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Neocon Elliot Abrams |
By
Stephen Lendman |
Trump is considering him for the department’s number two position - perhaps an especially powerful one while Rex Tillerson transitions from Big Oil to diplomacy. Trump transition advisor James Carafano believes Abrams is “pretty close to being named” - best known for his role in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair. It involved covertly selling arms to Iran to fund Contra anti-Sandinista terrorists in Nicaragua. The Boland Amendment prohibited it. For his role in the scheme, Abrams was indicted for lying to Congress, pled guilty to two lesser offenses of withholding information from Congress to avoid a trial, possible conviction and imprisonment. On Christmas night 1992, GHW Bush pardoned him and other Iran-Contra defendants - their high crimes forgiven, not forgotten. In 1998, Abrams and other PNAC members urged “decisive action” to replace Federal Republic of Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic with pro-Western leadership. The nation’s 1999 rape followed, one of many Clinton administration high crimes. The same year, Abrams was one of 18 PNAC signatories in a letter to Clinton, urging war on Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein, calling him a “hazard (to) a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil.” In the GW Bush administration, he was one of its architects. He drafted a proposal for seizing Iraq’s oil fields. The US installed puppet regime maintained control. During Reagan’s two terms, Abrams held three State Department positions, including Assistant secretary for Inter-American Affairs from July 17, 1985 - January 20, 1989. He later served as GW Bush’s Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor, supervising White House Middle East policy. He was instrumental in the aborted two-day coup attempt to replace Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez with puppet leadership serving US interests. In 2007, he was part of a black operation to destabilize Iran, using disinformation and manipulation of its currency, aiming for regime change. He was a Project for the New American Century (PNAC) signatory (now called the Foreign Policy Initiative), established in 1997, comprised of neocon extremists, dedicated to seeking US global dominance through endless wars of aggression. He’s currently connected to the neocon American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Heritage Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, and various other hardline groups. He’s a notorious Zionist zealot, opposed to sympathies toward Palestinians, fundamentally against Israeli concessions to achieve conflict resolution. He’s interventionist, pro-endless wars of aggression, advocating nation-building, what Trump said he opposes. If appointed State’s number two, will neocon foreign policy continue unabated? Will endless imperial wars rage? Will confrontation with China and Iran follow, risking possible nuclear war? Will hope for improved relations with Russia be dashed? Will Congress prevent it anyway? Will dirty business as usual remain unchanged, especially US imperial madness, or will Trump manage to go another way? America needs more peacemakers, fewer warriors. It’s not the way things usually work out. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. |
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