COMMENT BY LARRY ROSS

The proposed appointment of John Negroponte as ambassador to Iraq, reveals real US intentions in Iraq - to use whatever barbarous means they need to keep Iraq with it's oil, within the new US Empire. Negroponte's record indicates that conditions and violations of human rights (that means mass murder and torture) will worsen in Iraq. That policy is likely to continue with Bush.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Death Squad Ambassador:
Senate Hearings Begin on Negroponte Iraq Appointment
Story from Democracy Now   April, 27, 2004

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings today on John Negroponte's appointment to the Baghdad embassy. Negroponte's reputation as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 earned him a reputation for supporting widespread human rights abuses and campaigns of terror.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two events happened last week that at first glance may not seem to be related. Honduras announced that it was withdrawing its troops from Iraq, following the lead of Spain's new government. The second event was that President Bush announced he was appointing John Negroponte to head up the U.S. embassy in Iraq. Perhaps the two events are just a coincidence, or maybe the Hondurans know something most of the world hasn't been told. And that is the record of John Negroponte as U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the 1980s.
Negroponte currently serves as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. But it is his reputation as ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 that earned him a reputation for supporting widespread human rights abuses and campaigns of terror. As ambassador to Honduras, Negroponte played a key role in coordinating US aid to the Contra death squads in Nicaragua and shoring up a CIA-backed death squad in Honduras. During his term as ambassador there, diplomats alleged that the embassy's annual human rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina.

According to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military. In a 1995 series, Sun reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 3-16, that used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994, Honduras's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still missing.

Former official Rick Chidester, who served under Negroponte, says he was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. During Negroponte's tenure, US military aid to Honduras skyrocketed from $3.9 million to over $77 million. Much of this went to ensure the Honduran army's loyalty in the battle against popular movements throughout Central America.

In the hearings on Negroponte's appointment to his current post as UN ambassador, he was questioned by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses by death squads 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."

Today, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding hearings on Negroponte's appointment to the Baghdad embassy, which will be the largest US embassy in the world, with some 3,000 employees and more than 500 CIA officers. But many Democrats have indicated that they will not question Negroponte about his record in Central America, calling it ancient history. When asked about the appointment, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd said, "It's critically important that we get an ambassador there."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, April 28th, 2004
Dems Ignore Negroponte's Death Squad Past, Look to Confirm Iraq Appointment