The Conservative Voice whose columnists include A.M. Siriano, Pat Buchanan, Michelle Malkin and Ollie North, has reposted Jude Wanniski‘s open letter to Lugar, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee which convenes Wednesday to vote on Bolton’s nomination as U.N. envoy:

Memo To: Richard Lugar, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations

From: Jude Wanniski

Re: An Anti-Diplomat at the U.N.?


Dear Senator, you’ve known me for more than 30 years, from your days as Mayor of Indianapolis and my days as associate editor of The Wall Street Journal. When I tell you John Bolton is a true force of darkness, you can be sure I do not do so lightly. “Darkness” in this sense is the absence of light and Bolton is a protégé of Richard Perle, who has been known for decades in Washington as “The Prince of Darkness.” … more below …

Wanniski goes on:

[John Bolton and Richard Perle] are both masters of misinformation, believing that their “just cause” gives them the right, even the responsibility, to make the facts and intelligence fit their personal political objectives. They’re patriots [b]ut it is not in their nature to be straight, and both men will always advise the use of force rather than bother with diplomacy. They loath and despise the United Nations. When President Bush asked John Bolton if he has respect for the U.N., Bolton said he did, but remember he is a force of darkness and will always say what he believes will advance his personal goals.


I’ve been watching Bolton from a distance from the earliest days of the administration, knowing of his associations with Perle and the neo-cons at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which I have long characterized as the HQ of what President Eisenhower called “the military-industrial complex.” Here are just a few samples selected from my commentaries in the last several months of 2003, a period when the neo-cons believed they had Iraq under control and were eager to tackle the other members of the “Axis of Evil,” Iran and North Korea.


* * * * *

Judith Miller, Warhawk Reporter July 23, 2003


Here note my comments on Judith Miller of the NYTimes, who we now know helped promote the disinformation spread by Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. Miller co-authored a book with Laurie Mylroie, a scholar at AEI who later wrote “The War Against America: Saddam Hussein and the World Trade Center Attacks.” The book, now totally discredited, posited fictitious accounts of Saddam being behind 9-11. In my memo, I quote Paul Sperry of WorldNetDaily.com, who reported back then that the CIA would not back that assertion in an October 2002 report to the President: “Mylroie lists Clare Wolfowitz, wife of the No. 2 Pentagon official, among her friends in her book’s Acknowledgments. She also gives a nod to John Bolton, one of the State Department’s biggest Iraq hawks, and Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, whose wife also is an AEI scholar.”


* * * * *

Moscow Rejects U.S. Plea on Iran August 27, 2003


In this memo a month later I referred to an article in the Teheran Times, but the heart of the comment was a long quote from Dr. Gordon Prather, the chief army scientist in the Reagan years, regarding Bolton:


[John Bolton, the State Department warhawk, is probably the un-named western diplomat who claims the IAEA’s recent report on Iranian uranium enrichment proves Iran is seeking a nuke capability. Says Gordon Prather, who forwarded me this piece, “Up until now, Bolton et al have been claiming that the Iranians intend to produce weapons-grade plutonium in the Bushehr light-water power plants. The Iranians no doubt would like to acquire nukes, observing what has happened to Iraq. But the notion that Iran could produce weapons-grade Pu in Bushehr under the noses of the Russians and the IAEA is ridiculous. By continuing to insist that they could and would, Bolton has lost all credibility, and his usefulness in Vienna — the home of the IAEA-NPT-NSG regime — is at an end. He should resign. Or fall on his sword.” JW]


Wait. Wanniski is just getting started.


There’s his note to Colin Powell about “John Bolton, who clearly works for the Defense Policy Board, not you.”


Then there’s his memo on “The Intelligence Stovepipe to the Oval Office” October 20, 2003:

Do you remember Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article about how cooked-up intelligence was being “stovepiped” to President Bush, going around the intelligence community. John Bolton was of course one of the chief stove-pipers. Here is Hersh:

A few months after George Bush took office, Greg Thielmann, an expert on disarmament with the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, or INR, was assigned to be the daily intelligence liaison to John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control, who is a prominent conservative. Thielmann understood that his posting had been mandated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought that every important State Department bureau should be assigned a daily intelligence officer. “Bolton was the guy with whom I had to do business,” Thielmann said. “We were going to provide him with all the information he was entitled to see. That’s what being a professional intelligence officer is all about.” But, Thielmann told me, “Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear.” Thielmann soon found himself shut out of Bolton’s early-morning staff meetings. “I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ‘The Under-Secretary doesn’t need you to attend this meeting anymore.’” When Thielmann protested that he was there to provide intelligence input, the aide said, “The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family.”


There’s more:

  • “Bush the Horse, Cheney the Rider” Oct. 23, 2003 (Cheney got Bolton a “top State Department arms position” to run counter to Powell.)


  • “A Little Joke We Played on Pyongyang” Nov. 6, 2003 (“Bolton was working both Iran and North Korea, stove-piping around Colin Powell, who was just in his way.”)


  • “Those Bad, Bad Iranians (and North Koreans)” Nov. 12, 2003 (Bolton spread misinformation “about Iran violating the Non-Prolliferation Treaty.”)


  • To Lead, U.S. Must Avoid Paranoia Nov.17, 2003 (“The concentration of paranoia is at the State Department desk of John Bolton, the Perle/Wolfowitz ally, who now seems totally devoted to provoking U.S. military action against Iran, North Korea, and other countries suspected of thinking about nukes.”)


Wanniski concludes:

I’ve written much, much more about Bolton, Senator Lugar, and would be happy to supply you with that material and other observations about his behavior that I’ve not published. I know the President wants you to come through for him and bring Bolton through as our United Nations Ambassador. But do the President a real favor and allow the nomination to fail. Bolton can always get a job at AEI.


Note: Although each section of Wanniski’s memo is not linked properly at American Conservative, all appear to be found in original form at Wanniski.com.


Wanniski’s bio at townhall.com:

As an associate editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1972 to 1978, Jude Wanniski repopularized the classical theories of supply-side economics. His book, The Way The World Works, became a foundation of the global economic transformation launched by the Reagan Administration.


Mr. Wanniski founded Polyconomics in 1978 to interpret the impact of political events on financial markets, keeping institutional investors informed on U.S. and world events that bear on their decisions. His network of long-standing relationships with members of the Executive and Congressional branches, the Federal Reserve Board and leading opinion makers augments Polyconomics` analysis. Mr. Wanniski, and Polyconomics, Inc., have achieved recognition worldwide for the efficacy of the supply-side political-economic model.


Mr. Wanniski holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.S. in Journalism from the University of California, Los Angeles.