Quotes of the Morning

"I'm pleased to announce my decision to nominate Ambassador John Negroponte as Director of National Intelligence . . . John brings a unique set of skills to these challenges."
-George W. Bush, February 17, 2005

“Among his more recent assignments, Mr. Negroponte was Ambassador to Honduras (1981-85)."
-Biography of John D. Negroponte

“Negroponte's nomination for the U.N. post was confirmed by the Senate in September 2001, but that confirmation didn't come easy.
It was delayed a half-year mostly because of criticism of his record as the U.S. ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. In Honduras, Negroponte played a prominent role in assisting the Contras in Nicaragua in their war with the left-wing Sandinista government, which was aligned with Cuba and the Soviet Union.
For weeks before his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Negroponte was questioned by staff members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses by a Honduran death squad funded and partly trained by the Central Intelligence Agency.”
-Associated Press, April 20, 2004

“Intelligence Battalion 3-16 was also created in the early 1980s with the help of the CIA. Together with the DNI, Battalion 3-16 is blamed for the repression, capture, interrogation and disappearance of about 180 people, generally popular movement leaders.”
-U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Honduras, October 14, 1998

“Battalion 3-16 counter-terrorist tactics included torture, rape, assassination against persons thought to be involved in support of Salvadoran guerrillas or the Honduran leftist movement. Information available to the United States Government in the 1980s indicated that named individuals were abducted and killed by Battalion 3-16 and the FUSEP Special Unit.”
-CIA Working Group Stipulations, September 13, 2001

“In September 1983, Ambassador Negroponte requested additional analytical assistance from the U.S. Government about the Olancho guerrilla movement, including U.S. participation in the debriefing of deserters and captives.”
-Stipulations From the CIA Inspector General's Office, September 13, 2001

"I think it is important to stress there was no effort on the part of myself or others serving the U.S. Government at the time to stifle reporting about human rights in Honduras, to cover up any credible evidence of human rights abuses which came to our attention, or to misrepresent the general picture with respect to the human rights situation in the country."
-John Negroponte, September 13, 2001

“A former commander of Battalion 316, General Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, might have made an informative witness at Negroponte's confirmation hearing, but although he has lived in Florida for several years, he is suddenly unavailable. He left the United States in February after his residence visa was canceled . . . When an American reporter asked about the notorious battalion, he demurred, saying he wanted no more ‘problems with the United States’ because ‘your country is too powerful.’"
-Stephen Kinzer, September 20, 2001

“I did a lot in the area of quiet diplomacy. I think that is acknowledged and I think that is demonstrable in the record."
-John Negroponte, September 13, 2001

“Ah yes.. John Negroponte. Along with Alberto ‘Geneva Conventions? We Don’t Need No Stinking Geneva Conventions’ Gonzales these two will be the bookends of our proud policies of torture and civil rights violations. Every time that I think that it couldn’t get any more comically wrong, they seem to go out of their way to show me I’m mistaken. I’m pretty sure that by next week Bush will be nominating Oliver North or G. Gordon Liddy for something…”
-Skippy