It is ironic (what an inadequate word!! Who was it who said that irony died when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize?) that John Negroponte was confirmed as the new ambassador to Iraq in the midst of the torture scandal.

He has the Curriculum Vitae for the job:

Covering up for torture? Been there.
Turning away families of the disappeared? Done that.
Carrying water for the CIA? Years of experience.
Finding justification and explanations for massacres? He should be able to handle it.

Our friends at Foreign Policy in Focus did a profile of Negroponte when he was chosen as Bush's Ambassador to the United Nations. Here is an excerpt:

"During his tour as ambassador to Honduras that Negroponte earned his reputation for being soft on human rights abuses. From 1981 to 1985, Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras, where he helped prosecute the contra war against Nicaragua and helped strengthen the military dictatorship in Honduras.

"Under the helm of General Gustavo Alvarez Martínez, Honduras's military government was both a close ally of the Reagan administration and was disappearing dozens of political opponents in classic death squad fashion.

"On Negroponte's watch, diplomats quipped that the embassy's annual human rights reports made Honduras sound more like Norway than Argentina. Former official Rick Chidester, who served under Negroponte, says he was ordered to remove all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his 1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras. In a 1982 letter to The Economist, Negroponte wrote that it was "simply untrue to state that death squads have made their appearance in Honduras." The Country Report on Human Rights Practices that the embassy submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee took the same line, insisting that there were "no political prisoners in Honduras" and that the "Honduran government neither condones nor knowingly permits killings of a political or nonpolitical nature."

Yet, according to a four-part series in the Baltimore Sun, in 1982 alone the Honduran press ran 318 stories of murders and kidnappings by the Honduran military. In a 1995 series, Sun reporters Gary Cohn and Ginger Thompson detailed the activities of a secret CIA-trained Honduran army unit, Battalion 316, that used "shock and suffocation devices in interrogations. Prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves." In 1994, Honduras's National Commission for the Protection of Human Rights reported that it was officially admitted that 179 civilians were still missing.

During Negroponte's tenure, U.S. military aid to Honduras, a country of five million, skyrocketed from $3.9 million to $77.4 million. Much of this largesse went to assure the Honduran army's loyalty in the battle against political leftists throughout Central America. Embassy reports to Washington singled out for particular praise army chief Alvarez, a School of the Americas graduate who was direct commander of Battalion 316."

To read more visit Foreign Policy In Focus.

In a recent speech, Noam Chomsky observed that around the time Negroponte was forward as the new Ambassador to Iraq, the Honduran government announced they would remove their troops from Iraq. Coincidence?

"John Negroponte: The Right Man for the Job?," by Peter Ogden, Center for American Progress, April 26, 2004

BUSH'S "REALLY GOOD SECRETARY OF DEFENSE"

Members of Congress, citizens groups and others are calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation over the torture of Iraqi prisoners.

The lead editorial in today's New York Times says, "The world is waiting now for a sign that President Bush understands the seriousness of what has happened. It needs to be more than his repeated statements that he is sorry the rest of the world does not 'understand the true nature and heart of America.' Mr. Bush should start showing the state of his own heart by demanding the resignation of his secretary of defense."

President Bush has defended Rumsfeld, calling him a "really good secretary of defense" who will "stay in my Cabinet."

Rumsfeld testifies before Congress today. The Center for American Progress has produced a "Viewing Guide to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's Testimony" with questions that members of Congress should ask.

THE PUNISHMENT

Soldiers Are Court-martialed: What About CACI and Titan Employees?

While U.S. soldiers involved in the torture of Iraqi prisoners are facing court-martial and military discipline, it is not clear what sort of punishment civilian contractors named in the Taguba report will face.

Contractors are hired under an arrangement that assures them they will not be prosecuted under Iraqi law, he said. They are also, because of Supreme Court rulings, not held accountable to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Four civilians are named in the Taguba report: Steven Stephanowicz, John Israel, Torin Nelson and Adel Nakhla. They were assigned to work with the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.

Stephanowicz, a civilian interrogator employed by CACI, "made a false statement to the investigation team regarding the locations of his interrogations, the activities during his interrogations, and his knowledge of abuses." He encouraged Military Police to terrorize inmates, and "clearly knew his instructions equated to physical abuse."

Civilians like Stephanowicz can be charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over any crimes committed by civilian contractors working with the military abroad. But this four-year-old law, passed after DynCorp employees in Bosnia were accused of sex trafficking and escaped prosecution, has never been used.

Stephanowicz's employer, CACI International Inc., is based in Arlington, Virginia and provides technology services and application development and implementation for the military. It also provides non-IT related services such as training, intelligence and national security services. Despite the revelations, the company maintains that its workers in Iraq have done "a damn fine job."

Titan, the other company named in the Taguba report, is already under SEC investigation for alleged corruption for allegedly making illegal payments to international officials. Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contractor, is in the process of buying the troubled company for $2.4 billion. But these allegations could scuttle the deal.

Representative Janice Schakowsky (D-IL) has called on President Bush to suspend all contractors with civilian contractors for security, supervision and interrogation of prisoners. In a letter sent to the White House she writes, "the sadistic abuses of Iraqis at a U.S. military prison raise serious questions about the accountability of U.S.-hired private contractors who are involved in illegal activities."

Arms Trade Resource Center director William Hartung is quoted in a Dallas New article today entitled "Who Investigates Private Interrogators?".

"Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq," by Pratap Chatterjee and A.C. Thompson, CorpWatch, May 7, 2004

The complete text of Major General Antonio Taguba's report on the torture of Iraqi prisoners is online at CorpWatch.org

Reports   |  Recent News Coverage   |  Updates