Is Everything We Know About Joe Wilson’s Trip to Niger Wrong?

National Review ^ | Byron York

[Iwo Jima]

I think that it will, but we have to be prepared for the fact that a DC jury is not representative of the American jury. If they blow it, it's an indictment of them, not the legal system. Assuming of course that they are given the evidence that they should have been given.

[Suzy Quzy]

THANK YOU!! Wilson's office was in ALAMOUDI'S OFFICE!!!

[Peach]

I think the last thing the Wilson fan club of moles wanted was a war- they tried to stave it off by trying to make Iraq look bulletproof because of its WMD, something Iraq cultivated too in the believe we wouldn't dare throw our troops at poison gas or some bioattack. Hence the anthrax and all the scare efforts... it was like the dreaded "Afghan winter we're all going to die" thing the mediots were floating.

That anthrax was a warning not to go into Iraq.

Saddam Hussein's regime was too much of a cash cow to butcher, in their view.

You are one smart cookie.

There was something in Woodward's book about Bush, the first one and I'd have to re-read it to get it exactly. But Woodward quoted Cheney as being in a room with someone and Iraq came up (this was after the anthrax attacks) and Cheney shut down discussion immediately.

I think it was Woodward who posited a theory that the discussion was shut down because if Cheney had let the conversation drift, eventually someone would have said what are we going to do about Iraq (in relation to the anthrax) and we weren't in a position to do anything yet. And the last thing we do in a war is let our enemy know that we aren't ready to take them on.

That's my recollection but I read that book a few years ago, but I've wondered about that so many times and I think you've nailed it.

[Fedora]

Based on what I posted here, my two biggest suspects at CIA are Paul Pillar and an unnamed official Isikoff and Corn quote who says he prodded James Pavitt to refer the leak to DOJ (one reason I don't think it extends to Pavitt or Tenet's level). I think Tyler Drumheller was also close to those involved, though I don't know if he was directly involved or just sympathetic to those who were. Buzzy Krongard seems to have been sympathetic to Plame after her name was leaked but I don't know if he was involved beyond that. I also think some guys at INR and elsewhere in the State Department were key, some of these had military intelligence backgrounds and may have had CIA ties--persons of interest (I'll call them that because I doubt all listed here were involved to the same degree, but I think they're all clues to the bureacratic structure involved) would include Simon Dodge, Wayne White, Larry Wilkerson, John Wolf, Neil Silver, Beth Frisa, Thomas Warrick.

[piasa]

Don't forget :

1999 : (NIAMEY, NIGER : PAKI NUKE SCIENTIST QADEER KHAN USES NIGER AS A CENTER OF OPERATIONS FOR "ATOMIC SHOPPING") In 1998, and above all 1999, a series of encounters defined by nuclear anti-proliferation experts as highly suspect, were held in Niamey. It was here that the “doctor” [Qadeer Khan] had his atomic shopping base, the very same base as was used for trips to Sudan, Nigeria, Dubai, Casablanca (where he was received by the ambassador Kakar), Bamako or Timbuktu in Mali (February 98, Hotel Hendrina Khan), Chad where in February he visited the Shifa centre [refers to Sudanese "aspirin factory"] which had just been bombed by the Americans.
Again in February (there was) a visit to Mauritania where contacts were made with officials of the Republic of Congo and Somalia : countries reported by the CIA to the White House before the declarations made by George W. Bush in regards to Iraq :declarations in which the President mentions Africa, and not Niger, as the place in which Saddam was desperately seeking uranium.
While Rocco Martino was putting his hands on documents that evidenced agreements between the Niger government and Iraq for the supply of uranium ,at the very same time, and up until well into 2000, the strangest people on the earth were busy visiting Niger’s ‘Gran Bazar’ with Khan.
--------- "Uranium from Niger for the Islamic Atom Bomb," By Gian Marco Chiocci, il Giornale de Italia, Washington, November 30, 2005 , (Translation by Parnasokan .Edited by poster.) Posted by mrmeangenes on Thursday December 1, 2005 at 2:03 pm MST Link to story: http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=46594

1999 : (INTEL DISCOVERS PAKISTANI NUCLEAR SCIENTIST QADEER KHAN SHUTTLING BETWEEN NIGER AND NIGERIA LOOKING FOR FUEL FOR A CHINESE NUCLEAR REACTOR) In 1999 Khan was discovered by the 007’s between Niger and Nigeria looking for fuel for a Chinese reactor.
From 1999 until today Khan’s network has suffered a series of setbacks but, according to intelligence analysts, in Africa’s fundamentalist countries Khan is continuing to function using lesser means.
--------- "Uranium from Niger for the Islamic Atom Bomb," By Gian Marco Chiocci, il Giornale de Italia, Washington, November 30, 2005 , (Translation by Parnasokan .Edited by poster.) Posted by mrmeangenes on Thursday December 1, 2005 at 2:03 pm MST Link to story: http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=46594

1999 : (JAQUELINE C WILSON IS STILL A REGISTERED AGENT FOR GABON) JACQUELINE C WILSON was a registered agent for Gabon. She registered as an agent of Gabon on June 17, 1998 (not long after their divorce) and had received $100,000 prior to the registration. Summary of payments by year: 1998 ($280,0000), 1999 ($250,000); 2000 ($75,000 ); 2001 ($39,000); and 2002 ($8,000). She was not listed as an agent in 2003. ------182 posted on 11/03/2005 5:05:52 PM PST by kabar | To 69

Thanks. Wilson has given a somewhat different account of his 1999 trip elsewhere: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Who first raised your name, then, based on what you know? Who came up with the idea to send you there?” Joe Wilson: “The CIA knew my name from a trip, and it’s in the report, that I had taken in 1999 related to uranium activities but not related to Iraq." --------- Joe Wilson's Top Ten Worst Inaccuracies And Misstatements
**********
"My bona fides justifying the invitation to the meeting were the trip I had previously taken to Niger to look at other uranium related questions as well as 20 years living and working in Africa, and personal contacts throughout the Niger government." ---------Ambassador Joe Wilson's Letter to the Senate Select Intelligence Committee
*********
The Senate report on Wilson had this to say on his 1999 trip: The former ambassador had traveled previously to Niger on the CIA's behalf [DELETED]. . .The former ambassador was selected for the 1999 trip after his wife 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 [DELETED]. Because the former ambassador did not uncover any information about [DELETED] during this visit to Niger, CPD did not distribute an intelligence report on the visit.----------- REPORT ON THE U.S. INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY'S PREWAR INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS ON IRAQ

I wonder if the investigation of Khan's network was hindered or fouled up by big-mouthed former Ambassador's coming out party.

FYI, the 1999 trip was a planned "business trip" by Wilson before he was "tapped" by the CIA for the mission:

Wilson Claims CIA Thought To Ask Him To Make Trip Because He Had Previously Made Trip For Them In 1999, Not Because Of His Wife’s Suggestion. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “Who first raised your name, then, based on what you know? Who came up with the idea to send you there?” Joe Wilson: “The CIA knew my name from a trip, and it’s in the report, that I had taken in 1999 related to uranium activities but not related to Iraq. I had served for 23 years in government including as Bill Clinton’s Senior Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council. I had done a lot of work with the Niger government during a period punctuated by a military coup and a subsequent assassination of a president. So I knew all the people there.” (CNN’s “Late Edition,” 7/18/04)

In Fact, His Wife Suggested Him For 1999 Trip, As Well. “The former ambassador had traveled previously to Niger on the CIA’s behalf … The former ambassador was selected for the 1999 trip after his wife 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 …” (Select Committee On Intelligence, “Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq,” U.S. Senate, 7/7/04)

Was he interested in investing in uranium or chickens? 33 posted on 08/08/2005 6:47:40 AM PDT by ravingnutter | To 27

1999 - 2001 : (THREE EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES WERE AWARE OF POSSIBLE ILLICIT TRADE IN URANIUM FROM NIGER IN THIS PERIOD) The FT has now learnt that three European intelligence services were aware of possible illicit trade in uranium from Niger between 1999 and 2001. Human intelligence gathered in Italy and Africa more than three years before the Iraq war had shown Niger officials referring to possible illicit uranium deals with at least five countries, including Iraq.
This intelligence provided clues about plans by Libya and Iran to develop their undeclared nuclear programmes. Niger officials were also discussing sales to North Korea and China of uranium ore or the "yellow cake" refined from it: the raw materials that can be progressively enriched to make nuclear bombs.
The raw intelligence on the negotiations included indications that Libya was investing in Niger's uranium industry to prop it up at a time when demand had fallen, and that sales to Iraq were just a part of the clandestine export plan. These secret exports would allow countries with undeclared nuclear programmes to build up uranium stockpiles. --------- "Evidence of Niger uranium trade 'years before war'," by Mark Huband, FT, (Financial Times UK), Published: 06/27/04, Last Updated: June 27 2004 21:56, http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1087373295039&p=1012571727085

Remember in 1999 there was quite a fight going on in Congo over its resources- and Congo's uranium was being slipped out through Namibia, which also has its own mines and is associated with South Africa, the politically-correct country no one is supposed to mention in connection with proliferation since the IAEA certified it "clean as a whistle" and since bringing up the possibility is racist. South Africa as it happens was one of the countries the UN sent in to "stabilize" Congo, and one which sold the zirconium plant [for making centrifuge parts] to Iran via China.

[Fedora]

Speaking of Khan, was reading an article the other day alleging Plame's nonproliferation work encompassed his network in Turkey. This is from an antiwar site, so take it FWIW, but the names and links mentioned might be worth some research from more reliable sources:

Plame, Pakistan, a Nuclear Turkey, and the Neocons

Over the past 20 years, various Turkish and Pakistani governments, as well as sections of the military, have looked kindly on the idea of creating Islamic nuclear states. The countries were specifically linked in the A.Q. Khan network; this July 2004 summary gives detailed information:

"[W]orkshops in Turkey made the centrifuge motor and frequency converters used to drive the motor and spin the rotor to high speeds. These workshops imported subcomponents from Europe and elsewhere, and they assembled these centrifuge items in Turkey. Under false end-user certificates, these components were shipped to Dubai for repackaging and shipment to Libya."

Today, it is not known whether Turkey possesses nuclear weapons. But remember, the crucial part of the above-cited 2000 report is:

"[E]vidence of nuclear smuggling based in Turkey, and Turkey's push for its own nuclear fuel capability and indigenous reactor design, all pointed to possible nuclear weapons development. The support of prominent Turkish citizens for nuclear weapons development has leant credence to this evidence."

Total trafficking levels are hard to adduce, though it's clear that more supplies get through than are caught. From 1993-1999 alone, there were 18 high-profile incidents of nuclear trafficking involving Turkey – the sort of cases that Valerie Plame's unit sought to investigate. As this report details, "these cases include nuclear material seized in Turkey, nuclear material interdicted en route to Turkey, and seizure of nuclear material smuggled by Turkish nationals." In most of the cases, the nuclear materials originated in unstable former Soviet states such as Georgia, Romania, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia itself. Among the destination states, Libya and Iran jump out. In addition to Turks, detained smugglers included nationals of Azerbaijan, Russia, Georgia, Romania, as well as a Kazakh army colonel and suspected Iranian secret service agents.

A couple of years later, on Sept. 10, 2001, the N.Y. Times reported that "in the last eight years, there have been 104 attempts to smuggle nuclear material into Turkey, according to an internal report by the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority."

[Robert A Cook PE]

104 attempts in the 8 years before 2001 (according to Turkey) of smuggling nuclear eqpt INTO Turkey?

And, of course, Iraq borders on Turkey - making it easier to divert THAT material (instead of through Turkey into Iran!) directly to the government of Iraq ....

[pinz-n-needlez]

After reading this section, I can't help but wonder if Val was gathering intelligence for the government to protect our national security, or for her husband to help his business prospects.

Another marriage of convenience? They can't testify against one another in court...

I might support gay marriage laws if we can outlaw Washingtonian Treasonous Marriages! LOL