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Bolton involved in reagan drug running contras { March 9 2005 }

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   http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12487881^2703,00.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12487881^2703,00.html

Dismay as US sends hawk to UN
David Nason, New York correspondent
March 09, 2005

THE shock appointment of hardline neo-conservative John Bolton as US ambassador to the UN stunned the diplomatic community yesterday and raised questions about George W. Bush's commitment to work constructively for reform of the world body in its 60th anniversary year.

Known as a "hawk's hawk", Mr Bolton, the tough-on-terrorism undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, has been an architect of US policy in Iraq and is a notorious UN-basher.

The Yale-educated lawyer has urged starving the UN of funds, led the fight against a UN-mandated international criminal court and once said "it wouldn't make a bit of difference" if the UN secretariat building in New York "lost" 10 of its 38 storeys.

His appointment must be ratified by the US Senate, where there is sure to be some opposition.

"Why would (President Bush) choose someone who has expressed such disdain for working with our allies?," said Senator John Kerry, who lost last year's election to Mr Bush.

Announcing the appointment in Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Mr Bolton, 56, was "personally committed" to the UN's success and had a "proven track record of effective multilateralism".

"The President and I have asked John to do this work because he knows how to get things done," Dr Rice said.

"He is a tough-minded diplomat (and) will be a strong voice for reform at a time when the UN has begun to reform itself to help meet the challenging agenda before the international community."

The appointment was welcomed by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whom Mr Bolton reportedly wanted to recruit earlier this year to head the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Enegy Agency.

"Mr Bolton is a good friend of Mr Downer's and a good friend of Australia," a spokesman said. "He is a highly competent and effective diplomat."

But Mr Bolton, who keeps a model hand-grenade on a table in his office and who counts his work on the 1991 repeal of a UN General Assembly resolution equating Zionism with racism as a career highlight, did nothing yesterday to allay concerns about his aggressive, doctrinaire approach to diplomacy.

The UN, he said, "requires American leadership to achieve successful reform".

That aroused instant dismay at the UN, where negotiations are in progress for an ambitious program of reform to be put before a world leaders' summit in September.

The specifics of the reform agenda will be spelt out in a report by Secretary-General Kofi Annan later this month.

But there are fears that any US attempt to bully the negotiations will encourage perceptions that the UN is an instrument of US foreign policy, and see the opportunity for reform slip away.

Mr Annan is scheduled to mark this week's anniversary of the Madrid terrorist bombings with a speech calling for greater UN action in cracking down on terrorism. The speech now runs the risk of being seen as a direct response to Mr Bolton's appointment.

But Mr Bolton will be less pleased with the UN Security Council, which will vote this week for a beefed-up presence in the Sudan, in a resolution expected to again raise the thorny issue of an international criminal court to prosecute those responsible for abuses in Darfur.

Mr Bolton, whose reddish hair is offset by an unusual grey moustache, is a protege of Bush family ally James Baker, who was Ronald Reagan's secretary of state.

During the Reagan years he supported the right-wing Nicaraguan contras and was involved in frustrating the efforts of Senator Kerry to investigate gun running to the contras.



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