Monday, April 18, 2005
Excellence Rewarded
Today's Washington Post explains clearly why the White House nominated John Bolton to be ambassador to the U.N.:
John R. Bolton...often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who have worked with Bolton.In other words, John Bolton is being promoted for doing exactly what he was supposed to do: keep top officials of the Bush Administration from officially hearing what they knew to be the truth.
In some cases, career officials found back channels to Powell or his deputy, Richard L. Armitage, who encouraged assistant secretaries to bring information directly to him. In other cases, the information was delayed for weeks or simply did not get through. The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.
...career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department's top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.
In February 2003, Bolton reportedly accused the young career official, Rexon Ryu, of concealing information and of insubordination when he failed to produce a copy of a cable he had written about the work of U.N. inspectors in Iraq. ...Just weeks before the incident, Ryu had been among a small number of State Department officials who accompanied Powell to CIA headquarters to review the presentation Powell would give to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's alleged weapons programs. Officials said Ryu had been instrumental in getting the most controversial allegations out of Powell's speech.
...testimony gathered by the Senate panel in preparation for Bolton's confirmation hearings has also detailed a private channel to the CIA and how he sought to stifle career analysts from voicing dissent about the intelligence he was receiving.
You have to admire their loyalty. A guy who repeatedly crosses the boundaries of professional and personal standards of behavior, and who aggressively bullies and intimidates government employees and contractors who put honesty and patriotism ahead of ideological and political loyalty deserves to be rewarded.
Moreover, he's clearly a guy who can be counted on to continue the same good work should any other Middle Eastern nations find themselves in the cross-hairs of the multinational corporation currently running the government of the United States.
