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"Bush Nominates John Negroponte www.fpa.org-Alert=20 Bush Nominates John Negroponte as U.S. Ambassador to the UN 3/14/01=20 On March 6th, the Bush administration announced its nomination of John=20 Dimitri Negroponte to replace Richard Holbrooke as the new ambassador=20 to the United Nations.=20 Mr. Negroponte, currently the Executive Vice President for Global=20 Markets at McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., served for 37 years with the=20 United States Department of State as a career diplomat. His numerous=20 posts abroad included postings as Ambassador to Honduras from=20 1981-1985, Mexico and the Philippines. Mr. Negroponte also has served=20 in various positions in the White House and the State Department. He=20 was the officer-in-charge for Vietnam in the National Security Council=20 under Dr. Henry Kissinger from 1971 to 1973 and he returned to the=20 National Security Council from 1987 to 1989 to be its deputy director=20 under General Colin Powell.=20 President George W. Bush declared that "John Negroponte will be a key=20 member of my Administration's foreign policy team as he pursues our=20 vision of a United Nations capable of meeting the global challenges of=20 the 21st century while serving the interests of its member states. He=20 will work closely with the Congress to build a strong U.S.-U.N.=20=20 relationship." Mr. Negroponte himself stated in the March 7th, 2001=20 article in the Washington Post that, "If confirmed by the Senate I=20 would see this as a wonderful opportunity to once again serve the=20 foreign policy interests of my country and my government." Opposition=20 to his nomination has come from some human rights activists and media=20 sources who argue that although Negroponte has a reputation for=20 defending U.S. interests overseas, he has at least as strong a=20 reputation for making sure human rights don't get in the way. These=20 critics argue that he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations=20 Committee in 1983 that the government of Honduras was not violating=20 human rights, when he knew full well that it was. They allege that the=20 Reagan administration's attempts to topple the Communist government of=20 neighboring Nicaragua involved training anti-government rebels in=20 neighboring Honduras, the funding for which was predicated on official=20 U.S. "assurance" that the Honduran government respected human rights.=20 With the declassification of the CIA's secret Inspector General's=20 report on controversial CIA activities in Honduras, it has come to=20 light that, "the Honduran military committed hundreds of human rights=20 abuses since 1980, many of which were politically motivated and=20 officially sanctioned and were linked to death squad activities."=20 Former Ambassador to Honduras from 1980-1981, Jack Binns, who had been=20 reporting human rights abuses up to his departure, doubts that=20 Negroponte could have been in the dark about the situation. The New=20 Republic quoted him thus: "I find it difficult to believe that an=20 ambassador at an embassy doing its job would not be aware of human=20 rights abuses. It appeared in the press, people spoke about it. So=20 while it may not have been brought to his attention officially, it's=20 hard to believe he wasn't aware."=20 Is John Dimitri Negroponte the right man for the U.S. Ambassadorship=20 to the UN? Now, it is up to the the Senate to decide. Tell your=20 Senator what you think! Use the Zip Code Search at the top of this=20 page to find your Senator's email address. For more information on=20 this nomination, please see the selected web sites below:=20 1. John Negroponte's profile at his current employment, the=20 McGraw Hill Companies, where he is the Executive Vice President for=20 Global=20 Markets=20 2. For statement by Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and=20 CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies, on U.N. Ambassador-Designate John=20 Negroponte.=20 3. President George W. Bush's Official Announcement of John=20 Negroponte for the position of U.N. Ambassador=20 4. Washington Post's article on the nomination of John Negroponte=20 5. The New Republic's article on the controversial nomination of=20 John Negroponte=20 6. Notes from a conference hosted by the Center for International=20 Policy 7. Summary of the declassification request from the=20 Honduran National Rights Commissioner to the U.S. Government 8. = =20 Report released from the National Security Archive which confirms the=20 Honduran military committed hundreds of human rights abuses since=20 1980.=20 9. An interview with John Negroponte on U.S. involvement in=20 Central America, specifically regarding the Cold War.=20=20 http://politics.yahoo.com/issue_watch/organization/fpa/ca17352fpa/ back to www.fpa.org" "THE WHITE HOUSE=20 Office of the Press Secretary=20 For Immediate Release=20 March 6, 2001=20

President George W. Bush today announced his intent to nominate John=20 D. Negroponte to be the Representative of the United States to the=20 United Nations with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and=20 Plenipotentiary.=20 "John Negroponte will be a key member of my Administration's foreign=20 policy team as he pursues our vision of a United Nations capable of=20 meeting the global challenges of the 21st century while serving the=20 interests of its member states. He will work closely with the=20 Congress to build a strong U.S.-U.N. relationship," said President=20 Bush.=20 Ambassador Negroponte is presently the Executive Vice President for=20 Global Markets of the McGraw-Hill Companies. He has served in a wide=20 variety of Foreign Service posts including Ambassador to Honduras from=20 1981 - 1985, Ambassador to Mexico from 1989 - 1993 and Ambassador to=20 the Philippines from 1993-1996. He held the post of Deputy Assistant=20 Secretary of State with the rank of Ambassador for Oceans and=20 Fisheries Affairs from 1976 - 1979 and was then appointed Deputy=20 Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs in=20 1980. From 1985-1987, he was Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans=20 and International Environment and Scientific Affairs. Following that=20 service, President Reagan named him Deputy Assistant to the President=20 for National Security Affairs, a post he held until 1989. He is a=20 graduate of Yale University and is married with five children."=20 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010306-6.html "The=20 Republican Rule Officials' Profiles go to=20 http://www.foreignpolicy-infocus.org/republicanrule/officials_body.htm=20 l click on a name and see the profile, In this case:=20 "John Negroponte, UN Ambassador=20 John Dimitri Negroponte, Bush's choice for U.S. ambassador to the=20 United Nations, certainly has plenty of diplomatic experience. His=20 foreign service career spans nearly four decades and includes eight=20 postings on several continents. His first overseas assignment was to=20 the U.S. embassy in Saigon in the mid-1960s, and since the 1980s, he=20 has been ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, and the Philippines.=20 Negroponte speaks four foreign languages: Vietnamese, Greek, French,=20 and Spanish. And, in keeping with the rest of the Bush team, he also=20 has some corporate expertise; most recently he was executive vice=20 president for global markets at McGraw-Hill. But his resum=E9 conceals=20 the darker side of Negroponte. This may explain why the ambassador=20 has, since his nomination, been ducking requests for press interviews,=20 especially from reporters with some historical memory. As New Republic=20 assistant editor Sarah Wildman put it, with Negroponte's nomination,=20 "human rights activists did a collective double take." Indeed,=20 Negroponte has a reputation, even among some U.S. diplomats who served=20 with him, both for "doggedly defending U.S. interests overseas" and=20 for "making sure human rights don't get in the way." Wildman finds=20 this particularly problematic, since "one of the primary=20 responsibilities of George W. Bush's new ambassador to the United=20 Nations will be to berate countries like China, Burma, and Afghanistan=20 for their violations of human rights." The Negroponte nomination is=20 coupled with Bush's decision to downgrade the United Nations=20 ambassadorship position by depriving it of Cabinet rank. This decision=20 raises concerns that the Republican White House will become as hostile=20 to the UN as congressional conservatives have been since the 1994=20 Republican takeover. U.S.-UN tensions eased in the final months of the=20 Clinton administration after Washington managed to strike a deal to=20 pay the bulk of its UN dues, but now there are fears that the Bush=20 team will seek to denigrate and defund the international organization.=20 Negroponte, the son of a Greek-American shipping magnate, was born in=20 London in 1939, graduated from Yale, and entered the Foreign Service=20 in 1960. From 1971 to 1973, Negroponte was the officer-in-charge for=20 Vietnam at the National Security Council (NSC) under Henry Kissinger.=20 In 1987, during the administration of George Bush the elder,=20 Negroponte returned to the NSC to work under Colin Powell as deputy=20 assistant to the president for national security affairs. Within two=20 years, he was back in Latin America; Bush appointed Negroponte=20 ambassador to Mexico, where he served from July 1989 to September=20 1993. There, he officiated at the block-long, fortified embassy and=20 directed, among other things, U.S. intelligence services to assist the=20 war against the Zapatista rebels of Chiapas. But it was during his tour as ambassador to Honduras that Negroponte=20 earned his reputation for being soft on human rights abuses. From 1981=20 to 1985, Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras, where he helped=20 prosecute the contra war against Nicaragua and helped strengthen the=20 military dictatorship in Honduras. Under the helm of General Gustavo=20 Alvarez Mart=EDnez, Honduras's military government was both a close ally=20 of the Reagan administration and was disappearing dozens of political=20 opponents in classic death squad fashion. Negroponte's predecessor,=20 Ambassador Jack Binns, had repeatedly warned Washington to take a=20 stand to stop the killings. In one cable, Binns reported that General=20 Alvarez was modeling his campaign against suspected subversives on=20 Argentina's "dirty war" in the 1970s. Indeed, Argentine military=20 advisers were in Honduras, both advising Alvarez's armed forces and=20 assembling and training a contra army to fight in Nicaragua.=20=20 President Reagan responded by removing Binns and putting in=20 Negroponte, who, writes Eric Alterman in an MSNBC.com piece, "turned a=20 deliberate blind eye to a murderous pattern of political killings." On=20 Negroponte's watch, diplomats quipped that the embassy's annual human=20 rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina.=20 Former official Rick Chidester, who served under Negroponte, says he=20 was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the=20 draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. In=20 a 1982 letter to The Economist, Negroponte wrote that it was "simply=20 untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in=20 Honduras." The Country Report on Human Rights Practices that the=20 embassy submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took the=20 same line, insisting that there were "no political prisoners in=20 Honduras" and that the "Honduran government neither condones nor=20 knowingly permits killings of a political or nonpolitical nature." Yet, according to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, in 1982=20 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by=20 the Honduran military. In a 1995 series, Sun reporters Gary Cohn and=20 Ginger Thompson detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained=20 Honduran army unit, Battalion 316, that used "shock and suffocation=20 devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when=20 no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994,=20 Honduras's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights=20 reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still=20 missing. During Negroponte's tenure, U.S. military aid to Honduras, a country=20 of five million, skyrocketed from $3.9 million to $77.4 million. Much=20 of this largesse went to assure the Honduran army's loyalty in the=20 battle against political leftists throughout Central America. Embassy=20 reports to Washington singled out for particular praise army chief=20 Alvarez, a School of the Americas graduate who was direct commander of=20 Battalion 316.=20 In 1996, when Negroponte was sent to Panama as the U.S. negotiator=20 regarding military bases, the Human Rights Research Center of Panama=20 objected. Negroponte, they said, covered up human rights abuses and,=20 according to the BBC, "knew about the CIA-trained Honduran army unit=20 that tortured and killed alleged subversives." In a 1997 roundtable=20 gathering at the Center for International Policy, Sun reporter Cohn=20 noted that Negroponte was central to the human rights violations. Said=20 Cohn, "He was ambassador when the worst of the abuses were taking=20 place. He knew everything that was going on." "Not exactly the moral=20 sensibility you want in a UN ambassador," notes New Republic's=20 Wildman. Even today, Negroponte is unrepentant, arguing that, given the=20 political realities, his hands were tied. As he told CNN, "Some of=20 these regimes, to the outside observer, may not have been as savory as=20 Americans would have liked; they may have been dictators, or likely to=20 [become] dictators, when you would have been wanting to support=20 democracy in the area. But with the turmoil that [was there], it was=20 perhaps not possible to do that." APPOINTEES John R. Bolton Walter Kansteiner John Negroponte Otto Reich Condoleezza Rice Robert B. Zoellick ADVISERS Richard Lee Armitage Andrew W. Marshall Richard N. Perle George Schultz Paul Wolfowitz" Yale Class of 1956 Email Directory Negroponte, John

jdneg@erols.com I have substituted at for @ in Mr.Negroponte's email address in case=20 Yahoo strips out the @ jdnegaterols.com http://www.flashpoints.net/index-2001-05-1to10.html Interview w/Nilda=20 Valasquez, whose brother was kidnapped and killed by a US/John=20 Negroponte supported death squad, battalion 316 Refs: photos of=20 victims http://www.fhrg.org/detanlog.html CIA doc. 96-0125-IG=20 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19981023.htm "PRESS RELEASE Contact:=20 Susan Peacock (202)994-7213 SECRET CIA REPORT ADMITS:=20 "HONDURAN MILITARY COMMITTED HUNDREDS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES" AND "INACCURATE" REPORTING TO CONGRESS Washington, D.C. October 23, 1998 -- The CIA yesterday declassified=20 its secret Inspector General's report on controversial CIA activities=20 in Honduras during the 1980's. The report states officially for the=20 first time:=20 "The Honduran military committed hundreds of human rights abuses since=20 1980, many of which were politically motivated and officially=20 sanctioned" and were linked to "death squad activities." (p. 2)=20 "Reporting inadequacies" by the CIA station in Honduras "precluded CIA=20 Headquarters from understanding the scope of human rights abuses in=20 Honduras." (p. 3)=20 Some CIA notifications to Congress were "inaccurate." (p. 3) The=20 report indicates that the CIA knew contemporaneously about the abuses=20 which were occurring, and did not report on them as it should have=20 even though Honduras was the linchpin of U.S. Central America policy=20 during the Reagan administration. Despite CIA knowledge of Honduran=20 military abuses, more than $1 billion in U.S. taxpayers money flowed=20 to the Honduran military throughout the 1980s.=20 "The CIA knew there was blood on the hands of the Honduran military=20 but covered it up, providing impunity for rights abusers and=20 misleading the U.S. Congress and public," noted National Security=20 Archive Research Fellow Susan Peacock. She called the release of the=20 IG report "a step toward the disclosure which President Clinton=20 promised vis-a-vis human rights abuses in Latin America."=20 Despite the Clinton Administration's commitment to Congress to release=20 the report to the fullest extent possible, major portions-including critical=20 sections on CIA involvement in "torture or hostile interrogations" and "possible=20 accountability issues" =B7 are blacked out.=20 The IG report was released yesterday to Honduran Human Rights=20 Ombudsman Dr. Leo Valladares. The IG investigation was prompted by=20 Valladares' 1993 declassification request, a prize-winning 1995=20 Baltimore Sun series, and pressure from human rights and openness=20 groups including The National Security Archive. Excerpts of the IG=20 Report - titled "Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in=20 Honduras in the 1980's (96-0125-IG)," dated August 27, 1997 - together=20 with Dr. Valladares' most recent report In Search of Hidden Truths, can be=20 accessed on the Archive's website : http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv=20 President Reagan (left center) and Vice President Bush with Honduran=20 President Suazo Cordoba (right center) and General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez (left) in the Oval Office in 1982. (White=20 House photo)." http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/19981023.htm "January 27, 1997 http://www.newstimes.com/archive97/jan2797/nah.htm=20 Report: Torture methods in CIA manual echo interrogations in Honduras=20 BALTIMORE (AP) - A newly-released CIA training manual describes=20 torture methods similar to ones used on Honduran dissidents during the=20 1980s, The Sun reported today. The booklet, "Human Resource=20 Exploitation Training Manual - 1983," was declassified Friday in=20 response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the newspaper.=20=20 It advises interrogators to deprive their prisoners of food and sleep=20 and make them stand at attention for long periods of time. The CIA=20 said last month it has revived a probe into whether its officers=20 failed to report allegations of torture by Battalion 316, a=20 CIA-trained, Honduran military-intelligence unit which has been blamed=20 for the disappearance of 184 suspected leftists.=20 The newspaper said the 1983 manual and the methods used by Battalion=20 316 show unmistakable similarities.=20 "These manuals confirm a truth we in Honduras have known for a long=20 time, that the United States was involved in encouraging the abuses of=20 the Honduran military," said Judge Roy Medina, who is overseeing a=20 human rights investigation in Honduras.=20 CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield declined to comment on the manuals=20 Sunday. In the 1980s, Honduras was a key player in the Reagan=20 administration's attempts to overthrow the leftist Sandinista=20 government in neighboring Nicaragua and defeat a leftist insurgency in=20 El Salvador. In releasing the training manual, the CIA declined to=20 say whether it was used in Honduras. A declassified 1989 report=20 prepared for the Senate Intelligence Committee and obtained by the=20 newspaper, says the manual was developed from notes of a CIA=20 interrogation course in Honduras.=20 Between 1984 and 1985, congressional committees began questioning=20 training techniques used by the CIA in Latin America and the manual=20 underwent substantial revision, the newspaper said."

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 28, 2001


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