Bolton Accused of Physically Harassing Whistleblower
A letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from one of Mr. Bolton's former co-workers:
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 or 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).
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.
More about 'serial abuser' Bolton here and here.
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 or 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).
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.
More about 'serial abuser' Bolton here and here.
posted by Management at 1:55 AM
3 Comments:
Horrifying, Personal John Bolton Story
By Melody Townsel
Dailykos.com
Friday 15 April 2005
Melody Townsel was stationed in Kyrgyzstan on a US AID project. During her stay there, she became embroiled in a controversy in which John Bolton was a key player. She described the incident in a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee members who are reviewing the Bolton nomination.
Here's the entire text of her letter:
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 or 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 appoinment 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
Bush Nominee Bolton Accused of Being "Serial Abuser"
The Associated Press
Tuesday 12 April 2005
Bolton accused of abusing analysts at State Dept. Critic calls UN nominee 'kiss-up, kick-down' guy.
Washington - A former chief of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research castigated John Bolton on Tuesday as a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" who abused analysts who disagreed with his views of Cuba's weapons capabilities.
With Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Democratic attack, Carl Ford Jr. appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support accusations of harassment.
"I have never seen anyone quite like Mr. Bolton," Ford testified under oath. "He abuses his authority with little people."
'Serial Abuser'
Contradicting Bolton's assertion Monday that he never tried to have officials who disagreed with him discharged, Ford charged that Bolton was a "serial abuser" who tried to sack one analyst, Christian Westermann.
Sen. Joseph F. Biden, Jr., D-Del., who is leading the fight to block the nomination, responded angrily to the accusation of mistreatment. Anytime a senior official calls in a lower-level one "and reams him a new one," he said, "that's just not acceptable."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., said it was not an isolated incident, that Bolton had harassed at least three officials who disagreed with the extent of threats he saw posed by Cuba and other countries.
Calling Bolton a "bully," Boxer said, "I think Mr. Bolton needs anger management at a minimum and he does not deserve to be promoted" to the U.N. post.
But Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican from Rhode Island whose vote could be critical, noted calmly that analysts criticized by Bolton had "kept their jobs." Chafee has already described himself as inclined to support confirmation.
Testimony Discounted
And. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., noted that Ford had not witnessed the incident he testified about, saying that much of his testimony would not be admissable in a court of law.
Ford told the committee he considered himself a loyal Republican, a conservative and a strong supporter of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Ford said he appeared before the committee only after a lot of "soul-searching."
On Monday, Bolton - in his one day of scheduled testimony - rigorously rejected assertions that he tried to fire subordinates who disagreed with him.
"I didn't seek to have these people fired. I didn't seek to have them discharged. I said I lost my trust in them," Bolton testified.
Bolton also assured the committee that he supports international law and views the United Nations as "an important component of our diplomacy." The 56-year-old State Department chief of arms control is a hard-liner with a skeptical view of some U.S. arms control treaties and a frequent critic of the value of the United Nations.
Also on Monday, committee Democrats met behind closed doors were interviewing Neil Silver, a senior department intelligence official, and a CIA agent whose identify the senators sought to conceal.
Democrats also took aim at Bolton's strident criticism of the U.N., which they said made him ill-suited for the U.N. post.
'Nothing but Disdain'
"You have nothing but disdain for the U.N.," Boxer said. "You can dance around it. You can run away from it. You can put perfume on it," she said.
However, with Republicans in the committee majority by 10-8 and the Senate itself by 55-44 plus an independent, Bolton could be on a track to confirmation unless damaging new information about him emerges. The chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., hopes to hold a committee vote Thursday and has no plan to recall Bolton for more testimony.
Summing up the view of Republicans amid a relentless Democratic attack, Sen. George Allen of Virginia told the embattled undersecretary of state, "You have the knowledge. ... You will bring a credit to the U.N. that they sorely need."
Senators Challenge Bolton on Contempt for UN
By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Report
Tuesday 12 April 2005
John Bolton refused to come clean at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday, playing down his contempt for the UN and for international law. Bolton, who claimed in 1994, "there is no such thing as the United Nations," pledged to forge a "close partnership" with the UN if confirmed as US Ambassador to the United Nations.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Cal) confronted Bolton with a videotape of a 1994 speech in which he said, caustically, "If the U.N. Secretariat building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." Boxer said, "I see the anger, the hostility. What we saw here was the real John Bolton."
Boxer then observed, "My overall assessment, Mr. Bolton, is that you have nothing but disdain for the United Nations. It's hard for me to know why you'd want to work at an institution that you said didn't even exist."
Bolton, Bush's most controversial nominee among many, explained his statement that the UN "does not exist" with his theory of "the fallacy of false concreteness" - the United Nations does not exist apart from the member states which comprise it. Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill) turned Bolton's characterization back on him, saying it follows that we should not then blame the United Nations for the corruption in the oil-for-food program - the responsibles were member states, not the UN itself. Conservatives have recently used the oil-for-food scandal to discredit the UN.
The major theme that ran throughout the questioning was that Bolton is an ideologue who manipulates intelligence to fit his own analysis, and his acrimonious temperament may pose a threat to our security.
Obama challenged Bolton for his overstatement of Syria's aggressive capabilities, saying, "The CIA had to reign you in." He criticized Bolton's claim that Libya surrendered its weapons of mass destruction program as a result of watching the US get tough with Iraq. Obama contended that diplomacy convinced Libya. Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) pointed out that Bolton may have actually tried to scuttle the diplomatic dialogue between the US and Libya. Bush also shuns diplomacy in favor of bullying less powerful nations.
In North Korea, Iran and Syria "we can't afford to cry wolf," Obama told Bolton. "If we gild the lily and overstate our case," said Obama, it will harm our troops abroad and our national security.
Kerry also zeroed in on whether Bolton might make us less safe, saying, "We've just come off the most massive intelligence failure in history." Kerry maintained it's vital to the security of the American people to know whether Bolton was a party to that failure.
Much of the questioning focused on Bolton's allegation that Cuba had a biological weapons program, and his retaliation against two intelligence experts who challenged his now-discredited view. Bolton insisted his differences with the two were procedural, that they had gone behind his back with their suggested changes to his proposed speech. The Senators successfully established that Bolton really quarreled with the content of the criticism.
Bolton had wanted to say, "The United States believes Cuba has a developmental offensive biological warfare program and is providing assistance to other to rogue state programs." After it was vetted by numerous intelligence agencies, the language was softened to say, "Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states." Cuba, which has an advanced biomedical program, adamantly denies it has ever had a biological weapons program of any sort. And ironically, two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bolton vehemently opposed the Protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention that would have required member states, including the US, to submit to inspections of their biological weapons.
Bolton denied trying to have the two men who disagreed with him fired. Members of the Senate committee, however, spoke with seven intelligence officials who contradicted Bolton's assertion. One said Bolton had dismissed the opinion of Christian Westermann, the chief bioweapons analyst at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, as "a midlevel INR munchkin analyst." Boxer noted that this "midlevel munchkin" was a war hero who served in the US military for 23 years.
The toughest questions didn't come just from the Democrats on the committee. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska, referring to Iraq, asked Bolton, "How could the UN weapons inspectors be so right and us so wrong?... How could the UN inspectors be right and how did we miss it?" To bolster the case for war with Iraq, Bolton pushed for Bush to include in his State of the Union address the false statement about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger, over the opposition of the State Department.
When Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis) asked Bolton whether the United States made a mistake by failing to stop the genocide in Rwanda 11 years ago, Bolton had no substantive response. "We don't know if it was logistically possible to do anything different," Bolton replied. "Your answer is amazingly passive," Feingold told Bolton.
Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del), the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he had "grave concern" about Bolton as UN ambassador. "We need a strong voice in New York who knows the UN and who can advance our reform agenda," Biden asserted. "And I fear that knowing your reputation - and your reputation is known well at the UN - people will be inclined to tune you out." Biden was concerned that sending Bolton to New York would be "like sending a bull into a China shop."
Even if all 8 Democrats on the committee vote against the Bolton nomination, it could go to the full Senate unless at least one Republican joins them. Senator Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican from Rhode Island, who faces reelection next year, has received tremendous pressure from his heavily Democratic constituency, "overwhelmingly" opposed to Bolton's nomination. Although Chafee charged that Bolton's sharp comments about North Korean president Kim Jong Ill "seem to be impeding our progress" in the talks over Pyongyang's nuclear program, the Senator said he was leaning toward voting for Bolton anyway.
Yesterday's hearing was interrupted by protestors from Code Pink, a women's peace group, who carried signs saying "No Bolton - Yes UN" and "Bolton = Proliferation." They were escorted out of the hearing room.
The hearing continues today with the testimony of other witnesses, including some of the intelligence officials who dispute Bolton's report of his handling of the Cuba intelligence matter.
Post a Comment
<< Home