A database search of all mainstream news outlets suggests that this announcement has gone completely unreported in both the United States media (source) and the Canadian media (source), however some publications in Europe published the story.
The story, in case you missed it because you don’t read the European press, is that U.S. president George W. Bush has just appointed Robert Callahan as the United State’s Ambassador to Nicaragua. Callahan was John Negroponte’s (the former Ambassador to Honduras) right hand man, spokesman and speachwriter while the two were co-ordinating the operations of the Contras in Nicaragua during the 1980s.
Some background information:
-The World Court ruled in their 1986 verdict in the case of Nicaragua v. United States, what the whole world already knew: that the Contras constituted an illegal terrorist movement and that the United States had violated international law by funding the Contras. The World Court ordered the United States to pay reparations to Nicaragua; reparations which the United States has refused to this day to pay.
-Callahan and Negroponte were co-ordinating terrorist activity from the embassy of Honduras, launching attacks against Nicaragua from the diplomatic immunity of a foreign embassy — itself an illegal act.
Injury: Naming an internationally-recognized terrorist sympathizer as ambassador to the country he used to help terrorize.
Adding insult to injury: When Callahan was operating against Nicaragua’s government during the 1980s, his boss’s efforts were centred around trying to overthrow and/or assissinate then-Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. Guess who was just elected Nicaragua’s president last January after a long hiatus? Answer: Daniel Ortega.
Usually ambassadors are formally ‘received’ by the head of state of the recipient country. How awkward will that introduction be: “Hi. You don’t remember me, but I worked hard to try to illegally topple your democratically-elected government and assissinate you while I was stationed in Honduras in the 1980s. How do you do?”
What’s next? Bush to appoint Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles as co-ambassadors to Cuba?
The US media has been eerily silent on this one. Are people’s attention spans really that short, or is it that Americans really only care about the terrorists that we don’t sponsor?
Sadly, I think the answer is the latter, not the former.
Great post — it’s funny how the Bush administration feels free to rebrand any organizations around the world they don’t like as terrorists, but yet don’t blink an eye when maintaining and building relationships with murderous and anti-democratic organizations that are on the right politically. The hypocrisy is unbelievable.
What if Bush appointed Condoleeza Rice as US ambassador to the Middle East. Wouldn’t THAT be a joke.
“Are people’s attention spans really that short, or is it that Americans really only care about the terrorists that we don’t sponsor?”
The answer is yes.
Well, you have to remember back then that the president at the time couldn’t remember what he had for breakfast, let alone keep tabs on who was bombing what when and where. Bush is simply carrying on a long tradition of historical ignorance and political expediency.
Thats a great news IMO.
It’s funny that this post refers to the Sandinista regime as a “democratically-elected government” ahahahahaa! allow me to laugh.
Daniel Ortega Saavedra is one of the biggest criminals minds and terrorist himself… not only did he take advantage of national state of emergency (Managua earthquake) and of a legitimate popular revoution which toppled dictator Anastasio Somoza but he also took full credit (FSLN was only a portion of the parties involved) and managed through extortion and violence to gain absolute power following the “junta” government.
If that was not enough, he continued to abuse not only his own people (Nicaraguanas) but also his own step-daughter sexually for all of her adolescense and today remains free thanks only to absolute corruption in government… one which he did not win (ionce again) but rather achieved through corruption and political sabotage.
It suffices to say that 70% of Nicaraguans did NOT vote for him and want him out the sooner the better since he’s not only a corrupted megalomaniac but also a moron ruler whose ignorance of economics or even social equality has brought the country to its knees.
The only credit I give Ortega is of being a savy politician… but then again when you act with violence, extortion and sabotage it’s easy to win a “democratic” election.
I COMPLETELY agree with Roan García, I couldn’t have said it better myself. It was funny to read in this article “democratically-elected government” when referring to the election of 1984. Guess what? HE WAS THE ONLY CANDIDATE, he elected himself.
Nonetheless, I do not like nor agree with President Bush JR, but this is one step where I will not disagree with him. There is nothing I dislike more than the corrupt, military-minded, so-called political party, and just outright criminal group called the Sandinistas, and their ignorant, incompetent leader Daniel. If it were up to me, he would be out of the game already and I know the 62% of Nicaraguans that do have a conscience would agree with me.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey M.
I must agree with the last two posts – Daniel Ortega was not democratically elected; he’s another aspiring dictator in the likes of Castro, Chavez, and Noriega. Nicaragua under Ortega is not a democracy, it’s a socialist state.
Obviously the person who wrote the article has not lived in a true socialist state and is probably some starving student at UC Berkeley.