Abu Farraj al-Libbi’s Capture in Pakistan Scores a Point for the “Tough on Terror” Bush. . .Dropping Bolton Would Score a Point for the “Unite our Allies and Divide our Enemies” Bush

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Abu Farraj al-Libbi’s capture is a big deal. This No. 3 player in the al Qaeda network no doubt has information on al-Zawahri and bin Laden’s operation that will bring these two mastermind terrorists closer to capture or some other form of justice. Bush has a big score here.

Tick Tock Tick Tock. . .The NSA Intercepts Have Not Yet Pulled Into Dock

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Demetri Sevastopulo of the Financial Times has a piece out noting that the National Security Agency has recommended that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee be given to the intercepts in which John Bolton had such an interest during his last job.

Bob Kimmitt Falls Off the List to Replace Bolton for United Nations

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The White House has made a genuinely inspired choice of Robert Kimmitt, whom I wrote about just this morning as a potential U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., and nominated him instead to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. This just in from Chris Nelson’s The Nelson Report: On the subject of money. . .

Key Quotes and Passages in Three Interviews on John Bolton-Christian Westermann “Removal from Portfolio” Incident

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Here is a roster of key quotations in Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff interviews held on the 7th and 8th of April, 2005 on the subject of the tumultuous interaction between Undersecretary of State John Bolton and State Department INR analyst Christian Westermann. The interviews were with: 1.

Douglas Jehl First to Report on New Set of Bolton-Related Interviews

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Doug Jehl has done a truly impressive job working the story on John Bolton and reports today on a set of leaked Senate Foreign Relations Committee interview transcripts with three former SENIOR government officials. This good article rubs some serious salt into some already very deep wounds in the White House’s Bolton nomination.

Tough, Respected, Knowledgable. . .Arnold Kanter Would Also Make Great Ambassador to the U.N.

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Here is another choice, ARNOLD KANTER. He has all the right credentials and has done lots of “heavy-lifting” and “tough negotiating” in his former government roles — and I haven’t yet tripped over someone (like we seem to do everyday with John Bolton) who has accused him of professionally abusive behavior.