Conghaileach
13th October 2002, 03:18
Most of us have inured ourselves to the security procedures following
9/11, the long airport waits, the somewhat embarrassing "wanding"
process, the routine shoe removal and carry-on bag search. We even
suppress our yawns when Attorney General Ashcroft or Home Security Tsar
Tom Ridge warn of the next imminent terrorist attack and encourage
us to join TIPS, a national informers' association to spy on neighbors
and anyone who might be suspicious.
We've gotten used to the war on terrorism as a fact of daily life. Why
then does the Secret Service not apply a standard set of rules? The
answer, according to a former FBI Special Agent, is that the President
told the Secret Service that there are good former terrorists
"especially those strongly backing his younger brother Jeb for
reelection as Florida governor" and bad ones.
"There's no way the Secret Service didn't know that the man had been
busted for a terrorist rap," the former federal police officer said.
Indeed, the Miami Herald (Nov 4, 1994), on November 2, 1994, reported
that the FBI anti-terrorism squad nailed Sixto Reinaldo Aquit Manrique
after he and two colleagues had "pulled up to a Southwest Dade
warehouse" armed with 10 gallons of gas, fuses, and a
loaded semiautomatic handgun. The story cited police saying "the men
smashed a window and tried to get inside before officers moved in."
Herald reporter Gail Epstein cited FBI Special Agent Paul Miller of the
FBI's Terrorism Task Force who said "there was enough fuel to destroy
several warehouses." The warehouse stored supplies for the Pastors for
Peace who intended to ship them to Cuba.
In 1993, the same man, according to Cuban authorities fired a 50
caliber machine gun at a Cypriot tanker in Cuban waters off the
province of Matanzas. The UN Raporteur accepted the accuracy of these
charges in his 1994 annual report on human rights in Cuba.
Aquit Manrique proudly claims membership in The Secret Armed Army, an
anti-Castro group that advocates violence. Aquit Manrique was tried and
convicted and sentenced to five years by a Florida court. Then, without
explanation, the government accepted Aquit's guilty plea on a
misdemeanor charge, which allowed him to escape prison and spend
a couple of years under house supervision. The government had all the
evidence it needed to send him to prison, but decided to go soft on
this terrorist.
If you find Aquit's presence in close proximity to the president
contradictory to the rules of the war against terrorism, you probably
haven't understood the fine (or invisible) print. If Abu Reinaldo Bin
Aquit had tried to get near the President, the guards would have hauled
him away. Even though W hasn't said it outright, those who
have followed his war against terrorism understand that he has aimed it
at people with Islamic roots, not at anti-Castro Cubans whose
"patriotic zeal" one of the qualities Aquit's lawyers emphasized --
occasionally impels them to use explosives against targets located
right here in the United States and whose passion for the Bush family
has led them to donate large sums and free labor to their re!
election campaigns. Indeed, these "patriots" helped add a new dimension
to US democracy in November 2000: the idea that counting votes no
longer matters in elections.
And, the Bush family owes a debt to certain Miami Cubans that have
associated themselves with violence (terrorism) as a way of life. So,
there are two standards at work in our war against terrorism.
The Bush family, like others who share in the lifestyle of the rich and
the arrogant seems to tend toward carelessness. They are not "detail"
kind of guys.
His older brother, the President, likewise can't be bothered with small
details, like putting a terrorist in the platform with him during a
Florida speech. He simply told the Secret Service that these guys are
"good old boys" and find seats for them. Maybe we should have the
Secret Service routinely inquire: Have you ever been arrested for
terrorism? before deciding on whether to let someone sit behind the
President. Or, do you advocate violence as part of your
political belief system?
Does this incident showing double standards in the war on terrorism
tell us something about Bush family standards as well? President George
Bush I (41) with help from Otto Reich his then Ambassador to Venezuela
overruled strong advice from the FBI and INS and admitted Orlando Bosch
into the United States. Bosch had participated in numerous acts
of terrorism against Cuban targets in Cuba and in other countries,
including the United States! . He was implicated in the 1976 blowing up
of a Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados.
The younger President Bush also disregarded strong opinions from the
FBI and INS when he ordered the freeing from INS deportation custody of
Virgilio Paz and Jose Dionisio Suarez, both confessed conspirators in
the 1976 bombing murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in
Washington DC. Instead of distancing himself from these
convicted terrorists and their ilk, President and Bush and his
brother Jeb have accepted their money and their help in
campaigning. Perhaps the distinguishing difference in the treatment
of terrorists is that those who help the Bushes in their electoral
careers get asylum in the United States, get out of jail passes and a
chance to sit on the platform as long as they don't have Arab-sounding
names.
P.S. I phoned the place where Aquit now works and his supervisor also a
Cuban "patriot" -- confirmed that the man who tried to burn down a
warehouse was indeed Aquit. "And we 're proud of him."
Saul Landau is a fellow at the Washington DC Institute for Policy
Studies and directs the Digital Media Program at Cal Poly Pomona
University's College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His film,
MAQUILA, A TALE OF TWO MEXICOS , is distributed by The Cinema Guild in
New York City . http://www.saullandau.org
9/11, the long airport waits, the somewhat embarrassing "wanding"
process, the routine shoe removal and carry-on bag search. We even
suppress our yawns when Attorney General Ashcroft or Home Security Tsar
Tom Ridge warn of the next imminent terrorist attack and encourage
us to join TIPS, a national informers' association to spy on neighbors
and anyone who might be suspicious.
We've gotten used to the war on terrorism as a fact of daily life. Why
then does the Secret Service not apply a standard set of rules? The
answer, according to a former FBI Special Agent, is that the President
told the Secret Service that there are good former terrorists
"especially those strongly backing his younger brother Jeb for
reelection as Florida governor" and bad ones.
"There's no way the Secret Service didn't know that the man had been
busted for a terrorist rap," the former federal police officer said.
Indeed, the Miami Herald (Nov 4, 1994), on November 2, 1994, reported
that the FBI anti-terrorism squad nailed Sixto Reinaldo Aquit Manrique
after he and two colleagues had "pulled up to a Southwest Dade
warehouse" armed with 10 gallons of gas, fuses, and a
loaded semiautomatic handgun. The story cited police saying "the men
smashed a window and tried to get inside before officers moved in."
Herald reporter Gail Epstein cited FBI Special Agent Paul Miller of the
FBI's Terrorism Task Force who said "there was enough fuel to destroy
several warehouses." The warehouse stored supplies for the Pastors for
Peace who intended to ship them to Cuba.
In 1993, the same man, according to Cuban authorities fired a 50
caliber machine gun at a Cypriot tanker in Cuban waters off the
province of Matanzas. The UN Raporteur accepted the accuracy of these
charges in his 1994 annual report on human rights in Cuba.
Aquit Manrique proudly claims membership in The Secret Armed Army, an
anti-Castro group that advocates violence. Aquit Manrique was tried and
convicted and sentenced to five years by a Florida court. Then, without
explanation, the government accepted Aquit's guilty plea on a
misdemeanor charge, which allowed him to escape prison and spend
a couple of years under house supervision. The government had all the
evidence it needed to send him to prison, but decided to go soft on
this terrorist.
If you find Aquit's presence in close proximity to the president
contradictory to the rules of the war against terrorism, you probably
haven't understood the fine (or invisible) print. If Abu Reinaldo Bin
Aquit had tried to get near the President, the guards would have hauled
him away. Even though W hasn't said it outright, those who
have followed his war against terrorism understand that he has aimed it
at people with Islamic roots, not at anti-Castro Cubans whose
"patriotic zeal" one of the qualities Aquit's lawyers emphasized --
occasionally impels them to use explosives against targets located
right here in the United States and whose passion for the Bush family
has led them to donate large sums and free labor to their re!
election campaigns. Indeed, these "patriots" helped add a new dimension
to US democracy in November 2000: the idea that counting votes no
longer matters in elections.
And, the Bush family owes a debt to certain Miami Cubans that have
associated themselves with violence (terrorism) as a way of life. So,
there are two standards at work in our war against terrorism.
The Bush family, like others who share in the lifestyle of the rich and
the arrogant seems to tend toward carelessness. They are not "detail"
kind of guys.
His older brother, the President, likewise can't be bothered with small
details, like putting a terrorist in the platform with him during a
Florida speech. He simply told the Secret Service that these guys are
"good old boys" and find seats for them. Maybe we should have the
Secret Service routinely inquire: Have you ever been arrested for
terrorism? before deciding on whether to let someone sit behind the
President. Or, do you advocate violence as part of your
political belief system?
Does this incident showing double standards in the war on terrorism
tell us something about Bush family standards as well? President George
Bush I (41) with help from Otto Reich his then Ambassador to Venezuela
overruled strong advice from the FBI and INS and admitted Orlando Bosch
into the United States. Bosch had participated in numerous acts
of terrorism against Cuban targets in Cuba and in other countries,
including the United States! . He was implicated in the 1976 blowing up
of a Cuban commercial airliner over Barbados.
The younger President Bush also disregarded strong opinions from the
FBI and INS when he ordered the freeing from INS deportation custody of
Virgilio Paz and Jose Dionisio Suarez, both confessed conspirators in
the 1976 bombing murders of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt in
Washington DC. Instead of distancing himself from these
convicted terrorists and their ilk, President and Bush and his
brother Jeb have accepted their money and their help in
campaigning. Perhaps the distinguishing difference in the treatment
of terrorists is that those who help the Bushes in their electoral
careers get asylum in the United States, get out of jail passes and a
chance to sit on the platform as long as they don't have Arab-sounding
names.
P.S. I phoned the place where Aquit now works and his supervisor also a
Cuban "patriot" -- confirmed that the man who tried to burn down a
warehouse was indeed Aquit. "And we 're proud of him."
Saul Landau is a fellow at the Washington DC Institute for Policy
Studies and directs the Digital Media Program at Cal Poly Pomona
University's College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences. His film,
MAQUILA, A TALE OF TWO MEXICOS , is distributed by The Cinema Guild in
New York City . http://www.saullandau.org