Lies, Damn Lies, and Even More Damn Lies

I've noticed that recent news on the Senate side of Capitol Hill has focused mostly on John "Bitch-Slap" Bolton and Steven "Spray-the-toddlers-with-DDT" Jackson (a position he's--mercifully--recanted recently)--but there's a third stooge/ring-in-the-circus--John Negroponte, on tap to be director of national intelligence...

Salon has more:

The man chosen by President Bush to be the new U.S. director of national intelligence Tuesday denied that he had covered up human rights abuses when he was Washington's ambassador to Honduras. John Negroponte came under fierce questioning from the Senate intelligence committee as his nomination for the role was considered.

Ah, yes, the time honored Egyptian river defense--Negroponte is in good company amongst his GOP cronies...Bolton tries to counter testimony from any number of people that all but suggest he'd bite the head off a live chicken to demonstrate what he thinks of underlings, Tom DeLay, perhaps emulating the apostle Peter, denies not one, but at least three scandals; fellow travelers like David Horowitz and Jamie Glazov butcher a lengthy piece by Michael Berube (scroll down), then claim it was an innocent mistake...it seems that GOP myth makers consider themselves to be above truth.

Anyway, I got sidetracked once again...Negroponte, lately the Pasha of the Green Zone, was, in so many words, a murderous son-of-a-bitch in Central America during the 1980's. Even the New York Times can't whitewash away the blood from his hands, noting dryly:

Hundreds of newly released cables that John D. Negroponte sent to Washington while serving as ambassador to Honduras in the 1980's show that he played a more central and assertive role than previously known in managing the United States' covert war against Nicaragua's leftist government, which he called "our special project."...

The cables add details to the public picture of Mr. Negroponte, President Bush's nominee to be the first director of national intelligence, as a tough cold warrior who enthusiastically carried out President Ronald Reagan's strategy. They show he sent admiring reports to Washington about the Honduran military chief, who was blamed for human rights violations, warned that peace talks with the Nicaraguan regime might be a dangerous "Trojan horse" and pleaded with officials in Washington to impose greater secrecy on the Honduran role in aiding the contras.

The documents appear to lend some support to the contention of Mr. Negroponte's critics that he did little to protest human rights abuses by Honduran military units blamed for abductions, torture and murder. Mr. Negroponte and some of his fellow diplomats have maintained that he worked behind the scenes against such abuses, but the cables make few references to the issue.

Salon is a little more blunt:

Nearly 400 cables and memos sent or received by Negroponte, who was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the U.N. before being nominated for his new intelligence position, indicate that he tried to undermine peace efforts, promoted the war against the Sandinistas -- which he referred to as "our special project" -- and gave tips to the State Department on how to cover up the U.S. role.

There is no indication of any concern for the Honduran regime's human rights abuses, or the disappearances of left-wingers at the time, despite much contemporary evidence of atrocities committed by the Honduran military. The documents were released by the national security archive in Washington.

In a cable to the State Department in October 1983, Negroponte expressed alarm that peace might be agreed through negotiations taking place through the offices of the Contadora Group of Latin American governments, which was seeking an end to the conflicts in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. "The Contadora process does indeed appear to be headed in directions inimical to our interests," he cabled. "This raises specter of an imposed 'peace.'"

He also expressed his concern about the possibility of a peace agreement in a cable in which he said of the initiative that "such an approach could eventually lead to de facto acceptance of old French/Mexican proposal, ie control of borders and effectively shutting down our special project."

A cable received from his U.S. diplomatic counterpart in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, in May 1983, showed that Negroponte was planning to entertain at dinner Adolfo Calero, the head of the rebel FDN (Nicaraguan Democratic Force). "Your hospitality is legendary and Calero's charm is irresistible, but I have my doubts about a dinner at the residence for a man who is in the business of overthrowing a neighboring government," wrote Anthony Quainton, the U.S. envoy to Nicaragua.

And, last month, Billmon noted The Salvador Option (again, scroll down) as an "outrage moment" (short version: Negroponte's "success" in torture/murder during his stint in Central America--denied at the time, by the way--was resurrected, in all its ugliness, as a possible remedy for the super-sized mess we've managed to create in Iraq). In other words, torture and murder aren't merely "regretable necessities"--they're an avenue to promotion.

At least Mengele KNEW he was a criminal--Negroponte probably EXPECTS people to genuflect in his direction--that is, when he's not lying about his activities at the time.

Oh, and how many wingnuts show even the slightest bit of concern for their pet project of the 1980's, that is to say, ensuring Latin American dependency and endemic poverty? (for the record, like some other bloggers out there, education, agitation, and organization around the effort to minimize US damage to Central America was my own entry into active politics. I still take quite a bit of pride in having helped turn LSU, of all places, into an active campus back then...of course, then, like now, the real issue is the absolute apathy on the part of most folks--amazingly, they'll whine about things like taxes without ever wondering just where the money goes...).