About the Secret Bolton NSA Intercepts Memos

[housewolf]

The stuff is "secret" and there's not a lot anybody who knows anything about it can say. Steve Clemons of "The Washington Note" has the best handle on the issue - here's a little information from him:



May 21, 2005
What Did John Bolton Do with the NSA Intercept Information? Did He Violate National Security Laws?

We know little about the controversial NSA intercept materials (and roster of redacted names of U.S. officials mentioned in the transcripts) which were requested and reviewed by John Bolton.

What we do know through sources is that the bulk of the material dealt with incidents in 2003 and 2004. This could mean that Bolton was spying on his colleagues' North Korea diplomacy, on the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei, or other cases.

But one of the biggest issues that has eluded the mainstream media and venues like TWN is what Bolton did with the intelligence he reviewed.

<snip>

What TWN has just learned from a source -- a single source -- is that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is now looking into whether or not Bolton misused the super-secret information he retrieved from the intercepts.

more...
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000640.html


------------



In addition to that, Jay Rockefeller's letter to other senators yesterday doesn't reveal much but there are some hints here:


Rockefeller Reports on NSA Intercepts to Biden and Lugar: Bolton Mishandled National Security Secrets

Senator Rockefeller comes through with a letter on the NSA intercepts.

He has concerns and is speaking on the floor of the U.S. Senate this very moment about his concerns about John Bolton. What is fascinating about the letter that follows below is that you can sense Rockefeller's frustration with NSA and with the process involved that he was unable to pursue further questions he has about Bolton and how he used the NSA intelligence information.

Rockefeller has been forced to draw some conclusions from an incomplete data set. He was not allowed to see the names of those U.S. officials that had been provided to Bolton -- and he was not able to investigate whether or not there were "other cases" of misuse of information -- other than that where Bolton sought out an individual to "congratulate him" based on the intelligence Bolton had seen.

But Rockefeller points to behaviors that further underscore Bolton's reckless disregard for procedure and process and which collectively amount to the undermining of U.S. foreign policy initiatives and objectives.

Here is the letter:

read it here:
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000657.html

[whistle]

1. Rumor has it that Bolton called for a "hit" on some intelligence

...person who died under suspicious circumstances.. How valid is that rumor?

[kliljedahl]

2. Here's an earlier post about that

Was Bolton Behind Death of State Department Official?



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=1811651&mesg_id=1811651



Keith’s Barbeque Central

[housewolf]

8. It's a rumor put forth by Wayne Madsen n/t

[whistle]

15. This article by Wayne Madsen on April 20, 2005 does not...

...read like he is reporting on rumors. Couple that with Senator Voinovick's passionate plea in the senate earlier this week, I think this whol Bolton appointment and checking of background merits much further investigation.

Here is that article:

<snip>
Was Bolton behind death of State Department official?

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

First reported on November 20, 2003, updated April 20, 2005, WASHINGTON, DC—In a case eerily reminiscent of the death of British Ministry of Defense bio-weapons expert, Dr. David Kelly, an official of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research Near East and South Asian division (INR/NESA), John J. Kokal, 58, was found dead in the late afternoon of November 7, 2003.

<snip>

A former INR employee revealed that some one-third to one-half of INR officials are either former CIA intelligence agents or are detailed from the agency. He also revealed it would have been impossible for Kokal to have gained entry to the roof on his own. INR occupies both a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) on the sixth floor that has no windows and a windowless structure on the roof that has neither windows nor access to the roof, according to the former official. The other windows at the State Department have been engineered to be shatter proof from terrorist bomb attacks and cannot be opened.

The suspicious fatal fall from the Watergate complex of ex-CIA and NSC official Dr. Gus Weiss a few weeks after Kokal's similar death at the nearby State Department also merits investigation. Weiss, like Kokal, was adamantly opposed to the Iraq war and Weiss, uncharacteristically, went public with his protests.

Weiss worked in the office of Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson in the 1970s, along with Iraqi war architects Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. He also served on the U.S. Intelligence Board under President Jimmy Carter and was considered a hawk during the Carter and Reagan administrations. However, in later years, Weiss broke ranks with his old neoconservative colleagues and came out against the Iraq misadventure.

INR and other State Department officials reported that a "chill" set in at the State Department following Kokal's defenestration. A number of employees were afraid to talk about the suspicious death. It also is unusual that The Northern Virginia Journal, a local Arlington newspaper, has not published an obituary notice on Kokal.
<more>
<link> http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/042105Madsen/042105madsen.html

<note: Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based journalist and syndicated columnist. His forthcoming book is "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops & Brass Plates.">

[phoebe]

3. Remember Bolton's role in Iran Contra?

Washington Post, December 24, 1986
Retired General Secord Refuses To Testify Before House Panel; Reagan Urges Quick Report on Iran Affair by Senate Committee By Tom Kenworthy, Lou Cannon

Attorney General Edwin Meese was sharply criticized by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter W. Rodino (D-NJ) for the Justice Department's refusal to produce information related to the Iran-contra investigation that was requested by the panel on Dec. 11.

John Bolton, assistant Attorney General for congressional affairs, refused late Monday to comply with requests by Rodino that the Justice Department produce a broad range of documents related to the controversy and that Meese answer questions about his knowledge and involvement. In refusing, Bolton said many items requested by Rodino are "highly classified" and that no staff member of the Judiciary Committee has the proper clearances to review them.

UPI, March 19, 1987
Washington News
By DANA WALKER

Attorney General Edwin Meese has grave doubts about the constitutionality of the law allowing for independent counsel to probe top officials such as those involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, a Justice Department official said Thursday.

Assistant Attorney General John Bolton, testifying before a Senate Governmental Operations subcommittee, stopped short of saying Meese believes the law is unconstitutional, despite being pressed by Sen. Carl Levin, co-sponsor of legislation to make the law permanent. The law, the 1978 Ethics in Government Act, expires in January 1988.

"There are grave doubts about the constitutionality" of key provisions of the law, including one that authorizes a special federal court -- instead of the Attorney General -- to appoint the independent counsel, Bolton said, adding that he personally believed the law was unconstitutional. Levin said: "I think it's clear to everybody that the Attorney General feels that this statute is unconstitutional. Why don't you just say it?"

Bolton said Meese would favor the law if he had more power over the scope of investigations, the appointment of the prosecutor and termination authority over the counsel. "You want us to gut the statute," Levin said.

Former special prosecutor Archibald Cox, whose firing by President Richard Nixon in the "Saturday Night Massacre" during the Watergate scandal sparked the push for the law, agreed with Levin, later testifying that Bolton in effect was saying, "We're for renewal of the statute with the guts taken out."

Bolton left open the possibility the Justice Department may argue against the law if the appropriate case came up. "We would be prepared to argue against the constitutionality" of certain aspects of the law. . .

also from The Washington Note website.

[wakeme2008]

4. One of the names I have heard is President Carter

If so I wonder how many other Dems were on that list.

[ChiciB1]

7. Don't you Think If Carter Was On The List

They would have zapped it out there????

[wakeme2008]

9. they have blacked the names on the list

but a couple Senators have seen the list with the names in it.

[baby_bear]

5. I still don't get it, but I guess that's the purpose

I listen to Biden et al. on the floor and I keep thinking, "What is between the lines here?" Obviously they have strong suspicions of something very, very nasty. I still don't understand what these intercepted messages were about, or if that matters.

It is all spooky, indeed.

b_b

[ChiciB1]

6. There Very Definitely Is Something Going On...

AND it smells like some sort of COVER-UP! I also think someone is covering the asses in the WH! Bet their cheeks are so tight they can't take a dump!

Oh, let this be THE THING!!!!

[babylonsister]

11. If it's 'the thing', I don't see Biden, Rockfeller,

or anyone getting to the bottom of this as they won't be allowed access to the info. If that's the case, I hope there is insistence that someone gets to check it out because it could be scalding!

[gumby]

10. I don't get it either

Too bad "Our Government" is so closed.

However, 'Something' is so disturbing that it made Sen. Voinovich cry.

[baby_bear]

14. You got that right, gumby

This stinks to high heaven but I suspect we will never know....and Bolton will go to the U.N. in spite of it all.

If Sen. Pat Roberts would get a spine and back up this demand, then it would get attention. He's too party line, though, apparently.

What does it take some of these guys to put the country over party and personal status?

b_b

[hector459]

12. Did Bolton congratulate Alawi before the Iraq election was over?

Who else was due any congratulations? Wasn't Condi in charge of NSA during this time? I must be missing something.

[bush_is_wacko]

13. OMG! I would put NOTHING past this creep!

Assasinations...whatever. I suspect he's guilty oh ANY and ALL counts. How the hell did HIS name EVER come up for this position?

The pukes got way too cocky, way too quick. Hopefully their cockiness saved our asses as a country!

Dem's finally have some significant momentum going!