Negroponte named Intel Czar...

[RBHam]

Breaking...

THE SALVADOR OPTION COMES HOME!

[McCamy Taylor]

1. WTF! Is every Iran-Contra scum getting recycled?

:wtf:

[Say_What]

87. Negroponte, Gustavo Alvarez Martínez, Iraq, and the School of the Americas

This ran about the time * appointed Negroponte 'ambassdor' of Iraq--then we had the utter destruction of Fallujah and thousands of innocent people. History repeating itself.

<clips>

Negroponte's specialty, while ambassador to Honduras under Reagan (1981-1985) was to ensure that any resistance to US hegemony in Nicaragua would be utterly crushed. The ambassador carried out his duties with considerable success. A brief look at Negroponte's Central American period gives us a hint at what bodes for US-run Iraq.

..During the Reagan administration, and while Negroponte was ambassador to the country, 'Contra' militias were trained in Honduras. The Contras had hitherto made relatively small attacks across the border into Nicaragua until in 1982 thousands of marines arrived with up to 200 military advisers airstrips were built, arms supplied and radar stations erected, all courtesy of the US taxpayer.

The Contras were trained in some of the most gruesome guerrilla war techniques. Some were trained by military officers from Argentina's dirty war who knew nothing about the jungle but plenty about torture and execution. Others were trained in Florida and California while many others, like Honduras' military dictator, General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, were educated in torture techniques, execution and combat at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. While it was purported by Reagan that the Contras were fighting the evil scourge of communism, referring to them as 'freedom fighters,' the Contras raped, tortured and terrorised the civilian population throughout the subsequent decade, leaving the destroying the civilian infrastructure, leaving tens of thousands dead and many more displaced.

Negroponte's role in Honduras was crucial as it meant maintaining US dominance in the region. Jeane Kirkpatrick, Negroponte's predecessor at the UN once declared that 'Central America is the most important place in the world for the United States today.' Maintaining political control of the region meant controlling its vast and rich natural resources. The Sandinistas were beginning to take matters into their own hands and started to redistribute wealth and land in Nicaragua, thus threatening US dominance in the region. Panic in the Reagan administration reached feverish and sometimes surreal levels, with the president declaring that the Sandinistas were on the verge of invading the United States. The real cause for alarm among Reaganite neo-conservatives (including the virulent anti-communist Negroponte) was that the Sandinista revolution would spread throughout El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. It had nothing to do with communism, just as the invasion of Iraq has nothing to do with preventing terrorism. More, it was that the economic system the US had maintained in Central America since 1945 was falling apart it was simply untenable for the impoverished masses who barely had enough to eat. Washington's solution, like its present incarnation in the Middle East, was one of force and overwhelming military power in order to maintain US hegemony. Just as Negroponte acted as the strong arm of US imperialism in Central America in the 1980s he will protect US business and political interests in the Middle East, now the 'most important place in the world for the United States today.'

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/leaders/2004/0709negroponte.htm

---

From another aticle...

<clips>

...But it was during his tour as ambassador to Honduras that Negroponte earned his reputation for being soft on human rights abuses. From 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras, where he helped prosecute the contra war against Nicaragua and helped strengthen the military dictatorship in Honduras. Under the helm of General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez, Honduras's military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was disappearing dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion. Negroponte's predecessor, Ambassador Jack Binns, had repeatedly warned Washington to take a stand to stop the killings. In one cable, Binns reported that General Alvarez was modeling his campaign against suspected subversives on Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970s. Indeed, Argentine military advisers were in Honduras, both advising Alvarez's armed forces and assembling and training a contra army to fight in Nicaragua. President Reagan responded by removing Binns and putting in Negroponte, who, writes Eric Alterman in an MSNBC.com piece, "turned a deliberate blind eye to a murderous pattern of political killings."

On Negroponte's watch, diplomats quipped that the embassy's annual human rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina. Former official Rick Chidester, who served under Negroponte, says he was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. In a 1982 letter to The Economist, Negroponte wrote that it was "simply untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in Honduras." The Country Report on Human Rights Practices that the embassy submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took the same line, insisting that there were "no political prisoners in Honduras" and that the "Honduran government neither condones nor knowingly permits killings of a political or nonpolitical nature."

Yet, according to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military. In a 1995 series, Sun reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 316, that used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994, Honduras's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still missing.

During Negroponte's tenure, U.S. military aid to Honduras, a country of five million, skyrocketed from $3.9 million to $77.4 million. Much of this largesse went to assure the Honduran army's loyalty in the battle against political leftists throughout Central America. Embassy reports to Washington singled out for particular praise army chief Alvarez, a School of the Americas graduate who was direct commander of Battalion 316.

http://www.fpif.org/republicanrule/officials_body.html#negroponte

[lyonn]

95. Great articles sited

About a year ago I printed up some of this Nicaragua information as I was so disgusted that I missed knowing this at the time. Sooo many innocent people were killed for our greed. It appears it's the same thing over again. Most of the public will not know what is really going on. Sad

[Zhade]

101. Ah, but that's "far left nonsense".

At least, that's what one (banned?) DUer said to me about Negroponte. PM me if you want the name! :evilgrin:

[shanti]

109. is this dude a PNAC'er?

like all the rest?

[lala_rawraw]

122. I am having

a stroke... i just am in shock... this is reason to shut down congress...write your leaders and demand full shut down NOW. no more!!!!!

[leftofthedial]

2. In a related story . . .

Michaeil Milken named Secretary of the Treasury

or was it head of the SEC?

[Sabriel]

3. I'm waiting for the anthrax guy to be head of HHS. n/t

[Toby109]

60. How do you know he's not?

[HereSince1628]

4. It's time to cash in those chips for all those good soldiers of the

Reagan and Nixon Administrations


Remember Papa Bush and the intelligence reforms in the '70's, you know all the nasty outings of CIA misbehavior in Central and South America?

You want intelligence reform? Say,Did you ever hear of Team B??

[rawstory]

5. Where did you hear this?

[maddezmom]

11. CNN,. MSNBC and Faux are all reporting the same

[Pachamama]

58. NPR reporting it now....n/t

:scared:

[Pachamama]

59. Negroponte will report directly to Bush....

:scared:

[mudderfudder77]

6. Link please...

[maddezmom]

14. reuters link: Bush Picks Negroponte for Intelligence Chief - Source

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&ncid=584&e=1&u=/nm/20050217/pl_nm/bush_intelligence_dc

[peacebird]

7. we are now truly and royally screwed

[ender]

12. well, at least...

there will be even more coke on the streets.

christ. anyone else out there with underground awareness notice that coke is back, in a ridculously large way?

[Zhade]

102. Gotta fund those covert ops somehow...

NT!

[cal04]

8. Link

President Bush has chosen Iraq Ambassador John Negroponte to be the nation's first new national intelligence director, NBC News has confirmed.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6986647/

[chelsea0011]

9. jeesh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MaineDem]

10. Was he part of the Iran-Contra pardons?

I'm thinking the Bushbots will claim Negroponte's been confirmed for so many different jobs that it would be wrong for the Dems to oppose him now.

[Say_What]

74. War Criminal Being Recyled --common practice in the USSA

<clips>

...Much of his career itinerary reads like a dossier for some future war crimes tribunal:

* 1964-68, political affairs officer at the US Embassy in Saigon;

* 1969-71, aide to Henry Kissinger in the Paris negotiations with the Vietnamese;

* 1971-73, officer-in-charge for Vietnam in the National Security Council, under Kissinger;

* 1973-75, assigned to the US Embassy in Ecuador (he reportedly quit Kissinger’s staff, opposing the Paris settlement as too favorable to the Vietnamese);

* 1980-81, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs;

* 1981-85, ambassador to Honduras;

* 1987-1989, deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs, reporting to Colin Powell;

* 1989-93, ambassador to Mexico;

* 1993-97, ambassador to the Philippines.

After retiring from the diplomatic corps, he took a well-paid position as vice president for global markets at McGraw-Hill, the big publishing company.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/aug2001/cont-a01.shtml

[daleo]

78. War Crimes Tribunal will be in Hell, or Karma, I fear.

These evil characters are being rewarded with the most discouraging level of success that can be imagined.

You're right, that is one hell of a resume.

[SeattleRob]

13. the MSM is fawning over his qualifications!

:puke:

[KayLaw]

18. Yep

CNN just said, If that name sounds familiar...and they spoke only of his ambassadorships.

Then they said something about how George Bush is trying to ease our April 15th worries with a simpler, fairer tax code.

Why does Bush need to pay gay hookers to do what these people willingly do for free?

[Just Me]

23. He's a ___damned war criminal, for crying out loud!!!

Our country is definitely doomed to fascism.

I don't care how ugly "fascism" sounds to people. Our country is being run by crooks, corporatists and criminals and it is becoming a fully evolved fascist country!!!

:cry:

[coffeenap]

46. So he'll be right at home in the Bush admin, won't he? nt

[Just Me]

56. CM totally whitewashing his war crimes. Disgusting!!!

If only I could find a way to help "the people" FIRE CM HOs!!!! :mad:

[0007]

93. This administration makes the mafia look like sick whores

[Stevendsmith]

77. Bush Butt Boy Blitzer Was Gushing over Death Squad John

Called the him an "excellent" choice.

Welcome to Soviet America

[Beetwasher]

15. Gotta Love A Guy Who's Middle Name is "Death Squad"

:eyes:

[Itchinjim]

16. Holy Shit.

n/t

[AussieDave]

17. Just announced on Air America Radio

Lizz and Rachel are ripping Negroponte apart - those women are WICKED..........(in a good way)

[Rose Siding]

19. Kissinger was just too old

There's maniacal laughter in my house. Looking around, I see that it's coming from my husband and I.

[Mark E. Smith]

39. Death Squad Johnny

Guess we now know what Georgie and his merry minions have planned for the people of Greater Iran.

The only question now is will Bush, within a relatively short period of time, be able catch up to Saddam's Iraqi kill total.

[MrModerate]

20. America hasn't had home-grown Death Squads since the KKK

gene pool imploded from interbreeding.

But now it's the 21st century and everything that's old is new again.

Chee-rist I'm glad I'm out of the country now.

[KoKo]

21. He couldn't get anyone else and they like to keep things...in the family..

Sort of like the old Mafia Days. They have lots of "secrets" and know where the "bodies" are buried. :scared:

[peekaloo]

22. Insane.

and scary as hell.

p.s. explains those terra warnings yesterday.....bringing it all back home.

[CanOfWhoopAss]

24. OK so who is going to head the torture dept. in Iraq now?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

25. and Hayden is to assist him as deputy director...welcome to HELL!

[DistantWind88]

96. Hey General Hayden's a good

man. One of the best bosses I ever had. Most of the people who worked for him loved him.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

117. which General Hayden did you work for Michael or Gilbert?

[Nostradammit]

124. Isn't 88 code for Nazi amongst the fascist set?

That's what I always heard.

Interesting screen name.

[KDLarsen]

131. You're probably thinking of groups like "Combat 18"

.. where 1 = A & 8 = H - meaning "Combat AH" or "Combat Adolf Hitler".

[stevedeshazer]

26. This will make for some interesting confirmation hearings n/t

[skippythwndrdog]

27. It's like deja-vu...all over again.

Bizarre, isn't it?

[McCamy Taylor]

28. * Cant get any non-criminals cause they are afraid of Watergate II

So he is having to pack his second term administration with the scum of the earth, like Iran-Contra untouchables that no one else will hire or else promote up people like Condie and Gonzales.

What this means is that if Karl Rove manages to keep Watergate II from happening, this is gonna be the worst administration ever, because of the absolute crap that is running it.

[sallydallas124]

29. Unreal

and scary considering his MO is 'destroy the opposition.'

[ElsewheresDaughter]

30. Bush* appoints Negropointe to head NIA

[PCIntern]

31. Isn't it amazing how

it's just the same old names time and again?
It's like my old Fraternity:
"I want to cross-nominate..."

[ElsewheresDaughter]

32. welcome to the hotel bushironia they check in but they can never leave

[KoKo]

149. A good one, "ED."

:scared:

[asjr]

33. Will Negroponte have to be confirmed by the Senate?

[motherfather]

38. Yes

He has to be confirmed. The last time he was confirmed by a margin of over 90 votes.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte">Wikipedia</a> as usual has some great info.

[Festivito]

69. All these new terrorist threats, may ease this nom???

The Dems have been getting a little press talking about Bush nominee histories. Actually, this one might be a little fun. Just a little.

The RepubliCONNED will be desperate to place people into offices, fearing this new threat of terrorism the media has been reporting.

[Connie_Corleone]

34. Oh Good Grief.

From bad to worse.

[lostnfound]

35. Anyone else have chills about this? Reagan's Central America coming home?

I feel sick.

[davekriss]

89. This is awful

Especially that it is treated positively by the major media.

Negroponte was "overlord" of Honduras (U.S. Ambadssador) when it served as a base for launching contra forces into Nicaragua to strike terror into "soft" targets -- i.e., destroy schools, hospitals, peasant homes, peasants, journalists, students, lawyers -- anything and everything to destroy the populist morale that sustained the Sandinista movement. All the while, of course, SOA-trained General Alvarez was marching his death squads through Honduras, suppressing all in-country attempts to emulate the early success of the Sandinistas. Negroponte, doing his best to imitate Camp Guard Shultz from the TV series Hogan's Heros, claimed to know nothing (John better keep his day job, as we see through him like a plate of glass over an open sore).

I've long thought that a big part of the neo-con agenda is to "Latin Americanize" the U.S., to do what they did for Central America in the eighties and early nineties. Namely, to violently suppress movements toward social equality, justice, and liberty, and instead entrench a two-tiered social structure based on an overly rewarded owning class and the thin sliver of magistrates and managers that serve them, and everybody else (the "useless eaters" and "cannon fodder", to anecdotally quote Kissinger and GHWB).

This agenda has been underway since 1980, but we've seen great strides since December 12, 2000. My fear is so much more fun is yet to come... :(

I guess this should come as good news to Iraqi's, now that J.N.'s iron heel is not focused solely on them.

[AlCzervik]

36. This really is way past an outrage

wtf kind of signal does that send to the outside world? They know who Negroponte is and what he's done.

Bush is turning us into one of those countries that everyone wants to freedomize.

[kath]

112. Maybe we really do need the Yurpeens to come and freedomize us

Or we'll need it sometime soon, the way things are going.

<BRRRRRRRR>

[Guckert]

37. A perfect fit for Team Bush. here are some of his qualifications.

http://www.maryknoll.org/GLOBAL/ALERTS/no_negroponte.htm


1.The New York Times credits John Negroponte with "carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua"

2.Other documents uncovered a scheme of Negroponte and then-Vice President George Bush to funnel Contra aid money through the Honduran government.

3.Negroponte helped conceal from Congress the murder, kidnapping and torture abuses of a CIA-equipped and -trained Honduran military unit, Battalion 3-16

4.Sister Laetitia Bordes went on a fact-finding delegation to Honduras in May 1982 to investigate the whereabouts of 32 Salvadoran nuns and women of faith who fled to Honduras in 1981 after Archbishop Oscar Romero’s assassination. Negroponte claimed the embassy knew nothing, but in 1996, Negroponte’s predecessor Jack Binns reported that the women had been captured, tortured, and then crammed into helicopters from which they were tossed to their deaths.

5.In 1994, the Honduran Human Rights Commission charged Negroponte personally with several human rights abuses.

Great chioce Bushy. I'm sure the Dems will let this guy through..

[struggle4progress]

123. Negroponte draws criticism south of border

Thursday, February 17, 2005 · Last updated 3:18 p.m. PT
By LISA J. ADAMS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

<snip> "What an outrage!" said Bertha Oliva, the coordinator of the Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras, an independent group representing civilians believed to have vanished while in government custody. "The United States has invented a position to reward someone who was a dangerous person." <snip>

"It was obvious that he knew what was happening," said Leo Valladeres, a law professor in Honduras who wrote the report. "They used outlaw methods to kill ... and it is absolutely impossible to believe that a diplomatic mission such as that of the United States was unaware of the situation faced by Honduras and Central America." <snip>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Negroponte%20Central%20America

[bobthedrummer]

40. This administration is full of criminals and extreme RW fascists.

Negroponte is a criminal with a lot of blood on his hands. Put him in charge of all the secrets and spies.:puke::argh::grr:

[motherfather]

41. What are his qualifications when it comes to INTELLIGENCE?

Aside from the dramatic increase of human rights abuses that happened on his watch in Honduras and his involvement with the Contras, what if any are his qualifications in the realms of intelligence?

I've done as much reading as possible (thank you wikipedia and google) but haven't found much of anything that would qaulify him for such a position.

[countryjake]

133. It's what we'll never be able to read about him that qualifies him...

sadly, his ability at maintaining his "cover" all these years seems to be just the ticket for attaining Intel chief. Here's another snip from the article linked above in post #123:

~snip from yesterday's Seattle PI~


Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archives in Washington, said declassified documents on the Iran-Contra scandal also showed that Negroponte was involved in seeking more guns for the Contras - "the role that normally would be reserved for the (CIA) station chief."

Kornbluh also said the documents he cited showed that Negroponte helped clear the way for a secret agreement under which the United States would provide more CIA money to Honduran army generals and additional military and economic aid to the country. In exchange, he said, Honduras agreed to allow the Contras to continue operating on Honduran soil.

Ironically, Kornbluh said, the controversy surrounding Negroponte's past helps qualify him for the job.

"Someone who is a career diplomat ... on paper doesn't seem to have the intelligence background needed," he said. "The fact that he certainly departed from his diplomatic role and was involved in paramilitary operations against Nicaragua ... means he has had a relationship with covert operations in the past."

[Edgewater_Joe]

42. God, Are They THAT Desperate To Get Gannon Off The Media Radar?

Think about it: today is the day Gannon finally breaks into the MSM in a big way (TODAY is pretty big), and just as it is about to get traction -- BAM!

It truly wouldn't surprise me if Rove knows that not even the Democrats are gonna allow this guy to get that job, but did it solely to suck some oxygen out of us and the rest of the media.

Negroponte getting this gig would just be a bonus.

Am I THAT cynical?!

[motherfather]

44. You're not too cynical

I think you're just cynical enough.

I personally doubt he will be blocked.

[kath]

113. The Dems let just about EVERYONE through.

Aren't those pink tutus just FABULOUS???

(I hope I'm wrong here, but...)

[nolabels]

55. Exactly, I still haven't figured out why more people.........

don't understand the tactics of these crooks. Negroponte can go suck an egg during the interim, there are bigger fish waiting to fry



http://www.louisianacajun.com/lcm/shop/item.asp?itemid=127

[AgadorSparticus]

82. i think you hit that one dead on. negraponte is just offensive and

a bit too sensational. very fishy. the gannon story must be pretty damn big for them to want to squelch it so badly. i guess a whole lot more is about to come undone.

[nolabels]

104. G.I. OUT-CALL ESCORT SERVICE, sure glad them tax dollars are....

being spent wisely (I am just guessing it might be the tip of an iceberg). Many people may not even know anything about this whole thing yet. What better way tho distract them all than cry terra, terra, terra after a long lull in the hype ?


February 17, 2005
In Wake of "Gannon-Gate," Conservative Journalists Scramble to Hide Fake Identities, Illicit Pasts

Gannon_thumbJust days after a reporter with White House access was exposed as having a false identity and a pornographic past, more conservative journalists are said to be worried that their own double lives could soon be exposed. In a related development, the White House is said to be considering a crackdown on journalists who say one thing and do another.

Ann Coulter denies rumors that she was once a liberal man

By Deanna Swift

WASHINGTON, DC—It seems like just days ago that the Swift Report was defending White House correspondent Jeff Gannon from allegations that he was a no-talent, no-credentials hack with a habit of lobbing soft-ball questions in the president’s directions. Well pardon us as we wipe the egg off of our faces!

But two weeks after Gannon asked President Bush a deservedly fawning question at a White House press conference, our fave correspondent has been debunked as a fake with a pornographic past. Gannon—aka James D. Guckert—reportedly secured White House press credentials under a false name and was given access to classified materials.

And while Gannon has no journalistic credentials to speak of (who does these days?), his patriotism remains unsullied. Recent reports have linked him to pro-military websites including hotmilitarystud.com, militaryescorts.com and militaryescortsm4m.com
(snip)
http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/02/in_wake_of_gann.html

[AgadorSparticus]

121. possibly. but i think them crying terra is more in the $87billion vein.

bush and his money hording gluttons in the military complex want the money and they need to refocus the country back on terror and war in order to get that monstrosity passed.

[serryjw]

127. You think Bushit is REALLY trying to 'sacrifice him for his REAL

nominee? Love your mind....so devious

[ElsewheresDaughter]

43. Negro means "black"..ponte means what "house/place"? Blackplace or what?

apropos?

[ze_dscherman]

61. Negro=Black, Ponte=Bridge n/t

-

[ElsewheresDaughter]

108. danke freundlicher Sir

:hi:

[Octafish]

139. Bridge over the River Styx

Murdocracy in America,
International Thuggery

excerpted from the book

Robbing Us Blind

The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America

by Steve Brouwer

Common Courage Press, 2004, paper

EXCERPT...

Only one nation has ever been found guilty of terrorism by the International Court of Justice the United States in 1986 Some of the men who ran this secret terror operation- North, Abrams, and Poindexter-were convicted of Iying to Congress about their activities.

Two of the above were invited to rejoin the rejuvenated Bush Gang in Washington in 2001, along with two other men-Negroponte and Reich-who helped them plan their past terroristic activities. The third criminal, Oliver North, was too busy with his Fox TV show, "War Stories," to rejoin the others.

In 1986, the Reagan administration disregarded international law and ignored the order from the International Court of Justice, part of the World Court in The Hague, Netherlands, to desist from its hostile activities. The U.S. continued sponsoring, training, and supplying arms to the Contras, the army it had created to carry out illegal attacks on the nation of Nicaragua Several years earlier the Nicaraguan people had launched a left-leaning, democratic revolution and freed themselves from the long, brutal, dictatorship of the Somoza family. The United States government had supported the Somozas for decades, just as it had backed a string of right-wing dictatorships throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

The Reagan administration also disregarded the laws of the United States of America, in particular those that the U.S. Congress had passed earlier in the 1980s forbidding U.S. assistance to the Contra forces. Nicaragua, a poor nation with only three million people, was badly hurt by the repeated terrorist acts-its main harbor was mined to discourage civilian shipping, its medical personnel were massacred at rural clinics, and its citizens were tortured and murdered by the U.S. sponsored terrorists.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Bush_Gang/Murdocracy_RUB.html



Build a black bridge, it's faster.

HEY, TIA! FUCK YOU, BUSH!

[AG78]

45. I love this administration

They may kill everyone, but we'll all be laughing on the way out.

They either don't give a damn, or none of them has the irony gene.

Every single day these guys manage to do something like this. Even though it's scary, it's still hilarious.

I honestly don't have anything left to say about these guys. They don't shock me anymore. I expect them to completely take over. It's time to just sit back and watch the train wreck that is humanity, because obviously nobody will stop the human race from killing itself.

[lyonn]

98. That's why I type my ideas here

Pure venting, that's all. What difference does it make. Guess I'll have another heavily taxed cig.

[kath]

114. Re: irony -- What's the quote --"irony died the day Henry Kissinger won

the Nobel Peace Prize"? or some such thing...

[The Minus World]

130. Tom Lehrer

is credited with that quip.

[gumby]

47. When does Orin (god's own senator) Hatch

make his emotional speech on the Senate floor acusing anyone not voting to confirm Negroponte of racism?

[xxqqqzme]

48. did poppy give his

little seed a list of 'good' people 2 hire? And this administration is accused of not being kind 2 the environment - well, they practice recycling!!!

[Solly Mack]

49. it goes without saying

but I simply can't resist

WE ARE SO FUCKED!!!!!!!!!!

I know. I know...we've been fucked for a while now...

emotion just got the better of me upon reading this...

[LinuxInsurgent]

50. wait a minute...

i thought he was ambassador to Iraq? He didn't even last a year!

[Festivito]

62. Indeed. Who is the new ambassador to IRAQ? nt.

[davekriss]

91. Hey, maybe Elliot Abrams?

Last I heard Elliot held a UN human rights office for Bush, a direct slap in the face to the rest of the world. Elliot would be a logical choice for the Chimpster, our personal Anti-Christ, if he wants to sustain U.S. terror in Iraq.

[moondust]

129. He's jumping ship.

He doesn't want to be aboard or even on the same continent when it hits bottom.

[Roland99]

51. We're fucked

But, what criminal will replace him in the US Palace in Baghdad?

[Pachamama]

52. OMG! The Final Solution is nearing here at home! Time to Leave!

:scared:

This seriously is perhaps the most shocking and sickening appointment yet...

[DARE to HOPE]

53. Personally pushing nuns out of helicopters!!!

God help us!!!

[DemoTex]

54. Another giant step toward full-blown fascism.

This news nauseates me.

[Just Me]

57. Outrage upon outrage. Crooks, criminals, corporatists in charge.

Fascists, for sure, are in charge.

[G_j]

63. WP: Bush Nominates Negroponte to New Intel Post

(oh shit!)
===
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31826-2005Feb17.html

Bush Nominates Negroponte to New Intel Post
Iraq Ambassador Will Return to Washington

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 17, 2005; 11:54 AM

President Bush today named veteran diplomat John D. Negroponte to the new post of national intelligence chief, picking the current ambassador to Iraq and former envoy to the United Nations in a surprise choice to oversee 15 intelligence agencies.

If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte, 65, will assume a post created by legislation aimed at overhauling the nation’s intelligence system. He was appointed by Bush last year as the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq after the ouster of Saddam Hussein and recently announced, without explanation, that he would be leaving that post.

Bush named as Negroponte’s deputy the current head of the National Security Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden. A career Air Force intelligence officer, Hayden heads the nation’s largest intelligence service, and his appointment to be deputy national intelligence director served to underscore the significance that Bush is attaching to the top job.

“As DNI , John will lead a unified intelligence community and will serve as the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters,” Bush said in making the announcement. He said Negroponte would have authority over budgets and that the CIA director would report to Negroponte. Bush also said that Negroponte would be “my primary briefer” on intelligence on a daily basis and would have regular access to the president, although he would not work in the White House.

..more..

[Lindacooks]

64. Well, that completes the package.

Mr. Death Squads joins Mr. Torture.

[cthrumatrix]

72. things are getting VERY SERIOUS

[whistle]

65. Holy crap, now I know the U.S. government has fallen to the...

...dark side! John Negroponte, the butcher of Latin America and now the middle-east to be the new intelligence czar. The Rex-84 concentration camps are making more sense then ever!!!!!

[4morewars]

66. Can't they see the blood...

dripping from this guys fangs ?????

Oh, wait, I forgot, they are blinded by their greed.

[Festivito]

67. DU LBN Thread link

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1244704

[radwriter0555]

68. The New Americanazis are firmly in control of our government now. Gulags

are next.

[struggle4progress]

143. Intelligence Nominee Comes Under Renewed Scrutiny on Human Rights

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: February 19, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - Human rights advocates repeated longstanding criticisms on Friday of John D. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee as director of national intelligence. They said accusations that he covered up abuses as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980's had a new importance after recent cases of American abuse of detainees.

In Honduras, Mr. Negroponte "looked the other way" when evidence of rights violations came to light, said Reed Brody, counsel to Human Rights Watch.

"Unfortunately," Mr. Brody said, "today the United States is involved in serious human rights crimes committed in the process of collecting intelligence. Is he just going to look the other way again?"

Sandra Coliver, executive director of the Center for Justice and Accountability, a human rights law center in San Francisco that has aided Honduran torture victims, said the nomination would hurt the United States' image in Central America. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/politics/19intel.html?

[progressivebydesign]

70. The criminals are coming home to roost. God help us! n/t

[lebkuchen]

71. When are they going to trot out Richard Secord?

Every scumbag from Iran/Contra is present, but we haven't heard from DICK.

[never_get_over_it]

73. I was just thinking

after reading that Negroponte is 65 and has been in the Gov't for 40 years - maybe we need a mandatory retirement age - that would be a way to get rid of these re-cycled freaks - you know like Rumsfeld and such - man I'm so sick of these evils shits being rewarded.

[Lilith Velkor]

75. I can only say one thing about that

:puke:

[KamaAina]

76. I guess they figured an intel *czar* had to be a murderous fascist

Negroponte is certainly extremely well qualified by those standards!

[Barrett808]

79. So whom will his domestic death squads target first?

DU members? Arab-Americans? Black inner-city activists?

I imagine the drill will be:

1. Strip American citizenship under the Patriot Act.
2. Ship to secret detention facility inside or outside the US (El Aguacate? Extraordinary rendition to Egypt?).
3. Seize assets of family after former US citizen joins the desaparecidos.
4. Sell children on the black market, as did the Argentine "Dirty War" generals.

[Huckebein the Raven]

83. How about all of the above

[Minstrel Boy]

80. "Where the Death Squad Lives"

An '80s tribute to Negroponte by Bruce Cockburn:

Goons in blackface creeping in the road --
Farm family waiting for the night to explode --
Working the land in an age of terror
You come to see the moon as the bad news bearer
Down where the death squad lives

They cut down people like they cut down trees --
Chop off its head so it will stay on its knees --
The forest shrinks but the earth remains
Slash and burn and it grows again
Down where the death squad lives.

I've got friends trying to batter the system down
Fighting the past till the future comes round.
It'll never be a perfect world till God declares it that way
But that don't mean there's nothing we can do or say
Down where the death squad lives

Like some kind of never-ending Easter passion,
From every agony a hero's fashioned.
Around every evil there gathers love --
Bombs aren't the only things that fall from above
Down where the death squad lives

Sometimes I feel like there's a padlock on my soul.
If you opened up my heart you'd find a big black hole
But when the feeling comes through, it comes through strong --
If you think there's no difference between right and wrong
Just go down where the death squad lives

This world can be better than it is today
You can say I'm a dreamer but that's okay
Without the could-be and the might-have-been
All you've got left is your fragile skin
And that ain't worth much down where the death squad lives

[mike_c]

81. Negroponte should be rotting in prison, not running a government...

...department in a country that claims to respect the rule of law.

[psychopomp]

84. America, she's dying

Not long now...

[Danmel]

85. It's just Unbearable

Every spot filled with a bobble head goon and the media gushes and fawns. I'm sure Schumer will be on any minute extolling Negroponte's virtues. What the hell has happened to us? I am so depressed.

[Bake]

86. Bush gives America the finger!

EVery single damn day!

Bake

[lyonn]

88. Nelson of Fla.

On CNN just said he was a good choice. What a smart fellow. Can he read is the question.

[DistantWind88]

90. AF Lt Gen Mike Hayden is going to be Negroponte's deputy

[lyonn]

92. Exactly, per Sy Hersch

It all seems to fit. Our CM is acting like his nomination is no big deal. How can I quit smoking with all this terrifying sh-t going on?
History apparently means nothing anymore. Obviously I am too old to understand where these talking heads are coming from. This Gannon thing is the only dumbas- thing to take hold in the CM media, little as it is, and something like Negopo---- gets this serious sounding babble, ugh.

[dean_dem]

94. Quote from CNN article:

"To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras."

As if the existing heads in the Bush Administration weren't already divorced enough from reality.

UFB.

[Roland99]

97. How about this quote from a CNN article?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/02/17/falkenrath/
Richard Falkenrath, a former deputy homeland security adviser to the president.

He's a man of high integrity, of good judgment and discretion. And those are values that really resonate with the president.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[lyonn]

103. How can I object to such logic

Kidding of course. But for how many days, and during conf. hearings will we hear this crap? It won't stop till he is confirmed. Come on Senate Dems. - do something! Get your staff off their bench.

[tom_paine]

99. Dear God, why do you hate Amerika so?

Is it because we are now in the family of nations that includes the nazis, the soviets, and Ferdinand Marcos' phillipines?

Is it because so many in Amerika have embraced the anti-Christ and anti-Christian values such as "Blessed are the warmakers"?

Or is it just because you don't anything, you let it ALL happen. You didn't stop Hitler, you didn't stop Stalin, and you won't stop Bush.

And the Ambassador of Death Squads, returning home to work his Black magic on the Imperial Subjects of Amerika.

If Negroponte is on Amerikan Soil again readying to be in command of Imperial Secret Police, is there any doubt LIHOP #2 is coming, and damned soon?

Negroponte will soon be instituting a Kinder and Gentler Salvadoran Option.

But AFTER he lets our guard down for LIHOP #2, not before.

[kath]

115. Agree, LIHOP #2 (or MIHOP - take your pick) is coming soon.

<shudder>

[Swamp Rat]

126. Right, but not until AFTER.

[Zhade]

100. Why did Kerry vote for Negroponte to be ambassador to the U.N.?

I've asked this question numerous times of Kerry fans, and they have never been able to explain that vote.

Negroponte was involved in Iran-Contra. Kerry investigated Iran-Contra and by extension Negroponte. He knows Negroponte is a criminal, brutish man who loves death squads' ability to wipe out dissidents.

Yet Kerry VOTED FOR this guy? WTF?

Anyone?

[CWebster]

105. Senators who voted Nay

Only three senators — Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), Richard Durbin (D.-Ill.), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) — voted against confirming the nomination. Sen. Harkin alone spoke out against Negroponte’s confirmation, citing his “callous disregard for human rights abuses through his tenure as U.S. ambassador to Honduras.”



http://www.mayispeakfreely.org/index.php?gSec=doc&doc_id=10

[Zhade]

106. Yes. Shameful. Still doesn't answer the question.

Kerry KNEW this guy was a criminal when he voted for him! WHY DID HE VOTE FOR HIM? (Not yelling at you, just frustrated that no one can ever answer.)

[countryjake]

135. Not really an answer, but...

there's a suspicious quote at the tail-end of Sarah Wildman's Negroponte article in The New Republic from way back in March 2001. Sounds like he may have been taken out of context & it's not clear if this was a direct response to Negroponte's UN appointment or not. Just a typical "patriotic regurgitation" of those seeking office, like all the rest in control. I'm not a fan, tho I do also wonder.


http://www.globalpolicy.org/unitedstates/unpolicy/gen2001/0308negr.htm

~snip~

But Washington has a short memory, and even Capitol Hill's most impassioned opponents of the Reagan administration's Central America policy don't plan to question, let alone oppose, Negroponte's nomination. "If there were ever a time for a nonideological, bipartisan foreign policy, this is it," says former adversary and potential presidential candidate Senator John Kerry.

Seems like Negroponte's see-no-evil political style is catching on.

[Zhade]

136. Thanks for at least attempting to explain.

The fact that no Kerry fans will even try tells me they know it's inexcusable and will avoid talking about it.

I, on the other hand, won't.

[countryjake]

137. Maybe once this confirmation slides easily thru...

more will become aware that there ain't much difference between the two.

[Zhade]

138. Believe me, I'm watching Kerry on this vote.

In fact, I'm thinking of sending him a letter detailing Negroponte's past, just to remind him HE HAS NO EXCUSE.

[Zhade]

128. So no one knows why Kerry voted for Negroponte?

Why am I not surprised that Kerry fans will not answer this question?

They probably can't, but even an honest attempt would be better than silence!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[warrens]

107. Lock up your nuns and lay sisters

We know what Mr. Negroponte likes to do to them.

[Disturbed]

110. How many Dems will vote yes for this creep?

My guess 99.9%.

[sattahipdeep]

111. The Real Carpetbaggers

The 77 senators who voted for this war.

[ElectroPrincess]

145. Nope, we don't have true Representatives in our national reps ...

Don't it make the child in you want to run to bed and pull up the covers? Oh damn, just heard on CSPAN radio another "they're socialist" threatening RW wacko.

Bless Al Frankin but we should of begun waking up to them feeding all the propaganda to the sheeple years back. Better late than never.

On topic: These nation (House and Senate) Democrats are selling out in a big way.

[ausiedownunderground]

116. Don't worry-This greek psycho is in the Iraqi guerrillas RPG sites!

This guy is the nearest thing to "pure evil"! Which i suppose is a pre-requisite for membership of "The Bush Gang"! Does this announcement mean he's got out of "The Green Zone" alive??? or is he going to be running American Intel from behind concrete blast walls. Thats a good place to get Intel from!

[chlamor]

118. Negroponte is the right man for the job

He is the consummate technocrat for the empire. A truly sinister bastard. It is at moments such as this that I hope that there is a God and that (S)He is vengeful beyond all comprehension.
Background on John Negroponte

The New York Times credits John Negroponte with "carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua" during his tenure as US Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 and 1985.  After Congress banned official governmental aid to the Contras, Negroponte undermined Congressional intent by providing logistical support for two U.S. mercenaries determined to supply arms to the Contra army.  When the operation was exposed nine months later, the Reagan administration denied any U.S. government involvement, despite Negroponte's contact earlier that year.  Other documents reveal a scheme of Negroponte and Vice President George Bush to funnel Contra aid money through the Honduran government. During his tenure alone, military aid to Honduras grew from $4 million to $77.4 million a year.

In addition to his work with the Nicaraguan Contra army, Negroponte deliberately falsified State Department human rights reports throughout his time in Honduras.  He helped conceal from Congress the murder, kidnapping and torture abuses of a CIA-equipped and trained Honduran military unit, Battalion 316.  In fact, there is strong evidence that under Negroponte's leadership, at least one CIA agent had unfettered access to the torture chamber of a prominent Honduran woman kidnapped by Battalion 316.  Instead of reporting her whereabouts to family and the proper Honduran judicial authorities, the agent actively collaborated in her torture by reviewing her torturers' questions and suggesting lines of interrogation.  No mention of these human rights violations ever appeared in State Department Human Rights reports for Honduras.
There is ample evidence that Negroponte was fully aware of Battalion 316's human rights violations.  The Baltimore Sun reports that Efrain Diaz Arrivillaga, then a delegate in the Honduran Congress, told the Sun that he complained to Negroponte on numerous occasions about the Honduran military's human rights abuses without result.  Rick Chidester, a junior Embassy Official under Negroponte, similarly reported to the Sun that he was forced to omit an exhaustive gathering of human rights violations from his 1982 State Department report.  In 1996, Negroponte's predecessor Jack Binns exposed Negroponte for having lied when, in 1982, he claimed to have no knowledge of the disappearance of over 32 Salvadoran nuns and women of faith who had fled to Honduras in 1981.  Binns reported that in 1982 the U.S. Embassy was fully aware that the women had been tortured and killed by the Honduran secret police. General Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, commander of Battalion 316 during Negroponte's tenure, has publicly claimed to have information linking Negroponte with Battalion 316's activities.  In 1994, the Honduran Human Rights Commission charged Negroponte personally with several human rights abuses.
http://www.nisgua.org/articles/urgent_action.htm

Here are some thoughts on some of his like minded friends, Eliot Abrams and Otto Reich.
These three were the triangle of murder and mayhem throughout Latin America in the 80's and very reliable bastards for papa Bush. I am going to surmise that attentions are going to be directed at Chavez much more intensely, and that Abrams and Negroponte will possibly turn their focus to their old haunts. Too much trouble with the Iraq pipelines at present, patience while the military bases are fully operational. In the meantime this Chavez guy is out of control, meaning out of US control, we need some real counterinsurgency experts to get that oil. Has anybody seen Otto? Here's more and a few links:

At the United Nations the next day, according to the New York Times of Oct. 9, "the American representative, John Negroponte, submitted a letter to the Security Council saying the United States may find it necessary to carry its military campaign into other nations, without specifying which ones."

"We may find that our self-defense requires further actions with respect to other organizations and other states," said the letter. The Times interpretation was that this was laying the groundwork for attacks on Iraq, Lebanon, Syria "and other countries identified as harboring terrorists."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/GOL110A.html

But the crucial figure around the coup was Abrams, who operates in the White House as senior director of the National Security Council for 'democracy, human rights and international opera tions'. He was a leading theoretician of the school known as 'Hemispherism', which put a priority on combating Marxism in the Americas.

It led to the coup in Chile in 1973, and the sponsorship of regimes and death squads that followed it in Argentina, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and elsewhere. During the Contras' rampage in Nicaragua, he worked directly to North.

Congressional investigations found Abrams had harvested illegal funding for the rebellion. Convicted for withholding information from the inquiry, he was pardoned by George Bush senior.

A third member of the Latin American triangle in US policy-making is John Negroponte, now ambassador to the United Nations. He was Reagan's ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 when a US-trained death squad, Battalion 3-16, tortured and murdered scores of activists. A diplomatic source said Negroponte had been 'informed that there might be some movement in Venezuela on Chavez' at the beginning of the year.



The strategy is named after the Reagan-Bush administration’s “still-secret strategy” of supporting El Salvador’s right-wing security forces, which operated clandestine “death squads” to eliminate both leftist guerrillas and their civilian sympathizers, Newsweek reported. “Many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success – despite the deaths of innocent civilians,” Newsweek wrote.

Central America Veterans

The magazine also noted that a number of Bush administration officials were leading figures in the Central American operations of the 1980s, such as John Negroponte, who was then U.S. Ambassador to Honduras and is now U.S. Ambassador to Iraq.

Other current officials who played key roles in Central America include Elliott Abrams, who oversaw Central American policies at the State Department and who is now a Middle East adviser on Bush’s National Security Council staff, and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was a powerful defender of the Central American policies while a member of the House of Representatives.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/PAR501A.html

[kath]

119. kick

[TankLV]

120. And we wonder how much worse it could get.

I hate to think what we'll be seeing/saying a year from now - or 4.

This is really scary.

[BeHereNow]

125. I hate to say "I told you so" but...

Last year I postulated that the first round of
derelicts were but the warm up team, and
that in the second term we would see the
REAL nightmare team brought in.
I think my theory has just been proven.
The analogy of Negroponte's appointment in my book?

Joseph Mengale has just been appointed the director of
the Children's Hospital in Los Angeles.
Time to get out folks.
Seriously.
BHN

[The Minus World]

132. Truly a Great Egalitarian...

While we salivate over the crumbs of journalistic responsibility thrown to us by desultory mainstream media outlets, concerning Gannon's credentials, many of us are blinded to the bigger picture.

The criminals in the Bush administration are no longer planning their moves with political discretion.

They will act in ways which will alienate even their greatest proponents, and those who knew this was coming all along may feel a slight sense of vindication before the axe falls.

[Maestro]

134. Scum par excellence!

Boy if I ever hear a freeper talking about Bill Clinton as "Teflon Bill" or "Slick Willy" I am going to hurl because this guy is dirty, dirty, dirty but nothing has ever stuck. Shrubco appoints yet another deviant to a high post. :eyes:

[malaise]

140. Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here

Great article from Tom Paine.
<snip>
The appointment of John Negroponte to be director of National Intelligence is the latest evidence that President Bush is strengthening his cabinet's capacity to mislead Congress and trample civil liberties. Ray McGovern, 27-year veteran of the CIA, examines the meaning of the Negroponte appointment and the dark trend it confirms.


http://www.tompaine.com/articles/hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php

[Maestro]

141. Good article

Thanks.

[Itsthetruth]

142. So How Many Do You Think Will Vote Against Negroponte's Nomination?

Any guesses on how many Democratic Senators will vote against him"

40?

30?

Perhaps only 25?

[sattahipdeep]

144. 1?.... Henry Kissinger, his boss....

The matter came up at his Senate confirmation hearings for the
UN job in 2001. Thanks partly to their timing just after the
September 11 attacks, the foreign relations committee gave him
the benefit of the doubt by a 14-3 vote.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2088-1491501_2,00.html

Kissinger, his boss too....
The credibility of our nation has been undermined by Bremer; he has disgraced the
United States.

http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=259


The Real Carpetbaggers The 77 senators who voted for this war.

Byrd Warns "We Stand Passively Mute"

by Senator Robert Byrd:
"To contemplate war is to think about the most horrible of human experiences.
On this February day, as this nation stands at the brink of battle, every American
on some level must be contemplating the horrors of war.
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_speeches/byrd_speeches_2003february/byrd_speeches_2003march_list/byrd_speeches_2003march_list_1.html
Yet, this Chamber is, for the most part, silent -- ominously, dreadfully
silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the
nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

[Democrat Dragon]

146. unfortuantley, you're going to have to tell them not to vote

especially Boxer, who hasn't given an excuse yet for voting "yea"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1611068&mesg_id=1611214&page=

[deadparrot]

147. I wouldn't trust anyone with the title "czar."

I don't care who the hell it is.

[struggle4progress]

148. Promoting the 'Ambassador of Torture': Bush Nominates Negroponte ...

... for Intel Czar

<snip> SISTER LAETITIA BORDES: Yes, I went to Honduras in May of 1982 on a fact-finding delegation. As you know, Archbishop Romero had been assassinated in El Salvador in 1980, and there were quite a few members of Christian-based communities who were being picked up and disappearing in El Salvador. So, a group of 32 women -- by the way, these were not nuns. They were lay women, but they were members of Christian-based communities who had been followers of Archbishop Romero, had gone to Honduras to seek refuge from the repression that was taking place in El Salvador at that time. These 32 women -- also included were four children, by the way, in that group -- disappeared in Honduras, and there were witnesses to their disappearance. Vans pulled up in front of the safe house where they were staying, and they were taken and never heard from again. And so, this was -- this happened in April of 1981, and I went to Honduras in May of 1982 and met with John Negroponte to find out what had happened to these 32 women. And John Negroponte said very clearly that the embassy in El Salvador did not know what happened to those women, that we would need to talk to the Honduran government to find out about their fate. We went back. We did speak with the Honduran government. We had meetings there, and they referred us very clearly to our American embassy and sent us back to the American embassy and told us we would need to go through them to find out what had happened to the women. We had two meetings with John Negroponte. The first, and then we went to the Honduran government, and then returned to John Negroponte with the information that we had been given from the Honduran government, and again, he denied clearly the whereabouts of these women. He was very specific in saying that the embassy in Honduras did not interfere in Honduran affairs. That was very, very clear. At the same time, we were talking to different people in Honduras, and it was clear from the people with whom we spoke that John Negroponte was working closely with General Alvarez, who was Chief of the Armed Forces in Honduras at that time. And he was facilitating, really, the training of Honduran soldiers and psychological warfare and sabotage, and many types of human rights violations. And by the way, the co-founder -- the founder and commander of battalion 316, who was General Discua, had been trained at the School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, which is very interesting. So, we see the close connections that there was there between what was going on in Honduras and the American government. <snip>

ANDRES CONTRERIS: Amy it's really good to be with you, and I'm glad that you're really focusing on this very, very important issue. I not only disrupted Negroponte last year in April, but also in September of 2001 when he was having his hearing to become Ambassador to the United Nations. The reason that I stood up on both of those occasions is because I was trying to be a voice for the voiceless in Honduras. The sister of Manfredo Velazquez whose name is Venaida Velazquez, she was the founder of the Committee of the Family Members of the Disappeared in Honduras. She asked me to go to the hearing when Negroponte was to be confirmed to be Ambassador to the United Nations, and to be a presence there on his behalf. I did not plan to do anything at that time, but when Negroponte said in sworn testimony that he had never even heard of Battalion 316 until years after he left the post in Honduras, I couldn't believe this incredible lie that he was committing, which is a crime, and I decided to risk arrest by standing up and telling him that the people of Honduras consider him to be a state terrorist. This was two days after September 11. I was whisked out of the room at that time. Then last year in April, when he was being -- in the hearing to be confirmed to be Ambassador to Iraq, I also returned at that time because it just seems incredible that this man, who we consider to be a promoter of torture, knowing that that's what was going on in Honduras and Central America, this is the man who just before the Abu Ghraib scandal was breaking -- he was being -- he was under testimony then in the Senate, and he clearly went to Iraq having had the experience of covering up U.S. involvement in torture in Central America. So, this is a state terrorist that needs to be confronted. He needs to be accused of war crimes. He needs to be taken to trial. <snip>

PETER KORNBLUH: I think Andres is absolutely correct that John Negroponte misled the Senate in his confirmation hearings about his knowledge of Battalion 316 about his knowledge of death squad activity. The C.I.A. did report to him on various atrocities that took place. There is some evidence in partially declassified C.I.A. Inspector General's report about the Battalion and its atrocities and about the reporting out of the embassy by both the C.I.A. officers and diplomatic attaches there that seems to imply that Negroponte preferred not to see honest, hard reporting going back to Washington on atrocities being committed by our very strong allies in Honduras. People have to remember, and certainly your listeners remember better than anybody, that they -- your audience and many others in this country -- made Reagan's policy in Central America controversial and managed to get Congress -- push Congress to cut off aid to the Contras. So, any negative reporting on our main allies' activities in Honduras would have given further ammunition to the critics of Negroponte's policies, Reagan's policies, et cetera. That's why there are strong indications that he squashed this reporting. He certainly was critical to the Contra war effort. What he had told the sister about not interfering in Honduran affairs is quite frankly laughable, because he was named essentially the Proconsul. He essentially was a fallback to the age of gunboat diplomacy when the U.S. Ambassador ran a Central American country. In the early 1980's, he was in that position in Honduras. I'm holding a declassified White House document which is from 1983, and it's a memo to the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. It begins, “Ambassador Negroponte, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, has recommended that we increase the number of weapons issued to the F.D.N. forces.” The F.D.N., of course, was the leading contra force and the one most strongly associated with massive human rights violations of civilians in Nicaragua. And in his memo, Negroponte has apparently recommended that the United States send 3,000 additional rifles to the F.D.N. forces, and his recommendation is approved by the President. There are two little R.R.'s, Ronald Reagan, and a yes box under the recommendation in his options memo. So, you get a sense from these declassified records of how important Negroponte was and the type of odd role he played, stepping out of his position as ambassador, a diplomat, and essentially putting on the hat of the C.I.A. station chief and pushing forward the Contra war. <snip>

SISTER LAETITIA BORDES: Yes. When I heard the news yesterday, I must say I was devastated, absolutely devastated. I wondered, can things get any worse, really, and I am frightened for our own country. I think of what happened in Central America and countries like Honduras, like El Salvador, like Guatemala, where ordinary people organized for justice, for their basic rights and they disappeared. And I'm wondering if that's the road that we are on now, when we hear the President saying that John Negroponte's responsible for getting the information that we need and gathering all of the intelligence, and you know, stopping them before they stop us. That kind of language. It really frightens me. Sometimes I feel that we're on a rollercoaster, and we're headed down, and there's no one pulling the switch. And I think that the switch ought to have been pulled on John Negroponte years ago. When the Senate nominated him --approved his nomination to be Ambassador to the U.N., that was their fault. When once again, they approved his nomination as Ambassador to Iraq, I mean, they bear the responsibility for that. Right now, his confirmation is going to come before the Senate again. Are they going to approve this nomination? I mean, when is all of this going to stop? That is what I'm asking. When is it going to stop? <snip>

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/18/157206