Senator Questions Bolton Role in CIA Leak Probe (Bolton's form accurate)

Fox News ^ | 7/27/05 | na

[NathanBookman]

WASHINGTON — A State Department official said Wednesday that John Bolton (search)(search), President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, does not need to change his response to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee (search) questionnaire despite questions about the answer's accuracy.

(snip)

Biden, who led the Democratic filibuster last month against Bolton, faxed a letter on Wednesday to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (search) asking whether a media report last week was correct when it said Bolton was called to testify before the grand jury in the CIA leak case.

[NathanBookman]

MSM prints lies, Dem Senators fall for it!!!!

[NathanBookman]

Here is an excerpt from NYT article that started the bogus charge against Bolton:

"Mr. Rove has also told the grand jury that he never saw the memorandum, a person briefed on the case said. Democrats who have been eager to focus attention on the case have urged reporters to look into the role of several other administration officials, including John R. Bolton, who was then under secretary of state for arms control and international security and has since been nominated by Mr. Bush to be ambassador to the United Nations.

In his disclosure form for his confirmation hearings, Mr. Bolton made no mention of being interviewed in the case, a government official said. In the week after Mr. Wilson's article appeared, Mr. Bolton attended a conference in Australia."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/22/politics/22leak.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=8fdfacc7cf0d7bc8&ex=1279684800&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[26lemoncharlie]

Just watch the Dumms and the MSM CONJUR up some voodoo tricks to make a link appear between Bolton, Rove, Plume or Plame, the WMD and the missing ammunition from Iraq being found in Kerry's basement!! HUH!!

[Lone Red Ranger]

I see a pattern here...

[taxesareforever]

I see Bolton getting a recess appointment and screw the demorats.

[pepperhead]

So Bolton did it now..... These rats are just getting pathetic.

[palmer]

Biden must read DU, they've been flacking this story for weeks mostly on the theory that since the WH wouldn't turn over some Bolton papers or something, he must have been involved in the leak /DU Logic

[nuffsenuff]

Of course Biden reads DU.

All of them do. Edwards' wife POSTED on it.

[ravingnutter]

Actually, it could have been someone working very close to Bolton...Greg Thielmann...until Bolton kicked him out of the meetings

Thielmann was in the INR, the same place the State Dept. memo came from. Thielmann is now touring with Joe Wilson on the anti-war circuit

Hmmm...interesting...Cannistraro's name also shows up on his profile.

People and organizations involved: Vincent Cannistraro, Mel Goodman, Greg Thielmann

He is also suspect, as Fedora pointed out.

[Fedora]

Putting Cannistraro and Thielmann together there is definitely interesting.

[ravingnutter]

You aren't going to believe what I found...check out the bold part...

Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's former head of counter-terrorist operations and a respected expert on Middle Eastern terrorism, said the timing, location and method of the attack pointed to Bin Laden's terrorist network, al-Qaeda. He said it was the only group in the area which has issued a fatwa (a religiously inspired death sentence) against US and British citizens.

Bin Laden, a Saudi national based in Afghanistan, has Yemeni family roots and close links with some of the local tribal warlords. A few weeks before the attack, he distributed a video in which he issued familiar calls for a holy war against the "forces of evil". He was wearing Yemeni tribal costume and a Yemeni dagger.

"He's puckish like that. On one hand he does not want to give out his address, but on the other hand, he likes to let his followers know he is leading the fight," Mr Cannistraro said.

He argued that the sophistication of the bomb - an estimated 272kg of high explosive shaped and placed within a metal container to channel the blast and penetrate the armoured hull of the USS Cole - suggested the involvement of a state.

"The Iraqis have wanted to be able to carry out terrorism for some time now," Mr Cannistraro said. "Their military people have had liaison with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and could well have supplied the training."

He said the theory was still speculative but was consistent with the series of recent contacts between Baghdad and the Bin Laden organisation.

Old FR article from 2000

Found it while perusing:

Namebase: Vincent Cannistraro

Sure has changed his tune since then...

[Fedora]

A whole bunch of people changed their tune on that when it looked like Bush might go to war with Iraq. Joseph Wilson and Scott Ritter as well, among others. And the whole MSM developed a sudden case of amnesia. Very curious how many did a sudden about-face in synch--like they were following marching orders.

[Just mythoughts]

"In his disclosure form for his confirmation hearings, Mr. Bolton made no mention of being interviewed in the case, a government official said. In the week after Mr. Wilson's article appeared, Mr. Bolton attended a conference in Australia."

Wonder WHO this government official leaker is????

[Just mythoughts]

"like they were following marching orders."


Sure does appear that way, maybe somebody will leak who the "general" in charge was and is.

[kcvl]

Calling Mr. Fitzgerald...

Former intelligence analyst Greg Thielmann says that key evidence cited by the Bush administration was misrepresented to the public. (Photo: CBS)

******

One of the things that they talked about was attempts by the Iraqis to purchase uranium from Africa. You had done some analysis of this and come to different conclusions.

This was not a major story when I looked back at the months and year leading up to the war. It was not a major story because it was, we considered, bad intelligence. We looked at a lot of bad reports -- reports that were worth exploring because they were serious allegations, but when given a close look, they proved not to be credible. This was really in that category. It was something that made no sense, in terms of the structure of the country that was allegedly planning to provide the uranium.

Niger.

Niger. It made no sense in terms of Saddam's behavior on these kinds of issues. All things really fit together in this case to shoot down the story. ...

So this had come across your desk. What exactly came to you?

Well, as I recall, it was a human intelligence report that came to the United States. I should make clear that I was a manager of the action officers of intelligence analysts, and so most of what I gathered about this was not firsthand analysis of documents as an intelligence analyst; it was supervising the people who would do the close scrutiny of the intelligence reporting.

In this case, our specialists who were weapons intelligence experts, and the African experts, and the Middle Eastern experts in the Intelligence Bureau were all of one accord that this was a bad story.

And you let the secretary of state know that?

That's right.

Then in January, you hear the president talking about it.

That's right, and it was a big surprise to me, because I left government at the end of September 2002. I was not privy to the classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate that came out shortly after that. So I had no indication in the fall that this story had any life on it at all. It was not part of the public summary of the National Intelligence Estimate. It was buried in the classified details of the estimate. So it was really a shock to me when the president gave it such visibility in January 2003. ...

But at the same time, you had already seen, starting in August 2002, that the intelligence was being twisted.

I had seen that, but I thought there were limits on how much one was willing to do in order to twist things.

So you were a little aghast.

Yes. ...

The administration has said, "This is just 16 words. OK. We perhaps should not have included this in the president's speech. This was an oversight. There was a mistake made, but there is a solid case to be made that Saddam Hussein was engaged in a nuclear weapons program."

Yes, they do make that claim.

Why shouldn't we believe them?

The way I look at it, first of all, they chose to essentially declassify a top-secret sensitive report. They did on this matter and they did--

On the Niger matter.

-- on the Niger matter and on the aluminum tubes matter that they contended were being procured by Iraq for the nuclear weapons program.

More here...

[kcvl]

You can always tell when they are lying by who they allow to interview them...



http://tinyurl.com/alhqo


Tonight, on NOW WITH BILL MOYERS, did government officials deceive the American public on the need for war?

THIELMANN: I think the credibility of the intelligence community has taken a real hit because of the way the information has been used by senior officials.

[danamco]

Sure does appear that way, maybe somebody will leak who the "general" in charge was and is.


In the "Plumegate" it was "Admiral" Joseph Wilson himself who blew the lid of Valerie Plame long before this issue hit the front pages, just look at the last one or two lines on his personal web site, and keep this information on the front burner:........

Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV

Ambassador Wilson served as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council from June 1997 until July 1998. In that capacity he was responsible for the coordination of U.S. policy to the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, He was one of the principal architecs of President Clinton's historic trip to Africa in March 1998.

Ambassador Wilson was the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of United States Armed Forces, Europe, 1995-1997. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Gabonese Republic and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1998 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq as Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy. During ''Desert Shield'' he was the acting Ambassador and was responsible for the negotiations that resulted in the release of several hundred American hostages. He was the last official American to meet with Saddam Hussein before the launching of ''Desert Storm.''

Ambassador Wilson was a member of the U.S. Diplomatic Service from 1976 until 1998. His early assignments included Niamey, Niger, 1976-1978; Lome, Togo, 1978-79; the State Department Brueau of African Affairs, 1979-1981; and Pretoria, South Africa, 1981-1982.

In 1982, he was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission in Bujumbura, Burundi. In 1985-1986, he served in the offices of Senator Albert Gore and the House Majority Whip, Representative Thomas Foley, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow. He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, prior to his assignment to Baghdad.

Ambassador Wilson was raised in California and graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1972. He is a graduate of the Senior Seminar (1972), the most advanced International Affairs training offered by the U.S. Government. He speaks fluent French.

Ambassador Wilson holds the Department of Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards, the University of California, Santa Barbara Distinguished Alumnus Award, and the American Foreign Service Association William R. Rivkin Award. Additionally, he has been decorated as a Commander in the Order of the Equatorial Star by the Government of Gabon and as an Admiral in the El Paso Navy by the El Paso County Commissioners.

He is married to the former Valerie Plame and has two sons and two daughters.

[kcvl]

Did INR Director Greg Thielmann change his story, and if so, why?

Greg Thielmann, the former director for strategic proliferation and military affairs at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), seems to stand in the center of every journalism piece documenting how the Bush administration distorted Iraq intelligence. Thielmann told CBS that "contrary arguments were ignored." He told The New Republic that the administration dismissed INR intelligence on those infamous aluminum tubes -- tubes that Colin Powell claimed could be used for an Iraqi nuclear program. And perhaps most critically, Thielmann told Seymour Hersh that he was eventually excluded from intelligence meetings with John Bolton, the Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control. Thielmann alleged that Bolton bypassed the entire intelligence vetting process. Bolton himself explained his actions to Hersh: "I didn’t want [the intelligence] filtered. I wanted to see everything—to be fully informed. If that puts someone’s nose out of joint, sorry about that."

Some of this is corroborated in the Senate report. On page 278, an unnamed INR analyst is quoted as saying that Bolton's office was not listening to INR, but receiving information only from the CIA. After that, however, the report gets very interesting. Presumably, Thielmann is the unnamed "Former INR Office Director" quoted on page 279. As the Committee reports, Thielmann testified that "he did not feel pressure from the Secretary [Colin Powell], the Under-Secretary [Bolton], or Director of INR on Iraq WMD issues."

Really? If this speaker is indeed Thielmann -- as it seems to be -- why did he do a complete about-face from his earlier allegations? Did the Senate Committee at all explore the ramifications of his previous statements? Why or why not?


http://tinyurl.com/d8urk

[kcvl]

Greg Thielmann served as a top intelligence official at the U.S. State Department until resigning shortly before the war with Iraq and charging the Bush administration with cooking its intelligence.

A graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, worked for U.S. Congressman John Culver (Democrat) before entering the United States Foreign Service where he has served for more than 25 years, working in arms control and security issues. He was acting director of the Strategic, Proliferation, and Military Affairs Office in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department at the time of his retirement.[1]

******

Consider the remarks of Greg Thielmann, career foreign service officer from 1977-2002 (he retired in September) whose last post was head of the State Department's Office of Strategic Proliferation and Military Affairs. In his own words, after 7 years in intelligence and serving in his final post, Thielmann had "full access to the whole range of classified information on those subjects." CBS News, in regard to his appearance on "60 Minutes II," said (dated October 15, 2003 on the web), "He and his staff had the highest security clearances, and everything – whether it came into the CIA or the Defense Department – came through his office."

One of the things Thielmann investigated was the claim that Iraq sought uranium from Africa.

[Just mythoughts]

"In the "Plumegate" it was "Admiral" Joseph Wilson himself who blew the lid of Valerie Plame long before this issue hit the front pages, just look at the last one or two lines on his personal web site, and keep this information on the front burner:........"


That "Plumegate" appears to be the decoy. Somebody was seeking to protect old Saddam, the French/UN and who knows who else, within months of 9/11. Wilson was sent to Niger in 02/02 and we now know the results of that supposed intel gathering trip.