IT IS a sign of the anxiety in foreign policy circles in Washington, DC that the possible elevation of one of its most controversial members is being lauded as a return to sanity. At the urging of Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, Donald Trump is understood to be considering hiring Elliott Abrams (pictured above), a neoconservative veteran of George W. Bush’s administration, for the vacant number two slot at the State Department. In normal times, this would be considered risqué.
Mr Abrams, 69, is respected in foreign policy circles, but shadowed by scandal over his role, as an assistant secretary of state for Ronald Reagan, in the Iran-Contra scandal. Having had special responsibility for inter-American policy, he was implicated in the administration’s secret scheme to flog arms to supposed moderates in Iran then channel the proceeds to right-wing rebels in Nicaragua. Mr Abrams was convicted in 1991 on two charges of withholding information about the ruse from Congress. He was subsequently pardoned by George H W Bush and, as the second Bush president’s deputy national security advisor, played a role in another foreign policy debacle, the Iraq war, for which he was an...Continue reading
Source: United States http://ift.tt/2lokbuJ
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