ETHICS--The Forgery Fiasco (I wish the Dems would jump on this)

[rodeodance]

I got this as an email.



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Progress Report: The Forgery Fiasco
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 08:16:31 -0700
From: American Progress Action Fund <[e-mail]>


October 28, 2005

ETHICS
The Forgery Fiasco

Today, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to end his long silence, possibly with the indictment of one or more administration officials. But even as one chapter of the scandal draws to a conclusion, a new one emerges. Reports in Italian newspapers have refocused attention on the origins of the poorly forged documents helped justify the 16 words from President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address that started it all: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Condoleezza Rice said subsequently, "knowing what we now know, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the President's speech." Emerging information casts doubt on Rice's portrayal of the administration as hapless bystanders. There are strong indications that senior administration officials and others with close ties to the White House had a far more direct roll in the peddling of false intelligence.

THE STEPHEN HADLEY CONNECTION: The forged documents originated with the Italian government. Nicolo Pollari, chief of Italy's military intelligence service, peddled tales of Iraq seeking Uranium from Niger to the CIA in 2001 and 2002 but his insistent overtures were consistently rebuffed. On Tuesday, an "exclusive report in La Repubblica reveal that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley." (At the beginning of Bush's second term, Hadley was promoted to National Security Adviser.) The previously unreported meeting, which was confirmed in the AP this morning by National Security Counsel spokesman Frederick Jones, occurred at "a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons." A month later, "forged documents were cabled from the U.S. embassy in Rome to Washington after being delivered to embassy officials" by an Italian reporter.

CLASSIC NON-DENIAL DENIAL: National Security Counsel spokesman Fredrick Jones said that during the Hadley-Pollari meeting, "the subject of Iraq's supposed uranium deal with Niger is not believed to have come up." Jones described the meeting as "a courtesy call that lasted fewer than 15 minutes." He added, "no one present has any recollection of yellowcake being discussed."

HADLEY IGNORED REPEATED WARNING THAT THE INTELLIGENCE WAS FLAWED: Prior to the 2003 State of the Union, Hadley was warned three separate times by the CIA not to push the claim that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from Niger. On October 5, Hadley and speechwriter Michael Gerson received a memo from the CIA noting "that CIA had told the Congress about concerns about the British claim." Another CIA memo sent to Hadley the next day warned that the Africa uranium story “was one of two issues where we differed with the British intelligence.” The written warning was accompanied by a phone call from then-CIA Director George Tenet requesting "that any reference to Iraq’s attempt to purchase uranium from sources from Africa to be deleted" from a speech the president gave in Cincinnati in October. On July 22, 2003, Hadley confessed "the fact is that given the October 5 and 6 CIA memorandum, and my telephone conversation with the DCI Tenet at roughly the same time, I should have recalled at the time of the State of the Union speech that there was controversy associated with the uranium issue.”

HADLEY DEEPLY INVOLVED IN LEAK SCANDAL: Laura Rozen writes in the American Prospect, "Hadley's meeting with Pollari, at precisely the time when the Niger forgeries came into the possession of the U.S. government, may explain the seemingly hysterical White House overreaction to Wilson's article almost a year later." Hadley played an integral part in that overreaction. After Karl Rove discussed Valerie Plame's covert identity with Time reporter Matt Cooper, he emailed Hadley: "When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn’t this damaging? Hasn’t the president been hurt? I didn’t take the bait..." Hadley also headed up the administration effort to pin the blame on the CIA. The Washington Post reported, "Behind the scenes, the White House responded with twin attacks: one on Wilson and the other on the CIA, which it wanted to take the blame for allowing the 16 words to remain in Bush’s speech. As part of this effort, then-deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley spoke with Tenet during the week about clearing up CIA responsibility for the 16 words, even though both knew the agency did not think Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, according to a person familiar with the conversation.” (For more details on administration involvement in the leak scandal see our cast of characters).

THE WEB ADMINISTRATION CONNECTIONS: The AP also reports that "Pollari used his own contacts in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans...to promote the dossier" of forged documents. Pollari had very good connections with the Office of Special Plans, which was run by Douglas Feith. (Gen. Tommy Franks calls Feith "the stupidest guy on the face of the earth.") In 2001, Polari attended secret meeting with three employees of the Office of Special Plans, Harold Rhode, Michael Ledeen and Larry Franklin. (Franklin has subsequently "pled guilty to passing information about U.S. policy towards Iran to Israel through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).") The purpose of the meetings, which violated protocol because the CIA was in attendance, was to set up direct contact between the Pentagon and Iranian dissidents. One Iranian in attendance was "arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar." The CIA "believes Ghorbanifar is a serial 'fabricator' and forbids its officers from having anything to do with him."

[rodeodance]

1. also see this related thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=168640&mesg_id=168640

[babylonsister]

2. I think all of this is going to come out in the wash

eventually. There's just so much info, so many threads involved, it will take time. But I have much faith in Fitz that he's connected the dots.