U.S. Names Spy Chief for Cuba and Venezuela

U.S. "Intelligence Czar" John Negroponte appointed a former national security advisor for President Reagan as head of intelligence for Cuba and Venezuela on Nov. 27.

Norman Bailey, a Latin American specialist and Cold War expert, will be "mission manager" for the two countries, responsible for "leading the Intelligence Community at a strategic level, by integrating collection and analysis of data, identifying and filling gaps in intelligence and planning and ensuring the implementation of strategies."

Otto Reich, former assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere and an Iran-Contra affair alumnus (along with Negroponte), praised the former Mobil Oil Company employee as being "very knowledgeable."

”He understands political action, he understands public diplomacy, he understands the psychological aspects of the world we’re in,” Reich told The Miami Herald.

Bailey, while working for the National Security Council in the 1980’s, had the opportunity to work with perennial presidential candidate Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. and his "followers". He described LaRouche’s intelligence organization as "one of the best…in the world"

Larouche is known to have accused former presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale of being a Soviet agent and Queen Elizabeth II of England of being a dope dealer.