Sunday, January 30, 2011

The War Criminal Post



Shorter: G. W. Bush gave speeches about Freedom™! But Obama has ignored the ordinary people of the arab world whom I and my fellow chickenhawks, liars, torture enthusiasts, and genocide fans pretend to care about whenever it suits our purpose.


I see Fred Hiatt and Jackson Diehl have neglected to mention much of Elliott Abrams' history. I can't imagine why.
One Abrams specialty was massacre denial. During a Nightline appearance in 1985, he was asked about reports that the US-funded Salvadoran military had slaughtered civilians at two sites the previous summer. Abrams maintained that no such events had occurred. And had the US Embassy and the State Department conducted an investigation? "My memory," he said, "is that we did, but I don't want to swear to it, because I'd have to go back and look at the cables."

But there had been no State Department inquiry; Abrams, in his lawyerly fashion, was being disingenuous. Three years earlier, when two American journalists reported that an elite, US-trained military unit had massacred hundreds of villagers in El Mozote, Abrams told Congress that the story was commie propaganda, as he fought for more US aid to El Salvador's military. The massacre, as has since been confirmed, was real. And in 1993 after a UN truth commission, which examined 22,000 atrocities that occurred during the twelve-year civil war in El Salvador, attributed 85 percent of the abuses to the Reagan-assisted right-wing military and its death-squad allies, Abrams declared, "The Administration's record on El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement." Tell that to the survivors of El Mozote.

But it wasn't his lies about mass murder that got Abrams into trouble. After a contra resupply plane was shot down in 1986, Abrams, one of the coordinators of Reagan's pro-contra policy (along with the NSC's Oliver North and the CIA's Alan Fiers), appeared several times before Congressional committees and withheld information on the Administration's connection to the secret and private contra-support network. He also hid from Congress the fact that he had flown to London (using the name "Mr. Kenilworth") to solicit a $10 million contribution for the contras from the Sultan of Brunei. At a subsequent closed-door hearing, Democratic Senator Thomas Eagleton blasted Abrams for having misled legislators, noting that Abrams's misrepresentations could lead to "slammer time." Abrams disagreed, saying, "You've heard my testimony." Eagleton cut in: "I've heard it, and I want to puke." On another occasion, Republican Senator Dave Durenberger complained, "I wouldn't trust Elliott any further than I could throw Ollie North."

Even after Abrams copped a plea with Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, he refused to concede that he'd done anything untoward. Abrams's Foggy Bottom services were not retained by the First Bush, but he did include Abrams in his lame-duck pardons of several Iran/contra wrongdoers.
UPDATE: The question I'd like to ask at 11 A.M. on Tuesday is:

"Are there any Reagan or Bush era war crimes enablers who HAVEN'T yet gotten an Op-Ed in the WaPo?"

But I'm sure this would not get past the mods. How about the slightly more subtle:

"Do you think we'll see the release of any CIA prisoners that were renditioned to Egypt?"
~

7 comments:

Hamish Mack said...

Interesting to see the bottom feeders that the Bushs attract and how they finagle getting paid for their drivel when the shite has slipped off the fan blades.

vacuumslayer said...

Would you be offended if I did not get off the boat? Stuff like this makes me want to bash my computer monitor over my head.

So this dumbfuck took the exact wrong lesson from this revolt? Oy.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

That's all true, A.K.

What's sad is that in this country, the Washington Post is presumed to be part of the "liberal mainstream media". (Rupert Murdoch now owns almost all of the "conservative" press.)

Will the sheeple ever notice that the same plutocrat-friendly policies are pushed by both "sides"? Not if the Washington Post can help it.

VS, this war criminal knows exactly what he's doing. He's not taking a lesson, he's pushing propaganda.
~

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

I really, really, really hope the U.S. doesn't screw up this situation in Egypt. I am not very optimistic, though.

Substance McGravitas said...

Gee, which foreign policy genius with the initials EA gets to give advice to the president?

Jack Crow said...

That would be delicious - a freeing of CIA torture prisoners. For their own sakes, first. But, afterward, to speak as loudly, as often, and as publicly as possible.

Brando said...

I don't understand how Egypt will make a transition to democracy without an American invasion.