Posted on 05/03/2005 7:43:20 AM PDT by Pikamax
3 Ex-Officials Describe Bullying by Bolton By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: May 3, 2005
WASHINGTON, May 2 - Three former senior government officials have provided new accounts of what they described as bullying and intolerance shown by John R. Bolton to subordinates and other officials who disagreed with his views on policy and intelligence matters.
The three former officials provided the accounts in interviews with the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to transcripts of the conversations. The committee is reviewing Mr. Bolton's nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations.
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The firsthand accounts came from a former ambassador to South Korea, a former assistant secretary of state, and the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency's weapons proliferation center. All three described Mr. Bolton as unwilling to listen to alternative views, the transcripts show, and two provided new details about episodes in which he sought to punish those who challenged his positions.
A copy of the transcripts was provided to The New York Times by a Congressional official opposed to Mr. Bolton's nomination, who said they raised new questions about his conduct.
Mr. Bolton and his defenders have acknowledged that he can be combative and that he had sharp disagreements with subordinates and intelligence officials. But they have said that he made sure that his speeches were cleared by his superiors and that he sought to have officials removed from their posts only when he had lost confidence in them.
Most of the incidents described by the former officials occurred in 2002 and 2003, when Mr. Bolton was under secretary of state for arms control, a post he has held since 2001.
Among the accounts was one that described Mr. Bolton's hanging up on an American ambassador to South Korea. Another gave details of his blocking a new assignment for a promising State Department officer with whom he had clashed, and others provided fresh descriptions of his putting pressure on intelligence analysts to conform to his views on Cuba and other issues.
In each case, the former officials said, Mr. Bolton sought to portray American foes like North Korea, Syria and Cuba as a greater threat to American security than many diplomats and intelligence analysts believed accurate. The former officials did not describe any case in which Mr. Bolton criticized an intelligence report for overestimating a threat, as turned out to have been the case in prewar intelligence on Iraq.
"John strongly believed that just because the intelligence community had a conclusion on an issue, that didn't necessarily have to be his view," said Alan Foley, former head of the C.I.A.'s weapons proliferation center, according to a transcript.
The interviews, conducted last Thursday, were among more than a dozen by the committee in the past six days as part of its inquiry into Mr. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations. The transcripts have not been publicly released, but they are to be reviewed by members of the panel before a vote scheduled for May 12.
One of the former officials, John S. Wolf, who served under Mr. Bolton as an assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation, described three different occasions in which he said Mr. Bolton had sought to punish those with whom he had clashed. "I believe that it would be fair to say that some of the officers within my bureau complained that they felt undue pressure to conform to the views of the under secretary, versus the views that they could support," Mr. Wolf said, according to the transcript.
The transcripts provide by far the fullest accountings to date from Mr. Wolf, Mr. Foley and the former ambassador, Thomas Hubbard. Mr. Hubbard, who was ambassador to South Korea, told the panel that Mr. Bolton hung up on him during a visit there in early 2003, after Mr. Hubbard failed to secure a meeting between Mr. Bolton and Roh Moo Hyun, then president-elect of South Korea.
"Mr. Bolton himself got on the cellphone with me, and I explained the circumstances, and he said, 'Well, why should I see you? You couldn't get me a meeting with the president-elect,' " Mr. Hubbard said, according to the transcript.
"My immediate response was, you know, 'You should see me because, you know, I represent the U.S. president in Korea,' " Mr. Hubbard said he had told Mr. Bolton. "Whereupon, he hung up."
The accounts included the first public account by Mr. Wolf of how Mr. Bolton had intervened in the summer of 2003 to block Rexon Ryu, whom Mr. Wolf described as "the best midgrade officer I had," from a prized assignment as a liaison on nonproliferation issues to the working group preparing for a meeting in Sea Island, Ga., of the Group of 8 industrialized countries. Mr. Wolf said Mr. Bolton and Mr. Ryu had clashed earlier in 2003 over what Mr. Wolf called an inadvertent error, in which Mr. Ryu had neglected to forward to Mr. Bolton's office a cable related to United Nations inspections in Iraq.
Mr. Ryu had served on a State Department team that reviewed intelligence reports for possible use in a speech about Iraq that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was preparing to deliver to the United Nations Security Council, Mr. Wolf told the committee staff. But Mr. Wolf said he did not believe that Mr. Bolton and Mr. Ryu had clashed during the review.
Mr. Foley described another clash, over Cuba in 2002, between Mr. Bolton and Fulton Armstrong, who was then the national intelligence officer for Latin America. Mr. Foley said he remembered "being jarred" when Frederick Fleitz, Mr. Bolton's top aide, told him that "John thinks this guy ought to be fired."
"My immediate response was, you know, 'You should see me because, you know, I represent the U.S. president in Korea,' " Mr. Hubbard said he had told Mr. Bolton. "Whereupon, he hung up."
>>>Am I the only one getting an arrogant vibe from Hubbard? I would have hung up after a couple of choice words.
Did he even get anyone fired or punished?
I can't believe they delayed the vote. It's just more time for the liberals to dig up crap on Bolton. I can't believe how sneezy those tyrants are.
My boss yelled at me!
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
Successful leaders in the private sector often times are bullies. The problem with the public sector is that so many leades are so touchy feely that nothing gets done.
What are these guys, 8 years old?!?!?
These guy's should have spent some time going to basic training or in the service. Then they would know what real bullying was. Poor Baby's!
Describes most bosses I've ever worked for. The "boss" always has views on things and subordinates often "feel" pressure to conform to their understanding of his views on things. Many subordinates' views are not always accepted by the boss and sometimes subordinates don't feel that the boss listens to or understands fully their views. The boss has a broader perspective than the subordinate and has wider sources of information. Such is life.
Maybe it's allergies? ;);)
Talk about a bunch of girlie-men! REAL men wouldn't be complaining about being "abused." Nothing like embarrassing yourself in front of the whole world!!
People are coming out of the woodwork to get this guy. But even if he unnecessarily stepped on toes at the State Dept., it doesn't mean he's unqualified as UN Ambassador. One of the things the UN needs the most is a major player who isn't worried about his/her popularity.
Does anybody else sense an elitist undercurrent to all of this? Heres John Bolton, a blue collar son of a fireman going up the ranks and offending eatern liberal elitits in the State Deparment named Fulton. Oh I wish this white house didn't have its head so far up its back side and would press this advantage. Expose the left as the elitist scum they are and this changes real fast.
Bolton bumped into me in a hall once. He really jarred me. I told him I was an advisor to Gandalf and I helped save the Free World. He hung up on me too.
/sarcasm
Only the slimes thinks this is important. It was probably on the front page above the fold.
The only question should be: is John Bolton tough enough, mean enough, and nasty enough to deal with the U.N. viper's nest? It appears that he is.
Once again, the NYTimes engaging in aggressive journalistic activism designed to assist their Democratic brethren.
If bullying and abusing people becomes a disqualification for political office, Hillary is toast.
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