I opened a “boutique” consulting business to help American and international companies invest in Africa. Risk assessment, project development, and strategic management were my focus, as I wanted to take the lessons of my foreign service years and put them to use managing businesses in an international setting. . .My list of clients was small. . .my geographical reach extended into Africa, Western Europe, and Turkey. . .I had become involved in gold mining in West Africa--including in Niger, which was just opening up some fields--as well as telecommunications and the petroleum sector. Oil from Africa was emerging as an alternative to oil from the Persian Gulf, with new discoveries in Angola and Equatorial Guinea fueling a surge of interest.
He elaborated to Vanity Fair:
"I have a number of clients, and basically we help them with their sort of investments in countries like Niger," explains Wilson. "Niger was of some interest because it has some gold deposits coming onstream. We had some clients who were interested in gold. . .We were looking to set up a gold-mine company out of London."
Thanks...
That's what I was thinking of! :-)
URGENT - FREEPER RESEARCHERS NEEDED!! This could be a key to finally breaking open this sordid case. I'm parking these links (at bottom) here for the moment until I have time to research these matters further - but for anyone who has some time, here's a name that is emerging in a HUGE way as a major player in the cesspool inhabited by Joe Wilson and friends:
MARC GROSSMAN!!!
MARC GROSSMAN, the Clinton administration's AMBASSADOR TO TURKEY, was a college classmate of Joe Wilson, served as #2 in our Turkish embassy during the first Gulf War (when Joe Wilson had been in the corresponding position in the neighboring US embassy in Baghdad). There are all sorts of quotes and indications that Grossman has acted ala Larry Johnson behind the scenes with the media, feeding them (highly biased) info quotes to advance Joe Wilson's spin.
Further, Marc Grossman went on to be a senior State Dept. official under Powell and Armitage (advancing to the top of the career foreign service ladder), and is reportedly a KEY WITNESS for Fitzgerald claiming he told Scooter Libby the name of Valerie Pflame.
Remember, this multi-year assault on the WH by Joe Wilson and pals has been all about trying to stop the "Bush Doctrine" in its tracks and force US policy in the Middle East back onto a liberal Clintonite track. All the particulars about Valerie Pflame, etc. are overshadowed by the immense effort behind the scenes and in the media to try to stop Bush from pursuing a policy framework which is unpopular with Arab/Islami governments, the political left, and most of all our own State/CIA liberal bureaucrats.
Marc Grossman may turn out to be the Rosetta Stone that allows us to decipher many separate activities, articles, quotations, etc.
Yes, folks, we have a possible (likely) close crony of Joe Wilson emerging as a high State Dept. official (now retired) who very likely orchestrated a good part of this scam and may even be one of the main people trying to smear Libby (oh, I mean cooperate with the prosecutor, of course).
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/1640
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2006/04/widen_the_net.html#comment-16251709
Hate to link the lefty loons at Truthout, but this may actually be a very valuable article for reasons unintended or unforseen by the author:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041406A.shtml