Honduran Experience

18 February 2005



John Negroponte Nominated Intelligence Tsar

John Negroponte is currently US Ambassador to Iraq. With the elections completed and a government forming there, the president has decided he can be of more use in the US. So, His Excellency will become America’s first intelligence tsar if the Senate approves. Since this same body already blessed his appointment to Baghdad, this should be a formality. There will be whining from the spineless wing of the American left because of the ambassador's behavior in Central America back in the 1980s, but if those stories about him are true, that experience might just be an asset in his new job.

Ambassador Negroponte was American envoy to Honduras during the messy Cold War conflict in Central America. Those old enough to remember Sandinistas, Contras and Daniel Ortega may remember him as well. The Honduran military, which helped the Contras fight the Sandinistas, saw its American aid go from $4 million to $77.4 million. He claims he had nothing to do with the way the money was spent – if so, he was negligent. If not, he aided those who engaged in war atrocities (which both sides committed with alacrity).

He has since served as US ambassador to the UN as well as his current job in Baghdad. At the UN, he was not in a position to do any thing like the sort of damage his detractors claim he did in Central America. From his post in the green zone in Baghdad, the potential for mischief is huge, and there will be denunciations of him whether there is credible evidence or not. That is the nature of 21st century American politics.

A reasonable person, a mythical creature but a convenient one here, must ask what is his new job and what does this experience mean if the allegations are true? He will give the president the daily intelligence briefing, and he will set budgets for the 16 or so US intelligence agencies. Since Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld and the Pentagon control 80% of those budgets, he’ll need to be a vicious so-and-so.

As for the fight against Al Qaeda, one doesn’t want a Sunday school teacher in charge of intelligence in any case. In fact, it might be ideal to have a borderline war criminal in charge, so long as there is someone making sure he’s on a short leash. Precisely who would fill that role in the Bush administration is hard determine. And that makes it difficult to support the ambassador’s nomination. On the other hand, having him fight with the Field Marshal may neutralize them both, which wouldn’t entirely be disadvantageous to America either.



© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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