The current U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, has been nominated to become the
first Director of National Intelligence:
President Bush nominated John D. Negroponte as the first director of national intelligence today, a post intended to take charge of American intelligence agencies at a crucial juncture as they try to recover from embarrassing missteps on Iraq and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. After a prolonged search in which several others turned down the job, Mr. Bush turned to Mr. Negroponte, a career foreign service officer who served in the president's first term as ambassador to the United Nations and to Iraq and whose decades of diplomatic experience have left him intimately familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of American intelligence agencies. He was confirmed by the Senate for the earlier jobs by large margins, in 2001 and 2004, despite questions about his performance two decades ago as ambassador to Honduras, where critics said he had turned a blind eye to human rights abuses.
Ahh, turning a blind eye to human rights abuses - that certainly has been an important qualification for Bush appointees. Of course, Gonzales did alot more than that. What can Negroponte do as Director of National Intelligence? What does this job entail?
If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte, 65, will assume a post created by legislation aimed at overhauling the nation's intelligence system. . . . "As DNI [director of national intelligence], John will lead a unified intelligence community and will serve as the principal adviser to the president on intelligence matters," Bush said in making the announcement. He said Negroponte would have authority over budgets and that the CIA director would report to Negroponte. Bush also said that Negroponte would be "my primary briefer" on intelligence on a daily basis and would have regular access to the president, although he would not work in the White House. . . . The new director will oversee agencies with combined budgets of more than $40 billion, and Bush made clear that Negroponte would have considerable authority over setting those budgets and other matters. Negroponte "will have the authority to order the collection of new intelligence, to ensure the sharing of information among agencies, and to establish common standards for the intelligence community's personnel," Bush said. "It will be John's responsibility to determine the annual budgets for all national intelligence agencies and offices and to direct how these funds are spent. Vesting these in a single official who reports directly to me will make our intelligence efforts better coordinated, more efficient and more effective." Bush said that while CIA Director Porter J. Goss would report to Negroponte, the CIA would "retain its core of responsibilities for collecting human intelligence, analyzing intelligence from all sources and supporting American interests abroad at the direction of the president."
That sounds pretty damn powerful. What is Negroponte's history? We hope to explore Mr. Negroponte's background in detail in the next few days, but the basic narrrative is provided in extended copy.
Negroponte began his diplomatic career in 1960 and served in South Vietnam before becoming an aide to Henry Kissinger during negotiations in Paris with North Vietnam. From 1981 to 1985, he was U.S. ambassador to Honduras, where he helped carry out the Reagan administration's efforts, using the Contra rebels, to oust the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. He also served as ambassador to Mexico and the Philippines. After leaving the diplomatic service in 1997, Negroponte worked as a senior executive with the McGraw-Hill publishing company. In 2001, Bush appointed him as ambassador to the United Nations, a post he held until he was named ambassador to Iraq last year. A 1960 graduate of Yale University, the London-born son of a Greek shipping magnate speaks five languages.
Billmon provides "context":
"The DNI [National Directorate of Investigation] maintained a secret unit - the Honduran Anti-Communist Liberation Army (ELACH), a rightist paramilitary organization which conducted operations against Honduran leftists. According to DELETED, during the period ELACH operated (1980-1984), ELACH's operations included surveillance, kidnappings, interrogation under duress, and execution of prisoners who were Honduran revolutionaries."
CIA Inspector General's Office Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980s, August 27, 1997
"Intelligence Battalion 3-16 was also created in the early 1980s with the help of the CIA. Together with the DNI, Battalion 3-16 is blamed for the repression, capture, interrogation and disappearance of about 180 people, generally popular movement leaders."
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
Honduras
October 14, 1998
"Battalion 3-16 counter-terrorist tactics included torture, rape, assassination against persons thought to be involved in support of Salvadoran guerrillas or the Honduran leftist movement. Information available to the United States Government in the 1980s indicated that named individuals were abducted and killed by Battalion 3-16 and the FUSEP Special Unit."
CIA Working Group Stipulations
Released by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
September 13, 2001
"We did a search of all the cables that were written during the time that I was Ambassador to Honduras, from 1981 to 1985, and we could not find any references to the 3-16th Battalion."
John Negroponte
Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, September 13, 2001
DELETED reported on November 5, 1983 that DELETED had killed Reyes Mata. DELETED review this report on November 21, 1983 and reminded DELETED of the two October 1983 reports DELETED that indicated that unnamed Honduran Army officers had executed prisoners. The Ambassador [Negroponte] was particularly sensitive regarding this issue and was concerned that earlier CIA reporting on the same topic might create a human rights problem for Honduras. Based on the Ambassador's reported concerns, DELETED actively discouraged DELETED from following up the information reported by the DELETED source.
CIA Inspector General's Office Selected Issues Relating to CIA Activities in Honduras in the 1980s, August 27, 1997
Hmmm. We have a few more questions on Mr. Negroponte. We hope to ask them in the next few days.
