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Bolton Wanted Analyst Fired, Past CIA Official Says
A former high-level CIA official yesterday disagreed with claims by U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton, the White House pick as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, that he never sought the firing of an agency analyst who disputed the existence of a Cuban biological weapons program (see GSN, April 29). Alan Foley, former chief of the CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center, was among six people interviewed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff members on Bolton’s nomination, the Washington Post reported. Foley reportedly backed statements by former acting National Intelligence Council chief Stuart Cohen that Bolton pushed for the firing of an intelligence officer who would not support the undersecretary’s view of Cuba’s weapons efforts. “Foley told us that Bolton’s chief of staff, Fred Fleitz, called him up and said that Bolton wanted the analyst fired,” a committee investigator told the Post. Committee staffers yesterday also interviewed former Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf. Two committee staffers said that Wolf told interviewers that Bolton tried to punish two department officials who did not support his views on nonproliferation matters. Senator George Voinovich (R-Ohio), whose concerns undid Republican plans for the committee to vote last week on Bolton, said yesterday that he has not made a decision on the nomination. The committee is scheduled to vote May 12. “I am concerned about peoples’ interpersonal skills,” Voinovich said (Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, April 29). The former chairman of the National Intelligence Council said personnel from the agency have disputed Bolton’s assessments of the WMD threat posed by Syria, the New York Times reported today. Questions have arisen about public statements Bolton has sought to make in recent years about Syrian weapons programs (see GSN, April 26). “I remember the Syria brouhaha,” Robert Hutchings told the Times by e-mail. “I was not directly involved in vetting drafts, but I instructed all those working for me NOT to clear anything they could not verify.” Meanwhile, current and former State Department officials disagree over whether Bolton inappropriately scheduled meetings with officials in Israel, Russia, British and France without first contacting the agency offices that work with those nations, the Times reported. Three former officials said bypassing the offices violates State Department procedures. A department spokesman said, however, that Bolton’s trip to Russia was cleared, while the U.S. ambassador to Israel said he knew of no “unauthorized contacts” by Bolton with Israeli officials. Former Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead, who served in the Reagan administration, said he is calling on GOP senators to oppose Bolton. The nominee “would not command respect at the United Nations,” Whitehead said. “I think good Republicans, which I like to feel I am, don’t like to disagree with the president publicly, and so have been reluctant to speak out against him,” Whitehead said of Bolton. “But there are other people, in addition to those who have come forth, who would like to see a change made. I don’t like to see the president suffer a loss, and I’ve been hoping that Mr. Bolton would withdraw, having seen the opposition out there” (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, April 29).
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