Friday, January 25, 2019

Andrew Buncombe — Official convicted over Iran-Contra scandal [Elliott Abrams] appointed to help 'restore democracy' in Venezuela

Bringing in the hit man. Remember Elliott Abrams of Latin America death squad fame? Now that is real chutzpah.

It also shows that there is zero accountability at this level of government. Of course, that is bipartisan. Obama gave torturers get out of jail free cards to "move forward."
For many Latin America watchers he will be associated with his denial of a 1982 massacre at El Mozote in El Salvador of hundreds of civilians by the military. Mr Abrams told a Senate committee that the reports of hundreds of deaths at El Mozote “were not credible.”
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 per cent of the abuses to the Reagan-assisted right-wing military and its death-squad allies, Mr Abrams said: “The administration’s record on El Salvador is one of fabulous achievement.”
The Independent (UK)
Official convicted over Iran-Contra scandal appointed to help 'restore democracy' in Venezuela
Andrew Buncombe

See also

Now the Trumpistas are recognizing that Trump is compromised, and not by Putin.

Breitbart
Trump Appoints Never-Trumper Elliott Abrams Envoy to Venezuela
Kristina Wong


8 comments:

Ryan Harris said...

Wasn't Iran Contra another fake news event like the birth certificate, Mueller's witch hunt, The Blue Dress. All are based on a few things that actually happened but nothing criminal, just designed to abuse the legal system and ensure that deep statr / career beltway bureaucrats exercise superiority over elected officials so they don't get too uppity and think they can change how DC insiders like to do things.

Konrad said...

Elliot Abrams is a neocon turd that won’t flush, like John Bolton. Washington is full of them. They get appointed to presidential administrations even when presidents don’t like them. This shows that Trump is worse than we thought, or else that the US President has very little actual power. Probably both.

I see that Abrams was convicted of federal offenses during the Iran-Contra scandal, and was later pardoned by W. Bush, who is now beloved by Democrats and the liberal “Resistance.”

In 1973 the US decided to overthrow Chile’s democratically elected president Allende, and install the murderous dictator Pinochet. The first step was economic sanctions. President Nixon ordered Kissinger and the CIA to "make the economy scream.” This caused economic problems for Chile. Then as now (with Venezuela) American peasants pointed at Chile and said, “See? Socialism doesn’t work!”

However there is one difference. In 1973, American liberals and Democrats opposed Nixon’s efforts against Chile. Today, “never Trump” liberals and Democrats support Trump’s efforts against Venezuela.

Today (Saturday) all the US staff were supposed to have vacated the US embassy in Caracas. I wonder if Maduro will have the guts to cut electricity to the compound. The place is a fortress with its own generators, but it can be sealed closed with Venezuelan troops.

Konrad said...

@ Ryan Harris:

“Wasn't Iran Contra another fake news event like the birth certificate, Mueller's witch hunt, The Blue Dress?”

Russia-gate is a hoax. Iran-Contra was not.

The US Congress ordered the President, CIA, and Pentagon to leave Central America alone. Therefore Reagan went behind Congress’ back and launched a proxy war against El Salvador and Nicaragua, to keep their dictators in power. This eventually led to a number of convictions, and to little punks like Oliver North weeping in shame as North confessed his crimes to Congress. It also sparked the crack cocaine epidemic in the USA. The CIA flew C130 aircraft full of arms down to Honduras, and loaded up those same aircraft with cocaine for the return trip to the USA. The CIA used the money from cocaine sales to fund its proxy war in Central America. The CIA also sold arms to Iran (using Israeli middlemen) and used the cash proceeds for the same purpose.

All the criminals convicted in Iran-Contra scandal were pardoned by subsequent presidents.

Ryan Harris said...

It's more complicated than that. Under the covers, there were balance of power issues happening. The constitution doesn't allow congress to meddle in foreign policy. But congress always tries. So they passed laws to try and prevent the president from exercising his constitutional authority. They made some dodgy financial laws prohibiting certain activities that were technically legal but in essence were unconstitutional congressional interference in foreign policy. The President's admin found a loophole. The liberal biased media and academics of course viewed it from the perspective of the democratic party congress... Arguably the law was created with the intent to interfere so they could create the spectacle

Konrad said...

"The constitution doesn't allow congress to meddle in foreign policy."

The Constitution allows Congress to allocate money. The US Congress told Reagan no more money for his proxy wars in Central America. So Reagan funded his wars by selling arms to Iran, and by selling crack cocaine to average Americans, especially Blacks. And then Reagan lied about it. No amount of "It's more complicated than that" obfuscation will change these simple facts.

As for the "liberal biased media" you are confusing today's media which (presumably like you) favors regime change in Venezuela, with 1980s media, which did not favor endless regime change operations. Moreover 1980s media was not obsessed with exterminating straight white males, like today's media is.

Noah Way said...

What part of overthrowing foreign governments or selling drugs to your own citizens is legal?

Does not congress have the power of the checkbook (in theory, at least)?

Iran Contra is just an example of SOP, and it hasn't gotten better, it's gotten worse.

S400 said...

This Elliot criminal is a right winger and that is enough for Ryan to look between the fingers.

Same with the unelected “fella” in Venezuela who Ryan thinks is extraordinarily good to run the country as he has a degree in engineering not to mention he is a right winger.

It seems Ryan is picking up speed and start to catch up with Franko.

Noah Way said...

The more socially responsibility comes to the forefront of the discussion the more wingnuts will be worked into a lather of indignation and fury.