BLOCK THIS MAN!
PROTEST AGAINST JOHN BOLTON

In a letter to the US Senate, 59 diplomats urge that an unscrupulous hardliner not be nominated as UN ambassador

[International relations is normally a quiet affair. But the personnel policy of this US government draws out ambassadors. 59 active and former diplomats of the US protested against the nomination of John Bolton as UN ambassador in an open letter to the US Senate. The former assistant secretary of state is intolerable on account of his political views. The following excerpts from the letter are translated from the German on the World Wide Web, www.freitag.de/2005/14/05140703.php.]


For many years, John Bolton has resisted all efforts at improving the security of the United States through arms control. He urged a campaign against ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty. He blocked a comprehensive international agreement on limiting sales of small arms. He collaborated in US non-participation in Ottawa’s land mines treaty. The withdrawal of the United States from the attempt of 40 states at a verification system in the convention on biological weapons goes back to the initiative of John Bolton. He was also instrumental in canceling the ABM-treaty that considerably restricted missile defense.

As the chief negotiator of the 2002 Moscow treaty that limits bilaterally the dislodging of nuclear weapons, he insured that neither the verification nor the mutual reporting were adequately settled. The actual destruction of non-dislodged nuclear weapons and continuous steps of disarmament were hardly negotiated in this agreement. As the assistant secretary of state for arms control and international security, John Bolton did hardly anything to improve the legal status of US officials who were concerned with Russia for the security of the arsenal of ABC-weapons of the former Soviet Union or to protect that arsenal from theft, illegal sale and seizure by terrorists.

He said repeatedly that the United Nations only has value when it serves the interests of the US and that the most effective Security Council would be one where only the United States would be a permanent member. Given that attitude, how will he negotiate with representatives of 96 percent of humanity concerning enlarging the Security Council and strengthening UN peace-keeping capacities. The commissioned work of John Bolton for Taiwan and his idea that the US should treat Taiwan as a sovereign state and that it is pure fantasy to assume an armed response of the People’s Republic of China in the case of Taiwan’s succession must raise doubts whether he has the balanced judgment necessary for an IN ambassador.