it's a reasonable assumption that john negroponte was point man in the region for the reagan admin's attempt to defy the congressional ban on contra funding by finding various illegal sources of funds as well as offering honduras as a staging area. part of the effort involved winking at the honduras dictatorship's murders while praising its "democracy." but other parts involved massive drug trans-shipments that fueled the crack epidemic in southern cali, and arms sales to the axis of evil. a high-ranking diplomatic official in the reagan admin once told me she was sure that the iran/contra idiocy had been run of of george h.w. bush's office: "it reeked of him." these people - with their toxic combination of evil and sheer incompetence - arfe running the damn place again.