WASHINGTON, April 11: Democrats seeking to block President George Bush’s hawkish choice for US ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday accused the nominee, John Bolton, of trying to intimidate intelligence analysts whose views differed from his own. Citing “very credible” information to be presented this week to a Senate hearing on Mr Bolton’s nomination, Democratic Senators Chris Dodd and Joseph Biden alleged that Mr Bolton attempted to have two intelligence analysts dismissed from their jobs because their analyses on Cuba contradicted his own position.
“If in fact he tried to have people dismissed because he did not like the analysis, then I don’t think he’s qualified to serve,” Senator Dodd said on ABC television’s “This Week”.
While the minority Democrats have admitted they have little chance of blocking Mr Bolton’s nomination, they hope to damage the standing of the self-confessed critic of the United Nations.
Analysts say Mr Bush is signalling his determination to push his administration’s conservative policies by sending Mr Bolton to the United Nations and Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.
Mr Bolton was a strong advocate of unilateral military action in Iraq, and is highly critical of North Korea and other hardline governments. He has also repeatedly complained about the United States contributing money to the United Nations.
“He is a tough-minded diplomat. He has a strong record of success and he has a proven track record of effective multilateralism,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when the Bush administration first proposed Mr Bolton.
Democrats doubt Mr Bolton’s record, however. “It’s the exact wrong person to be sending at the exact wrong time,” Senator Biden, a leading Democrat, said earlier this week.
The government would be sending Mr Bolton “to an institution he doesn’t support, he thinks has no valuable mission, and has been one that has been his punching bag for the past 20 years,” Senator Biden said.
Warning that Mr Bolton’s appointment risked jeopardizing US efforts to garner European support over Iraq, Senator Biden said he hoped the nomination could be “derailed”, but he was not optimistic.
Democrats also reproach Mr Bolton for systematically giving biased intelligence information on Iraqi armament, congressional sources said, and are expected to closely question him on it during his nomination hearing.—AFP
