Obama to name Bill Richardson as Commerce Secretary
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WASHINGTON (AFP) - President-elect Barack Obama will Wednesday nominate New
Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, in the latest addition
to his rapidly filling cabinet, a Democratic official said.Obama is set to roll
out Richardson, a former diplomatic troubleshooter and ex-envoy to the United
Nations at a news conference in Chicago, two days after announcing a
heavy-hitting national security team.
Richardson, 61, one of the highest profile Hispanic politicians in the United
States, had been seen as a possible choice for secretary of state, had Obama
not decided to hand the job to his former political foe Hillary Clinton.
The New Mexico governor mounted an unsuccessful challenge for the Democratic
nomination, and switched allegiances to back Obama over Clinton, despite his
loyalty to former president Bill Clinton, whom he served as energy secretary.
Richardson's new post is the latest in a long string of official and ad hoc
assignments, which included a spell in the House of Representatives.
Once dubbed the "Indiana Jones" of US diplomacy, Richardson is famed for daring
head-to-head encounters with strongmen leaders on the US pariah list, including
Iraq's executed president Saddam Hussein and Cuba's Fidel Castro.
One of the more colorful if rumpled members of the Clinton years, Richardson
stormed through public life in a trademark blue blazer and was remembered as a
resourceful lawmaker and consummate deal maker.
Critics however have complained he hogged the media spotlight, and took his eye
off administrative responsibilities.
Over the years Richardson emerged as a favored go-between for North Korea's
Stalinist regime in successive nuclear showdowns with Washington.
He was no stranger to the idiosyncrasies of North Korean negotiators: in 1994,
he was on a congressional fact-finding trip to the isolated communist state
when a US Army helicopter was shot down after straying across the iron curtain
with South Korea.
Richardson negotiated the release of the surviving pilot and the return of the
body of his dead co-pilot.
A year later, he faced down another mortal US enemy, Saddam Hussein, persuading
him to hand over two US businessmen jailed after they accidentally crossed into
the country.
In 1996, Richardson was back in North Korea, liberating an American missionary
who swam across a river from China and was accused of being a spy.
In his packed career as an unofficial envoy, Richardson also found time to
negotiate with Cuba's Castro, lobby Myanmar's military rulers on behalf of
democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and persuade former Haitian military ruler
Raoul Cedras to cede power.
He once reportedly closed a deal with Sudanese rebels holding three Red Cross
workers by offering four-wheel-drive jeeps, medicine, rice and a tractor, in
place of a 2.5-million-dollar ransom demand.
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"_______________________________________________
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