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

[autoresponder]

Any photos or videos?

Any audiotapes after TWENTY (20) YEARS of media using this poitical op as a credible news source?

CIA consultant?

Sounds a like Terry McLeftie scam......

The Clinton's political history goes back, what?

About TWENTY (20) YEARS?

What happened to that old TWO (2) SOURCES the media used to claim they require before publishing info?

This makes the Jayson Blaine/NYT frauds look tame!

This blackens all of the leftie media for TWENTY (20) YEARS BACK!

[JoeSixPack1]

Well Doug, you haven't answered a single response. Hit and run is for losers and/or columnists that can't handle rebuttle.

Which one are you?

[piasa]

Who is Marc Ash??

He's a watermelon. Red on the inside, green on the outside...

[weegee]

Thanks for coming forward.

BTTT

[Mo1]

I wonder if Terrance J Wilkenson was involved in the NYT Sunday colume??

I don't think so .. but I do think there is a lot BS going on and the press is eating it up

[MJY1288]

"Doug Thompson informs me that he did not sell that story to Japan Today. Japan Today got the story from Truthout.org. I had already exchanged emails with the editor of Japan Today, and was under the impression that the most they were going to do was print some denials by the White House, in tomorrow's edition.

Here is a question..... Who owns the story, Truthout.org or Doug Thompson, if Doug is the author and didn't give permission to Truthout.org (Marc Ash) to re-print it, than Truthout.org should be in trouble with Doug huh?

[doug from upland]

Thanks for posting this, Doug.

[arasina]

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.

I count myself among The Junkyard Dogs at FreeRepublic.com. This shmellz and I'm not going to let it go! We all know that TODAY'S RETRACTION does not equal YESTERDAY'S BIG HEADLIE (intentional misspelling) that was picked up and quoted and aired and posted and discussed. Damage done.

[mware]

I just forwarded the article to Rush, maybe he will touch on it tomorrow.

[VOA]

I have always said that when I screw up I admit up and boy, I screwed up big time.

You could have really messed up...you could have married a fraud!

But seriously, given this life-event and the recent bilge over the Jayson Blair affair,
someone needs to compose a short "fact-checking" booklet or website.
With easy tips for spotting frauds like this guy...like maybe being "photo-shy" or other
little warning signs, etc.

[arasina]

You're good, William, really good.

[terilyn]

"On Tuesday, we ran a story headlined "White House admits Bush wrong about Iraqi nukes."
__________________________

That is not entirely the case. Now what was the original title of this article? "White House admits Bush lied about Iraqi nukes"

Exactly right Registered! I knew this sounded weak. I decided to read through the thread before pointing out the discrepancy in the original headline and the headline quoted in the apology.

I applaud Doug's efforts to come clean, but if you're going to come clean, do it. As a journalist your credibility is your livlihood. Using a questionable source is bad. Admitting is good. Trying to cover up just how far you took makes your credibility as questionable as his.

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Exactly, terilyn.

[arete]

That's funny. You know someone for 20 years and use him as a credible source and you never do the simple stuff like checking to see if the guy is a fraud anywhere along the line. Now, after the fact, you find the guy doesn't exist. Geez, you interested in buying a bridge I have for sale?

Richard W.

[piasa]

I wouldn't be surprised if he was a current State Department employee

I was thinking of this guy, who supposedly knows all kinds of things, or at least Isikoff wants us to think so... he is the only named source in the article which was nothing more than an opinion piece against the administration. (Whether he's a real person or not I don't know- yet- but many sites picked up the story):

(snip) A recently retired State Department intelligence analyst directly involved in assessing the Iraqi threat, Greg Thielmann, flatly told NEWSWEEK that inside the government, “there is a lot of sorrow and anger at the way intelligence was misused...."

[mystery-ak]

This person went to a lot of trouble to pull this scam....what else is he/they up to....scary!

[Doug Thompson]

QUOTE:
________________________________________________________
Well Doug, you haven't answered a single response. Hit and run is for losers and/or columnists that can't handle rebuttle.

Which one are you?
_________________________________________________________

I'm someone who has been answering a ton of emails, dealing with a problem on my own bulletin board and trying to run a business and a web site.

I will track this guy down. I've turned everything over to my attorney, who is setting up meeting with the FBI. We intend to use the legal system against this clown.

I'll keep folks posted and we will, of course, run stories on Capitol Hill Blue.

Thanks for the kind words from many of you. As for those with less than kind things to say, I understand your anger. I pissed as well.

Doug

[arasina]

Well Doug, you haven't answered a single response. Hit and run is for losers and/or columnists that can't handle rebuttle. Which one are you?

FreeRepublic's very own Jim Robinson vouched for Doug yesterday.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

ping

[Bullish]

It will be a long time (and perhaps never) before I trust someone else who comes forward and offers inside information.

And it will even be a longer time, (if ever) before I believe anything written by Doug Thompson.