Nbadan
05-31-2005, 10:57 PM
Some of the information that the White House has refused to provide to Congress for its review of the nomination of John Bolton includes the names of American companies mentioned in intelligence reports on commerce with China and other countries covered by export restrictions, say government officials who have been briefed on the documents.
It had previously been reported only that the White House was refusing to hand over the names of 19 American persons mentioned in 10 intelligence reports by the National Security Agency.
The fact that the documents also included the names of American companies, and that the subject had to do with possible violations of American export restrictions, provides a new clue as to why the White House might be rebuffing the congressional requests.
The names of the Americans and the companies remain highly classified, but they were provided to Bolton by the National Security Agency in response to special requests he made as under secretary of state for arms control. The Democrats who forced the postponement last week of a vote on Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations argued that the Senate should insist on access to the same information that was provided to Bolton.
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/politics/01bolton.html?)
Seems to me that a pretty easy solution is to let the Senators on the Senate Confirmation Committee have a peek at these documents. This could be a cover story to get some of the heat off releasing the rest of the Bolton documents.
It had previously been reported only that the White House was refusing to hand over the names of 19 American persons mentioned in 10 intelligence reports by the National Security Agency.
The fact that the documents also included the names of American companies, and that the subject had to do with possible violations of American export restrictions, provides a new clue as to why the White House might be rebuffing the congressional requests.
The names of the Americans and the companies remain highly classified, but they were provided to Bolton by the National Security Agency in response to special requests he made as under secretary of state for arms control. The Democrats who forced the postponement last week of a vote on Bolton's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations argued that the Senate should insist on access to the same information that was provided to Bolton.
NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/01/politics/01bolton.html?)
Seems to me that a pretty easy solution is to let the Senators on the Senate Confirmation Committee have a peek at these documents. This could be a cover story to get some of the heat off releasing the rest of the Bolton documents.