AZNAR'S PAST

**Vicente Navarro writes: The Bush Administration is behind a bill currently in the House Committee on Financial Services to award a Congressional Gold Medal to Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, in gratitude for being "a staunch and steadfast ally" (i.e., supporting the Iraq war against the wishes of 90 percent of his people). He is known in America as a conservative; actually, his political roots are fascist. As a teenager he was a Falangist. His father and grandfather played prominent roles in the Franco regime. Aznar denounced the town of Guernica for renaming General Franco Square as Liberty Square after the dictator's death. Spain's Supreme Court, appointed by Aznar's government, refuses to expunge the criminal convictions of executed opponents of the Franco dictatorship. Aznar defied the instructions of a UN Human Rights agency to find the bodies of the more than 30,000 people who disappeared under Franco. He is president of the Popular Party, founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, Information Minister under Franco. Fraga recently wrote a prologue to a book denying the Holocaust. He was Aznar's mentor and anointed him as his successor. To award Aznar Congress's highest honor would insult the soldiers who died during World War II in the fight against fascism.

HAL LEVENTHAL HOOTENANNY

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