Linkmeister

Nobody gets in the way of my war!

In the body of this story detailing more slimy behavior by John Bolton towards a diplomat (the species he'd have to work with if confirmed as UN Ambassador, lest we forget), the Downing Street Memo makes an appearance:

John R. Bolton flew to Europe in 2002 to confront the head of a global arms-control agency and demand he resign, then orchestrated the firing of the unwilling diplomat in a move a U.N. tribunal has since judged unlawful, according to officials involved.

A former Bolton deputy says the U.S. undersecretary of state felt Jose Bustani "had to go," particularly because the Brazilian was trying to send chemical weapons inspectors to Baghdad. That might have helped defuse the crisis over alleged Iraqi weapons and undermined a U.S. rationale for war. (My emphasis)

[snip]

Bolton has been criticized for supposed bullying of junior U.S. officials and for efforts to get them fired. Bustani, a senior official under the U.N. umbrella, says Bolton used a threatening tone with him and "tried to order me around."

The Iraq connection to the OPCW affair comes as fresh evidence surfaces that the Bush administration was intent from early on to pursue military and not diplomatic action against Saddam Hussein's regime.

An official British document, disclosed last month, said Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed in April 2002 to join in an eventual U.S. attack on Iraq. Two weeks later, Bustani was ousted, with British help.

So Bolton was actively helping to obstruct any inspections in Iraq which might have shown that there were no WMD. The Bush Administration brooked no opposition to its plan to invade.

A cancer on the Presidency, indeed.

Posted by Linkmeister at June 5, 2005 09:22 AM