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Two Top Italy-US Spooks Ate Yellowcake Goss-911-Breakfast: msg#00527
culture.discuss.cia-drugs
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Subject: |
Two Top Italy-US Spooks Ate Yellowcake Goss-911-Breakfast |
http://madcowprod.com/
The MadCowMorningNews
by Daniel Hopsicker
"Craig Fuller,
the man responsible for the discredited 1991 propaganda
about Iraqi
soldiers bayoneting babies in Kuwaiti nurseries, for example,
was also
part involved in an operation in 1999 which included Abramoff
associates in the Republican Party as well as members of the Sicilian
Mafia, a joint push to establish a Cuban "beachhead" in anticipation of
an "opening to Cuba" after the death of Fidel Castro... Washington-based
PR firm Hill & Knowlton, under the leadership of George Bush
Senior's
former chief of staff Craig Fuller,
devised a remarkable "hook" for the
propaganda campaign which sold the
first Iraq war to the American
people: a heartrending story of invading
Iraqi troops tearing newborn
infants from hospital incubators, and
leaving them to die."
"I volunteered at the al-Addan hospital," asserted a 15-year-old
Kuwaiti
girl identified only as "Nayirah" during a meeting of the
Congressional
Human Rights Caucus on October 10, 1990.
"While I was there, I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital
with
guns, and go into the room where…babies were in incubators. They
took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators, and left
the babies on the cold floor to die."
Other "witnesses" coached by Hill & Knowlton offered similar
accounts
before the UN Security Council, and a video produced by the PR
agency
was shown to the Council. The result was an Article Seven resolution
against Iraq – the world
body’s equivalent of a declaration of war, used
by President Bush as
the authority to attack Iraq."
_______
From Democracy Now, 28 Oct 2005:
"Why is it that people in the Vice President's staff
were so concerned about Ambassador Wilson and
his debunking of the yellow cake forgeries?"
Because:
Two Top Italy-US Spooks Ate Yellowcake For 911-Goss-Amad-Breakfast
Laura Rozen, a journalist who covers national security and foreign
policy issues. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect
and she edits the widely read blog http://warandpiece.com
LAURA ROZEN: Vice President Cheney asked his C.I.A. briefers in
February 2002, that says that he had heard something about
this Niger yellow cake claim and
asked them to find out more.
[so...]
They sent Joseph Wilson on the trip to Niger....You know, seven, eight
months later, September 2002, just as Andy Card is saying, you know,
now is the time for the White House to make its sales pitch to the
country for the war, and, you know, Vice President Cheney is going
on TV saying -- talking about Iraq reconstituting its nuclear weapons,
now we find out that the head of Italian military intelligence came to
meet with a White House official, which is very unusual. He met with
Steve Hadley,
who has also been someone who has been identified as
part of a kind of alleged conspiracy
in the White House
to eventually out Joseph Wilson's wife to the media as a C.I.A.
operative, kind of
as retaliation for Joseph Wilson
pushing back on these false Niger uranium claims.
Does that tie the two things together? Does that make clear how
the leak investigation is tied in some ways to these documents?
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. But also, in terms of Hadley's then role in the Bush
administration putting out this information?
LAURA ROZEN: It's not clear. He was
Deputy National Security Adviser
at the time. He's
National Security Adviser
now.
He met with
the head of Italian military intelligence,
September 9, 2002.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, you have -- Hadley goes to Italy --
LAURA ROZEN: No, no. Pollari comes HERE.
AMY GOODMAN: He comes here. They have the meeting.
LAURA ROZEN: They have the meeting.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain again how this information then got
out in the Italian publication and the connection of that Italian
publication to Berlusconi.
LAURA ROZEN: The other thing – right. The other thing -- so then
a month after
Hadley and the head of Italian military intelligence meet
in September 2002,
a reporter for an Italian magazine
owned by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
gets passed by
a shady middleman
in Italy a bunch of documents that turn out to be the Niger
forgeries.
And her
editor
who is kind of the favorite in the Berlusconi media empire
tells her,
"Take these immediately to the U.S. embassy
in Rome," which she does, and they get
[stovepiped!] cabled back to Washington.
[...into the waiting hands of Doctor Hadley!]
So, even though the C.I.A. originally dismissed these whole Niger
uranium claims at several points, as had the State Department,
as being unsubstantiated, and
["inflexible"] Joe Wilson
went on his trip to Niger and also found the claims to be
unsubstantiated, [took his job too seriously, showed a lack of
imagination and initiative!] you find the President, you know, in
January 2003 citing Iraq's alleged efforts to acquire uranium in
Niger as being one of his – you know, in his State of the Union
address.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Scott Horton, you have this story of a top Bush
administration official meeting with Italian intelligence, and then soon
a publication owned by the prime minister of Italy, Berlusconi, who is a
close Bush ally, publishes this information that Saddam Hussein is
getting 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from Niger; the significance of
this?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, it's actually a bombshell, because it shows this
entire investigation doubling back and coming to the very beginning, to
the original case of the yellow cake forgeries. People have been asking
for a long time,
"Why is it that people in the Vice President's staff
were so concerned about Ambassador Wilson and
his debunking of the yellow cake forgeries?"
I mean, many people have thought that it just doesn't make sense
that they would be
so deeply engaged.
[...unless they were ALREADY so deeply engaged!!! -BD]
Of course, one thing we know from the investigation, what's come
out from it to date, is that they were very deeply involved
from the top of the staff to the bottom of it.
And this shows the first glimmers of a real explanation for that by
linking key figures from the White House and what Colonel
Wilkerson has called the "cabal" around Vice President Cheney
to the forgeries themselves.
-Bob
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 19:03:11 -0700
From: conscientiousobjector2000@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Democracy Now! | Italian Media Reveals U.S. Officials Met With
Italian Intelligence Officials To Discuss Fake Documents Citing Niger
Nuke Sales to Iraq
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
Italian Media Reveals U.S. Officials Met With Italian Intelligence
Officials To Discuss Fake Documents Citing Niger Nuke Sales to Iraq
As the country waits to see whether indictments will be handed down to
top White House officials in the CIA leak case, reports are breaking
that Italian intelligence and Bush administration officials met in
connection with the forged Niger documents that were used to justify the
2003 invasion of Iraq. We get the latest from law professor Scott Horton
and journalist Laura Rozen.
Rumors continue to fly in Washington over whether any top White House
officials will be forced to resign for their involvement in the outing
of CIA operative Valerie Plame. On Wednesday special prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald presented a summary of his case to the grand jury, which
could hand down indictments today or tomorrow. According to the
Washington Post, Karl Rove's legal team has been engaged in a furious
effort to convince Fitzgerald that Rove did not commit perjury. The
D.C.-based newspaper Roll Call reporter Fitzgerald was spotted
Wednesday at the offices of Rove's attorney.
Meanwhile on Tuesday a member of Fitzgerald's team interviewed former
White House press aide Adam Levine about conversations he had with Rove
on July 11 2003 -- just days before Plame's name first appeared in the
press. The grand jury is set to expire on Friday but there has been
speculation that Fitzgerald might try to extend the grand jury's term.
To discuss the latest news about the CIA leak investigation and to
explain how grand jury indictments work we are joined by:
Scott Horton, chairman of the International Law Committee at the New
York City Bar Association. He is also an adjunct professor of law at
Columbia University where he lectures on international law and
international humanitarian law.
Laura Rozen, a journalist who covers national security and foreign
policy issues. She is a senior correspondent for The American Prospect
and she edits the widely read blog warandpiece.com.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
This transcript is available free of charge. However, donations help us
provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV
broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...
AMY GOODMAN: On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan
was questioned about the impact the investigation has had
on the White House.
SCOTT McCLELLAN: First of all, there's a lot of speculation going
around, and I think there are a lot of facts that simply are not known
at this point. It remains an ongoing investigation, and we'll let the
special prosecutor continue to do his work, and I'm sure he will have
more to say in due course. In terms of the White House, this White House
is focused on the priorities of the American people. We're working on
the priorities that the American people care about. The President has
had a very busy day. He started his morning focused on the highest
priorities facing this country, which is winning the war on terrorism
and protecting the homeland.
AMY GOODMAN: That was White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan
speaking Wednesday. To discuss the latest news about the C.I.A. leak
investigation and to explain how grand jury indictments work, we're
joined by two guests. Laura Rozen is a Washington, D.C.-based
journalist, senior correspondent for the American Prospect, frequently
writes about national security and foreign policy issues on her blog,
WarAndPiece.com. And we are joined in our New York studio by Scott
Horton, Chair of the International Law Committee at the New York City
Bar Association; he's also Adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia
University where he lectures on international law and international
humanitarian law. Laura Rozen, let's begin with you. Can you tell us the
latest at point of this broadcast?
LAURA ROZEN: I'm afraid I can't. I was really preparing to speak more on
these Niger forgeries, and I -- --
AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead.
LAURA ROZEN: I'm not up on latest from over night really on the leak
investigation. I apologize.
AMY GOODMAN: No, that's fine. Why don't you talk about exactly what
you're referring to when you talk about how Niger fits into this story?
LAURA ROZEN: Yes. You know, the outing of Valerie Plame is kind of the
end of this long process that began with these documents, these forged
documents that came into the possession of the U.S. government that
purported to show a contract for Iraq to purchase vast quantities of
yellow cake uranium in the African country of Niger.
So, in Italy this week, an investigative reporting team has made great
headway in actually identifying who were the people who actually set
this whole forgeries in motion that, you know, the Bush administration
cited as one of the reasons they thought that Iraq was reconstituting
its nuclear weapons.
And it turns out to be various current and ex-officials from the Italian
military intelligence organization, SISMI. And that's quite interesting,
because, you know, the Italian prime minister was very supportive -- is
a supporter of President Bush and was one of the few European allies to
support the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
And they kept, through various channels, trying to channel this false
intelligence to the U.S. and British intelligence.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Many Americans here are not familiar with this angle,
this Italian angle to the entire situation here of the false information
given out about the -- about Niger and nuclear weapons. Could you talk
about -- a little bit about the La Repubblica articles? And exactly what
is the connection between the officials in the Bush administration and
the -- this Italian -- the forgeries that originated there?
LAURA ROZEN: Right. Well, Vice President Cheney asked his C.I.A.
briefers in February 2002, that says that he had heard something about
this Niger yellow cake claim and asked them to find out more.
They sent Joseph Wilson on the trip to Niger. He didn't -- Cheney's
office
apparently didn't know anything about this. You know, seven, eight
months later, September 2002, just as Andy Card is saying, you know,
now is the time for the White House to make its sales pitch to the
country for the war, and, you know, Vice President Cheney is going
on TV saying -- talking about Iraq reconstituting its nuclear weapons,
now we find out that the head of Italian military intelligence came to
meet with a White House official, which is very unusual. He met with
Steve Hadley,
who has also been someone who has been identified as
part of a kind of alleged conspiracy
in the White House
to eventually out Joseph Wilson's wife to the media as a C.I.A.
operative, kind of
as retaliation for Joseph Wilson
pushing back on these false Niger uranium claims.
Does that tie the two things together? Does that make clear how
the leak investigation is tied in some ways to these documents?
JUAN GONZALEZ: Yes. But also, in terms of Hadley's then role in the Bush
administration putting out this information?
[perhaps also putting out in the sense of forgery?! -BD]
LAURA ROZEN: It's not clear. He was
Deputy National Security Adviser
at the time. He's
National Security Adviser
now.
He met with
the head of Italian military intelligence,
September 9, 2002. The N.S.C. spokesman told me, you know, that
meeting's not necessarily secret, it's just that Hadley's schedule is
not public. On the Italian side, my colleagues at La Repubblica
tell me that the head of Italian military intelligence doesn't admit
to having met with Hadley.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, you have -- Hadley goes to Italy --
LAURA ROZEN: No, no. Pollari comes HERE.
AMY GOODMAN: He comes here. They have the meeting.
LAURA ROZEN: They have the meeting.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain again how this information then got
out in the Italian publication and the connection of that Italian
publication to Berlusconi.
LAURA ROZEN: The other thing – right. The other thing -- so then
a month after Hadley and the head of Italian military intelligence
meet in September 2002,
a reporter for an Italian magazine
owned by the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
gets passed by
a shady middleman
in Italy a bunch of documents that turn out to be the Niger
forgeries.
And her
editor
who is kind of the favorite in the Berlusconi media empire
tells her,
"Take these immediately to the U.S. embassy
in Rome," which she does, and they get
[stovepiped!] cabled back to Washington.
So, even though the C.I.A. originally dismissed these whole Niger
uranium claims at several points, as had the State Department,
as being unsubstantiated, and Joe Wilson went on his trip to Niger
and also found the claims to be unsubstantiated, you find the
President, you know, in January 2003 citing Iraq's alleged efforts
to acquire uranium in Niger as being one of his – you know, in his
State of the Union address.
AMY GOODMAN: So, Scott Horton, you have this story of a top Bush
administration official meeting with Italian intelligence, and then soon
a publication owned by the prime minister of Italy, Berlusconi, who is a
close Bush ally, publishes this information that Saddam Hussein is
getting 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from Niger; the significance of
this?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, it's actually a bombshell, because it shows this
entire investigation doubling back and coming to the very beginning, to
the original case of the yellow cake forgeries. People have been asking
for a long time,
"Why is it that people in the Vice President's staff
were so concerned about Ambassador Wilson and
his debunking of the yellow cake forgeries?"
I mean, many people have thought that it just doesn't make sense
that they would be
so deeply engaged.
[...unless they were ALREADY so deeply engaged!!! -BD]
Of course, one thing we know from the investigation, what's come
out from it to date, is that they were very deeply involved
from the top of the staff to the bottom of it.
And this shows the first glimmers of a real explanation for that by
linking key figures from the White House and what Colonel
Wilkerson has called the "cabal" around Vice President Cheney
to the forgeries themselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Wilkerson being the former Chief of Staff of Powell.
SCOTT HORTON: Exactly right. I mean, there's no evidence that has come
out that suggests that these people uttered the forgeries, but it does
suggest they had a great interest in them. They knew about them from a
very early date, and they knew they were forgeries from very early on
and nevertheless showed great interest in getting these documents out
and into the public. And there was a very, very high level complicity
between White House figures and Prime Minister Berlusconi and senior
confidants of his.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to break, and then we're going to come back.
Laura Rozen, thanks very much for being with us. And your website, your
blog, http://WarAndPiece.com, writing for The American Prospect. Scott
Horton, I'd like you to stay on to talk also about Vice President Dick
Cheney, the Washington Post editorial yesterday saying "Vice President
for Torture," Maureen Dowd saying "Just say vice." [break]
AMY GOODMAN: Our guest is Scott Horton, who is a law professor here in
New York City. Scott Horton, the issue of this grand jury. What -- it
has been impaneled for how long? Who are they, and what happens now?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, we have 23 citizens from the District of Columbia,
who are serving, and they have been in session now for a very long time.
I think more than a year.
AMY GOODMAN: Full-time?
SCOTT HORTON: No, it's not full-time. They meet several times in the
course of a month. I think this grand jury has been meeting pretty
regularly on Fridays in the afternoon. But it's a tremendous amount of
service that they're providing. And Friday is the last day of their
scheduled term; or is it? That's one of the questions we have got,
because what happened yesterday that has attracted a lot of interest
from lawyers is that the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, had a
30 to 45-minute meeting with Chief Judge Hogan.
Now, why would he have had that meeting? It could have been a courtesy
call. That's not terribly likely. More likely, he was either seeking to
arrange special meeting times for the current grand jury, seeking to
extend its term or seeking to have indictments that have been voted or
about to be voted put under seal. And that suggests very strongly that
the investigation is, in fact, not completely wrapped up now. We may
have charges announced today, but that there's an important slice of it
remaining to be completed.
JUAN GONZALEZ: From the perspective of the Bush administration,
would it be better for this grand jury to be extended, for this to drag
out,
or would it be better for them to have -- if these indictments are
going to
come down, have them come down now and begin the process of
adjustment into the new conditions?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, I think, surely, they would like to get this behind
them, and having an open portion of it is going to create an ongoing
public distraction. I think most commentators looking at the White House
in the last month see it as nearly incapacitated by this scandal. I
mean, you already referred earlier in the broadcast to withdrawals and
reversals, the Miers nomination is floundering. This is a political low
point for the White House, no doubt about it.
AMY GOODMAN: So, could you have some indictments handed down
today, others announced later?
SCOTT HORTON: Absolutely. And we could have a number of indictments
handed down today that won't be announced.
AMY GOODMAN: Sealed?
SCOTT HORTON: They will be under seal.
AMY GOODMAN: For what reason?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, there are a number of reasons why you would
put -- it's a rather unusual process, putting indictments under seal.
We should state that up front. The most traditional cause for it is that
-- is to not let slip the fact that someone's going to be indicted so
they
can be apprehended. You're afraid that they're going to flee. That
doesn't make sense when we are dealing with public officials, frankly.
What would make sense with public officials is that the fact of the
indictment would tip people to the fact that they and people who are
working with them are targets of the investigation. And, you know,
and I think, obviously, of all the things we've seen, the Italian side
of
this is the most intriguing. I think it's most likely that that part of
the
investigation hasn't been finished. But this is just speculation.
AMY GOODMAN: Can a vice president be indicted?
SCOTT HORTON: Well, vice presidents have been indicted. In fact,
Aaron Burr was indicted twice and Spiro Agnew was indicted. But
there is a question of executive immunity. And how far does executive
immunity go?
And on that issue, actually, the leading authority is probably Robert
Bork, a former judge and Yale Law professor who wrote quite in great
detail about this, saying that the vice president does not have
immunity, that that's really limited to the president. But that's not
really a settled question.
JUAN GONZALEZ: But how would it be possible to have sealed indictments?
Would the actual people indicted be notified, or even
they would not know that they had been indicted?
SCOTT HORTON: They would not be notified of the fact that they'd be
indicted, and neither would the public.
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Scott Horton, who is the Chair of
International Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association, also
Adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia University.
To purchase an audio or video copy of this entire program, click here
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----------
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/27/1451223
[Scooter Libby was indicted Friday by Fitgerald's Grand Jury]
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