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Senate Foreign Relations Committee members are deciding whether or not to confirm George W. Bush's nomination of John Negroponte, a man who knows a rape room when he sees one, to ambassador of Iraq. Proving once again that the current Battalion 43 occupying the White House is little more than a squalid nest of paroled Reagan administration felons. A dangerous homicidal juicehead full of cheap moonshine Jesus and Nazi crank; driving south in a stolen 1980 Chrysler Cordova while live hand grenades roll around in the trunk.

Then again, it would appear that the brahmins of the SFRC aren't really trying to decide anything at all and in fact all the decidin' and confirmin' and concernin' is already pretty much decidedly, for whom the bell tolls, in the can.

Fast track slackers | Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearings. Via Democracy Now

Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT): We're not going that far, John, here, but in a sense, what I'm getting at here, it's obvious that this committee is going to confirm your nomination. So, in the traditional sense, the normal question and answer period is not really appropriate here because I don't think anything that you are going to say is going to dissuade any of us that you should not be the choice and get this job done.

[excerpt] "Two Democrats, Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Barbara Boxer of California, noted that they had disagreed with Mr. Negroponte when he was an ambassador in Honduras and deputy national security adviser... [...] But they said they would set aside those concerns out of personal respect for him." ~ New York Times, Wed., 04.28.04 | "Ambassador Nominee Defends Limits on Iraq's Sovereignty | page A9. [excerpt]

Well jeepers, thats right diplomatic of em. Below are a few "concerns" apparently set aside out of "personal respect" for liege Negroponte's fragile sensibilities. Afterall, peers of the realm Sir Dodd and Lady Boxer wouldn't want to upset Ambassador Death Squad with uncomfortable reminders of potentially problematic bygone derring do. Sakes no.

Battalion 316: [Democracy Now - interview transcript]

SISTER LAETITIA BORDES: Why yes, good morning Amy. As I mentioned yesterday on your program, I had gone to Honduras to meet with then-ambassador John Negroponte to find out what had happened to 32 women from El Salvador, who had taken refuge in Honduras and who disappeared. At that time there was the Battalion 316. The Battalion was another name for the horrible death squad that was operating in Honduras at that time. That was well known to ambassador Negroponte. The reason I say it was very well known to ambassador Negroponte was that General Alvarez Martinez was then chief of the Honduran armed forces, and he was the secret head of battalion 316. Now, Negroponte and Martinez, the people would tell you, it was known that they would wine and dine together, and had ongoing connections. So, it is absurd to think that Mr. Negroponte would say that he did not know what was going in El Salvador at that time. As I found out 13 years later that the women we were looking for had been badly, badly tortured and then put in a helicopter and dropped into the ocean. They used Salvadoran military and helicopters to take these women and drop them over the ocean. Now, Battalion 316 continued to function the whole time that Negroponte was there, and I don't think too many people know that General Gustavo Martinez was kind of, quote, “Beheaded by his own military.” There was kind of a coup, and he took temporary refuge in the United States. When he went back to Honduras, he was assassinated. I don't think many people know about that. It is believed that he was assassinated by members of the military, who were very upset with him because of deals that he had made with the United States while he was the general. What angers me -- angers me very, very much is that there's absolutely no reference being made to the past of Mr. Negroponte in Honduras during these hearings. We just don't hear anything about it. We do not learn from our history. The people of Iraq are those who are going to be the ongoing victims of John Negroponte, who believes that the end justifies the means.

Sister Laetitia Bordes, a Catholic nun with the Society of Helpers, a Catholic community of women. She is talking to us from San Bruno, California. Democracy Now/interview

General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez:

...who had been trained at the US Army School of the Americas and in Argentina. He believed that Honduras should take the Argentine approach to dealing with dissent, which consisted largely of kidnapping suspects and torturing them to death in secret jails. His fanaticism disturbed some of his comrades, but when American officials decided to use Honduras as a base for the contra war, they found him an eager ally. He was willing not only to turn over parts of Honduran territory to the contras and allow them to function with impunity, but also to tolerate and even direct the "disappearance" of Hondurans who protested.

[...]

During his years in Honduras, Negroponte acquired a reputation, justified or not, as an old-fashioned imperialist. Sending him to the UN serves notice that the Bush administration will not be bound by diplomatic niceties as it conducts its foreign policy. ~ source: "Our Man in Honduras" ~ source: "Our Man in Honduras", By Stephen Kinzer NY Review of Books>, September 20, 2001.

Candor - an endangered species.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Ct., noted differences that he had with Negroponte when the diplomat was ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s. "Those differences stem largely from a lack of candor about what the U.S. was and wasn't doing in Central America in the conflict at that time," Dodd said. "And although I intend to support and strongly support this nomination when it comes to a vote in this committee, and later on the Senate floor, I want to make one point especially clear: That same issue -- candor -- in my view, is going to be critical with respect to continued support for U.S. policies in Iraq." [excerpt] Source: FoxNews

Bushlette and his willing executioners wouldn't recognize candor if it came flapping through an open Oval Office window and laid an egg on the desk. And apparently Christopher Dodd wouldn't recognize a viper if it slithered up his pantleg and sunk its fangs into his left nut. Whatever.

However ya look at it - it's gonna be a weird scary summer.

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