John Bolton Discusses Ted Cruz's Demand for the State Dept. to Release the Iran Human Rights Report

rights abuses in Iran that report supposed to be released back in February John Bolton former U. S. ambassador you end up auctions contributor with announcer good morning to

you people are late sometimes and their homework is this a case of that Sir well the state department has an atrocious record over many years of

it happened in reports do under my jurisdiction when I was there because the clearance process is so burdensome but

I have to say when it comes to a report like the one senator Cruz has identified on Iran

in human rights violations which should be a long report %HESITATION it's %HESITATION it it certainly raises the question of what's taking so long is that the nuclear negotiations %HESITATION

or is there some other reason you're saying this this psalm Regis a different threshold I

the rug Iran's horrific human rights record because presumably acknowledging that fact would be inconvenient

for the ongoing diplomacy with Iran what can he do to reverse that and make it public well

what senator cruises proposed is really very creative legislatively and that is to reduce the state department's appropriation by a fixed amount %HESITATION

as the deadline passes and then goes by week after week and month after month yeah you know this is something that %HESITATION if you go back into the late seventies in particular Republican

members of the house and Senate were very good at it was a way to get %HESITATION the Carter administration's attention yeah

there's nothing like buying a bureaucracy you're going to cut their budget to what wake them up well here is the reaction of the administration on this because they say it's just taking longer than we thought watch

delay is nothing to do with the Iran negotiations what so ever that isn't completely yeah

false notion absolutely no truth to it at all and we recognize that the that the report is late by

several months are we were working very hard on that and ice and I expect the you will see

that report released in the very near future in the very near future still seems broad well admiral

Kirby welcome to the state department you know I I think %HESITATION it's very hard to say that that that that there's a negative here there's no relationship to it I

think this report on the air human rights conditions in Iran is going to be a pretty negative

boy it sure doesn't move fast between the desk you know when it when Ted Cruz threatens to find the state department a

certain amount of money every day how does the state department reacted well the state department doesn't like Congressional oversight or interference at all it looks at European foreign ministries that have little or no interference from their parliaments and

they'd rather just be on their own and in fact it's the requirements for reports from the state department are often imposed precisely

because that's the only way Congress can get information out but I tell you using Congress's power of the purse to get the bureaucracies attention I

think is a very powerful a tool so I hope that when senator Cruz has proposed here really sparks creativity after

other kinds of %HESITATION of similar amendments nineteenth June and I eleven days right Mister ambassador eleven