Dec 07 2005
Rogue CIA Agents In On Niger Forgeries?
Reader Snapple pointed us to the latest news article to come from the Italian newspaper Il Giornale. There smashing reporting was sighted in previous posts here and here, where we lay out the proposal the CIA had Wilson out in Niger to buy out the leaders of the coup d’etat in 1999, and later in 2002 to make sure everyone kept calm and quiet while the US was checking out Iraq’s attempts to acquire uranium yellow cake.
Well, the Italian news media have been monitoring the joint FBI-SISMI investigation into the role of the Niger forgeries (which now appear to have come from France, manager of the uranium mines in Gabon and Niger, benefactor in Saddam’s Oil For Food program and the one nation adamant about not having Saddam toppled (and all his dirty secrets aired). This is amazing stuff, and points to some possible coordination with rogue CIA agents.
Amazingly, an ex-US Ambassador with a French wife working in the French government, with strong ties to the nations running uranium mines, would be a great asset in this kind of covert operation.
The United States and Italy will carry out a joint investigation into the Niger-gate affair, the decision was announced by the Director of SISMI, Nicolò Pollari, on 3 November (not, as reported by La Repubblica, the 24 November) during a hearing of the Copaco Commission. The investigations will focus on discovering the truth behind the documents that emerged from the Niger embassy in Rome, the role played by Rocco Martino (the spy paid by the French) and the conduct of a number of Italian and American citizens whose activities are only now beginning to emerge.
According to indiscretions circulating in various, including judicial, environments the individuals under investigation attempted to obtain information on people and the activities of the Italian Intelligence Services. The activities conducted by SISMI are classified and covered by state secrecy laws. The investigation is examining the attempt to acquire information classified as ‘top secret’ through having corrupted a government official with access to archives and databases belonging to the State. Counterespionage activities have already begun and the FBI will now take part in them. The Bureau has been criticised for not having interrogated Rocco Martino while he was in the United States. The freelance spy arrived in the USA in somewhat unusual circumstances with the help and assistance of a group of individuals who – to all intents, effects and purposes – planned his ‘disappearance’ from Italy while he was under observation and the investigators were preparing to interrogate him.
There very few people trained to get a spy who is under investigation out of his native country unseen. Even fewer can get him into the US. Most of those who could work or used to work for the CIA.
La Repubblica also seems to forget that Rocco Martino did not have a ‘casual’ or ‘occasional’ relationship with the spies from the DGSE but a constant one, one which did not simply concentrate on information regarding the Balkans but included delicate issues concerning parliamentary bodies and the governments of various European countries. According to intelligence inquiries Martino was not simply a ‘postman’ but a 007 capable of maintaining high level relations and in possession of extremely delicate information. His relations ship with the French spies was of a regular nature, consolidated and tested up to the point that Martino – when the relationship went sour – went as far as to ask for compensation. As regards the role of Alain Chouet, the number two at the DGSE (who fell from grace and was removed from his position due to having deviated the French services by conducting illegal investigations into the affairs of President Chirac), it would be interesting to know something about his contacts with Martino in Brussels in 1999-2000, a crucial – and still partially unknown – moment in the Niger-gate affair.
There is that timeframe again – 1999. Wilson went to Niger on Valerie’s behest sometime between April (coup) and October (new government) of 1999. He came back a year later, on his own supposedly. At that same time Iraq was approaching Niger (June 1999) and other countries.
If the source of the Niger forgeries was French intelligence, and US intelligence helped their spy get out of Italy and to the US, then it is not a huge leap to conclude the some rogue elements in the CIA, working with the French, tried to cover up something in Africa regarding Iraq.
The ‘prints’ of the diplomats are all over Niger-gate, this is evident. The dossier was not produced in Rome, it was catapulted into the ‘eternal city’ from another country, one which the joint SISMI-FBI will be examining in order to expose the facts once and for all.
This should be fascinating. Meanwhile, Joe Wilson has dropped all pretense of being a non partisan critic as he schleps for Democrat money in Minnesota.
Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador at the center of a political maelstrom over the war in Iraq, will headline two DFL Party fundraisers in the Twin Cities next week.
…
He was a volunteer foreign-policy adviser to John Kerry’s 2004 Democratic presidential campaign and has made numerous appearances in recent years on behalf of Democratic candidates and causes, he said.
Joe is about the meet Cindy Sheehan’s fate I would wager.
The Italian government has now formally denied involvement, leaving the French and some US citizens holding the bag.
The Italian government on Monday denied any involvement in a dossier purporting to show an attempt by Iraq to buy uranium in Africa and which was used to help support the case for toppling Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
A statement from the Italian premier’s office said “Italian institutions” were not involved “either directly or indirectly” in the forging or distribution of the dossier.
It also accused the Italian daily La Repubblica of “repeatedly attempting at all costs to support the hypothesis of the government ‘s presumed involvement.”
La Repubblica has published a series of investigative articles alleging that Italy’s military intelligence service Sismi handed the forged documents to the United States possibly under pressure from the Italian government.
La Repubblica? Sounds like some communist-socialist rag.
BurbankErnie put this iin the comments on Plame’s retirement
NY Post article on November 29, 2005:
A smidge:
“Friends and colleagues told The Post the leak scandal forced Plame, mother of 5-year-old twins, to leave the CIA early because the exposure effectively ended her spying career. …
November 29th only 5 days after the Nov 24 LaRepubblica date
The 24th was Thanksgiving here – the 29th was the following
Tuesday. So if word was out, Monday the 28th she signed the
papers – NY Post publishes on Tuesday. Hmmmmm.
When they find the discard pile of “practice” fake Niger documents in some basement room in Langley, I hope they don’t miss the pile of “practice” fake TANG memos next to it.
“Individuals under investigation attempted to obtain information on people and the activities of the Italian Intelligence Services.”
hmm. wonder who these individuals were?
I’m gonna put link in again ONLY because it makes for easy reading with the links, but it is very interesting to RE-READ how much and what LARRY C. JOHNSON says a Italy Intelligence.
http://mapesplace.blogspot.com/2005/11/niger-caper.html
Rocco once said, but MSM wasn’t listening
“…But Martino – known in the Italian media by his intelligence code name “Giacomo†– has not been shy to confirm that he was the man who picked up the information from the Nigerian embassy in Rome.
It is still unclear who forged them, though the Italian media has alleged that the French themselves may forged them as a way to undermine Washington, and that part of the plan was for Martino to pass them on. Martino has denied that charge…
…Martino has been vague and sometimes contradictory in explaining his role in the affair.
In 2003, he reportedly indicated he was under contract with SISMI.
Then, in October 2004, he did not contradict reports that he was working with French intelligence, allegedly to help build a case that could discredit US plans to invade Iraq – which was based on Hussein’s reported capacity to build a nuclear bomb
Here his Larry C. Johnson’s extensive Italy Intelligence post directly
scary alert!
It appears that GIS was right on in their investigation. If so, the third witness in the Saddam trial is going to blow everything out of the water!! 🙂
GIS Special Topical Studies
New Attempt to Distract Niger Uranium Export Issue Away From Libyan Rôle
Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS. New attempts are being made by officials from Niger to obfuscate the political picture with regard to the supply of Niger-originating uranium to Iraq. However, there is now a growing possibility that the reality that Niger supplied uranium to Libya, and that Libya hosted the Iraqi strategic weapons programs from about 1998 onwards, will be openly acknowledged by US and UK governments in the near future. The exclusive reporting on this matter by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs — reporting which was either denied or ignored in the build-up to the Iraq War — is increasingly being vindicated by other sources.
The BBC — which has taken a consistently hostile position to the US and UK governments on the question of the Iraq war — on July 14, 2004, quoted Niger’s former Prime Minister, Ibrahim Mayaki as saying that Iraq did not try to buy uranium, contradicting US claims made in the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Mayaki said that no Iraqi delegation went to Niger while he was Foreign Minister or Prime Minister.
The story, timed to come out alongside the release of the 196-page report based on the enquiry into British intelligence on the build-up to the Iraq war by Lord Butler, was designed to denigrate all the intelligence which led to the US and UK governments’ decision to attack Iraq over the question of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and systems. The UK Government has consistently stood by its story that Niger uranium was acquired by Iraq.
The US Government admitted that documents on which the assessment of Niger-Iraq uranium dealings were based were, in fact, forgeries which they had been given.
However, the Butler report, as well as the Mayaki quote failed to ask the basic questions:
1. Who provided the forged documents to the US, and why? and
2. Was the uranium sent to Iraqi WMD laboratories and facilities in Libya, rather than Iraq?
It is now known absolutely that Libya’s External Security Organization (ESO), under the control of Moussa Koussa, who was the primary link to the US and British intelligence services in “normalizing†Libya’s relations with the US and Britain, produced and delivered the forged documents to the Italian military intelligence organization, SISMI, for onward passage to the US. At an appropriate time, the Libyans ensured that the fact that the documents was forged was leaked to the Director-General of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed El-Baradei, who then attacked the US assumptions on the Iraqi nuclear program by stating that the documents on which the US based its assessments were forged.
The reporting on this was produced by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily on July 29, 2003.
See:
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, October 1, 2002: Weapons Grade Uranium Moving in Middle East; Iraqi WMD and Delivery Development Being Undertaken in Libya.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, July 29, 2003: Niger-Iraq Uranium Reports Involve Ongoing Libyan Deception Ops.
Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, December 22, 2003: Libyan WMD Programs, Long Cited by GIS, Admitted as Qadhafi Begins Rear-Guard Action to Stave Off US Attack.
The BBC noted on July 14, 2004: “An official report into UK intelligence supported the claims that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger. Although some documents backing up this claim were shown to be forgeries, the UK has not withdrawn the charge.â€
Indeed, as the original intelligence from GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs HUMINT sources showed in 2002 and 2003, Iraq was buying uranium, but not (or not just) from the DPRK (North Korea), where the UK Special Intelligence Service (SIS) and some sources believed, based on intercept intelligence.
The July 2004 US Senate report on the intelligence leading up to the Iraq invasion said that the Saddam Hussein Government may have tried to buy uranium from Africa, but seemed to indicate that this intelligence may have been overturned because — with the discovery of the forged documents — the allegations were withdrawn. However, the fact that no-one in either the media, or, apparently, the US or UK governments, followed the trail of the Libyan deception operation, the question of the acquisition of uranium, paid for by Iraq but delivered to Libya, was not raised publicly.
There is now some suggestion that the US Bush Administration will, in fact, raise the matter in September 2004.
Former Niger Prime Minister Mayaki told the BBC that he denied allegations in the US Senate report that he admitted meeting a delegation from Iraq in 1999. The report said that Mayaki expected to discuss uranium with the Iraqi delegation but managed to steer the conversation in another direction. But Mr Mayaki told the BBC that he had no recollection of such a meeting while he was in government from 1999-2001, and noted: “I think this could be easily verified by the Western intelligence services and by the authorities in Nigerâ€.
However, there is ample evidence of routine Libyan presence in Niger, and of Libyan acquisition of Nigerien uranium, as noted in earlier GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs reporting.
Former US Federal Prosecutor John Loftus in May 2004 confirmed on Fox News some of the earlier 2002, 2003 and 2004 reporting by GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs that Libya had hosted the Iraqi nuclear program, and further detail was added to this in the June 2004 book by GIS Senior Editor Yossef Bodansky, The Secret History of the Iraq War. Loftus, however, failed to note the Niger connection which was literally verified by the deception operation mounted by the Libyan ESO. Loftus told Fox News interviewer Eric Shawn:
Loftus: “I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, ‘My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they’re going to find out about our nuclear program. And who’s going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?’â€
Shawn: “You’re saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?â€
Loftus: “Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree. He was the Foreign Minister of Iraq. And he went to [Libyan leader Mu’ammar al-] Qadhafi and they worked out a whole protocol. Qadhafi would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium. And they would literally make a factory for nuclear weapons. And once that factory was complete, we had lost the war on terrorism. People don’t realize that even a small nuclear weapon can kill 300,000 people. That’s one hundred 9-11’s. So that’s why we put [garbled] bin Laden on the back burner — we were really focusing on getting the Ali Sobree protocol — we had to smash that ring.”
Shawn: “Now when you talk about Saddam and the war on terror … your indication is that [US] President [George W.] Bush understood this after 9-11 and he was mostly concerned about a nuclear bomb from Libya or Iraq or Iran.”
Loftus: “Eric, that’s EXACTLY it. Within a month after 9-11, British wiretaps showed that we had a MAJOR risk. Nuclear weapons in terrorist’s hands would be devastating. And that’s why the President said: ‘OK, we’re gonna shift the emphasis from Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. We’re gonna go into Iraq – that’s where the evidence is – we have to capture Ali Sobree.”
Later in the interview Loftus noted:
“It was THE major strategy. Qadhafi has now confirmed he is going to hand the Ali Sobree protocols over to the United States. Sobree, himself, is now in US custody and he is already scheduled as one of the first three witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein.â€
SBD
This is so confusing!
Well, I totally can’t follow all of this until I read it about 100 times, but you know what? I believe Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are trying to keep me safe. I trust them. And I distrust some of those Democrats.
I wonder if some Democrats got oil-for-food money in exchange for taking certain political positions? If I were Saddam, I would have tried to buy American politicians, too, not just French and Russian ones. And we all know some of our politicians are for sale.
I read that a Detroit businessman took a group of anti-war Democratic Congressmen to Baghdad in September 2002 and that he also paid for the documentary on Iraq made by Scott Ritter, a guy who was an important weapons inspector in Iraq. This documentary was even against sanctions (not just the war) on Iraq.
Some people say Bush is dumb, but I read that he played poker really well even in college.
I don’t play poker, but I think you try to hide your aces until the other guys play their hand.
I think Bush is like that detective Columbo who lets the other guys think that they are the smart ones in order to trip them up.
Time will tell. Or maybe this Sobree.
You guys bash the CIA pretty much, so I want to point out that it was a CIA Directorate of Operations official who got Lybia to give up these WMD. So I don’t think a few bad apples spoils the whole barrel. These VIPS have mostly left the CIA a pretty long time ago and have had to make a living somewhere else.
Just as Saddam bought some French intelligence officials, maybe he bought a few retired CIA guys and diplomats. Who can know for sure what is going on in a high-stakes game such as this, but it certainly has a suspicious appearance.
Snapple,
I am with you. I am beginning less and less to blame the CIA as a whole and focus in on these rogue elements. But the culture that allowed these leaks is still worthy of criticism.
Bill in AZ,
That was too funny. Thanks for the laugh!
AJStrata
AJ
Isn’t it interesting that Vincent Cannistraro was saying this on Julian Borger in Washington
Wednesday October 9, 2002
“Basically, cooked information is working its way into high-level pronouncements and there’s a lot of unhappiness about it in intelligence, especially among analysts at the CIA,” said Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA’s former head of counter-intelligence.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,807286,00.html
But look at the date the “forgeries” were turned OVER to the US Embassy in Rome
“on the chain of events from 1999 at the moment in which documents they have been delivered to the embassy of the United States”, that is to the 9 of October of 2002.
Sismi did not have some role in the counterfeiting of documents, to have received the correspondence from a civil employee of the embassy of the Niger to Rome and to have delivered it to the French intelligence agencies from which it received periodicals compensations.
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ilgiornale.it%2F&langpair=it%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools
CANNISTRARO VINCENT M
Somalia 1971-1973 Saudi Arabia 1975-1978 Italy 1978-1980 Nicaragua 1986
Honduras 1986
“The other two bits of evidence I find more compelling. Vincent Cannistraro is a damn good source on CIA. He used to work with Plame when he was the head of counter-terrorism.”
“Vincent Cannistraro, Plame’s former boss in Counter-terrorism, says she works in WINPAC
Contrary to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s reporting, former CIA official Vincent Cannistraro said that Plame worked undercover for the Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control, or WINPAC. (Wilson xl)”
“During a radio interview with Ian Masters on April 3, 2005, former CIA operative Vincent Cannistraro charged that the Iraq-Niger documents were forged in the United States.”
Mapes,
You may have found a lead into the forgers. That is too timely by half.
Martino, in turn, offered them to Italian journalist Elizabetta Burba. On instructions from her editor at Panorama, Burba offered them to the U.S. Embassy in Rome in October, 2002…
“I received a call from a former colleague in Sismi,†Giacomo said. “I was told a woman in the Niger embassy in Rome had a gift for me. I met her and she gave me documents. Sismi wanted me to pass on the documents but they didn’t want anyone to know they had been involved.â€
” Ex-CIA agent (and coincidentally, an advisor to the Vatican in Rome),Vincent Cannistraro has stated that Alan Wolf and Duane Clarridge were the actual forgers, but his account is the only one available that I can find on the subject. ”
“This was also backed up by Rocco here
Cannistraro’s “theory” falls apart when you consider that he:
1) blamed SISME (the Italians), which has proven to be wrong
2) bases his assumptions on a Dec 2001 Ledeen meeting, when Cannistraro himself was in Rome in Nov 2001, which would make him just as suspect.
I also discovered that Cannistraro worked directly with Clarridge during Iran Contra, so he has alot of nerve bringing that up in connection to Ledeen. Another interesting tidbit (#47) that I discovered is that Wolf and Clarridge worked with Aldrich Ames, who outed Plame to the Russians in the 90’s. Coincidence? I think not. ”
“wo other names just crept into this…Niger Ambassador Adamou Chekou, who was in charge at the Embassy when the break-in and forgeries occurred and Wissam al-Zahawiah, Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See. Seems Italian Intelligence was eavesdropping on these two and discovered their “hotline”.
Did you read that carefully. Holy See? As in Vatican? Where Vincent Cannistraro is the security advisor?
And speaking of al Zahawie, he was also apparently clairvoyant:”
See Post #26
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1525693/posts
I find it interesting that during Bolton’s nomination, we have some of the same intel issues going on with Niger, Libya, Iraq and rogue CIA agents. There is a war going between the White House/Pentagon and the DNC/CIA. Note former CIA agents that left the agency right after the 04 election….
This left wing anti-Bolton website contains good reference material:
Hersh’s “Stovepipe”
Greg Thielmann, an expert on disarmamen with the State Department’s Bureau o Intelligence and Research, or INR, wa assigned to be the daily intelligence liaison t John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State fo Arms Control, who is a prominen conservative….
… One former senior C.I.A. official told me that the initial report from Italy contained no documents but only a written summary of allegations. “I can fully believe that sismi would put out a piece of intelligence like that,†a C.I.A. consultant told me, “but why anybody would put credibility in it is beyond me.†No credible documents have emerged since to corroborate it.
The second former official, Vincent Cannistraro, who served as chief of counter-terrorism operations and analysis, told me that copies of the Burba documents were given to the American Embassy, which passed them on to the C.I.A.’s chief of station in Rome, who forwarded them to Washington. Months later, he said, he telephoned a contact at C.I.A. headquarters and was told that “the jury was still out on thisâ€â€”that is, on the authenticity of the documents.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact
i miss John Loftus appearances on Fox. As soon as I began to read
post by SBD I immediately remembered the Loftus interviews on
Fox and wanted to cheer that he should come back into good
graces when this all gets out.
He said there were 42(forty-two) nuclear scientists from Iraq working
in Lybia. That should be also be in transcript.
Lost John’s email when AOL wiped out my favorites and address
book months ago. If SBD has site or email for John, I would love
to send him a Kudo!
Unfortunately Larwyn, I don’t have an email for Loftus but his interview is very important to this puzzle. I should also note that CANNISTRARO has accused Loftus of making the forgeries, probably to deflect from himself.
sbd
If we believe the GIS report, and so far it seems to be the most credible, then the question is why go to such gret lengths to deflect the Libya transactions?
Well, there is one person who can tie all of this together. This person was deeply involved in:
Major lobbying efforts in washington
Had FBI Director Robert Mueller’s speak to his terrorist group
Was honored by the IMF and the WTO at a party sponsored by the State Department
Owned the Rock Creek Corp that employed Joe Wilson
Was caught with over $300,000 in cash in the UK
Received the $300,000 cash from the Libya
Was involved in real estate transactions on behalf of Libya
Plotted to kill the Saudi Prince
Taken photos with Clinton and Bush
Former Executive Director of the American Muslin Council
Abdurahman Alamoudi for for supporting terrorists and money laundering which leads us right back to Libya and the Oil for Yellowcake money laundering operation, IE caught with $300,000 in cash on his way back from Libya.
SBD
The last part was supposed to say
Abdurahman Alamoudi was arrested for supporting terrorists and money laundering which leads us right back to Libya and the Oil for Yellowcake money laundering operation, IE caught with $300,000 in cash on his way back from Libya.
SBD
YES! SBD
SBD
this helps too, I think. Advisor to the Vatican in Rome, Cannistraro himself was in Rome in Nov 2001,
Wissam al-Zahawie, Iraq’s ambassador to the Vatican, sets off on a trip to several African countries, including Niger, where he meets with the country’s president. [Independent, 8/10/03a; New Yorker, 10/20/03; Sunday Herald, 7/13/03 Sources: Wissam al-Zahawie, Charles O. Cecil] Zahawie’s visit is reported in the local newspaper as well as by a French news agency. The US and British governments are also aware of the trip but show no concern. At this time, Niger is “actively seeking economic assistance from the United States.†No one suggests that the trip’s motives have anything to do with acquiring uranium. [New Yorker, 10/20/03 Sources: Charles O. Cecil, Wissam al-Zahawie] Soon after the September 11 attacks, the Italian intelligence service, SISMI, will provide the US with information it has about the trip and will suggest that the motive behind the visit was to discuss the future purchase of uranium oxide, also known as “yellowcake†(see Fall 2001). [New Yorker, 10/20/03 Sources: Unnamed US intelligence sources, Wissam al-Zahawie]
People and organizations involved: Wissam al-Zahawie
LINK
VERY Comprehensive timeline here: at link below.
FEBRUARY 1999 : (AN IRAQI OFFICIAL -ACCORDING TO THE IAEA IT IS AL-ZAHAWIE, IRAQ’S AMBASSADOR TO ROME – WAS IN NIGER AND OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES AT THIS TIME, IRAQ WOULD SAY, IN EARLY 2003- AT LEAST ACCORDING TO UN’S EL BARADEI) The head of the U-N nuclear agency ElBaradei [in 2002] said Baghdad suggested the visit by an unidentified Iraqi official to a number of African countries, including Niger, in February 1999, might have given rise to the allegations. ” – Source : VOA News Report, VOA Correspondent ALEX BELIDA, 03/07/03, via http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2003/iraq-030307-2d189eab.htm.
(*The IAEA says the Iraqi ambassador in question is the “Ambassador to Rome, Ambassador Al Zahawie. He retired in August 2000.” and it was his name which was on the forged documents) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/951024/posts…
OCTOBER 23, 1999 : (FORMER AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON, RICHARDSON, AL AMOUDI, ROCK CREEK CORP, WESTAR) To: Shermy The Letter of The Indian Ocean
October 23, 1999
(Some) Well introduced businessmen American buinessmen who will go from November 6-14 to Addis – Abeba at the instigation of the Ethio-American Trade and Investment Council (EATIC, organization close to the government Ethiopian and directed by Gezahegn Kebede) have solid support in American administration. This visit is sponsored by Osyka Corporation, an oil firm of Texas whose president, Michael F Harness, is at the same time a member of EATIC and the National Petroleum Council, an organization charged to advise the American minister of Energie Bill Richardson. Other sponsors: F.C. Schaffer & Associates, a sugar company whose president, Mina Nedelcovych, is also the owner of Corporate Council of Africa (CCA) which assembles the active American companies in Africa.
Several companies controlled by the Saudi-Ethiopic billionaire Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi helped with the organisation of the voyage: Westar Group, which manages the interests dof Al Amoudi in Washington and which is chaired by Derige Mekonen after being directed a long time by the banker Jeff Wilson; Sheraton of Addis-Abeba whose council of administration includes the ex – American ambassador in Ethiopia Irvin Hicks and group MIDROC Ethiopia; but also the Rock Creek Corporation, an investment company controlled by Al Amoudi and chaired since 1997 by a Lebanese businessman very connected into the power circles of Washington, Elias Aburdene. Former adviser of the Franklin Bank National in Washington DC, Aburdene at the start of his accession to the head (position) of Rock Creek Corporation hired the ex – adviser to Bill Clinton for African affairs, Joseph Wilson IV. The latter had already met Mohamed Al Amoudi in 1997 at the time of a reception organized for the World Bank by Westar Group (LAW n.794).
In addition to his responsibilities with the Rock Creek Corporation, Elias Aburdene is the executive chairman very influential National Association of Arab Americans. Alumnus of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he is also very active in the old networks of the university, where teaches the ex-under-secretary of State for African Affairs Chester A. Crocker and the American mediator between Ethiopia and Eritrea, former National Security Advisor of Bill Clinton Anthony Lake.
LINK
EBRUARY 1999 : (NIGER : IRAQ’S FORMER AMBASSADOR TO THE VATICAN AL-ZAHAWIE VISITS NIAMEY, NIGER’S CAPITOL, WHILE ON A TOUR OF WEST AFRICAN NATIONS, TO INVITE PRESIDENT MAINASSARA TO BAGHDAD) a February 1999 visit to Niamey, Niger’s capital, by Wissam al-Zahawie, Iraq’s former ambassador to the Vatican. [He later claimed that his] trip had nothing to do with uranium. He was touring four West African nations, he said, and came here to invite Niger’s then-President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara to Baghdad. Mainassara was assassinated two months later, and al-Zahawie could not be reached for comment about their talks. – “A look at the U.S.-British claims that Iraq tried to acquire uranium in Africa,” AP, SEPT 21, 2003
OCTOBER 23, 1999 : (FORMER AMBASSADOR JOSEPH WILSON, RICHARDSON, ALAMOUDI, ROCK CREEK CORP, WESTAR) To: Shermy The Letter of The Indian Ocean
October 23, 1999