Posted on 05/08/2005 11:17:50 PM PDT by FairOpinion
WASHINGTON, May 8 - The State Department is refusing to make public internal documents sought by Senate Democrats in their attempt to seek more information about repeated clashes between John R. Bolton and American intelligence agencies over Syria, administration officials say.
In rejecting the request, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the information involves "internal deliberations" and their disclosure could have a chilling effect on debates within the administration.
The decision was spelled out in a letter that Ms. Rice sent Friday to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is evaluating the administration's nomination of Mr. Bolton to be the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Republicans on the panel had declined to endorse the Democratic request, but the State Department had not previously made its position clear.
The decision by Ms. Rice prompted a sharp new protest from Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the top Democrat on the panel, who described the move as a lack of cooperation by the administration into the panel's examination of Mr. Bolton.
"The real question here is how far did John Bolton stretch the truth or stretch the facts, regarding intelligence," Mr. Biden said Sunday on the CBS News program "Face the Nation." Mr. Biden said the panel needed the documents to learn more about whether Mr. Bolton, as under secretary of state for arms control, had sought "to push the envelope" in making public assertions about Syria, Cuba and other countries that were not supported by objective intelligence assessments.
In appealing the decision, Mr. Biden said in a letter to Ms. Rice on Saturday that the panel needed the documents to help determine whether Mr. Bolton's efforts "to make statements that went far beyond what the intelligence would support" should call into question his fitness to be United Nations ambassador.
Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the committee's Republican chairman, has said he does not regard the documents sought by Democrats as essential. Mr. Lugar said he remained hopeful that all 10 Republicans on the panel would support Mr. Bolton in a committee vote on Thursday, enough to send the nomination to the Senate floor.
Four Republicans on the panel have expressed reservations about Mr. Bolton's nomination, but the White House has pressed them to support it.
One of the four, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, said Sunday on the ABC News program "This Week" that he was still awaiting answers to some of his questions, but that "I know nothing as of this moment that would - my guess - would stop him from being voted out of committee."
The Democratic requests for the documents on Syria are part of the expanded inquiry by the committee after the Republican reservations led the panel to delay a vote last month. By Friday, the State Department had provided thousands of pages of documents to the committee, to substantiate some matters under review, including Mr. Bolton's role in seeking the transfer of two senior intelligence analysts and several State Department officials with whom he had disagreed.
The State Department has provided documents in response to five broad requests made by Mr. Biden and endorsed by Mr. Lugar. But in her letter to the committee, Ms. Rice made clear that the department would not respond to four other Democratic requests, for information about disputes on Syria and Cuba in 2002 and 2003 and a separate dispute on Sudan in 2001.
In the letter, Ms. Rice said that the department "does not believe these requests to be specifically tied to the issues being deliberated by the Committee in connection with the nomination." The letter was sent to the committee by Matthew A. Reynolds, acting assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, on behalf of Secretary Rice. A copy was provided by the State Department.
As they have been described by former intelligence officials, the disputes on Syria took place almost entirely behind the scenes. In the speeches and testimony about Syria that he delivered, the officials have said, Mr. Bolton toned down his assertions so that they fell within the guidelines that intelligence agencies insisted on.
Mr. Bolton's defenders have said the internal disputes should be irrelevant to the committee's deliberations. But in formal interviews with the committee staff, at least three former senior intelligence officials have described the debate on Syria as the most prominent example of instances in which Mr. Bolton pressed to make public assertions that went beyond those supported by objective intelligence assessments.
How can you have an honest discussion to arrive at a decision, if every word uttered would be released to the public and our enemies.
I wonder if this is another hook, line and sinker stratagem by the administration.
Let the Democrats blow the information out of proportion to reality, then release them, and stop debate when the facts don't support the allegations levelled by the Dems.
Who knows... The administration has done this repeatedly.
Me too.
I would like to see that happen once again!
Yes it is good she did. the Rats are just fishing for anything. The more info they can find to twist and turn the better for them. We all need to Fax and email, call DC !!!!
I read somewhere else that it was Negroponte who was withholding those documents (as a national security issue) - not Dr. Rice.
Biden may be mad because Negroponte isn't caving to him as Biden thought he would.
I think that's a different set of documents. Negorponte is in charge of the new combined national intelligence.
The Dems were also demanding documents from the State Department -- those are the documents that Condi is not releasing.
The Dems were fishing everywhere, hoping to get their hands on something they can use against Bolton.
I'm fascinated that the Democrats' focus has turned to the question of whether Iraq's WMD's went to Syria.
I would LOVE to see a discussion of how the US State Department's intelligence organizations vetted intelligence, what they permitted people to say, who has been pushing to say more and who has been militating against putting this sort of pressure on Syria.
I realize that this is still confidential information and so, even in a hearing, would be unlikely to see the light of day. However, this is one of the central issues of the War on Terror, and I am amazed that the Democrats are willing to draw attention to their efforts to preserve Syria's status quo under Assad.
Rush was talking about these documents this morning - and they are the same (according to Rush) - from the NSA - and Negroponte has said - NO!
Biden just sent his letter to Condi at the State Dept because that's where she works now - but the documents had to do with NSA stuff - not state dept stuff.
And .. according to Rush - he thinks the documents had to do with the democrat Gov. Richardson - when he made that UNOFFICIAL trip to NK in '93 (I think) - and then when he came back to the USA - he said the USA should have talks with NK. That's treason to me. He had no official sanction to go to NK and negotiate anything.
Richardson's trip was in '03 - not '93.
I think so .. at least that's what Rush thought it was too - and he believes it's because of the trip Richardson made to NK in 2003.
Very interesting.
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