Bolton Secrets Spilled? - Newsweek

[Internut]

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/05-29-2005/0003734580&EDATE=

Bolton told Congress last month that he asked the NSA for the names of Americans in raw intel reports. NSA rules prohibit the agency from spying on Americans; if electronic eavesdroppers inadvertently pick up American names, the NSA is supposed to black them out before forwarding reports to other agencies. But analysts and policymakers can make written requests to the NSA for U.S. names, which the State Department says Bolton did 10 times since 2001.


The Senate Foreign Relations Committee asked for more information about Bolton's requests, but the administration refused, leading to last week's vote to delay Bolton's nomination. Meanwhile, the Senate intelligence committee's chairman, Pat Roberts, and its top Democrat, Jay Rockefeller, got a closed- door briefing on Bolton's NSA dealings from the deputy intel czar, Gen. Michael Hayden. The senators agreed Bolton's initial NSA requests for U.S. names were legit. But the normally collegial Roberts and Rockefeller couldn't agree on whether Bolton handled the names appropriately once he received them.

In dueling letters made public, the senators aired their differences. Senator Roberts argued that Democrats called unnecessary attention to intel "sources and methods" by raising Bolton's NSA dealings publicly. Rockefeller complained that Bolton sought out a State Department official whose name was supplied by the NSA "to congratulate him" -- for unspecified reasons -- which Rockefeller said was "not in keeping" with Bolton's request for the uncensored NSA report. Roberts said this charge was ill founded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can someone explain to me what is so horribly incriminating here? Seems trivial.

[Carolab]

1. Abuse of power. n/t

[wookie294]

2. If it's ''trivial'', why won't Bush release the requested info ?

eom

[AuntiBush]

13. Exactly!

[radfringe]

21. trivial or not

when the bushies refuse to disclose it smells like a cover-up and makes people wonder just what is really hiding in the bushes?

[lonestarnot]

34. Me thinks that DU is being invaded tonight.

[napi21]

3. Only thing I see is NSA getting names that should have been blacked out

and weren't when the info was given to Bolton. Aparently, the confirmation is that Bolton should never have had access to the name of the State Dept official he sought out.

[MADem]

25. Wonder why Powell was on the phone saying "do NOT confirm?" n/t

[Melynn]

39. I wonder why Senator Voinovich broke up on the Senate floor

Powell and Voinovich don't normally act like this. I wonder what they know?

[jmatthan]

4. Incriminating??

As far as I can gather it seems rather strange that a junior malAdministration official can get hold of top secret information which he used for purposes which are not permitted by US law, and elected Senators cannot be trusted with this information!!

That itself is incriminating evidence!!

Suggest you read the Washington Note blog by Steve Clemons

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/

for the full implications of all Bolton issues!! Best resource source on the web.

Here is the bio of Steve Clemons from his web site:

"Steven Clemons is publisher of the popular political blog, TheWashingtonNote.com, and a long-term policy practitioner and entrepreneur in Washington, D.C. He is currently Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, where he was previously Executive Vice President. Clemons currently co-directs the New America Foundation's American Strategy Program with well-known foreign policy thinkers Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind.

Clemons specializes in U.S. foreign policy matters, with significant experience both in Asia-Pacific and transatlantic policy matters, as well as broad international economic and security affairs. Prior to his current position, Steve Clemons served as Executive Vice President of the Economic Strategy Institute. He has also served as Senior Policy Advisor on Economic and International Affairs to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and was the first Executive Director of the Nixon Center and established it in Washington, D.C. Prior to moving to Washington, Clemons served for seven years as Executive Director of the Japan America Society of Southern California and co-founded with Chalmers Johnson the Japan Policy Research Institute, of which he is still Director.

Steve Clemons is a Member of the Board of the Clarke International Policy Center at Dickinson College, a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and founded in 1783. He also writes frequently on matters of foreign policy, defense, and international economic policy. His work has appeared in most of the major leading op-ed pages, journal, and magazines around the world."

Jacob Matthan
http://jmpolitics.blogspot.com
Oulu

[Internut]

6. I read the blog that you suggested and

I don't see anything there that explains why these documents are so incriminating. The Newsweek article clearly states that Bolton was entitled to request from the NSA that the names be disclosed, and that both the Republican and the Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee's
leaders after viewing the documents in question agreed that Bolton's requests for names were "legit".

The only bone of contention (at least according to the article) is that Bolton went and congratulated some State Department official whose name was in one of the documents. This is what the whole thing is about?

[still_one]

8. Mr. Bolton's problem is that he is incompentent

He sees no need for the U.N., and this is the jerk we are putting in as ambasador to the U.N. What kind of message is that?

He helped falsify the information that got us into the war in Iraq, and gave all these lies to Powell, who unwittingly presented them

There is enough on bolton why he isn't a good choice, but I have NO doubt that he will be confirmed, and I also have no doubt that we will be in iraq for years until the public finally realizes what a mess these chicken hawk PNACers like bolton, perle, wolfewitz(sic), etc have gotten us into

a lot more American and Iraqii civillians will die before this is all over, and these merchants of death are finally removed

[Internut]

9. Yes, all those things are enough not

to confirm him. What I am wondering about is why are the Democratic Senators concentrating on a seemingly trivial thing (Bolton congratulating some State Dept official whose name he got out of an NSA document) and making it a cornerstone of the opposition to Bolton. Seems to weaken the whole argument.

[still_one]

10. I assume they are trying to show he somehow broke the law

everything we do now is in desperation, that is the problem of being a minority problem. The time to fight was in 2000-2004, and it didn't happen. Look where it got us

[ebayfool]

16. I would venture a guess that it depends on the names & what he was ...

congratulating him for. Since this is only a small (& I'd bet, controlled) release, we have no idea whether they are concentrating on a seemingly trivial thing - it might be bigger than the conclusion you're coming to. If it was 'trivial' - the *ushies wouldn't be so scared to release it to them, imo. I'd sure like to know just what 'name' Bolton thought was worth breaking the law ... just for the way the 'name' was handled! There's more than meets the eye here, I think. You can't say trivial 'till you have ALL the facts, not just a little blurb by the msm.

[Cha]

33. And ..an important one for

me is bolton was down there in Florida in 2000 ..stinking up the air.

[AuntiBush]

12. When Senator Biden Can't even Get these Records

But Bolton's "staff" can, it's big and bad.

Have you any idea what Committe Senator Biden sits on? He's always had access to these type of documents. He spoke of this live on the Senate floor last week and it's played a few times in re-runs on C-Span.

http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100&Page=6

[merwin]

5. Bolton sought the name 'to congratulate him'?

LOL. So that's what you call it?

[PSPS]

7. It says right in the article

NSA rules prohibit the agency from spying on Americans; if electronic eavesdroppers inadvertently pick up American names, the NSA is supposed to black them out before forwarding reports to other agencies.

In other words, Bolton strongarmed the NSA into providing what amounts to domestic surveillance to him, which is against the law. The charter of the NSA as well as federal statutes strictly limit its scope to outside the country.

Bolton sought out a State Department official whose name was supplied by the NSA "to congratulate him" -- for unspecified reasons -- which Rockefeller said was "not in keeping" with Bolton's request for the uncensored NSA report.

That's a smoking gun right there. In the very rare case when the agency does supply such information, the recipient has to agree not to divulge it.

[Carolab]

11. IOW, abuse of power. n/t

[Jane Austin]

17. By "congratulating" the named person, he let him know

he was possibly being surveilled.

[annabanana]

22. I agree.. VERY intimidating

(Which, of course, sounds like what we've heard of Bolton)

[loudsue]

32. Maybe that person outed Plame.

Bolton is slimy enough to have been all over the Plame outing...he can't seem to keep his hands off of classified information, can he?

:kick:

[Internut]

37. Supposedly Sen. Rockefeller,

who is a Democrat, and I presume not a big fan of Republicans in general and Bolton in particular, has seen the papers in question and would know if it was something this incendiary. According to the article, his only complaint was that Bolton's congratulating the State Dept. official was improper. The request by Bolton to see the names was, according to Sen. Rockefeller, "legit".

[wtmusic]

14. This sounds like a screen for dirtier dealings

"You see? He just wanted to congratulate someone...now can we get our UP OR DOWN vote?"

[Internut]

15. That is why I think it was a big

mistake for Senate Democrats to concentrate on these papers.

[Lerkfish]

24. remember that since the WH won't release it, there's no reason to believe

the article in question has the total story. If Biden can't get this info, why do you assume the hinted item in the article is the ONLY thing that the WH is withholding?
Seems you're giving a lot of credence to secondhand information given them by...oh, I dunno, someone who wants people to think JUST LIKE YOU that there's nothing to see here, please move along?

logically, if there is "nothing", why the refusal to release data on "nothing"?

because its something.

[high density]

18. Then I heard he took the names out in his socks!!!!

OH MY WORD!!! THIS IS (Trump Voice) UUUGE.

[AndyTiedye]

19. This is About Blackmail

Ever wonder why almost everyone in DC caves in to the regime in the end?
One of Bolton's duties has been to use the NSA's surveillance web to
obtain private information and use it to blackmail anyone in the
government who tries to oppose the regime or the PNAC agenda.

[Dover]

20. Exactamundo! A la J. Edgar Hoover

J. Edgar Hoover and others demonstrated:

http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm

[Finder]

23. Perhaps "Plame" was a name.

Wouldn't that be fun?

[smiley_glad_hands]

26. What was the name of that State Dept. employee who mysteriously

decided to jump off a state dept bldg? Did Bolten want to congratulate him?

[mourningdove92]

27. There was an article a few weeks ago

about NM Govenor Richardson thinking that he is one of the people that Bolton got info about with the eavesdropping. I will post it here if anyone is interested.

[Dover]

28. Yes, I'd be interested in seeing that if you can find it. thanks! n/t

[mourningdove92]

30. Here you go.

WASHINGTON - Gov. Bill Richardson is concerned that some of his phone calls were monitored by a U.S. spy agency and transcripts of them were given to the president's nominee for ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

Richardson called Sen. Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, to express his concerns after Dodd revealed that Bolton had on 10 occasions asked the National Security Agency for the intercepts of phone conversations involving Americans.

An online journalist then speculated that Richardson's conversations with former Secretary of State Colin Powell and another U.S. official about North Korea might have been among Bolton's requests.

"The governor is upset that his conversations with Secretary Powell would be intercepted since most of them were domestic calls," said Richardson spokesman Billy Sparks. "The governor felt his calls about North Korea were confidential."
more
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_loca...3736152,00.html

[Dover]

31. Wow.......many thanks!

Missed this story completely.

[lonestarnot]

35. Wow thanks for this one! Absolutely!

[jazzjunkysue]

29. They are the names of the spoilers to the WMD false claims.

Connect the dots yourself:

No one will even hint at the kinds of people he tried to tap: Senate, congress, weapons inspectors, UN, civilians, Haliburton, other contractors. Nothing. That means it's something big.

Bush himself has gotten into the frey, and they only do that if they have to.

Bolton supplied the "bad advice" we used to justify the Iraq occupation.

Bolton goes after those who can or will blow the whistle on him.

I think it's a no brainer that he asked to tap the phones of the people who had the truth about the niger yellow cake, and nerve gasses, and all the supposed stockpiles. I think those people are the ones who were saying, "He got nothin." And so, the WH will never reveal their names or occupations, because it would unveil their deceit.

This is the point: We're using this to either weaken the GOP or keep Bolton out or get a repub to defect and spill the names of the people who knew the truth but were silenced. The cover up of the cover up. It's perfect, win-win for us either way, and lose-lose for them either way. That's why they're doing it. Brilliant chess playing, and it's working. They're all pretty hush hush about Bolton. No one wants to touch him, in case it all dumps. No one wants to go down with him, so, very few are making a serious sustained effort to get him through.

If they were serious about what a good job he's done, or will do, they'd hand over the papers. They can't and won't. But now that they've got all their neocon's in a row: Condi, Wolfie, Rummy and Cheney, they're rabid to fill out the deck with their fav neocon Bolton running the UN. Think about it, Sec of State, Sec of Military, Head of world bank and UN ambassador. Power consolidation. That's why they won't give up on Bolton and choose someone else. It has to be Bolton.

That's what the whole up and down vote crap has been about from the beginning. Slide 'em through.

But, they thought McCain would just toe the line, and he won't. Must be he's not a neo con, and he's getting tired of being a slave to them.

[lonestarnot]

36. A large watergate! Only without a physical break-in ...nice.

[jazzjunkysue]

38. It's all there. We know Bolton rigged the WMD intel, and attacked any

opposition. Otherwise, why else wouldn't they release it?

It all makes sense. When you know that Lewinsky was all a red carpet for the Neo-Con Agenda, it all makes sense.

[KansDem]

40. I need to contact "my Senator" and ask him how he feels about Plame...

Senator Roberts argued that Democrats called unnecessary attention to intel "sources and methods" by raising Bolton's NSA dealings publicly

But outing a CIA agent isn't? I don't believe I've heard Sen. Roberts comment on this. I'd like to know his response.