Posted on 12/03/2002 10:30:56 AM PST by RCW2001
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/12/02/national2032EST0775.DTL
(12-02) 17:32 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --
Iran-Contra figure Elliott Abrams, who received a pardon from the first President Bush for his role in the scandal and has served in the White House for over a year, has been promoted to a key post among the current President Bush's national security aides.
Abrams was appointed to lead the National Security Council's office for Near East and North African affairs. The senior director job oversees Arab-Israeli relations and U.S. efforts to promote peace in the troubled region.
His appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, was announced Monday by Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
An assistant secretary of state during the Reagan administration, Abrams was a fierce advocate of armed support for Nicaraguan rebels despite Congress' ban on military aid to the so-called Contras.
He pleaded guilty in 1991 to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. In court, Abrams admitted he kept information from two committees in 1986 when he testified about his knowledge of the secret Contra supply network and about his role in soliciting a $10 million contribution for the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei. Abrams received a Christmas Eve pardon from President George H.W. Bush in 1992.
When Abrams was chosen to head the NSC's office for democracy, human rights and international operations in June 2001, his current job, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called his role in Iran-Contra "a matter of the past."
Abrams was president of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center from 1996 to 2001 and served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from June 2000 to May 2001.
Rice also announced the appointment of Flynt Leverett as the NSC's senior director for Middle East initiatives, where he will have primary responsibility for Arab-Israeli issues under Abrams' direction. Leverett has been acting senior director since July and is on detail from the Central Intelligence Agency, where he was a senior Middle East analyst. He came to the NSC in February from the State Department.
©2002 Associated Press
I agree.
Well, that makes it worthwhile all by itself, eh? ;-)
I've got a latin saying on my wall that I "pinched" from a sign on his desk during his Nixon years ...
Orchides Forum Trahite
Cordes Et Mentes Veniant
(Grab them by the balls
and their hearts and minds will follow)
Actually, it looks like his new responsibilities (Near East) are comparable in importance and activity to the present war as his old Central American ballywick was to the Cold War. He will greatly help win this one for Bush just as he did the first one for Reagan.
Welcome back Elliot!
Ever heard of separation of powers?
And if you want to talk about "defecating on the constitution", let's discuss the Boland Amendment.
Not familiar with that one, are you?
Hard to argue with the sentiment, either way.
I have a feeling their heads are spinning faster than that kid in "The Exorcist."
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