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

[MEG33]

Wilson was the darling on TV for a spell.Glad Cap poked some holes. Wilson did a lot of "opinion" giving that came off as fact.

[Redleg Duke]

I may have to deal with it...but you will have to live with it.

Go ahead and be that way...just stop giving the term "Joe-Sixpack" a bad name at the same time.

[MEG33]

She has become so predictably ,outrageously partisan.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Placeholder Bump

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

But much evil is done by putting these false reports out.

Amen. This story may end up making a lot of puffed-up press and pundits look silly - and wouldn't that be an awesome outcome! I call my local news outlets now when they parrot anti-American DNC BS war news, give 'em the DoD response and tell 'em basically, "son, just following orders from my NEWS Chief doesn't cut it during wartime when our troops are risking their lives for you."

Forwarding this thread to press, pols, radio hosts - and a blogger or two.

Re. war "news" (shameless plug):

---

On June 10 -

 Saddam's bad guys killed one of our brave soldiers and wounded another.

 

CENTCOM released more than a casualty report on June 10.

 

On June 10 - their fellow Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Guard - men and women in uniform - did this to Saddam's bad guys:

 

ONE DAY IN IRAQ

[RedWhiteBlue]

I didn't hear it myself. When I was telling my dh about all of this last night, he commented that he knew about the CHB article because he heard Rush talk about it. In questioning dh about it a few minutes ago, he said that Rush said that "that was not the reason why we went into Iraq anyway" and that "that was not a major part of the SOTU address." In other words, Rush was operating from the same page as we were when the article was first published -- before the challenges were made to the claim of a "lie" and the existance of Terrence Wilkinson.

After opening his show with "You are not going to believe today's show," he had better come up with more than the fluff he has talked about so far. How about the topic of Koreans being able to download a sound for the cell phones that repels mosquitos? Oh, yeah, that is a riveting topic! < /sarcasm>

[Mo1]

Tin foil hat: It goes beyond CLinton. It's the Left Wing that CLintons represent!

Here's my tin foil hat: .. add Dean in to that mixture

[hoosiermama]

Maybe someone should ask Sheila Jackson Lee if she knows
Terrance J. Wilkinson!

In fact, maybe the first queston all talk show host should ask any DEm guest is: "DO you know Terrance J. Wilkinson?"

[justshe]

Someone should design a fashionable tin foil hat instead of the pointy one! You are right -- plenty of us are going to be wearing them.

---

By the time this is done we're going to need more than the hat! (Pet couture is optional)

[proud American in Canada]

Thanks Doug!

Yesterday the populist, liberal Ottawa radio host was all over this. I sent him a link to the original article and the following email:

Hi, Mr. Harris,

I love your show and agree with you on everthing... except matters concerning the U.S. and President Bush (I am an American and fully support him).

Yesterday, you were discussing Pres. Bush, saying that he fed the American people a "noble lie" about Iraq's nuclear program. Had that been true, it would have disturbed me tremendously. But I never believed it, it just didn't fit with what I know of him, that he is an honest man.

To my great relief, the supposed insider who was to reveal all has turned out to be a hoax. The hotlink it to an article where the man who uncovered the scoop basically apologizes, that he has found out he's been had. The "insider" never existed.

Someone went to a lot of trouble to discredit President Bush. I hope you'll check it out and retract what you said about President Bush, or at least discuss it publicly.

I am so tired of the anti-Americanism here. Canadians already consider my president to be stupid at best and evil at worst. Hoax news stories that put him in an even worse light don't help.

I know that you are a man of honor, and I trust that when you satisfy yourself regarding the facts, that you will mention this on-air.

[JoeSixPack1]

Go ahead and be that way...just stop giving the term "Joe-Sixpack" a bad name at the same time.

Oh this should be good, any advice?

Or will a simple apology get me either a free beer or a broken bottle over my head?
Hint: bring band-aids cause I'm not sure what to apologise for. ;-)

[Sabertooth]

Not sure if this has been posted here, or not...

Yeah, Japan Today got it from us. I guess they 'stole' it, too since they never asked permission. They got screwed by this cluster f*** the same way we did. We're running the CHB retraction tomorrow.
William Rivers Pitt
posted 07-09-2003 11:29 PM

"Stole it, too?" Gotta love that.

Scroll all the way to the bottom of that page. Credit to TLBSHOW, for finding and sourcing that post, BTW.                

[litehaus]

bump 4 truth

[Humidston]

But if Doug's source is all of 20 yrs old, how could it possibly be a Clinton-based conspiracy??

Then again, if it's NOT a "20 yr source" it makes sense, does it not??

Since Doug has lost his credibility, I suspect that "20 yr" figure is probably fictitious as well.

[Mo1]

If they are connected to the people who bought our local paper.....look out.

I guess that would also mean the Dashole and the Clinton's were wrong about the VRWC owning the press

[justshe]

Same. I gave kudos for immediately taking public responsibility. I did NOT give kudos for being stupid enough....or gullible enough....or dishonest enough to get himself into the mess (or create the mess) in the first place.

[William McKinley]

I'll have to send that along to the editor of Japan Today. He'll likely find it very interesting.

[hoosiermama]

AS AC point out in her book

...You can tell what the Left is doing by what they acuse the right of doing.....

Sick-O!


Hold my spot for later!

[Mo1]

The six stories that quoted this individual as an unnamed source have been removed from our article database. A search of other news sources through the Internet and on Nexis finds no evidence that any of those six stories were published elsewhere. If a further search uncovers evidence of those stories appearing on any web site or in any publication, we will contact that web site or publication and instruct them to remove the stories.

Why such an effort to get rid of these articles?

Seems like more effort has been put into cleaning hard drives then there was in actually verifying the information

[MJY1288]

Thats funny, in the response email that William McKinley recieved, the Japan website claimed that they purchase articles from Truthout.org from time to time. Maybe this claim by William R. Pitt should be forwarded to them.

The other thing is, I understand that truthout.org operates as a non-profit organization and maintains a tax exempt status. and all donations are tax deductible..... How could this be?