Nov 08 2005
Plame-Wilson Update 11/08/05
Folks, I am so fortunate to celebrate our 100k visitor yesterday with a smashing 16+K visitors (thanks to World Net Daily) that same day. I am also cursed with all day meetings at NASA today Tuesday, November 8th). For all the wonderful folks who came by to visit yesterday, may I suggest some time in our archive? We have followed the Plame investigation for a while and the recent posts on uranium and the Wilson, plus Joe Wilson’s 1999 visit are a good start. There is also the theory Wilson divulged the very short lived cover fore Valerie at Brewster and Jennings, not to mention the speculation about a Wilson-CIA cover up.
We are sometimes considered a great site for Able Danger news and background, and learned of some interesting discoveries on the Downing Street Memos.
For some news not broadly known in the MSM on the Plame silliness, let me direct you to this American Thinker article by Clarice Feldman on Wilson’s 1999 trip via a tip by Dr Sanity.
Also, The Anchoress was kind enough to refer us to this NRO article by Michael Ledeen – who is sometimes tied by the fever swamp left to the Niger Forgeries (though it seems they came from Europe or Africa). Sort of funny with the supposed US source of the link channeling old CIA agents. About as believable as the leftward fringes:
JJA: Yes, I saw some of that here and there. Both an Italian parliamentary oversight commission and the FBI concluded that the Italian secret service didn’t provide the United States with the infamous forged documents. They came through the State Department, do I have that right?
ML: A typical CIA fiasco, it seems. The documents were taken to the U.S. embassy by an Italian journalist (funny how there’s always a journalist, isn’t it?). One of the Lefties (who has a different version of the story almost every day) thinks the documents were brought to the Embassy by the guy who was peddling them all over the place. CIA people in Rome saw them, but didn’t transmit them to Langley, and the agency didn’t properly evaluate them until they were exposed as forgeries by the U.N.
WND leads the way on this post with a link to Brit Humes’ political grape vine and Gen Vallely’s call to Wilson’s lame bluff by demanding an apology!
Threatened with a lawsuit for “slander,” retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely is turning the tables on Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, calling on the man at the center of the CIA leak controversy to offer a public apology for accusing him of lying.
Too funny! And WND has two more on the growing list of folks who knew Val was CIA
At least two veteran reporters say Valerie Plame’s association with the CIA was widely known, and a prominent analyst on military and political affairs, Victor Davis Hanson, told WorldNetDaily his own green-room encounter with Wilson revealed a man who is unusually free with personal information to strangers.
Former Time magazine correspondent Hugh Sidey told the New York Sun in a story published Sunday. “[Plame’s] name was knocking around in the sub rosa world we live in for a long time.”
Sorry I will not be able to do more until the evening. But there is a lot here to peruse. 900 posts worth! Enjoy.
oh AJ…I am so happy for you…and sad for me. You won’t be around tomorrow! Thanks for all you work…we will just have to be patient.
AJ…you may want to re look at the WND, Hansen does say he talked with Wilson, but not the part about CIA.
Silberman-Robb Report. Chapter 1
Page 76
Subsequently, Vice President Cheney requested follow-up information from CIA on this alleged deal.196 CIA decided to contact the former U.S. ambassador to Gabon, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been posted to Niger early in his career and maintained contacts there, to see if he would be amenable to traveling to Niger. Ambassador Wilson agreed to do so and, armed with CIA talking points, traveled to Niger in late February 2002 and met with former Nigerien officials.197
Page 77
Following the trip, CIA disseminated an intelligence report in March 2002 based on its debriefing of Ambassador Wilson.198 The report carried the caveat that the individuals from whom the Ambassador obtained the information were aware that their remarks could reach the U.S. government and “may have intended to influence as well as to inform.â€199
Page 79
Given that there were already doubts about the reliability of the reporting on the uranium deal, the Intelligence Community should have reviewed the documents to evaluate their authenticity as soon as they were made available in early October 2002, rather than waiting over six months to do so. The failure to review these documents caused the Intelligence Community to rely on dubious information when providing highly important assessments to policymakers about the likelihood that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. The Community’s failure to undertake a real review of the documents — even though their validity was the subject of serious doubts—was a major failure of the intelligence system.218
218 It is still unclear who forged the documents and why. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating those questions. Interview with FBI (Sept. 21, 2004); see also Interview with CIA/DO officials (Sept. 3, 2004). We discuss in the counterpart footnote in our classified report some further factual findings concerning the potential source of the forgeries. This discussion, however, is classified.
215 Department of State and CIA, Joint Report of Inspectors General on Iraqi Attempts to Procure Uranium From Niger (Sept. 2003) at p. 11. Although the Inspectors General reportnotes that all three reports were recalled, CIA/DO officials advised the Commission that in fact
two of the reports were recalled and the third, which included information not included in the forged documents, was reissued with a caveat that the information the report contains may have been fabricated. Comments from CIA/DO (March 3, 2005).
216 CIA, Memorandum for the DCI, In Response to Your Questions for Our Current Assessment and Additional Details on Iraq’s Alleged Pursuits of Uranium From Abroad (June 17,2003) at p. 1.
217 Interview with NIO/SNP (Sept. 20, 2004). The SSCI report referenced the memorandum for the DCI, and stated that the memorandum had no distribution outside the CIA. SSCI at p. 71. This reference left the mistaken impression, however, that CIA did not inform others of its conclusions regarding the forged documents and the concomitant reliability of information about a possible uranium deal with Niger. The NIO/SNP emphasized that CIA not only recalled the original reporting as having possibly been based on fraudulent reporting, but the NIO, with CIA and other agencies in attendance, also briefed Congress on the matter. Interview with NIO/SNP (Sept. 20, 2004).
Powerline has a great bunch of questions that should be asked of the CIA until we, the people, get some straight answers:
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/012183.php
Actually, I hope “Scooter” Libby’s lawyers ask them during his trial.
All articles are from the Lexis Database
Africa News
October 24, 1997
SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 432 words
HEADLINE: Ethiopia;
World Bank, US Gov’t Honours Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al–Amoudi
BYLINE: Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
Addis Ababa — Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al–Amoudi, Founder and Chairman of the MIDROC Ethiopia Group,
was honoured at a luncheon at the World Bank on 1 October, according to a press release from the Washington–based
Westar Group, Inc. It was sponsored jointly between the US State Department and the World Bank Group.
Mr. Isaac K. Sam, a senior World Bank official heading Private Sector Finance operations, co–hosted the event. In
welcoming Mr. Al–Amoudi, he said, “This is the first time ever that the World Bank has hosted a luncheon for a private
sector investor.”
Ms. Regina C. Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and co–host of the luncheon on behalf
of the US State Department, invited US government officials to speak about the priorities and aspirations of their agencies.
The speakers expressed admiration for Sheikh Mohammed’s private sector initiatives, saying, “He represents the best of
the private sector entrepreneurs and he is proof that much is happening in African development.”
In response, Sheikh Mohammed said that, “Africa is coming into its own and will play an important role in the world
economic community in the 21st century,” and urged other private companies to follow him with large investments in
Africa.
Sheikh Mohammed observed that training is Africa’s single most critical need and it is the area where major
international donors should concentrate their efforts and their generosity. He stressed that “if Africa is to develop in the next century, people must acquire the skills and governments must
create the environment to make it happen.” He concluded by saying, “Investment in people is of the utmost importance,
because, in the final analysis, people matter.”
Guests included the Ambassadors from Ethiopia and Morocco, key officials from the World Bank Group, the
International Monetary Fund, The International Finance Corporation, the African Development Foundation,
the African Development Bank, the Export–Import Bank of the US, the Overseas Private Insurance Corporation
and the US Trade and Development Agency.
Representatives of the Clinton Administration, were also present, including Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is
National Security Advisor for Africa and Mr. Bernard Gaillard from the US Department of transportation, who will
visit several African countries in coming months, including Ethiopia. Key staff members of the US House of Representatives
were on hand, as were members of the business community and private NGOs having an interest in Ethiopia specifically and Africa broadly.
The Indian Ocean Newsletter
January 10, 1998
SECTION: POLITICS; ETHIOPIA; N. 794
LENGTH: 199 words
HEADLINE: Al Amoudi’s American Connection
Ethiopian–Saudi millionaire Mohamed Al Amoudi, who owns the holding company Midroc and is Ethiopia’s leading
foreign investor, is brushing up his connections with the United States and US citizens. Sources report he is believed to
have signed up former US ambassador to Ethiopia Irvin Hicks to work on preparing a major conference on the theme
“Investing in Africa”. It would be held in the Addis Ababa Sheraton — which the Al Amoudi Group owns — on March 8 to
10. Passing through Kampala at the end of December, Al Amoudi apparently dropped in head of state Yoweri Museveni
and took the opportunity to invite him to the conference. Hicks, who is no longer a member of the US Administration, is
thought to be in line to be board chairman of the Addis Sheraton. In October 1997, Al Amoudi had been guest of honour
at a meeting held at the World Bank offices in Washington and organized by the Washington–based Westar Group Inc, of
which he is chairman. Participants, apart from representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,
included members of the US Administration such as US president Bill Clinton’s special adviser on African affairs, Joseph
Wilson IV.
Africa News
March 13, 1998
SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 202 words
HEADLINE: United States and Africa;
Interview: Joseph Wilson, the US Director of African Affairs
BYLINE: Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
Addis Ababa — Addis Tribune interviewed Mr. Joseph C. Wilson, special Assistant to the US President and Senior
Director of African Affairs.
Asked why the US President has chosen not to come to Ethiopia, Mr. Wilson said Clinton doesn’t have enough time.
Ethiopia, as far as the US is concerned, has positive economic reforms, and political liberalisation. This would make it an
ideal country for a presidential visit; however, Clinton just doesn’t have the time.
Asked about his impressions of Addis Forum, Mr. Wilson said he was impressed by the large number of interested
players. Americans aren’t the only ones who want to deploy international resources to Africa, he noted. People from the
Middle East also want to play an important role.
Prior to his current position, Ambassador Wilson and Political Advisor to the Commander–in–Chief of the US Armed
Forces, in Europe, from 1995 to 1997. He is a career member of the Foreign Service and has held a variety of assignments
in Africa before serving as the Ambassador to Gabon and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from
1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq, as Deputy Chief of Mission.
LOAD–DATE: March 13, 1998
The Indian Ocean Newsletter
October 23, 1999
SECTION: ECONOMICS & PROJECTS; ETHIOPIA / UNITED STATES; N. 876
LENGTH: 363 words
HEADLINE: Well–connected businessmen
The delegation of American businessmen which is to go to Addis Ababa from November 6 to 14 at the instigation
of Ethio–American Trade and Investment Council (an organism managed by Osyka
Corporation, a Texas oil company whose chairman Michael F. Harness is a member of both EATIC and of National
Petroleum Council, an organism charged with advising US secretary for energy Bill Richardson. Another sponsor is
F. C. Schaffer & Associates, a sugar company whose chairman Mina Nedelcovych is boss of Corporate Council on Africa
which groups American enterprises active in Africa.
Several companies controlled by Saudi–Ethiopian magnate Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi have helped to organize
the trip: Westar Group, which administers Al Amoudi’s interests in Washington and is chaired by Derige Mekonen
after having been long managed by banker Jeff Wilson, and the Addis Ababa Sheraton whose board includes ex–US
ambassador to Ethiopia Irvin Hicks and Al Amoudi’s Midroc Ethiopia group. There is also Rock Creek Corporation,
an investment company controlled by Al Amoudi and chaired since 1997 by Elias Aburdene, a Lebanese businessman
very well introduced in Washington power circles. A former adviser to the Franklin National Bank in Washington DC,
Aburdene right from his accession to the top of Rock Creek engaged US president Bill Clinton’s former adviser for
African affairs, Joseph Wilson IV as adviser. The latter had already met Al Amoudi in 1997 during a meeting organized
at the World Bank by the Westar Group (ION 794). Apart from his responsibilities with Rock Creek, Aburdene is
executive chairman of the very influential National Association of Arab Americans. A former lecturer at the University of
Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he is also very active with former students of the university where ex–assistant
secretary of state for African affairs Chester A. Crocker and US mediator in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border dispute (and
former national security adviser to Clinton) Anthony Lake are professors.
SBD