Return of the Vampire: Elliot Abrams Named to Security Council

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

Bush picks Elliott Abrams for top job

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday named 
Elliott Abrams, who was involved in the Iran-contra scandal during Ronald 
Reagan's presidency, to a senior position at the White House National 
Security Council. 

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice announced that Abrams had been 
appointed to the position of senior director for democracy, human rights and 
international operations. The position does not require Senate confirmation. 

In 1991, Abrams pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges of withholding 
information from Congress related to the Reagan administration's secret 
scheme to sell arms to Iran and use the proceeds to fund the Contra rebels 
fighting Nicaragua's leftist government. He received a pardon from the 
president's father, the then President George Bush. 

Abrams admitted that he withheld from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 
and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in October 1986 his 
knowledge of Lt. Col. Oliver North's Contra-assistance activities. 

"I consider this one of the most bizarre appointments imaginable," said Larry 
Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, an independent policy 
research organization. 

The White House said Bush had confidence in Abrams. "Mr Abrams is eminently 
qualified for his new position. He is the best person for the job," said 
White House spokesman Sean McCormack. 

The appointment followed Bush's nomination of two controversial conservatives 
to work on Latin American policy. 

One of those was Cuban-born conservative Otto Reich, Bush's nominee to head 
Latin American policy at the State Department as assistant secretary of state 
for Western Hemisphere affairs. 

Reich, a controversial member of the Cuban-American exile lobby, ran the 
Reagan administration's Office of Public Diplomacy from 1983 to 1986. The 
office was accused of using illegal means to promote public support for the 
Nicaraguan Contra rebels. 

Democratic senators have vowed to oppose the appointment of Reich, a 
corporate lobbyist for rum producer Bacardi who favors tightening the U.S. 
trade embargo on Cuba. 

Bush picked Roger Noriega, an aide to North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse 
Helms, as U.S. ambassador to the Organization of American States, the 
hemispheric forum of 34 nations. 

Bush has made a point of emphasizing the importance of good North-South 
relations. 

Birns said the selections represented "a very dangerous trend for the future 
of U.S.-Latin American relations" at a time of rising nationalism in the 
region. 

"It clearly is a very provocative move," he said. 

18:19 06-28-01
 
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