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THE MIAMI HERALD
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19,1996

Panel quizzes Clinton aides on shootdown
By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS Herald Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - An angry House panel on Wednesday accused the Clinton administration of stonewalling its inquiry into the U.S. role in the Feb. 24 downing of two Brothers to the Rescue planes by Cuban fighter jets.

Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs, grew infuriated by administration witnesses who had few answers to his questions. He threatened to subpoena officials with specific knowledge of the U.S. response to the incident.

"I have a visceral feeling there's a deliberate attempt on the part of the State Department and the Defense Department to not give us the answers," Burton said. He vowed to hold another hearing soon.

The hearing stemmed from allegations by Brothers founder Jose Basulto that the U.S. government failed to warn his planes that Cuba had scrambled its MiG fighter aircraft the morning of the shoot-down, then ignored a Customs official's alert that the Brothers' planes were under MiG attack.

"Expert witnesses have confirmed that U.S. government authorities, at a minimum, willfully chose not to act to protect the lives and planes on that fateful mission," Basulto testified Wednesday.

Four Cuban Americans were killed when the MiGs opened fire on their two Cessnas over international waters. No American aircraft scrambled in response.

Basulto, piloting a third plane, said he was chased by two Cuban fighter planes north of the 24th parallel, into skies patrolled by the United States, within three minutes' flight time of U.S. territory.

Basulto accused the administration of seeking to "cover up" U.S. inaction with possibly fabricated data.

"It suggests an effort to avoid a confrontation with [Cuban President] Fidel Castro, said Rep. Ileana, Ros-Lehtinen, the Miami Republican, who joined fellow lawmakers in a tough interrogation of two administration witnesses.

The witnesses - Col. Michael McMahan, a representative of the U.S. Atlantic Command, and Maria Fernandez, the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of state for Inter-American affairs - disputed Basulto's claim that Cuban MiGs had crossed the 24th parallel, but otherwise deflected the lawmakers' technical questions about the incident, pleading ignorance.

Rep. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the only Democrat present, echoed Burton's conclusion that the administration had sent poorly briefed witnesses as a delaying tactic. He noted that Basulto's claims had been public for several months, and the court testimony of Customs agent Jeffrey Houlihan detailed his 911 call to Florida's Tyndall Air Force Base.

The administration refused to allow Houlihan to testify in public Wednesday, offering instead a closed-door briefing.