Steve Clemons, of the Washington Note, is running down some dirt on John Bolton. Apparently these allegations are serious enough to have some GOP bigwigs worried about Bolton’s confirmation.
Here’s the story. In the run-up to the 1994 elections, Haley Barbour formed an outfit called the National Policy Forum (NPF), a nonprofit policy and research institute. Barbour was the head of the RNC at the time, and he took the reins of the NPF as well.
As was widely reported at the time, the NPF was partially endowed via a loan Barbour solicited with the help of a Hong Kong businessman and Taiwanese citizen named Ambrous Tung Young. The value of the loan, from a lending institution to the NPF, was $2.1 million; Young put up the collateral in the form of certificates of deposit.
The NPF had owed the RNC $1.6 million; so, once the NPF had secured its loan, it paid back the RNC the $1.6 million it owed. This sounds all well and good — except for the fact that the NPF repaid the loan in October 1994, which, handily enough, gave the Republican Party that much more money to spend on its congressional candidates in elections just a couple of weeks away. Republicans gained 54 seats in the House of Representatives that election, and while no one’s arguing that they made those gains only because of this late cash infusion, it clearly couldn’t have hurt. There were additional allegations that the NPF was engaging in activities that were more directly political than the group’s charter would have allowed.
The story gets dirtier — and brings us to what is, for current purposes, the punch line. By 1996, the NPF had defaulted on the loan. In April of that year, the NPF sought to extend the loan’s maturity date and revise its terms. That having apparently failed, the NPF took a far more dramatic step in May, according to a June 8, 1997, article by Dan Morgan in The Washington Post. The NPF’s then-new president authorized the holder of the note, Signet Bank, to start taking its payments directly out of the certificates of deposit put up by Young as collateral — without Young’s knowledge, by all accounts.
That NPF president? John Bolton. –Steve Clemons:read it all
The National Policy Forum of which John Bolton was President was stripped of its non-profit 501c3 status. Foreign money, mega-conference fundraisers, inappropriate political activity, possibly laundering foreign funds into political activities. John Bolton was an architect of this insidious mess.
Many conservatives have genuine concerns about the management of the United Nation’s after the “Oil-for-Food” scandal, even though it’s clear that the U.S. delegation to the U.N. knew what was going on.
But Bolton is a guy whose own past management experience and the blurring of legal lines in his own organization sounds a lot like what Bernie Ebbers would have looked for in his team at WorldCom or Ken Lay at Enron. –Steve Clemons:read it all
What is it with the Bush administration and its horrible vetting process?
Some other Bolton resources:
Iraqi “Intellectual Capacity” Justified War
“The most fundamental, most important thing that was not destroyed [by international weapons inspectors] was the intellectual capacity in Iraq to recreate systems of weapons of mass destruction.”
link
Since Bolton’s statement and the invasion of Iraq, implemtation of US policies in its various “interrogation facilities,” not to mention impact on availability of food, water and medicine going back through 12 years of sanctions will no doubt made great strides in addressing this problem.
IN the middle of the night when I was sneezing instead of sleeping, I watched some CIA intel experts on CSPAN. Pretty darn interesting. They talked about how damn difficult it is to make great predictions.. even when they consulted outside experts (beyond their own), it turned out often that ALL the experts were wrong … and that makes sense.
But vetting a man? My god in heaven. How hard could that be? Ask Alberto Gonzales. He sure vetted Bernie Kerik. Seriously, it’s not that hard, especially in this day. But someone needs to be ON the job, and I don’t think any of these people work very hard. They’re too busy posturing and plotting.
Of course he vets his picks, in his own special way and that is to pick men or women who will do his dirty deeds, be loyal to him and will stick it in the face of the US oppostion and the world at large. That is so obvious.
However I have a new theory on his choices such as Rice. Maybe, just maybe, she found herself in a situation where she is working for a ____man, fill in your own words and is pretty much stuck there, with the loyalty thing and all. Maybe, just maybe, she will help to send Bush in the right direction, whereas someone not in his inner circle has no chance of getting his ear. She would have had to keep silent about many things and take the fall for others or you know what happens to the dissenters.
Keep in mind that I was against her nomination for the misleading and torture issues, but hopefully she will be able to talk some sense to him.
This may be wishful thinking, but one can hope, right????Let us pray!!
They just pick a crony and expect the media not to report on any priors or flaws. One would think that after Kerik they would put some effort into picks that won’t embarrass them. But, hey, that’s arrogance for ya.
Back in my business reporting days, I interviewed executives at successful companies about what they look for in hiring key personnel. They had a range of responses, but the successful businesses searched hard for talent rather than just those with connections. They hired people that challenged or probed or brought successful ideas at competitors.
Bush never ran a successful business. Ever. He doesn’t know how to hire.
Exactly! Not only would Bush not be able to run a successful business, or country, but if he were heading a real business any self-respecting board of directors would by now have fired his obnoxious ass.
But we all know he didn’t get into or through HBS on his merits.
If Bolton and Wolfowitz are being kicked upstairs for foreign policy failures, which is Greg Palast’s hypothesis as reported on the BBC, and their nominations are being questioned seriously, I can only hope that both of them are denied these sinecures and wind up as additions to the unemployment statistics.
Didn’t know you were another ink-stained wretch, Carnacki. Great minds, etc., . . .
22 years. Cut me I bleed black ink.
Can you read backwards and upside down?
Not only does he not know how to run a successful business or country, his idea of being a “rancher” involves cutting brush at every opportunity.
Seems like destroying things is the only success GWB has ever known.
always run together. There is a vetting process – they are hiring people just like themselves — morally corrupt crooks and cheats.