[NYTr] Bolton the Lying Slanderer Still Getting Media Attention

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[The useless, apparently jobless, John Bolton has been telling whoppers
for years. He says of Mohammed ElBaradei that even a stopped clock is
right twice a day. Bolton himself not been "right" even once yet. But
he's still being given houseroom by the major media, like his
comrade-in-slime Wolf Blitzer on CNN. See his latest blatant lies
below. -NY Transfer]

First, Juan Cole's comments on Bolton:

excerpted from Informed Comment - Nov 12, 2007
http://www.juancole.com/2007/11/maliki-said-to-induct-18000-militiamen.html

John Bolton complaining about bureaucrats acting outside the rules
would be like Britney Spears complaining about starlets with
self-destructive lifestyles. Bolton attempted to do a hatchet job on
Colin Powell, claiming that he-- gasp -- sought a diplomatic solution
to the Iran issue. Bolton quite illicitly fired Jose Bustani for
getting in the way of the Iraq War, and he once said that the US was
not legally bound by the international treaties it had signed, that
they were only 'obligations'. Even though Bolton was just an underling
under Powell, he and his ilk always tried to withdraw from Powell the
prerogatives of secretary of state, attempting to reduce him to their
water carrier. He didn't have the authority to dictate diplomacy to
Colin Powell, and now he has no authority at all. Putting Bolton on
television all the time is bizarre. Who does he represent? Bad-tempered
lawyers who are abusive to their employees and employers?


ThinkProgress - Nov 11, 2007
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/11/bolton-baradei-apologist/

Bolton Smears ElBaradei as Iran Apologist, 
Says ‘Even a Stopped Clock Is Right Twice A Day’

Two weeks ago, Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director General of the
International Atomic Energy Agency, said on CNN that an attack on Iran
would “lead absolutely to disaster.” He added that there is no evidence
of a “concrete, active nuclear weapon program” going on inside Iran.

Today on CNN’s Late Edition, neconservative warhawk John Bolton
responded by smearing ElBaradei as “an apologist for Iran” and said the
United States is “paying the price” for not opposing him more
vociferously.

When host Wolf Blitzer reminded Bolton that ElBaradei correctly warned
prior the Iraq war that there was no evidence of a nuclear weapons
program, Bolton derisively dismissed his warnings by claiming “even a
stopped clock is right twice a day”:

    BLITZER: But, you know, in fairness to Mohamed ElBaradei, before
the war in Iraq, when Condoleezza Rice and the president were speaking
about mushroom clouds of Saddam Hussein and a revived nuclear weapons
program that he may be undertaking, he was saying there was absolutely
no such evidence. He was poo-pooing it, saying the Bush administration
was overly alarming and there was no nuclear weapons program that
Hussein had revived. He was right on that one.

    BOLTON: Even a stopclock is right twice a day.

Bolton insisted that “there was never any real disagreement” between
the IAEA and the Bush administration on Saddam’s “physical capacity for
a nuclear weapon.”

In fact, in February 2002, ElBaradei insisted that there was “no
evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear related activities in
Iraq.” Meanwhile, Bush asserted that Saddam was meeting with his
“nuclear mujahedeen” and that the United States could not wait “for the
smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

    BOLTON: Mohamed ElBaradei is an apologist for Iran. He has taken
positions in flat violation of three Security Council resolutions, and
he needs to learn that he works for the member governments of his
agency, not the other way around.

    BLITZER: But he got a second term. They voted. Despite the Bush
administration’s opposition, he was reelected to a second term.

    BOLTON: He got a third term, actually, which is even worse.

    BLITZER: Third, and so there — he does have the confidence of some
people.

    BOLTON: I don’t think we were effective in our campaign to oppose
him. I don’t think that he did nearly what we should have done, and I
think we are paying the price now and will pay it into the future.

    BLITZER: But, you know, in fairness to Mohamed ElBaradei, before
the war in Iraq, when Condoleezza Rice and the president were speaking
about mushroom clouds of Saddam Hussein and a revived nuclear weapons
program that he may be undertaking, he was saying there was absolutely
no such evidence. He was poo-pooing it, saying the Bush administration
was overly alarming and there was no nuclear weapons program that
Hussein had revived. He was right on that one.

    BOLTON: Even a stopclock is right twice a day. Look, Saddam Hussein
kept together over 1,000 nuclear scientists and technicians that he
called his nuclear mujahadeen. There may not have been centrifuge
cascades spinning, but Saddam had the intellectual capability to put
that program right back together.

    BLITZER: But that was an important issue, trying to justify the
war, the mushroom clouds, the fear, the smoking gun could be a mushroom
cloud, and that’s not just a little issue that he was right on. He was
right on a major, major justification for going to war.

    BOLTON: I’m not aware there was any disagreement with the Bush
administration that Saddam did not have the physical capacity in his
nuclear program, but he did have the intention and he had the record of
having pursued them in the past.

    BLITZER: He also said this about the early September Israeli
airstrike on some sort of suspicious facility in Syria that reports
have suggested was some sort of North Korean nuclear reactor facility
that they were building to develop centrifuges in Syria. Listen to what
ElBaradei said to me on this program two weeks ago.

    (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

    ELBARADEI: To bomb first and then ask questions later, I think
undermines the system it and doesn’t lead to any solution to any
suspicion, because we are the eyes and ears of the international
community. It’s only the agencies and the inspectors who can go and
verify the information.

    (END VIDEO CLIP)

    BLITZER: He said if the Israelis were concerned, they should have
gone to the IAEA and made their case and then the inspectors,
presumably, could have gone in since Syria is a member of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    BOLTON: In you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you. The
notion that Israel or the United States would put their national
security in the IAEA’s hands is just delusional. And let me make one
important point.

    Eyes and ears of the international community? Look, the IAEA
functionally gets most of its sensitive information from foreign
intelligence services including our own, and that’s why it’s more
properly called the U.N.’s nuclear watchpuppy.

    BLITZER: So you don’t believe, obviously, this guy, anything he’s
basically saying?

    BOLTON: I think he’s actually undermining the credibility of the
IAEA by his overly politicized role in the Iran crisis.