Former Assistant Secretary of State Eliot Abrams sued the D.C. Bar to lift the suspension of his law license following his guilty plea to giving false testimony to Congress. President George H. W. Bush issued a full and complete pardon to him as one of the last acts of his Presidency. The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled against him saying that a pardon "…cannot work such moral changes as to warrant the assertion that a pardoned convict is just as reliable as one who has constantly maintained the character of a good citizen." President George W. Bush appointed this pardoned convict as director of the National Security Council's office for democracy, human rights and international operations.

Abrams should know about democracy and human rights. He was the head of the State Department's Latin American desk during the Iran-Contra affair and repeatedly lied to Congress denying the Reagan Administration's illegal activities in El Salvador and Guatemala. Abrams was a key player in the illegal support for the rightist regime whose terrorist death squads killed 41 thousand El Salvadorian peasants between 1980 and 1989 according to the Catholic Diocese of El Salvador. Abrams personally solicited contributions to the Contras from the Sultan of Brunei while traveling to London under a false identity. Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee he denied that the State Department was engaged in such fundraising. That lie, among others, is what he pled guilty to.

Now Abrams is back on the job and what an important job it is. He is in charge of the National Security Agency's Office of Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations. Its all part of the Bush war on terrorism and Eliot Abrams knows a good bit about the subject. He may even know how to find Bin Laden - if he hasn't already.