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WASHINGTON, (AP) -- John R. Bolton, nominated to be U.N. ambassador, vastly overrated the military might of Syria and Cuba and had to be talked into toning down his assessments, a former senior intelligence official told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff Friday. Robert L. Hutchings, who was responsible for coordinating American intelligence assessments in 2003, told the committee staff he felt Bolton was intent on drawing conclusions in public speeches that were "politicized" and exceeded U.S. intelligence on both countries, said a committee source, speaking on condition of anonymity. In another interview, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief...

A left-wing website rescues clueless Democrats in the confirmation fight. When Melody Townsel, the Texas woman who claims that U.N.-ambassador nominee John Bolton chased her through a Moscow hotel, throwing things at her and "behaving like a madman," first tried to tell her story to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the committee showed no interest. It was only after she turned to the influential far-Left website DailyKos that Democrats on the committee realized Townsel might be a powerful weapon in their campaign to defeat the Bolton nomination. The story began on Friday, April 8, when Townsel e-mailed her story to...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 4, 2005 CONTACT: Siobhan Guiney - (916) 441-6197 or (916) 290-7223 Bolton Critics: In the Hot Seat -> One’s an Admitted Plagiarist, Another a John Kerry Donor Move America Forward Highlights Credibility Problems with Bolton Critics & With the United Nations(SACRAMENTO) – The organization strongly backing the nomination of John Bolton to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Move America Forward (website: www.MoveAmericaForward.org), is targeting John Bolton’s critics and the UN itself in a new television ad campaign. ....CLICK HERE TO SEE THE AD The newest ad, “Bolton-Feingold,” will air on major...

It's been just over three months since George W. Bush began his second term as president. Yet criticism of his foreign policy is no less feverish than it was this early in his first term. This time however the animus is directed against him via his nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The smear campaign against Bolton has gone on far too long. If the Foreign Relations Committee can't bring itself to endorse him soon, the White House ought to make good on its threat to force a showdown vote on the Senate floor....

I need to get the folks at Move America Forward a photo of Melody Townsel, and so far am having no luck. I've called people and looked online... but the best I've found is her baby picture posted at her PR firm's website. Anyone have any leads? Can you please help, so I can get the MAF people this photo. They want to use it in a TV ad :)

Bolton Accuser - Anti Bush Activist Who Committed PlagiarismThe news media and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have been despicable in their anti-John Bolton smear campaign. What they've not reported to you is that the highly touted Bolton critic, Melody Townsel - who accused Bolton of 'acting like a madman' and chasing her through the halls of a Russian hotel - was an anti-Bush activist (she founded the Dallas Chapter of "Mothers Opposing Bush") who has been discredited by her superiors and forced to come forward to admit that she committed plagiarism when serving as a journalist. CLICK...

Bolton Accuser a Serial Plagiarizer Yesterday we noted a post at Daily Kos from John Bolton accuser Melody Townsel, in which she admitted committing plagiarism while working at the Abilene Christian University student newspaper, the Optimist. The ACU Optimist has a report on this today, with the revelation that Townsel was also involved in another plagiarism incident at the University of Texas at Arlington: Former student acknowledges past plagiarism. Townsel left ACU soon after being removed from the Optimist to continue her undergraduate degree at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she worked for the student newspaper, the...

Fellow FReepers: I needed to get some pictures of Bolton-accuser, Melody Townsel for a project I am working on. Can you all help? They don't need to be anything specific... they can be flattering or not, I just need to get at least a couple photos of this woman that are from at least the last 10 years.

The woman whose testimony now threatens to derail John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador claims he was "genuinely behaving like a madman" during a 1994 trip to Moscow. But she's a self-described "liberal Democrat" who helped organize the Dallas chapter of "Mothers Opposing Bush" during last year's presidential campaign. Story Continues Below Melody Townsel first offered her bizarre allegation to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 8, in a letter claiming that during a trip ten years ago to Kyrgyzstan, Bolton chased her through the halls of a her hotel throwing objects and screaming threats. In her unlikely account...

01/25/05  A Day in the Life in North Oak CliffI awake to find several urgent e-mails from neighbors alerting me to three separate, serious criminal incidents that occurred in the last couple of days here in North Oak Cliff.  I read and quickly dispatch them to neighbors who share my concerns about our rising crime rate, then hop into the car to take my 5 year old to school.  I back out of my driveway onto our street, Winnetka Avenue, the street where Oscar Sanchez was kidnapped last week. I dodge three major potholes on the way to I-35, wait...

tuesday, april 26, 2005 Bolton Accuser Admits Plagiarism at Daily Kos The movement to smear and discredit John Bolton is melting down. Bolton accuser Melody Townsel, former leader of Mothers Opposing Bush, is about to get outed as a plagiarizer, and she's whining about it to the people who understand her best-the lunatics at Daily Kos: Important Melody Townsel revelation - PLEASE DISSEMINATE. (Hat tip: DANEgerus.) Hello, Daily Kos-ers: Tonight, my deepest fears regarding my pending testimony in the John Bolton nomination process have come true: Republicans have dredged up un unfortunate chapter of my life and, clearly, are about...

Public relations executive Melody Townsel became the focus of media attention last week by accusing U.N. ambassador nominee John Bolton of once chasing her down a hotel hallway in Moscow while screaming and throwing things. But that's not the first time Townsel has been in the news. In fact, the former leader of Mothers Opposing Bush has quite a knack for attracting press coverage, even when it comes to the most mundane details of her personal life. Like the New York City apartment she rented a few years after returning from the Russia trip. Somehow Townsel got the Village Voice...

As I reported earlier, International Business and Technical Consultants President Jayant Kalotra wrote a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee defending Bolton’s actions in Moscow concerning “Mothers Opposing Bush” volunteer Melody Townsel. Now, before anyone tries to imply Kalotra is just another conservative Bolton supporter, consider these facts: In the past five years, Kalotra has donated over $16,000 to political candidates, all Democrats, according to FEC records. That includes more than $3,000 to New Jersey Democratic congressman Frank Pallone, $3,000 to Dick Gephardt, $500 to Al Gore, $5,000 to the DNC, $1,000 to Maryland congressman Albert Wynn and $1,000...

WASHINGTON - The latest accusations of abuse aimed at the president's nominee to be America's ambassador to the United Nations come from a self-described "liberal Democrat" who in 2004 helped organize the Dallas chapter of "Mothers Opposing Bush." The woman, Melody Townsel, alleged that John Bolton chased her through the halls of a Moscow hotel throwing objects and screaming threats at her in August 1994, according to a letter circulated Saturday by the spokesman for the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Biden of Delaware. The committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on Mr. Bolton's nomination. Until...