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A devious manoeuvre: Democrats

Jamie Wilson

U.N. Council needs only one permanent member — U.S., Bolton once said

WASHINGTON: U.S. President George Bush on Monday sidestepped the Senate and installed John Bolton as Ambassador to the U.N., despite protests from Democrats that the controversial neo-conservative will undermine America's credibility.

Mr. Bolton's appointment has been blocked for more than five months by Senate Democrats who have been demanding the Bush administration release classified information they claim would shed more light on his past, including claims that he tried to manipulate U.S. intelligence to support his hawkish views.

But flanked by Mr. Bolton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in White House, Mr. Bush said the combative former undersecretary of state for arms control had his full confidence.

Recess appointment

As a recess appointment — a loophole that allows the President to make appointments while Congress is not sitting — Mr. Bolton will only be able to serve until January 2007, when a new Congress is sworn in.

Democrats immediately condemned the move. Senator Edward Kennedy said: ``It's a devious manoeuvre that evades the constitutional requirement of Senate and only further darkens the cloud over Mr. Bolton's credibility at the U.N.,'' he said.

Mr. Bolton, a 56-year-old lawyer, is an unapologetic advocate of assertive U.S. global leadership and has insisted on holding Iran and North Korea to account for their nuclear activities, along with voicing an interest in seeing both governments removed.

His nomination to the U.N. has split both the Senate and the foreign policy community.

Moderates have argued his appointment would further damage U.S. international relations at a time when the country should be reaching out to make friends, while conservatives claim he is just what is needed to shake up the U.N.

The material Democrats have been demanding to see concerns Mr. Bolton's use of government intelligence on Syria and instances in which he asked for the names of U.S. officials whose communications had been secretly picked up by a spy agency.

Since Mr. Bolton's nomination, opponents have focused on some of his more controversial comments.

``The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference,'' he said in 1994, while in 2000 he said the Security Council needed only one permanent member, the U.S., ``because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world.'' — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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