"a unique set of skills"
Look, we a basically f*cking doomed. doomed. Negroponte? Aside from the moral problems I have with the Iran Contra issue, the Honduran death squads and our point man in Panama (now a Florida jail) - the bottom line is aside from loyally protecting our current president's dad, what has Negroponte done well? Nothing. He suffers from the worst of all Neocon traits - a belief that by doing what he believes is right (not legal mind you) he will make things better in the long run. I just don't see proof of that anywhere he's touched anything - Is Honduras safer? is Iran better off than it was? Nicaragua is only better off because Cuba couldn't afford to keep it propped up anymore. What makes us think John's going to handle the whole world better than he handled Iraq? seriously - all he brings is fealty to the administration - there have got to be better choices and certainly ones with less baggage.
Negroponte Held Tough Foreign Assignments
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 17, 2005
Filed at 11:22 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Putting the acute difficulty of his new job as U.S. intelligence chief in perspective, John D. Negroponte said Thursday it was the most challenging assignment he has had in 40 years of government service.
And that says quite a bit, since the 65-year-old Negroponte's last two posts were U.S. ambassador to Iraq in the midst of a bloody anti-U.S. uprising and, before that, ambassador to the United Nations when U.S. relations with the world organization were declining over the looming war to depose President Saddam Hussein.
President Bush, at a White House news conference with Negroponte at his side, gave some indication of the difficulty of his adviser's latest task, saying he would be in overall charge of all U.S. intelligence with the goal of ``stopping terrorists before they strike.''
According to one well-informed administration official, former CIA director Robert Gates was Bush's first choice but Gates and several other candidates declined the post. They worried that the legislation establishing the intelligence job was too vague in outlining its authority, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Born in London, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, Negroponte has not been free of controversy in his career. As U.S. ambassador to Honduras and its military-run government from 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was suspected of a key role in carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
The Reagan administration's support of the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels in Nicaragua and its sale of missiles to Iran in connection with the U.S. hostages held there turned into the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked President Reagan's second term.
Honduras, itself, was accused of human rights abuses while Negroponte held the ambassador's post. Negroponte's nomination for the U.N. post was confirmed by the Senate in September 2001 only after a half-year delay caused mostly by criticism of his record in Honduras.
For weeks before his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Negroponte was questioned by staff members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses by a Honduran death squad funded and partly trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Negroponte testified that he did not believe the abuses were part of a deliberate Honduran government policy. ``To this day,'' he said, ``I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras.''
At the United Nations, Negroponte had the difficult assignment of trying to convince the U.N. Security Council to approve force against Saddam Hussein and then defending Bush's decision to invade Iraq over the objections of France, Germany, Russia and others.
Bush, in his disappointment with the allies, suggested the United Nations had become irrelevant, which didn't make the U.S. representative's job any easier.
Then, taking over as ambassador to Iraq after the war, Negroponte oversaw the buildup of the U.S. diplomatic corps there to the largest in the world while trying to cope with deadly attacks on U.S. and other coalition troops and Iraqi security forces.
In all, Negroponte held eight foreign service posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America before Bush recruited him from the corporate world for the U.N. assignment.
He was deputy assistant for national security in the administration of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and then was ambassador to Mexico and to the Philippines.
Negroponte Held Tough Foreign Assignments
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 17, 2005
Filed at 11:22 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Putting the acute difficulty of his new job as U.S. intelligence chief in perspective, John D. Negroponte said Thursday it was the most challenging assignment he has had in 40 years of government service.
And that says quite a bit, since the 65-year-old Negroponte's last two posts were U.S. ambassador to Iraq in the midst of a bloody anti-U.S. uprising and, before that, ambassador to the United Nations when U.S. relations with the world organization were declining over the looming war to depose President Saddam Hussein.
President Bush, at a White House news conference with Negroponte at his side, gave some indication of the difficulty of his adviser's latest task, saying he would be in overall charge of all U.S. intelligence with the goal of ``stopping terrorists before they strike.''
According to one well-informed administration official, former CIA director Robert Gates was Bush's first choice but Gates and several other candidates declined the post. They worried that the legislation establishing the intelligence job was too vague in outlining its authority, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Born in London, the son of a Greek shipping magnate, Negroponte has not been free of controversy in his career. As U.S. ambassador to Honduras and its military-run government from 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was suspected of a key role in carrying out the covert strategy of the Reagan administration to crush the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
The Reagan administration's support of the anti-Sandinista Contra rebels in Nicaragua and its sale of missiles to Iran in connection with the U.S. hostages held there turned into the Iran-Contra scandal that rocked President Reagan's second term.
Honduras, itself, was accused of human rights abuses while Negroponte held the ambassador's post. Negroponte's nomination for the U.N. post was confirmed by the Senate in September 2001 only after a half-year delay caused mostly by criticism of his record in Honduras.
For weeks before his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Negroponte was questioned by staff members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses by a Honduran death squad funded and partly trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.
Negroponte testified that he did not believe the abuses were part of a deliberate Honduran government policy. ``To this day,'' he said, ``I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras.''
At the United Nations, Negroponte had the difficult assignment of trying to convince the U.N. Security Council to approve force against Saddam Hussein and then defending Bush's decision to invade Iraq over the objections of France, Germany, Russia and others.
Bush, in his disappointment with the allies, suggested the United Nations had become irrelevant, which didn't make the U.S. representative's job any easier.
Then, taking over as ambassador to Iraq after the war, Negroponte oversaw the buildup of the U.S. diplomatic corps there to the largest in the world while trying to cope with deadly attacks on U.S. and other coalition troops and Iraqi security forces.
In all, Negroponte held eight foreign service posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America before Bush recruited him from the corporate world for the U.N. assignment.
He was deputy assistant for national security in the administration of Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, and then was ambassador to Mexico and to the Philippines.
1 Comments:
This is the old days, the bad days, the all or nothing days, they're back.
Post a Comment
<< Home