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Negroponte crawls to the united nations for help { February 18 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=992924&tw=wn_wire_storyhttp://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=992924&tw=wn_wire_story
New U.S. Spy Chief Asks UN to Help Rebuild Iraq
Friday, February 18, 2005 5:33 p.m. ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - John Negroponte, just nominated as the first U.S. intelligence chief, asked U.N. members on Friday to "take another look" at what they could do to help Iraq, including training the military.
Negroponte, who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for nearly three years before his current post as the top U.S. envoy in Iraq, paid a courtesy call on Secretary-General Kofi Annan as well as ambassadors from key nations.
He was nominated by President Bush on Thursday as the new director of national intelligence to oversee 15 U.S. spy agencies after spending 10 months in Iraq.
When Annan congratulated him, Negroponte said the new post came as "a bit of a surprise."
Calling Iraq's Jan. 30 election "a turning point," Negroponte said the poll presented "an opportunity to the international community to take another look at what it can do to be helpful to Iraq at this critical time in its political development."
"Obviously the more assistance that can be generated from the rest of the international community, I think the better for the people and government of Iraq," he said.
Before seeing Annan, Negroponte met ambassadors from the four other permanent Security Council members -- Britain, France, Russia and China, meetings that were planned before Bush announced the nomination.
So far, 10 countries have come forward with staff to carry out training inside Iraq. Other major nations, such as Germany, are offering training outside the country.
But Germany and France, which opposed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and are heavily engaged in Afghanistan, are against NATO sending troops to Iraq, even to protect U.N. operations.
"Regrettably, there are acts of violence in Iraq every day, but hopefully with the election of a new government and the efforts that are being made to train and equip and motivate the Iraqi armed forces, that situation will improve over time," Negroponte said.
"I'm hopeful that that will happen. But in the meanwhile, I think it would be extremely helpful if other members of the international community could join us, join the coalition in providing whatever assistance is possible to the government and people of Iraq," he said.
Negroponte complimented the United Nations for training thousands of Iraqi election workers inside and outside the country. Annan said the world body would assist with the upcoming writing of a constitution and "political outreach" toward groups that did not participate in the elections.
Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.
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