BREAKING: Conned big time "CIA Witness" to White House Lying about Intel story found to be FRAUD

Capitol Hill Blue ^ | July 9, 2003 | Doug Thompson

[Doug Thompson]

Damn, I hate it when I've been had and I've been had big time.

In 1982, while I was working for Congressman Manuel Lujan of New Mexico, a man came up to a me during a gathering in Albuquerque and introduced himself as Terrance J. Wilkinson. He said he was a security consultant and gave me a business card with his name and just a Los Angeles phone number.

A few weeks later, he called my Washington office and asked to meet for lunch. He seemed to know a lot about the nuclear labs in New Mexico and said he had conducted "security profiles" for both Los Alamos and Sandia National Labs. Lujan served on the committee with oversight on both labs and he offered his services if we ever needed briefings.

We already had nuclear experts on the committee, on loan from the Department of Energy, and we never used Wilkinson for briefings but we kept in touch over the years. He said he had served in Vietnam with Army Special Force, worked for Air America, later for the FBI and as a consultant for the CIA. He said he had helped other Republican members of Congress I called some friends in other GOP offices and they said yes, they knew Terry Wilkinson.

"You can trust him, he's one of the good guys," one chief of staff told me. When I left politics and returned to journalism, Wilkinson became a willing, but always unnamed, source.

Over the last couple of years, Wilkinson served as either a primary or secondary source on a number of stories that have appeared in Capitol Hill Blue regarding intelligence activities. In early stories, I collaborated his information with at least one more source. His information usually proved accurate and, over time, I came to depend on him as a source without additional backup.

On Tuesday, we ran a story headlined "White House admits Bush wrong about Iraqi nukes." For the first time, Wilkinsson said he was willing to go on the record and told a story about being present, as a CIA contract consultant, at two briefings with Bush. He said he was retired now and was fed up and wanted to go public.

"He (Bush) said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said in our story. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."

After the story ran, we received a number of emails or phone calls that (1) either claimed Wilkinson was lying or (2) doubted his existence. I quickly dismissed the claims. After all, I had known this guy for 20+ years and had no doubt about his credibility. Some people wanted to talk to him, so I forwarded those requests on to him via email. He didn't answer my emails, which I found odd. I should have listened to a bell that should have been going off in my ear.

Today, a White House source I know and trust said visitor logs don't have any record of anyone named Terrance J. Wilkinson ever being present at a meeting with the President. Then a CIA source I trust said the agency had no record of a contract consultant with that name. "Nobody, and I mean nobody, has ever heard of this guy," my source said.

I tried calling Terry's phone number. I got a recorded message from a wireless phone provider saying the number was no longer in service. I tried a second phone number I had for him. Same result.

Then a friend from the Hill called.

"You've been had," she said. "I know about this guy. He's been around for years, claiming to have been in Special Forces, with the CIA, with NSA. He hasn't worked for any of them and his name is not Terrance Wilkinson."

Both of his phone numbers have Los Angeles area codes but an identity check through Know-X today revealed no record of anyone named Terrance J. Wilkinson ever having lived in LA or surrounding communities.

His email address turns out to be a blind forward to a free email service where anyone can sign up and get an email account. Because it was not one of the usual "free" services like Hotmail, Yahoo or such, I did not recognize it as one (although you'd think that someone like me would have known better).

The bottom line is that someone has been running a con on me for 20 some years and I fell for it like a little old lady in a pigeon drop scheme. I've spent the last two hours going through the database of Capitol Hill Blue stories and removing any that were based on information from Wilkinson (or whoever he is). I've also removed his name, quotes and claims from Tuesday's story about the White House and the uranium claims.

Erasing the stories doesn't erase the fact that we ran articles containing informattion that, given the source, were most likely inaccurate. And it doesn't erase the sad fact that my own arrogance allowed me to be conned.

It will be a long time (and perhaps never) before I trust someone else who comes forward and offers inside information. The next one who does had better be prepared to produce a birth certificate, a driver's license and his grandmother's maiden name.

Any news publication exists on the trust of its readers. Because I depended on a source that was not credible, I violated the trust that the readers of Capitol Hill Blue placed in me.

I was wrong. I am sorry.

© Copyright 2003 by Capitol Hill Blue

[Endeavor]

ping

[MJY1288]

Well, an un-named source today to make good on bogus article from yesterday,

I'm sorry, If I lie to you once and you fall for it, shame on me, If I lie to you twice and you fell for it again, Shame on you.

I need more than an un-named source to make me believe that Wilkinson wasn't just made up

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Hell has just frozen over. We agree. : )

[Lancey Howard]

Did you hear about the dyslexic fellow who walked into a bra?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Where's mine? : )

[unspun]

He's banned, by JimRob HIMSELF (reverent bow towards Fresno).

Reason for Ban:

Humor was entirely unintentional.

? 8-o ?

[Spidey]

I'm with you Registered.

I don't buy this. Would we ever have seen a retraction if not for William? Hell no!

And now we are supposed to believe that you printed crap from this guy for 20 years and you found out in 24 hours that he doesn't exist?

If this isn't the best reason I ever heard not to believe news stories citing "unnamed sources", I don't know what is.

Doug Thompson, you owe the people who read that article and who have been reading on your site a lot more than this weak explanation.

[Registered]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=White+House+admits+Bush+lied+about+Iraqi+nukes&btnG=Google+Search

[Registered]

LOL. Brrrr.

[Sabertooth]

Does anyone have a link to the threads on which said digging was done?

FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum"

---

[ Browse | Search | Topics | Post Article | My Comments ]

Click to scroll to commentary.

Did Capitol Hill Blue Post An Article With Fabrications?
Me ^

Posted on 07/08/2003 1:32 PM PDT by William McKinley

In this article on Capitol Hill Blue, there are the following lines:

"The report had already been discredited," said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. "This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings."

Bush's response was anger, Wilkinson said.

"He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."

Serious allegations. But I notice it is a single source. Being a conservative, I value the lessons of experience, and experience has told me that single sources are to be treated with skeptism. When I see one, I want to know more about the source quoted so as to establish if I should treat that source as credible.

So what about "Terrance J. Wilkinson"?

A Google search for "Terrance J. Wilkinson" found no results (which will change when Google picks up the Capitol Hill Blue article).

Google suggested that the name might be Terrence. But a Google search on "Terrence J. Wilkinson" also produced no hits.

Perhaps the middle initial is the problem. Alas, a Google search on "Terrence Wilkinson" CIA gave no hits, and a Google search on "Terrance Wilkinson" CIA also yielded no hits.

A Google news search on Terrence Wilkinson comes up with nothing relevant. So does a Google news search of Terrance Wilkinson.

A Google search on one of the phrases from one of the quotations comes up empty.

I would anticipate a 'CIA advisor' who attends the same briefings as the President to live somewhere near D.C. But there are no listings according to Anywho for a Terrance or Terrence Wilkinson in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia.

A Google search on "CIA Advisor" Wilkinson also comes up empty.

Perhaps Capitol Hill Blue would be better served by providing some more information about the person quoted so that others can judge his credibility. That is, if he exists.

---

LINK

[aculeus]

Thanks for the Freepers who first brought this to my attention. I should have listened earlier.

Nice acknowledgement.

[BOBTHENAILER]

Thanks for the Freepers who first brought this to my attention. I should have listened earlier.

Thanks for the honesty in your mistake. It's a rare thing in today's journalism.

I read the entire thread yesterday, and you defended yourself as best you could, but your admission of being had goes a long way toward resurecting your flase claim that Bush was lying.

[harrowup]

...In early stories, I collaborated his information with at least one more source. His information usually proved accurate and, over time, I came to depend on him as a source without additional backup.

This story has a stench to it and one cannot assume Mr. Thompson corraborated the information with another source...but in all likelihood, did indeed collaborate with Terrance. There's something to be said for Freud every once in a great while.

It would be interesting to know if Mr. Wilkinson had crossed swords on his coat of arms or perhaps he had the look of that Hathaway dude (for those under 50, the ad gent wore a patch over his eye while modeling Hathaway shirts).

[OldFriend]

The saddest part is that after watching this president for two years, anyone would believe that he would lie to the American people.....or anyone else for that matter.

[Ichneumon]

In early stories, I collaborated his information with at least one more source.

Wouldn't it be better to *corroborate* his information?

Time to collaborate with an editor/proofreader...

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

; )

[Registered]

You are old. Wow.

[unspun]

I think that's a really good apology. It'd be so much easier to just bury it and forget it to save face. But, the apology was the honorable way to go. bravo.

I agree Mr. T. --although there's something or other that is ironic about this, coming from "Jhoffa_" that I can't... quite... seem to... (ahem) find.

[mware]

Didn't that guy who wrote the op ed piece in New York Times claim that he was doing it for someone in the CIA????

[Registered]

Well, I want to see a scanned version of the Business Card he gave Doug Thompson, I want the numbers and addresses for this guy. And I want to see it all posted right here at FreeRepublic.com.