Menendez Places Second Hold On Hoagland Nomination

Washington - United States Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today placed a second hold on the nomination of Richard E. Hoagland, the Bush administrations nominee to be U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. This is the second hold Menendez has placed on Hoaglands nomination since last September.

The hold, a parliamentary privilege accorded to U.S. Senators, follows the Bush administrations re-nomination of Hoagland to serve in this post a move necessitated by the lapsing of Hoaglands previous nomination last year.

"By all accounts, Ambassador Hoagland is a distinguished career Foreign Service Officer who has served America with distinction and honor during his time at the State Dept.," Menendez said. "However, given the circumstances and controversy surrounding Mr. Hoagland's nomination, I believe that the best way to move forward would be for the president to nominate a new candidate for this ambassadorship.

I also believe that the State Dept. and the Bush administration are just flat-out wrong in their refusal to recognize the Armenian genocide. It is well past time for American diplomacy to drop the euphemisms, the wink-wink, nod-nod brand of foreign policy that overlooks heinous atrocities committed around the world.

If there is any sincerity behind the Bush administrations rhetoric about liberty on the march if never again is to be more than a bumper sticker slogan then American diplomacy should consist of nothing less than unvarnished honesty with our friends and enemies alike. And we must call genocide by its name."

Menendez and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last month wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to withdraw the nomination of Richard E. Hoagland to be U.S. Ambassador to Armenia. Hoaglands nomination has been beset by controversy from the outset. Menendez in September lodged a hold on Hoaglands nomination, using a parliamentary privilege afforded to U.S. Senators that prevented the ambassador-designates confirmation by the full Senate. Because of this controversy, Menendez and Reid called on Secretary Rice to advance another candidate for consideration.

The Ottoman Empire brutally tortured and killed nearly 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 and forced half a million Armenians to flee their homeland.