Word: raab
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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IRON LADY. Being Ambassador to the Bahamas is not usually a training ground for the task of U.S. Customs Commissioner, yet Carol Boyd Hallett will succeed the high-profile William von Raab in that job. As Ambassador, Hallett persuaded Prime Minister Lynden Pindling to put Bahamian police on U.S. Customs "hot pursuit" overflights and later lifted the U.S. visas of Pindling cronies accused of drug corruption...
...Raab stresses that unilateral military action should be a last resort. He would prefer to use trade and financial sanctions against drug-source nations such as Mexico -- also anathema to traditionalists at State and Treasury, who argue that punitive economic measures would undermine Latin American economies and drive thousands more people into the drug underground. "Before long, there may be provisions in International Monetary Fund loans about ((protecting)) elephants in Kenya and rain forests in Brazil," says Von Raab, "but there are no provisions on drugs...
...Justice, Thornburgh and his aides take a dim view as well of Von Raab's "Operation Paladin" plan to offer multimillion-dollar bounties for drug kingpins. Officials say Von Raab is "grandstanding" and fear bounties would invite international kidnaping...
...Raab is not without allies. Bennett says admiringly that his "style is often imperfect, but the substance is on target." An official at the Drug Enforcement Administration who has sparred bitterly with Von Raab on turf issues says, nonetheless, "You've got to hand it to him. Willy has guts...
Democratic Senator Dennis DeConcini and Republicans Jesse Helms, Alfonse D'Amato and Pete Wilson urged George Bush and Baker to name Von Raab drug czar or at least reward him with an ambassadorship. They were rebuffed. But Von Raab's highly public parting shots may soon give Bush reason to wish he had kept his audacious Customs commissioner inside the tent...