Bush names John Negroponte as Ambassador to Iraq

[conjur]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=2&u=/nm/20040419/pl_nm/bush_iraq_negroponte_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) on Monday tapped John Negroponte, the top American diplomat at the United Nations (news - web sites), to be his ambassador to Iraq (news - web sites) after sovereignty is restored to the country on June 30.

Bush called it a "very difficult assignment," but, with Negroponte at his side, said, "There's no doubt in my mind he can handle it."




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

Negroponte was US ambassador to Honduras during the years when the right-wing Nicaraguan Contra forces were based in southern Honduras, just across the border from Nicaragua, supplied and armed illegally by the Reagan administration.
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Negroponte?s role is best documented for his term as ambassador to Honduras, a country dominated by US corporations and completely dependent on the US government politically and militarily. The US ambassador in Tegucigalpa is the de facto pro-consul who makes or breaks presidents and generals. At Negroponte?s direction the Honduran military provided protection and assistance to the Contra terrorists. With his tacit permission, if not active encouragement, the Honduran military carried out systematic murders of refugees from war-torn El Salvador and among its domestic opponents in Honduras itself.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/column.billpress/

Negroponte served as Reagan?s Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. He was personally responsible for carrying out the Reagan administration?s illegal policy of training and arming Contra rebels inside Honduras for the purpose of overthrowing Nicaragua?s Sandinista government. He also oversaw the build-up of the Honduran military, while turning a blind eye to their campaigns of death and torture.

This was a period when the Honduran military?s notorious Battalion 316, trained by the CIA, killed or ?disappeared? at least 184 political opponents. Hundreds of articles in Honduran newspapers reported on the brutality of the government?s death squads.

International human rights organizations condemned Honduras. Negroponte's predecessor had warned him about the alarming increase in extrajudicial military executions and torture of political opponents. Yet Negroponte insists, still today, there were no death squads in Honduras and, if there were, he knew nothing about them.

Either Negroponte?s lying or he?s totally incompetent. Either way, the notion that he could now stand in the United Nations and condemn other nations for their human rights abuses is absurd.

 

[conjur]

^^

 

[wkabel23]

Negroponte served as Reagan?s Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. He was personally responsible for carrying out the Reagan administration?s illegal policy of training and arming Contra rebels inside Honduras for the purpose of overthrowing Nicaragua?s Sandinista government. He also oversaw the build-up of the Honduran military, while turning a blind eye to their campaigns of death and torture.

This was a period when the Honduran military?s notorious Battalion 316, trained by the CIA, killed or ?disappeared? at least 184 political opponents. Hundreds of articles in Honduran newspapers reported on the brutality of the government?s death squads.

International human rights organizations condemned Honduras. Negroponte's predecessor had warned him about the alarming increase in extrajudicial military executions and torture of political opponents. Yet Negroponte insists, still today, there were no death squads in Honduras and, if there were, he knew nothing about them.

Either Negroponte?s lying or he?s totally incompetent. Either way, the notion that he could now stand in the United Nations and condemn other nations for their human rights abuses is absurd.

It'd be interesting to find out Bush's reasoning for picking out Negroponte.

 

[Infohawk]

Negroponte has a terrible human-rights record. This is sad news. But at least he won't be in the UN anymore!

It is laughable that Iraq will have a US ambassador when it is still under its occupation. The June 30 deadline is truly meaningless. The US will rule Iraq through might well afterwards.

 

[conjur]

Ambassador Nominee Defends Limits on Iraq's Sovereignty

This guy is a tool.

A heckler shouted out to the Senators to ask Negroponte about his role in death squads in Honduras.

 

[TechJunkie95242]

Hahahahah, nice conjur....

Yah I was watching him on C-SPAN for a couple hours earlier today and I just got a kick out of it...