Despite, or perhaps because of, a history of subverting human rights and democracy, U.S. ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte has been appointed by the Bush Administration as the first National Intelligence Director. While Negroponte's resume contains many low points, he is most well known for overseeing massive human rights abuses while U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985. Human Rights groups were almost unanimous in their disapproval of Negropontes appointment, a fact almost entirely absent in the local media coverage of this story. The GR Press ran an A.P article which mentioned only one reference to Negroponte's involvement in the Iran -Contra Scandal, briefly noting that "His U.N. nomination was held up for half a year in 2001 over criticism regarding his record as ambassador in Honduras from 1981 to 1985." Interestingly, in the original version of the A.P. article, the reporter does note that "Human rights groups also alleged that Negroponte acquiesced in rights abuses by Honduran death squads funded and partly trained by the CIA." This sentence was left out of the GR Press version of the article.
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