INSPECTOR GENERAL
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
400 ARMY NAVY DRIVE
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA 22202

APR 10, 1997

Mr. Jose J. Basulto, President
Hermanos al Rescate
Post Office Box 430846
Miami, Florida 33243-0846

Dear Mr. Basulto:

Thank you for the copy of your March 24, 1997, letter to Lieutenant General Pace regarding, among other matters, the scope of the review being conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. It is true that, during our meeting with you in-January, we focused only on the issue of whether Cuban fighters came within 3 minutes flying time of the United States on February 24, 1996. However, our review is continuing and we do plan to review other issues involved in the Department of Defense response to the February 24 incident in response to requests from Senator Jesse Helms and Representative Dan Burton.

I am troubled that, in your letter to General Pace, you imply that you were not given adequate time to make a presentation. During our meeting with you and Ms. Powell-Cosio we stated repeatedly that we were interested in receiving any information that you might have. At our specific request, Ms. Powell-Cosio spoke for several minutes on the concerns you note in your letter to General Pace. At the close of the meeting, we again noted that we would consider any additional information that you provided to us.

Once again, let me assure you that we remain interested in receiving any additional information that you believe might assist us in our review.

Sincerely,


Russell A. Rau
Assistant Inspector General
Policy and Oversight

bttrlogo-sm.jpg (3923 bytes)April 17, 1997

Mr. Russel A. Rau
Assistant Inspector General
    Policy and Oversight
Inspector General
Department of Defense
400 Army Navy Drive
Arlington, Virginia 22202

Re: Brothers to the Rescue

Dear Mr. Rau:

Thank you for your letter dated April 10, 1997. We are heartened to see that the office of the Inspector General has expanded the scope of the investigation to include questions which are of great concern to us. As explained to you during our trip to Washington.   Brothers to the Rescue is relying on your office to bring the truth of what happened on February 24, 1996 to the public light.

Please advise us, as soon as possible if all the questions listed on our letter to Lt.
General Peter face are being reviewed and if so if we can meet with you and your office to expand on the brief presentation allowed Mrs Powell-Cosio at the end of our meeting in Washington. We feel that it is important to personally review some of the information so that you may have a better understanding of the facts, as we know them. The information we provided you with is limited and does not accurately reflect the totality of all the evidence.

We are taking this opportunity to include a copy of the Miami Herald Tropic Magazine article which contains some very interesting facts including the quote by Jeane Kirkpatrick and Cris Marquis concerning Richard Nuccio.

We look forward to hearing from you shortly and to meeting with you as soon as possible If the meeting can take place in Miami we would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Brothers to the Rescue
Jose J. Basulto, President