MSNBC already did.
Posted on 09/06/2004 11:02:25 AM PDT by parnasokan
I think Berlusconi should "incastrare" Chirac. (No, I don't know what "incastrare" means, but it sounds good right now.)
Rough read without enough paragraph breaks, but very interesting.
Shouldn't something be done about the word "Niger"?
Credulous dupes gain international renown. They read like flattered wannabe insiders.
On the 7th of march Baradei declared the documents false. Excellent timing. Its rather interesting that even before Baradei made his decleration some ex-CIA agents, through thier web site Veteran Intelligence Professional for Sanity-Vips, had alreaady made it known that the dossier had been manipulated.
Hmm...maybe possible DGSE agent "Niger Mint Tea" was incautiously honest when he said he "proved" the documents were forgeries before the IAEA did, and his later expression of "confusion" an after-the-fact deflection.
Hey, if that's what they wanna call their coutry, who are we to argue. ;o)
God bless our troops wherever they may be.
"I don't want to even go there."
No, we don't need to. LOL.
Thanks for posting this. I'm trying to find the original Italian article but the link only takes me to the front page of the current paper, and they don't seem to have an archives search function on that page. Do you have a link to the page with the article?
In this anti-3B operation a role is played by Chiracs government and those of the progressive-democratic orientation that want to change the way things are run in America. Politicians (for example Jay Rockfeller), media, retired Cia agents are al involved. In addition to the Cbs, heavily involved in these activities, is the Washington Monthly. We are able to reconstruct two fields of action in the anti-3B brotherhood. The first is that of Rocco Martino, but we have already explained it. The second is more complicated. It’s based upon the source of the false documents being Michael Ledeen and a weapons dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, individual involved in the Iran-Contra case. Particularly active are the Washington Monthly (Joshua Marshall and Laura Rozen) and the Talking Points Memo group. They announced being on the trail of “shocking documents” which would prove a meeting in Rome in the winter of 2002 between Ledeen – one of the most known neoconservatives close to Bush - Ghorbanifar and Iranian dissidents. They were allegidlly joined by the Italian Defence Minister, Antonio Martino, and the head of the Italian Military Secret Services, Niccolò Pollari (indicated trough rank but not named), as well as members of the American governemnt.
Interesting if true and not another psyop itself. Some stuff on Ghorbanifar:
Then he has at me once again on Ghorbanifar. Like those at CIA who stereotyped Ghorbanifar as a near-total, pathological liar, Draper just can't bring himself to look honestly at the evidence. For what does Mr. Draper use as proof of Ghorbanifar's mendacity? He cites the trip to Tehran in the spring of 1986, when "Ghorbanifar was blamed by the Americans for having deceived both sides about what each was prepared to do…."
June 2003 Complete Iraq timeline
The Pentagon Office of Special Plans sends two Defense officials, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin, to Paris where they secretly meet with Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms trader who had been a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute is said to have arranged the meeting, which is not authorized by the White House. [Newsday, 8/9/03; Washington Post, 8/9/03 Sources: A senior official interviewed by Newsday] It appears that the purpose of the meeting is to undermine a pending deal that the White House is negotiating with the Iranian government. Iran is considering turning over five al-Qaeda operatives in exchange for Washington dropping its support for Mujahadeen Khalq, an Iraq-based rebel Iranian group listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department. The Office of Special Plans is reportedly interested in using this group to help destabilize Iran?s government. [Newsday, 8/9/03; Inter Press Service, 8/7/03] When Secretary of State Colin Powell gets wind of its activities, he complains directly to the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying that Feith's missions are against US policy. [Newsday, 8/9/03; Washington Post, 8/9/03]
People and organizations involved: Michael Ledeen, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Larry Franklin, Harold Rhode
What was international man of mystery Manucher Ghorbanifar up to when he met with top Pentagon experts on Iran? In a NEWSWEEK interview in Paris last month, Ghorbanifar, a former Iranian spy who helped launch the Iran-contra affair, says one of the things he discussed with Defense officials Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin at meetings in Rome in December 2001 (and in Paris last June with only Rhode) was regime change in Iran. . .In Congress, investigations into the Ghorbanifar story have sparked partisan tensions. Democrats want to know if the Ghorbanifar contacts are evidence of "rogue" espionage by a secretive Pentagon unit that allegedly dealt with controversial Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi; Republicans want to know whether the CIA refused to meet with potential informants merely because the middleman—Ghorbanifar—was someone the agency distrusted. A Defense official says any discussion that Ghorbanifar had with Pentagon experts about regime change was a "one-way conversation."
Why? What's wrong with it. It rhymes with TIGER.
If I'm reading this right, this is dynamite.
I'm going to send it to Rush (who will be back on the air tomorrow). Maybe he can illuminate us about what it really means.
I don't know if that's what ultimately got Franklin in trouble or not, but it does seem possible someone was gunning for him--VIPS et al propagandists have definitely been gunning for Ledeen & Co. using the Ghorbanifar angle--and in any case it's certainly interesting he shows up in this context.
CyberAnt wrote: "It rhymes with TIGER."
Well, I don't like the French any more than you probably
do but the correct pronunciation, at least among Nigerians, is
"neeJAIR" as in Pierre...
http://slate.msn.com/id/2085735/
Guess which story on Iraq 60 minutes bumped so they could run the infamous Bush National Guard story?
"A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies."
http://www.ccmep.org/2004_articles/iraq/092304_story_that_didnt_run.htm
Also in that article:
"A French government official told NEWSWEEK that Martino also had a relationship with French intelligence agencies. But the French official rejected suggestions from U.S. and British officials that French intelligence may have played a role in creating the documents in order to embarrass Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair."
Thanks for posting for others' info.
And your analysis:
The docs were not planted by someone who wanted to support the war, they were planted by someone who wanted to undermine the basis for war. These are the same forged docs that Wilson claimed to have knowledge of...before they were even in CIA possession...a claim he later retracted and said he must have "misspoke".
Is spot on.
It's not a coincidence CBS had this in its "bring down Bush" packet of stories in the weeks before the election. Their angle was going to be how the WH had been duped by forgeries. The truth was as soon as CIA headquarters (stateside) got them here in February 2003---after the SOTU---they quickly raised questions about their authenticity and turned over to the IAEA. In the wake of CBS themselves being taken in by forgeries they realized that angle wasn't going to play as well as originally planned so it was scrapped.
"CyberAnt wrote: "It rhymes with TIGER."
Well, I don't like the French any more than you probably
do but the correct pronunciation, at least among Nigerians, is
"neeJAIR" as in Pierre...
FYI
Niger and Nigeria are different countries. Please look at a map. I'm also remined of Churchill's demand that his officers quit calling placenames in foreign toungue. He said he didn't want to ever hear 'Roma', or 'Paree' ever again. Niger as in tiger is just the Anglicized way of saying it. Otherwise someone should inform Nee Jair Innes that his parents named him incorrectly and he should start being a little more PC about the way he pronounces his own name.
Oh, please. We don't say "Paris" as the French do, either.
Niger pronounced "Nijer" works for me better than "Neejair".
As to Niger and Nigeria...I know that and you know that, but other pundits and even officials have made the same mistake so you can ratchet down your disdain a notch or three.
MSNBC already did.
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