Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (41585)	4/12/2005 4:02:07 PM
From: Suma	Respond to of 173976

That's a funny post JLA... I really laughed at your analogy. You have wonderful descriptions...(:)

To: jlallen who wrote (41585)	4/12/2005 5:17:00 PM
From: Suma	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 173976

Former State Dept Official Depicts Bolton As Bully REUTERS A protestor holds up a banner against the nomination of John Bolton (L) as the new United States representative to the United Nations, as Bolton halts his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on his nomination in Washington April 11, 2005. Three protestors interrupted the hearing before being removed by police. Photo by Yuri Gripas Tuesday, April 12, 2005 4:02:14 PM ET By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador, John Bolton, was depicted at a Senate hearing on Tuesday as a bully who tried to force an analyst to bend intelligence on Cuba's weapons to fit a speech he was giving. Carl Ford, who ran the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, said Bolton cast a chill over the State Department's intelligence personnel by abusing an analyst who held up his speech because it overstated information on Cuba's weapons. Bolton, described by Ford as a "kiss-up, kick-down" bureaucrat, said on Monday he wanted the analyst reassigned because he believed he had gone behind his back and denied he had challenged the substance of the intelligence. Bush's Republicans hold an 10-8 majority in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering the nomination. Democrats were trying to persuade Sen. Lincoln Chafee, who has expressed some doubts, to vote with them. A tie would block the nomination from going to the full Senate. Chafee, from Rhode Island, said after the hearing he was inclined to confirm Bolton but added, "I still want to talk to my colleagues on the committee." The committee was expected to vote on the nomination later this week. Bolton, who has been an outspoken critic of the United Nations, is now undersecretary of state for arms control. Ford described an irate exchange with Bolton, who he said had just berated a lower level intelligence analyst for holding up a speech in which he planned to say Cuba had a biological weapons program. "I left that meeting with the perception that I had been asked for the first time to fire an intelligence analyst for what he had said and done," Ford said. "In my experience no one had ever done what Secretary Bolton did." CHILLING EFFECT While the analyst kept his job and Bolton's speech was reworked to comply with the intelligence, Ford said the incident had "a chilling effect" on State Department analysts. Bolton on Monday gave a sharply different account, denying that he tried to have the analyst fired. He told senators he was angry the analyst went around his back on procedures, and said he did not challenge the substance of the intelligence. Democrats said Ford's testimony and statements from other witnesses before the committee showed a pattern of attempted intimidation of intelligence officials which they said made Bolton unfit for the diplomatic post. They said his appointment would cast more doubt on U.S. intelligence whose credibility was badly damaged by its incorrect finding that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, cited as justification for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Republicans argued that Ford only accounted for one incident that pointed to Bolton's demeanor, not necessarily his qualifications for the U.N. post. Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican who has been less than enthusiastic about Bolton's nomination, said Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had confidence in Bolton and that the administration would supervise Bolton's statements at the United Nations. Ford, who described himself as a conservative Republican loyal to Bush, said Bolton was a bully who berated those at lower levels while placating higher-ups. Ford said Bolton should have taken his complaints to him, but instead first went to the lower level analyst and gave him a "tongue lashing." "I've never met anyone like him in terms of the way he abuses his power and authority over little people," Ford said. Ford took the matter to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell who he said made an effort to reassure analysts and tell them "they should continue in essence to speak truth to power." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © Reuters 2005. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. << back