Re: failed test

From: Bernie Adalem

Date: 2 Apr 2007

I would be careful about suggesting that John Negraponte got his
ambassadorships strictly as political favors.  I have posted long
threads about his historical involvement in areas where death squads
were operating.  This is not to imply that there is evidence that he
had a hand in developing them, quite to the contrary the evidence
indicates how was often deplayed to reason with those behind the death
squads to try to keep it out of the press more as it made their US
allies look bad.


But for instance Hunter Thompson always joked that he expected his
reward for his political advice to be the ambassadorship to Fiji.


(Reading Ralph Steadman's recollections of his work with HST, it may
not have been a joke....)

On 4/1/07, -�ric <ae0b643c-b939-8280-de11-7203432c9632> wrote:
> On 4/1/07, Scott Aug� <ae0b643c-b939-8280-de11-700366cb95d7> wrote:
> >
> > "Easy" ambassadorships do tend to be given away to political
> > friends.  I think you would be interested in the history of the
> > ambassador to Monaco (France) LOL.
> >
> > The harder ones they do give a little more thought to... I hope.
>
> I guess that means that Iraq is one of the "Easy" ones.
> ----
> Negroponte was born in London to Dimitri John and Catherine
> Coumantaros Negroponte. His father was a Greek shipping magnate. He
> graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1956, and Yale University in
> 1960. He was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity, alongside William
> H.T. Bush, the uncle of President George W. Bush, and Porter Goss
> -----
> Azerbaijan must be "Easy" too.
>
> BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21 (UPI) -- U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno
> Harnish is taking up a senior position in the State Department.
>
> State Department officials have rejected speculation in the
> Azerbaijani press that Harnish was recalled because of a human
> smuggling scandal which came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of
> Investigation.
>
> The U.S. officials also pointed out that there was no connection
> whatsoever between Harnish's transfer and the recent murder of a
> former U.S. Embassy official Zarifa Jabiyeva at her home in Baku.
>
> "There is absolutely no connection between either of these cases and
> Ambassador Harnish's return to Washington where he will shortly assume
> his new duties," a State Department official told UPI.
>
> -�ric
> --
> An optimist is a man who has never had much experience - Don Marquis
>
>