Turning the Screws on Bolton Posted by Suzanne Nossel

Apropos of Heather's point about making the Bolton confirmation hearings a referendum on values, it appears that progressives on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are raising some new issues.  The NY Times reports:

[T]here have been accusations that Mr. Bolton has sought to remove dissenters from their posts or bar them from meetings called to discuss policies. A senior Central Intelligence Agency official has become the second government official to tell the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believes Mr. Bolton sought to remove him from his post after he complained that statements Mr. Bolton made in 2002 about a biological weapons program in Cuba did not reflect the views of intelligence agencies, Congressional officials said.

They said that the committee was reviewing those accusations, combined with previous allegations that Mr. Bolton had tried to suppress information undercutting the administration's contentions about unconventional weapons . . .

Some intelligence officials have complained that he used intelligence selectively, promoting views favorable to his positions on Cuba, Iraq, Syria and other countries.

If indeed Bolton made selective use of intelligence and tried to fire officials for voicing dissenting views, these actions are directly at-odds with President Bush's professed commitment to intelligence reform.  Though we may agree on little else, the need for unbiased weighing of unvarnished intelligence should be a matter of unquestioned bi-partisan consensus after what successive reports have revealed about the catastrophic failures surrounding the Iraq invasion.   

The public readily understands why willful manipulation of intelligence is dangerous.   Depending on what is brought out in the hearings, they may now understand why Bolton is dangerous too.

Comments

[VD]

I think the Bolton hearing will go just like the Rice hearings. The Democrats will unleash the untouchable attack dogs, like Boxer and Kennedy, for unseemly and unprofessional interviewing to keep up party morale. Levin and Feinstein will probably handle the legitimate questioning. And when it is all said and done, Bolton will be confirmed, which is the right thing to do.

It is extremely unlikely that he is not confirmed. I mean someone would have to find out he was a serial killer or something like that before his confirmation does not go through.

[John M Rutt]

So, Bolton was putting pressure on intelligence analysts to "doctor" their reports. This after the Senate 'investigation' into the intelligence failures during the buildup to the Second Gulf War (Iraq) declared that there was no political pressure placed on intelligence analysts to "doctor" their intelligence reports. Wow!
JMR

[DBL]

I think the Democrats must have a death wish. Opposing Bolton's nomination confirms in the public mind the identification of the Democratic Party with the "Hate America First" crowd. This may please the members of the Hate America First crowd, of whom there are many in the Democratic Party, but could someone please tell me how this is going to help the party gain votes in the states it lost in November?

[Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg]

"Though we may agree on little else, the need for unbiased weighing of unvarnished intelligence should be a matter of unquestioned bi-partisan consensus after what successive reports have revealed about the catastrophic failures surrounding the Iraq invasion."

LOL! You really think the Bush administration shares this need? They're the ones manipulating the intelligence to suit their own needs, and with great success I might add, since they got the Iraq War they wanted so badly. With that kind of reward, and with their delusions of success in Iraq, I can't see how you can resonably argue that they haev any interest in reform, unless by reform you mean "destroying all dissenting voices from the government."

"The public readily understands why willful manipulation of intelligence is dangerous."

Really? Who is the public that you speak of? And what exactly do they understand about the willful manipulation of intelligence? Hell, a good percentage of the country probably still thinks that there was a connection between Al-Qaeda and Sadaam, so how do you figure they are even thinking about intelligence failures?

I really think you are fundementally misunderstanding the Bush Administration, particularly the NeoCons. They are revolutionaries, plain and simple, and they will (at least attempt to) destroy anything that stands in the way of their radical goals, including any intelligence agent that dares challenge their beliefs.

"I think the Democrats must have a death wish. Opposing Bolton's nomination confirms in the public mind the identification of the Democratic Party with the "Hate America First" crowd."

This has got to be the stupidest thing I've read all day. We oppose John "I have a scream" Bolton ( http://www.stopbolton.com/ ) and we "hate America"? I'll tell you what I hate- stupid angry instigators who get us into needless fights with our allies. I don't hate you though, DBL, I just feel sorry that your mind seems to have atrophied so badly.

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