NATO CLAIM:THE LISBON Treaty will threaten Nato and undermine democracy, a former senior Bush administration official has claimed.
John Bolton, known for being one of the US president's most outspoken hawks, also said he would be stunned if any links between the US military and the anti-treaty campaign were proved.
The controversial former US ambassador to the UN, regarded as a key proponent of the Iraq war in the run-up to the invasion, said he could not understand why Irish people would support the treaty.
"I don't understand why people voluntarily give up more power to bureaucrats," he said. "The only people you elect have a very limited role and I think this treaty will further enhance the power of institutions in Brussels without extending democratic authority to people." Mr Bolton said a Yes vote in Thursday's referendum could affect the military alliance of European countries with the US.
"I think there is a risk that it would undercut Nato," he said, speaking before a talk on transatlantic relations at University College Dublin at the weekend.
"Because if the European Union has its own military capability . . . people would say if Europeans can take care of their own defence, we don't need Nato anymore. I think that would be a huge mistake."
Mr Bolton said he was surprised at allegations of links between the No campaign and the US military.
"I would be stunned [ if it was proven] and, if there were anybody in the US military trying to do it and they were found out, they would be fired," he insisted.
US president George Bush appointed Mr Bolton US ambassador to the UN in 2005, an organisation he had openly criticised. He had to step down just over a year later when the Democrats took control of the Senate.
Despite his role as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security from 2001 to 2005, he said he never talked to Mr Bush about the Iraq invasion.
"I don't think I ever talked to the president about Iraq," he said.
Mr Bolton is now a fellow at the conservative think tank, the American Enterprise Institute. - (PA)