The African Connection: Rep. Jefferson and Joe Wilson

The American Thinker ^ | July 25th, 2006 | Clarice Feldman

[STARWISE]

Anyone fluent in French? Check: Jacqueline Wilson for Gabon
and Mamadou for Niger.

http://www.agoaforum.org/ImagesInfo/LISTE_PARTICIPANTS_AGOA.pdf

[Fedora]

Thanks for the pings! LOL at the identity clarification--thanks, nopardons :-) I think the question raised about Wilson's role in the 1999 election is very interesting. Along those lines the topic of the relation between the Clinton administration's Africa policy and Wilson's activity raises many questions. A few questions I've been pondering: How did Wilson figure into the rivalry in Africa in the 1990s between US and French oil companies (notably between Elf and Occidental, the latter linked to Wilson' friend Al Gore and to Odeh Aburdene)? Was Wilson involved in the French/US-supported overthrow of Pascal Lissouba in 1997? (Some details from my last Wilson article below.) What was Wilson's role in the Corporate Council on Africa's 1997 Africa Business Summit “Attracting Capital to Africa”, cosponsored by Enron and others, with a list of participants including Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, and Ambassador Andrew Young? (From the final Congression report on BCCI: "Beginning with Bert Lance in 1977, whose debts BCCI paid off with a $3.5 million loan, BCCI, BCCI nominees, and top officials of BCCI systematically developed friendships and relationships with important U.S political figures. While those which are publicly known include former president Jimmy Carter, Jesse Jackson, and Andrew Young, the Subcommittee has received information suggesting that BCCI's network extended to other U.S. political figures. The payments made by BCCI to Andrew Young while he was a public official were at best unusual, and by all appearances, improper.") Etc.

On the Lissouba thing I mention above:

Interaction between US oil companies and Elf also figured into Wilson’s assignment in Gabon from 1992 to 1995. In Gabon one of Wilson’s priorities was to encourage President Bongo to support increased investment by US oil companies in Gabon’s oil industry, up to then dominated by France via Elf.22 Occidental Petroleum, linked to the financial interests of then-Vice President Al Gore, soon won several contracts in Gabon, and Occidental and other US oil companies also began increasing their influence in other parts of Africa. This increased US presence in Africa’s oil industry provoked rivalry with Elf in Gabon and elsewhere.23 The French ambassador to Gabon Louis Dominici began encouraging the press to report that Wilson was an agent of US interests and an enemy of Gabon’s regime, which Wilson countered by cultivating closer ties with Bongo.24 Wilson worked with Bongo to advance the peace process in Angola and to press for human rights reforms in Equatorial Guinea,25 another emerging oil producer where France was competing for influence with Spain.26

Meanwhile Bongo was also active in events in Congo involving Elf interests. In August 1992, just as Wilson began his assignment in Gabon, there was a regime change in Congo. With Soviet influence retreating from the region, Congo’s population was calling for Bongo’s cousin Sassou-Nguesso to allow free elections. Bongo and the French, seeking to give the appearance of allowing reforms without actually losing control, decided to play both sides by financing the Presidential campaign of Sassou-Nguesso’s rival Pascal Lissouba. But in a move unanticipated by the French, Lissouba, short on cash to pay his civil servants and troops, cut a deal with Occidental for funding in exchange for granting Occidental $150 million in future production rights. Alarmed at the prospect of Occidental competing for one of Elf’s most vital oil supplies, the French pressured Lissouba to cancel the deal with Occidental. After Lissouba cancelled the deal, Elf and French intelligence continued providing him ostensible support against Sassou-Nguesso’s forces, using La French Intercontinental Bank for Africa (FIBA), which was jointly owned by Bongo, to help Belgian arms dealer Jacques Monsieur launder payments for weapons sales from Russia and Iran to Lissouba’s supporters. However at the same time Elf was arming Lissouba, it was also secretly arming Sassou-Nguesso for a return to power. With assistance from Angola, supported by the French and the Clinton administration, Sassou-Nguesso overthrew Lissouba and became President again in 1997, during Wilson’s term as NSC Senior Director of African Affairs.27

[Cindy]

Thanks Fedora.
This is interesting.

[woofie]

[STARWISE]

I've always had a suspicion that SlimeyJoe and his ex, Jacqueline, still have a connection, based on mutual interests .. govt., business. They were both in and around diplomatic/insider circles for years. She could still be shilling for him.

She is now Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration & Information for Trinidad + Tobago, and was at the huge World Telecommunication Development Conference in Qatar 2 months ago.

Page 21.

When you're in the document, do a control F, if you want to search for anyone or any org/company.

Nigeria had a very large number of attendees (pg. 15).

Got a chuckle .. the Navajo Nation in the USA had a representative attend.

[Fedora]

Looks like he's auditioning for the role of Steve Martin in a remake of The Jerk: "Navin, it's your birthday, and it's time you knew. You're not our natural-born child. . . ." :-)

[STARWISE]

I'm sure you're aware of this post by piasa, which I MISSED.. Gawd .. the incest, webs, interconnections, reciprocity are unreal:

Safavian also told the committee that he had "overlooked" two other clients while preparing his initial submissions for the OMB position. He did not initially mention work as a registered foreign agent for Gabon, a country persistently rated by the United States as having a "poor" human rights record, or his work as a registered foreign agent for Pascal Lissouba, the former president of the Republic of Congo who has been tried in absentia for treason and embezzlement.

------ "Aide Was Reticent on Lobbying for Foreign Clients," By Susan Schmidt and R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post, Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Page A02

In addition to the folks involved in Safavian's and Abramoff's doings such ast the ACLU, Harry Reid, Dick Gephardt, Tom Daschle and just about anyone else interested in promoting the gambling scene, another curious name pops up:

Who else do we know was - and is - a foreign agent of that obscure one-time uranium producing country in Africa known as Gabon?

Hint : She relates to another set of scandals.

Hint hint: She's one of the spouses of a certain Kerry staffer, the former ambassador to Gabon Joseph Wilson of Nigerflap / CIA leak fame.

Gabon has also maintained a three-year-old relationship with Jacqueline Wilson, the ex-spouse of a senior US diplomat. According to her filings, Wilson receives tens of thousands of dollars for special projects and reports to President Omar Bongo's daughter, Pascaline Mferri Bongo.

In her latest filing, Wilson reported that she was paid 60,000 dollars between August and November 2000 to ''support action of president of Gabon to fight AIDS pandemic (and) develop a strategy.'' As to work performed, she reported sending ''letters to the office of National AIDS policy at the White House.''-------- http://tinyurl.com/creso

There is significance to the Abramoff and Janus-Merritt references there: a firm called Janus Partners/Partner is listed in Federal Election Commission forms (for contributors to Congressman Christopher Cannon) as associated with Mark J. Robertson, president of Williams Mullen Strategies, a lobbying firm that has worked for both COTECNA (of Oil-for-Food fame) and Gabon.

Robertson previously had arranged a US visit for Gabonese President Omar Bongo at the same time Bongo hired as lobbyists Pierre Salinger and Jacqueline Wilson (then in the process of divorcing Joseph--recently back from organizing Clinton's trip to Africa--but curiously listed in records as having a phone number at the $735,000 house Joseph and Valerie Plame purchased at that time, while Joseph was living separately in Valerie's apartment; over the next four years, Jacqueline would receive at least $712,000 from Gabon for her lobbying services).

Robertson has more recently worked with USAID and Iraq's Minister of Infrastructure and Water to establish their respective roles in the Iraq Reconstruction efforts.

(As an aside of possible interest, Abramoff, Robertson, and Janus-Merritt Strategies have all contributed to Congressman Cannon, on whose staff David Safavian has worked. Another contributor to Cannon was Coastal Corp., the company of Oil-for-Food figure Oscar Wyatt.) 163 posted on 10/17/2005 11:47:56 AM PDT by Fedora | To 162

Ouch. And what else does this relate to?:

Everyone knows that Gaullist Presidential campaigns over the last thirty years have benefited greatly from donations from Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire and the two Congo states (Kinshasa and Brazzaville). It will doubtless be the same in 2002 - which is why Chirac receives Robert Mugabe in such splendour at the Elysee, conscious that Zimbabwe's 14,000 troops in the Congo make him a key player in such marchandise. Not that France has a monopoly on playing Machiavelli in Africa:

Herman Cohen, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for Africa, who was so busy in Rwanda in 1994, today has a multi-million contract to tart up the image of Mugabe. Cohen has also had contracts to promote Zaire's Mobutu, Gabon's Omar Bongo (whose government the state department reports is guilty of a routine use of torture), and Liberia's Charles Taylor - an adept in the use of child soldiers and the lopping off of hands, legs, ears and lips.

-------------------- "Disturbing article about Rwanda, France, UN, Belgium, Annan, and Clinton ," by RW Johnson, UCSB , Thursday June 24, 200

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great post, piasa!

(Fedora, I always had you pictured as a steel magnolia .. the name Fedora sounded so Southern lady .. LOL, only to me I'm sure .. SO sorry ;)

[Fedora]

What year was that event from the link in 21? She uses Wilson's last name there; in some places she does that and in others she uses her maiden name.

[Fedora]

I'll remind myself not to name myself after a hat next time, LOL.

Quite a web there. Will take some untangling. . .

[nopardons]

Joe Wilson is in this mess, up to his beady, bloodshot eyeballs and NOT in any way, manner, nor form, on behalf of anyone but himself! The questions you've raised, all need to be answered and then some.

If his idiot wife's law suit goes forward, some of these questions could be raised in discovery. Wouldn't that be delicious?

[nopardons]

My French is more than a bit creaky, but I'll take a look at the link. Hopefully, someone else, much more fluent in French, will translate that for all of us.

[nopardons]

You're very welcome, my friend. :-)

And thank YOU, for all of your diligent work on this. I DO expect an autographed copy of your books, you know. LOL

[STARWISE]

April 2006.

[STARWISE]

[nopardons]

Jacqueline was purged, very early on, in old Joey's WHO'S WHO entry; however, we all know that he was pretty much still in constant contact with her, throughout a lot of his marriage to Val.

The French are behind the forged docs,passed them off to Italy, to "hang around President Bush's neck", when the time was right, and one has to wonder just how much Jackie and Joe had to do with that!

[nopardons]

BTTT

[nopardons]

Thanks. :-)

[Philistone]

I'll be posting the "Joe Wilson Story" soon (when I get some time) linking the dots between Lyin' Joe and the French intelligence services (requires a lot of translation from French docs, so it'll take awhile...).

[arasina]

Do the tentacles on this reach to Marc Rich?

[nopardons]

Thanks...please ping me, when you do.

My rather rusty French just isn't up to the translation.