Bush Taps Pro-Gun Bolton as UN Envoy
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The man picked by President George Bush to become the new US ambassador to the United Nations led a delegation to the United Nations (UN) in 2001 to stand firm against global gun control schemes and defend the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.
John Bolton, who was Undersecretary of State at the time, went before a UN conference and told them that the Second Amendment is off limits. The scene was recalled last year in a statement from former Congressman Bob Barr, who told NewsMax.com, “He (Bolton) gave a very straightforward and very impassioned lesson to those UN bureaucrats who were there. And he basically told them our Second Amendment is not for sale to the United Nations. . . .They were shocked to hear that.”
Barr, who was an official US representative to the 2001 UN gun control conference at which Bolton staked out the US position, praised Bolton’s diplomatic skills, but noted “Bolton can be tough as nails when he needs to be, which is a quality often required in dealing with the UN bureaucracy.”
Bolton would succeed John Danforth, who spent only seven months on the job as UN Ambassador. He faces an uphill confirmation battle in the Senate, where he is considered by many to be one of the more conservative hawks in the Bush Administration.
Bolton’s nomination as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs in 2001 was vehemently opposed by liberal organizations, such as the Council for a Livable World and the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. However, gun rights organizations, such as the National Rifle Association and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, hailed Bolton’s defense of the Second Amendment before the UN conference that seemed predisposed to create a global gun control treaty.
Bolton has also opposed the International Criminal Court. According to CNN, the 56-year-old Bolton “drew fire from Democrats in 1994 when he said at a Federalist Society forum that ‘there is no such thing as the United Nations’.” CNN also quoted Bolton as observing, “If the UN secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference.”
However, Bolton led the fight in 1991 to force the UN General Assembly to repeal a 1975 resolution that equated Zionism with racism, CNN recalled.
Prior to his May 2001 appointment as under secretary, Bolton was a senior vice president at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy think tank. A native of Baltimore, MD, Bolton has a bachelor’s and law degree from Yale. He also held various posts in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr.
Liberals hate Bolton, but conservatives seem to love him. The globalist community sees his nomination as a great victory for “unilaterists,” but at the same time, they do not expect his Senate opponents to be able to block his confirmation. Jesse Helms was widely quoted in January 2001, endorsing Bolton’s appointment to the State Department. Said Helms: “John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon, if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world.”
Bolton reportedly was one of the Bush supporters who flocked to Florida in 2000 following the election to count contested ballots. He is actually credited with stopping the recount.
Considered an arms control expert, Bolton reportedly butted heads with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and liberal critics have complained that he “stonewalled” Sen. John Kerry’s efforts to investigate allegations of drug smuggling and gun running by contra rebels. Some liberal websites have labeled Bolton an “ultra-conservative.”
In February 2004, Bolton warned that Iran was developing a secret nuclear weapons program, duping the International Atomic Energy Agency. His comments, to a Russian newspaper, preceded by almost a year revelations that Iran was developing nuclear energy resources, though that county has continued to deny it is developing weapons.
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