What is the statute of limitations for dropping a stinkbomb? I don’t pose the question idly, because I did commit the above offense several times, eight or nine years ago, at a Washington, DC bookstore during a book signing by Elliott Abrams.
I think Elliott Abrams stinks. From 1985 to 1989, he was assistant secretary of state for Latin America, and as such he was architect of the covert war the Reagan administration waged in Central America.
What is the statute of limitations on war crimes, atrocities? Slobodan Milosevic sits in a cell in the Hague, Augusto Pinochet pretends he’s too old and sick to be dangerous anymore, Henry Kissinger is beginning to think long and hard before he travels abroad.
Elliott Abrams, meanwhile, is George W. Bush’s nominee to be senior director of the National Security Council’s office for democracy, human rights and international operations. When I first heard it, I thought it had to be just an extraordinarily sick joke, but it’s true. Pol Pot was the first choice, but he’s dead.
In case you’ve forgotten – and the White House hopes you have – the Reagan administration engaged in illegal, unethical and unconstitutional acts in the 1980s. You remember Iran-Contra don’t you? It was Elliott Abrams, passing himself off as “Mr. Kenilworth” who went to London to beg $10 million for the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei. (Then, of course, Ollie North’s secretary, Fawn Hall, deposited the money in the wrong Swiss bank account. So they say.)
This is how George W. Bush “restores honor to the Oval Office”? By putting a rapist of nuns and a murderer of children in charge of an office of – Ha, Ha, Ha – human rights?
Eventually Abrams cut a deal with Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was pardoned by the first President Bush, then a lame duck, on Christmas Eve 1992. If Congress wants to investigate dubious pardons, it can start right there.
The Senate has no say in appointments to the National Security Council. If it did, Elliott Abrams would not be a nominee. The Senate will get to weigh in, however, on the nomination of Otto Reich – another Iran-Contra figure – now nominated for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and John Negroponte, who was ambassador to Honduras during Contra days, now nominated to be U.N. Ambassador. I’m waiting for Eugene Hasenfus to show up at the Department of Transportation.
Why is this? Why does George Junior insist on bringing the worst spooks of the 1980s into his government? Some think the White House is brown-nosing the only Latino constituency Bush cares about, the Miami-Dade Cuban exiles. If that’s so, he putting a lot of rotten eggs in one very small basket.
Elliott Abrams claimed – and continues to claim – that the Reagan administration did nothing wrong in Central America. That’s a lie, and over the years, the evidence has shown that lie again and again.
In the early 90s, Abrams, the war criminal, wrote a book in which he portrayed himself as the victim of Iran-Contra. That’s when I showed up with the stinkbombs. There wasn’t much to disrupt, really, a small gathering in the basement at Politics and Prose. About a dozen college kids, all of whom looked like they had been extras in the movie “Bob Roberts,” showed up. A friend of mine, dressed as a blood-spattered peasant jumped from behind a stack of books and yelled “You killed my family!” at Abrams. The war criminal rocked back on his heels, looking dazed. The “Bob Roberts” crowd huddled together and cowered. Only Mrs. War Criminal leaped forward, cutting loose with a string of obscenities I won’t repeat on the internet and that’s when I dropped the bombs. The stench rose and we beat it, two steps ahead of the DC Metro police. Unfortunately, the cops were chasing the wrong criminal.
Elliott Abrams Stinks
What is the statute of limitations for dropping a stinkbomb? I don’t pose the question idly, because I did commit the above offense several times, eight or nine years ago, at a Washington, DC bookstore during a book signing by Elliott Abrams.
I think Elliott Abrams stinks. From 1985 to 1989, he was assistant secretary of state for Latin America, and as such he was architect of the covert war the Reagan administration waged in Central America.
What is the statute of limitations on war crimes, atrocities? Slobodan Milosevic sits in a cell in the Hague, Augusto Pinochet pretends he’s too old and sick to be dangerous anymore, Henry Kissinger is beginning to think long and hard before he travels abroad.
Elliott Abrams, meanwhile, is George W. Bush’s nominee to be senior director of the National Security Council’s office for democracy, human rights and international operations. When I first heard it, I thought it had to be just an extraordinarily sick joke, but it’s true. Pol Pot was the first choice, but he’s dead.
In case you’ve forgotten – and the White House hopes you have – the Reagan administration engaged in illegal, unethical and unconstitutional acts in the 1980s. You remember Iran-Contra don’t you? It was Elliott Abrams, passing himself off as “Mr. Kenilworth” who went to London to beg $10 million for the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei. (Then, of course, Ollie North’s secretary, Fawn Hall, deposited the money in the wrong Swiss bank account. So they say.)
This is how George W. Bush “restores honor to the Oval Office”? By putting a rapist of nuns and a murderer of children in charge of an office of – Ha, Ha, Ha – human rights?
Eventually Abrams cut a deal with Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was pardoned by the first President Bush, then a lame duck, on Christmas Eve 1992. If Congress wants to investigate dubious pardons, it can start right there.
The Senate has no say in appointments to the National Security Council. If it did, Elliott Abrams would not be a nominee. The Senate will get to weigh in, however, on the nomination of Otto Reich – another Iran-Contra figure – now nominated for assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs and John Negroponte, who was ambassador to Honduras during Contra days, now nominated to be U.N. Ambassador. I’m waiting for Eugene Hasenfus to show up at the Department of Transportation.
Why is this? Why does George Junior insist on bringing the worst spooks of the 1980s into his government? Some think the White House is brown-nosing the only Latino constituency Bush cares about, the Miami-Dade Cuban exiles. If that’s so, he putting a lot of rotten eggs in one very small basket.
Elliott Abrams claimed – and continues to claim – that the Reagan administration did nothing wrong in Central America. That’s a lie, and over the years, the evidence has shown that lie again and again.
In the early 90s, Abrams, the war criminal, wrote a book in which he portrayed himself as the victim of Iran-Contra. That’s when I showed up with the stinkbombs. There wasn’t much to disrupt, really, a small gathering in the basement at Politics and Prose. About a dozen college kids, all of whom looked like they had been extras in the movie “Bob Roberts,” showed up. A friend of mine, dressed as a blood-spattered peasant jumped from behind a stack of books and yelled “You killed my family!” at Abrams. The war criminal rocked back on his heels, looking dazed. The “Bob Roberts” crowd huddled together and cowered. Only Mrs. War Criminal leaped forward, cutting loose with a string of obscenities I won’t repeat on the internet and that’s when I dropped the bombs. The stench rose and we beat it, two steps ahead of the DC Metro police. Unfortunately, the cops were chasing the wrong criminal.