President Obama has announced his intention to recess appoint Maria del Carmen Aponte to be Ambassador to El Salvador, which means there's a new wave of witch hunt misinformation coming. CNN's Erick Erickson is first into the fray, taking to his RedState.com site to raise questions about Aponte's “longterm relationship with a top Cuban spy” in the early 1990s.
Here are the facts that you need to know about this that right-wingers will do their best to keep from you:
1) President Clinton had nominated Aponte to be ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1998, but she withdrew her nomination after she became “entangled in rumors that Cuban spies once tried to recruit her” through her boyfriend, Roberto Tamayo, and “the spy tale began circulating in Washington gossip circles.” As the Miami Herald reported, the FBI subsequently cleared Aponte of the Cuban recruitment rumor.
2) The rumor that Cuban spies had tried to recruit Aponte was started by a Cuban intelligence agent who had defected. He reportedly provided no evidence for his claim.
3) Aponte's boyfriend was reportedly an FBI informant at the time he was accused of assisting in Aponte's recruitment.
4) The FBI reportedly “had given her a top-security clearance for the ambassadorial post even though the bureau was aware of the Cuban spy tale.”
5) When she learned about the Cuban defector's claims about her and Tamayo, she reportedly went to the FBI immediately.
It's not quite as juicy a story as the right-wing would have you think.