Perhaps the most insidious of the lies leveled against Bolton is a striking omission. Sen. Christopher Dodd, an indefatigable champion of normalized relations with Fidel Castro, has led the charge with respect to allegations that Bolton wanted wrongly to accuse the Cuban dictator of having biological weapons (BW) capabilities, then retaliated against a State Department analyst and the CIA’s national intelligence officer for Latin America who had the temerity to resist his efforts.
Missing from this pro-Fidel reconstruction of events is a singularly important point: The two analysts acted in unauthorized and unprofessional ways when Bolton and his staff dared challenge unduly benign assessments of Castro’s BW potential — assessments that had been skewed by one of their colleagues, a senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who turned out to be a Cuban spy.
It is entirely appropriate that a policymaker challenged the products of the spy’s disinformation. It is also understandable that he would lose confidence in, and seek the reassignment (not firing) of, individuals whose attachment to such products was so great as to prompt them to attack him personally and viciously outside of official channels (including, in the case of the NIO, to Senator Dodd and two of his colleagues).
updates.