Former Senior Us Official John Bolton Admits To Plotting Foreign Coup Attempts

Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) – John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday he helped plan coup attempts in foreign countries. Bolton made the remarks on CNN after today’s congressional hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the US Capitol. Lawmakers on the panel on Tuesday accused former President Donald Trump of inciting the violence in a last-ditch effort to stay in office after losing the 2020 election. Read more However, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bolton said Trump was not competent enough to carry out a “carefully planned coup”, later adding: “As someone who has helped plan coups – not here, but you know (in ) other parts – needs a lot of work. And that’s not what (Trump) did.” Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Tapper asked Bolton what attempts he was referring to. “I’m not going to go into specifics,” Bolton said, before referring to Venezuela. “It turned out not to be successful. Not that we had that much to do with it, but I saw what it took for an opposition to try to overthrow an illegally elected president and they failed,” he said. In 2019, Bolton as national security adviser publicly supported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s call for the military to support his bid to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro, arguing that Maduro’s re-election was illegitimate. In the end, Maduro remained in power. “I feel like there are other things you’re not telling me (beyond Venezuela),” the CNN anchor said, prompting a response from Bolton: “I’m sure there are.” Many foreign policy experts over the years have criticized Washington’s history of interventions in other countries, from its role in the 1953 overthrow of then-nationalist Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the Vietnam War, to its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan this century. But it is highly unusual for American officials to openly acknowledge their role in fomenting unrest in foreign countries. “John Bolton, who has served in senior positions in the US government, including UN ambassador, has occasionally bragged about helping to plan coups in other countries,” Dickens Olew, a BBC reporter from Kenya, tweeted. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington. edited by Michelle Price and Rosalba O’Brien Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

title: “Former Senior Us Official John Bolton Admits To Plotting Foreign Coup Attempts " ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-04” author: “Catherine Dingus”

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations and former White House national security adviser, said on Tuesday that he helped plan coup attempts in foreign countries. Bolton made the remarks on CNN after today’s congressional hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the US Capitol. Lawmakers on the panel accused former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday of inciting the violence in a last-ditch effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. However, speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper, Bolton said Trump was not competent enough to carry out a “carefully planned coup”, later adding: “As someone who has helped plan coups – not here, but you know (in ) other parts – needs a lot of work. And that’s not what (Trump) did.” Tapper asked Bolton what attempts he was referring to. “I’m not going to go into specifics,” Bolton said, before referring to Venezuela. “It turned out not to be successful. Not that we had that much to do with it, but I saw what it took for an opposition to try to overthrow an illegally elected president and they failed,” he said. In 2019, Bolton as national security adviser publicly supported Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s call for the military to support his bid to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro, arguing that Maduro’s re-election was illegitimate. In the end, Maduro remained in power. “I feel like there are other things you’re not telling me (beyond Venezuela),” the CNN anchor said, prompting a response from Bolton: “I’m sure there are.” Many foreign policy experts over the years have criticized Washington’s history of interventions in other countries, from its role in the 1953 overthrow of then-nationalist Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh and the Vietnam War, to its invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan this century. But it is highly unusual for American officials to openly acknowledge their role in fomenting unrest in foreign countries. “John Bolton, who has served in senior positions in the US government, including UN ambassador, has occasionally bragged about helping to plan coups in other countries,” Dickens Olew, a BBC reporter from Kenya, tweeted. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington. edited by Michelle Price and Rosalba O’Brien