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Saddam's Shadow Africa Energy & Mining June 18, 1997 Copyright 1997 Indigo Publications Africa Energy & Mining June 18, 1997 SECTION: MINING; DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO; N. 207 LENGTH: 787 words HEADLINE: Saddam's Shadow BODY: It's not only diamonds and base metals that interest big mining companies and the latter are not alone in being interested in Katanga. In the delegation that the United States sent to Kinshasa on June 2 under its ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, the state department's African affairs department was represented by Marc Baas, director for Central Africa. (Susan Rice, director for African...

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame have run into a bit of bad luck in their lawsuit against Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and ten random Republicans. CQ reader Denis K took a peek at the complaint and noticed something that I had missed earlier -- the judge assigned to the case. Wilson and Plame drew Judge John D. Bates -- and a quick glance at his rulings will no doubt have the Left fuming.

Nobody appears to dispute what I wrote in last week's Slate to the effect that in February 1999, Saddam Hussein dispatched his former envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and former delegate to non-proliferation conferences at the United Nations, to Niger. Wissam al-Zahawie was, at the time of his visit, the accredited ambassador of Iraq to the Vatican: a more senior post than it may sound, given that the Vatican was almost the only full European embassy that Iraq then possessed. And nobody has proposed an answer to my question: Given the fact that Niger is synonymous with uranium...

Much of the media has characterized the Iraq-uranium story as false or discredited, even though the Senate Intelligence Committee and a British investigation concluded that the 16 words may well have had a sound basis. Last week there was another fuss about the famous 16 words in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." A running battle over that passage has taken place in Washington since the invasion of Iraq and the failure to find Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Much of the...

Tim Russert, N.Y. Times Subpoenaed In CIA Leak Case POSTED: 12:47 pm EST March 16, 2006 UPDATED: 12:54 pm EST March 16, 2006 Email This Story | Print This Story WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby have subpoenaed The New York Times, former Times reporter Judith Miller and NBC correspondent Tim Russert for documents concerning the disclosure of an undercover CIA agent's identity, as the former White House aide's legal team prepares for his trial. Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, is charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI....

New Iraqi Documents Show Bush Didn't 'Lie' Newly translated Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's regime show that President Bush was factually accurate when he told the nation in his 2003 State of the Union Address that Iraq had recently sought uranium from Africa. Bush's 16-word statement had formed the basis for the claim adopted by administration critics that "Bush lied" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs. But according to the Washington Times today, an unnamed U.S. official reports that "newly translated Iraqi documents . . . tell of Saddam seeking uranium from Africa in the mid-1990s." The documents also...

NIGERGATE: A FRENCH 007 ACCUSES THE CIA AND SISMI Il Giornale’s Marco Chiocci takes a look at the accusations made by the disgraced ex DGSE agent, Alain Chouet, in yesterdays Repubblica. The ex Spy master from Paris got his facts, faces and dates completely wrong. It’s interesting to see how a French socialist jumps at the opportunity to accuse the USA of deception. Unfortunately for Chouet the following article explains and exposes his and the Repubblica’s lies one by one. ARTICLE BEGINS -- A FRENCH 007 ACCUSES THE CIA AND SISMI WITHOUT ANY PROOF By GIAN MARCO CHIOCCI AND MARIO...

Russo Martino, the man behind the forged documents indicating Saddam had purchased uranium from Niger, which Joseph A. Wilson falsely claimed he had seen and warned the Administration about, has come forward and admitted that he did this in the pay of France to undermine the British and American justification for the war in Iraq: The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, “Giacomo”. His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that...

Transcriber's introduction:The following outline and transcript, created by the poster, are based on an audio recording of Joseph Wilson's evening keynote lecture to the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC) on June 14, 2003, delivered several weeks prior to Wilson's New York Times op-ed of 7/6/2003 which preceded the controversial Robert Novak article mentioning Valerie Plame's CIA background. Wilson's speech was immediately preceded by that of the other keynote speaker, Ray McGovern of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. After their individual speeches Wilson and McGovern held a joint question-and-answer session. Other participants in the forum and their respective topics...

Time Magazine's White House correspondent Matt Cooper said he is still trying to find the right words to explain to his six-year-old son that "daddy might not be coming home for a while." In a talk at the Law School Tuesday evening, Cooper explained the details of a case that could land him behind bars. Last month a federal appeals court upheld a ruling that Cooper could face time in prison for refusing to reveal the name of a confidential government source who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in 2003. Judith Miller of The New York Times...

Reps. Slaughter & Conyers Call on Special Prosecutor and Secret Service to Investigate Growing Gannon Scandal Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Rules, and Rep. John Conyers (MI-14), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, called on Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the leaking of a classified Central Intelligence Agency memo containing the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame to a man at the center of the White House Press Briefing Room scandal, "Jeff Gannon."Rep. Slaughter, a long-time advocate for media reform and accountability, brought this story into the national...

Lawmakers: Writer May Have CIA Leak Info Thursday, February 24, 2005 WASHINGTON — Two lawmakers have sent a letter to the U.S. attorney saying a White House reporter who recently resigned following questions about his identity and background may have information vital to the investigation into who leaked a CIA operative's name to the press. Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and John Conyers, D-Mich., the ranking Democrats on the House Rules Committee and House Judiciary Committee, respectively, wrote a letter to Patrick Fitzgerald (search), the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, saying the Chicago attorney's office may need to...

The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France.The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, "Giacomo". His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France...

During a speech "flogging" his book Wilson took shots at Bush: "Former Ambassador and Bush Administration critic Joe Wilson was seemingly preaching to the choir Saturday in City Hall. Not one dissenting voice was heard." Snip "The Bush administration sent Wilson to Niger to investigate the accusation that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy nuclear materials to construct weapons of mass destruction. Wilson said he determined it was untrue and reported that in February 2002 to Vice President Dick Cheney." Wilson said: "This was not a simple mistake...It was cleverly calculated to deceive the Congress of the United States, the...

THE FACTS KEEP “DRIBBLING” ON WILSON’S PARADEDropped By The National Media Now That His Claims Have Been Debunked, Wilson Tells His Story To “The Georgetowner”______________________________________________________________JOSEPH WILSON: “It’ll take a little while to get on top of it. But it will also encourage people for the facts to come dribbling out. And, as they come dribbling out, it will rebound against the administration.”  (Beth Solomon, “High Value Target,” The Georgetowner, 7/21/04)HERE ARE SOME FACTS WILSON DIDN’T LIKE “DRIBBLING” OUT Senate Intelligence Committee Unanimously Concluded That Wilson’s Report “Lent More Credibility” To CIA Reports On Iraqi Attempts To Purchase Uranium From Africa. ...

Only on a panel sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future.Boston"ARE YOU ALL READY TO TAKE BACK AMERICA?" Robert Borosage, the co-director of Campaign for America's Future, asked on Wednesday, standing in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Cambridge. And the crowd sure was ready. They hooted and hollared. They roared and screamed. They nodded their heads vigorously. The day before, Michael Moore had stopped by. On Wednesday, Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee, former senator Gary Hart, and Ambassador Joe Wilson took the stage.The occasion was a debate on the Iraq war, which may...

Joseph Wilson to ACLU Audience: "Be Very, Very Afraid." Former ambassador livid over Senate "ambush." Arab Americans, way past angry, play along BOSTON—"A funny thing happened to me on the way to Boston," said former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who famously didn’t find any evidence that Saddam Hussein was buying uranium from Nigeria. "Valerie and I were ambushed." Wilson, speaking today at a Marriott luncheon hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Arab-American Institute (AAI), spent the great bulk of his allotted time railing against the "partisan smear campaign" directed at him and his wife, Valerie Plame, the...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Last week, the presidential campaign of Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) very publicly distanced itself from former National Security Advisor Samuel "Sandy" Berger after it became known that Berger was under investigation for removing highly classified documents from the National Archives. Talon News reported that Kerry's anti-terror policy was removed from the candidate's web site immediately following Berger's dismissal as a campaign advisor. But in the last few days, another advisor has apparently been jettisoned from the Kerry campaign. All traces of former Ambassador Joe Wilson, the central figure in the controversy of faulty intelligence...

Media Bias: When ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson said President Bush lied, it set off a media stampede. When he turned out to be wrong, the hoofbeats fell silent. In fact, as the chart below shows, that might be an understatement. The coverage is so one-sided that you might think something was at work here — something like, say, extreme media bias.For a recap, the CIA sent Wilson to Niger to look into charges that Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein sought nuclear materials from Africa. Wilson reported that, no, Saddam hadn't; it was all a fraud. For some, that was enough to debunk...

Bush Starts Thinking About Tomorrow: For the first time this election cycle, President Bush hinted at what another four years in the White House would mean to voters. Article here======================================================================== Don't you believe it. Those 16 words were still a lie! Sorry, Charlie, but I'm not buying. Those 16 words. No way. Have you seen the latest twist? Nice, very nice try. But no dice. Doesn't jive with the facts. Yet, they want us to believe those 16 words so badly, a full-court press is underway. But you'd have to be delusional to believe a word in those 16 words...