War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom

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K

Sat, 12 Feb 2005 23:21:04 -0500

War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom

 

 

 

 

NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

 

War is Peace; Slavery is Freedom

 

Democracy According to Elliott Abrams

 

By LARRY BIRNS

 

02/11/05 " ICH " - - Why has an admitted perjurer, a facilitator of

death squads and an arms broker to Islamic terrorists just been

appointed to be deputy national security adviser to President Bush?

 

It's tough to think of anything more " un-American " and less reflective

of traditional family values than lying to Congress about illegal U.S.

arm sales to a CIA-created band of murderous rightwing terrorists

known as the Contras, and sticking up for death squads. Also, can one

defend selling arms to Islamic terrorists by claiming that waging the

Cold War sometimes required subscribing to the thesis that the end

justifies the means? Given that Elliott Abrams managed to commit all

the derelictions cited above, one might think that there was

sufficient reason to prevent his name from being associated with the

word " democracy. " However, it appears that the Bush administration, as

was the case of its appointing a known human rights violator like U.S.

Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte (when he was the ambassador to

Honduras in the 1980s), rewards those who offer the White House their

blood-soaked resumes.

 

On February 2, the White House announced that Abrams was being

appointed to the number two position on the National Security Council,

where he " will be responsible for pushing Bush's strategy for

advancing democracy. " In terms of the outrageous, one could compare

this to appointing Pinochet or Kissinger to head the inquiry into

Chile's human rights record during the general's dictatorial rule, or

Saddam's conversion to the Quaker faith.

 

A brief review of his more notorious exploits will show that no one in

the president's neocon inventory would be a less appropriate candidate

than Abrams to be the overseer of global democratization and to make

certain that " freedom's on the march. " Needless to say, he was once

again given a job at his present agency, the National Security

Council, which would thus not require the all-but impossible

achievement of being confirmed by the Senate, a body that is well

aware of his blighted record.

 

In 1991, Abrams plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts for perjury

after providing false information to Congress during the Iran-Contra

scandal. Concerning death squads, he remains unrepentant regarding the

role he played in the 1980s for facilitating lethal militant aid to

these U.S.- sanctioned murderers of civilians. They operated

throughout Central America and were responsible for the thousands of

atrocities committed by the aforementioned Nicaraguan Contras and by

the Salvadoran military. As for assisting Islamic terrorists, Abrams

was directly involved, along with Colonel Oliver North, in the sale of

arms to Iranian terrorists in exchange for the release of hostages

being held by Tehran.

 

Given that Bush knew about Mr. Abrams' sordid personal history,

including that it was his own father who pardoned Abrams for his

crimes, does the President really believe that selling arms to

terrorists in " axis of evil " countries and promoting democracy abroad

is not somewhat of a contradiction?

 

Larry Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

 

 

 

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