Latin America Remembers

As expected, the Negroponte nomination has sparked controversy south of the border. Bertha Olivia, the coordinator of the Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared called it "an outrage." Tomas Borge, a founder of the Sandinista movement, had a more incisive response, calling Negroponte "the most efficient and ideal representative for the Bush administration's primitive international security policy."

For those still confused why a diplomat such as Negroponte would be nominated as the director of national intelligence, Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archives at George Washington University provides the answer.

"Someone who is a career diplomat ... on paper doesn't seem to
have the intelligence background needed," he said. "The fact that he
certainly departed from his diplomatic role and was involved in paramilitary operations against Nicaragua ... means he has had a relationship with covert operations in the past."

Matthew Rothschild of the Progressive agrees, arguing an apparatchik of U.S. foreign policy such as Negroponte has "to get some blood on [his] resume."

I can help but think that Graham Greene and George Orwell would have appreciated the rise of this neocolonialist to the top of the world's most powerful intelligence apparatus.