MARCH 10, 2003 : (REPORT : SOUTH AFRICAN MANDELA TURNS DOWN POSSIBLE IRAQI PEACE MISSION) ----- Mandela Says No to Possible Iraq Peace Mission Reuters ^ | March 10 2003http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/861140/posts
MARCH 14, 2003 : (ROCKEFELLER FORMALLY ASKS MUELLER TO INVESTIGATE BURBA/NIGERDOCS) Thanks for the pings. BTW we can actually document Rockefeller's involvement in that even earlier, from at least March 14, 2003:
On March 14th [2003], Senator Jay Rockefeller, of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, formally asked Robert Mueller, the F.B.I. director, to investigate the forged documents. Rockefeller had voted for the resolution authorizing force last fall [2002]. Now he wrote to Mueller, "There is a possibility that the fabrication of these documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding Iraq." He urged the F.B.I. to ascertain the source of the documents, the skill-level of the forgery, the motives of those responsible, and "why the intelligence community did not recognize the documents were fabricated." A Rockefeller aide told me that the F.B.I. had promised to look into it.------------Seymour M. Hersh, "Who Lied to Whom? Why did the Administration endorse a forgery about Iraq’s nuclear program?", The New Yorker, March 31, 2003 50 posted on 07/30/2005 9:55:30 PM PDT by Fedora | To 32
MARCH 15, 2003 : (WASHINGTON TIMES REPORTS ON "FRENCH CONNECTION" : CHINA SOLD PROHIBITED MISSILE FUEL TO IRAQ THROUGH FRANCE AND SYRIA) Top investigative journalist Bill Gertz reported in The Washington Times yesterday that China sold prohibited missile fuel to Iraq through a secret "French Connection." The sale reportedly was made in August [2002] and according to officials in Washington was brokered through France and Syria. While France was denying the report, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was meeting with France's ambassador to the United States for what were termed "candid" discussions about Iraq. Rumors are circulating in Washington about other meetings with the ambassadors for China and Russia.
Apparently France has been engaged in double dealing and overt deception about its secret deals with Iraq for many years. (See my reports below) Yet the French government has been pontificating about its alleged moral superiority before United Nations Security Counsel for months.----- 'Iraqi Ambassador Had Contact Terrorist & China Sold Iraq Missile Fuel via "French Connection",' by Douglas Oliver, NewsPundit.net ^ | 3/16/2003
MARCH 15?, 2003 : (RAND BEERS QUITS JOB AS A WHITE HOUSE ANTI-TERRORISM ADVISOR --- See MARK GROSSMAN, RICHARD CLARKE, KENNEDY SCHOOL) A top White House anti-terrorism advisor who quit five days before the start of the Iraq war...Rand Beers, a former special assistant to the president, ...After working at the National Security Council for 35 years, under presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton, Beers, 60, had been the main counter-terrorism advisor from August [2002] until his resignation in March [2003]. ------- "Former security advisor says Bush failing to counter terror threat ," AFP via Yahoo, Mon Jun 16, 2003 2:36 PM ET
MARCH 2003 : (RAND BEERS QUITS) Five days before the war began in Iraq, as President Bush prepared to raise the terrorism threat level to orange, a top White House counterterrorism adviser unlocked the steel door to his office, an intelligence vault secured by an electronic keypad, a combination lock and an alarm. He sat down and turned to his inbox.
"Things were dicey," said Rand Beers, recalling the stack of classified reports about plots to shoot, bomb, burn and poison Americans. He stared at the color-coded threats for five minutes. Then he called his wife: I'm quitting.
Beers's resignation surprised Washington, but what he did next was even more astounding. Eight weeks after leaving the Bush White House, he volunteered as national security adviser for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), a Democratic candidate for president, in a campaign to oust his former boss. All of which points to a question: What does this intelligence insider know?
"The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making us less secure, not more secure," said Beers, who until now has remained largely silent about leaving his National Security Council job as special assistant to the president for combating terrorism. "As an insider, I saw the things that weren't being done. And the longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until I got up and walked out."------ "Beers: Former Aide Takes Aim at War on Terror ," By Laura Blumenfeld, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, June 16, 2003; Page A01 , 75 posted on 07/15/2005 9:54:46 PM PDT by Howlin
MARCH 15?, 2003 to JUNE 16, 2003 sometime between these dates : (RAND BEERS JOINS THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF JOHN KERRY) After working at the National Security Council for 35 years, under presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton, Beers, 60, had been the main counter-terrorism advisor from August [2002] until his resignation in March [2003].
He has since joined the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator John Kerry. ------- "Former security advisor says Bush failing to counter terror threat ," AFP via Yahoo, Mon Jun 16, 2003 2:36 PM ET
MARCH 15, 2003 : (ANONYMOUS SOURCE SAYS FORGED NIGERDOCS WERE LIKELY WRITTEN BY SOMEONE IN NIGER'S EMBASSY IN ROME) [CHICAGO] Forged documents that the United States used to build its case against Iraq were likely written by someone in Niger's embassy in Rome who hoped to make quick money, a source close to the United Nations investigation said. The documents, about a dozen letters on Niger's governmental letterhead, suggested that the African nation had agreed to supply Iraq with uranium, used in nuclear weapons production, the source said. Some of the letters were addressed to an Iraqi official. --------- "Forged documents that USA used to build its case against Iraq tied to Niger Embassy in Rome," by SAM ROE , KRT[CHICAGO] via centredaily.com, Sat, Mar. 15, 2003
MARCH 16 2003 : (AZORES SUMMIT : UK & US GIVE ULTIMATUM TO UN TO ENFORCE ITS OWN RESOLUTIONS) Speaking at a hastily-arranged summit in the Azores, Mr Bush and Mr Blair give the United Nations a 24-hour ultimatum to enforce its own demands for immediate Iraqi disarmament, or face an American- and British-led coalition that will go to war within days. - Iraq: the final 24 hours - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html.
MARCH 16, 2003 : (THE OBSERVER REPORTS CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO SPAIN AND AL QAEDA'S 911 HIJACKING CONSPIRATOR YUSUF GALAN) An alleged terrorist accused of helping the 11 September conspirators was invited to a party by the Iraqi ambassador to Spain under his al-Qaeda nom de guerre, according to documents seized by Spanish investigators.
Yusuf Galan, who was photographed being trained at a camp run by Osama bin Laden, is now in jail, awaiting trial in Madrid. The indictment against him, drawn up by investigating judge Baltasar Garzon, claims he was 'directly involved with the preparation and carrying out of the attacks ... by the suicide pilots on 11 September'. * * *
Evidence of Galan's links with Iraqi government officials came to light only recently, as investigators pored through more than 40,000 pages of documents seized in raids at the homes of Galan and seven alleged co-conspirators. * * *
George Tenet, the Director of the CIA, has made increasingly strong statements alleging such a connection.
In Congressional testimony last month, he said that Iraq had co-operated with al-Qaeda for 10 years, and that it had trained al-Qaeda members in bombmaking and the use of chemical and biological weapons. In an apparent attempt to refute the sceptics, he said this information 'comes from reliable sources' * * * ----- The Observer [UK] via 'Iraqi Ambassador Had Contact Terrorist & China Sold Iraq Missile Fuel via "French Connection",' by Douglas Oliver, NewsPundit.net ^ | 3/16/2003
MARCH 16, 2003 : (TRUTHOUT.ORG'S MARC ASH SENDS SHRILL SPAM LETTER CLAIMING BUSH & BLAIR ARE GOING TO SLAUGHTER IRAQIS ON AN "UNIMAGINABLE SCALE") One of the daily unsolicited e-mails I get is from a propaganda group that calls itself “Truthout” and which is, believe it or not, headquartered in Los Angeles, California. On March 16th, as the war was about to start, its chief propagandist, Marc Ash, wrote: ”What George W. Bush and Tony Blair are planning is the greatest act of human slaughter since Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge orchestrated the Cambodian genocide in the mid 1970s. That act killing some 1.5 to 2 million largely defenseless and quite peaceful Cambodians. ...”Civilian Iraq is utterly defenseless and totally unprepared for the carnage that is about to be visited upon them. It is murder plain and simple, murder on an unimaginable scale.” Marc Ash didn’t bother to mention the Iraqis and Iranians killed in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war started by Saddam’s invasion and seizure of Iranian oil fields in 1980. According to The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimated casualties of the 8 year war between these two Muslim nations at "more than one and a half million war and war-related casualties." The casualties between these two Muslim nations would be the equivalent to losing 5.6 million for a population the size of the United States. - "The Iraqis Will Eventually Judge America by Its Deeds, Not Media Misinformation," By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty, (www.bannerofliberty.com) , April 4, 2003 , http://www.bannerofliberty.com/BOL-03MQC/4-4-2003.1.html.
MARCH 16, 2003 : (LONDON TIMES DESCRIPTION OF THE NIGER DOCS [THEY WOULD SHORTLY BE FOLLOWED BY THE WASHPO]) The only specific, earlier [than the Washington Post's March 22, 2003] mention of these details is in a March 16, 2003 London Times. I can't find an actual IAEA statement stating these details.---41 posted on 07/17/2004 7:44:47 PM PDT by Shermy
MARCH 18, 2003 : (RUSSIAN REPORT IN REPLY TO US REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION ON ALLEGED ILLICIT SALES OF PROHIBITED ITEMS TO IRAQ - see IGOR IVANOV) But Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister, said: "We did not send any goods, including military ones, that violated the sanctions." He said that from October, the US had requested reports on the alleged illicit sales several times, and that Russia had made its most recent report on 18 March.- "Missiles find in chemical plant," by GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND PAUL GALLAGHER, The Scotsman, March 25, 2003
*To: MadIvan
Russia had made its most recent report on 18 March.
I believe their technicians were still in Iraq at that point. Oh, heck, who cares about such trivial details?
18 posted on 03/24/2003 5:47 PM PST by livius
MARCH 18, 2003 : (UN PULLS ITS STAFF OUT OF IRAQ) --- "U.S. troops sweep through Tikrit : U.S.: Mobile chem-bio labs found," CNN, Monday, April 14, 2003 Posted: 1:14 PM EDT (1714 GMT)
MARCH 18, 2003 : (BUSH GIVES HUSSEIN 48 HOUR ULTIMATUM : IN UK, MORE RESIGNATIONS, PARLIAMENT ENDORSES ATTACK) In a televised address at 0100GMT, Mr Bush gives Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq or face invasion. During the course of the day, British government ministers John Denham and Lord Hunt resign in protest, along with four government aides. In the evening parliament holds a debate over military action in Iraq. The government's motion endorsing an attack is passed by 412 to 149, although the number of rebel Labour MPs voting for an anti-war amendment rises to 139, up from 122 three weeks ago. Bush gives Saddam and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/page/0,12438,793802,00.html.
MARCH 19, 2003 : (WAR : US DECAPITATION STRIKE ON IRAQI LEADER HUSSEIN)
MARCH 20, 2003 : (BATTLE OF IRAQ : US INVASION OF IRAQ) - "French link to UK's Iraq intelligence," From correspondents in London, news.com.au, July 14, 2003, http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6749154%5E1702,00.html
MARCH 20, 2003 : (US GOVERNMENT TAPS ABDULRAHMAN ALAMOUDI'S PHONE -- See ALAMOUDI CLAN) ...On March 20, 2003, pursuant to court order, the government installed a Dialed Number Recorder (DNR) and Caller ID equipment on (703) *** - ****, a residential hard-line subscribed to by Abdurahman Alamoudi, and located at --- , Falls Church, Virginia. On July 5, 2003, there was one call made from (703) *** - **** to (917) *** - ****, which is subscribed to by the Libyan Mission to the United Nations, Financial Attaché Office, New York, New York. Subsequent searches of Alamoudi’s Palm Pilot, which was seized from the premises of 3606 Forest Drive, Suite B, Falls Church, Virginia on March 20, 2002, indicated (917) *** - **** was the cell phone of Abuzaid Omar Dorda, then Libyan Ambassador to the United Nations. ...------- 14 posted on 10/01/2003 2:31:24 AM PDT by seamole
MARCH 20, 2003 : (RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PUTIN DENOUNCES US WAR IN IRAQ) On March 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced the U.S.-led "aggression" against Iraq as "unwarranted" and "unjustifiable." Three days later, Pravda said that an anonymous Russian "military expert" was predicting that the United States would fabricate finding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov immediately started plying the idea abroad, and it has taken hold around the world ever since. - "Russian Collusion in Iraq," By Ion Mihai Pacepa, Washington Times , August 22, 2003
MARCH 20, 2003 : (CUBAN CRACKDOWN ON DISSIDENTS ; CUBA USES OF COALITION WAR ON IRAQ AS COVER) Locals watch police drive away with Cuban dissident and independent journalist Raul Rivero, after his arrest in his neighborhood of Central Havana on Thursday, March 20, 2003. Fidel Castro's government rounded up more of its critics on Thursday, part of a mushrooming crackdown spurred by allegations of dissidents conspiring with U.S. diplomats.- from caption on AP Photo/Cristobal Herrera
MARCH 21, 2003 : (VENEZUELAN AIR FORCE PLANES ENTER COLUMBIAN AIRSPACE TO AID FARC TERRORISTS IN THEIR WAR AGAINST COLUMBIA [AND THE US]) - "Report: Venezuela aids Colombian FARC rebels," by Martin Arostegui, UPI , 9/10/2003