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Lugar Won’t Back Democrats’ Request for Information on Bolton Dispute Over Syrian Weapons Program
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) did not support panel Democrats’ request for information from the State Department regarding disputes between Undersecretary of State John Bolton and U.S. intelligence agencies regarding potential Syrian weapons efforts, the New York Times reported today (see GSN, May 4). Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) made nine broad requests for information Friday from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Three involved assertions made regarding Syria by Bolton, the White House nominee for U.S. ambassador to the Untied Nations, according to the Times. Committee Democrats have argued that Bolton as recently as 2003 made public statements on Syrian development of weapons of mass destruction that exceeded U.S. intelligence estimates of the nation’s weapons effort (see GSN, April 26). Lugar, in a letter to Rice on Wednesday, asked for a prompt response to five of Biden’s requests for information regarding Bolton’s alleged efforts to punish personnel who disagreed with him and his acquisition of transcripts of conversations intercepted by the National Security Agency involving U.S. officials. However, Lugar did not mention three requests regarding Syria and another involving a 2001 Bolton speech on Sudan, the Times reported. He said only that some of the requests “are extremely broad and may have marginal relevance to specific allegations.” Spokesman Andy Fisher said Lugar doubted the value of the information requests on Syria. “The purpose of seeking the documents appears to be to witness internal debates having to do with the clearance of speeches,” Fisher said (Douglas Jehl, New York Times, May 4).
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