The Nation agrees withme: No BOLTON

[TayTay]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/thenation/20050330/cm_thenation/32296_1

Wow! I feel so vindicated.

Bolton's record as Assistant AG for the Office of Legislative Affairs in 1986 and 1987 merits special scrutiny. He "tried to torpedo" Sen. John Kerry's inquiry into allegations of contra drug smuggling and gunrunning, a committee aide says. When Kerry requested information from the Justice Department, Bolton's office gave it the long stall, a Kerry aide notes. In fact, says another Congressional aide, Bolton's staff worked actively with the Republican senators who opposed Kerry's efforts.


In 1986 this chum of Meese also refused to give Peter Rodino, then chair of he House Judiciary Committee, documents concerning the Iran/contra scandal and Meese's involvement in it, Later, when Congressional investigators were probing charges that the Justice Department had delayed an inquiry into gunrunning to the contras, Bolton was again the spoiler. According to Hayden Gregory, chief counsel of a House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, Bolton blocked an arrangement by which his staff had agreed to let House investigators interview officials of the US Attorney's office in Miami. Bolton refused to speak to us on the subject.

[whometense]

1. Nice going!!

Leading the charge!!! :-)

[karynnj]

2. Why do the Republicans like drug runners?

I hope this part of Bolton's past gets some notice in the hearings. Do you think the Democrats, at the time, were concerned with having 2 failed Republican Presidencies within a very short time? In retrospect, why when all this was confirmed in the 90s, didn't Clinton go after these guys. The idea that at least part of the awful crack epidemic in the 80s was caused by our government ignoring (at best) these drugs is utterly appalling.

Maybe some of the Republicans will join the Democrats in rejecting Bolton. (Some like Lugar know he stonewalled them.)

Tay Tay's posts show that he was even more evil than these show.

[TayTay]

3. First a Picture, cuz you need pics!

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I14318-2004Jul25L

In probing drug cartels in the Americas and the role of Panama under dictator Manuel Noriega, Sen. John F. Kerry shows photos of Panamanian officials meeting with Cuba's communist leader, Fidel Castro.

[TayTay]

5. It's politics

This stuff goes to the very heart of the Foreign Policy of the United States of America in the Post World War II world. We, (the US), made a Faustian bargain that we would 'pay any price, bear any burden' in the fight against communism. (I know I'm quoting JFK, I did it on purpose. Kennedy tacked right in order to get elected.) The drug trafficking and arms trading were part of the price we were willing to pay. The Iran-Contra horror wasn't an accident; it was a decision that said that the United States was willing to allow drugs into this country because the money raised would allow us to fund counter-terrorists who were fighting communism. We were willing to allow a certain number of Americans to become addicted, a certain number to die of those addictions because there was a political payoff. This is what happened.

John Kerry fascinates me because he is both a idealist and a pragmatic politician. It is rare to have both together in the same person. Kerry saw 'up close and personal' what the fight against communism meant and how idiotic and tragic the consequences of this commitment could be. He saw it during his time in Vietnam and he came back and tried to stop it. As a student of history, he knows the sorry and tragic history of US actions in other parts of the world, such as our long history in the Middle East and the numerous times we have acted to oust legitimately elected governments (like in Iran) in order to install puppet regimes. (Hey, we have to guard our interests. Sometimes we have to guard them harshly. That we don't think out our actions and invite 'blow-back' is just one of those things.)

Kerry pushed very hard when he first got elected to the Senate to try and make a mark as an investigator. People pushed back, proportionate to the amount of power they had. In the case of Iran-Contra, to drug-running to BCCI, the push-back was enormous. It involved the Executive and Legislative branches of government. (And, as it also involved the Justice Dept who could recommend or not recommend both investigations and prosecutions, it also involved the Judiciary branch. That's a hell of a lot of push-back.)

We saw Kerry smeared last year as, basically, anti-patriotic because he had protested the War and because he had questioned the role of the government in foreign policy over the years. It happened before. What I really admire about the guy (my esteemed Junior Senator) is that he hasn't stopped. He has learned to be a bit more social in the Senate club, he has learned how to give and get favors and all that stuff. But the core outrage over wrongdoing hasn't left. It's still there. Thank goodness.

My husband and I had this discussion last year over what John Kerry would do on the second day of his Presidency. He has the right to call up and ask for any file in the US Government archives. Given what he knows about 'where the bodies are buried', what do you think the first file he asks for from the archives is? Just for 'shits and giggles' and to confirm any long-held suspicions he had from his investigative days, what file does he order up for late night reading?

[TayTay]

6. Read this and weep: Testimony of Jack Blum

In 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published a famous series by Gary Webb called "Dark Alliance." http://www.mega.nu:8080/ampp/webb.html It caused a sensation; so much so that Congress decided to hold some hearings and revisit the Iran-Contra drug-dealing issue from a decade before. John Kerry's lead investigator from those days was called to testify:

http://www.webcom.com/~pinknoiz/covert/jackblum.html

U.S. SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE HEARING
ON THE ALLEGATIONS OF CIA TIES TO NICARAGUAN CONTRA REBELS
AND CRACK COCAINE IN AMERICAN CITIES;
U.S. SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA),CHAIRMAN

OCTOBER 23, 1996

The policy makers ignored their drug dealing, their stealing, and their human rights violations. The policy makers -- and I stress policy makers -- allowed them to compensate themselves for helping us in that war by remaining silent in the face of their impropriety and by quietly undercutting law enforcement and human rights agencies that might have caused them difficulty.

We knew about the connection between the West Coast cocaine trade and Contras. There was an astonishing case called the Frogman Case. In that case -- I believe it was in that case -- the United States Attorney from San Francisco, a man by the name of Russinello (ph) returned $35,000 of cocaine proceeds voluntarily to the Contras when it had been seized as proceeds of drug trafficking.

BLUM: We found that absolutely astonishing. I know of no other situation where the Justice Department was so forthcoming in returning seized property.

SPECTER: Was that the Justice Department or the district attorney of San Francisco locally?

BLUM: This was the Justice Department, United States attorney.

SPECTER: United States attorney?

BLUM: That's correct. We had a telephone conversation with Mr. Russionello (ph) asking him to provide us documents and access to the people involved in the case. And he shouted at us. He shouted at Senator John Kerry, who chaired the committee. He accused us of being subversive for wanting to go into it.

Sad: John R. Bolton worked in the United States Justice Department. He was one of those people who had the to power to forward or discourage cases in the justice system. Guess which ones got discouraged?

Sadder still: Gary Webb lost everything when he published that story. He lost his credibility when major US newspapers decided to debunk allegations in the story that Webb hadn't actually made. Gary Webb committed suicide last fall, after the election.

[karynnj]

7. This is great and explains a lot

I've wondered over the last year, why Kerry seems so bigger than life, and better than other candidates I've supported. I think the combination you mention of being a true idealist and a pragmatic politician is really the root of it. That combined with the fact that he is exceptional at both. His idealism connects with his pragmatism in not just wanting to end some very bad things but in finding a better way for this country to be. When you add his patience, intelligence, articulateness, and his ability to stick with things, he is really not like anyone else.

I do believe that, as you said, allowing drugs into the country was from their point a calculated cost, it it still hard to accept. I think the problem is that I am just not anti-communist enough to knowingly accept the lives destroyed. (I wonder if anyone told Nancy "just say, NO" Reagan.)

[ginnyinWI]

8. another reason that

I suspect he is so good, is that he is so well-rooted in history--he knows what's been going on and can see patterns and solutions. I read that he talked foreign policy a lot with his dad, so had the WWII generation's perspective added to his own generation's.

[ginnyinWI]

4. Am I ever looking forward to those hearings!

Can't wait to see JK have a face-off with Bolton! :popcorn: