Security screening of manuscripts

It is the law in the United States that those who have had legal access to the secrets of the government must submit private manuscripts for removal of such secrets BEFORE they are published or even presented to a potential publisher.  Every department of government has an office charged with such work.

I know this process well because my memoir "Tattoo" has been in the hands of the appropriate Defense Department office for nigh on six months.  The book is long, and I was so unlucky as to have DoD shut down its auxiliary services during my wait.  I have thought of withdrawing it from screening but, surprisingly, the screeners tell me it has some worth for those who will come after. So, I will wait.

All this applies to John Bolton, a career State Department man whose adult life has been soaked in government secrets.  I first noticed Bolton as a glowering presence at briefings I gave to selected State Department people with regard to national command authority projects I was running.  His attitude was consistent.  If the idea was not his, it was simply wrong.

Bolton's "kiss and tell" book about Trump is IMO as much caused by wounded ego as a desire to make money.  He submitted the book for security review to DoD and the CIA.  Why not State?  Ah, Pompeo would tear it to pieces.  Bolton evidently grew impatient with the pace of clearance and decided to go ahead with publication without clearance

To do this is a felony.  The release of the book today completes the elements of proof for the crime.

Bolton should be arrested and charged with any of a number of possible crimes.  pl

Comments

[Chiron]

I sort of think that Trump was used by the Borg to make unpopular moves like give Jerusalem and Golan Heights to israel, start a Cold War with China, let the Saudis off the hook, never ending sanctions against a bunch of countries not aligned with Israel,.. but now that all this is done they will throw him out like a bad habit and if Joe Biden becomes POTUS next year it won’t be any reversal to any of these policies because it was what the Borg wanted.

[A.I.S.]

Was Bolton at least the type of "if its not my idea its wrong, but if it good anyway it can become my idea"?

These are a pita but still possible to work with.
Straight if it not my idea its wrong are walking disasters.

[Jack]

Sir,

Let’s see what Trump does with Bolton now that he has committed a felony.

My bet is that other than crying on Twitter, he’ll not do much. His previous actions/inactions on these matters show weakness.

In any case bitching on Twitter makes him look like an executive with poor hiring judgement as he was the one that hired him. Just like he hired Mattis and Kelly as well as Rosenstein and Wray.

[Barbara Ann]

Bolton being successfully charged with violations associated with his sour grapes hit piece memoir is analogous to Al Capone finally going down for tax evasion. But if that's the way it goes I will not be sad.

Re "Tattoo", your Memorial Day "Ap Bu Nho" extract alone makes "some worth" an amusingly ludicrous understatement. I wish you luck with the censors & very much look forward to one day reading "Tattoo".

[eakens]

Who can we rely on to uphold the rule of law anymore? It's starting to appear we are living in a failed state.

[turcopolier]

AIS

He was a convert to the neocon faith early in life and all else was mischief.

[Deap]

We hardly live in a failed state. We live in the state the Founders' envisioned: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We were not founded to be a "perfect government" nor Lady Bountiful to be all things to all persons at all times.

We were founded to be a limited government, constrained by built in checks and balances. To provide only those essential government services the people consented to create.

We did not consent to the massive growth of the unelected administrative state controlled by unionized government employee unions, which have become the extension of a single political party. JFK did that to us with a stroke on his pen by executive order.

Too many recent immigrants, legal, fraudulently obtained, illegal or otherwise come steeped with America as Lady Bountiful demands on our country; and fail to accept this was always intended to be a county built on personal responsibility, opportunity and limited government interference in our lives except in those areas agreed by mutual compact.

JFK + LBJ opened up the massive US welfare state for personal political gain. And thus struck a knife deep into the heart of every original American founding principle. Measure the decline of the American Dream from those two men forward.

We have long knows the difference between a hand up and a hand out. America has always been a generous, charitable and caring nation - because it has an open conscience for the common good. When evil existed, we the people worked with government resources to stamp it out.

The growth of Big Government post WWII put an end to America former and genuine civic engagement. Public sector employee unions supplanted civic volunteerism and personal philanthropy. How do we re-engage this uniquely American heritage or civic engagement; not partisan sabotage?

[Keith Harbaugh]

Colonel, regarding your book, do the reviewing authoties give you an end date by which they will or must give you a decision, or can they drag this out indefinitely, keeping you in limbo?

[Artemesia]

"He was a convert - - -"
I was going to ask what went wrong with Bolton: was he dropped on his head as an infant? No father in the home? The Dulles brothers spent their childhoods being harangued by their bible-thumping Calvinist grandfather (reports Kinzer in his useful bio on the brothers).

In Jeff Engel's book about the decision-making behind G H W Bush's decision to wage war against Saddam re Kuwait, he recounts that an argument by Brent Scowcroft was significant, AND that "Scowcroft, who was very short," confronted taller-than-average Bush while knees-to-knees in an airplane.
Bolton is shorter than the average American male. Does he have 'short-person' compulsion to compensate?

People psychologize Trump constantly, usually from ignorance and malice. But something is very wrong with Bolton. Pompeo as well. What is it?
"What huge imago made a psychopathic god?" (Auden, Sept. 1939)

[turcopolier]

Keith Harbaugh

I am at their mercy it seems. It went to six different outfits. Five have cleared although I have not seen what they want to take out.

[Polish Janitor]

Col Lang,

#1 I read this WaPo article that argued because the recent DOJ's lawsuit against the release of the book is based on "prior restraint on speech before it occurs", meaning the Trump administration cannot censor speech before it happens, therefore there is no 1st amendment breach against the Trump admin by Bolton. As the court elaborated in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, prior restraints are “the most serious and the least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights” and “one of the most extraordinary remedies known to our jurisprudence.”

#2 Bolton took all of his notes containing classified intelligence with him after he was fired and nobody took an issue. How is that possible?

#3 The Wapo article says his manuscript was reviewed for four months by one Ellen Knight, an official (doesn't mention which department) responsible for reviewing publishing material and she gave it the green light for publication on April 27th.

#4 During a press conference, Bill Barr gave an unusual take on Bolton's book as if he was giving publicity to the book. He said he had never seen a book being written on Trump with such pace and in such quick time and that it had a lot of sensitive information and stuff. It sounded really odd what Bill Barr said. I dunno maybe I am reading to much between the lines...

#5 With regards to Pompeo, back in September during a press conference at the State, when asked by a reporter about Bolton's firing I specifically remember watching him on TV giving a big meaningful chuckle and a smile... it was revealed later that they clearly did not get along with each other and Pompeo had complained on numerous times that Bolton as NSA, who does not have executive authorities, had been doing a lot of policy stuff and running his own show in shadow.

On a final note, I don't think Bolton is a neocon in the mold of Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Abrams, Kagan, Kristol etc...There is this long piece by New Yorker published last year that really gets into detail of how and why Bolton is not a neocon, but adheres to a more hawkish Jacksonian nationalism approach rather than the liberal idealism of arch neocons I mentioned above. However, he does have quite similar F.P. views with neocon oldies such as Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, and Jeane Kirkpatrick.

[JohnH]

If Bolton does NOT get the book thrown at him, it will be pretty good evidence of the existence of the Deep State allowing those it favors to write their own rules. Of course, we already knew that after Clapper lied with impunity to Wyden when he was under oath.

[TV]

He'll never be prosecuted and neither will Comey, Clapper and the rest of the swamp scum.
Strozk (lower on the food chain) might be the human sacrifice (with a sentence of "community service") but no one of any significance (or "royal" title) is ever prosecuted in the swamp.
Trump has tried, but his miserable lack of hiring experience and skill has not made a dent

[Polish Janitor]

Artemisia,

I feel like I have a few words to say about Bolton if I may,

IMHO Bolton's view of the world is very dark and extremely Hobbesian. He is no slouch by any stretch of imagination, in fact he is extremely knowledgeable and masterful when it comes to policy-making and that basically how things are done in D.C. He has made a brand for himself as the most hawkish national security expert in all of America in my opinion. Honestly I cannot think of anyone else who espouses more hawkishness and zero diplomacy than Bolton, ever... maybe Tom Cotton or Liz Cheney but still not close. This is the reason why Trump hired him. In fact Trump did not want to hire him as the top brass in first place, citing his mustache as one reason that would not look good on TV and wanted to give him 2nd tier jobs at the State or as NSA early on, but Bolton refused. Trump, wanted to hire Bolton's "brand" not his policies or hawkishness to intimidate Nkorea, Iran, and China to force them come into making deals with him and him personally.

IMO Trump found out after the first Kim summit that Bolton was
such an ambitious and counterproductive foreign policy maker and one-man-team that if he allowed Bolton to get his way, there would be world war III (Trump's own words) and his most important promise to keep America out of forever wars which was his wining platform over neocons such as Hilary, Jeb and Rubio during 2016 election would disappear into thin air.

So, Trump found ways to check Bolton and keep him out of the loop in sensitive and crucial moments by Mattis, Kelly, Joe Dunford, Pompeo and even Melania (in the case of getting rid of Bolton's close confidant and neocon Mira Ricardel when she called for bombing Iranian forces back in September 2018 in respone to several rockets by iraqi militias hitting the ground close to the U.S. embassy in Baghdad), and even sent him to Mongolia last year on a goose chase to make an embarrassing example of him for undermining him (i.e. Trump's) authority in the case of sitting down with the Taliban in Camp David to discuss military pullout from Afghanistan back in Sep. whereas at the same time Pompeo was smart enough to tow the same line as Trump and survive.

I few years ago I came across this interesting but odd piece by B on the Moon of Alabama on Bolton. I honestly dunno what to make of it.

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2006/02/a_glasshouse_in.html

[ked]

The book is already released in the hundreds. It will be on-line soon enough regardless of the niceties of Barr’s attempt to slam shut the barn door, or what the legal system does with Bolton going fwd.
Those close to Trump know his emotional state must be appeased or they will soon be departing - unless there’s a DNA match.
Reaction to it will be a test of one’s ability to distinguish Bolton from the events he describes & their veracity. Is there anything of Trump’s statements & acts (released so far) that surprises anyone... that rings untrue?
Those ideologically (or religiously) dependent upon the Trump Phenomenon for validating their core beliefs will demonstrate how creative true believers can be when attached to a personality.

[A.I.S.]

For what its worth I am looking forward to buying it, should scratch that Peter Scholl Latour itch.

Another thing is that I just dont get the Neocons.
Their politics are bad both from a Machieavellian (dilutes US forces, creates enemies, considerably restricts creative ways in which US power could be employed) and from a moral (obviously) point of view. I also dont get their power, stupid/evil tends to be competed out. Heck, even if they are stupid/evil but very good at beurocratic backbiting stuff, they are still supposedly disadvantadged against skilled beurocratic backbiters that arent stupid/evil (or at least only evil and not stupid).
Is it internal cohesion or a much higher degree of ruthlessness that maintains their position?

[PB]

I've for many years thought that the Bolton problem was best solved with a speedy trial and a swift execution, with remains thrown overboard somewhere in the Indian ocean.

[turcopolier]

polish janitor

He signed an oath to safeguard the secrecy of the information when "read on" for it and another such when he was "read off." The 1st Amendment does not come into it at all

[eakens]

Artemesia:

It has long been rumored that there may be some compromising videos of Bolton from the early 80's from time he supposedly spent at Plato's Retreat.

He must be the lap dog that he is for a reason.

[JP Billen]

A.I.S. - I may read it. But I won't put a nickel in Bolton's pocket. I'll wait to get it from a library or used bookstore. Why make a moron rich?

[Babak makkinejad]

A.I.S.

You cannot get the "Neocons", the alibi of an entire alliance, because you are not noticing the hold of the ideas of Old Testament Protestantism on the minds of so many aming the US electorate.

Yes, the government is not holding up any religion preferrentially but has otherwise pursued policies domestically and internationally that could only be undesrtood as religious.

The wars of the last 20 years to make Israel safe is one, the destruction of the ethnic Catholic neighborhoods of Philadelphia was another.

[The Twisted Genius]

I have no idea why Trump chose to hire that miserable peckerhead. The only place where their goals intersected was their shared desire to destroy Iran. I guess he thought they would get along as fellow assholes. But as they said in "Highlander," there can be only one.

Bolton sent his manuscript to Ellen Knight, the NSC senior director for records access and information security management. There was a four month back and forth review and revision process. Because of that, both Bolton and Simon & Shuster probably covered their asses from prosecution. The mistake was at the NSC. Knight should have never approved that particular book on her own. That should have been brought to Trump personally. As it was, both Trump and Barr seemed clueless about the book's publication next week in an interview i saw yesterday. The White House is a mess.

[Terence Gore]

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/06/18/peter-navarro-shreds-john-bolton/

According to Navarro "Big Lie Book Deal Bolton" was positively giddy about the overthrowing the government of Venezuela.

[Yeah, Right]

On a wider note, the post of NSA has given Trump more than a bit of bother, even though it is "only" an advisory role i.e. the office-holder has no authority to implement policy decisions, or even to make policy decisions.

Honest question: would it really make much difference to the operation of the Executive branch if the POTUS were to abolish that position?

[Yeah, Right]

Apparently Pompeo has decided to keep a dignified silen... oops, cancel that.

Pompous has just gone in boots 'n' all to shout that The 'Tash is a lying sack of cow manure who has revealed himself to be a traitor to the USA.

Well, yeah Mike, why not tell us something we didn't know.