Democrats try to build case against Bolton

[paineinthearse]

I personally think that Chafee could be persuaded and call upon all RI Du'ers (action is pretty slow in the RI forum) to call, better to VISIT his office by the end of the week or seek him out over the weekend.

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http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/11328722.htm

Posted on Thu, Apr. 07, 2005

Democrats try to build case against Bolton

BARRY SCHWEID

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats are sounding out former State Department officials and at least one current one as they try building a case against the confirmation of John R. Bolton as U.N. ambassador, congressional aides said Thursday. The State Department rallied behind him. Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Bolton would defend himself against the criticism and said documents had been sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to counter the accusations. The committee plans three days of hearings beginning Monday, with panel Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., hoping for a vote next Thursday. "We don't see any grounds for questioning his nomination or confirmation," Boucher said.

So far, the only likely witness besides Bolton is Carl W. Ford Jr., a former chief of the department's bureau of intelligence and research. Ford clashed with Bolton while at the State Department over what Ford regarded as Bolton's intimidation of department intelligence officials, the New York Times reported Thursday. Norm Kurz, a spokesman for Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said the State Department had agreed to let Democrats interview four State Department officials. According to committee aides who spoke on condition of anonymity, among critics being contacted by committee Democrats is Christian P. Westermann, a department intelligence officer who, according to the Times, also has clashed with Bolton. A senior State Department official said they would make Westermann available to Democrats.

But Kurz said he believed Democrats had not yet received documents they have requested. Among them were papers relating to a speech Bolton made in 2000 in which he said Cuba was trying to develop biological weapons and was transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile to the United States. At the time, some officials said the information should not have been publicly disclosed. Cuba has denied the weapons allegation. Bolton will testify Monday. Andy Fisher, the commitee spokesman, said Ford was likely to testify Tuesday. President Bush's nomination of Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, has stirred controversy because of his blunt style, opposition to a number of treaties and outspoken criticism of the United Nations.

Five of the six living former Republican secretaries of state - all but Colin Powell - have signed a letter praising Bolton to the committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. A spokeswoman in Powell's office said Powell would have no comment. Powell, who headed the State Department in Bush's first administration, was known to have serious policy differences with Bolton. As Powell tried to lure North Korea into nuclear disarmament negotiations Bolton publicly denounced North Korea, with severe criticism directed at chairman Kim Jong Il. Democrats are hoping to persuade moderate Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., to oppose Bolton, which could delay or even scuttle the nomination. Republicans control the panel by 10-8, and Chafee spokesman Stephen Hourahan has said the senator is inclined to support Bolton but is undecided. The committee would need a majority vote to recommend confirmation by the full Senate.

[paineinthearse]

1. Read in GD that Chafee will be supporting Bolton

I'll be heading south to work for the Dem candidate.

[Mandate My Ass]

2. Bolton, another war criminal

"A few months after George Bush took office, Greg Thielmann, an expert on disarmament with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or INR, was assigned to be the daily intelligence liaison to John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, who is a prominent conservative. Thielmann understood that his posting had been mandated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought that every important State Department bureau should be assigned a daily intelligence officer. “Bolton was the guy with whom I had to do business,” Thielmann said. “We were going to provide him with all the information he was entitled to see. That’s what being a professional intelligence officer is all about.”

But, Thielmann told me, “Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear.” Thielmann soon found himself shut out of Bolton’s early-morning staff meetings. “I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ‘The Under-Secretary doesn’t need you to attend this meeting anymore.’ ” When Thielmann protested that he was there to provide intelligence input, the aide said, “The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family.”

Eventually, Thielmann said, Bolton demanded that he and his staff have direct electronic access to sensitive intelligence, such as foreign-agent reports and electronic intercepts. In previous Administrations, such data had been made available to under-secretaries only after it was analyzed, usually in the specially secured offices of INR. The whole point of the intelligence system in place, according to Thielmann, was “to prevent raw intelligence from getting to people who would be misled.” Bolton, however, wanted his aides to receive and assign intelligence analyses and assessments using the raw data. In essence, the under-secretary would be running his own intelligence operation, without any guidance or support. “He surrounded himself with a hand-chosen group of loyalists, and found a way to get C.I.A. information directly,” Thielmann said.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact