Tehran Times
Tehran, Iran
Wrong man at the wrong time
By M. A. Saki
John R. Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United
Nations sent shivers through the 191-member organization and the
international community. All were stunned at the choice of a man whose
unilateralist and unrealistic attitudes toward international issues
have made the world a less safe place.
His nomination appeared more appalling since the Bush administration
had previously announced it planned to repair its image, which had
suffered greatly due to the scandal-hit invasion of Iraq launched
under the guidance of hawks like Bolton and other officials who Nelson
Mandela once called the dinosaurs surrounding Bush.
Certain revelations after his nomination forced the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee to unexpectedly decide to spend a few more weeks
investigating allegations about his bullying tactics against
subordinates, attempts to suppress opposing views about foreign policy
and national security, threats to a female government contractor, and
misleading the committee about his handling of classified materials.
His record is so dark that even some Republicans sitting on the
committee are finding his appointment hard to swallow.
His intimidation of intelligence analysts has been confirmed by the
State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency. For instance,
Carl Ford, former chief of the State Department's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research, told the senators that Bolton is a "serial
abuser who bullied subordinates… an 800-pound gorilla." He said Bolton
"abuses his power and authority over little people." "He's a
quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy." He accused Bolton of
seeking the dismissal of a State Department official with whom he
disagreed.
Former secretary of state Colin Powell, who was never really a member
of the dinosaur club during Bush’s first term, has expressed some
reservations about the Bolton nomination in private consultations with
some members of the committee. According to U.S. media outlets,
Bolton, who delivered a stinging speech about North Korea in 2003 that
nearly derailed regional negotiations on the country, did not respond
to a question about whether he was "ever asked by Secretary Powell to
refrain from making public comments about North Korea's nuclear
issue."
Bolton also clashed repeatedly with U.S. intelligence officials in
2002 and 2003 as he sought to prove that Syria was making efforts to
acquire unconventional weapons that the CIA and other experts rejected
as exaggerated. The CIA report to Congress said only: "In principle,
broader access to Russian expertise provides opportunities for Syria
to expand its indigenous capabilities, should it decide to pursue
nuclear weapons."
The mustachioed hawk, who wants to see his nightmare worldview
translated into reality, has repeatedly claimed that Iran is seeking a
nuclear weapons program, despite announcements by the UN nuclear
agency that it has found no evidence indicating that Tehran has a
nuclear weapons program.
According to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton,
he often blocked Powell and, on one occasion, his successor,
Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies
on Iran.
Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at
the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on
Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for
efforts to have the UN Security Council investigate Iran's nuclear
program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw
in the towel. "When Armitage's staff asked for information about what
other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn't
be collected," according to one official with firsthand knowledge of
the exchange.
U.S. officials have said Bolton let Rice go on her first European trip
without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton's
campaign to oust the head of the UN nuclear agency. "She went off
without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about
how they were not going to join the campaign," according to a senior
official.
Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that Rice
recently told her senior staff that she was disappointed about the
stream of allegations against Bolton and said she did not want any
information coming out of the department that could adversely affect
the nomination.
Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton's credentials and urged
the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials say, she
has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in
January.
Despite the fact that his nominee for UN ambassador has openly
displayed his contempt for internationalism and post-World War II
international treaties, Bush has insisted that Bolton is the "right
man at the right time for this important assignment." But Bolton is
actually the wrong man at the wrong time because he represents the
intolerant and unilateralist tendency in U.S. foreign policy which has
only served to increase international tension and hatred of the United
States throughout the world.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=4/27/2005&Cat=14&Num=001
Cordially,
Ken (NY)
email: http://www.geocities.com/bluesguy68/email.htm
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