| http://www.yellowtimes.org/issue35/realitycheck_column1.html
"John Negroponte: A Resume Written in Blood" Issue 35 of YellowTimes.ORG - August 13th (YellowTimes.ORG) -- While the eyes of America are keenly focused on the contents of Gary Condit's garbage can and bathroom sink, George W. Bush is busy nominating some very questionable people to some very sensitive positions. One such nominee is John D. Negroponte, President Bush's pick for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Supporters cite Mr. Negroponte's long career of foreign service, and point to his thirty-seven years with the United States Department of State as a career diplomat. What they conveniently omit, however, is the fact that four of those years, from 1981 through 1985, were spent as the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras. During this bleak period of American history, Mr. Negroponte became an integral part of an ugly little scandal known as Iran-Contra. Eyewitnesses to the perfidious affair, such as Sister Laetitia Bordes who has written extensively on the subject, report that, "John Negroponte worked closely with General Alvarez, Chief of the Armed Forces in the Honduras, to enable the training of Honduran soldiers in psychological warfare, sabotage, and many types of human rights violations." Back in the eighties, when Negroponte was installed in the Honduras as a replacement for Carter appointee Jack Binns, denying all knowledge of these violations was not only a simple matter, it was a job requirement. Binns, it seemed, had been yanked from his post for refusing to remain politely silent on the subject. Despite the briefing book left for him by his ignominiously removed predecessor, Negroponte continued to report that things in the Honduras were as right as rain. No death squads. No political prisoners. No midnight abductions or tortuous interrogations. As a result of these blue-sky-and-sunshine reports to Congress, military funding to the Honduras skyrocketed to 77.4 million dollars, a good 73.4 million more than when he assumed office. And the blood bath continued. The very best possible spin on John Negroponte's blind eye and deaf ear, suggests that for want of a crazed Honduran death squad torturing and maiming innocent civilians in the middle of the Embassy dining room, he only reported to Congress what he knew, and what he knew amounted to precious little. This is undoubtedly the approach that will be used in his upcoming Congressional hearings. But if this is the case, why did former Negroponte official, Rick Chidester report that he was ordered to remove all mention of specific human rights violations from his 1982 report on the Honduran situation? By whom? The janitor? And what precisely did Mr. Negroponte do with Jack Binn's briefing book? Did it sit unopened for four years? Was it used to swat flies or housebreak the dog? In 1983, Negroponte's embassy reported that, "The Honduran government neither condones nor knowingly permits killing of a political or nonpolitical nature," and went on to state that there were "no political prisoners in Honduras." In 1995, however, Negroponte admitted to Baltimore Sun reporters that human rights had been violated from time to time. In other words, when Negroponte had the Office of Public Diplomacy's propaganda machine to cover his back, there were no violations; when subsequent investigations proved things to the contrary, there may have been a few problems. Just a violation or two here and there. Nothing to get worked up about. The truth of the matter is, in order for John Negroponte to have remained blissfully ignorant of the grotesque war crimes committed in the Honduras during his ambassadorial tenure, he would have had to literally become a total recluse. The Sun reports 318 stories published in Honduran newspapers in 1982 alone, detailing accounts of the murderous actions of American-backed Honduran armed forces. So Negroponte would have had to eschew all news sources during that time period. And he would have had to throw his own embassy's annual reports to Congress in the mail, un-read and un-reviewed. And he would have had to spill an entire pot of coffee on Jack Binn's briefing book, thereby rendering it unreadable. How else could he have lived and served in such a brutally ravaged country without ever becoming aware of the horror taking place right outside the Embassy gates? These are difficult questions, but they are questions that the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations must ask John Negroponte, and they are questions that he must answer thoroughly and honestly. There are others who might have answered these questions as well. On March 25, the Los Angeles Times reported the sudden deportation from the United States of a group of former Honduran death squad members, including Luis Alonso Discus who founded the infamous Battalion 3-16. Discus' United States visa was revoked in February of this year. The White House press release announcing President Bush's intent to appoint John Negroponte to the U.N. Ambassador's post was dated March 6, 2001. |
