President Bush announced Monday his plans to nominate John Negroponte to serve as US ambassador to Iraq after June 30. Negroponte is currently the US Ambassador to the United Nations. He has long been accused of abetting and covering up human rights crimes while he was ambassador to Hondoras from 1981 to 1985. The Baltimore Sun reported that during Negroponte’s term, “hundreds of [Honduras’] citizens were kidnapped, tortured and killed in the 1980s by a secret army unit trained and supported by the Central Intelligence Agency.” In addition, Hondoras became the US staging ground for Washington’s covert war against the democratically elected Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Negroponte was one of the people tasked to make sure that the massive U.S. support for the contras remained secret since it violated a Congressional ban on aid to the Contras. The Washington Post reports Democratic congressional staffers say the Democrats won’t focus on Negroponte’s controversial past. The staffer said “The Honduras issue is ancient history.” Negroponte’s diplomatic career began amidst the Vietnam War. he served as political officer in Saigon between 1964 and 1968 and advised Henry Kissinger during the Paris peace talks in the early 1970s. If he is appointed, Negroponte will head the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history.