Is this the man to reform the UN?

Those who watched the C-Span internet live interrogation of John R. Bolton by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would have been appalled to hear the graphic description of the character of the man that pResident Bush want to appoint to be the next US Ambassador to the UN. This man, like Bush, is a compulsive liar.

In the hearings we heard of his gross treatment of Christian Westermann, the chief bioweapons analyst at the State Department and Fulton Armstrong, National Intelligence Officer working on Latin America issues.

The testimony given by a hardened "Republican", Carl Ford Jr., the former assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research, was amazing. He publicly called Bolton a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy". This is the sort of testimony that one only hears in movies as part of a plot!! Suddenly we realise that such people do exist in the real world!

It is even more amazing that even with all this becoming publicly available, Bolton is least concerned and sits there sure that he is going to be the next Ambassador to the UN, the repayment for his service to Bush in barging into a room during the 2000 Presidential elections to stop the counting of the votes in Florida!!

Information is now surfacing of the mistreatment by Bolton of a Rexon Ryu, a State Department nonproliferation analyst, now a detailee in the office of Chuck Hagel, Nebraska’s senior U.S. Senator!!

How many cases of maltreatment of US Intelligence Analysts does the Senate Foreign Relations Committee require to consider whether Bolton was "serial" abuser?

Given here is the text of a letter from a lady addressed to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the man whom Condoleeza Rice believes is going to reform the UN. (All emphasis is mine.)

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Chairman
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
450 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Sir:

I'm writing to urge you to consider blocking in committee the nomination of John Bolton as ambassador to the UN.

In the late summer of 1994, I worked as the subcontracted leader of a US AID project in Kyrgyzstan officially awarded to a HUB primary contractor. My own employer was Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly, and I reported directly to Republican leader Charlie Black.

After months of incompetence, poor contract performance, inadequate in-country funding, and a general lack of interest or support in our work from the prime contractor, I was forced to make US AID officials aware of the prime contractor's poor performance.

I flew from Kyrgyzstan to Moscow to meet with other Black Manafort employees who were leading or subcontracted to other US AID projects. While there, I met with US AID officials and expressed my concerns about the project -- chief among them, the prime contractor's inability to keep enough cash in country to allow us to pay bills, which directly resulted in armed threats by Kyrgyz contractors to me and my staff.

Within hours of sending a letter to US AID officials outlining my concerns, I met John Bolton, whom the prime contractor hired as legal counsel to represent them to US AID. And, so, within hours of dispatching that letter, my hell began.

Mr. Bolton proceeded to chase me through the halls of a Russian hotel -- throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and, generally, behaving like a madman. For nearly two weeks, while I awaited fresh direction from my company and from US AID, John Bolton hounded me in such an appalling way that I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there. Mr. Bolton, of course, then routinely visited me there to pound on the door and shout threats.

When US AID asked me to return to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in advance of assuming leadership of a project in Kazakstan, I returned to my project to find that John Bolton had proceeded me by two days. Why? To meet with every other AID team leader as well as US foreign-service officials in Bishkek, claiming that I was under investigation for misuse of funds and likely was facing jail time. As US AID can confirm, nothing was further from the truth.

He indicated to key employees of our contractors to State that, based on his discussions with investigatory officials, I was headed for federal prison and, if they refused to cooperate with either him or the prime contractor's replacement team leader, they, too, would find themselves the subjects of federal investigation. As a further aside, he made unconscionable comments about my weight, my wardrobe and, with a couple of team leaders, my sexuality, hinting that I was a lesbian (for the record, I'm not).

When I resurfaced in Kyrgyzstan, I learned that he had done such a convincing job of smearing me that it took me weeks -- with the direct intervention of US AID officials -- to limit the damage. In fact, it was only US AID's appointment of me as a project leader in Almaty, Kazakstan that largely put paid to the rumors Mr. Bolton maliciously circulated.

As a maligned whistleblower, I've learned firsthand the lengths Mr. Bolton will go to accomplish any goal he sets for himself. Truth flew out the window. Decency flew out the window. In his bid to smear me and promote the interests of his client, he went straight for the low road and stayed there.

John Bolton put me through hell -- and he did everything he could to intimidate, malign and threaten not just me, but anybody unwilling to go along with his version of events. His behavior back in 1994 wasn't just unforgivable, it was pathological.

I cannot believe that this is a man being seriously considered for any diplomatic position, let alone such a critical posting to the UN. Others you may call before your committee will be able to speak better to his stated dislike for and objection to stated UN goals. I write you to speak about the very character of the man.

It took me years to get over Mr. Bolton's actions in that Moscow hotel in 1994, his intensely personal attacks and his shocking attempts to malign my character.

I urge you from the bottom of my heart to use your ability to block Mr. Bolton's nomination in committee.

Respectfully yours,

Melody Townsel
Dallas, TX 75208

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Another letter addressed to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Bolton was from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Natural Resources Defense Council:

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Union of Concerned Scientists
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Natural Resources Defense Council

April 13, 2005
TO:
The Hon. Richard G. Lunar
Chairman
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
450 Direness Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Hon. Joseph R. Bidden
Ranking Member
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
439 Direness Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Lugar and Senator Biden,

On behalf of our over one million combined members, we are writing to urge you to reject the nomination of John R. Bolton to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations (UN). We have been working for several decades to protect Americans from global environmental decline, nuclear war, weapons of mass destruction, and threats to human health. Under Secretary Bolton’s nomination for this post is inappropriate, and his confirmation would seriously jeopardize our progress in each of these areas.

Throughout his career in the Departments of Justice and State and in his personal writings, Mr. Bolton has repeatedly belittled international institutions and undermined international cooperation while adopting a go-it-alone attitude towards foreign policy. Specifically, Mr. Bolton has attacked the Law of the Sea Convention, the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT); successfully campaigned for the U.S. withdrawal from the treaty limiting missile defenses (ABM Treaty); and crafted the U.S. withdrawal from the joint efforts of 40 countries to devise a verification system for the Biological Weapons Convention.

Mr. Bolton’s contempt for the United Nations and isolationist foreign policy attitude were clear when he said: “There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that can occasionally be led by the only real power in the world and that is the United States when it suits our interest and we can get others to go along.” Yet despite his tough rhetoric regarding U.S. interests, in his current job as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Mr. Bolton has utterly failed to devise and implement strategies to diminish the two most serious proliferation threats facing the U.S. and the world today, in Iran and North Korea.

We are at a time when the United States urgently needs to work with other nations to address not only arms proliferation, but also climate change, ocean resource management, and other pressing global environmental challenges. Recent scientific studies, such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, indicate that we are putting extraordinary pressures on the Earth’s natural systems and may be undermining their ability to support future generations.

We need someone at the UN who recognizes that more — rather than less — international cooperation is needed to protect the global environment and human health. Failure to act represents a serious security issue as depleted resources and global pollution can contribute to social and political instability, population migration, even violent conflict, and can jeopardize delicate relationships between nations.

We urge you to vote against the Bolton nomination and assure that the United States is instead represented in the United Nations by someone who understands the importance of international cooperation to protect our own security, public health, and the environment.

Sincerely,

Frances G. Beinecke
Executive Director
Natural Resources Defense Council

Robert K. Musil, Ph.D., M.P.H.
CEO and Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility

Kevin Knobloch
President
Union of Concerned Scientists

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Another letter was signed by 67 former U.S. diplomats, State Department officials or officials of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. 50 of these 67 served under Republican administrations (28 served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, 22 in only Republican administrations), and 17 in only Democratic administrations. The letter was written and circulated by Ambassador Jonathan Dean.

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April 7, 2005
TO:
The Honorable Richard G. Lugar
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
450 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225

CC:
The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Senator Lugar,

We have noted with appreciation the moves of President Bush at the beginning of his second term to improve U.S. relations with the countries of the European Union and of the United Nations. Maintaining these ties and the willingness of those countries to cooperate with the United States is essential to U.S. security.

It is for this reason that we write you to express our concern over the nomination of John R. Bolton to be permanent representative of the United States at the United Nations. We urge you to reject that nomination.

By virtue of service in the State Department, USAID and Justice Departments, John Bolton has the professional background needed for this position. But his past activities and statements indicate conclusively that he is the wrong man for this position at a time when the UN is entering a critically important phase of modernization, seeking to promote economic development and democratic reforms and searching for ways to cope better with proliferation crises and a spurt of natural disasters and internal conflicts.

John Bolton has an exceptional record of opposition to efforts to enhance U.S. security through arms control. He led a campaign against ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. Today, the administration is pressing for development of new types of nuclear weapons. John Bolton blocked more extensive international agreement to limit sales of small arms, the main killer in internal wars. He led the fight to continue U.S. refusal to participate in the Ottawa Landmine Treaty. Today, the U.S. has joined Russia and China in insisting on the right to continue to deploy anti-personnel landmines. John Bolton crafted the U.S. withdrawal from the joint efforts of 40 countries to formulate a verification system for the Biological Weapons Convention and blocked continuation of these efforts in a period of increasing concern over potential terrorist use of these weapons and of terrorist access to the stocks of countries covertly producing these weapons. John Bolton’s unsubstantiated claims that Cuba and Syria are working on biological weapons further discredited the effect of U.S. warnings and U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.

John Bolton led the successful campaign for U.S. withdrawal from the treaty limiting missile defenses (ABM Treaty). The effects of this action included elimination of the sole treaty barrier to the weaponization of space. In the face of decades of votes in the UN General Assembly calling for negotiation of a treaty to block deployment of weapons in space, he has blocked negotiation in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament of a treaty on this subject. The administration has repeatedly proposed programs calling for weapon deployment in space.

As chief negotiator of the 2002 Moscow Treaty on withdrawing U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons from field deployment, John Bolton structured a treaty without its own verification regime, without required progress reports from both sides, without the requirement to destroy warheads withdrawn from deployment, and without provision for negotiating continued reductions. Under his guidance, the State Department repudiated important consensus agreements reached in the year 2000 Review Conference of the Non-proliferation Treaty and has even blocked the formulation of an agenda for the next review conference to be held in May 2005.

Under John Bolton as Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, the State Department has continued to fail to resolve the impasse with Russia about the legal liability of U.S. personnel working with Russia on the security of the huge arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of the former Soviet Union and has failed to accelerate measures aimed at the safety and security of this huge arsenal from theft, illegal sale and terrorist access.

John Bolton’s insistence that the UN is valuable only when it directly serves the United States, and that the most effective Security Council would be one where the U.S. is the only permanent member, will not help him to negotiate with representatives of the remaining 96% of humanity at a time when the UN is actively considering enlargement of the Security Council and steps to deal more effectively with failed states and to enhance the UN’s peacekeeping capability.

John Bolton’s work as a paid researcher for Taiwan, his idea that the U.S. should treat Taiwan as a sovereign state, and that it is fantasy to believe that China might respond with armed force to the secession of Taiwan do not attest to the balanced judgment of a possible U.S. permanent representative on the Security Council. China is emerging as a major world power and the Taiwan issue is becoming more acute.

At a time when the UN is struggling to get an adequate grip on the genocidal killing in Darfur, Sudan, Mr. Bolton’s skepticism about UN peacekeeping, about paying the UN dues that fund peacekeeping, and his leadership of the opposition to the International Criminal Court, originally proposed by the U.S. itself in order to prosecute human rights offenders, will all make it difficult for the U.S. to play an effective leadership role at a time when the UN itself and many member states are moving to improve UN capacity to deal with international problems.

Given these past actions and statements, John R. Bolton cannot be an effective promoter of the U.S. national interest at the UN. We urge you to oppose his nomination.

Sincerely,

The Hon. Terrell E. Arnold
Former Deputy Director, Office of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State (Reagan)
Former U.S. Consul General, Sao Paulo, Brazil (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Harry G. Barnes, Jr.
Former U.S. ambassador to Romania, Chile, and India (Nixon, Ford, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Robert L. Barry
Former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria and Indonesia (Reagan, Clinton)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Carter)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Carter)

Ambassador Josiah H. Beeman
Former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Western Samoa (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Maurice M. Bernbaum
Former U.S. ambassador to Ecuador and Venezuela (Eisenhower, Johnson)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard J. Bloomfield
Former U.S. ambassador to Ecuador and Portugal (Ford, Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Peter Bridges
Former U.S. ambassador to Somalia (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Edward Brynn
Former U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ghana (G.H.W. Bush, Clinton)
Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of African Affairs (Clinton)

Ambassador George Bunn
Former member of U.S. delegation to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) negotiations (Johnson)
Former U.S. ambassador to the Geneva Disarmament Conference (UN) (Johnson)

Ambassador (ret.) Patricia M. Byrne
Former Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN Security Council (Reagan)
Former U.S. ambassador to Mali and Burma (Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) James Cheek
Former U.S. ambassador to Sudan and Argentina (G.H.W. Bush, Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Carleton S. Coon
Former U.S. ambassador to Nepal (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Jane Coon
Former U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) John H. Crimmins
Former U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic and Brazil (Johnson, Nixon, Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard T. Davies
Former U.S. ambassador to Poland (Nixon, Ford, Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Jonathan Dean
Former U.S. representative to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks, Vienna (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Willard A. DePree
Former U.S. ambassador to Mozambique and Bangladesh (Ford, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush)

Ambassador (ret.) Robert S. Dillon
Former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon (Reagan)
Former Deputy Commissioner General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Donald B. Easum
Former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) (Nixon, Ford)
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (Nixon, Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) James Bruce Engle
Former U.S. ambassador to Dahomey (Nixon, Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard K. Fox
Former U.S. ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Holsey Gates Handyside
Former U.S. ambassador to Mauritania (Ford, Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) William C. Harrop
Former ambassador to Israel, Kenya, and Zaire (Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton)
Former Inspector General, U.S. Department of State (Nixon)

Ambassador (ret.) Samuel F. Hart
Former U.S. ambassador to Ecuador (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Arthur A. Hartman
Former U.S. ambassador to France and the Soviet Union (Carter, Reagan)
Former Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Nixon)

Ambassador Ulric Haynes, Jr.
Former U.S. ambassador to Algeria (Carter)

Ambassador Gerald B. Helman
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Geneva (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Robert T. Hennemeyer
Former U.S. ambassador to Gambia (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) John L. Hirsch
Former U.S. ambassador to Sierra Leone (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Lewis Hoffacker
Former U.S. ambassador to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea (Nixon)

Ambassador (ret.) H. Allen Holmes
Former U.S. ambassador to Portugal (Reagan)
Former Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs (Reagan)
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Robert V. Keeley
Former U.S. Ambassador to Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and Greece (Ford, Carter, Reagan)
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (Carter)

Spurgeon M. Keeny, Jr.
Former Deputy Director, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency(ACDA) (Carter)

Ambassador Henry L. Kimelman
Former U.S. ambassador to Haiti (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Roger Kirk
Former U.S. ambassador to Somalia and Romania (Nixon, Ford, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Dennis H. Kux
Former U.S. ambassador to Ivory Coast (Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) James F. Leonard
Former Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Ford, Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Samuel W. Lewis
Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Ford)
Former Director of Policy Planning, State Department (Clinton)
Former ambassador to Israel (Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Princeton N. Lyman
Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Clinton)
Director, Bureau of Refugee Programs, U.S. Department of State (G.H.W. Bush)
Former U.S. ambassador to South Africa and Nigeria (Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard Cavins Matheron
Former U.S. ambassador to Swaziland (Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Charles E. Marthinsen
Former U.S. ambassador to Qatar (Carter, Reagan)

Jack Mendelsohn
Deputy Assistant Director of the Strategic Programs Bureau, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA) (Reagan)
Senior ACDA representative on U.S. START delegation (Reagan)

Ambassador Carol Moseley-Braun
Former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Donald R. Norland
Former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland, and Chad (Johnson, Ford, Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) David Passage
Former U.S. ambassador to Botswana (G.H.W. Bush)

Ambassador (ret.) Edward L. Peck
Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Mauritania (Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Jack R. Perry
Former U.S. ambassador to Bulgaria (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Christopher H. Phillips
Former Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the UN (Nixon)
Former U.S. ambassador to Brunei (G.H.W. Bush)

Ambassador Stanley R. Resor
Former Secretary of the Army (Johnson, Nixon)
Former U.S. representative to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction Talks, Vienna (Nixon, Ford, Carter)

Ambassador Nicholas A. Rey
Former U.S. ambassador to Poland (Clinton)

John B. Rhinelander
Deputy Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State (Nixon)
Legal adviser to the U.S. Strategic Arms Limitation Delegation (SALT I) (Nixon)

Ambassador (ret.) Stuart W. Rockwell
Former U.S. ambassador to Morocco (Nixon)

Ambassador James R. Sasser
Former U.S. ambassador to the People’s Republic of China (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Talcott W. Seelye
Former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia and Syria (Nixon, Ford, Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Carl Spielvogel
Former U.S. ambassador to the Slovak Republic (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Monteagle Stearns
Former U.S. ambassador to Greece and Ivory Coast (Ford, Carter, Reagan)
Former Vice President, National Defense University (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Andrew L. Steigman
Former Ambassador to Gabon, Sao Tome and Principe (Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) John Todd Stewart
Former U.S. ambassador to Moldova (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard W. Teare
Former U.S. ambassador to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu (Clinton)

Ambassador (ret.) Harry E.T. Thayer
Former U.S. ambassador to Singapore (Carter, Reagan)

The Hon. Hans N. Tuch
Career Minister, U.S. Foreign Service, USIA

Ambassador (ret.) Theresa A. Tull
Former U.S. ambassador to Guyana and Brunei (Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton)

Ambassador William J. vanden Heuvel
Former Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (Carter)
Former U.S. representative to the United Nations, Geneva (Carter)

Ambassador (ret.) Christopher van Hollen
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Nixon)
Former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka (Nixon, Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) Richard N. Viets
Former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and Jordan (Carter, Reagan)

Ambassador (ret.) Robert E. White
Former U.S. ambassador to Paraguay and El Salvador (Carter)
Former Deputy U.S. Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (Ford)

Ambassador (ret.) James M. Wilson, Jr.
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, East Asia and Pacific Affairs (Nixon)
Coordinator for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Department of State (Ford)

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Is it not clear from the above that the only reason to appoint a man who does not believe that the UN exists is to gut this International Organisation - the stated goal of Condoleeza Rice?