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Raw Blame History

Assistant Secretary, 1981 to 1989

Abrams joined the Reagan administration in January 1981 as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs and later became assistant secretary for human rights.² On April 19, 1985 George P. Shultz offered him the post of assistant secretary for inter-American affairs, and a note by Charles Hill recorded Shultz's promise to "manage the emergence of E[lliott] A[brams] as King of L[atin] A[merica]."³ Abrams assumed the post in July 1985 and became responsible for Central America. The Boland Amendment had cut off aid to the Contras in October 1984, and Abrams became the administration's chief advocate on Capitol Hill for aid to the rebels.²

Abrams's notes of a September 4, 1985 meeting with Shultz record the instruction to "monitor Ollie," meaning North.⁴ Abrams later testified that his "working assumption" was that the Boland Amendment applied to the NSC staff.⁵ He chaired the Restricted Interagency Group, the interagency body that coordinated policy on the region, with Alan Fiers of the Central Intelligence Agency's Central American Task Force and North as its principal members.⁶ In March 1985 Abrams's predecessor, A. Langhorne Motley, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "even if today we wanted to go to third countries to encourage or solicit, we could not because there is a prohibition."⁷

Guatemala, 1983

As assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, Abrams said in January 1983 that the administration was "quite encouraged" by the initial steps of Guatemala's President Efrain Rios Montt, who had come to power in March 1982. He said that under Ríos Montt "There are many fewer abuses than there used to be," that the army's behavior had improved, and that the resumption of military sales should be viewed as "encouragement" to the new government. Asked about accounts by Guatemalan refugees in Mexico of massacres by the army, he said: "There are certainly refugees in Mexico whose towns suffered massacres by the military, but our sense is that this kind of gross behavior by the military is very substantially reduced under Rios Montt."⁸

El Mozote and the 1982 certification

The Atlacatl Battalion detained the inhabitants of El Mozote in Morazán on December 10, 1981 and executed them on December 11, according to the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador. The Commission identified more than 200 victims at El Mozote, and more than 500 identified victims across El Mozote and the other villages hit in the same operation.⁹ The massacre became public knowledge on January 27, 1982, when New York Times and Washington Post published reports by Raymond Bonner and Alma Guillermoprieto. The Salvadoran authorities "categorically denied that a massacre had taken place."¹⁰

On February 8, 1982 the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard testimony on the President's January 28, 1982 certification of military aid to El Salvador. Thomas O. Enders read a summary of an embassy report on the village. The two officers who wrote it had approached El Mozote and interviewed refugees, and they concluded that it was "certain that the guerrilla forces who established defensive positions in El Mozote did nothing to remove them from the path of battle."¹¹ Enders's prepared statement said that the embassy found no evidence that government forces systematically massacred civilians, and that the number killed did not approach the 733 or 926 victims cited in press reports. The statement also said that insurgents had repeatedly fabricated or inflated mass-murder allegations.¹¹

Abrams told the committee that the affair "appears to be an incident which is at least being significantly misused, at the very best, by the guerrillas." He added: "Where the truth lies we are still attempting to find out."¹² The Truth Commission later reported that the 1992 exhumation at El Mozote recovered 245 cartridge cases studied by ballistics analysts, 184 with headstamps identifying ammunition manufactured for the United States Government at Lake City, Missouri, and that all projectiles but one appeared to have been fired from United States-manufactured M-16 rifles.¹³

The NHAO and North's network

Congress appropriated $27 million in humanitarian assistance for the Contras in August 1985. On August 29, 1985 President Ronald Reagan created the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office (NHAO) inside the State Department to administer the money, and Robert W. Duemling set up the office.¹⁴ Lawrence Walsh wrote that North intruded in the office in two ways: he insisted that Richard Gadd, who was assisting Richard Secord and North in lethal resupply, be the contractor for NHAO flights, and, with Abrams, he persuaded Duemling to add North's Central American courier, Robert Owen, to the NHAO staff.¹⁴ Owen, in addition to handling traveler's checks for contra leaders, picked up and delivered $16,500 in cash.¹⁵

The congressional committees' 1987 report records that Owen applied to Duemling for an NHAO position in mid-September 1985 and that North recommended him as a "can do" person "who knows the scene." Duemling declined, and declined again after the three directors of the United Nicaraguan Opposition wrote asking for Owen's help. At a Restricted Interagency Group meeting on October 11, 1985, North complained about the NHAO flight impounded on October 10, saying it would not have happened had Owen been working for the NHAO. Duemling then agreed to fund a UNO contract with Owen's company, the Institute for Democracy, Education and Assistance, Inc.¹⁶

Gary Webb wrote in Dark Alliance that Duemling testified in a deposition to the Iran-Contra committees that he saw no necessity for a middleman, that North had Contra leaders write letters demanding Owen's hiring and lobbied Duemling's superior at the State Department, Assistant Secretary Abrams, and that after one stormy meeting with North and Abrams, Abrams turned to Duemling and said: "Well, Bob, I suppose you probably ought to hire Owen." Webb wrote that Owen was given a $50,000 contract as a "facilitator" and that the minutes of the November 1985 meeting record Abrams and North agreeing that Owen "will be expendable if he becomes a political or diplomatic liability."¹⁷ A second version attributed to Webb gives the facilitator's pay as $6,000 a month and has Abrams telling Duemling, when Duemling opposed the hiring: "Well, he works for me." In that version the facilitator position was created to channel funds through North's network while maintaining the appearance of humanitarian aid.¹⁸

On October 10, 1985 an NHAO aircraft flew directly from the United States to Honduras with a television crew on board. The Honduran government then rescinded its permission for NHAO planes to fly directly there from the United States. North proposed the Ilopango Airbase in El Salvador as a transshipment point, and the NHAO planes were routed there.¹⁴

Costa Rican airstrip and the RIG

Within days after Shultz's "monitor Ollie" instruction, Abrams, North and Fiers met in Abrams's office, and Fiers briefed Abrams on a secret airfield in Costa Rica that the contra supply network was building.¹⁹ After the Costa Rican announcement of the airstrip, Abrams drafted a harshly worded cable to the Costa Rican government. Walsh recorded that a cable containing his message was stopped by Shultz aide Hill.²⁰

In September 1986 North proposed that Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega pay for sabotage inside Nicaragua, at a RIG meeting in the office of Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage on September 19. Walsh wrote that the decision was ultimately made not to have North cause the $1 million to be paid to Noriega. On September 20 Abrams met Nicholas Platt and Hill, and Hill's notes recorded the Noriega offer and "Wants our go-ahead."²¹

Brunei solicitation

After a May 16, 1986 National Security Planning Group meeting, Abrams raised with Shultz the solicitation of third countries. Shultz instructed him not to approach a large recipient of U.S. aid or a right-wing dictatorship such as Taiwan or South Korea.²² Abrams suggested the Sultan of Brunei, and North told him to send no papers and say nothing further until North had talked with John Poindexter. Abrams lunched with Poindexter on June 11, 1986 and they discussed Brunei as a possible donor.²²

In June 1986 Abrams obtained bank account information from North on a card typed by his secretary, Fawn Hall. Two account numbers were transposed, and the money went into the wrong account.²² Abrams solicited $10 million from the Sultan's defense minister, General Ibnu, in London on August 9, 1986, calling him under the name "Kenilworth." The congressional committees dated the meeting August 8, 1986.²³ The Sultan ordered the transfer on August 19 from a Citibank account to Credit Suisse in Geneva, account 368430-22-1. A North notebook entry of September 15 refers to a deposit made about a week earlier and to a meeting with the Sultan the next day. On September 26 Ibnu told the U.S. ambassador that the Sultan had handled the transfer personally and that the recipient was "quite clear."²⁴

Shultz had been expected to make the approach to the Sultan on his Asia trip of June 23 and 24, 1986, carrying the index card with the account number; on the advice of U.S. Ambassador Barrington King he did not make a solicitation, and the card was not used on that trip.²⁵ The committees wrote that North told Abrams the account was controlled by the Contras and that Abrams so informed Shultz; Walsh wrote that North told Abrams the use of the account North provided would permit more control by the U.S. Government.²³²⁵ The committees wrote that Abrams traveled to London under an alias and requested $10 million in "bridge financing"; asked what Brunei would receive in return, he answered: "Well, ... the President will know of this, and you will have the gratitude of the Secretary and of the President for helping us out in this jam." The official asked, "What concrete do we get out of this?" and Abrams answered: "You don't get anything concrete out of it."²³ The majority described the giving of the Lake Resources number as "a deliberate effort to divert funds solicited for humanitarian purposes to lethal ends, and was foiled only because of an error in the account number."⁷

The account North had supplied was for the Enterprise's Lake Resources account at Credit Suisse, 386.430.22.1. The number Abrams passed on was 368.430.22.1, and the deposit went there. Swiss authorities reported that the money was returned to Brunei.²⁶ Walsh recorded that the Brunei contribution passed through accounts "controlled by or on behalf of" Bruce Rappaport, a Swiss businessman, and that Credit Suisse disclaimed him as the recipient in 1989. Questioned under an immunity agreement in October 1990, Rappaport said the account was not his and that he did not know whose account received the deposit. He also said he did not know North or Abrams.²⁷

The congressional committees' 1987 report recorded that Abrams described his late 1986 answers on third-country funding as "misleading." It also recorded his explanation that he had been promised confidentiality for Brunei and that "I did not believe I was authorized to" reveal the solicitation.²⁸

Hasenfus and the October 1986 testimony

A C-123 aircraft carrying supplies to the contras was shot down over Nicaragua on October 5, 1986, and Eugene Hasenfus was captured. Abrams chaired a RIG meeting on the downed aircraft on October 8. The group discussed demands for access to Hasenfus, Salvadoran denials of contra support, press guidance, and Southern Air Transport, which had been used for NHAO deliveries. Walsh recorded that Abrams phoned North about the incident and asked about the retrieval of the bodies of the two American crew members killed in the crash, but did not explicitly ask North whether he was connected with the aircraft.²⁹

On October 10, 1986 Abrams testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Walsh's report calls a closed session and the congressional committees' 1987 report calls an open hearing. He said that "there clearly is an elaborate supply system," and added: "It is not our supply system." He said that the administration's attitude was that the people supplying the contras were doing "a very good thing," and that "we do generally approve of what they are doing."³⁰ Asked by John Kerry about foreign government assistance, Abrams said that "we have not received a dime from a foreign government, not a dime, from any foreign government."³¹ He told the committee that his "injunction from the Secretary of State is never to lie."³¹

On October 14 Abrams told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that "that story about the Saudis to my knowledge is false," and that the claim of foreign government support was false as to 1985 and 1986.³² On October 15 he told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that the U.S. government did not know who organized and paid for the flight. Asked whether anyone in the government did know, he said: "I wouldn't separate myself from the Government. We don't know."³³

Walsh's report concluded: "Abrams was not truthful with the congressional committees."³⁴ On October 14 Abrams told HPSCI that it was his understanding that Donald Gregg knew Felix Rodriguez and had introduced him to the Salvadorans in 1984 to work with the Salvadoran Air Force. He added that the Vice President was aware of Rodriguez's involvement with the Salvadoran Air Force, but that there was no knowledge that Rodriguez had moved on to activities on behalf of the contras.³⁵ After his plea, Abrams told the grand jury that he was concerned that Rodriguez "talked too much about the Vice President."³⁶

Guilty plea and pardon

On October 7, 1991 Abrams pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. The counts concerned his October 10, 1986 Senate testimony and his October 14, 1986 testimony to HPSCI about the Brunei solicitation.³⁷ Abrams admitted that it was his belief "that disclosure of Lt. Col. North's activities in the resupply of the Contras would jeopardize final enactment" of a $100 million appropriation then pending.³⁷ U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr. sentenced him on November 15, 1991 to two years' probation and 100 hours of community service.³⁸

Walsh's report described Abrams as the leading official of the denials, who "steadfastly denied before Congress and the public that the United States was involved in the resupply effort."³⁹ On December 24, 1992 President Bush granted clemency to Abrams, Caspar Weinberger, Robert McFarlane, Clair George, Fiers and Dewey Clarridge. Bush described the prosecutions as the "criminalization of policy differences."⁴⁰ William Barr later said of Abrams that he was "very unjustly treated."⁴¹

Later posts, 2001 to 2009

Abrams joined the George W. Bush administration in June 2001 as senior director of the National Security Council for democracy, human rights and international organizations. From December 2002 to February 2005 he was senior director for Near East and North African affairs. From February 2005 to January 2009 he was deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy and supervised both the Near East and North African directorate and the democracy directorate.⁴²

Abrams had led the Ethics and Public Policy Center from 1996 until he joined the White House staff. He served on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 1999 to 2001, chairing it in 2001, and was reappointed in 2012. He was also a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.⁴² Abrams was one of the signers of the Project for the New American Century Statement of Principles of June 3, 1997, whose other signers included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, I. Lewis Libby, Zalmay Khalilzad, Jeb Bush, Midge Decter and Norman Podhoretz.⁴³ He also signed the Project's letter of January 26, 1998 to President Bill Clinton, which stated that American strategy toward Iraq "should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power." Its other signers included Armitage, John Bolton, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Robert Kagan, William Kristol, R. James Woolsey and Robert Zoellick.⁴⁴

In April 2002 the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez was briefly removed while Abrams was on the NSC staff. Democracy Now's 2020 summary stated that Abrams "was also linked to the 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez."⁴⁵ The State Department's Office of Inspector General, reviewing U.S. policy toward Venezuela from November 2001 to April 2002 at the request of Senator Christopher Dodd, reported in July 2002 that "the embassy's and Department's contacts were heavily weighted toward individuals and groups known to be opponents of the Chávez government," and that "The opposition's willingness to talk to Embassy Caracas in detail about their plans against President Chávez and the embassy's willingness to listen may have left doubts about the sincerity of our professed opposition to undemocratic and unconstitutional means of removing President Chávez." The report limited the identities of those met to a classified annex, and concluded that the Inspector General "finds nothing to indicate that the Department or Embassy Caracas planned, participated in, aided, or encouraged the brief ouster of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez in April."⁴⁶

Venezuela and Iran appointments, 2019 to 2021

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on January 25, 2019 that Abrams would be the United States envoy for Venezuela, with the task of helping "restore democracy," two days after the United States recognized Juan Guaido as interim president.⁴⁷ He served as special representative for Venezuela.⁴⁸ On August 6, 2020 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named him special representative for Iran, replacing Brian Hook, and he kept the Venezuela post.⁴⁹

Commission and family

In July 2023 President Joe Biden nominated Abrams to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.⁵⁰

Abrams married Rachel Decter in 1980. She was the daughter of Midge Decter by her first marriage, and Midge Decter married Norman Podhoretz in 1956, making Rachel his stepdaughter.⁵¹ A Times of Israel obituary of Rachel Abrams describes Podhoretz as Abrams's father.⁵² Rachel Abrams died on June 7, 2013.⁵²

Footnotes

Walsh, Lawrence E. Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters, vol. I, ch. 25, "United States v. Elliott Abrams." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, opening section (appointments as assistant secretary, Central American and Contra aid). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, n. 1, quoting Hill note of April 19, 1985 (ANS 0001039). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "Abrams' Knowledge of North's Activities," nn. 4 to 5, quoting Abrams note of September 4, 1985 (ALW 0041285). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, n. 2, quoting Abrams, Select Committees testimony, June 2, 1987, p. 8. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, opening section and "Abrams, North and the RIG." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Iran-Contra report, majority views, ch. 26, pp. 403 and 405-406. ↩︎
Christian Science Monitor, "Administration defends plans to aid Guatemalan military," January 10, 1983 (interview with Assistant Secretary Elliott Abrams). https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0110/011050.html ↩︎
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador, S/25500 (1993), "Illustrative case: El Mozote," pp. 114 to 115. https://www.derechos.org/nizkor/salvador/informes/truth.html ↩︎
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, S/25500 (1993), El Mozote, "Subsequent events," pp. 116 to 117. https://www.derechos.org/nizkor/salvador/informes/truth.html ↩︎
U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations, Certification Concerning Military Aid to El Salvador: Hearings, 97th Cong., 2d sess., February 8 and March 11, 1982, testimony of Ambassador Thomas O. Enders and prepared statement. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152817_0062 ↩︎
Same hearing, February 8, 1982, testimony of Assistant Secretary Elliott Abrams. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152817_0062 ↩︎
Commission on the Truth for El Salvador, S/25500 (1993), El Mozote, forensic report on the November 1992 exhumation, p. 119. https://www.derechos.org/nizkor/salvador/informes/truth.html ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "Abrams, North and NHAO." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 14, description of the Enterprise couriers (Owen). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_14.htm ↩︎
U.S. Congress, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (1987), chapter on the NHAO program, discussion of Robert Owen. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152829_0391 ↩︎
Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998, ch. 12, citing the Duemling deposition (Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, August 30, 1987) and the Arcos deposition. ↩︎
Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "Abrams' Knowledge of the Costa Rican Airstrip and the Southern Front." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, Costa Rican airstrip section (announcement and cable). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, meetings of September 19 and 20, 1986, citing Hill notes of September 20, 1986 (ANS). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "The Brunei Solicitation" (instructions of May 1986, June 11 lunch, account card). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Iran-Contra report, ch. 3, p. 71 and nn. 134-142. https://archive.org/download/Iran-ContraReport/Report%20of%20the%20Congressional%20Committees%20Investigating%20the%20Iran-Contra%20Affair.pdf ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "The Brunei Solicitation" (August 9 London meeting, August 19 transfer, North notebook of September 15, Bandar cables of September 15 to 26, 1986). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters (1993), vol. I, ch. 25, "The Brunei Solicitation." https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 14, Brunei account and Swiss response. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_14.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 14, Rappaport passages and n. 42. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_14.htm ↩︎
U.S. Congress, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair, With Supplemental, Minority, and Additional Views (1987), section "Abrams' Brunei Testimony" and the Brunei solicitation section. https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152829_0391 ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, "The Hasenfus Shootdown" and RIG meeting of October 8, 1986. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony of October 10, 1986, nn. 70 to 74 (Abrams transcript, pp. 3 to 11, 48). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm U.S. Congress, Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair (1987), describing "an October 10 open hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." https://archive.org/details/micro_IA41152829_0391 ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, Brunei section and nn. 107, 112 (Senate Foreign Relations Committee testimony, October 10, 1986, pp. 49, 75 to 76). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, n. 108 (HPSCI testimony, October 14, 1986, p. 21). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, nn. 75 to 76 (House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, October 15, 1986, pp. 31 to 33). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, closing section on the October 1986 testimony. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 29, "Donald P. Gregg," text and n. 137 (Abrams, HPSCI testimony, October 14, 1986, pp. 23 to 24). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_29.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 29, "Abrams and North's General Recollections of Discussions with Gregg," n. 113 (Abrams grand jury testimony, November 6, 1991, p. 45). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_29.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 25, plea section and n. 3 (Government's Statement of the Factual Basis for the Guilty Plea, October 7, 1991, p. 4). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_25.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, Summary of Prosecutions, entry for Elliott Abrams (sentence by U.S. District Chief Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., November 15, 1991). https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/summpros.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 27, "President Reagan," text and n. 66. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_27.htm ↩︎
Walsh, Final Report, vol. I, ch. 28, "George Bush," pardon section and n. 1. https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/walsh/chap_28.htm ↩︎
Miller Center, University of Virginia, "William P. Barr Oral History," interview of April 5, 2001, George H.W. Bush Oral History Project. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-oral-histories/william-p-barr-oral-history ↩︎
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs, biography of Ambassador Elliott Abrams, hearing of November 19, 2014. https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA13/20141119/102753/HHRG-113-FA13-Bio-AbramsE-20141119.pdf ↩︎
Project for the New American Century, "Statement of Principles," June 3, 1997, Wayback Machine capture of April 7, 2002. https://web.archive.org/web/20020407145529/http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm ↩︎
Project for the New American Century, letter to President Clinton, January 26, 1998, Wayback Machine capture. https://web.archive.org/web/2003/http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm ↩︎
Democracy Now, headline and summary of August 7, 2020, "State Department Taps Elliott Abrams as Special Representative to Iran." https://democracynow.org/2020/8/7/headlines/state_department_taps_elliott_abrams_as_special_representative_to_iran ↩︎
U.S. Department of State, Office of Inspector General, A Review of U.S. Policy Toward Venezuela, November 2001 - April 2002, Report No. 02-OIG-003 (July 2002), pp. 15 to 16 and Conclusion. https://www.stateoig.gov/uploads/report/report_pdf_file/13682.pdf ↩︎
Voice of America, "US Appoints New Venezuela Envoy to Help 'Restore Democracy,'" January 25, 2019. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2019/01/mil-190125-voa05.htm ↩︎
CBS News, "Elliott Abrams, convicted of lying about Iran-Contra, named special representative for Iran," August 6, 2020 (Abrams "has been serving as the special representative for Venezuela"). https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elliott-abrams-iran-contra-named-special-representative-iran ↩︎
Democracy Now, August 7, 2020 (announcement that Abrams becomes special representative for Iran and "will also continue as special representative for Venezuela"). https://democracynow.org/2020/8/7/headlines/state_department_taps_elliott_abrams_as_special_representative_to_iran ↩︎
Democracy Now, headline of July 6, 2023, "Biden Nominates Elliott Abrams, Death Squad Backer Convicted of Lying to Congress, to Gov't Commission" (President Biden "has nominated Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy"). https://democracynow.org/2023/7/6/headlines/biden_nominates_elliott_abrams_death_squad_backer_convicted_of_lying_to_congress_to_govt_commission ↩︎
Jewish Chronicle, obituary of Midge Decter (marriage to Moshe Decter in 1947, daughters Rachel and Naomi; marriage to Norman Podhoretz in 1956; Rachel Decter's marriage to Elliott Abrams in 1980). https://thejc.com/news/obituary-leading-commentator-thinker-and-writer-midge-decter-uzeijpmg ↩︎
Times of Israel, obituary of Rachel Abrams, June 10, 2013 ("Abrams died June 7 after battling stomach cancer for three years. She was 62."). https://www.timesofisrael.com/artist-and-writer-rachel-abrams-succumbs-to-cancer/ ↩︎

32 KiB Raw Blame History