NYT: Ex-C.I.A. Official Says Bolton Interfered

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Ex-C.I.A. Official Says Bolton Interfered
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: May 7, 2005


WASHINGTON, May 6 - John R. Bolton's effort in 2002 to oust a top Central Intelligence Agency analyst from his post in a dispute over Cuba represented a troubling breach of the line between policy makers and intelligence, the agency's former deputy director has told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to a transcript of the exchange.

The ex-official, John E. McLaughlin, who spent 32 years in the C.I.A., said the episode was "the only time I had ever heard of such a request" from a policy maker, that a C.I.A. officer or analyst be transferred.

The analyst, Fulton Armstrong, was the national intelligence officer for Latin America and had clashed with Mr. Bolton's office about a speech that Mr. Armstrong thought overstated the extent of Cuba's weapons programs.

"It's perfectly all right for a policy maker to express disagreement with an N.I.O. or an analyst, and it's perfectly all right for them to challenge such an individual vigorously, challenge their work vigorously," Mr. McLaughlin told the committee on April 29, according to an unedited transcript. "But I think it's different to then request, because of the disagreement, that the person be transferred. And - unless there is malfeasance involved here, and in this case, I had a high regard for the individual's work - therefore, I had a strong negative reaction to the suggestion about moving him."

Mr. Bolton's request that Mr. Armstrong be transferred was one of at least four such episodes being reviewed by the committee, which will recommend to the full Senate whether Mr. Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations should be confirmed....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/07/politics/07bolton.html