Mick Hartley

To anyone who’s studied the history of US involvement in Central America in the Eighties, the name of John Negroponte will be familiar. As ambassador to Honduras he became known for his willingness to turn a blind eye to the death squads operating there, while he helped organise the Contra rebels who did such a wonderful job of bombing schools and hospitals inside the Sandinistas’ Nicaragua. In short, a man with a past, closely associated with some of the worst excesses of recent US foreign policy.

So this is not good news:

President Bush named John Negroponte yesterday as the first US Ambassador to Iraq since 1991. He will head what will become the largest American embassy in the world.

David Adesnik at Oxblog provides a comprehensive summary, with links.