Bush UN nominee under fire over bullying claims

THE man US President George W Bush wants as his UN ambassador was castigated yesterday as a “kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy” who had abused analysts who disagreed with his views of Cuba’s weapons capabilities.

With John Bolton’s nomination under Democratic attack, Carl Ford, former chief of the State Department’s bureau of intelligence and research, appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to support accusations of harassment.

“I have never seen anyone quite like Mr Bolton,” Mr Ford testified under oath.

“He abuses his authority with little people.”

Mr Ford charged that Mr Bolton tried to sack the analyst Christian Westermann and was a “serial abuser”.

Senior Democrat, Senator Barbara Boxer, said the Westermann incident was not an isolated one, and Mr Bolton had harassed at least three officials who disagreed with him.

Calling Mr Bolton a “bully”, Ms Boxer said, “I think Mr Bolton needs anger management at a minimum. He does not deserve to be promoted [to the UN post].”

Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee noted that analysts criticised by Mr Bolton had “kept their jobs”.

Mr Ford told the committee he was a loyal Republican, a conservative and a strong supporter of President George W Bush. He said he appeared before the committee only after a lot of “soul-searching”.

Mr Bolton rejected assertions he tried to sack State Department intelligence officials who challenged his assessment of Cuban and other countries’ weapons programmes.