Posted on 07/09/2003 4:04:00 PM PDT by 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
Wilson claims he was sent to Niger by the Vice Presidents office, and yet he says he reported back to the State Department or the Cia, I can't remember which, but anyways, why would he report to anyone other than the Vice Presidents office if they were who sent him on this mission.
Something is really smelly about that story as well.
Then we have this guy Thielmann who is described a retired director of State Department weapons intel,(or something like that), in many news outlets, and in other publications they call him a retired staffer from the State Department.
My head is spinning :-)
At the bottom, it attributed the article to Truthout.
Doug's Apology Letter of 7/9/03 stated: "When I left politics and returned to journalism, Wilkinson became a willing, but always unnamed source.
During 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."
From this, I infer quite a time span of source use for the elusive Wilkinson, but only the last couple of years in INTELLIGENCE.
From Doug's follow-up letter of 7/10/03 regarding unnamed sources:
Doug's source was used 7 times in CHB, from 7/02 until 7/03. He was unnamed in 6, and he was named Terrance J. Wilkinson in one. Note that 6 stories only were removed from the CHB database, dealing with INTELLIGENCE.
If Wilkinson were used as a source over the 20 years, those stories seem not to have been deleted; only those dealing with INTELLIGENCE.
And this means ... ??
Now he said it is "almost like we don't want to catch terrorists". What the HELL (excuse my language) is he talking about? In a way it was a reference to the clinton years, but he is definitely implying that the Bush administration is carrying on the same policy, which is demonstrably false.
ROFLMAO
Exactly what I was thinking. I've also been pondering on who the "she" is (the "friend on the Hill" in Thompson's retraction) who allegedly said Wilkinsen is bogus. Any ideas?
The MTV teens helped Doctor Raoul "Freep" the NY Times after the Jayson Blair story broke. Rush, Sean, FN...FR are reaching people, but the mainstream propagandists are able to control the agenda because they not only control the American mainstream newsmedia - they are global. The Dems. aren't going left because their base is leaving them, or because the GOP is moving left, they're siding with the EU and international global organizations - for POWER'S sake.
When Pfaw and the NAACP protest Miguel Estrada, they have the endorsement of Castro, Chavez and Chirac. When the DNC-press pushes yet another socialist program, they receive free international positive press - and support, both political and $$$.
Clinton intentionally undermined our sovereignty by giving the UN and international NGOs unprecidented say in US international policy. Hillary continues her husband's 'work' - pledging her loyalty (and the loyalty of the Dem. party) to the international socialists - even as the President works to strengthen alliances with nations outside the influence of Chirac, Kofi, EU...and Clinton. They have a mighty pen. They will join together to intentionally undermine America on the world stage - for power's sake, even after 9-11.
Divide and conquer is their specialty. I'll support the wimpiest Republican if he's the only one willing to run - to get a 60 vote majority in the Senate. Changing "hearts and minds" won't happen overnight.
The Republican Party was formed to prevent the expansion of slavery into the west before the Civil War. Republicans went south to help free the slaves, and they were lynched along with the slaves they helped free - by the DEM. Ku Klux Klan. Dred Scott was a Dem. response to the GOP fight against slavery. This is all documented in spades. Yet, our press, our schools, our entertainment establishment has the power to keep the myth of Republican racism alive for all these decades. It started with the Communist Party.
Ann Coulter's right.
Weren't there articles about how Clinton himself rallied European opposition to the war during a tour, which cited several of his phrases criticising Bush showing up as quotes from foreign leaders?
After reading all of this thread, the only thing that leads me to believe that Terrence J Wilkerson isn't made-up, is that there are several posts which have shown very like anonymous sources that have hit other newspapers over the last month with apparently false mysterious insight. Mr. Thompson could still have made up an anonymous source that sounds like common quotes, but it gives me pause.
Rush is going to be at another one of his "super secret" meetings. Roger Hedgecock will be filling in.
I'm sooooo tired of reading liberal papers that quote an unnamed Republican who is "oh so ready" to trash other Republicans. I seriously doubt most liberal reporters are close trusting friends with the Republicans they love to trash.
Ever notice how all the "mistakes and lies" type press scandals are written about conservatives or groups aligned with conservatives? The other press lie category is hyping a liberal cause and victim group to make them look more needy and pathetic. ( Burning churches - 8 year old heroin addicts).
Has anyone seen a false story that trashed a liberal? Or made a liberal group look bad?
I suspect, like the Nazi press, they're careful when reporting about fellow liberals (Nazis), but not to careful when reporting about conservatives (Jews). Double standard?
I'm sooooo tired of reading liberal papers that quote an unnamed Republican who is "oh so ready" to trash other Republicans. I seriously doubt most liberal reporters are close trusting friends with the Republicans they love to trash.
Ever notice how all the "mistakes and lies" type press scandals are written about conservatives or groups aligned with conservatives? The other press lie category is hyping a liberal cause and victim group to make them look more needy and pathetic. ( Burning churches - 8 year old heroin addicts).
Has anyone seen a false story that trashed a liberal? Or made a liberal group look bad?
I suspect, like the Nazi press, they're careful when reporting about fellow liberals (Nazis), but not to careful when reporting about conservatives (Jews). Double standard?
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