Pentagon challenges Rockefeller on Feith hit

The Pentagon is accusing Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV of distorting the intelligence work of its No. 3 civilian official, and calling on the Democrat to prove his charges or retract them.
    It is unusual for the Pentagon to formally take on a sitting senator. In this case, the challenge came in a letter to Mr. Rockefeller on Friday from Powell A. Moore, the assistant secretary of defense for legislative affairs.
    "On behalf of the department, I request that, if you have any evidence supporting the serious charge you floated during your press conference, you provide it to the department," Mr. Moore wrote to Mr. Rockefeller of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate SelectCommittee on Intelligence,who has emerged as one of the Senate's fiercest critics of President Bush.
    "If there is not evidence, then a retraction and apology would be appropriate," said the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times.
    Last year, Mr. Rockefeller was embarrassed when one of his staff's strategy papers leaked to the press. The paper talked of how Democrats would work with Republicans to get a critical report on the Bush administration and pre-Iraq war intelligence, then continue to exploit the issue no matter what the report's conclusions.
     Mr. Rockefeller criticized the Pentagon official on Friday, the same day the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released the report on prewar intelligence findings on Iraq to which the leaked memo referred.

OCTOBER 2003 : (GERMAN SHIP CARRYING CENTRIFUGE PARTS IS DIVERTED ON ITS WAY TO LIBYA) THE United States... led an operation to seize uranium enrichment components from a German freighter headed for Libya that ... [would seal] ... Tripoli's decision to publicly renounce weapons of mass destruction [in Dec 2003]... "A ship was diverted based on intelligence it was carrying centrifuge parts in early October," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli [later] told reporters, calling it "a significant and important development". - "US confirms uranium seizure ," By Matthew Lee in Washington, News.com.au, January 1, 2004

OCTOBER 2003 : (AFTER GETTING CAUGHT IN THE ACT BY THE INTERDICTION OF WMD-RELATED CARGO DESTINED FOR LIBYA, LIBYA PERMITS THE CIA TO INSPECT HIS WEAPONS FACILITIES) In October, after the WMD interdiction, the Libyan strongman permitted the CIA to inspect his facilities on the ground U.S. inspectors were "surprised at how much they were able to see and surprised by how far Gadhafi had gotten, incidentally, in moving ahead on his weapons programs," Kristol said. From that point, disarmament negotiations "moved quickly," he added. - "U.S. Intercepted Libyan WMDs," by Limbacher, NewsMax 12/21/03

OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (KAY SAYS AFTER SPEAKING WITH INVESTIGATORS IN IRAQ; ONE SCIENTIST WAS ASSASSINATED, ONE WAS SHOT SIX TIMES AND SURVIVED - THIS SCIENTIST'S NEPHEW HAD ALSO BEEN SHOT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Iraqi scientists were shot in Baghdad after they talked to the U.S.-led team hunting weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and others believe they will be in danger if they collaborate in the search, Washington's chief weapons inspector David Kay said on Friday. Kay, who is directing the WMD hunt as an adviser to the CIA, presented an interim report to U.S. lawmakers this week that said no banned weapons had yet been found.
Some Iraqi scientists have sought relocation in the United States out of fear for the safety of their families, and others who want to stay in Iraq seek security guarantees, Kay told reporters on a conference call. "They believe they are in genuine danger ... if they collaborate with us," he said.
One scientist was "assassinated literally hours after meeting" with a member of the WMD-hunting team, killed by a single shot to the back of his head outside his apartment, Kay said. There were no signs of robbery.
Another scientist, who was "really golden for us," was shot six times but survived, he said. Kay declined to name them. "The scientist who took six bullets was ... key to starting our understanding of the biological weapons program and pointing us in the direction of others," he said. His nephew was also shot in the incident a month and a half ago, Kay said.
"We engaged in a lot of conversations with him. We perhaps were not as sensitive to his security needs as now in retrospect we realize we should have been," he said. "It's very difficult to conduct clandestine meetings in Iraq when you have to go pick people up because ... transport was hard to come by."
But Kay said cooperation from Iraqis, inside and outside detention, has increased. "This is an intelligence-led operation, we are absolutely dependent on the cooperation of Iraqis to help us discover the complete truth about the WMD programs," he noted. - "Kay: Two Iraqi WMD Scientists Shot for Helping U.S.," by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters , 10/3/03

OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (KAY'S TEAM INVESTIGATING INFO THAT NORTH KOREA & SOME UNIDENTIFIED EUROPEAN COUNTRIES INVOLVED IN AIDING IRAQ'S MISSILE PROGRAM AND IN DUAL USE MATERIALS) The team is also gathering information about foreign assistance to Iraq, which was mainly in the missile area and some dual-use areas, that involved North Korea and some European countries which he declined to identify. - "Kay: Two Iraqi WMD Scientists Shot for Helping U.S.," by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters , 10/3/03

OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (DAVID KAY SAYS THE COALITION HAS CONFIRMED THAT THERE WERE MOVEMENTS OF WMD OR WEAPONS-RELATED SUBSTANCES ON THE DATES, ROUTES AND TO THE LOCATIONS EARLIER REPORTS HAD INDICATED TO COUNTRIES OUTSIDE IRAQ) The WMD hunters have about five to six hypotheses about why the banned weapons have not been found, Kay said. They include that WMD or related material were moved to another country before war, hidden by people involved in the current resistance, or produced outside Iraq through "off-shore collaboration" ...
It is also investigating multiple reports from Iraqis of WMD or weapons-related substances being moved across borders into Iran, Syria and Jordan. "We have in several of the cases confirmed that there were actually movements on the date, on the route, to the locations they have identified," Kay said, adding that his team had no proof that it was WMD material being moved.- "Kay: Two Iraqi WMD Scientists Shot for Helping U.S.," by Tabassum Zakaria, Reuters , 10/3/03

OCTOBER 3, 2003 : (CIA FRONT COMPANY WAS EXPOSED WHEN IT APPEARED ON FEC RECORDS FILLED OUT IN 1999) The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday. The company's identity, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission records on a form filled out in 1999 by Valerie Plame, the case officer at the center of the controversy, when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore's presidential primary campaign. After the name of the company was broadcast yesterday, administration officials confirmed that it was a CIA front. They said the obscure and possibly defunct firm was listed as Plame's employer on her W-2 tax forms in 1999 when she was working undercover for the CIA. - "Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm," by Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, Washington Post, October 4, 2003 Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40012-2003Oct3.html

OCTOBER 27, 2003 : (FEITH MEMO TO SENATORS ROBERTS & ROCKEFELLER CONFIRMS BIN LADEN & SADDAM HUSSEIN HAD AN OPERATIONAL RELATIONSHIP FROM THE EARLY 1990 TO MID MARCH 2003) Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein had an operational relationship from the early 1990s to 2003 that involved training in explosives and weapons of mass destruction, logistical support for terrorist attacks, al Qaeda training camps and safe haven in Iraq, and Iraqi financial support for al Qaeda--perhaps even for Mohamed Atta--according to a top secret U.S. government memorandum obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
The memo, dated October 27, 2003, was sent from Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith to Senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller, the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was written in response to a request from the committee as part of its investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the administration. Intelligence reporting included in the 16-page memo comes from a variety of domestic and foreign agencies, including the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency. Much of the evidence is detailed, conclusive, and corroborated by multiple sources. Some of it is new information obtained in custodial interviews with high-level al Qaeda terrorists and Iraqi officials, and some of it is more than a decade old. The picture that emerges is one of a history of collaboration between two of America's most determined and dangerous enemies.
According to the memo--which lays out the intelligence in 50 numbered points--Iraq-al Qaeda contacts began in 1990 and continued through mid-March 2003, days before the Iraq War began. Most of the numbered passages contain straight, fact-based intelligence reporting, which in some cases includes an evaluation of the credibility of the source.
This reporting is often followed by commentary and analysis. - "Case Closed: The U.S. government's secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden," by Stephen F. Hayes, Weekly Standard , November 24, 2003 issue, Volume 009, Issue 11

NOVEMBER 2003 : (VIAL OF THE TOXIN RICIN IS MAILED TO THE WHITE HOUSE; BUT NEWS OF IT IS NOT RELEASED UNTIL FEB 2004) ... a letter containing a vial of the poison ricin was mailed in November to the White House. ...The letter, officials [later] said, never reached the White House because it was intercepted at an offsite mail facility. - "FBI Says Ricin Also Mailed to White House in Nov.: Powder Found in Frist's Senate Office Is Confirmed," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8403-2004Feb3.html

NOVEMBER 2003 : (14 OF PERHAPS 100 SENATE JUDICIARY DEMOCRATIC MEMOS ARE LEAKED TO THE PRESS) Fourteen of those memos were leaked to the press last November [2003] . Two sources familiar with the memos tell NRO there were dozens of additional memos — perhaps as many as 100 — that were downloaded by Republicans but never made public. ...When the memos were leaked to the Wall Street Journal editorial page, Democrats cried foul, accusing Republicans of stealing the documents and calling for an investigation of how the memos came into GOP hands. ... The memos that were leaked ...[in 2003]... showed Senate Democrats working in close consultation with groups like People for the American Way, the Alliance for Justice, NARAL, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in an effort to defeat President Bush's judicial nominees. ...One memo, from a staffer to Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy, dated April 17, 2002, detailed how the NAACP Legal Defense Fund asked Democrats to delay the confirmation of Julia Scott Gibbons to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Legal Defense Fund officials did not want her on the court when the University of Michigan affirmative action case was decided. Members of Kennedy's staff conceded they were "a little concerned about the propriety of scheduling hearings based on the resolution of a particular case." But they nevertheless worked to delay the confirmation. Another memo, from a staffer to Illinois Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin, dated November 7, 2001, described a meeting with the liberal interest groups in which the groups "identified [Bush nominee] Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment." The staffer continued: "They [the groups] want to hold Estrada off as long as possible." - "There Are More Democratic Memos," by Byron York, NRO , February 06, 2004

NOVEMBER 1, 2003 Saturday : (DR. DAVID KAY REBUKES WASHINGTON POST REPORTER BARTON GELLMAN FOR KNOWINGLY MISREPRESENTING THE FACTS ABOUT KAY'S IRAQI WMD REPORT) The head of the CIA's Iraq Study Group that is investigating Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) programs issued a stinging rebuke of the Washington Post on Saturday. David Kay alleged that Post reporter Barton Gellman knowingly misrepresented information he had gathered in Iraq about the hunt for Saddam's WMDs and had misidentified a key source as well as the information Kay had provided Gellman in an interview.......
Insight asked Washington Post editorial-page editor Fred Hiatt why the Post ran the Kay and Meekin letters in the weekend "Free for All" section, instead of on the more prominent op-ed page during the week. "The Free for All page is designed primarily to give space to letters and short pieces that take the Post to task, whereas letters to the editor on the daily letters page may present substantive arguments on issues of the day without representing a complaint about coverage," Hiatt replied. "I do not regard any of these pages as more or less prominent." Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, who worked for the Post as a reporter and editor for 26 years before taking up his current post in November 2000, told Insight he was "looking into" the Gellman/Kay story but would not comment on whether the Post stood by Gellman's reporting. "Anything I do will be in my column this Sunday," he said. So far, he added, he hasn't interviewed Gellman in relation to Kay's complaints of misreporting and misrepresentation. The ombudsman's column is where the Washington Post comments on reports that its news coverage is biased or has contained serious inaccuracies.- "David Kay Rebukes Washington Post Coverage,"By Kenneth R. Timmerman , Posted Nov. 3, 2003

NOVEMBER 4, 2003 Tuesday : (SENATE SSC INTEL MEMO OBTAINED & RELEASED BY RADIO & FOX NEWS HOST SEAN HANNITY INDICATES DEMOCRATS WERE PLOTTING TO USE CLASSIFIED INFORMATION AGAINST THE WHITE HOUSE DURING THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ) A memo circulated among Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence shows the committee's minority plotting to use classified information against the White House in next year's presidential campaign. The document, obtained and disclosed by nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity Tuesday afternoon, suggests that the top priority among senior Democrats entrusted with guarding the nation's security is instead driving the Bush administration from power based on claims it exaggerated intelligence on the threat posed by Iraq. The memo as reported by Hannity reads as follows: "We have carefully reviewed our options under the rules and believe we have identified the best approach. Our plan is as follows:

"1) Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard.
"For example, in addition to the President's State of the Union speech, the chairman [Sen. Pat Roberts] has agreed to look at the activities of the office of the Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, as well as Secretary Bolton's office at the State Department.
"The fact that the chairman supports our investigations into these offices and cosigns our requests for information is helpful and potentially crucial. We don't know what we will find but our prospects for getting the access we seek is far greater when we have the backing of the majority. [We can verbally mention some of the intriguing leads we are pursuing.]
"2) Assiduously prepare Democratic 'additional views' to attach to any interim or final reports the committee may release. Committee rules provide this opportunity and we intend to take full advantage of it.
"In that regard we may have already compiled all the public statements on Iraq made by senior administration officials. We will identify the most exaggerated claims. We will contrast them with the intelligence estimates that have since been declassified. Our additional views will also, among other things, castigate the majority for seeking to limit the scope of the inquiry.
"The Democrats will then be in a strong position to reopen the question of establishing an Independent Commission [i.e., the Corzine Amendment.] "
3) Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation of the administration's use of intelligence at any time. But we can only do so once. "The best time to do so will probably be next year, either: "

A) After we have already released our additional views on an interim report, thereby providing as many as three opportunities to make our case to the public. Additional views on the interim report (1). The announcement of our independent investigation (2). And (3) additional views on the final investigation. Or: "
B) Once we identify solid leads the majority does not want to pursue, we would attract more coverage and have greater credibility in that context than one in which we simply launch an independent investigation based on principled but vague notions regarding the use of intelligence.

"In the meantime, even without a specifically authorized independent investigation, we continue to act independently when we encounter footdragging on the part of the majority. For example, the FBI Niger investigation was done solely at the request of the vice chairman. We have independently submitted written requests to the DOD and we are preparing further independent requests for information. "SUMMARY: Intelligence issues are clearly secondary to the public's concern regarding the insurgency in Iraq. Yet we have an important role to play in revealing the misleading, if not flagrantly dishonest, methods and motives of senior administration officials who made the case for unilateral preemptive war.
"The approach outlined above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives." [End of Memo Excerpt.]

The revelation that Democrats are using the intelligence committee to conduct opposition research for the coming presidential campaign demands an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee, Hannity said.- "Dem Intel Committee Memo Reveals Anti-Bush Plot," Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2003 4:38 p.m. EST, NewsMax.Com

NOVEMBER 5, 2003 : (BILLIONAIRE SOROS PLEDGES $15.5 MILLION IN SOFT MONEY) By Pledging At Least $15.5 Million In Soft Money To Defeat Bush, Soros Is Single Largest Political Contributor In American History. (Laura Blumenfeld, “Soros’s Deep Pockets Vs. Bush,” The Washington Post, 11/11/03; Byron York, “Democrats Throw The Spirit Of Reform Out The Window,” The Hill, 11/5/03)

NOVEMBER 6, 2003 Thursday : (RUSSIA : GEORGE SOROS' OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE IS EVICTED BY THE BUILDING OWNER, KARAMZIN) Institute employees were kicked out of their headquarters Nov. 6 when a group of about 50 gunmen acting on orders from building owner Kantemir Karamzin seized the building in a rent dispute. - "20 Masked Attackers Storm Soros Institute (Soros on war path)," by Denis Maternovsky, Moscow Times, Monday, Nov. 17, 2003.

NOVEMBER 6, 2003 : (ROCKEFELLER SENATE INTEL MEMO SCANDAL : DEMOCRAT EFFORT TO SUBVERT WAR INTELLIGENCE FOR POLITICAL ENDS IS EXPOSED) The plan, made public by Fox News on Nov. 6, went like this: "Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation at any time – but we can only do so once. The best time to do so will probably be [in 2004]." - "Democrats subvert war intelligence(threatened national security?) ," J. Michael Waller, http://worldnetdaily.com/ , December 23, 2003

NOVEMBER 6, 2003 : (MEMOGATE : ROCKEFELLER INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE PLOT TO UNDERMINE THE PRESIDENT AND THE WAR EFFORT IS EXPOSED) It [the plan] centered on duping the panel's Republican chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, into approving probes that in actuality would be fishing expeditions inside the State Department and Pentagon. The authors hoped to dig up and hype "improper or questionable conduct by administration officials." According to a staff memo, the committee then would release the information during the course of the "investigation," with Democrats providing their "additional views" that would, "among other things, castigate the majority [Republicans] for seeking to limit the scope of the inquiry."
In other words, they would manufacture and denounce a cover-up where none existed. The Democrats then would drag the issue through the 2004 presidential campaign by creating an independent commission to investigate, according to the memo.
The plan, made public by Fox News on Nov. 6, went like this: "Prepare to launch an independent investigation when it becomes clear we have exhausted the opportunity to usefully collaborate with the majority. We can pull the trigger on an independent investigation at any time – but we can only do so once. The best time to do so will probably be [in 2004]." - Democrat Senator Rockefeller's office memo via Fox News
(* Note: Even before the memo was written, Rockefeller's staff already was off on its own, well outside the traditional bipartisan channels. According to the memo, the "FBI Niger investigation" of reports that Saddam Hussein's regime had tried to buy uranium from West Africa "was done solely at the request of the vice chairman." )

NOVEMBER 2003 first week : (BILL CLINTON VISITS CHINA "TO PROMOTE THE FIGHT AGAINST AIDS" ) - "Small Chinese Clothier Courts Clinton," By STEPHANIE HOO, AP via AOL .c The Associated Press, 11/13/03

NOVEMBER 9, 2003 : (FOX NEWS SUNDAY APPEARANCE OF SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE MEMBER SENATOR CARL LEVIN- HE CLAIMS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS EXAGGERATING INTELLIGENCE, QUESTIONS AL QAEDA & IRAQ TIES ) CRITICS OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION have complained that Iraq-al Qaeda connections are a fantasy, trumped up by the warmongers at the White House to fit their preconceived notions about international terror; that links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden have been routinely "exaggerated" for political purposes; that hawks "cherry-picked" bits of intelligence and tendentiously presented these to the American public. Carl Levin, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, made those points as recently as November 9, in an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." Republicans on the committee, he complained, refuse to look at the administration's "exaggeration of intelligence." Said Levin: "The question is whether or not they exaggerated intelligence in order to carry out their purpose, which was to make the case for going to war. Did we know, for instance, with certainty that there was any relationship between the Iraqis and the terrorists that were in Afghanistan, bin Laden? The administration said that there's a connection between those terrorist groups in Afghanistan and Iraq. Was there a basis for that?" There was, as shown in the [Feith] memo to the committee on which Levin serves. - "The U.S. government's secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. ," by Stephen F. Hayes, 11/24/2003, the Weekly Standard, Volume 009, Issue 11

NOVEMBER 11, 2003 Tuesday : (BILLIONAIRE SOROS SAYS HE WOULD GIVE UP HIS FORTUNE TO DEFEAT BUSH IF IT WERE GUARANTEED) “Asked whether he would trade his $7 billion fortune to unseat Bush, Soros opened his mouth. Then he closed it. The proposal hung in the air: Would he become poor to beat Bush? He said, ‘If someone guaranteed it.’” (Laura Blumenfeld, “Soros’s Deep Pockets Vs. Bush,” The Washington Post, 11/11/03)

NOVEMBER 11, 2003 : (THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS THAT BILLIONAIRE SOROS THINKS THE DEFEAT OF BUSH IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH) Why? Defeating Bush Is “The Central Focus” Of His Life And “A Matter Of Life And Death.” (Laura Blumenfeld, “Soros’s Deep Pockets Vs. Bush,” The Washington Post, 11/11/03)

NOVEMBER 11, 2003 : (THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS THAT BILLIONAIRE SOROS COMPARES BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO NAZIS, SAYS AMERICA IS A DANGER TO THE WORLD) Likened Bush Administration To Nazis, Calling America “A Danger To The World” Under Bush. (Laura Blumenfeld, “Soros’s Deep Pockets Vs. Bush,” The Washington Post, 11/11/03)

NOVEMBER 11, 2003 : (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL REPORTS ON DNC EFFORTS TO CIRCUMVENT CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAW) Democrats’ 2004 Battle Plan Against Bush Includes Effort To “Maneuver Around The New Campaign-Finance Law By Redirecting Now-Banned Big Donations Away From The Democratic Party To A New Set Of Groups That Will Coordinate Attacks On Mr. Bush.” (Jacob M. Schlesinger and Jeanne Cummings, “Game Plan: To Beat President, Democrats Hone A 5-Point Strategy,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/13/03)

NOVEMBER 12, 2003 Wednesday : (THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS THAT BILLIONAIRE SOROS WILL SPEND $100 MILLION TO DEFEAT PRESIDENT BUSH) [Soros] Will Reportedly Spend $100 Million To Defeat Bush. (Robert Kuttner, “Growing Power Of Small Money,” The Boston Globe, 11/12/03)

NOVEMBER 13 - 15, 2003 : (BILL CLINTON TO VISIT SOUTH KOREA) Former United States President Bill Clinton will visit South Korea from Nov. 13-15 at the invitation of SBS, a spokesman for the broadcasting service said yesterday. (Oct 14, 2003) - "Bill Clinton to Visit Korea Nov. 13-15 ," Korea Times, October 14, 2003, Tuesday

NOVEMBER 14, 2003 Friday night : (RUSSIA : SOROS' OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE IS RAIDED) About 20 masked men carrying clubs swooped down on the disputed headquarters of George Soros' Open Society Institute on Friday [Nov 14] night in an attack that injured 10, including the building's owner. "Open Society's employees were asked to come to the offices on Friday night. We were told that court marshals would show up and force Karamzin to vacate the building and that we could make a list of missing personal belongings on the spot," the source said. "We waited until half past 10 like complete fools and no one came. And then, when the attack started, we were called by lawyers and told to get out of there."
Karamzin told NTV that he was sure that the Soros foundation was behind Friday night's attack. Karamzin said he and five of his employees suffered minor injuries, while four others were briefly hospitalized with injuries including a broken nose and a concussion.
- "20 Masked Attackers Storm Soros Institute (Soros on war path)," by Denis Maternovsky, Moscow Times, Monday, Nov. 17, 2003.

NOVEMBER 15, 2003 Saturday : (SOUTH KOREA : SBS : MCAULIFFE) SBS has also invited U.S. Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe, who will arrive here on Nov. 15 to give a televised speech on his personal and his party's views on the current North Korean nuclear crisis.- "Bill Clinton to Visit Korea Nov. 13-15 ," Korea Times, October 14, 2003, Tuesday

NOVEMBER 16, 2003 : (DR. DAVID KAY COMMENTS ON IRAQI SCIENTISTS' NEW 'SHOCKING' INFO ON IRAQ'S MILLING AND DRYING PROCESSES NEED TO WEAPONIZE ANTHRAX - SCIENTISTS CHARLIE & ALPHA) Two top Iraqi scientists, codenamed Charlie and Alpha, are helping the coalition to learn more about Iraq's anthrax programme, Kay said. The Iraqis had made shocking innovations in the milling and drying processes needed to weaponise anthrax. Almost every week there is a new discovery that boggles your mind, Kay said. - "Spies close in on Saddam's ailing terror mastermind," Sunday Times, London, UK see also "Alpha and Charlie Reveal Secrets of Iraq's Anthrax Weaponization Techniques ," a blog

NOVEMBER 16, 2003 Sunday : (SOURCE SAYS THE RAID ON SOROS' OPEN SOCIETY INSTITUTE IN RUSSIA WAS ORGANIZED BY THE OPEN SOCIETY'S LAWYERS IN NEW YORK) The raid was a failed attempt to retake the building and organized by the Open Society Institute's lawyers in New York, a source close to the institute said Sunday [Nov 16].
The Soros source said lawyers at Open Society's main headquarters in New York had orchestrated the attack behind the backs of both Soros and the Open Society Institute Russia in an effort to force Karamzin to cede the building "the hard way."
"Open Society's employees were asked to come to the offices on Friday night. We were told that court marshals would show up and force Karamzin to vacate the building and that we could make a list of missing personal belongings on the spot," the source said.
"We waited until half past 10 like complete fools and no one came. And then, when the attack started, we were called by lawyers and told to get out of there." - "20 Masked Attackers Storm Soros Institute (Soros on war path)," by Denis Maternovsky, Moscow Times, Monday, Nov. 17, 2003.

NOVEMBER 24, 2003 : (THE WEEKLY STANDARD LEAKS FEITH MEMO - LINKS BETWEEN IRAQ & AL QAEDA)

JANUARY 27, 2004 : (FEITH MEMO TO SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE : CHENEY REFERS TO A STEPHEN F. HAYES ARTICLE "THE US GOVERNMENT'S SECRET MEMO DETAILING COOPERATION BETWEEN SADDAM HUSSEIN AND OSAAMA BIN LADEN " IN THE NOVEMBER 24, 2003 ISSUE OF THE WEEKLY STANDARD, WHICH CONTAINED LEAKED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, AS THE 'BEST SOURCE OF INFORMATION' ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IRAQI LEADER HUSSEIN & AL QAEDA) In today's Washington Post, Dana Milbank reported that "Vice President Cheney . . . in an interview this month with the Rocky Mountain News, recommended as the 'best source of information' an article in The Weekly Standard magazine detailing a relationship between Hussein and al Qaeda based on leaked classified information."
(The leaked info would be memo by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy douglas J. Feith to senators Pat Roberts and Jay Rockefeller of the Senate intelligence Committee) - Source : Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, January 27, 2004

Looks like the pinkos really, really didn't want the Feith memo revealed or confirmed...

JANUARY 28, 2004 : (REPORT SAYS [LIBERAL] GROUP 'CREW' WANTS INVESTIGATION OF CHENEY FOR CONFIRMING FEITH MEMO LEAK IN THE WEEKLY STANDARD'S NOV 24, 2003 ISSUE) Earlier today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a non-profit legal watchdog group, sent a letter to President Bush asking that he call upon the White House Counsel to investigate Vice President Cheney's confirmation of leaked classified information in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News on January 9, 2004. Federal law prohibits leaking classified information. Confirming information that has already been leaked is also prohibited. In his Jan. 9th interview, Mr. Cheney referred his interviewer to a story that appeared in The Weekly Standard's November 24, 2003 issue. The story, written by Stephen F. Hayes, discussed a 16 page memo written by Defense Department Under Secretary for Policy regarding raw data and reports describing possible links between Al Queda and Iraq.
Mr. Cheney, responding to a question regarding the relationship between Iraq and Al Queda, called the Standard's story "the best information out there." Mr. Cheney provided this information despite the Pentagon's November 15, 2003 press release stating that news reports that characterized the contents of the memo were "inaccurate" and excoriated the leak as "deplorable and may be illegal." The Pentagon also stated that leaking such information does "serious harm to national security." "Mr. Cheney's reference to classified information and the ensuing silence from the White House shows a distinct pattern: leaking classified information that the administration deems beneficial is Standard Operating Procedure," Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of CREW said today.
"The deliberate delay in investigating the outing of Valerie Plame and the immediate investigation into an alleged leak by former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill the morning after Mr. O'Neill's interview with 60 Minutes shows the contrast between investigations into leaks that help with President Bush's agenda and those that damage the administration's efforts."
"Perhaps even more disturbing, Mr. Cheney is continuing to rely on a discredited memo to buttress the administration's claim of a connection between Iraq and Al Queda as justification for the war in Iraq, completely contradicting both President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell who have admitted that there is no evidence linking Iraq to the September 11th attack."
"The administration cannot play politics with classified information. First, it endangers national security and second, it encourages others to leak such information," Sloan said today. "How can the American people trust this administration if they cannot handle classified information in a responsible and lawful manner? The American people deserve better."
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-partisan [* my note: nonpartisan my arse] legal watchdog group. CREW brings legal cases exposing government officials who betray the public interest by serving special interests. CREW's cases target not only such officials, but also the special interests supporting them. - "Legal Watch Dog Group CREW Alleges Cheney Leaked Classified Information, Breaking Federal Law," BUSINESS WIRE, 1/28/04*

(* Freepernotes on this topic:
To: hchutch
According to their website,[http://www.citizensforethics.org/] they are currently investigating John Ashcroft, Tom DeLay, Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI), Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL), Billy Tauzin (R-LA) and Jeb Bush and are defending Friends of Earth in a lawsuit against the Interior Dept. Couldn't get their links page to come up, think they have something to hide?
7 posted on 01/28/2004 10:36:29 AM PST by ravingnutter
To: Tumbleweed_Connection
http://www.citizensforethics.org/news/20030719_natljrnl.php
CREW has been active only since February, so its profile is still relatively low. Yet Republicans detect a strong Democratic orientation. Sloan, most recently an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, is a former aide to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del.; then-Rep. (now Sen.) Charles Schumer, D- N.Y.; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. In addition, CREW's three board members are Mark Penn, President Clinton's former pollster; Daniel Berger, a trial lawyer from Philadelphia and a Clinton fundraiser; and Louis Mayberg, the president of a mutual fund company. 10 posted on 01/28/2004 10:52:10 AM PST by jimbo123
To: Tumbleweed_Connection :
Melanie Sloan, Executive Director
Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director. Prior to accepting this position, Ms. Sloan served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where, from 1998- early 2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries. Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Sloan was Minority Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee from 1995 to 1998. She worked directly with the Honorable John Conyers, the ranking member of the Committee, specializing in criminal enforcement issues, including the Independent Counsel law. Her responsibilities included drafting legislation and committee reports (minority views), writing speeches, and working with interest groups. She also assisted a working group of Members of Congress in developing and drafting a Democratic alternative to the Republican juvenile justice bill.
In 1994, Ms. Sloan was Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, working for then Representative Charles Schumer. There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act, and worked on issues including the death penalty, mandatory minimum sentencing, and habeas corpus. In 1993, Ms. Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then Chairman, Senator Joe Biden, where she researched the backgrounds of nominees to high level Department of Justice positions and to the federal courts. Prior to serving Congress, she was an associate at Howrey and Simon in Washington, D.C. and at Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal in Los Angeles, California. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Chicago and has published in the Yale Law and Policy Review, the Legal Times, and the Washington Post.
11 posted on 01/28/2004 10:54:52 AM PST by jimbo123 )

MARCH 10, 2004 Wednesday : (TODAY LIBYA AND NIGER WILL SIGN AN ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY PERMITTING SNAP INSPECTIONS TO INSURE COMPLIANCE) [IAEA spokeswoman Melissa] Fleming said Libya, along with Niger, would sign an Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on Wednesday, permitting intrusive snap inspections to verify its future compliance. -- "U.N. atom watchdog rejects Iran's call to close case," By Louis Charbonneau and Mark Trevelyan, Reuters via yahoo india, Monday March 8, 6:33 PM , http://in.news.yahoo.com/040308/137/2bvpi.html

(* My note: So... why would Niger and not just and Libya be pressured to sign this? Doesn't the IAEA want to take former Nigerien official's and the honorable former ambassador Joseph Wilson's word for it that Nigerien uranium is secure? )

MAY 15 , 2004 Saturday : (NIAMEY, NIGER : NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VOTES TO JOIN THE 1980 CONVENTION ON THE PHYSICAL PROTECTION OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL) - Lawmakers in the West African nation of Niger, the world's number three producer of yellowcake uranium, voted Saturday to join an international treaty calling on signatories to ensure the protection of their nuclear materials. Niger's president has 15 days to reject the bill or sign it into law. The bill calls for adherence to the 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material. The treaty, adopted in Vienna, set technical standards for protecting plutonium and enriched uranium -- the material used in making nuclear bombs -- during transport. Niger signed the treaty in 1985, but never adopted it as law at home. "Niger ... must adhere to this convention," said a report issued by the national assembly's foreign affairs commission in Niamey. ... ...Only to Canada and Australia produce more yellowcake uranium than Niger. Uranium sales generate about two-thirds of impoverished Niger's export earnings.-- "Niger president to decide on nuclear treaty," AP via CNN, May 17, 2004, Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/05/15/niger.nuclear.ap/index.html

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.