Posted on 10/31/2006 4:00:59 AM PST by billorites
OLIVER NORTH AND HIS associates were leaving Managua last Tuesday on a private plane after a dramatic surprise visit when they heard news they could scarcely comprehend. The U.S. State Department had just issued a "Public Announcement" that, in effect, warned Americans not to travel to Nicaragua because of the prospect for "violent demonstrations" and "sporadic acts of violence" leading up to the Nov. 5 presidential election there.
The North group had seen nothing in Nicaragua to justify a travel advisory, normally issued when life and limb of visiting Americans are at risk. U.S. and Nicaraguan security officials alike are dumbfounded, and the State Department did not explain it to me. That buttresses suspicion that the U.S. government wants to keep away meddling Americans like North, who seek to influence an election that now appears likely to return Daniel Ortega and the Sandinistas to power after an absence of 16 years.
The seemingly unavoidable outcome of next Sunday's election is a Nicaraguan tragedy, losing at the ballot box what was won two decades ago by the blood of Contra fighters and the risk of Ronald Reagan's Presidency. Because the anti-Sandinista vote is split, Ortega figures to return his Marxist- Leninist party -- now backed by Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan petro-dollars -- to the presidential palace. Apart from the misery to be inflicted on the Nicaraguan people, this reflects the deterioration of U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere under the Bush administration.
Nicaraguan law permits the election of a president with as little as 35 percent of the vote if he is five percentage points ahead of his nearest competitor. That now seems probable with the anti-Sandinista vote divided between two major candidates: former Vice President Jose Rizo and banker Eduardo Montealegre. The former Contras blame this state of affairs on the Bush administration in general and, specifically, on the U.S. ambassador in Managua, Paul Trivelli.
The looming political fiasco in Nicaragua comes as no surprise. Adolfo Calero, a Washington-based Contra leader in the '80s, returned to the U.S. capital in April to issue a warning. He asserted that tacit U.S. support for Montealegre and opposition to Rizo was a horrendous political error and that the only hope to hold off the Sandinistas was support for Rizo. But official doors were closed to Calero.
The occasion of Calero's visit was a reunion of Contra leaders, their former CIA handlers and Ollie North, who as a Marine lieutenant colonel ran the Nicaraguan account at the Reagan White House. The festivities were marred by fear and frustration over the coming election.
North went public in his syndicated column of Oct. 6. He contended that "official U.S. policy in Nicaragua has been blind to the realities of Nicaraguan politics." He said Ambassador Trivelli "has to stop pressuring private sector leaders with potential reprisals" for backing Rizo and his Liberal Party. North called on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Managua and meet with all anti-Sandinista candidates -- including Rizo.
In Washington, North was ignored. He and his colleagues paid a hastily arranged visit to Managua Monday Oct. 23 and publicly pleaded with Nicaraguans to reject the Sandinistas. The apparent U.S. reaction was Tuesday's official U.S. government warning that implies Americans would do well to stay away from now until next April 18. By urging "American residents and visitors in Nicaragua " to be "vigilant," the U.S. government was telling the old Contras to keep hands off.
Dewey Claridge, the famous CIA Contra handler, put it bluntly in an e-mail to associates: "Just when you think the State Department's level of stupidity has reached bedrock and can go no further, it comes up with this nonsense, probably the work' of Trivelli and his paranoia that Oliver North's visit to Managua to receive a testimonial and lay a wreath at the tomb of the fallen . . . is the Contra War II.
State Department spokesmen would not elaborate on the basis for the travel advisory, but the department's security personnel and Nicaraguan police privately said they saw no basis for any such warning. The real warning should be about the return of the Sandinistas, in league with Havana and Caracas, thanks to another failure in U.S. policy.
Because people want to elect leftest heads of states is all Bush's fault?
I think not.
Has this dim writer ever said anything nice about the administration? He certainly liked old bubba jeff. Snags (novakaine) needs some new teeth and a new attitude!
LLS
TAKE NOTE.
Apart from the misery to be inflicted on the Nicaraguan people, this reflects the deterioration of U.S. influence in the Western Hemisphere under the Bush administration.
This, au contraire, little article author -- reflects the influence the Democrats have had in encouraging Marxists and Anti-Americans. Let me rephrase the Dem Mantra: "There is no WOT; There is only the war that we are inciting and leading."
We are now seeing the real... Condi Rice.
Ping.
My mantra to the Ortega/Chavez wing of international Politics: "NO BLOOD FOR OIL".
Don't be so sure! Like the Justice Department, a lot, if not most, of the career people at the State Department were put there by the Klintons and remain loyal to their agenda. Granted, Connie Rice should have fired most years ago when it became clear that chit was coming out without her approval. I've seen her look oviously shocked at interview questions when asked about the 'goings on' in her department, things she seemed to have never known.
Only reason why the Justice Department never pursued the Klintons and his cronies is because his career people appointments still remain there.
Not that I am at all defending her, but I seriously doubt that Rice personally approves every publicly announced travel advisory to third world countries. I'd bet money this was done by Clinton Admin leftovers at the State Department, much like the other leaks we've seen out of State.....
It would seem that his article is shedding light on the socialists hidden in the state department. They along with their fellow travelers the communists want the same thing and our capitalist society is not on the list. Our administration has allowed these state department liberals to undermine every policy that that doesnt involve giving our tax money to those that want to over run us. They should have been removed or made harmless 6 years ago.
Curious that al Qaeda chose to target the Pentagon and not the State Department on 9/11.
They have been there for decades. Bush has done more to change State than any other President in 60 years. It is a demon infested trench which will take decades to cleanse.
LLS
Rice's rhetoric regarding Hezbollah, Hamas and the PA hasn't been all that swift either.
Nope, I'm not saying they control State (or Justice or the CIA) at all. However, there are clearly moles that leak certain key information from time to time when it will be the most damaging to foreign policy or the Administration. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. Interestingly, I don't recall the same sorts of leaks during the Clintoon Administration. Control? No. Rogue elements? Yes.
Rice's rhetoric regarding Hezbollah, Hamas and the PA hasn't been all that swift either.
Hard for me to comment on this since I have no idea what is being said behind closed doors, and I seriously doubt that you do either. Very often you will see diplomats say one thing in public, while something entirely different is being said in private. This methodology allows the lesser party to "save face" in public. This tactic is as old as diplomacy itself.
But if these facts are true, then the "people", meaning the majority, do NOT want a leftist head of state, but through are bungling, they are about to get one -- with perhaps 35% of the vote.
FMCDH(BITS)
North was a good soldier, and managed to keep some aid flowing to the Contras when that was difficult to do, but he also displayed some pretty significant incompetence in that role. His counter intelligence efforts (where he made any) were abysmal, and it was sheer and unaccountable good luck that the Soviets didn't uncover the operation before the American press, or that the press didn't do so earlier than they did. He even LOST millions of dollars that was supposed to go to the Contras by taking down an account number wrong.
North also wanted to keep the Contra movement small, controlled by a few CIA connected generals. It was (credit where due) State Department officials, namely Elliot Abrams, that pushed to expand the Contras into a broad military and political movement. North fought this all along, intentionally leaving Abrams out of the loop as much as possible. One consequence of this angling disloyalty and insubordination by North was Abrams giving false testimony to Congress, and thus being left "holding the bag."
It was clearly Abrams strategy (shared with other figures of influence like Jeane Kirkpatrick) that brought the Contras their eventual victory.
In short, however good his intentions, North abrogated to himself many decisions that were above his pay grade, and then made them badly.
Many of the left in the DNC (and their base ) are green Democrats or Socialist Democrats.
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