The King of Latin America

Kissinger didn't convince you that Bush is on tilt? OK, how much do you know about Elliot Abrams?

By: Sean Gonsalves

Remember when President Bush said he was going to bring honor and integrity back to the Oval office, implying, of course, that the credibility of the executive branch had been undermined by his predecessor, affectionately known in GOP circles as "Slick Willie"?

Recall with me the words of No.43's favorite political philosopher: "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

Now, it's unfair to make ultimate judgments about shrubs based on the bearing of questionable pieces of fruit, but for those skeptical of political rhetoric it does raise serious concern when a man of integrity appoints Kissinger - a guy with a rep as an international war criminal - to chair what is perhaps the most important federal commission ever assembled to investigate national security.

Sure, if the head of the Nevada boxing commission appointed Don King as chairman of a task force investigating corruption in professional pugilism, it doesn't mean he's a bad guy, right? I mean, who can better infiltrate the murky underworld of prizefight promotion than Don King? Who cares if it doesn't inspire public confidence?

So if the Kissinger appointment didn't convince you that President Bush is dead serious about restoring honor and integrity to the Oval Office, the naming of Elliot Abrams as Condi Rice's top aide on Middle Eastern affairs ought to make it a bit more clear.

Abrams is most famous for the perjury he committed as Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs when he testified before Congress during the Iran-Contra hearings.

In October 1991, rather than stand trial for feloniously evading the truth, Abrams pled guilty to two misdemeanor charges of withholding information from Congress. On Nov. 5, 1991 he was sentenced to two years probation and community service. He never completed his sentence because in the final days of No. 41's administration he was given a presidential pardon.

So what does someone who played a significant part in illegal arms dealing and a high-level cover-up do after leaving government service? Go to work as the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, of course - a position Abrams was appointed to in July 1996.

Abrams' defenders (like Kissinger supporters) argue that he is a very "competent" diplomat; an intellectual with impressive credentials.

Abrams' credentials are impressive indeed. A Harvard grad with a masters in international relations from the London School of Economics, he started his diplomatic career as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations becoming the youngest person ever to rise to the rank of Assistant Secretary of State. An up-and-coming star, colleagues dubbed Abrams "the King of Latin America"

Investigative journalist David Harris' book Shooting the Moon: The True Story of An American Manhunt provides lots of insider details about Abrams diplomatic career south of the border.

A high school friend of Abrams recalled a day when the esteemed Latin American specialist was staring out of a window at his father's law firm, high above Fifth Avenue and said: "Look at all the tiny people down there. Someday, I'll have control over them all." You got to love his ambition.

Years later, at the State Department, after having defended Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega on behalf of former CIA director George Casey, Abrams flip-flopped when Bush decided to go after the general.

In fact, Abrams went so far as to draft plans to invade Panama. The plan was to use a "surgical strike" deploying commando troops armed with extradition papers and the backing of the world's most powerful military.

"When news of this plan eventually reached the Department of Defense, the reviews were unanimous", Harris writes. "'Off the wall', 'cockamamie', 'comic strip', 'sloppy', and simply 'bull(expletive)' were perhaps the nicest things said about it there."

SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Fred Woerner described Abrams' plan as a "hare-brained scheme ordered into execution before anyone had any time or inclination to work out the details".

Typical of "chickenhawks", Abrams' response was that the military brass was made up of a bunch of "wimps".

Harris relates one particular strategy meeting in which former Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral William Crowe rebuked Abrams, saying: "There was no such thing as a 'surgical strike'... All military operations are by definition messy. Only someone who had never been involved in one could imagine otherwise."

"As a military man", Crowe was, "quite frankly, frightened by such civilian fantasies about military action".

The retired admiral told an acquaintance that Abrams was little more than a "fanatic", Harris reports. "Even years later, the chairman (Crowe) still professed to be mystified at how the Secretary of State... could delegate Latin America to the likes of this zealot of an assistant secretary."

We need a war hawk "fanatic" crafting policy in the Middle East like we need another terrorist attack - which we just might get with "zealots" like Abrams back in the saddle.