[Shermy]

Looks like the worldwide media is really setting the table for these hearings.

At least in the UK, and across the political board there.

Here in the US I've noticed something. No broad coverage and a reticence from many "liberal" media to touch the story.

And someone is feeding the Dem politicians contrary talking points. I've noticed some trying to frame the issue as a "Chalabi" matter - casting doubts on the Al Mada story by stating that paper is controlled by Ahmad Chalabi - and who is supported by "neocons" and therefore must be lying and such. (Drielsma responded by noting in the Scotsman that the owner of Al Mada is actually hostile to Chalabi)

I think its a lame attempt. Nevertheless I think it indicates strong French influence on dem foreign policy talking points. Another example - Kerry's odd sttements about the UN. Not just generic statements he wants them involved in Iraq as many others aver, but specific statements that "reconstruction" should be turned over it. In other words, the French requirement not to wield its veto on UN involvement. I think Kerry is being fed these lines rather than conjuring them up himself. Who's feeding him on his staff?

[cyncooper]

Fox is on the case, especially Brit. (I will give a nod to ABC and Brian Ross, though Ross has an irritating way of acting like it's new news--which it is, I guess to viewers of network only tv--but kudos nonetheless.)

Yesterday Brit had Claudia Rosset on to give a primer.

Did you see the report he had today? It seems Kofi Annan knows where Benon Sevan is and visited him yesterday. Annan's story is he was assured by Sevan no wrongdoing was done and he will fully cooperate.

cough

[Fedora]

Who's feeding him on his staff?

Good question. Here's an article that might help identify some potential suspects:

Kerry is shaping his foreign policy: His network of experts spans a range of opinions 4/11/04

[SNIP]

Early speculation about who might serve as Kerry's secretary of State centers mostly on candidates who fit that description: Richard Holbrooke and Sandy Berger, former top officials in the Clinton administration; Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee; and more distantly, Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., whose commitment to traditional alliances now place him much closer to the center of thinking in the Democratic than the Republican Party.

[SNIP]

The roster of senior national security advisers his campaign touts — names such as Madeleine Albright and William Perry, secretary of State and Defense, respectively, under Clinton — strikes many Democratic experts as largely generic. Some insiders say many names in the group have had little role in the campaign. Only a few, such as former Sen. Gary Hart, D-Colo., have long-standing ties to Kerry himself. Adding to the uncertainty over his direction, the campaign has effectively delegated the process of defining foreign policy alternatives on many issues to the Alliance for American Leadership, a Democratic group that organizes task forces of party thinkers on world affairs. Kerry, after serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 19 years, has placed much less emphasis on identifying a formal team of foreign policy gurus than candidates Bill Clinton in 1992 or George W. Bush in 2000.

[SNIP]

Probably the closest analogue to Bush's Vulcans have been a group of Kerry advisers who hold a weekly conference call directed by Rand Beers, the campaign's "national security and homeland security coordinator." That group has included Lee Feinstein, the former deputy director of policy planning at the State Department, and Joe Wilson, the former diplomat whose report to the CIA challenged Bush's claim that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa.

[piasa]

Who's feeding him on his staff?

Well, former Ambassador Wilson is on Kerry's staff and he is a francophile... has connections to the French bureaucracy via his former wife. Whenever he bleated to the press in the past, his appearance was associated with a cloudburst of anonymous intelligence sources both here and abroad- usually in the UK- setting the stage for him.

Perhaps the feeding tube goes through him.

No doubt there are other francophiles and baathophiles within the Kerry administration who could also be conduits.

[piasa]

And let's not forget Soros and Marc Rich; Marc Rich had ties to at least one person who was on the Saddam Hussein oil for food voucher list.

Pretty much every power-hungry douchebag the world has to offer has an interest in getting Bush out of office, and by extension, an interest in helping Kerry legally and illegally as required.

[okie01]

"Who's feeding him on his staff?"

You want me to volunteer Joseph C. Wilson IV's name, don't you?

Alright. I will. Ex-Amb. Joseph C. Wilson IV is the most likely conduit of French foreign policy "suggestions" to the Kerry campaign. He is a.) known to be a Francophile ("wears a beret when it rains") and b.) his former wife, Jacqueline, was a French foreign service bureaucrat (unless Cultural Attache = Intelligence).

The French have infiltrated their very own taupe into the Kerry campaign. Actually, though, they're probably getting a twofer -- Wilson also has a set of control wires leading to the Saudi embassy.

The point is, you can bet Wilson isn't feeding Kerry lines that are in America's best interest.