Negroponte to Be Announced Ambassador to Iraq

WGST-AM radio | 4/19/04 | President Bush

[RobFromGa]

President Bush to announce this afternoon

[big'ol_freeper]

Interesting....

[RobFromGa]

Biography of
JOHN D. NEGROPONTE
United States Ambassador to the United Nations

John D. Negroponte was sworn in as United States Representative to the United Nations on September 18, 2001. Since 1997 Mr. Negroponte had been Executive Vice President for Global Markets of The McGraw-Hill Companies. From 1960 to 1997, Ambassador Negroponte was a member of the Career Foreign Service. He served at eight different Foreign Service posts in Asia, Europe and Latin America; and he also held important positions at the State Department and the White House.

Among his more recent assignments, Mr. Negroponte was Ambassador to Honduras (1981-85); Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs (1985-87); Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (1987-89); Ambassador to Mexico (1989-93); and Ambassador to the Philippines (1993-96). Mr. Negroponte is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Diplomacy. He is former chairman of the French-American Foundation. Ambassador Negroponte is a graduate of Yale University. He and his wife, Diana, have five children.

[Coop]

That's one way to involve the U.N. more in Iraq without really involving the U.N. LOL

[OXENinFLA]

Will this change his place at the UN?

[OXENinFLA]

Ping..........

[Semper Paratus]

Will this change his place at the UN?

I heard Rudy is going to replace him.

[mwl1]

Boy that would be something in an election year -- to have Rudy in front of the cameras advocating the Administration's position. Hope you are right.

[RobFromGa]

Bush to Name Negroponte Iraq Ambassador

By Associated Press

April 19, 2004, 1:08 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to name John Negroponte, the United States' current ambassador to the United Nations, as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, an administration official said Monday.

The president planned to make the announcement in the Oval Office later Monday, the official said.

At the United Nations, Negroponte, 64, was instrumental in winning unanimous approval of a Security Council resolution that demanded Saddam Hussein comply with U.N. mandates to disarm.

While the resolution helped the Bush administration make its case for invading Iraq, the Security Council eventually refused to endorse the overthrow of Saddam, opting instead to extend U.N. weapons searches.

If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte would head a U.S. embassy in Baghdad that will be temporarily housed in a palace that belonged to Saddam. When up and running, the embassy will be the largest in the world.

Negroponte would become ambassador in Baghdad when the United States hands over political power to an interim Iraqi government by a June 30 deadline. The current top U.S. official in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, is expected to leave the country once the political transition is completed.

Thousands of U.S. troops will remain in the country even after the political transition is complete.

As U.N. ambassador in New York, Negroponte also helped win approval of a resolution to expand the mandate of an international security force in Afghanistan after the overthrow of the Taliban governement. Before that, he worked in private business.

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.

Negroponte testified that he did not believe the abuses were part of a deliberate Honduran government policy. "To this day," he said, "I do not believe that death squads were operating in Honduras."

"He's a diplomat's diplomat," said Bernard Aronson, the State Department's top Latin America official in the first Bush administration, when Negroponte was ambassador to Mexico.

"He's trusted, I think, by the administration. He's certainly very close to the secretary of state and he's unflappable," Aronson said in a recent interview.

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

[Libertarian Jim]

This could be tough...the Dems hate Negroponte because he was in Honduras during the Contra War in Nicaragua and had a hand in assisting them. Uncle Ted will no doubt raise a stink...not that I care.

Anyway, the big hope is that Giuliani gets the U.N. post...so he can kick some butts!

[Howlin]

News alert!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Need help on a Survey... poll:

Bush administration's assertion .. Iraq is a battleground in the war on terrorism?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Do you believe the Bush administration's assertion that Iraq is a battleground in the war on terrorism?
Choice	Votes	Percentage of 6454 Votes
Yes	4210	65%
No	2244	35%
Thanks for participating in our survey.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

He is going to be an important man to have there.

Today: April 19, 2004 at 10:21:17 PDT

Italy Endorses Brahimi Plan for Iraq

By TOM RACHMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) -

Italy's foreign minister backed a United Nations proposal to transfer sovereignty to a caretaker government in Iraq, and said Monday he would ask Washington to give the United Nations "real powers" in the country.

Foreign Minister Franco Frattini met with the lead U.N. envoy for Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Bologna on Monday. He said he would raise his support for the plan during meetings in Washington starting Tuesday.

"I believe this idea is in the direction that the Italian government supports and requires," Frattini said.

Last week, Brahimi proposed that the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq stop work on June 30, and that the United States surrender sovereignty to a caretaker government of a prime minister, a president and two vice presidents. It would oversee the country until elections on Jan. 31, 2005.

The caretaker government would be chosen by the United Nations, the current Governing Council, the coalition and a select group of Iraqi judges.

Frattini said that while in the United States, he would say "with friendship to the U.S. that when on June 30 the coalition dissolves we must already be ready with the individuation of a new Iraqi government and with the United Nations present with real powers."

He is to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and a few senators.

Brahimi was in Bologna to deliver a speech and to meet with European Union Commission President Romano Prodi, who lives in the city. He was to meet later Monday with Premier Silvio Berlusconi in Rome.

Prodi said he had assured Brahimi of the EU's support for a strong role for the United Nations in running the country.

On Sunday, Brahimi had met with the French and German foreign ministers, Michel Barnier and Joschka Fischer, in Paris.

Frattini said last week that Italy was working for a new U.N. resolution giving explicit legitimacy to a post-June 30 Iraqi government.

Italy was a strong supporter of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has deployed about 2,700 troops to help with reconstruction, the third-largest contingent after the United States and Britain.

Brahimi's plan for the Iraqi transition has received preliminary support from the United States and Britain. He is due to report on it to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, then return to Baghdad for more talks.

--

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Details on the plan:

Brahimi/Barzani Brief in Baghdad

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Mo1]

I don't know anything about this guy .. who is he?

[Darlin']

Good. I like Negroponte. After his stint at the UN I imagine Baghdad will surely seem like a garden spot to him. LOL

[BigSkyFreeper]

Thanks for the ping Howlin! Heard this on the top of the hour ABC Radio News (2pm EDT).

This is a well deserved appointment for Negroponte. He was front and center before the Iraq war began, and Bush rewarded him with this post. It may be the most dangerous ambassadorship currently in the world, but Bush and Negroponte may score points with this move, and moreso if it is true Rudy gets Negroponte's seat in the U.N. I'm sure Negroponte welcomes the challenge to help forge a free and democratic Iraq.