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

[alnick]

Last night on Hardball: Jay Rockefeller is convinced Vice President Cheney is the one who sent Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate the uranium sale.

I don't believe for a minute that Rockefeller is convinced; he claims to be convinced. Huge difference.

[hoosiermama]

We need a gathering spot for just the facts and another spot to chat! Any ideas?

[blackie]

Bump!

[Redleg Duke]

You posted the first one...when you stick your head up, don't bitch when you draw fire. The fact that you followed up is commendable, but please consider putting your common sense and patience in gear before you engage your mouth.

[PhiKapMom]

We had the same problem with press releases from the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000! That's why I started posting the press releases on here and asking Freepers to send them around and take them to their local newspapers. The information is not getting out.

RNC was really bad in 2000 and did little to help out!

Today that is not the case and except for a few papers like The Oklahoman out of OKC, the truth doesn't get printed but the RATs Talking Point papers get printed as front page news.

I will never forget in 2000 when I saw one of the Clinton Talking point papers and that very night it came across the wire almost in its entirety from the NY Times and AP. I was ready to throw something!

[PhiKapMom]

I agree with you! We do need someplace!

I have a really bad feeling about all of this! The good news is that I think a plot (sounds conspiratorial) has been uncovered to weaken Pres Bush! BTW, nice to have co-tin foilers!

[RWG]

What is the punch line?

[Dont Mention the War]

I will never forget in 2000 when I saw one of the Clinton Talking point papers and that very night it came across the wire almost in its entirety from the NY Times and AP. I was ready to throw something!

What we need is to get those DNC talking points memos posted here in their entirety so we can nail the newspapers and cable news channels that repeat them verbatim. I've never understood why there aren't some Freepers posting those things every single day. (Out of all our members, SOMEBODY'S gotta be on the right email/fax list.)

[Mo1]

The impression I got was that the WH (other than Wilkinson) admitted the information was fraudulent. Am I a victim of media spin?

Doug said that his contact at the WH says they have no record of Wilkinson

Who this contact is ?.. I have no idea

[hoosiermama]

The local yokels who are slapping together the stories to fill the page have no idea that the NYT is not reliable. Nor do they realize the AP story is actually the DNC talking points.

It is our mission (if we choose to accept it), to enlighten them!

I think the idea about taking press releases to our local paper is good!

[JoeSixPack1]

I stand by every word I printed. Deal with it.

You can't possibly consider Doug's admittance of error by deceit to be the end of the story?

He's got 20 years to catch up on and an entire political party has been soiled by his accusation, he's pulled old articles off the web, and is in the process of finding more, and all you want to do is compliment his honesty and berate your fellow freeper for calling him on it?

Wake up.

[windchime]

"MY tin foil hat looks like a Hershey Kiss! SOn made it for me for CHristmas! Flag says "I (heart) mom!"


With the chocolate reference and love of your son, your hat beats mine. Make sure you keep it handy 'cause I'm afraid you're going to need it.

[hoosiermama]

The only thing we don't agree on is I think the plot is larger than to weaken Bush. I think it's "socialist" against democracy. I do believe if we could combine parts of BIAS with SLANDER and TREASON. We'd see the entire picture.

"MY hats bigger than YOUR hat!"

[Scenic Sounds]

Maybe he can join forces with O.J. Simpson to find "the real killers", too. I understand there may be a golf course or two as yet unsearched.

I agree. I think that Mr. Thompson has created a set of circumstances here that places him at risk of sounding very much like O.J.

About the only thing that I can say that I know about any of this is that Doug Thompson wrote a bogus story. So, I think that the heat needs to stay on Mr. Thompson until someone finds this "Wilkinson" guy.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I don't know, hoosiermama. The internet has made a huge difference, because we can check the sources and facts.

Rush opened a few eyes, Clinton and the media - more, election 2000, 9-11, NY Times - and the internet. FoxNews, conservative authors, radio, Free Republic, blogs...here's to the increasing irrelevance of the mainstream media. We are holding the Big Media accountable. They don't like it.

SOD Rumsfeld gave a very wise answer about the press, I think, to a group of young military men and women asking, "what are we going to do about the press?" after their awesome - and misreported - trip to Baghdad: SOD Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers,  Pentagon Townhall Meeting, Apr. 17, scroll ~ halfway down.

I think I'll chip in my quarterly FR donation early in the fundraiser this time. $5/month doesn't pay for my daily use. (^;

[RedWhiteBlue]

Anyone listening to Rush? The CHB article was a major topic on his show yesterday. Today, he opened up the show by saying "You ARE NOT going to believe today's show." He's got to do a follow-up today on the new developments.

[hoosiermama]

Figure out how much you pay for a newspaper subscription, drop it and give it to FR!

Yeah RUSH!

The media with the troops was brilliant! Yes the Big Media should be worried. We just need to hit them from all sides.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

PKM, YOU are doing a great job helping the RNC distribute the press releases. Their releases have been factual, quotable and very readable - iow, awesome ammo! THANK YOU!

Pinging you, again, to this one: read this Thompson article...and bring your tinfoil helmet (Doug was right):

Please check out #722. Doug Thompson wrote about a Dem. plan to undermine the President re. the war last January 6,  verified since by the war news coverage, which nails Carville, McAuliffe, Gephardt and Daschle - every complicite DNC members - and the mainstream newsmedia - for aiding the enemy, imho.

[Mo1]

The partnership is composed of working, Washington-based journalists who work for print, broadcast and web-based media outlets.

Excellent question

Exactly who are these people that bought Captial Blue?

[dansangel]

God Bless You for being man enough to admit a mistake. We all make mistakes, but it takes guts to admit it.