing", so to speak.   In an article
        published in the Los Angeles Times on March 25 Maggie Farley and
Norman
        Kempster reported on the sudden deportation of several former
Honduran
        death squad members from the United States.  These men could have
provided
        shattering testimony against Negroponte in the forthcoming Senate
        hearings.   One of these recent deportees just happens to be General
Luis
        Alonso Discua, founder of Battalion 3-16.  In February, Washington
revoked
        the visa of Discua who was Deputy Ambassador to the UN.  Since then,
        Discua has gone public with details of US support of Battalion 3-16.

        Given the history of John Negroponte in Central America, it is
indeed
        horrifying to think that he should be chosen to represent our
country at
        the United Nations, an organization founded to ensure that the human
        rights of all people receive the highest respect.  How many of our
Senators,
        I wonder, let alone the US public, know who John  Negroponte really
is?

        Sister Laetitia Bordes, s.h.