CUBA CONFIDENTIAL

U.N. Ambassador-designate John Bolton is shaping up as President Bush's most controversial nominee since perhaps John Ashcroft, and Democrats are raising new questions (any questions they can think of) about him. Meanwhile, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is likely to wrap up his Valerie Plame investigation soon. What do the two have to do with each other? Nothing! Unless...

Here's today's Miami Herald:

Congressional investigators are probing a new allegation that President Bush's choice for U.N. ambassador once visited CIA headquarters to demand the removal of a top intelligence analyst who disagreed with him on Cuba's biological warfare capabilities. ... The analyst, who was the Latin America expert on the National Intelligence Council, cannot be identified because he is now in an undercover position.

And here's USA Today, in fact, today:

Democrats' concerns [about Bolton] include ... an allegation by Christian Westermann, an analyst with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, that Bolton "berated him" when he suggested changes in a speech Bolton was about to deliver in 2002 alleging Cuba had a biological weapons program.

Whoops! Oh well, the Plame incident probably wasn't a crime, and I'd wager neither is this. (Hat tip: Dave, my eagle-eyed co-worker.)

UPDATE — In this post I asserted that the Miami Herald and USA Today were confused over whether they could print the name of CIA analyst Christian Westermann. As my erstwhile colleague Eric Pfeiffer reported last week, there was some confusion about whether the name of analyst Fulton Armstrong could be released (it could and was). It's unclear to whom the Herald was referring, but I concede it's possible that Fulton was analyst they meant.

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posted by WWB at 3:47 PM |