Full Answers Elude Senators On Bolton's Requests for Names

One of the most intriguing issues raised by the John R. Bolton nomination -- his 10 requests to learn the names of U.S. citizens mentioned in intercepted communications -- appears likely to fade away without conclusive answers, congressional officials said yesterday.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Thursday sent Bolton's nomination to become U.N. ambassador to the full Senate without endorsement, had sought to learn the details of Bolton's requests, including the names. But the National Security Agency this week agreed only to brief the two top senators on the Select Committee on Intelligence on the intercepts that had prompted Bolton's requests -- and even then would not provide the names.

State Department officials said Bolton sought the names to better understand the context of the intercepts he was reading. But opponents have speculated widely about possible motives. Under U.S. law, references to U.S. citizens, U.S. companies or even foreign citizens visiting the United States must be censored from the intercepts and can be disclosed to analysts and policymakers only under specific circumstances.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said he had been told by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chairman of the intelligence committee, that there was nothing relevant in the transcripts to the Bolton nomination.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) agreed that the intercept issue was probably a red herring. "I don't think there's probably anything there, based on my going to present administration officials that I respect, and past administration officials," Biden said moments before the committee voted along party lines to send Bolton's nomination to the Senate floor. He said that he expected Roberts and Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) to send the committee a letter at some point asserting that "they see no pattern that would raise any alarm."

But Biden said he was furious that the committee had not been able to get any further clarity on the issue, even from his Senate colleagues. "Mr. Bolton has seen this information, but we cannot?" Biden said. "Mr. Bolton can see this information, but a 32-year senator who never had once in his entire career had anybody raise a question about his treatment of secret or classified data, I'm not entitled to see it?"

After the committee vote, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) placed a "hold" on the nomination -- a procedural move preventing a floor vote -- in an effort to get more information on the intercepts, said spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz. Boxer also is seeking internal State Department documents on the preparations for Bolton's speeches on Syria and information on the private clients of a consultant to Bolton's office.

Committee staffers have been unable to determine whether Bolton's 10 requests were out of the ordinary. In Bush's first term, more than 400 requests were made by the State Department for such details.

A senior Democratic aide said the "vast majority" were made by analysts in the State Department's intelligence bureau or diplomatic security, while a "small number" were made by policymakers. But Bolton's requests were funneled through the intelligence bureau, and so it is possible they would have been coded as coming from the bureau, he said. None of Bolton's requests was denied.

Bolton, in a written statement to the committee, said that Christian Westermann, an analyst specializing in weapons of mass destruction, handled about half of the requests, which congressional officials said indicated the transcripts concerned that subject. Generally, the answers were typed on a piece of paper and hand-carried by diplomatic security officers for Bolton to read but not retain.

Officials said the intercepts involved conversations between foreign officials, and the names of U.S. citizens or companies would be censored if they came up in such conversations. But under rules governing such intercepts, if a senior government official were mentioned, such as Colin L. Powell, the name would substituted with the person's title, in this case "secretary of state."