by Elena Steier

Elliot Abrams, assistant Secretary of State under Reagan, pleaded guilty in 1991 to two counts of withholding evidence from Congress over his rold in the Iran-Contra affair. George H. Bush pardoned him. He is now on the National Security Council.

Otto Reich is Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, the top post for Latin America. Reich was head of the now-defunct Office for Public Diplomacy, which the House Committee on Foreign Affairs censured for "prohibited, covert propaganda activities".

John Negroponte, as ambassador to Honduras from 1981-85, covered up human rights abuses by the CIA-trained Batallion 316. He is now the U.N. ambassador, forcefully pushing for freedom in Iraq

John Poindexter was convicted in 1990 for his role in the Iran-contra affair. He is now in charge of the Office of Information Awareness at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, He had worked as a contractor on one of the projects he now controls. Admiral Poindexter's conviction was reversed in 1991 by a federal appeals court because he had been granted immunity for his testimony before Congress about the case.

 

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