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Rice Said to Pledge Controls on Bolton
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has told at least two senators that the White House will keep a short rein on John Bolton if he becomes U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday (see GSN, April 29). “We think we can control him,” Rice said to one lawmaker of her outspoken subordinate, according to two Senate aides. “If he strays from the reservation, he’s out.” Rice “was clear that he was going to work for her,” said Senator Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) amidst the ongoing effort by the Bush administration to see Bolton approved as U.N. ambassador. Bolton’s conduct as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security continues to be debated. Bolton in 2003 ordered U.S. diplomats to oppose any efforts by other nations to soften an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution that would refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program. “Next thing I know, our ambassador … is calling [former Secretary of State Colin Powell] or [former Deputy Secretary Richard] Armitage and saying, ‘What the hell are you guys doing? You’re going to send this train over the cliff,’” one official said. Bolton was forced to rescind his order, the Times reported. He was also barred from sending his chief of staff, Frederick Fleitz, to attend a lunch meeting of IAEA ambassadors, the official said. Armitage or Powell staffers also reviewed all of Bolton’s speeches, according to the Times. A senior State Department officials said allegations regarding Bolton’s efforts on Iran are part of the “malevolent gossip” that has dogged him during the nomination process. Bolton’s supporters argue that he has worked under tough conditions within the State Department, according to the Times. “For a conservative, the State Department is enemy territory,” said Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute, the think thank where Bolton served as senior vice president from 1997 to 2001. “The State Department in a very general sense is manned by Democrats who are hostile to President [George W.] Bush’s agenda, period,” Pletka said (Sonni Efron, Los Angeles Times, May 1). Former Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones said she does not believe Bolton could make needed compromises with other U.N. ambassadors to reach consensus on issues. “I don’t know if he’s incapable of negotiation, but he’s unwilling,” Jones told the New York Times. Jones met Friday with staffers from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering Bolton’s nomination. Also interviewed was former CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin and Stuart Cohen, former acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Committee staff members continue to investigate Bolton’s alleged efforts to have intelligence analysts fired or reassigned for disagreeing with him on weapons issues, and his reported violations of State Department travel policy, according to the Times. McLaughlin said he opposed Bolton’s attempts in 2002 to oust analyst Fulton Armstrong, who had disputed the undersecretary’s claims that Cuba was operating a biological weapons program. A CIA assessment on Cuba, which was more cautious than statements made by Bolton, was “seen by Bolton and his staff as a direct insult to Bolton,” Armstrong said in a video conference in April. Fleitz subsequently sent an angry e-mail message to Armstrong, the analyst said. Jones said Bolton would make trips overseas without coordinating with the State Department bureau for that area, the Times reported. “For whatever reason, he would not coordinate with us, before doing any kinds of trips,” Jones said. “We always had to play catch up with him, which was not standard with anyone else in the department” (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, April 30).
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