Chomsky Blasts Negroponte Appointment to Iraq Embassy

by Democracy Now (repost)

Fri, May 7, 2004 3:43PM

The Senate voted 95 to 3 Thursday to approve UN ambassador John Negroponte as the head of the new US embassy in Iraq. We hear MIT professor Noam Chomsky discussing Negroponte's role in supporting widespread campaigns of terror and human rights abuses as ambassador to Honduras.

On Thursday, the Senate voted 95 to 3 to approve UN ambassador John Negroponte as the head of the new US embassy in Iraq. According to the Los Angeles Times, only one Senator, Democrat Tom Harkin of Iowa said that Negroponte's record as ambassador of Honduras made him the wrong choice to represent the country in Iraq. Harkin accused the nominee of lying to his bosses and to Congress about the death squads that were responsible for the disappearance of 184 people, including an American priest, while he was ambassador to Honduras.
Harkin said, "Ambassador Negroponte turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the human rights abuses in Honduras. To send Mr. Negroponte to Iraq would send entirely the wrong message at this time."

Democrats Mark Dayton of Minnesota and Richard Durbin of Illinois also voted against Negroponte's nomination.

Listen To Audio:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/07/1450219

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