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Extreme Unilateralist or Strong Leader? A Debate on UN Ambassador
Nominee John Bolton
Fmr. Honduran Human Rights Commissioner: "Impossible
Negroponte Did Not Know About Human Rights Violations"
in Honduras
Venezuela: Revolution in Progress
Extreme Unilateralist or Strong Leader? A Debate
on UN Ambassador Nominee John Bolton
The confirmation hearings for John Bolton - Bush's choice
for US ambassador to the United Nations - begin today in Washington.
We host a debate with Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for
Policy Studies and Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation.
The confirmation hearings for John Bolton - Bush's choice
for US ambassador to the UN - begin today. Bolton has worked
in federal government - mostly in the State Department - for
the past 25 years. He presently serves as the Undersecretary
of State for arms control and international affairs. Bolton's
nomination stunned many in Washington because he has been
one of the Bush administration's fiercest critics of the UN.
Every Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
reportedly plans to reject his nomination and Senate Republicans
have also expressed concern over whether Bolton is the right
man for the job. In addition, a group of 59 (fifty nine) former
U.S. diplomats have signed a letter to Senator Richard Lugar,
Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - calling
for the Senate to reject Bolton's nomination.
Here is a look at John Bolton from more than 10 years ago,
where he was speaking at an event called "The Global
Structures Convocation." It was held on February 3, 1994,
in New York. This is some of what John Bolton had to say.
- John Bolton, speaking Global Structures convocation,
New York City, Feb. 3, 1994.
Also on that panel eleven years ago was Phyllis Bennis. She
joins us today on the line from Washington. She is a fellow
at the Institute for Policy Studies, specializing in the Middle
East and the United Nations. We are also joined by Peter Brookes,
a Senior Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a New York
Post columnist. He has a column in today's paper supporting
Bolton's nomination titled: "The Right Pick." Today
we host a debate.
- Peter Brookes, Senior Fellow at the Heritage
Foundation. He writes weekly column for New York Post.
Read his article: "The Right Pick."
Fmr. Honduran Human Rights Commissioner: "Impossible
Negroponte Did Not Know About Human Rights Violations"
in Honduras
Senate confirmation hearings on John Negroponte's nomination
to the post of National Intelligence Director are scheduled
to begin Tuesday. We take a look at his record as U.S. ambassador
to Honduras with a Honduran activist whose brother was disappeared
by Honduran security forces, the former Honduran National
Human Rights Commissioner and a filmmaker who has profiled
human rights issues in Latin America.
Senate confirmation hearings on John Negroponte's nomination
to the post of National Intelligence Director are set to begin
tomorrow. Most recently, Negroponte was the Ambassador to
Iraq and before that, the Ambassador to the United Nations.
Negroponte also served as the Ambassador to Honduras from
1981-1985. During that time Honduras was the staging ground
for the contra war in Nicaragua and the home of the brutal,
CIA-backed Battalion 316, which is responsible for deaths
and disappearances of many Hondurans.
The selection of Negroponte to National Intelligence Director
has focused renewed attention on how much he knew about the
Honduran military's involvement in almost 200 disappearances
and what he did about it. Former official Rick Chidester,
who served under Negroponte, says he was ordered to remove
all mention of torture and executions from the draft of his
1982 report on the human rights situation in Honduras.
During Negroponte's tenure, US military aid to Honduras skyrocketed
from $3.9 million dollars to over $77 million dollars. Much
of this went to ensure the Honduran army's loyalty in the
battle against popular movements throughout Central America.
In the hearings on Negroponte's appointment to UN ambassador,
he was questioned by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff
members on whether he had acquiesced to human rights abuses
by death squads funded and partly trained by the Central Intelligence
Agency. Negroponte testified that he did not believe the abuses
were part of a deliberate Honduran government policy. He said,
"To this day I do not believe that death squads were
operating in Honduras."
- Zenaida Velasquez, sister of Manfredo Velásquez,
who was abducted and disappeared by Honduran security forces.
In 1982 she founded the Honduran Committee of Family Members
of the Disappeared (COFADEH).
- Roz Dzelzitis, worked as a photojournalist and filmmaker,
profiling human rights issues in the U.S. and Latin America.
Roz is producing Lost Decade, an MISF feature documentary
film on the legacy of U.S. involvement in Honduras in the
1980s.
- Leo Valladares, Former Honduran National Commissioner
for Human Rights. He is the author of "The Facts Speak
for Themselves" about the 184 cases of the disappeared
in Honduras.
Venezuela: Revolution in Progress
Today is the third anniversary of the failed coup attempt
to overthrow democratically elected Venezuelan president Hugo
Chavez. We speak with filmmaker Matt O'Neil about his new
documentary, "Venezuela: Revolution in Progress."
[includes rush
transcript]
Today is the third anniversary of the failed coup to overthrow
democratically elected Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
On April 11, 2002 Chavez was removed from power by a coalition
of military officials and business leaders but returned to
office two days later.
U.S.-Venezuela relations have turned sour ever since Chavez
was elected president in 1998. As president, Chavez has condemned
the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan and threatened
to cut off oil sales to the United States. Venezuela supplies
the U.S. with 15 percent of its oil.
Over the years, more than $1 million dollars in U.S. government
money has been given to Venezuelan opposition groups for democracy-training
programs under the auspices of the National Endowment for
Democracy - a private agency funded entirely by the U.S. government.
Last August, Chavez survived a referendum to remove him from
power through a recall election.
- Matt O'Neill, He produced and directed the documentary,
"Venezuela: Revolution in Progress." It airs Monday
on Discovery Times Channel at 8pm and 11pm EST.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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