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"Secretive
Sneak the Senate Saboteur"
by Judith Haney
USNEWSLINK/January 12, 2002
From now on, just call Bush #43,
"Secretive Sneak the Senate Saboteur".
Determined to place two Republican loyalist in strategic positions that are
critical to advancing his pro business agenda, President Bush on Friday sabotaged Senate
confirmation hearings, on two of his contentious nominations, and sneaked around a
recessed Senate to make two controversial appointments.
Bush appointed former controversial Reaganite, Otto Reich, to a position in the State Department and Eugene Scalia
(son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia) to head the Solicitor's Office at the Department of Labor.
Scalia will oversee all OSHA and MSHA prosecutions and defense of agency rulemakings, as
well as claims arising under several other labor laws.
Sen. Chris Dodd led the Democrats in their opposition to Otto Reich's
appointment, vowing publicly that his nomination would never reach a vote.
BACKGROUND
Democrats opposed Reich because of his prior role as 'propaganda minister' for the
Reagan administration's war with Nicaragua.
Between 1983 through 1986, Reich commanded the State Department's Office of Public
Diplomacy,(OPD), whose main mission was to inflame fears about Nicaragua
and its left-wing Sandinista government that had come to power by overthrowing a corrupt,
U.S.-supported dictator.
By covertly disseminating intelligence leaks to journalists,
Reich and the OPD sought to trump up a Nicaraguan "threat," and to sanctify the
U.S.-backed Contra guerrillas fighting Nicaragua's government as "freedom
fighters." The propaganda was aimed at influencing Congress to continue to fund the
Contras.
Take the scary news that Soviet MiG fighter jets were arriving in
Nicaragua. With journalists citing unnamed "intelligence sources," the
well-timed story surged through U.S. media on the night of Ronald Reagan's reelection. At
NBC, Andrea Mitchell broke into election coverage with the story. The furor spurred a
Democratic senator to discuss a possible airstrike against Nicaragua. But the story turned
out to be a hoax. Several journalists later acknowledged they'd been handed the story by
Reich's office.
It isn't the only erroneous story journalists link to the OPD. According
to the Miami Herald, for example, Reich's office promoted the fable that Nicaragua had
acquired chemical weapons from the Soviets. According to Newsweek, the OPD told reporters
that high-level Sandinistas were involved in drug trafficking, but U.S. drug officials
said there was no evidence for such a charge.
Reich's office worked alongside the White House National Security Council,
collaborating with CIA propaganda experts, Army psychological warfare specialists and a
then-obscure Marine lieutenant colonel named Oliver North. Declassified documents
detailing OPD activities are on file and online at the National Security Archive, a
DC-based nonprofit organization. |
