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Profile: Re-Emergence of Political Figure Elliot Abrams
All Things Considered: June 1, 2003
Profile of Mideast Adviser Elliot Abrams
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
A controversial foreign policy specialist is playing a behind-the-scenes role in shaping US actions in the Middle East. Human rights groups and others have criticized Elliott Abrams ever since his days in the Reagan administration. He's back in government now, in the Bush administration, and this weekend, he is in the Middle East preparing for a presidential visit. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.
MICHELE KELEMEN reporting:
As a Reagan-era State Department official, Elliott Abrams had his share of run-ins with the human rights community when he was accused of playing down the abuses of right-wing dictators in Latin America. By 1991, his career in government seemed all but over, as he pled guilty to misdemeanors for withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra affair.
SOUNDBITE OF 1991 BRIEFING
Mr. ELLIOTT ABRAMS: I take full responsibility for my actions and for my failure to make full disclosure to Congress in 1986. I am proud to have given 12 years serving the United States government and of the contribution I made in those years, and very happy to have this entire matter, at long last, behind me.
KELEMEN: Abrams was later pardoned by former President George Bush and his political career revived by the current president. Elliott Abrams was brought on to the National Security Council staff, first, to help deal with the United Nations. In December, he was charged with running the NSC's office overseeing the Middle East. Sources say Abrams was given the new task, in part, because of his administrative skills. His neoconservative credentials also serve as a counterweight to the traditional State Department views. William Kristol, editor and publisher of The Weekly Standard, is among his supporters.
Mr. WILLIAM KRISTOL (The Weekly Standard): Elliott Abrams is a very competent government official. He's had his own views on the Middle East, which I think are sort of mainstream Republican, skeptical of Oslo, moderately hawkish, I would say; really very much like George Bush's, frankly.
KELEMEN: In one essay in a book Kristol edited and published in 2002, Abrams criticized the land-for-peace formula that has been the cornerstone of the peace process. He also called for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and wrote that `Our military strength and willingness to use it will remain a key factor in our ability to promote peace.' Kristol says President Bush has similar views about this.
Mr. KRISTOL: Bush clearly has a certain vision of how he can transform the Middle East; part of it had to do with removing Saddam Hussein, part of it has to do with putting pressure on countries like Syria and Iran. But part of it also has to do with advancing an Israeli-Palestinian peace process which the president thinks, as he's said many times, requires, on the one hand, some Israeli concessions, but on the other, a real Palestinian rejection of terror.
KELEMEN: Elliott Abrams is a latecomer to President Bush's Middle East team. One participant in the Bush administration debates over the Middle East says Abrams spent his first few weeks on the job in December complaining about the so-called road map to Israeli-Palestinian peace. He was reportedly asking why the Europeans and the United Nations were playing a role and questioning the need for a settlement freeze. The administration insider, who asked not to be named, said the road map could not be derailed because the United States had already made too many promises to the Arab world in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Aaron Miller, who advised six secretaries of State on Arab-Israeli affairs, says Abrams' role will be carrying out President Bush's policy, not making it.
Mr. AARON MILLER (President, Seeds of Peace): I've seen, over the last 24 years, a variety of different individuals with a variety of different political and ideological views. And what I can say is if you want to succeed, then this is not an enterprise for ideologues.
KELEMEN: Miller, who is president of Seeds of Peace, says for now President Bush seems to have resolved the ideological struggle in his administration over the Israeli-Palestinian issue as he sets off on a risky trip to promote peace.
Mr. MILLER: They're now about to do something that very few people expected them to do; that, in some respects, resolves and addresses the core bureaucratic divide. Now what flows from that is another matter. Will they choose an envoy? How quickly will they want to press? Will they press both sides? How much leverage are they prepared to use?
KELEMEN: And that's where the role of Elliott Abrams is much debated.
Mr. JAMES ZOGBY (Founder and President, Arab American Institute): He could be the ideal messenger.
KELEMEN: James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, points to Abrams' support of Israel.
Mr. ZOGBY: He could be the guy who goes and says, `Look, you know I've been with you, you know I support you, but these are the things that have to be done. Bite your lip and do them.' Or is he going to be the guy to come to the president and say, `Back off the vision. This is not the right thing to do, etc.'?
KELEMEN: Zogby remains cautious.
One source familiar with the inner workings of the Bush administration says, while President Bush himself is serious about getting started on the road map, he's shown no interest in confronting Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who endorsed the road map only after the US agreed to take into account his many reservations. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.
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