FEBRUARY 1999 early : (AN ALGERIAN BUSINESSMAN CALLED 'BARAKA' ARRANGED A TRIP FOR IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO THE VATICAN WISSAM AL-ZAHAWIE TO VISIT NIGER AT THIS TIME) From the Senate Report:
Several analysts interviewed by Committee staff also pointed out that information in the second intelligence report matched [Several words blacked out] reporting from 1999 which showed that an Algerian businessman, Baraka, was arranging a trip for the Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican, Wissam al-Zahawi, to visit Niger and other African countries in early February 1999. The former ambassador [Joseph Wilson] was selected for the 1999 trip after his wife [Valerie Plame Wilson] mentioned to her supervisors that her husband was planning a business trip to Niger in the near future and might be willing to use his contacts in the region [a few words blacked out]. Because the former ambassador did not uncover any information about [word blacked out] during this visit to Niger, CPD did not distribute an intelligence report on the visit. I have not been able to find anything on Baraka...although to Islam it means "a supernatural gift that has been defined variously as blessing or mystical power". So...it may have not been his real name. Dang. ------------- Posted by ravingnutter to piasa
On News/Activism 07/28/2005 6:58:56 AM PDT · 223 of 226
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.
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.