Inflate and Intimidate

A major showdown looms large this week, with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled to vote Thursday on John Bolton's nomination as America's new UN ambassador. The Bush Administration, with Chairman Richard Lugar's assistance, is withholding crucial information describing how Bolton tried to spy on colleagues through National Security Agency intercepts and how he skewed intelligence on Syria. The lack of cooperation may prompt Democrats to postpone the vote.

One thing is certain: a flurry of new allegations has surfaced since the Foreign Relations Committee postponed a vote on Bolton three weeks ago. Each has reinforced his reputation as a unilateral uber-hawk who intimidates subordinates, ignores orders, exaggerates intelligence and consistently favors ideology over expertise. Here's a rundown of the most recent allegations. For the backstory, read here, here and here.

** Bolton repeatedly exaggerated the extent of Syria's weapons capabilities and threat to the United States and the greater Middle East, clashing with the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

** Bolton was kept off a US negotiating team with Libya after he rejected the compromise that Libya would abandon its WMD program if the US dropped its goal of regime change.

** Bolton tried to sabotage a European initiative to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons by attempting to undermine the International Atomic Energy Agency's meetings in Vienna.

** Bolton also used NSA intercepts to try and oust IAEA chief Mohammed Elbaradei, demanding aggressive intelligence gathering operations against the IAEA, UN and other international organizations.

** Bolton so enraged senior State Department officials that deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage blocked Bolton from giving speeches or testimony without Armitage's approval.

** Bolton "went ballistic" when an internal CIA report on Chinese missile proliferation included a dissent by the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research.

** Bolton threatened to cut off aid to Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary--all members of the US coalition in Iraq--for refusing to grant US soldiers immunity from the International Criminal Court.

** Bolton regularly bucked protocol and tried to set up meetings abroad with Russian, British, French and Israeli officials without notifying the US Embassy or the State Department.

** Bolton was described as an intolerant bully by three former senior government officials--an ambassador to South Korea, an assistant secretary of state and the head of the CIA's weapons proliferation center--in interviews with the Foreign Relations Committee.

** Bolton's high-priced management consultant Matthew Freedman lobbied on behalf of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos even after the US government decided to withdraw its support of him in the 1980s.

Comments (4)

1. Dear Readers--I'm going to be travelling on a reporting assignment for the next few days, so this post will remain up until the Bolton confirmation vote on Thursday. Please use the comments section to share any new information on Bolton or any other topic. Thanks.

   Posted by Ari Berman at 05/09/2005 @ 6:11pm

2. I've added new updates today on Bolton's dealings with Mohammed Elbaradei and Richard Armitage.

   Posted by Ari Berman at 05/10/2005 @ 1:59pm

3. Maybe no one else will take the job. Being between Bush and the rest of the world, could be a task,no one wants.

   Posted by pyro at 05/11/2005 @ 11:29pm

4. I could see that. I would not want to be the one who has to listen to the complaints about how bad our President is. I get enough of that just reading various forums on the internet.

   Posted by erogers at 05/12/2005 @ 03:11am