Negroponte: Not Qualified
If someone has been repeatedly accused (but not convicted) of child molesting, would you hire this person to be your babysitter? How about a school bus driver who drinks like a fish and has hundreds of speeding tickets?
John Negroponte is in the middle of his Senate confirmation hearings to be the first Director of National Intelligence. Negroponte was up to his eyeballs in every phase of the right wing terrorist attacks in Nicaragua during the 1980s. So he’s never been convicted of a crime — does that qualify him to be in charge of our entire intelligence operation?
Negroponte was the American ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. Death squads, assassinations, terrorist attacks — he da Man!
He worked secretly as a go-between for the CIA, Central American generals and death squad leaders, and he played a major role in packaging and selling this whole operation to Congress. And Presto! The right wing terrorists were re-christened the “Contras” and “Freedom Fighters,” and eventually President Reagan was even able to keep a straight face when comparing the “Contras” to our own Founding Fathers.
Negroponte was constantly complaining about negative press coverage of the “Freedom Fighters,” and frequently tried to intimidate the American media. Hmmm, sounds like our current “leaders” have learned a few things from him.
The Director of National Intelligence should be a person with integrity, decency and a respect for international law. A sleazy thug like Negroponte is not qualified for this position.
posted by Tom Harper @ 12:24 PM
9 Comments:
Tom, you are so right. And I liked how Biden was going after him the other day.
I wrote about the Black Bridge when he was nominated in February. Take a look:
http://brotherkenya.blogspot.com/
2005/02/bridge-too-farce.html#comments
Brother Kenya: I just checked it out -- great post. I'm sure he'll be confirmed, but hopefully enough journalists and bloggers will keep showing his (and others') links to previous wars. So many of the same "leaders" were involved in the Central American wars in the '80s, the first Gulf War, Iraq, and of course Syria or wherever our next adventure will be.
Who would you suggest?
It's strange George Bush can keep a straight face everytime he announces one of his now famous choices. Negroponte for me is the worst of the bunch.
Jay777: Sorry, I don't have an answer for you. I don't follow international politics that closely. But surely there's someone out there with experience and expertise (which Negroponte has) who isn't tainted with assassinations and death squads.
Frenchie: I agree, Negroponte's about the worst possible choice.
OK Democrat: Nope, you sure won't find "peacemaker" in the same sentence with Bolton, Negroponte, Bush or Cheney.
That's all inline with this administration's attitude so he fits in perfectly!
Sally: Yeah, that's about it. Birds of a feather...
Though I have what I consider an "objective centrist" political mindset, I tend to agree. But since when has any administration made qualification the primary requirement to position?
This means liberals are as equally guilty as conservatives. Republicans as democrats. Left-wing as right-wing. They don't always get away with it, but when they do I think it's mostly due to an overall apathy in the electorate.
Anonymous: Yup, both sides are guilty. The president nominates someone with the same political views, and the other party votes against that person because of the nominee's views. And each side is morally outraged at the other. And the beat goes on...
Post a Comment
<< Home