Posted on 10/30/2005 8:38:05 AM PST by paperjam
Yesterday I looked up Samuel Alito in the latest Who's Who to find out his date of birth (April 1, 1950). While I was at it, I looked at the entries for Beelzebubba and the Hildabeast. Hillary's is about four times as long as Bill's. Bill mentions Chelsea by name; Hillary just notes "1 child."
Another [letter from the documents referred to as Niger forgeries], dated October 10, 2000, is signed “Alle Elhadj Habibou” —Niger's foreign minister who had not been in office since 1989. [Reuters, 3/26/03; New Yorker, 3/31/03 Sources: Unnamed senior official from the IAEA] ------ "Profile: Wissam al-Zahawie," http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp%3Fentity%3Dwissam_al-zahawie++%22wissam+al+zahawie%22&hl=en
All that aside, I believe the effort to date them to 2000 is nothing more than an effort to put them into the same timeframe as the humint [not docs] sent by Italy to the US and UK and other intel used in the UK dossier - so that the press can continue to try to persuade us that ALL the intel relating to Niger is derived from the forged docs.
That's bogus since there was even humint turned into the US Navy of smuggling through Benin that the CIA never followed up on, but I suspect that's the purpose of pushing the dates back on the forgeries.
As for French intel, they already suspected some fishiness going on in Niger well before the forgeries. Giacomo had, after all, obtained real information prior to this for France, which already suspected there were efforts, not neccessarily Iraqi, to obtain uranium there. Just remember that the French intel agency is not Jacques Chirac. Some of them really are more interested in defending their country than in making a mint off of oil deals.
As a note of trivia, there is a "Baraka building" mentioned in al Fadl's testimony in the Africa embassies bombing trials- perhaps it was in Sudan.
I heard Wilson was doing the translating in that meeting between Glaspie and the Iraqis.
J.Wilson at my first glance was a French spook who handled Joe nicely. Were they really married? Is there a certificate? Just a minor spitball there. I haven't been following this story, but this thread is seriously creeping me out. The implications are enormous. The idea of the French going through this trouble for money, and Clintonista elements of the CIA getting in bed with them because of their mutual hatred/fear of Pres. Bush, is gonna make it difficult for a good night's sleep tonite.
Wilson's elusive wife number 2, the cheated-upon French Jaqueline, has kept his name.
Here is a photo of her at a recent summit in Baltimore. It lists her current occupation as "Advisor to the President of Gabon". Gabon was where Wilson served as an ambassador some years ago. Gabon is also a uranium provider.
http://www.theafricachannel.com/corporate/news_062305_bs.html
One really does wonder about the scope and activities of "Joe Wilson International Ventures" (reportedly headquartered in a decrepit warehouse in DC) and how Joe Wilson's business provides enough income for a retired Foreign Service Officer (whose wife is a mundane, probably GS-paid federal employee) to sustain 4 children, at least one ex-wife, a mansion in a tony neighborhood of DC, a Jaguar, and to flash a $14,000 Rolex watch. Not to mention extensive travel.
The only thing that occurs to me about wife #1 is that she is the mother of two of his children, so may have been left in the entry for that reason. Plus the divorce was long before Joe Wilson met Valerie, so she wouldn't have been a rival to Valerie the way Jacqueline might have been. Perhaps Jacqueline was removed from the entry to make Valerie happy.
So Joe Wilson had made an earlier trip to Niger in 1999? I wonder why we haven't heard more about that. He should have been known to the CIA as a self-styled expert on Niger before the infamous 2002 trip...and probably already knew of Iraqi interest in Nigerien uranium before the 2002 sham investigatory trip to Niger.
Check out the dates of this trip. I just ran across it about the same time I looked in on the thread so I haven't tracked down the full page yet.
http://www.ttc.org/cgi-binloc/searchTTC.cgi?displayZop+1664
I have not been posting for the past day or so as I've been following the money. You are not going to believe what I'm finding...okay, maybe you will but the rabbit hole is very, very deep.
actually I believe Jacqueline's divorce from Joe occurred in 1998, the same year as his marriage to Valerie. Joe was still "married" to Jacqueline while he was diddling a CIA undercover agent/sarc
I hadn't heard that, but if confirmed it would certainly explain why he sounds so defensive of Glaspie. Do we know if Wilson speaks Arabic? (I'm assuming the Iraqis were speaking in Arabic.)
All of what you say is verrry innnteresting. hmmmm........
Sa'adoon Al-Zubaydi was Saddam Hussein's presidential translator. In a special interview, he provides previously unknown details on the overthrown dictator.
SNIP
On July 25th I was called to join the last meeting between Glaspie and Saddam. I was a close friend of her No. 2 at the embassy, Joseph Wilson, who in turn met with Saddam on August 7th, before leaving Iraq permanently. I remember this because it was my birthday. Joseph was an excellent Arabist, and spoke our language correctly. He, like Glaspie, was well aware of the situation.
"In any event, Glaspie arrived breathless at the meeting. She was offended because security wanted to take her handbag. `What happened to diplomatic immunity?' she snapped at me. Then she got upset because she was told that she could not expose the soles of her shoes to the president or cross her legs in his presence.
"But she had good news for us. It was a message for Saddam from President Bush [senior]. `It is not U.S. policy to interfere in inter-Arab affairs,' she said to us in English.
"I must admit, however, that one thing has puzzled me ever since: If we had been given a green light for the attack, how is it that Glaspie, who was not married and lived in Baghdad with her sick, elderly mother, did not change her plans to go on vacation on July 26th? I am convinced that that day she understood our plans to send armored divisions toward Kuwait City. So how come 24 hours later she went on vacation?"
SNIP
Wilson was niether an Arabist nor did he speak Arabic.
Interesting article. Wilson certainly did not speak Arabic fluently. He may have learned some phrases while studying Arabic for an hour a day or less at the Embassy language program. Officers learning arabic spend six to nine months at NFATC (four to six hours a day) and then a year at FSI Tunis to learn arabic beyond the 3/3 level. Wilson's bio indicates clearly that he did not receive that training and Baghdad was his first and only assigment to the Middle East. He was not an arabist.
On a related note, in Wilson's book and lectures (e.g. Politics of Truth, 100), when speaking on the subject of Glaspie he also often describes a conversation he allegedly had with Tariq Aziz's former assistant Nizar Hamdun (now deceased) wherein Hamdun reportedly exonerated Glaspie's performance during the Gulf Crisis. It seems like several former members of Saddam's regime had opinions to venture on the subject of Glaspie and Wilson.
I wonder as well. Just a sop to someone who tried to learn a few pharases? Or did he wish to praise Wilson publicly for some other reason to ingratiate himself? In any event, most of these meetings with a head of state like Saddam include an American notetaker who usually speaks the language. Glaspie wouldn't have needed a translator per se, but she would have been wise to have one whom she could trust.
Another thing I notice is that according to Al-Zubaydi's account Glaspie didn't know enough not to expose the soles of her feet to someone in an Arab country. I'm not an Arabist and even I know that's considered rude. Either Glaspie wasn't such a great Arabist after all, or Al-Zubaydi is trying to make her look bad for some reason--but curiously, in the same breath he speaks well of Wilson.
The feet business is overdone. I can remember going to a meeting with a Saudi official for the first time, and he proceeded to show me the soles of his feet. Many of these officials are Westernized and not offended or concerned by these so-called no-nos.
On a related note, in Wilson's book and lectures (e.g. Politics of Truth, 100), when speaking on the subject of Glaspie he also often describes a conversation he allegedly had with Tariq Aziz's former assistant Nizar Hamdun (now deceased) wherein Hamdun reportedly exonerated Glaspie's performance during the Gulf Crisis.
Glaspie took the fall, but it wouldn't surprise me that Wilson was involved. Glaspie did not respond strong enough to Saddam's contention that Kuwait was part of Iraq. The massing of Iraqi troops on the border was an indication of something happening. It is interesting to note that the Saudi Embassy in Kuwait closed down the day before the invasion.
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