Geruchten aftreden vice-president Cheney

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What I Didn't Find in Africa

By JOSEPH C. WILSON 4th
07/06/03: (New York Times) WASHINGTON. Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?

Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

For 23 years, from 1976 to 1998, I was a career foreign service officer and ambassador. In 1990, as chargé d'affaires in Baghdad, I was the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein. (I was also a forceful advocate for his removal from Kuwait.) After Iraq, I was President George H. W. Bush's ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe; under President Bill Clinton, I helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council.

It was my experience in Africa that led me to play a small role in the effort to verify information about Africa's suspected link to Iraq's nonconventional weapons programs. Those news stories about that unnamed former envoy who went to Niger? That's me.

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.

After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government.

In late February 2002, I arrived in Niger's capital, Niamey, where I had been a diplomat in the mid-70's and visited as a National Security Council official in the late 90's. The city was much as I remembered it. Seasonal winds had clogged the air with dust and sand. Through the haze, I could see camel caravans crossing the Niger River (over the John F. Kennedy bridge), the setting sun behind them. Most people had wrapped scarves around their faces to protect against the grit, leaving only their eyes visible.

The next morning, I met with Ambassador Owens-Kirkpatrick at the embassy. For reasons that are understandable, the embassy staff has always kept a close eye on Niger's uranium business. I was not surprised, then, when the ambassador told me that she knew about the allegations of uranium sales to Iraq — and that she felt she had already debunked them in her reports to Washington. Nevertheless, she and I agreed that my time would be best spent interviewing people who had been in government when the deal supposedly took place, which was before her arrival.

I spent the next eight days drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country's uranium business. It did not take long to conclude that it was highly doubtful that any such transaction had ever taken place.

Given the structure of the consortiums that operated the mines, it would be exceedingly difficult for Niger to transfer uranium to Iraq. Niger's uranium business consists of two mines, Somair and Cominak, which are run by French, Spanish, Japanese, German and Nigerian interests. If the government wanted to remove uranium from a mine, it would have to notify the consortium, which in turn is strictly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Moreover, because the two mines are closely regulated, quasi-governmental entities, selling uranium would require the approval of the minister of mines, the prime minister and probably the president. In short, there's simply too much oversight over too small an industry for a sale to have transpired.

(As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors — they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government — and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the charges.)

Before I left Niger, I briefed the ambassador on my findings, which were consistent with her own. I also shared my conclusions with members of her staff. In early March, I arrived in Washington and promptly provided a detailed briefing to the C.I.A. I later shared my conclusions with the State Department African Affairs Bureau. There was nothing secret or earth-shattering in my report, just as there was nothing secret about my trip.

Though I did not file a written report, there should be at least four documents in United States government archives confirming my mission. The documents should include the ambassador's report of my debriefing in Niamey, a separate report written by the embassy staff, a C.I.A. report summing up my trip, and a specific answer from the agency to the office of the vice president (this may have been delivered orally). While I have not seen any of these reports, I have spent enough time in government to know that this is standard operating procedure.

I thought the Niger matter was settled and went back to my life. (I did take part in the Iraq debate, arguing that a strict containment regime backed by the threat of force was preferable to an invasion.) In September 2002, however, Niger re-emerged. The British government published a "white paper" asserting that Saddam Hussein and his unconventional arms posed an immediate danger. As evidence, the report cited Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium from an African country.

Then, in January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa.

The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them. He replied that perhaps the president was speaking about one of the other three African countries that produce uranium: Gabon, South Africa or Namibia. At the time, I accepted the explanation. I didn't know that in December, a month before the president's address, the State Department had published a fact sheet that mentioned the Niger case.

Those are the facts surrounding my efforts. The vice president's office asked a serious question. I was asked to help formulate the answer. I did so, and I have every confidence that the answer I provided was circulated to the appropriate officials within our government.

The question now is how that answer was or was not used by our political leadership. If my information was deemed inaccurate, I understand (though I would be very interested to know why). If, however, the information was ignored because it did not fit certain preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that we went to war under false pretenses. (It's worth remembering that in his March "Meet the Press" appearance, Mr. Cheney said that Saddam Hussein was "trying once again to produce nuclear weapons.") At a minimum, Congress, which authorized the use of military force at the president's behest, should want to know if the assertions about Iraq were warranted.

I was convinced before the war that the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein required a vigorous and sustained international response to disarm him. Iraq possessed and had used chemical weapons; it had an active biological weapons program and quite possibly a nuclear research program — all of which were in violation of United Nations resolutions. Having encountered Mr. Hussein and his thugs in the run-up to the Persian Gulf war of 1991, I was only too aware of the dangers he posed.

But were these dangers the same ones the administration told us about? We have to find out. America's foreign policy depends on the sanctity of its information. For this reason, questioning the selective use of intelligence to justify the war in Iraq is neither idle sniping nor "revisionist history," as Mr. Bush has suggested. The act of war is the last option of a democracy, taken when there is a grave threat to our national security. More than 200 American soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq already. We have a duty to ensure that their sacrifice came for the right reasons.


Joseph C. Wilson 4th, United States ambassador to Gabon from 1992 to 1995, is an international business consultant

(C) Copyright New York Times

Better watch out if you mess with me

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:16 schreef Braamhaar het volgende:
Iemand in voor 'n Nederlandse samenvatting?

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:21 schreef sooty het volgende:

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De roversbende die de Bush-Clinton dynastie omringt, begint hun vaste voet te verliezen.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:56 schreef Hallulama het volgende:

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Dat zou jammer zijn.

Regime VS vernieuwen, terugtrekken uit Irak, klaar voor Iran?

( Waarom Iran het volgende doel is )

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:11 schreef francorex het volgende:
Ja deze zaak gaat steeds dieper en dieper, meer en meer details raken bekend, maar waarom toch?

Deze zaak toont duidelijk aan hoe graag de bush administratie naar Irak wou, kost wa kost, toont nogmaal aan wie de agressor is in dit conflict.

Maar goed,

Wat ik me afvraag is wie of wat zit er achter Joseph Wilson, kan me namelijk moeilijk voorstellen dat het interview in de New York Times toevallig verscheen, ik bedoel maar dit is politieke intrige op het hoogste niveau. Mr. Wilson moet toch geweten hebben wat voor gevolgen zijn acties zouden kunnen hebben, allerminst 'patriotisch' en dan moet je sterk in je schoenen staan . Zeer sterk.

En dan nog, alleen ?

Mijn vermoeden is dat Mr. Wilsen het gezicht is van een groetere groep die uit zijn op ...?

Kijk naar de Downingmemo, die word probleemloos getackeld, nochthans daar word zwart op wit aangetoond de leugens, de intentie /vooringenoomheid om ten oorlog te trekken.

Dus de vraag is wie of wat zorgt ervoor dat deze zaak niet word getackeld, hardnekkig blijft terugkomen en uiteindelijk nu het hart van de Bush regering treft?

Spannend

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:18 schreef Braamhaar het volgende:

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Wat denk je zelf?
Zelfs je intuitie kan antwoord geven...

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:28 schreef Braamhaar het volgende:

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:-)

Slechts de poppetjes zullen vervangen worden.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:28 schreef francorex het volgende:

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Wat bedoel je juist met je intuitie kan antwoord geven?

Ik kan geen zinnig antwoord vinden waarom nu, waarom deze zaak...

Echt niet, geen idee

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 02:45 schreef Braamhaar het volgende:

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Bush en kornuiten zijn slechts poppetjes en daarmee vervangbaar.
Maar ja, wie trekt er dan aan de touwtjes....
Wie dat zijn dat weet ik niet.
Wat ik wel weet is dat daar op dat niveau 'spelletjes' gespeeld worden waar de mensheid niet bij gebaat is.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 03:23 schreef Hallulama het volgende:
Voor hetzelfde geld is het gewoon het recht dat zegeviert.

Nog even geduld...

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 03:23 schreef Hallulama het volgende:
Voor hetzelfde geld is het gewoon het recht dat zegeviert.

Nog even geduld...

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-- -- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, on the eve of a trip to Washington, said he repeatedly tried to persuade U.S. President George W. Bush against invading Iraq.

The Italian leader voiced his unease with the military operation to topple Saddam Hussein during a television interview to be broadcast on Monday -- the same day he meets Bush.

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NIGER URANIUM?

The context of Berlusconi's answers in the interview were unclear since La7 only provided small excerpts.

The Italian leader has been defending himself against accusations in Italy that the country's intelligence agency, possibly after government pressure, passed-off fake documents to Washington used to bolster claims of Iraq's nuclear ambitions.

The documents purported that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Niger.

His office has sent out two statements in the past week categorically denying the accusations, made by left-leaning La Repubblica newspaper. Sismi intelligence agency chief Nicolo Pollari is due to address a closed-door parliamentary panel over the matter on November 3.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 05:33 schreef Vampier het volgende:
Amerikanen zijn inderdaad hardwerkend... heb al in 2 jaar geen vakantie meer gehad.

(zonder dollen dus)

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-- -- US congressional investigators said this week they had evidence that George Galloway had profited from the defunct UN program created to protect Iraqis from the harsh effects of sanctions against their Government.

The report said Mr Aziz, under questioning by the subcommittee, said he had discussed oil allocations with Mr Galloway and confirmed a letter in which the British Member of Parliament requested a bigger oil allocation.

"These are lies ... he [Mr Aziz] denied this," Mr Aziz's lawyer, Badia Aref, said.

"It is part of a media campaign aimed at smearing Galloway's reputation."

Mr Aref says Mr Aziz confirms that Iraq has given $A60,00 to the Mariam Appeal cancer charity set up by Mr Galloway, but only to help sick Iraqi children.

He says Mr Aziz, now in jail in Iraq, had made the comments in a questioning session some three months ago during which Mr Aziz was asked 110 questions about Mr Galloway.

The report said Mr Galloway personally solicited and was granted oil allocations from the Iraqi Government for 23 million barrels from 1999 to 2003.

It said Mr Galloway's wife received about $A200,000 in connection with the allocations and the Mariam fund received at least $A595,000.

Mr Galloway himself told the committee that he was not an oil trader and had never spoken to Mr Aziz about Iraq providing financial support for the Mariam Appeal.

He has also rejected the latest US accusations that he profited from the oil-for-food program.

Mr Aref says Mr Aziz refuses to "testify against anyone, including former president Saddam Hussein", whose trial started this month but has been adjourned until November.

Mr Aziz, a Christian who was the public face of Saddam's regime abroad, was arrested after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

No formal charges have been brought against him yet.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 17:52 schreef Vampier het volgende:
Rumsfeld moet ook even optiefen svp. Die jokers laten alle pionnen gaan.... misselijkmakend spelletje dit.

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-- -- AFTER THE two-year smear campaign orchestrated by senior officials in the Bush White House against my wife and me, it is tempting to feel vindicated by Friday's indictment of the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Between us, Valerie and I have served the United States for nearly 43 years. I was President George H.W. Bush's acting ambassador to Iraq in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, and I served as ambassador to two African nations for him and President Clinton. Valerie worked undercover for the CIA in several overseas assignments and in areas related to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.

But on July 14, 2003, our lives were irrevocably changed. That was the day columnist Robert Novak identified Valerie as an operative, divulging a secret that had been known only to me, her parents and her brother.

Valerie told me later that it was like being hit in the stomach. Twenty years of service had gone down the drain. She immediately started jotting down a checklist of things she needed to do to limit the damage to people she knew and to projects she was working on. She wondered how her friends would feel when they learned that what they thought they knew about her was a lie.

It was payback — cheap political payback by the administration for an article I had written contradicting an assertion President Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union address. Payback not just to punish me but to intimidate other critics as well.

Why did I write the article? Because I believe that citizens in a democracy are responsible for what government does and says in their name. I knew that the statement in Bush's speech — that Iraq had attempted to purchase significant quantities of uranium in Africa — was not true. I knew it was false from my own investigative trip to Africa (at the request of the CIA) and from two other similar intelligence reports. And I knew that the White House knew it.

Going public was what was required to make them come clean. The day after I shared my conclusions in a New York Times opinion piece, the White House finally acknowledged that the now-infamous 16 words "did not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address."

That should have been the end. But instead, the president's men — allegedly including Libby and at least one other (known only as "Official A") — were determined to defame and discredit Valerie and me.

They used eager allies in Congress and the conservative media, beginning with Novak. Perhaps the most egregious of the attacks was New York GOP Rep. Peter King's odious suggestion that Valerie "got what she deserved."

Valerie was an innocent in this whole affair. Although there were suggestions that she was behind the decision to send me to Niger, the CIA told Newsday just a week after the Novak article appeared that "she did not recommend her husband to undertake the Niger assignment." The CIA repeated the same statement to every reporter thereafter.

The grand jury has now concluded that at least one of the president's men committed crimes. We are heartened that our system of justice is working and appreciative of the work done by our fellow citizens who devoted two years of their lives to grand jury duty.

The attacks on Valerie and me were upsetting, disruptive and vicious. They amounted to character assassination. Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months.

But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime.

The war in Iraq has claimed more than 17,000 dead and wounded American soldiers, many times more Iraqi casualties and close to $200 billion.

It has left our international reputation in tatters and our military broken. It has weakened the United States, increased hatred of us and made terrorist attacks against our interests more likely in the future.

It has been, as Gen. William Odom suggested, the greatest strategic blunder in the history of our country.

We anticipate no mea culpa from the president for what his senior aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explanation and an apology.

JOSEPH C. WILSON IV was acting ambassador in Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. He is the author of "The Politics of Truth" (Carroll & Graff, 2004). He was a diplomat for 23 years.

Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times

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9/11 Cover-up Judge Assigned to Libby Case

Wayne Madsen | October 31 2005

Comment: As is continually being confirmed, the indictment story is a total distraction and a set up steam valve to keep the left distracted.

Judge assigned to Libby case has links to Republican Right. US District Judge for DC Reggie Walton has been assigned the Lewis Libby case.

It is noteworthy to point out Walton's past and current links to the Republican Right and to elements in the Bush administration who have covered up important details about 911. Walton was appointed to the DC Superior Court in 1981 by Ronald Reagan.

In 1989, he was appointed by George H. W. Bush as the deputy drug czar under Bill Bennett. Walton was reappointed to the DC Superior Court by the senior Bush. George W. Bush nominated Walton to the US District Court for DC in 2001.

Walton was the judge who, under pressure from the Justice Department, placed a gag order on former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and cleared his courtroom of the public and media in Edmonds' hearing in her case against the FBI. Edmonds brought to light important information about how the FBI failed to translate important wiretap intercepts before and after 911.

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Op zondag 30 oktober 2005 23:40 schreef Hallulama het volgende:
Rumsfeld moet zich volgens mij voornamelijk zorgen maken om [9/11] Able Danger

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The Pentagon, after weeks of silence, will allow participants in an intelligence cell that a year before the Sept. 11 attacks may have identified some of the ringleaders to testify before Congress. Their testimony could shed light on information that the Sept. 11 commission did not include in its report.

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Op vrijdag 16 december 2005 23:36 schreef multatuli het volgende:
Spiro Agnew moest aftreden wegens het aanpakken van steekpenningen en bekende (plea bargain) belastingontduiking. Was overigens net als Ford en Nixon een republikein. Dus Ford was geen deel van de oppositie. Je verwarring is dat hij 'minority leader' was toendertijd, maar dat kan omdat de presidentsverkiezingen niet bepalend zijn voor de verhoudingen in congress and parliament.

Verder geloof ik nog niet dat Cheney af gaat treden.

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Op vrijdag 16 december 2005 23:59 schreef francorex het volgende:

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Dank je voor verhelderende informatie Multatulie.

Cheney hoeft niet af te treden, hij kan verplicht worden net zoals Spiro Agnew. Ondertussen heeft de democraat Mc Cain zich mooi in de picture gespeeld...

De periode dat er geen oppositie was lijkt voorbij.

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Op zaterdag 17 december 2005 23:55 schreef One_of_the_few het volgende:

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hm, mc cain is toch een republikein?

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(10-02-06) Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

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Op woensdag 15 februari 2006 22:24 schreef Sebastral het volgende:
De brave man komt ook nauwelijks aan ontspannen toe de laatste tijd

[afbeelding]
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Moet genoeg zijn voor een fatsoenlijk rechtssysteem zou je zeggen