text: The State Department's chief bioweapons analyst refused to approve the accusation made in the speech, telling Bolton that the State Department did not have evidence to substantiate Bolton's accusation. Subsequently, Bolton berated the analyst, unsuccessfully sought to fire him, began to exclude the analyst's supervisor from meetings, and tried to transfer the analyst to a different office. Bolton was also alleged to have sought to punish other intelligence officers who refused to endorse his claims about Cuba. Paul Pillar described Bolton's attempts to get the intelligence community to endorse his views as among the most egregious recent instances of "arm-twisting" the intelligence community, while Columbia University international relations scholar Richard K. Betts described the reports about Bolton's pressure as "most blatant top-down pressure on intelligence" in the Bush administration. Bolton claims the issue was procedural rather than related to the content of his speech and that the officers, who did not work under him, behaved unprofessionally.
  In April 2004, Bolton again accused Cuba of being a "terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States." Experts at the time disputed the veracity of Bolton's claims, saying the evidence in support of the claim was weak. In September 2004 and in the wake of the failure to locate WMDs in Iraq, the Bush administration backed off claims that Cuba had an active biological weapons program.
  Criticism
  Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman alleged that Bolton played a role in encouraging the inclusion of the statement that British Intelligence had determined Iraq attempted to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger in Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address. These statements were claimed by critics of the President to be partly based on documents found to be forged. Waxman's allegations could not be confirmed, as they were based on classified documents.