I Wish Elliot Abrams Would Come Up With New Ways To Lie To Us

Here's Elliot Abrams today, lying about never having seen Iran's 2003 peace offer:

Leverett said yesterday that he became aware of the two-page offer, which came over a fax machine at the State Department, in his waning days in the U.S. government as a senior director at the National Security Council, but that it was not his responsibility to put it on Rice's desk because Rice had placed Elliott Abrams in charge of Middle East policy. "If he did not put it on her desk, that says volumes about how she handled the issue," he said yesterday. Abrams is currently the deputy national security adviser in charge of the Middle East and democracy promotion. An NSC spokeswoman, speaking on behalf of Abrams, said yesterday that Abrams "has no memory of any such fax and never saw or heard of any such thing."

Here's Elliot Abrams in 1984, lying about massacres by the Salvadoran military:

Appearing with Aryeh Neier on "Nightline' in February, Abrams insisted to Ted Koppel, "I'm telling you there were no massacres in El Salvador in 1984.' When Neier asked about reported massacres in Los Llanitos in July and near the Gualsinga River in August, Abrams countered, "They never happened"...When asked by Koppel if the embassy had investigated reports, Abrams's confidence seemed to drop: "My memory is that we did, but I don't want to swear to it because I'd have to go back and look at the cables." Neier says embassy officials have told him the investigations never took place; the State Department has never offered proof to the contrary.

Here's Elliot Abrams in November, 1986, lying to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the contras:

SENATOR BRADLEY: So let me ask it again. Did either one of you ever discuss the problems of fundraising by the contras with members of the NSC staff? MR. ABRAMS: No, I can't remember.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the only way to get appointed to a high political position in America is to have a terrible memory for politics.

(Post story via Zembla)