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

[FreeReign]

I remember that article and at the time was convinced that only clintonites would be leaking that information from the Pentagon. Been around the military for too long to believe that bunch of crap that Thompson wrote! Thanks for jogging my memory!

You are keenly watchful as always, PKM.;)

[Chad Fairbanks]

What is he up to? Well, accepting Alumni awards from his college, and feeding "info" that his fellow democrats want put out to anyone in the media who will listen

[Khurkris]

Anyone have Lexis/Nexis handy?

[piasa]

Thanks...He's sure got a soapbox and quotes attributed to him are being spread far and wide just as is this tale. Wonder if his retirement/resignation had something to do with a problem like that of Leahy. One site said he had 25 years "in service" *cough* .. I haven't run onto a reference to him before Sept 2001 yet in the few articles I scanned.

Oh well, enough of him for now since it's off-topic, I should save it for a different thread.

[lepton]

Thanks for that info! I knew there was something in the back of my mind about the Clintons going way back!

Oh, yeah. there was lots of stuff about Stephens, Inc, from the Dan Lassiter era. Lassiter's executive secretary accompanied him on Cocaine runs, but was never charged. While he was in jail, she ran Lassiter's office, later taking up a prominent position in the Clinton Administration. When I was listening to the Campaign Finance hearings (John Huang?), I was floored when I heard that (Huang?) would go from classified Commerce Department meetings to send faxes from the building across the street...a branch of Stephens, Inc, as it turns out.

[arasina]

He took a pretty big step towards it. One can either bitch about it or one can give him credit for doing something right.

If he took a big step toward correcting it, then why is he over at Reader Rant (or whatever it's called) posting with the likes of Pitt and TLBSHOW? And he only popped in here to say he is too busy working and can't address our questions.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, he was 'retired', he didn't retire, if you get my meaning... which is why now, he is second-guessing people he is at odds with. He has not once claimed that while he was there, he disagreed in writing with anything he is now speaking about.

Greg Thielmann is a disgruntled individual. Nothing more, nothing less. But you wouldn't know that by how the media treats the former aide to that left winger, John Culver...

[Mo1]

Something tells me that this is going to be a big story and some deeply rooted rats are going to be exposed

I hope so .. I can't tell you how ticked off I am right now

[Chad Fairbanks]

Well, you could tell ME ;0)

[alnick]

They are now working out a scenario where Rove planted Wilkerson 20 years ago...LOL

That's hilarious!

[Jim Robinson]

Howdy Mike. Long time no see. It's a love hate relationship. Fred's actually a good guy and he's been part of FR forever. The conservatives have split into so many factions that even old friends are constantly ripping at each others throats. I try to tolerate the old-timers who turn on us for as long as I possibly can, but many of the most aggressive right-wingers are so eager to see Bush fail that they've fallen hard for any of the leftist propaganda coming down the pike (even the most obvious tinfoil conspiracy crap) and have actually ended up joining the dark side. Right meets left. When it becomes obvious that they've gone all the way over and start working full-time to defeat the Republicans, then I usually have no choice but to let them go. Otherwise, it's pure civil-war hell around here. Fred hates to see any of our old friends go. So do I.

But my most immediate goal is to have a complete turnover in the judiciary or to dump as many liberals from the court as we possibly can and also to keep the legislative agenda out of Democrat hands. It's a certainty that the Democrats will not appoint or confirm conservative judges or advance the conservative cause so that leaves the Republicans as our only option.

I want to see a reversal of Roe vs Wade and a complete rollback of the leftist feminist/homosexual/gungrabbing agenda and a ton of other liberal/socialist crap rescinded/abolished etc, and I want to see it in my life-time! For this reason, IMHO, we must continue holding the White House and continue building on the Republican majority in the Congress. There is no other way.

Thus I am unwilling to allow Free Republic to be used to damage Bush or ANY of the Republicans chances, especially with fabricated leftist propaganda. For this, I am labeled a traitor to the conservative cause. So be it. Come hell or high water I'm sticking to my guns on this one. The Democrats are NOT going to be allowed to retake control of our government any time soon and that's a fact!

[Carolinamom]

AMEN

[lepton]

"Did you do a write-in, or did you just have no idea what you were doing in the booth?" No, I entered a wierd contest of "pretend you're from another part of the country." Just my luck: I drew Palm Beach County. Seriously, I should have written 1992. It's been a long day...

hehe. Oddly enough, another poster did the same thing in noting "Now my tinfoil is really on -- I have never bought into the fact that Clinton just appeared on the scene either in 2002 ".

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Applause for Mr. Robinson!

[Mo1]

They seem to be posting from a pamphlet with a title like "Ten Ways to Sound Conservative on a Web Site While Helping the DNC" by Terry McAuliffe.

I have to admit that I've noticed a few like that

[nopardons]

IIRC, this is the SECOND time that DT has had to write an apology, to FREEPERs ( and the last time, to President Bush !) because of a wild, erronious, contemptable, and vile column of his. The last apology was even weaker.

Do you remember what I'm talking about ?

[Spidey]

Good for you, Sir!

[lepton]

I just realized I may have been "asleep at the wheel" when the people who FORGED those documents in the first place were caught and punished. Did that happen? Who are "they" anyway?

If I recall correctly, they were persons from Niger, who sold the documents to British Intelligence. The Brits passed on the information to us as valid intelligence.

[MJY1288]

"Governor Robinson" has a good ring to it :-)

[Sabertooth]

Thanks for the link, though I already knew the way. There some funny threads over there that I might have missed, if not for your rant.