HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN!--THE KERRY COMMITTEE?

By Humberto Fontova

Have You Forgotten!-- The Kerry Committee?

Say what you want about Senator John Kerry, nobody ever called him lazy. He landed in Congress and immediately rolled up his sleeves and spat on his hands. The Nicaraguan people MUST end up like the Cuban and Vietnamese! Toward this end the man was tireless. The vision inspired him to such a staggering work load, energized him to such a frantic pace, propelled him to such legislative feats, that his colleagues--even the pinkest-- gaped in envy and awe.

Back then Nicaragua was the pinks' latest City On a Hill, Daniel Ortega their latest Gallahad. Scores of Kerry's colleagues were content to flutter their eyelashes at the Communist cutthroat from afar. Others courted him with a perfumed love letter. "Dear Comandante," it started.

But freshman senator John Kerry insisted on a more intimate approach. So mere weeks after entering office in 1985 he set off for Managua with fellow freshman Tom Harkin of Iowa for a chummy face to face session with the Communist pedophile.

They returned rapt. Cuban and Soviet ties with the Sandinistas? Baseless rumors, Kerry insisted. Kerry stood before Congress and waved a list of heart-warming liberal reforms that Ortega promised him were imminent. ("I hold here in my hands!") Actually he called it, "a wonderful new opening!" The Massachusetts senator insisted that Nicaragua would soon blossom into tropical Sweden.

Congress swallowed this bilge in one mighty gulp and killed the Contra aid bill (Kerry's goal all along.) It took a whole week after the Congressional vote for Ortega to fly to Moscow, flout his Soviet ties for all the world to see, and return with a $200 million Communist aid package. Congress, rotten egg dripping slowly off their face, reversed itself and approved Reagan's Contra aid.

But Kerry was undaunted. Soon he was chairing "The Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism and International Operations" quickly dubbed "The Kerry Committee" by his media cronies and soulmates. Soon it was boasting, "77 instances where the Reagan Administration misled Congress about its policies in Central America!"( I hold here in my hands!)

Lest we forget, it was here that the famous "Iran-Contra investigation" actually started. Soon the lurid accusations spawned an "Iran-Contra Committee "of it's own and Kerry pressed ahead with his.

The Democratic crusade to throttle the Nicaraguan freedom-fight was now under full steam. One Cuba wasn't enough for these people. They were The Best and Brightest of a new generation. They'd picked up the torch from Camelot. The honor demanded that they pledge themselves to creating another tropical Gulag and slaughterhouse on our doorstep. If Latin freedom fighters battled desperately in the field against a Soviet-supplied enemy-- if these freedom-fighters had their backs against the wall-- if any looked northward through sweat-stung eyes and blood-drenched bandages for an ally--if hundreds were dying in freedom' cause with gritted teeth in a desperate and uneven struggle against a common enemy--then these freedom-fighters MUST be stabbed in back. The legacy of Camelot DEMANDED it.

Towards that noble goal John Kerry committed himself body and soul. Soon his Committee was leaking lurid details of a nefarious CIA/Contra drug smuggling plot with a Cuban-American named Felix Rodriguez as the bagman and Vice President George Bush as a silent partner. The commie-crackpot Christic Institute and Institute For Policy Studies served as the Kerry Committee's advisors. The latter had arranged his Nicaragua trip.

The freshman senator from Massachusetts was on a serious roll that summer of 1987. His very own Congressional Committee subpoenaing, questioning, holding open sessions, closed sessions--and most importantly, leaking salacious tid-bits of their proceedings to their cronies and soulmates in the pink media.

As a (sympathetic) Boston Globe article on John Kerry says about his famous Subcommittee: "Several committee members were wary of Kerry's reputation for self-promotion; one griped aloud that the senator's staff was always leaking to the press."

The Kerry Committee finally subpoenaed Felix Rodriguez himself. And here, my friends, John Kerry finally stepped in it. He started messing with the WRONG dude.

A little background: As a 19 year-old member of Brigada 2506, Felix infiltrated Communist Cuba weeks before the Bay of Pigs invasion, organizing underground freedom-fighters, planning for the sabotage of key roads and bridges, staying a step ahead of the Castro's secret police and their KGB handlers and coaches. Almost 70 per cent of his comrades in the infiltration teams died in front of firing squads, after torture. Felix knew the odds. He volunteered anyway.

After the Best and Brightest stabbed the Bay of Pigs freedom-fighters in the back, Rodriguez again foiled the Communist dragnet by slipping into the Venezuelan embassy and escaping a year later to Florida. After the Best and Brightest stabbed them again and twisted the blade with the Kennedy- Kruschev swindle, Rodriguez, along with hundreds of his Brigada Band Of Brothers enlisted in the U.S. Army.

Later, as a CIA operative, Rodriguez played the key role in tracking down and capturing Che Guevara in Bolivia and was the last to question him. "Finally I was face to face with the assassin of thousands of my countrymen, of hundreds of my patriot friends."

On the day he gained his U.S. citizenship in 1969 Rodriguez celebrated the honor by volunteering for armed action in Viet-Nam. "I lost the country of my birth to Communism," he writes in his book, Shadow Warrior. "I know freedom must be protected. And I feel I owe it to my adopted country."

Felix flew over 300 helicopter combat missions in Viet-Nam, and was shot down five times. He won the coveted Intelligence Star for Valor from the CIA and nine Crosses for Gallantry from the Republic of South Vietnam. Later he battled Communists in El Salvador using a helicopter "mobile strike unit" scheme he developed in Viet-Nam. He flew over 100 combat missions in Central America, captured the FMLF's top commander and helped crush those Communist- terrorists decisively. All this was volunteer work.

Castro put a price on Rodriguez' head over three decades ago, and sent hit-team, after hit-team, after hit-team (including one lent to him by his chum Yassir Arafat) to murder Felix and his family in Florida. All were foiled. (Wonder if Robert Redford discussed Death Squads with his recent host?)

Now a gaggle of grandstanding Congressional paper-pushers presumed to browbeat and cow this man. I'll quote the heavy metal rockers Judas Priest here. "They had another THING coming!"

Rodriguez was flying combat missions in El Salvador the summer of 1987 when his wife called to say his name was splashed all over the Miami Herald as a cocaine smuggler for the Nicaraguan Contras-- and one who reports to Vice President Bush!

"Forget it," he laughed. "Who's gonna believe such garbage?" But as always with Liberal slanders, they have a life of their own. The smear spread through the Beltway media like wildfire. "Our friends are wondering, Felix," said his worried wife a few days later. "The stories keep appearing. Our children...our families' reputation is at stake here. I'm concerned...."

The subpoena from the Kerry Committee finally hit their Miami doorstep. "Great!" whooped Felix while flying back from the Central American war. "I'll be happy to tell a Congressional Committee EVERYTHING--but I insist on OPEN hearings. None of these "closed" hearings.

You see, the very slanders then taking Felix away from the field against Communists to attempt to clear his name and honor originated at the Kerry Committee's last "closed" hearing. Here a convicted drug smuggler sentenced to 46 years in Federal prison (and who later flunked several polygraph tests) made the outrageous charges against Rodriguez and Vice President Bush. Next day they were all over the Beltway media.

For The Kerry Committee "closed" meant closed to the press for any testimony that contradicted the crackpot accusations of Committee's Christic Institute mentors and it's felon witnessers--but wide open for any testimony that backed the smear about Vice President Bush as a Cocaine smuggler for the Contras with Felix as his troubleshooter. Rodriguez noticed that the Miami Herald mentioned, "unnamed congressional sources," for it's slanders. Leaks anyone?

And let's not forget the date, summer of 1987. Shortly George Bush would wage an electoral campaign against Kerry's friend and political ally, Michael Dukakis( recall that Kerry served as Lieutenant Governor for this famous tank commander.)

Miami area lawyers, knowing Rodriguez' honorable reputation, tripped over themselves clamoring to represent him pro-bono during the Kerry Committee hearings. "I don't want any lawyers!" Felix responded. "If I need a lawyer to help me explain why I've been defending this country for the past 27 years--then I'm in the wrong country! I want my testimony in front of the American people!"

More alarmingly (to Democrats) Rodriguez refused what weasel types call "immunity."

You can imagine Kerry's forehead furrowing and a few nervous coughs behind the hand at the news. Nothing so flabbergasts and unnerves a big-haired, blow-dried Congressional Committee like spunk, courage, honesty, straight talk. He must have been aghast.

So of course Kerry denied Rodriguez' request for an open hearing. If Rodriguez cleared his name, if he shot down his Committee's cockamamie accusations--by God, Kerry certainly didn't want it getting any circulation! The Kerry Committee--and The Kerry Committee alone-- using leaks to their pinko press cronies and soulmates, would decide exactly what got in the newspapers and evening news.

"Senator, my name was leaked BY YOUR Committee as being involved with drug smuggling," Rodriguez started his testimony. "I take that seriously. It affects my family, my reputation and my friends."

Kerry furrowed his (now) famous forehead and affected a stern look "You're making serious accusations here...."

"SENATOR! This slander was in every G*DDAMMED newspaper after your committee's last CLOSED hearing!" Rodriguez shot back, "saying I solicited drug money for the Contras. THAT, senator Kerry , is a D*MNED LIE!!"

Kerry's forehead furrowed further. He stuttered. He started loosing it himself, rambling well off the subject, asking Rodriguez about Che and why he hadn't fought harder to save his life, etc.

"SENATOR!" an exasperated Rodriguez finally shot back. "It's difficult for me to answer questions from a man I DO NOT RESPECT!"

Kerry gaped. A northeastern liberal Democrat he'd always been a media darling, soft-soaped and soft- balled by that feisty "adversarial" press. Now this Rodriguez guy's tone had him seriously rattled. But Felix didn't miss a beat --naming dates and witnesses, citing documents--this upright and gallant man proceeded to demolish every accusation against him.

"I have nothing to hide," Rodriguez said repeatedly. "I'm not ashamed of anything I've done. I've battled communism since I was 17. I help the Contras, I help the Salvadoran government. I do so as a volunteer, legally and openly. And if you're sincere, senator," he finished up. "You'll put out a statement to the press about what I said here today. I INSIST that the American people know about my testimony!"

No such statement ever issued from Kerry's Committee. So two months later Rodriguez called a press conference in Miami to tell his side.

A full year after leaking the slanders against Rodriguez and after the treacherous, lying swine who made them failed three polygraph tests, The Kerry Committee found itself wiping it's brow and coughing nervously behind their hand again. Now they had no choice. Finally they saw fit to allow Rodriguez' year-long request for an open hearing. They scheduled him as the fifth witness at 5 in the afternoon when the Senate chamber was devoid of reporters and TV cameras. In the near-empty room, Kerry finally mumbled a half-hearted apology.

But as Rodriguez writes "whether by design or coincidence, allegations about me and drug smuggling and Vice president Bush kept popping up in the press right up until election day 1988." And the Miami Herald kept mentioning those "unnamed Congressional sources."

The mainstream media still calls the McCarthy Hearings a "Witch Hunt," They call Richard Nixon a "red- baiter" and " political opportunist" for going after Alger Hiss. Yet declassified Soviet documents vindicated both Republicans.

John Kerry's "Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations," was run "like a division of the Dukakis campaign," said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who served as ranking Republican on the subcommittee. Worse, it genuinely smeared innocent and honorable men, using the commie-crackpot Christic Institute, and convicted felons for evidence, and in the end--after millions of dollars--turned up nothing

Yet I defy you to Google "Kerry Committee" alongside "Witch Hunt" and come up with anything. Instead you'll find that the Kerry Committee's slanders against an honorable man who earned the title of patriot a thousand times over linger throughout the pink media

This is sickening.

To clear his name, Felix Rodriguez was forced to write his own book, Shadow Warrior. The truth is all there, to the lasting shame of John Kerry. If you're even thinking of voting for this man, please read it. If not, still read it. You'll cheer out loud one minute, your throat will lump the next--then your blood will boil.

END

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