Last Thursday morning, I sent a couple of questions to the "Ask the State Department" site that was planning an online session with John Bolton.

I sent two questions, clearly identified myself, received confirmations from the State Department that my queries of Ambassador Bolton were received. Just to post them again:

1. Ambassador Bolton, why when you were Chair of the U.N. Security Council or during any other part of your tenure have you failed to pursue what happened to the $9 billion that passed from UN hands to the Coalition Provisional Authority? You speak a great deal about the need for reform, transparency, and honest governance. What happened to this money? And why don't you seem to care?

2. Ambassador Bolton, how do you feel about Under Secretaty of State Nicholas Burns? Are you on the same page on Iran? He says that we need to give diplomacy time to work on Iran and not recklessly shake the fragile opportunity that may exist with Iran. You say that we have to ram through an agreement. . .yesterday. Are you working at cross-purposes? Or is this a good cop/bad cop thing? Or is there another explanation?

I think that these were pretty polite questions, particularly the first.

If you read the transcript of carefully crafted blandness in Bolton's responses during his on-line forum, there is no reference to the questions I posted early.

That's OK. They can't answer everyone -- and I felt that I was just accidentally ignored -- UNTIL I got this email.

This is the response received to my second question:

We have not heard from you concerning your request for support in the 48 hours since we sent you a response. Consequently, we have changed the status of your question to SOLVED.

Question Reference #060323-000121

---------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: Relationship with R. Nicholas Burns -- Iran Diplomacy

Category Level 1: Ask the State Department

Date Created: 03/23/2006 08:27 AM

Last Updated: 03/26/2006 01:49 AM

Status: Solved

Discussion Thread

---------------------------------------------------------------

Customer - 03/23/2006 08:27 AM

Ambassador Bolton, How do you feel about Nick Burns? Are you on the same page on Iran? He says that we need to give diplomacy time to work on Iran and not recklessly shake the fragile opportunity that may exist with Iran. You say that we have to ram through an agreement. . .yesterday. Are you working at cross-purposes? Or is this a good cop/bad cop thing? Or is there another explanation?

[---001:000825:09289---]

I'm posting this mostly for the humor of it. I only received a confirmation that State had received my query for Bolton and then heard nothing more.

I guess to get a response I should have posted the question a couple of times to them, keeping it alive during their 48 hour window.

Nonetheless, I have no idea if Ambassador Bolton saw my questions.

Now that I've posted them here, however, I have confidence he will see them.

What did happen to that $9 billion of UN managed money that flowed through U.S. controlled coffers?

-- Steve Clemons