Bolton Withheld Intel from Powell & Rice

Bolton Often Blocked Information, Officials Say

Iran, IAEA Matters Were Allegedly Kept From Rice, Powell

By Dafna Linzer, April 18, 2005; Page A04

John R. Bolton … seeking confirmation as the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — often blocked then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and, on one occasion, his successor, Condoleezza Rice, from receiving information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran, according to current and former officials who worked with Bolton.

As the committee vote scheduled for Tuesday nears, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said he remained concerned about a series of accusations questioning Bolton’s temperament and wondered whether he was the right man for the job.

“We need a uniter,” Hagel said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “We need a builder. We need someone who will reach out to our friends and our allies at the United Nations.”

And the Nebraska senator hedged when asked whether he would vote for Bolton. “At this point, I will,” he said. “But I have been troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation.”

Hagel is second in seniority among the 10 Republicans on the committee. With eight Democrats on the panel, a vote by Hagel against Bolton could tip the result into a tie — an event that would send the matter to the full Senate without a recommendation.

The officials, who would discuss the incidents only on the condition of anonymity because some continue to deal with Bolton on other issues, cited a dozen examples of memos or information that Bolton refused to forward during his four years as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

Two officials described a memo that had been prepared for Powell at the end of October 2003, ahead of a critical international meeting on Iran, informing him that the United States was losing support for efforts to have the U.N. Security Council investigate Iran’s nuclear program. Bolton allegedly argued that it would be premature to throw in the towel. “When Armitage’s staff asked for information about what other countries were thinking, Bolton said that information couldn’t be collected,” according to one official with firsthand knowledge of the exchange.

But career officials said they often felt that his decisions, and policy views, left the department’s top diplomat uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency.

Bolton’s time at the State Department under Rice has been brief. But authoritative officials said Bolton let her go on her first European trip without knowing about the growing opposition there to Bolton’s campaign to oust the head of the U.N. nuclear agency. “She went off without knowing the details of what everybody else was saying about how they were not going to join the campaign,” according to a senior official. Bolton has been trying to replace Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who is perceived by some within the Bush administration as too soft on Iran.

Publicly, Rice has staunchly defended Bolton’s credentials and urged the Senate to quickly confirm him. But privately, officials said, she has kept him out of key discussions on Iran since taking over in January.

A vote is scheduled for tomorrow, and Republicans on the committee indicated yesterday that they will support him. But they also expressed deep concern over the charges against Bolton in recent weeks.

Testimony last Tuesday by former State Department intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. had left several of them shaken after he described Bolton as a “serial abuser” who picked on junior officers who dared to challenge him. Chafee had said that Ford’s testimony was strong but that it did not show a pattern.

But, yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said the allegations were beginning to pile up.

“If there’s nothing more that comes out, I will vote for Bolton,” Hagel told CNN’s “Late Edition.”