Changes Made to National Security Staff

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Elliott Abrams, a special assistant to the president and an assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration, has been appointed deputy national security adviser with a focus on promoting global democracy and human rights.

President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, also announced Wednesday that Faryar Shirzad will continue to serve in an expanded role as deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs.

Abrams, who becomes national security adviser for global democracy strategy, will continue work on Israeli-Palestinian affairs in concert with Hadley and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
...
Shirzad, as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, will expand his role to include focus on humanitarian affairs, stabilization, and reconstruction efforts.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-nsc-appointments,0,3557908.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[aquart]

1. Elliott Abrams has been promoted.

The treasonous perjurious little weasel triumphs.

If you haven't committed a felony, you ain't welcome in BushCo.

[Rose Siding]

2. He's putting real hard-liners into position. I just read about Crouch

JD Crouch is the lunatic who's filling Hadley's old position as deputy national security adviser.

snip>
...During the Clinton years, he was a professor of defense and strategic studies at Southwest Missouri State University and an editorial-board member of the hawkish journal Contemporary Strategy.

He criticized President George H.W. Bush's decision to withdraw tactical nuclear weapons from South Korea, calling it "a major geopolitical mistake." He advocated setting "a firm deadline for the destruction of North Korea's nuclear complex." He called for the end of the Anti-Ballistic-Missile Treaty and the swift development of missile defenses (a development that he oversaw in his recent Pentagon tenure). Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1995, he fervently supported resuming the production of chemical weapons and said of an international accord to ban them: "I cannot imagine an agreement less suited to our security needs in the post-Cold War environment. … It will contribute to the weakening of deterrence … by eliminating the ability of the United States to respond in kind to a chemical attack."

http://slate.msn.com/id/2113007/

No wonder rummy's mewing about nukes again.

[NashVegas]

3. kick

..

[Supersedeas]

4. White House's Hadley Names Two New Deputies (Iran-Contra Ties)

"http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=nm/bush_security_appointments_dc"

<<Stephen Hadley, President Bush (news - web sites)'s national
security adviser, gave Elliott Abrams and Faryar Shirzad senior
jobs on his policy team, the White House said on Wednesday.

.............

A foreign policy aide in the Reagan administration, Abrams was
entangled in the Iran-Contra scandal. >>


Ironic, how Rummi's old weapons deals with Sadaam later lead to an act of aggression against Iraq whose basis was those same weapons.

Now, we have another principle with ties to an Iranian weapons deal with every indication that that principle will be pushing for aggression against Iran.

Oh, how small the world of weapon contracts and military aggression.

[bowens43]

5. There are more convicted criminals in the administration

then any other except the Reagan administration.

The family values party loves their criminals.

[Supersedeas]

6. convicts, family and oil ties make cronyism alive and well in * 'Merika

[Pirate Smile]

7. Iran-Contra Figure to Lead Democracy Efforts Abroad

Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair, was promoted to deputy national security adviser to President Bush.

Abrams, who previously was in charge of Middle East affairs, will be responsible for pushing Bush's strategy for advancing democracy.

-snip-
Abrams's 1991 plea stemmed from the congressional inquiry into the Iran-contra affair during President Ronald Reagan's administration. On Oct. 10, 1986, Abrams, then a State Department employee, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he did not know that Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North was directing illegal arms sales to Iran and diverting the proceeds to assist the Nicaraguan contras.

Abrams was pardoned by Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59235-2005Feb2.html

[notadmblnd]

8. Convicted criminals advising the resident?

how much lower can this country sink?

[frankly_fedup2]

13. His whole administration is filled with questionable characters . . .

including himself, isn't it?

[KansDem]

23. Abrams, a criminal...

Had to be pardoned by Bush, Sr., so he could serve in Bush, Jr.'s Administration.

Doesn't anyone else see how cozy this all is? Where's the outrage?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Democracy by death squad...that's the plan

[RevolutionStartsNow]

10. Elliott Abrams = PNAC

Eliott Abrams, advancing democracy. God save us.

[PurityOfEssence]

11. It's lying to Congress under oath: that's perjury of the highest order

He didn't just "withold information" from Congress, he deliberately and specifically LIED, making false statements he knew were false. It wasn't about sex with an intern, it was about weapons with extreme destructive power; many lives were lost through this series of crimes.

Lest we forget, the Reagan Administration stole weapons and munitions from the American People, sold them for profit to a hostile foreign power with which citizens were banned from doing business, took the money and additional stolen munitions and weapons and gave them to a foreign insurgency with which it was also specifically illegal for Americans to do business. There's a reasonable possibility that some of the Iranian explosives have been used in terrorist attacks against us, but I'm not sure whether that's been demonstrated yet.

Abrams lied under oath. He is unfit to serve, since he's a world-class scofflaw; he'd do it again if it suited his purposes, and those who consider themselves above the law are an affront to civilization itself.

[suegeo]

17. Senator Eagleberger (SP?)

There is some great testimony of Sen. Eagleberger grilling this Abrams prick about soliciting money from the Sultan of Brunei to fund America's dirty little war down south.

You see, it is Congress that gets to dole out the money to fund wars. (That whole, separate the power of the sword from the power of the purse thing) And Abrams was violating the constitution to get money from private sources to fund the killing he was doing. WHO THE HELL VOTED FOR ELLIOTT ABRAMS?

Not only did he shit on the constitution and murder people, he also lied to congress about whoring the sultan for money. What me? I never asked anybody for money. Sure Elliott.

He was in front of the congress when he lied about it, however I don't think he was under oath when he lied. Eagleberger pointed out in later grilling that had Abrams been under oath "that's lying. that's slammer time."

Abrams is a traitor and he should be in jail. But then again, so should all of these lying, anti-American Bush bastards.

Poppy Bush was directing the whole thing and the little coward let other people take the fall for him. And he is now using his own idiot son to cover up for him.

There isn't a word to describe how vile and fascist and un-American he is.

[tom_paine]

12. Ah, I KNEW Hitler would get around to send out Eichmann

(or is Abrahms more analogous to Heydrich or Hans Frank?)

In either case, like the Ambassador of Death Squads undoubtedly is ramping up the Salvadoran Option.

Listening to these monsters speak of democracy and liberty is as disgusting and grotesque as listening to Hitler and Stalin say the almost identical things.

[yellowcanine]

14. More like Sgt. Shultz on "Hogan's Heroes". "I know nossing!"

I see Abrams as more of a "useful idiot" to the neocons than anything. When he lies everyone knows he is lying.

[librechik]

15. The Gang's all here!

isn't it great being run by a bunch of criminal thugs who claim to be the gunslinging agents of spreading Democracy and Christ at the point of a gun? How proud are we??? <sarcasm off>

[deacon2]

16. May I humbly propose

the Stake in the Heart amendment for these vampires? I honestly thought this s.o.b. was dead. With this growing rogues gallery in term 2, it's feels like Bush is reaching back in time to build the crypto-nazi dream team. "On deck, batting clean up for the Fourth Reich, it's Ollie North!"

[EFerrari]

18. The next time anyone tells you that you're a Bush hating wacko,

point to all the convicts in the administration.

On deck, Torqemada

[MADem]

19. What ever happened to shame????????

It used to be, if you got caught doing something wrong, you hung your head in shame and melted away to private life, hoping that your bad behaviour would not affect subsequent generations of your family. Now, people get caught lying, cheating, stealing, and the next thing ya know, they're on TV pontificating, or WORSE, advancing democracy in the Middle East.

It's just so ridiculous!!!!

[Roland99]

20. It's been replaced with "honor and integrity"

Oh wait....

[H2O Man]

21. He is also involved in the Plame scandal.

In his book "The Politics of Truth," (page 443) Joe Wilson writes, "The other name that has most often been repeated to me in connection with the inquiry and disclosure into my background and Valerie's is that of Eliot Abrams, who gained infamy in the Iran-Contra scandal during the first Bush administration. Abrams had been convicted in 1991 on two charges of lying to Congress about illegal government support of the Nicaraguan contra rebels. He was pardoned in 1992, by President George H. W. Bush. How unsurprising it would be if Abrams, an admitted perjurer and a charter member of the neoconservative movement, has engaged in unethical or criminal behavior in yet another presidential administration."

In October of 2003, when White House press secretary Scott McClellan attempted to deny the rumors of Karl Rove's involvement, told reporters, "The president knows he (Rove) wasn't involved .... It's simply not true." Yet he refused to comment on the involvement of Scooter Libby and Abrams. (ibid, pg 444)

[daleo]

22. It's like Dracula running the blood bank.

Bush just piles one obscenity on top the other.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Oh, stop, Bush. You're spoiling us.

How lucky can we get to have even one more arch-villain even closer to the "action?"



"How would you feel if your wife and children were brutally raped before being hacked to death by soldiers during a military massacre of 800 civilians, and then two governments tried to cover up the killings?" It's a question that won't be asked of Elliott Abrams at a Senate confirmation hearing- because George W. Bush, according to press reports, may appoint Abrams to a National Security Council staff position that (conveniently!) does not require Senate approval. Moreover, this query is one of a host of rude, but warranted, questions that could be lobbed at Abrams, the Iran/contra player who was an assistant secretary of state during the Reagan years and a shaper of that Administration's controversial-and deadly-policies on Latin America and human rights. His designated spot in the new regime: NSC's senior director for democracy, human rights and international operations. (At press time, the White House and Abrams were neither confirming nor denying his return to government.)
Bush the Second has tapped a number of Reagan/Bush alums who were involved in Iran/contra business for plum jobs: Colin Powell, Richard Armitage, Otto Reich and John Negroponte. But Abrams's appointment-should it come to pass-would mark the most generous of rehabilitations. Not only did Abrams plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of Iying to Congress about the Reagan Administration's contra program, he was also one of the fiercest ideological pugilists of the 1980s, a bad-boy diplomat wildly out of sync with Bush's gonna-change-the-tone rhetoric. Abrams, a Democrat turned Republican who married into the cranky Podhoretz neocon clan, billed himself as a "gladiator" for the Reagan Doctrine in Central America-which entailed assisting thuggish regimes and militaries in order to thwart leftist movements and dismissing the human rights violations of Washington's cold war partners.

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.
(snip/)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zeroes/Elliot_Abrams.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. Yikes!

[phusion]

26. Elliot Abrams to Head Democracy Front

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/3/81751.shtml

"Elliott Abrams, a special assistant to the president and an assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration, has been appointed deputy national security adviser with a focus on promoting global democracy and human rights. "

"President Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, also announced Wednesday that Faryar Shirzad will continue to serve in an expanded role as deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs."

Abrams, the PNAC freak and convicted LIAR (Iran-Contra), is moving up...

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

27. Let the death squads begin

[salin]

31. This is as obscene as the 'nomination'

of Kissenger to head the 911 panel.

[rooboy]

28. "Free at last, free at last...Thank God Almighty, I am free at last". n/t

[Scurrilous]

29. Pardon me...

...I'm sure Eliot Abrams will promote human rights and democracy with conviction!

[Just Me]

30. A criminal,...no less. Amazing. The Democracy Death Trap!!! n/t

[hvn_nbr_2]

32. If there were any real reporters left...

someone would ask Shrubler at a press conference why he keeps appointing convicted felons to sensitive positions and if he knows how many he has appointed.

If there were any real news organizations left, they'd mention the phenomenon on the "news."