U.S. President Biden has nominated Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. 

Washington, July 7 (RHC)-- U.S. President Biden has nominated Elliott Abrams to the bipartisan U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. 

Elliott Abrams was convicted in 1991 of lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair, and later pardoned by then-President George H.W. Bush.  He defended death squads in Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1980s, when he served as assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan. 

Abrams dismissed reports that El Salvador’s U.S.-trained military had massacred 1,000 civilians, including children, in the Salvadoran town of El Mozote in December 1981.  He has also been linked to the 2002 attempted coup against Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and helped plan the U.S. invasion of Iraq. 

Under President Trump, Abrams served as special envoy to Iran and Venezuela.  Abrams will need to be confirmed by the Senate to serve on the commission and activists vow they will strongly protest his appointment.