Intelligence czar/Negroponte

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Author Message   Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4534 Registered: 10-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 9:35 am:        you heard it here first folks.. Straw is a proud American.   Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4539 Registered: 10-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 12:48 pm:        wow, libs scream and yell for an intelligence czar after nine-eleven. You finally get one and no reax at all. libs, worthless and weak..   Joe Citizen Username: Gonets Post Number: 699 Registered: 2-2004 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 12:54 pm:        Here's my reax. Can we expect the "Salvador Option" to be exercised within our borders?   themp Supporter Username: Themp Post Number: 1488 Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 1:35 pm:        Somone pointed out it's interesting that he was so willing (eager?) to get out of his current job in Iraq. By the way: Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met privately with Republican pollsters twice in a 10-day span last spring as he embarked on more than a dozen trips to presidential battleground states, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Ridge's get-togethers with Republican strategists Frank Luntz and Bill McInturff during a period the secretary was saying his agency was playing no role in Bush's re-election campaign were revealed in daily appointment calendars obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act. "We don't do politics in the Department of Homeland Security," Ridge told reporters during the election season. His aides resisted releasing the calendars for over a year, finally providing them to the AP three days after Ridge left office this month.   Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4544 Registered: 10-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 7:07 pm:        What's funny is Negroponte was an Iran-Contra regular and now he's the top intelligence guy in the nation. And the libs still have no idea who he is. Libs, never doing their homework, never getting anything right.   Mustt_mustt Citizen Username: Mustt_mustt Post Number: 281 Registered: 8-2003 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 8:03 pm:        Funny you said that, S'berrry? Or, should say I say you asked for it? _____________ www.thenation.org How many times can I write the same piece about John Negroponte? Today George W. Bush named him to the new post of Director of National Intelligence. Previously, Bush had hired Negroponte to be UN ambassador and then US ambassador to the new Iraq. On each of those earlier occasions, I noted that Negroponte's past deserved scrutiny. After all, during the Reagan years, when he was ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte was involved in what was arguably an illegal covert quid pro quo connected to the Iran/contra scandal, and he refused to acknowledge significant human rights abuses committed by the pro-US military in Honduras. But each time Negroponte's appointment came before the Senate, he won easy confirmation. Now that he's been tapped to lead the effort to reorganize and reform an intelligence community that screwed up 9/11 and the WMD-in-Iraq assignment, Negroponte will likely sail through the confirmation process once again. His previous exploits, though, warrant more attention than ever. He has been credibly accused of rigging a human rights report that was politically inconvenient. This is a bad omen. The fundamental mission of the intelligence community is to provide policymakers with unvarnished and valuable information-even if it causes the policymakers headaches. But there's reason to believe that Negroponte did the opposite in tough circumstances. If that is the case, he would not be the right man to oversee an intelligence community that needs solid leaders who are committed to truth-finding. Rather than rewrite my previous work on Negroponte, I am posting below the article I did after Bush named him the viceroy of Baghdad. It's more relevant today than when it first appeared. But I doubt Negroponte's dark history will finally trigger a confirmation debate within the Senate. He has skated in the past; he'll likely do so again. Bush's New Iraq Viceroy by DAVID CORN May 10, 2004 issue Like dirty money, tainted reputations can be laundered, as the Administration fervently hopes in the case of John Negroponte. Now UN ambassador, Negroponte has been chosen by George W. Bush to be the first ambassador to post-Saddam Iraq. When Bush selected Negroponte to be his UN representative in 2001, Negroponte was one of several Iran/contra figures being resurrected by the Bush crowd. As Honduras ambassador in the early 1980s, Negroponte, a career diplomat, participated in a secret and possibly illegal quid pro quo in which the Reagan Administration bribed the Honduran government with economic and military assistance to support the contras fighting the socialist Sandinistas of Nicaragua. Perhaps more significant, while Negroponte served in Honduras, he denied or downplayed serious human rights abuses by government security forces. This past threatened his confirmation as UN ambassador. But 9/11 rescued Negroponte. At the time of the attack, his nomination was pending, and the Senate moved quickly to approve him. These days Negroponte's tenure in Honduras is old news. The Washington Post's front-page story on his nomination did not mention his stint there. Senate staffers say that his record in Honduras won't be a focus of the confirmation hearings. But his tour of duty there is worth scrutiny, for it raises questions about his credibility and his ability to handle tough situations and inconvenient truths. While he was in Honduras and for years afterward, Negroponte refused to acknowledge the human rights abuses. In a 1982 letter to The Economist he said it was "simply untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in Honduras." The next year he maintained, "There is no indication that the infrequent human rights violations that do occur are part of deliberate government policy." And during his 2001 confirmation he stated, "I do not believe then, nor do I believe now, that these abuses were part of a deliberate government policy. To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras." How then does he account for a 1997 CIA Inspector General investigation that concluded, "The Honduran military committed hundreds of human rights abuses since 1980, many of which were politically motivated and officially sanctioned" and linked to "death squad activities"? Not only has Negroponte declined to acknowledge the obvious; when he was ambassador, the State Department rigged its Honduras human rights reports to Congress. As a 1995 Baltimore Sun series noted, "A comparison of the annual human rights reports prepared while Negroponte was ambassador with the facts as they were then known shows that Congress was deliberately misled." The Sun reported, "Time and again...Negroponte was confronted with evidence that a Honduran army intelligence unit, trained by the CIA, was stalking, kidnapping, torturing and killing suspected subversives." But this didn't make it into State Department reports. Had Honduras been found to be engaging in systematic abuses, it could have lost its US aid--thwarting the Reagan Administration's use of Honduras to support the contras. Negroponte has claimed "there was no effort to soft pedal" abuses in Honduras. Yet in public statements he repeatedly conveyed a misleading appearance, and in the years since he has held tight--in the face of compelling evidence--to the view that the abuses that did occur were merely unfortunate exceptions. Negroponte's confirmation hearing will provide senators a chance to probe Bush's plans (or lack thereof) in Iraq. But if Negroponte's record as an abuse denier is not questioned, as seems likely, he will once again be able to escape his haunted past.   Strawberry Alarm Clock Supporter Username: Strawberry Post Number: 4546 Registered: 10-2001 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 10:55 pm:        Amazing how I have to do all the thinking for the left around here. Now, I'm sure once the libs realize who Negroponte is, they'll quickly become board with the gay reporter b.s. libs, they never learn, but despite this I'll keep trying to educate them.   Nohero Citizen Username: Nohero Post Number: 4344 Registered: 10-1999 Posted on Thursday, February 17, 2005 - 11:45 pm:        Well, the "gay reporter", as you put it (otherwise known as "the right-wing shill who got into the White House with a phony name who nobody in the Administration will admit knowing"), is an indication that the Administration scoffs at the average American. And John "What Central American Death Squads, Senator?" Negroponte is the perfect choice for an Intelligence Czar in this Administration. We'd expect no less.   Innisowen Citizen Username: Innisowen Post Number: 432 Registered: 3-2004 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 9:09 am:        Ah, now, let's let Negroponte and Strawberry Alarm Clock have their day! After all, Negroponte has spent a whole 5 and a half months in Iraq, so he probably qualifies as what the administration calls an "expert" on Islamic terrorists, "nation-building," peace-keeping, and the integration and interpretation of diverse (not to say miscellaneous, not to say scattered, not to say questionable) intelligence information. Once again, the WH has decided to provide the nation with a figure-head leader, vs one who might have the guts to express an opinion contrary to W's. Well, the nation, excuse me, "the homeland," is getting exactly what it voted for.   Joe Citizen Username: Gonets Post Number: 701 Registered: 2-2004 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 9:44 am:        Obviously my comment went over Straw's head. Not hard to do.   Bobkat Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 7640 Registered: 5-2001 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 10:08 am:        I think Negroponte was a surprise choice, which kept most of us quiet for awhile while we checked with Lib HQ (aka The New York Times). My initial reaction was that he has no known intelignece background and is a government lifer and thus probably an insider, something Bush usually hates. However, in a forty year career hopefully he has developed a good •••••••• detector and his diplomatic skills might make him a pretty good choice. Also, he is probably not the type to rock the boat, salute when taking orders and be a good fit for a post Bush didn't want in the first place. I don't think he will have any trouble being confirmed, which may also have been a factor in his nomination. I think Bush wants to save those fights for the judicial nominations.   themp Supporter Username: Themp Post Number: 1506 Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 10:53 am:        Joe- I know you to be a wise man. I would be very circumspect about picking up any ate-bay that someone might be laying down. Don't pick up anything that has frankenberry-like fingerprints on it. It is tainted with poison, and designed to inflame and irritate you. Posting safety is up to you. Respond with caution to suspiciously stupid postings.   themp Supporter Username: Themp Post Number: 1508 Registered: 12-2001 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:18 am:        I guess I meant "ait-bay". I unked-flayed pig latin.   Nohero Citizen Username: Nohero Post Number: 4346 Registered: 10-1999 Posted on Friday, February 18, 2005 - 11:33 am:        Itsway allway oodgay.