A Negroponte postcript.

• Author: Laverty, Paul
• Position: John Negroponte

The trouble about writing fiction is that I spend too much time in a room by myself. On occasions I wonder if I'm going nuts, or just maybe, despite the doubts, my quiet fury is a normal reaction from an average human being. In April, much to my delight, Universal brought out a new DVD of Carla's Song, starring Bobby Carlyle and Scott Glenn, written by me and directed by Ken Loach. The film is set against the backdrop of the U.S.-financed war in Nicaragua during the '80s, where I once worked for a human rights organization. The team at Universal was genuinely enthusiastic and worked their pants off to pull it all together. Along with the new director's cut is a glossy booklet with photographs and excerpts from the introduction to my screenplay written in 1996. I was on a film set when I got word that the text was going to print and I only had ten minutes to glance over the summary. I faxed a one-paragraph postscript, and that is when the trouble started.

Despite the best efforts of the young man at Universal to get my postscript added, he was informed by lawyers, that even with the usual disclaimer, they couldn't risk it. My agent received a phone call from a lawyer saying counsel's opinion had been sought and what I had written was deemed to be "contentious and inflammatory." I asked for a copy of the opinion but was told that it was "verbal." I asked who counsel was, and on what basis he or she reached that opinion. Not a squeak. Deadline passed. Postscript gone. I don't blame the team at Universal, as counsel's opinion in the corporate world is as important as the Oracle at Delphi for ancient Greeks, and all tremble at the signs.

Here is the offending paragraph:

"The man who was at the center of the U.S. experiment to tear Nicaragua apart in the '80s Was Mr. John Negroponte, once U.S. ambassador to Honduras. He claims to be unaware of any U.S. human rights abuse in Nicaragua or H Salvador during this time. In February of 2005 he was appointed head of National Intelligence by George Bush Junior. Each morning he should have no difficulty spotting a terrorist."

A prizewinning series in the Baltimore Sun in 1995 demonstrated that Negroponte knew about the torture and murders that Honduras's Battalion 316, trained by the CIA, was carrying out. He then covered them up by whitewashing reports back to Congress about Honduras's human rights record.

The United States bribed and bullied Honduras to host the Contras, who were fighting the...