The Niger forgeries?

[kpete]

June 05, 2008

Just Out at the Forward: "The Operator: The Double Life of a Military Strategist." A propos of the Senate Intelligence committee's Phase II report release today, a profile of a Washington military strategist with a double life. The Niger forgeries? Italian intelligence showed them to him before Dick Cheney heard about Iraq and yellowcake. (He refused to back channel them to Washington). Abu Omar rendition? He knew about it as it was going down in Italy. Back when he was House Intelligence committee minority leader, Dick Cheney even told him what Iran Contra operations weren’t notified to Congress. And recently, the consulting services of the author of "coup d'etat: a practical handbook" have been in demand from groups seeking to overturn the Iran regime.

There’s one thing Edward Luttwak wanted me to know, before he asked if I had a cell phone, and if so, could I turn it off and remove its battery, presumably if improbably so that he couldn’t be traced. We were sitting in his office library in his family’s sprawling Victorian home in suburban Chevy Chase, Md., full of books from floor to ceiling in Greek, Latin and from the modern era, volumes by Clausewitz, Walter Lacquer, Theodore Draper’s account of Iran Contra and thousands of others. These included a recent U.S. Military Balance survey, cataloguing the F-14s, F-7s, Phantoms and every other significant piece of military anti-air equipment estimated to be held by Iran — statistics that Luttwak looked up and ticked off during the course of our interview.

“I am an operator,” Luttwak said.

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Go read the whole thing.

Perhaps of most news worthiness is this: Sismi showed him the Niger forgeries apparently before Sismi transmitted their details to CIA. (He mentioned Sismi director press aide Pio Pompa as a contact, as is former Sismi director Pollari himself). He was working at the time as a consultant to a Sismi contractor called APRI S.p.a. headed by Luciano Monti. "I was their consultant for methods,” Luttwak said, looking up the details in his income tax returns. He refused to back channel them to Washington, and would have nothing to do with them. Perhaps others who got an early peak were not so scrupulous.

http://www.forward.com/articles/13515/