Today's NY Times has more on yet another example of Bolton trying to misrepresent intelligence views to fit his policy agenda. This time it's
Syria
One newly declassified message, dated April 30, 2002, and sent by a senior State Department intelligence official, dismissed as "a stretch" language about a possible Syrian nuclear program that had been spelled out in a draft speech circulated by Mr. Bolton's aides for approval. In the speech itself, delivered five days later, Mr. Bolton made no reference to a Syrian nuclear program.
Until now, Senate Democrats leading the opposition to Mr. Bolton's nomination have focused mostly on a 2002 dispute related to Cuba, in which Mr. Bolton has acknowledged seeking the transfer of two intelligence officials with whom he had differed. But a top Democratic staff member on Monday described the clashes over Syria as "an example, perhaps the most serious one, not of Mr. Bolton's abusing people, but of trying to exaggerate the intelligence to fit his policy views."
How did this guy even keep his job, much less get promoted? His pattern of mixing personal abuse with flawed judgement rivaled only by Douglas Feith is just breathtaking. Between Condi keeping him out of the loop and Powell dissing him to wavering Republican senators, it almost appears that the UN nomination is a way to get him out of State. But it's probably just the usual pattern of rewarding loyalty and punishing competence.