THURSDAY,
SEPTEMBER 26, 1996 THE MIAMI HERALD 5A
NATIONAL NEWS
WASHINGTON - (AP) - Anti-Castro lawmakers are accusing the Air Force of being derelict in its duty by not scrambling U.S. interceptors against Cuban MiGs that shot down two planes piloted by Cuban Americans over the Florida Straits.
The legislators complained of military stonewalling, and a subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena administration witnesses to explain the Air Force's failure to prevent the attack, which killed four people aboard the planes.
"What does it take to bring a proper reaction from the U.S. Air Force to Cuban MiGs heading for the Florida Coast?" asked Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind. "We have a potentially serious breach of-U.S. security which must be explained."
"At the very least it was a dereliction of duty," Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, added at a Capitol news conference.
The House international relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere voted 7-2, along straight party lines, to subpoena U.S. military and customs officials with knowledge of the incident. Burton said this could include the defense and treasury secretaries.
The subcommittee already investigated events leading to the deaths of the two pilots and two other men with them last February.
Cuba contends that the planes were shot down over Cuban territorial waters, The United States maintains that the fliers, representing Brothers to the Rescue, were shot down in international airspace.
The downed aircraft were among three flown by Brothers pilots on a Feb. 24 mission looking for Cubans fleeing their island nation by boat.
Burton and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami, said lawmakers learned that a Cuban MiG came within minutes of the Florida coast when pursuing the surviving plane "not because of military cooperation" but from a U.S. Customs officer's testimony.
Defense officials disputed the testimony and statements of the surviving pilot Jose Basulto head of Brothers to the Rescue.
A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Joe March, told the subcommittee last month that Cuban MiGs were considerably farther from U.S. territory than Basulto's estimate of 32 miles from the Florida Keys.
Alerted to the approaching MiGs, U.S. fighters at Homestead Air Force Base were on the runway with engines running when the MiGs turned back, March said. That was "entirely consistent" with established procedure, he said.