UNITED STATES: Biden nominates Abrams! Elliott Abrams, a previous Trump appointee on Venezuela and Iran who was notably convicted guilty of misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra crisis, will be nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the bipartisan US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
The announcement came alongside the unveiling of a list containing eight Republican selections for various bipartisan boards and commissions, as stated in a White House statement on Monday.
Abrams, 75, has served in three Republican administrations. He first gained notoriety during a contentious stint as Reagan’s assistant secretary of state.
During Reagan’s second term, a congressional probe revealed the Iran-Contra incident, which involved senior administration figures covertly facilitating the sale of arms to the Iranian government and using the proceeds to fund the Contras, a right-wing rebel group in Nicaragua.
In two October 1986 hearings, one before the Senate foreign relations committee and the other before the House intelligence committee, Abrams, who served as the assistant secretary of inter-American affairs from 1985 to the beginning of 1989, pleaded guilty to two counts of illegally withholding information from Congress, including his part in securing $10 million from Brunei.
At that time, Biden was a senator from Delaware and a member of the Senate’s foreign relations committee.
Abrams has faced criticism for his backing of the El Salvadoran government, whose army slaughtered almost 1,000 civilians in the village of El Mozote in 1981 while fighting a coalition of left-wing militants sponsored by the Soviet Union.
In a 1992 Human Rights Watch investigation, it was claimed that Abrams “distorted” facts to refute public accusations of genocide while serving as assistant secretary of state for human rights. During the Guatemalan Civil War, Efran Rós Montt, a military dictator who was subsequently found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, received support from Abrams for US aid.
Brett Bruen, head of the Global Situation Room and a former US ambassador, said that Congressional Republicans probably pressured Biden into appointing Abrams to the commission.
“It would be seen as interference should Biden not accede to those recommendations,” he added.
According to a White House official, it is customary for Republican leadership to nominate candidates for these boards and commissions, in addition to President Biden’s own nominees.
According to a state department announcement, there are seven seats on the diplomacy panel, and as of March, four of them were vacant. It is a part of the Office of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, which was vacant until Biden selected Elizabeth Allen to manage it in January. She started in June.
According to Bruen, the commission vacancies highlight a significant gap in Biden’s early commitment to improve America’s image on the international arena.
Abrams was most recently chosen by Trump to act as a special representative for Venezuela as the State Department stepped up its efforts to oust Nicolás Maduro. Trump also named Abrams as Iran’s special representative in 2020.
Abrams apparently had a chance to become Trump’s deputy secretary of state but was eliminated from consideration after criticising the candidate on the campaign trail.
He also held top national security positions during George W. Bush’s presidency. He is currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington-based think tank.
Once nominated, Biden’s appointees need to go through Senate confirmation. However, some recent selections have faced delays. The confirmation vote for Julie Su, the acting secretary of Labor, for the official cabinet position, has been postponed for several months.
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