What Wilson Didn’t Say About Africa: Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners

Original FReeper research | 10/25/2004 | Fedora

[Fedora]

What Wilson Didn’t Say About Africa

Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners

By Fedora

with help from a few FReeper friends

Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has been a leading spokesman for critics who accuse President Bush of basing his case for war against Iraq on forged documents purporting that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson’s charge has been discredited by a Senate investigation,¹ but what remains unanswered are questions arising from what is now known about French intelligence’s role in pushing the forged documents on British and US intelligence.

The role of France and Wilson in undermining Bush’s case for war looks particularly curious in light of disclosures about Saddam Hussein’s bribery of foreign political and business figures during the course of the Oil-for-Food program from 1996 to 2003. Saddam’s web of graft spun in many directions: among others, to UN officials, Russian and Chinese oil companies, British critics of Tony Blair’s Iraq policies, and US critics of President Bush’s Iraq policies, as well as France. Near the center of the web was the Banque Nationale de Paris, where Iraq’s Oil-for-Food revenues were initially kept until 2001, when they were redistributed among several undisclosed banks approved by Iraq. Meanwhile French oil company TotalFinaElf received Oil-for-Food vouchers and held a contract to develop oil fields in southern Iraq.²

When the US and UK first began considering military action against Iraq, Bush faced the same resistance Clinton had encountered in 1998 from France and Russia. Already in December 2001, Russia had announced it would not support a US attack on Iraq.³ Then shortly after President Bush’s January 29, 2002 State of the Union Address named Iraq as a member of a terrorist-sponsoring “Axis of Evil", France announced on February 22, 2002 that Europe would not support a US attack on Iraq.⁴

French intelligence soon began a campaign to discredit the US case for war against Iraq. In 1999, French intelligence had begun investigating the security of uranium supplies in Niger, where uranium production was controlled by a consortium led by the French mining company COGEMA, a division of the French state-owned nuclear energy firm AREVA. At that time, Italian businessman Rocco Martino provided French intelligence with genuine documents revealing that Iraq was planning to expand trade with Niger. French intelligence took an interest in the documents and asked Martino to provide more information. In 2000 he used a contact in the Nigerian embassy in Rome to provide French intelligence with documents purporting that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. These documents were later exposed as forgeries; Martino claims that at the time he was unaware they were forged. In October 2002, as the case for war against Iraq was being debated in the UN, Martino attempted to sell the same documents to Italian journalist Elisabetta Burba, who was skeptical of their authenticity and insisted on verifying them before purchasing them. Burba’s editors had the US embassy check the documents and sent Burba on a fact-finding mission to Niger, and Burba concluded that the documents were not authentic and abandoned her story on them. However French intelligence continued trying to convince British and US intelligence that the documents were authentic.⁵

Prior to receiving Martino’s documents, US intelligence had already begun investigating similar reports of Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger. On October 15, 2001, a report of a uranium deal between Niger and Iraq had come to the attention of the US intelligence community through an undisclosed “foreign government service". US intelligence analysts were initially skeptical of the report, partly because France controlled Niger’s uranium supply through COGEMA and presumably would not allow such a transaction to occur. Then on February 5, 2002, US intelligence received a second, similar but more detailed report from a foreign government service. The second report seemed more credible to some analysts, but others continued to raise doubts, prompting Vice President Cheney to request a CIA analysis of the report. As the CIA was investigating the issue, a CIA agent in the Agency’s Directorate of Operations Counterproliferation Division, Valerie Plame Wilson, suggested that the investigation be assigned to her husband Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger.⁶

Wilson, a lifetime Francophile, had spent the bulk of his diplomatic career in former French African colonies like Niger.⁷ His second wife from 1986 to 1998, Jacqueline, had served the French embassy in Burundi as a “cultural counselor" (a function often used as a cover by French intelligence).⁸ From Wilson’s experience in Niger he was familiar with the Niger uranium industry. Additionally, he had worked in Iraq during the days leading up to the Gulf War. (Intriguingly, on the eve of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait Wilson had dined at the home of an arms dealer who bought weapons for Iraq from France; a Vanity Fair profile on Wilson mentions his wife’s presence at this event, but Wilson’s book states “I was the only guest.").⁹ After the Gulf War he had helped provide support to US/UK/Turkish operations in northern Iraq, while stationed as political advisor to the United States European Command in Germany during the Kosovo War. In 1998 he left the State Department and began putting his diplomatic contacts to business use. He formed J.C. Wilson International Ventures Corporation, a business development and management company which ventured in gold, oil, and telecommunications and served clients in Africa, Western Europe, and Turkey. At this time new African markets were emerging due to the recent passage of an African trade bill Wilson had helped President Clinton promote. Wilson’s African investment interests included oil markets in several parts of Africa and the gold market in Niger. Wilson also kept abreast of the gold market in Iraq, where the price of gold was exceptionally cheap, as Wilson observed in one of his lectures.¹⁰ Meanwhile his then-wife Jacqueline, whom he would soon leave for Valerie Plame, became a registered lobbyist for the Presidency of Gabon, where Wilson had a good relationship with President Omar Bongo.¹¹

Wilson ran his company out of the offices of an investment company called Rock Creek Corporation. Rock Creek was controlled by Mohammed Alamoudi, whom Wilson had met in 1997 at a reception organized for the World Bank by Westar Group. Alamoudi was a member of the Saudi-Ethiopian Alamoudi dynasty, which was heavily invested in the segments of the African economy Wilson was seeking to penetrate. The Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Services--a Swiss subsidiary of the Saudi company Delta Oil--handled Iraqi oil export contracts in 2000 and 2001 and was revealed in 2003 as a recipient of Iraqi Oil-for-Food vouchers channeled through Abu Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist with Iraqi connections. Delta Services also cooperated with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime in a project to build an oil pipeline from Afghanistan to Pakistan, prior to this project’s suspension in 1998. In 1999, Alamoudi was accused by USA Today reporter Jack Kelley of heading a bank which was being investigated for financing Al Qaeda. USA Today printed retractions of several details in Kelley’s article in 2004, after another member of the Alamoudi family--Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American Muslim lobbyist--was indicted on terror-related charges involving a Libyan-backed conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah. Abdurahman was ultimately convicted in October 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.¹² Under Mohammed Alamoudi’s direction, Rock Creek was chaired by Elias Aburdene, an Arab-American international banking advisor and lobbyist who had previously advised banks linked to organized crime and intelligence community figures involved in the S&L Scam. In 2003 and 2004 Aburdene donated to the Sandhills Political Action Committee, which was affiliated with Senator Chuck Hagel, ¹³ a leading Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.¹⁴

While working out of Rock Creek’s offices, Wilson also advised American-Turkish investment groups who shared Hagel’s negative views of Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson had developed Turkish contacts during his diplomatic career. While stationed in Iraq, he had shared intelligence with members of the Turkish embassy there, including ambassador Ahmet Okcun, who would later become Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Coordinator for Reconstruction of Iraq.¹⁵ Also, while in Germany, Wilson had worked on Iraqi-related issues with Turkish General Cevik Bir, a critic of US policy towards Iraq.¹⁶ Wilson and Bir expressed similar views on Iraq when they spoke together at events held by the American-Turkish Council (ATC), a Turkish-American business association headed by Brent Scowcroft,¹⁷ another prominent Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.¹⁸ Scowcroft and Wilson shared the view that President Bush’s policy towards the Middle East and Iraq was dominated by a cabal of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" represented by Richard Perle--as Wilson expressed his views in a June 2003 lecture, Bush’s invasion of Iraq “was all done to make Sharon's life easier. . .American soldiers are dying in order to enable Sharon to impose his terms upon the Palestinians. . .American boys and girls are dying for Israel".¹⁹ Wilson’s contact with the ATC also brought him into contact with his future wife, Valerie Plame, whom he met while receiving an ATC award during a reception at the Turkish embassy in Washington.²⁰ In addition to advising the ATC, Wilson also headed the Washington branch of a Turkish business group founded in 2000 by Turkish-American businesswoman Tumu Gumustekin, the Corporate & Public Strategy Advisory Group (CPS), which sought to capitalize on business opportunities opened up by Turkey’s 1999 acceptance as a candidate for EU membership.²¹ Meanwhile, as Turkey competed for EU membership, Saddam Hussein’s regime had been bribing Turkish oil companies through the Oil-for-Food Program, and in December 2001 had awarded a drilling contract to one of these companies, the Turkish state oil company Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC), a subsidiary of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO).²² Also at this time the Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Oil was involved in several oil development projects in Turkey and the surrounding region, including a joint project with TotalFinaElf and Turkish Petroleum and other companies to build a major oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, from Turkey through Georgia to Azerbaijan.²³

While Wilson was pursuing his foreign investment ventures, he also served as a foreign policy advisor to the 2000 Presidential campaign of Al Gore. A company the Gore family had a long-term relationship with, Occidental Petroleum, shared business interests with Alamoudi-affiliated companies in Africa and the Middle East, and employed as Vice President for Middle East business Odeh Aburdene,²⁴ who shared a complex network of relationships with Rock Creek’s Elias Aburdene and Joseph Wilson--notably, all three contributed to Arab-American Congressional Caucus leader Nick Rahall,²⁵ who supported Muslim lobbying groups linked to terrorists and opposed military action in Iraq.²⁶ Abdurahman Alamoudi also contributed to Rahall, and sat on the steering committee of Arab Americans for Clinton/Gore '96 along with his associate James Zogby, who later advised Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign.²⁷ Wilson had worked as an aide to Gore from 1985 to 1986 and had developed a friendly relationship with him. Wilson says Gore was the first person outside the State Department to contact him expressing support when he was caught in Iraq in the middle of the diplomatic crisis leading up to the Gulf War. In 1997 Gore recommended Wilson to President Clinton to help him plan a trip to Africa. When Wilson began publicly opposing Bush’s Iraq policy in 2002, Gore was still considered a potential candidate in the 2004 election. Gore’s speeches were then being sponsored by the antiwar group Moveon.org, which Wilson would support in September 2003 in an attempt to petition Congress against appropriating funds for Iraq operations.²⁸ Moveon.org was financed by billionaire George Soros,²⁹ who had business interests encompassing, among other things, the BTC Pipeline that Mohammed Alamoudi’s Delta Oil was helping build.³⁰ Later, after Gore announced in December 2002 that he would not be running in the 2004 campaign,³¹ Moveon.org began supporting John Kerry’s campaign.³² Wilson began advising Kerry’s campaign on foreign policy matters around May 2003, several months prior to his public entry into the Niger uranium controversy.³³ By this time, from at least fall 2002, the French intelligence operation to push the Niger forgeries on British and US intelligence was already underway. Meanwhile, from as early as at least January 6 2003--prior to President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address where the President made the African reference which Wilson criticizes--the Democratic National Committee was already circulating a memo planning a public relations strategy which would include “[c]laiming the Bush administration has ‘manufactured’ evidence against Saddam Hussein and used that evidence to encourage Britain and other allies to join the American fight against Iraq."³⁴

Wilson’s business and political background raise questions about the motive behind his wife’s recruitment of him to assist the CIA’s Niger investigation, and about his subsequent politicization of the investigation to undermine the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. While the media has focused attention on the question of who leaked the fact that his wife worked for the CIA, Wilson has attempted to evade the natural question of what role his wife’s CIA connection played in the CIA’s decision to send him to investigate the Niger uranium report. In his book, published in April 2004, Wilson wrote, “Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger’s uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip. The suggestion that Valerie might have improperly influenced the decision to send me to Niger was easy to disprove."³⁵ But contrary to Wilson’s confident-sounding denial, in July 2004 a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report found that, as The Washington Post reported, “Wilson. . .was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has stated publicly. . .[A] CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame ‘offered up’ Wilson’s name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband ‘has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’"³⁶ So it turns out that Wilson lied to conceal his wife’s role in procuring his CIA assignment. This raises the question: why?

Another question that might be raised is why Wilson and the CIA’s investigation did not explore at least the possibility of the French-led company COGEMA covertly allowing Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. In Wilson’s book, while explaining the method that led him to conclude the report of Niger selling uranium to Iraq was false, Wilson explains that he ruled out the possibility of an off-the-books transaction partly because “COGEMA, as the managing partner, would have had to know and be complicit."³⁷ This seems to rule out a priori the very thing Wilson was sent to investigate, and in the process, to rule out the possibility of French complicity in arming Saddam Hussein’s regime, which seems a hasty exoneration in light of the fact that France had a long history of selling Iraq military equipment and resisting UN sanctions against Iraq.³⁸ It is now known that in fact French companies were helping Iraq skirt UN sanctions.³⁹

Since it is now also known that French intelligence was trying to push Martino’s forgeries on US and British intelligence, as simultaneously the Democratic National Committee was planning to discredit President Bush’s Iraq policy by accusing his administration of manufacturing evidence against Hussein’s regime, heightened suspicion is cast on Wilson’s use of the Niger investigation to discredit the Bush administration’s case for war. Prior to Wilson publicly joining the debate over Iraq in May 2002, since September 11, 2001 he and Brent Scowcroft had shared a growing concern over their perception of the alleged influence of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" on Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson’s first public contributions to the Iraq debate were made to Scowcroft’s American-Turkish Council in May 2002, in conjunction with a presentation by Cevik Bir. Scowcroft himself entered the public debate with a Wall Street Journal article opposing military action on August 15, 2002. He also helped Wilson communicate his own antiwar views to the White House. Meanwhile, in June 2002 Wilson joined forces with the Alliance for American Leadership, an antiwar-oriented, Democrat-dominated foreign policy group headed by Clinton’s former ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg. While serving as ambassador, Ginsberg had coordinated new US trade and investment initiatives in the Middle East--including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Investment Fund, which had a Turkey-Azerbaijan project under the funding control of the Soros Private Fund Management--and now as a private citizen he consulted for companies doing business in the Middle East. Ginsberg arranged for Wilson to begin appearing on the news-show circuit, and Wilson began to emerge as an antiwar spokesman. Wilson wrote his first article on the debate for the San Jose Mercury on October 13, 2002. During this same time period Al Gore was making antiwar speeches sponsored by Moveon.org; Joseph Biden, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and Carl Levin were leading opposition to a Senate resolution on Iraq; and the UN, Russia, China, and France were helping Saddam Hussein stall US/UK military action by prolonging the weapons inspection process.⁴⁰

During the course of this debate, in September 2002 British intelligence produced a white paper which alleged that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, an allegation subsequently repeated by President Bush in late January 2003 and Secretary of State Powell in early February 2003. A month after Powell’s speech, UN International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed El Baradei told the UN Security Council that the Niger documents were not authentic, and Wilson and the antiwar media began attacking the British and US references to Africa, conveniently ignoring the fact that the references had been to “Africa" rather than “Niger" and there was other data on Africa being referenced. At first Wilson worked behind the scenes, trading information with political insiders like African State Department specialist Walter Kansteiner and speaking anonymously to antiwar media allies like Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby of The Washington Post and David Shipley of The New York Times. Finally on July 6, 2003 he wrote an article under his own name in The New York Times called “What I Didn’t Find in Africa", published simultaneously with a Washington Post profile of his diplomatic career by Leiby. A couple days later Wilson learned from a friend that Robert Novak had said privately, “Wilson’s an [expletive deleted]. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She’s a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." A week later Novak published this information, provoking controversy and an investigation which remains ongoing. Meanwhile Wilson promoted the antiwar efforts of Moveon.org and other antiwar groups, and he became a foreign policy advisor to John Kerry’s campaign in spring 2003, after Al Gore had been effectively eliminated from serious consideration as a candidate and Kerry had emerged as the frontrunner.⁴¹

Wilson’s various allegations against the Bush administration would eventually be discredited, as summarized in a July 2004 bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report which contradicted Wilson’s key claims.⁴² However, Wilson’s antiwar and anti-Bush allies in the media have not bothered reporting this with the same fervor they have devoted to undermining American policy in Iraq. It is high time that the media broadened its focus beyond what Wilson didn’t find in Africa, and started looking into what Wilson didn’t say about Africa.

Notes

¹RNC Research Briefings, “The Facts Keep ‘Dribbling’ on Wilson’s Parade", GOP.com, http://www.rnc.org/RNCResearch/Read.aspx?ID=4497, August 2, 2004. Cf. United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.

²"Encyclopedia: Oil for Food", NationMaster.com, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Oil-for-Food; "The Beneficiaries of Saddam’s Oil Vouchers: The List of 270", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16004, Number 160, January 29, 2004; Nimrod Raphaeli, “The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=ia&ID=IA16404, Number 164, February 20, 2004; Robert Winnett and Mark Hollingsworth, "MI6 probes French links to Iraq scam", Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,1-1197984,00.html, August 1, 2004; Central Intelligence Agency, Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/; William Safire, “Duelfer report catches France red-handed", International Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/13/opinion/edsaffire.html, October 14, 2004.

³"Russia Would Oppose Attack on Iraq", AP, December 2, 2001, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/582565/posts.

⁴Steve Park, “France Won’t Back U.S. Attack on Iraq", The Washington Times, February 22, 2002, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/633019/posts.

⁵"Profile: Elisabetta Burba", Center for Cooperative Research, http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=elisabetta_burba; "Italian journalist claims she supplied Iraq-Niger uranium documents to US", Agence France-Presse, July 19, 2003, online at Clari News, http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bi/Qus-iraq-niger-italy.Rt17_DlJ.html; Seymour M. Hersh, “The Stovepipe: How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons.", The New Yorker, October 27, 2003, online at http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact; Nicholas Rufford, “Italian spies ‘faked documents’ on Saddam nuclear purchase", Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2763-1198188,00.html, August 1, 2004; Mark Huband, “French Probe Led to ‘Fake Niger Uranium Papers’", Financial Times, August 2, 2004, online at Global Policy Forum, http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/justify/2004/0802niger.htm; Juan Cole, “Rocco Martino: ‘I am the Source of the False Niger/Iraq Uranium Story’", Bellaciao, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2364, August 3, 2004; Renato Farina, “Italy Blames France for Niger Uranium Claim", Libero, August 9, 2004, translated at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1208597/posts; Bruce Johnston and Kim Willsher, “Italy Blames France for Niger Uranium Claim", news.telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wuran05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/05/ixworld.html, September 5, 2004; Gian Marco Chiocci, “Nigergate: Interview with the French Spy Rocco Martino", Il Gironale, September 21, 2004, translated at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1222497/posts.

⁶United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.

⁷For general background on Wilson, see Joseph C. Wilson 4th, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa", The New York Times, July 6, 2003, online at Common Dreams News Center, http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm ; Vicky Ward, “Double Exposure", Vanity Fair, January 17, 2004, online at “Standing up for truth amid a culture of lies", Jim Gilliam, http://www.jimgilliam.com/2004/01/vanity_fairs_profile_on_joseph_wilson_and_valerie_plame.php ; Ambassador Joseph Wilson, The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004.

⁸"FRANCE: The Colonel Who Riles a Minister", United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo: UNMIK, http://www.unmikonline.org/press/mon/mechain.html.

⁹Cf. Ward; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 107-108.

¹⁰Ward; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 275-276; “Des Hommes d’Affaires Bien Introduits", La Lettre de l’Océan Indien, Number 876, October 23, 1999, online at Africa Intelligence, http://www.africaintelligence.fr/LOI/archives/default_archives.asp?num=876&year=; “Forums: War with Iraq: A Cost-Benefit Analysis", Middle East Policy Council, October 9, 2002, online at http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp; Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "The Iraq Forum: Informing Iraq Advocates Since 1998: The 2003 Iraq Forum: June 14, 2003, Washington, DC: Evening Public Lecture: A State of the Movement Address: Evening Keynote Lecture", audio online at EPIC: Education for Peace in Iraq Center, http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=68&showlogin=1.

¹¹"Gabon", United States Department of Justice Criminal Division: Foreign Agents Registration Unit (FARA), http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/fara1st98/COUNTRY/GABON.HTM; “Le Jackpot Des Lobbyistes US?", La Lettre du Continent Number 328, June 5, 1999, online at Révélations: Politique et Economie, http://www.bdpgabon.org/ancien_site/bdp/revelationspol1.html; Jim Lobe: “USA: African Governments Spend Millions on Lobbying", Inter Press Service, May 20, 2001, online at CorpWatch, http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=98.

¹²On the Alamoudis and Delta Oil/Delta Services, see Harry Hurt III, “Silver Finger", Playboy, September 1980, online at ShareLynx Gold, http://www.sharelynx.com/papers/BunkerHunt.php; Robert Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia & the House of Sa’ud, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1981, 323, 473, 477; “Le Jackpot Des Lobbyistes US?"; “Surveys: Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi", articles collected from La Lettre de l’Océan Indien, translated online at Africa Intelligence, http://www.africaintelligence.com/dossiers/aia/dos_aia_amoudi.asp; Nimrod Raphaeli, “The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=ia&ID=IA16404, Number 164, February 20, 2004; Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., James Phillips, and James Dean, "The Oil-for-Food Scandal: Next Steps for Congress", The Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/bg1772.cfm, June 30, 2004; Central Intelligence Agency, “Regime Finance and Procurement", Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Volume I, 167-201, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/, 302-336; "Encyclopedia: Oil for Food", NationMaster.com, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Oil-for-Food; Jack Kelley, “Saudi money aiding bin Laden", USA TODAY, October 29, 1999, archived at ViTrade: Global Strategic Intelligence, http://www.vitrade.com/who_is_who/991029_saudi_money_aiding_bin_laden.htm (cf. “Corrections and Clarifications", USATODAY.com, http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-12-correction_x.htm, April 12, 2004; “Corrections and Clarifications", USATODAY.com, http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-09-23-correction_x.htm, September 23, 2004); “Key Persons", Work in Saudi Arabia, http://www.workinsaudi.com/key_persons.htm; Marc Perelman, “Oil for Food Sales Seen As Iraq Tie To Al Qaeda: U.S. Probes Bank Network", Forward, June 20, 2003, online at http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.06.20/news2.html; Marc Perelman, “Terror Trail Fund Leads To Alpine Kingdom", Forward, October 17, 2003, online at http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.10.17/news4.terror.html; J. Michael Walker, “The Background of Abdurahman Alamoudi", Insight on the News, http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=525867 , October 13, 2003; Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, “Testimony of Dr. Michael Waller, Annenberg Professor of International Communication, The Institute of World Politics, October 14, 2003", Terrorist Recruitment and Infiltration in the United States: Prisons and Military as an Operational Base, October 14, 2003, online at United States Committee on the Judiciary, http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=960&wit_id=2719 ; “Bin Mahfouz Wins Libel Case in UK", Arab News, Libertythink, http://www.libertythink.com/2004_08_08_archives.html, August 14, 2004; United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, “Supplemental Declaration in Support of Detention", UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi, a/k/a Abdulrahman Alamoudi, Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, Abdulrahman Mohamed Omar Alamoudi, Criminal Case No. 03 - A, The Honorable Claude M. Hilton, Appeal from Case No. 03-1009M, online at , http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usalamoudi102203sdec.pdf; “Abdurahman Alamoudi Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison in Terror Financing Case: Sentencing Follows ICE, IRS, FBI Investigation in Northern Virginia", U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/newsreleases/articles/101504alamoudi.htm, October 15, 2004. Cf “US Companies Doing Business in KSA: Links to U.S. Companies Doing Business in Saudi Arabia", The Saudi Network, http://the-saudi.net/business-center/links-usa.htm. On Abu Abbas, see “Abu Abbas", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Zaidan.

¹³On Aburdene, see “2004 Political Campaign Contributions from WASHINGTON, District of Columbia 20008", CampaignMoney.com, http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/district_of_columbia_washington_20008.asp ; “NAAA: The National Association of American Arabs", CafeArabica: The Arab-American Online Community Center, http://www.cafearabica.com/organizations/org12/orgnaaa.html; “Political Advocacy Groups: Arab Americans", Political Advocacy Groups: A Directory of United States Lobbyists, http://www.csuchico.edu/~kcfount/arabamer.html (cf. “Our Mission", American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=125); “Board of Advisors", Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, http://ccas.georgetown.edu/center-board.cfm ; “Elias F. Aburdene: Wilson Council", Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.profile&person_id=26766.

¹⁴On Hagel, see Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 395; John B. Judis, “Below the Beltway: Neo-Cons vs. New York Times", The American Assembler, http://americanassembler.com/issues/iraq_gate/prewar_warnings/Below%20the%20Beltway.html; John J. Miller, “Sen. Skeptic (R., France): Chuck Hagel is Bush’s #1 war critic in Congress", National Review, August 12, 2002, online at National Review Online, http://www.nationalreview.com/12aug02/miller081202.asp; Dan Balz and John F. Harris, “Some Republicans Predict Upheaval Within the Party: Concerns Include Changing Electorate, Lack of Heir Apparent", The Washington Post, September 4, 2004, Page A08, online at washingtonpost.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60480-2004Sep3.html; “Senator (R-NE) Chuck Hagel: 1996 Election Cycle", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/1996os/index/S6NE00087.htm; “Chuck Hagel (R-NE): Top Contributors", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cid=N00005301&cycle=2002.

¹⁵Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 91-92. Cf. Alan Cowell, “Turks Wonder Whether U.S. Will Share Spoils of Rebuilding", The New York Times, April 23, 2003, online at Subnuclear Physics//Linux//The Political, http://rasputin.physics.uiuc.edu/~paris/AW/21042003nyt; “Iraqi Delegation Continues Meetings in Ankara", TurkishPress.com, http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=14071, October 11, 2003.

¹⁶Joshua Micah Marshall, "The TPM Interview with Ambassador Joseph Wilson", Talking Points Memo, http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/wilson.interview.pdf, September 16, 2003, 23-24; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 215-218, 240-241, 291-292. Cf. Cevik Bir, http://cevik-bir.wikiverse.org/; “CSIS Turkey Project Meeting: General Cevik Bir", February 11, 2003, online at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, http://www.csis.org/turkey/030211bir.pdf.

¹⁷Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 240-241, 283, 291-292. Cf. “2004 ATC Executive Committee", American-Turkish Council, http://www.americanturkishcouncil.org/files/about.us/04.08.04.executive.committee.pdf.

¹⁸Brent Scowcroft, “Don’t Attack Saddam: It would undermine our antiterror efforts.", WSJ.com Opinion Journal, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002133, August 15, 2002; “Scowcroft: Sharon has a ‘mesmerized’ Bush wrapped around his little finger", israelinsider, http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/4248.htm, October 16, 2004.

¹⁹Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "The Iraq Forum: Informing Iraq Advocates Since 1998: The 2003 Iraq Forum: June 14, 2003, Washington, DC: Evening Public Lecture: A State of the Movement Address: Evening Keynote Lecture", audio online at EPIC: Education for Peace in Iraq Center, http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=68&showlogin=1; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 290-292, 294-297.

²⁰Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 240-241.

²¹"Our Team", CPS: Corporate & Public Strategy Advisory Group, http://www.cpsag.com/our_team/default.htm; Michael Kuser, "Guiding Turks to EU bounty: Tulu Gumustekin's Brussels-based consultancy advises multinationals, top Turkish firms and NGOs on the benefits of engaging the European Union", Turkish Daily News, September 10, 2001, cached at http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:P8jJ_eFuyCgJ:www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/09_10_01/dom2.htm+Tulu+Gumustekin+joe+wilson&hl=en.

²²"The Beneficiaries of Saddam’s Oil Vouchers: The List of 270"; Selcon Hacaoglu, “Turkish Co to Drill for Oil in Iraq: ‘This is a sign of our improving relations with Iraq’", Yahoo! News, December 14, 2001, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/590778/posts; Central Intelligence Agency, “Regime Finance and Procurement", Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Volume I, 22-52, 104-107, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/, 157-187, 239-242.

²³Untitled, Boston Herald, December 10, 2001, archived at “The Press on the BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden Intelligence Nexus", Peter Dale Scott, http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q4c.html; “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan_Pipeline; Pepe Escobar, “Silk Road Roving Part 12b: Pipelinestan Revisited", Asia Times Online, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EL25Ag02.html, December 25, 2003.

²⁴Cf. Hurt; “Dr. Odeh Aburdene", Wharton Middle East Conference, http://clubs.wharton.upenn.edu/arabia/bios/conf_aburdene.html; “Africa focuses on business", BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/63729.stm, March 9, 1998. On Gore and Occidental Petroleum, see Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, The Buying of the President 2000, New York: Avon Books, 2000, 142-152; John Elvin, “Gore Family Ties", Insight on the News, http://www.insightmag.com/news/2000/05/22/CoverStory/Gore-Family.Ties-213210.shtml, May 22, 2000.

²⁵On the Aburdenes, Wilson, and Rahall, see “Search Criteria: Donor name: aburdene: Recipient: rahall: Cycle(s) selected: 1992, 1990", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=aburdene&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=rahall&txt1992=Y&txt1990=Y&Order=N; “Search Criteria: Donor name: aburdene: Recipient: rahall: Cycle(s) selected: 2004, 2002, 2000", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=aburdene&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=rahall&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N; Shirl McArthur, “Congress Launches Fawning Frenzy Over Netanyahu's Har Homa Decision", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July 1997, 14-17, online at http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0697/9706014.htm; “Joseph Wilson’s federal campaign contributions", Newsmeat, http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=DC&last=Wilson&first=Joseph.

²⁶On Rahall, see“Nick Rahall on Principles & Values", OnTheIssues, http://www.issues2000.org/House/Nick_Rahall_Principles_+_Values.htm; “Nick Rahall on War & Peace", OnTheIssues, http://www.issues2000.org/House/Nick_Rahall_War_+_Peace.htm; “Kucinich headlines Muslim fund-raiser: CAIR group tied to Hamas, Muslim goals", WorldNetDaily, http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35883, November 30, 2003; Susan Webb, “Delegation heads for Baghdad", People’s Weekly World, September 17, 2002, online at http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/1913/1/109.

²⁷FReeper GOPcapitalist, "Democrats who took radical isalmic & terrorist campaign $$$ (McKinney, Kennedy, Bonoir & more)", FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/734671/posts, August 17, 2002; FReeper palmer, Post 11, commenting on Freepr Fzob, “FBI investigates spread of radical Islam in U.S.", FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994999/posts, Octobr 4, 2003; Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Al Gore’s Arab Moneyman", The American Spectator, November 1997, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38e076d8237d.htm; “OU Protests Zogby Appointment as Advisor to Gore Campaign", Institute for Public Affairs, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/2000/betty34.htm, October 13, 2000.

²⁸Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 63-65, 163-164, 239-240, 280-282, 376-377, 389, 442.

²⁹David Horowitz and Richard Poe, “The Shadow Party: Part I", FrontPageMagazine.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15392, October 6, 2004; David Horowitz and Richard Poe, “The Shadow Party: Part II", FrontPageMagazine.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15408, October 7, 2004.

³⁰Svetlana Taslik, Caspian Investment Windfalls: Who Will Benefit? Overview and Recommendations, foreword by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Open Society Institute, 2003, online at Open Society Institute & Soros Foundations Network, http://www.soros.org/initiatives/cep/articles_publications/publications/caspianoilwindfalls_20030514/a_caspianoverview.pdf; Ernst & Young, “An EYe on Azerbaijan", Ernst & Young, http://www.ey.com/global/download.nsf/Azerbaijan/eye_on_azerbaijan_jan03/$file/eye_azerbaijan_jan03.pdf, January 2003; Mark MacKinnon, “Georgia revolt carried mark of Soros", The Globe and Mail, November 26, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1029727/posts.

³¹"Al Gore", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore.

³²See Note 29.

³³"Diplomat’s ‘outrage’ finds political outlet", The Boston Herald, October 25, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1007776/posts; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 410-411, 442.

³⁴Doug Thompson, “Dems plan to undermine America to beat Bush", CapitolHillBlue, January 6, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/830866/posts.

³⁵Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 5, 6-7.

³⁶Susan Schmidt, "Plame’s Input is cited on Niger Mission", washingtonpost.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html, July 10, 2004. Cf. United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.

³⁷See Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 23-26.

³⁸Cf. Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, The Generals’ War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995, 19, 102-110, 221, 334, 461, 468.

³⁹Cf. Safire.

⁴⁰Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 283-303, 376-377. On Ginsberg, see “Marc Ginsberg: Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco", GTN: Greater Talent Network, Inc., http://www.greatertalent.com/bios/ginsberg.shtml; “Marc Ginsberg", APCO Worldwide, http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/bios/ginsberg.cfm. On OPIC’s connection to Soros see “OPIC Board Resolutions: BDR(02)10", , http://www.opic.gov/FOIA/BoardResolutions/2002BDR/BDR-02-10.htm, July 23, 2002; Alfred Mendes, “The Crux of the Matter", Spectrezine, http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Mendes5.htm.

⁴¹Wilson, The Politics of Truth,302-450.

⁴²See Note 36.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Time for another bump.

[Tunehead54]

Only 42 footnotes - I never make up my mind til I have at least 60 footnotes! Hard work bump and for reading tomorrow! ;-)

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[Freedom of Speech Wins]

Bump.

[angelsonmyside]

DANG... thanks for all the work you put into this.

[PilloryHillary]

DANG! Good work! Bump and a bookmark!

[Eva]

Bump

[Fedora]

Now, read the rest of it. Then come back and tell me that the real target of the investigation isn't someone inside the CIA, close to Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.

I agree the investigation points in that direction, towards someone I'll call "A. F.riend" of Plame and Wilson's. From there I think it points towards a whole group from CIA, State, and other departments that need to be investigated. There is a pretty strong correlation between personnel involved in the Clinton CIA's Near Eastern Division Iraq operations and current opposition to Bush's Iraq policy, IMO.

I had some help from a few other FReepers on the research.

[Fedora]

Only 42 footnotes - I never make up my mind til I have at least 60 footnotes!

I admit, I got lazy :-)

[arasina]

Impressive research, Fedora. It's like one big incestuous family tree of intrigue. Whenever there's this much power and money involved, you can always do an easy 6 degrees of separation from (not Kevin Bacon) the Clintons.

It Takes A World (to satisfy both of their lusts)

[Shaka]

Great stuff.

[MamaLucci]

Bump your #67. Good analysis, you two.

[michaelt]

Awesome job bump.

[Eva]

Do you know if there is a connection between Al Amoudi or his buddies and that Muslim organization was warned by Miller and her friend that Homeland Security was going to raid the?

[Shaka]

Ping.

[Lx]

That was a good read. Great research. Wilson sure has a lot of friends in interesting places.

[TASMANIANRED]

bump

[Eva]

I have been doing a little research on Hagel and what I am finding out is that Elias Aburdene, Alamoudi's guy at Rock Creek is the money behind both Wilson and Hagel. Hagel is every bit as dirty as Wilson.

[Fedora]

Whenever there's this much power and money involved, you can always do an easy 6 degrees of separation from (not Kevin Bacon) the Clintons.

If were to focus on degrees of separation from Clinton, I'd probably start with Marc Rich's tie to Oil-for-Food and see where that leads.

[Eva]

Just one Minute (a blog)
Posted by: The Kid | October 10, 2004 09:07 PM

Is it possible that Fitzgerald has moved past the Plame outing into something more serious?

Everyone assumes that Plame nominated her husband for the non-paying Niger trip out of dull domestic motives. It is further assumed that he misrepresented his findings because he's a politically motivated horse's ass. What if those assumptions are wrong?

The Niger documents found in Italy were forgeries. The forger says he created them for French Intelligence, with the expectation that they would be exposed and thus damage the Saddam/yellowcake link. In other words, the French - possibly with the connivance of others - ran a counterintelligence operation against the United States.

Joe Wilson's credentials for the Niger trip were weak. He was not an investigator. But because he was sent, a professional investigator was not. When his findings were ignored, he went public via the New York Times - with a claim that is now known to be false. Just as false as those Italian forgeries, in a distinctly similar way, with distinctly similar intent.

Wilson was not paid for the Niger trip but he does receive a paycheck from Arab sources. It would be easy to hide a payoff in plain sight. Has Fitzgerald found something suspicious? Is it possible that Wilson and his wife were part of the same operation that created the Italian forgeries?

[Eva]

Another post on this same blog, Just One Minute (Who are these people, they are very informed.

EGIN EXCERPT

...Actually , the real target of New Republic is probably the money man behind Joe Wilson --
Elias Aburdene.

I posted the following over on Roger L Simon's blog back in Oct 2003 (See http://rogerlsimon.com/archives/00000404.htm
and scan for my name )

---

"
1) If I understand him correctly, Roger has indicated that he thinks this is a war between the CIA and White House. I think it is a war between the Saudi advocates and the Neocon Likud advocates....
...
On the other side:

1) The news media keeps listing Joseph C
Wilson as "CEO of JC Wilson International Ventures"

Their ignorance is hilarious. As of May 2003, Joseph Wilson's email address was
joewilson@rockcreekcorp.com
(See the May 2003 symposium on Africa at www.sahel-club.org/doc/conflict_sem0305_en.doc )

2) Mr Wilson's affiliation at several recent foreign policy conferences was listed as Rock Creek Corp. See ,e.g.,
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp
and
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp
(Search for "Wilson" --e.g Iraqi Town Hall seminar on April 2003

3) If you look at Saudi Net's list of firms doing business in Saudi Arabia, you see Rock Creek Corporation--
see http://www.the-saudi.net/business-center/links-usa.htm

4) According to the Center for Contempory Arab Studies, a member of their Board is the President of Rock Creek Corporation --Mr Elias Aburdene . see
http://www.ccasonline.org/events/Board.htm

5) Rock Creek Corporation is what is tactfully called a "private equity firm" See
http://www.cohengroup.net/team-amb.html

6) An October 1996 article in the Washington Business Journal notes re Mr Elias Aburdene:
"Franklin National Bank in Washington has hired the former head of Palmer National Bank's international private banking unit, in an effort to attract deposits from well-heeled foreign investors.

Since opening Sept. 1, Franklin's new international private banking division has garnered about 50 customers and $15 million in deposits. Elias Aburdene, advisor to the division, headed a similar department for five years at Palmer, which became a subsidiary of George Mason Bankshares in May.

Franklin, with $450 million in assets, has started a foreign exchange operation to accommodate the new business. But mostly, Aburdene said, international private banking means plain-vanilla services like checking, delivered with personal service.

"They [international clients] are looking for intangibles -- discretion, confidentiality, competence," Aburdene said. Clients also like to have access to top executives at the bank, giving smaller institutions like Franklin an edge, he added. "

Who the "well-heeled foreign investors" are and the nature of the "intangibles" they want is left as an exercise for the reader.

7) However, the name "Palmer National Bank" of Washington DC should make any spooks out there grin knowingly.
See http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA/S&L_Scandal_CIA.html
and search for "Palmer".

It certainly seems as if
Mr Wilson's boss has ..er.. been around the track a few times. Certainly enough times to know how to poke the Likud Neocons in the butt with a very sharp stick.

Posted by Don Williams @ 10/01/2003 11:20 AM PST

---