Stirring Up New Storms

By Ed Magnuson

Jackson's peregrinations and Farrakhan 's pronouncements arouse fierce rows

Relatives of the liberated prisoners waited long past midnight in a jammed terminal at Dulles International Airport, near Washington. Black supporters of the Rev. Jesse Jackson broke into spirited song, creating a revivalist mood. Mobs of reporters and photographers jostled for position. Finally, klieg lights flashed on and in their glare stood Jackson, resplendent in his safari suit and surrounded by a group of released American and Cuban prisoners. A grateful woman rushed tearfully toward the black minister and threw her arms around his chest. Jackson flashed his familiar grin.

Once again the unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination had turned a tour abroad into an ego trip and a personal publicity bonanza, while displaying little regard for the unfortunate consequences of attacking his own government in unfriendly countries. Barging off into four foreign capitals, the black minister assailed the U.S. role in the region. He negotiated for the release of prisoners. He even invited a head of state, Fidel Castro, to visit the U.S. As happened before his trip to Syria last January, when he won the release of captured American Navy Flyer Lieut. Robert Goodman, critics accused Jackson of violating the Logan Act of 1799, which makes it a crime for any private citizen to try to influence a foreign government on issues involving a controversy with the U.S. Now, on his whirlwind six-day tour of Panama City, San Salvador, Havana and Managua, the self-assured Jackson had gratuitously injected himself into the flammable arena of Central American politics.

There seemed to be no comparable case of a political figure's embarking on foreign relations during a campaign. As New York Times Columnist James Reston noted, "The Communists would do almost anything to cooperate with Mr. Jackson in order to embarrass Mr. Reagan." Charging that Jackson was "interfering with the constitutional rights of the President and Congress to conduct foreign policy," Reston also suggested he might be in "violation of the Logan Act."

In the midst of his foreign venture, Jackson was hit by yet another storm over Black Separatist Minister Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam movement, whom Jackson had repeatedly refused to disavow as a political supporter. In an openly anti-Semitic tirade, Farrakhan called Judaism a "dirty religion" (some listeners heard the phrase as "gutter religion"), accused Israel of "injustice, thievery, lying and deceit," and charged that the U.S. was engaged in a "criminal conspiracy" in its support of Israel.

Noting that Jackson had claimed to be waging a moral crusade, Jewish leaders turned the morality issue against him. If Jackson did not disavow Farrakhan, they argued, then Walter Mondale should reject Jackson as unfit for any role in the party's political campaign. Caught in the controversy, Mondale faced the delicate task of trying to maintain Jewish support without alienating Jackson and his millions of black supporters.

The agile Jackson, flirting with the double danger of diplomatic and political disaster throughout the hectic week, ended it with some claims to success. He calmed the Farrakhan issue by disavowing the renegade minister's hateful words and returned to Washington with 48 men freed from Castro's prisons: 22 Americans jailed for alleged criminal offenses, mostly related to drugs, and 26 anti-Castro Cubans who were granted entry into the U.S. (see following story).

The outcome, however, hardly justified Jackson's risky odyssey. His blue, white and yellow chartered jet, carrying 63 reporters and cameramen and 27 Secret Service agents, flew into Panama City on Saturday, June 23. Jackson toured the Panama Canal and charged that its construction and the U.S. administration of the Canal Zone had brought "shame, hurt, pain, denial, disgrace and economic exploitation" to Panamanians. The U.S. role in Panama, said he, embodied "the worst dimension of American segregation and South African apartheid."

On Sunday, Jackson went from criticizing U.S. policy to meddling in it. He met for four hours in his Panama Hilton hotel suite with Ruben Zamora and three other representatives of rebel groups that are fighting the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador. Jackson urged the rebel leaders to begin cease-fire talks with the newly elected Salvadoran President, Jose Napoleon Duarte. But one of the rebel delegates, Jose Mario Lopez, told reporters: "We can't be the only ones to lay down arms to start negotiations." Jackson agreed that any cease-fire must be "mutual so that negotiations can go on in an orderly process free of intimidation or gunfire."

Claiming he was on "a moral offensive," Jackson and his entourage flew on Monday into San Salvador, where Duarte welcomed the American graciously at his presidential palace. Jackson conveyed the rebel leaders' stated conditions for talks to Duarte, who found nothing substantively new in them. Insisted Duarte: "I will never negotiate with arms across the table." Though he conceded Jackson's trip may have unproved the climate for possible future meetings, the impasse remained. The rebel leaders fear that their fighters will be seized by government troops if they lay down their arms; Duarte will not talk to them if they do not.

As Jackson was moving on to Havana later on Monday, reporters back home were catching up with Farrakhan's latest pronouncements. Though reporters were barred from his Sunday-afternoon harangue to followers at his Chicago headquarters, the speech was carried by a local radio station and a few journalists taped it. Some reports said Farrakhan had called Judaism a "gutter religion." Farrakhan vehemently denied this, offering a reward of "$100,000 and my life to anyone" who could prove he said "gutter." He insisted he had termed it a "duty religion," as though the distinction were significant. People listening to the tapes disagreed on which derogatory term he used. In the wake of Farrakhan's outburst, fresh anger was erupting at Jackson's refusal to distance himself from his intemperate ally. However, Jackson, as he headed for Cuba, was unaware of the new row that was gathering momentum.

Castro, in olive-drab fatigues and puffing on a cigar, greeted Jackson with a warm handshake, but not the traditional abrazo, at Havana's Jose Marti Airport. "He said he wanted to embrace me," Jackson explained later. "But it was a kind of historic moment, and both of us wanted to deal with substance and not get sidetracked by symbolism."

The Cuban Marxist and the American Baptist minister talked for more than eight hours on Tuesday in Castro's Palace of the Revolution. "There was a lot of common understanding," Jackson reported. "He's in the Third World, and I have a Third World experience growing up in America ... a lot of experience in suffering and exploitation. We identify with a lot of the same people in Africa and Central America." The two talked about religion. "I felt he ought to be more pronounced in his support of the church." Jackson also told Castro that he "would be a key factor for |peace or war in this hemisphere."

Assembled at the palace for a 7 p.m. press conference, reporters waited impatiently for news of what they were told would be a "bombshell." Their wait was interrupted by a lavish reception, where Soviet wine, roasted piglets and hot and cold lobster were served. It was after midnight when the press conference finally began, and there was no bombshell. Instead, Jackson _read off a list of the points on which Castro had agreed, few of which were really new. The Cuban leader, Jackson said, was willing to exchange ambassadors with the U.S. and to start talks soon on whether he would take back any of the Cuban criminals who had come to the U.S. in the boat exodus from Mariel in 1980. Most notably, he would release 22 Americans held on criminal charges. There was no mention of any Cuban political prisoners being freed.

Early Tuesday morning, CBS Morning News asked Jackson for his reaction to Farrakhan's anti-Semitic remarks. Jackson replied, "I have no reaction. In America people have freedom of speech. They can say what they want to about what they want to. Pressed, he complained, "I don't understand what he said. I don't understand the context of it. I feel no obligation to respond to it." Jackson told other reporters that he would respond only when he learned the contents and context of Farrakhan's speech.

Mondale, aware of the rising emotions in which he could be engulfed, blasted Farrakhan's remarks as "venomous, bigoted and obscene," and said, "It is crucial that all of us, including the Rev. Jackson, repudiate Farrakhan." Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, called Farrakhan "a vulgar bigot." But Siegman claimed that "the real issue is whether Walter Mondale will finally screw up enough courage to publicly break with Jesse Jackson unless Jackson repudiates, clearly and unequivocally, the political support of his racist and anti-Semitic friend."

Jackson plunged on. In an emotional visit to a Cuban jail with the soon-to-be-freed American prisoners, he was tearfully embraced by some of the men. Aware of the criminal records of some, Jackson declared, "We do not come casting judgment about why you are here. You are Americans and you are ours, and we're going to take you home."

But Jackson did deliver a bombshell of sorts as his plane was preparing to leave Havana Wednesday afternoon for a quick flight to Managua. Jackson told reporters that Castro had agreed to free 26 Cuban political prisoners from a list of about 50 that Jackson had brought with him. Castro also told Jackson that he could pick up all 48 of the released men the next day and take them to Washington. As the plane took off, a stewardess noted a fitting coincidence. Said she: "There's a rainbow on the left side of the plane."

Jackson's success seemed to prompt him to make his gibes at U.S. policy even more pointed when he arrived in Managua. He found himself ideologically at home among the Sandinistas, claiming his solidarity with "the mothers of the heroes and martyrs who have died for the revolution." Jackson met Tomas Borge and Sergio Ramirez Mercado of the ruling junta and spoke harshly of what he saw as U.S. policy: "Now, even after the revolution has triumphed, you have to defend your sovereignty and integrity against those who would invade your borders, mine your harbors or ports, destabilize your economy and assassinate your citizens."

As Jackson got ready to return to Havana on Thursday, he knew he had scored what many would consider a smashing personal success. But the Farrakhan matter was now threatening to dominate the news. "Jackson's silence stuns the heart and diminishes his noble cause," wrote Timothy Hagan, co-chairman of Mondale's campaign in Ohio, in the Washington Post. "Jackson may have lost his moral compass ... A campaign for the presidency that apparently cannot distinguish between good and evil cannot command the respect it seeks." Wrote Columnist Jimmy Breslin: "All Jackson has to do is to condemn Farrakhan and walk away from him. And that will be the last time anybody will bother to report on what Farrakhan has to say. Yet Jackson says nothing." Breslin wondered whether Jackson was physically afraid of the "threatening, Jew-baiting" Farrakhan.

In Managua, Jackson finally sensed the dangers. He telephoned Washington, D.C., Congressional Delegate Walter Fauntroy and the two crafted his anti-Farrakhan statement. Said Jackson to reporters: "Farrakhan has not campaigned on my behalf in more than four months. We agreed to that. His statements are independent of me." In a statement, Jackson promised, "I will not permit Minister Farrakhan's words, wittingly or unwittingly, to divide the Democratic Party." He called Farrakhan's comments "reprehensible and morally indefensible."

There was a sigh of relief among Democrats. "There is a God," said the party's national director, Michael Steed. Mondale Campaign Chairman James Johnson noted, "I don't think a single statement will eliminate all the anxiety about Reverend Jackson. But it's a major step in the right direction." Mondale praised Jackson, declaring, "I commend the Rev. Jackson for making it clear that Mr. Farrakhan has no part in his campaign."

Jewish leaders were also pleased, although somewhat more guarded on whether Jackson had laid the Farrakhan matter to rest. Said Hyman Bookbinder, Washington director of the American Jewish Committee: "This is a very, very happy development. I hope this can close [the issue] out." Still, Jackson's pro-Arab views on Middle East issues continue to bother many Jewish leaders. Nathan Perlmutter, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, noted that "Jesse Jackson's problem with Jews is bigger than Mr. Farrakhan." Indeed, on Saturday when Jackson addressed Operation PUSH, the Chicago-based civil rights organization he founded, Minister Akbar Muhammed, Farrakhan's chief lieutenant, was onstage, and dozens of members of the Nation of Islam were in the audience.

Jackson's return visit to Havana on Thursday to gather the prisoners was even more festive than his first stop there.

As crowds chanted, "Jesse! Jesse!", Jack son chatted amiably at the airport with Castro. The Cuban gave Jackson a cigar, which the minister, who does not smoke, tried to puff from the wrong end. Castro said that he was releasing the prisoners "as a gesture to Jackson and to the American people."

But back in Washington, even after returning the prisoners, Jackson received a much cooler welcome than in the capitals he had just visited. Audacious as ever, he asked to be allowed to brief the President on his trip. Instead, Jackson was shunted off to a debriefing by Under Secretary of State Michael Armacost. State Department Spokesman John Hughes issued a polite but justified scolding: "The tradition has been not to criticize the United States from foreign platforms particularly from countries hostile to the United States." Secretary of State George Shultz pronounced his own verdict on what he called Jackson's "disruptive " diplomacy. Castro, said Shultz, had used Jackson to score "a propaganda victory."

Jackson -- By Ed Magnuson.

Reported by Jack E. White with Jackson

With reporting by Jack E. White