http://www.globe.com/dailyglobe2/089/nation/Senators_grill_Bush_s_pick_for_arm
s_control_post+.shtml
Senators grill Bush's pick for arms control post
By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, 3/30/2001
WASHINGTON - President Bush's nominee to head up US arms control policies
came under sharp questioning yesterday from Democratic senators who
challenged his track record of attacking past arms treaties, the United
Nations, and efforts to ease the standoff on the Korean peninsula.
At a hearing on his appointment as undersecretary of state for arms control
and international security, John R. Bolton said he believed the UN could be
an effective ''policy instrument'' of the United States and that
''circumstances may arise'' in which the United States could normalize
relations with North Korea.
Massachusetts Senator John F. Kerry, a Democrat, said some of Bolton's
comments amounted to ''what I would politely call a confirmation conversion.''
Bolton bristled at the remark later, saying, ''I must tell you, Senator,
those words sting. And I don't think they are accurate.''
If confirmed, Bolton's job would include missile defense, the fate of the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, negotiations with North Korea on shutting
down its ballistic missile program, and aid to dismantle Russian nuclear
stockpiles.
Bolton, who served in the Reagan and first Bush administrations and for the
last four years was senior vice president for public policy research at the
American Enterprise Institute, had strongly crticized many Clinton
administration policies, particularly its arms control strategies. He also
has been dismissive of the UN.
''There's no such thing as the United Nations,'' he said on one occasion
recorded on videotape. On another he said, ''If the UN secretary building in
New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference.''
He characterized supporters of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which was
rejected by the Senate during the Clinton administration, as ''misguided
individuals following a timid and neo-pacifist line of thought.''
On negotiations with North Korea, he said, ''A sounder US policy would start
by making it clear to the North that we are indifferent to whether we ever
have `normal' diplomatic relations with it, and that achieving that goal is
entirely in their interests, not ours.''
In a coincidence that underscored the sensitivity of Bolton's post, about a
mile away from the hearings former US senator Sam Nunn was speaking to the
National Press Club, saying, ''The most significant clear and present danger
to the national security of the United States is the threat posed by nuclear
as well as other weapons of mass destruction.''
Just hours before, President Bush had confirmed that the administation is
reviewing whether to continue the $760 million US effort to prevent Russia's
stocks of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons from being smuggled
overseas.
Under intensive questioning from Florida Senator Bill Nelson, Bolton said he
favors continuing funding efforts to keep controls over Russia's nuclear
stockpile.
Bolton deflected many questions by saying he had not yet participated in
policy reviews, and suggested that comments he made while at the think tank
often were designed to spark debate.
He said while he did not support some of the aspects of the Agreed Framework
that governs talks with North Korea, ''I will adhere to that policy.''
Asked whether the ABM treaty that outlaws national missile defense programs
was still valid since it was signed with a government, the Soviet Union, that
no longer exists, Bolton said he would have to study the issue.
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee and a friend of Bolton's, said he hoped confirmation would be
speedy. He said Bolton was ''the kind of man with whom I would want to stand
at Armageddon, for what the Bible describes as the final battle between good
and evil in this world.''
Helms came to Bolton's defense several times. He objected to Kerry's manner
of questioning, saying it seemed like a ''cross-examination.''
