On the heels of the Bush administration’s announcement that John Poindexter would be in charge of spying on citizens, Bush has decided to bring back another Iran Contra player, Elliott Abrams. He will be the new advisor to the president on Middle Eastern affairs. San Francisco Gate Article
Appointment’s like this just stun me with their audacity. Now we have two veterans of the infamous Iran Contra affair back in government service. One, John Poindexter, whe was convicted of lying to Congress (a charge that was later overturned on a technicality), and another, Elliot Abrams, who plead guilty to withholding information from Congress (and later pardoned by Bush Sr.).
It is almost too bad that Oliver North didn’t win his bid for Senate, they could have had a real party up in Washington.
Unfortunately, Abrams is a hard liner on the Israel palestine issue and will probably cause much difficult for the State departments attempts to bring about a peaceful resolution of that issue. I truly fear that this appointment will just further the agenda of the Sharone government in using military force to crush the Palestinians even more than he is already doing. It will also weaken Colin Powell’s position in the administration and make him seem more like an outsider. So much for one of the few sane voices in the current administration.
I wonder how long before he becomes the next Paul O’Neill?