Bush will replace Paul Bremer with John Negroponte

neruda · 16 april 2004, 16:13

The American governor of Iraq is to be replaced within weeks by a controversial diplomat, the Evening Standard has learned.
He will be replaced as America's most senior representative in Iraq by John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the UN and one of Washington's most controversial figures. His appointment - expected to be announced officially within days - came as the hostage crisis which is sweeping Iraq escalated, with the discovery of four mutilated bodies.
Nominating Mr Negroponte to head the authority is one of the most controversial appointments President Bush could have made. Before being approved by Congress to serve as America's representative at the UN, he faced days of grilling over allegations that at the very least he turned a blind eye to CIA-backed death squads which operated in Honduras when he was ambassador there.

The notorious "Battalion 3-16" was involved in dozens of "disappearances" as part of a dirty war on Left-wingers in Honduras, designed to support the Right-wing Contra rebels in neighbouring Nicaragua.

One critic accused Mr Negroponte of being "a gunslinger for a hyper-Reagan administration policy" of using any means to back the Contras. But Mr Negroponte has rejected the claims, telling the Senate: "To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras."

In Baghdad he will be the key adviser to the Iraqi government, in control of the vast American aid being pumped into it, and also run the 3,000-strong embassy.

16 april 2004, 16:13	#1
neruda Banneling Geregistreerd: 18 januari 2004 Locatie: Belgium Berichten: 1.734	The American governor of Iraq is to be replaced within weeks by a controversial diplomat, the Evening Standard has learned. He will be replaced as America's most senior representative in Iraq by John Negroponte, the US ambassador to the UN and one of Washington's most controversial figures. His appointment - expected to be announced officially within days - came as the hostage crisis which is sweeping Iraq escalated, with the discovery of four mutilated bodies. Nominating Mr Negroponte to head the authority is one of the most controversial appointments President Bush could have made. Before being approved by Congress to serve as America's representative at the UN, he faced days of grilling over allegations that at the very least he turned a blind eye to CIA-backed death squads which operated in Honduras when he was ambassador there. The notorious "Battalion 3-16" was involved in dozens of "disappearances" as part of a dirty war on Left-wingers in Honduras, designed to support the Right-wing Contra rebels in neighbouring Nicaragua. One critic accused Mr Negroponte of being "a gunslinger for a hyper-Reagan administration policy" of using any means to back the Contras. But Mr Negroponte has rejected the claims, telling the Senate: "To this day, I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras." In Baghdad he will be the key adviser to the Iraqi government, in control of the vast American aid being pumped into it, and also run the 3,000-strong embassy.