Picking a Criminal: Joe Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams to an Advisory Position

By David Starr

 

In a shocking move, Joe Biden nominated a neoconservative to serve on the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy in early July. The neoconservative is Elliott Abrams, who has a history of criminal behavior as a public servant, and can accurately be called a fascist. 

 

Why? Abrams supported and kept hidden the atrocities committed by militaries, death squads and tyrants in Central America. Abrams served under the Reagan regime in the 1980s, a decade when Central America was a hot-button issue. He was named Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs and went on, in Jeet Heer’s words, writing in The Nation, to perform his ‘main job’ which was “whitewashing war crimes by American allies.” 

 

Given this terrible decision by Biden, one could wonder whether the president is really up for the job he was voted into. Nominating Abrams may be a sign of weakness, Biden having being pushed by Republicans to consider him. But Biden is a neoliberal, and neoliberals, while putting up some resistance to right-wing intimidation, more often than not, eventually cave to Republicans for the sake of “bi-partisanship.”

 

Nominating Abrams is a potentially dangerous decision, given his disgusting past and reputation. Adding to this is his role in aiding the contras. Heer wrote, “Abrams was a key player in the Iran-Contra scandal, which led in 1991 to his pleading guilty of two counts of withholding information from Congress. The fact that he was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush in 1992 is an even bigger scandal, since the absolution was clearly a reward for being a good soldier and protecting his superiors in the Reagan administration.”

 

The Iran-Contra scandal involved 28 members from Reagan’s cabinet, who were indicted on a number of counts. Besides Abrams, it included National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane (withholding information from Congress); Lt. Col. Oliver North (conspiracy and making false statements); National Security Advisor John Poindexter (making false statements, of obstructing Congress and conspiracy); and private operative Richard Secord (gifts to an official, secret foreign accounts and obstruction of investigations). They were all guilty on some of the counts. 

 

Six of the conspirators were pardoned. George H.W. Bush used a well-worn excuse to pardon them: The “common denomination of their motivation–whether their actions were right or wrong–was patriotism.” Yeah, a perverted kind of patriotism, that is, ultra-nationalism.

 

Despite whatever differences there are between Democrats and Republicans, both are ideologically the same, wanting to maintain and expand the rule of capital worldwide. (They are both capitalist parties; except the Democrats have some Left/Progressive members. But they may incur the wrath of neoliberal Democrats if they get too far out of line.)

 

Thus, the decision by Biden to nominate Elliott Abrams. It’s a clear sign of the Republicans and the Democratic leadership having a monopoly on power in the government. 

 

Writing in the Transcontinental Times, Sadaf Hasan summarized two examples of Abrams’ handiwork: 

 

“In a 1992 Human Rights Watch investigation, it was claimed that Abrams ‘distorted’ facts to refute public accusations of genocide while serving as secretary of state for human rights. During the Guatemala Civil War, Efran Ros Mont, a military dictator who was subsequently found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, received support from Abrams for U.S. aid.”

 

Further, “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 should be noted that these militants were actually fighting for their country, confronting U.S. imperialism; while the right was essentially interested in maintaining and protected their elitist interests, and not too concerned about the U.S. taking advantage of the country.)

 

In a telling situation, Hasan wrote that “Bob Bruen, head of the Global Situation Room, and a former U.S. ambassador, said that Congressional Republicans probably pressured Biden into appointing Abrams to the commission.” Even though, according to a White House official, “it is customary for Republican leadership to nominate candidates for these boards and commissions, in addition to Biden’s own nominees.” 

 

One would think, however, that Biden, as president, would have the final say on who should be on the board. It looks like Biden caved under pressure, nominating a criminal to the board. But the nominees still have to be confirmed by the Senate. And even though Democrats have slim control of the Senate, Republicans would probably be frothing at the mouth to get Abrams confirmed.

 

Sam Fraser wrote a piece published in Common Dreams where he details how in February 2019 Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, rocking the Congressional boat, “called out a sitting official [Abrams], to his face, for his complicity in horrific human rights abuses.” After giving examples of his crimes, Omar said this called into question whether Abrams can be trusted at all. 

 

Omar committed a political “sin.” In a bi-partisan show of support for Abrams, both liberals and conservatives defended him: 

 

“A number of neoconservative intellectuals lept to defend Abrams as a champion of democracy and human rights, joined by a handful of nominally liberal foreign policy professionals such as Kelly Magsamen, then vice president for National Security and International policy at the Center for American Progress, and now chief of staff to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.”

 

Fraser quoted a Tweet from Magsamen: “I worked for Elliott Abrams as a civil servant. He is a fierce advocate for human rights and democracy. Yes, he made serious professional mistakes [mistakes?!] and was held accountable. I’m a liberal but I’m also fair.” Is it fair that Abrams contributed to killing people in Central America, among other violations? 

 

The United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy appears to have an imperial agenda: It’s to “understand, inform and influence foreign publics” and will report to Congress on its findings. How is that public diplomacy? It’s more like interfering in other countries’ populations in seeing, hearing and listening to news and events. These countries have their own media outlets.

 

The Democrats and Republicans do indeed share similar goals in the name of “bi-partisanship.” Elliott Abrams is a current example of  that “bi-partisanship.”