Posted on 10/25/2004 12:32:12 PM PDT by Fedora
What Wilson Didn’t Say About Africa
Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners
By Fedora
with help from a few FReeper friends
Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has been a leading spokesman for critics who accuse President Bush of basing his case for war against Iraq on forged documents purporting that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson’s charge has been discredited by a Senate investigation,1 but what remains unanswered are questions arising from what is now known about French intelligence’s role in pushing the forged documents on British and US intelligence.
The role of France and Wilson in undermining Bush’s case for war looks particularly curious in light of disclosures about Saddam Hussein’s bribery of foreign political and business figures during the course of the Oil-for-Food program from 1996 to 2003. Saddam’s web of graft spun in many directions: among others, to UN officials, Russian and Chinese oil companies, British critics of Tony Blair’s Iraq policies, and US critics of President Bush’s Iraq policies, as well as France. Near the center of the web was the Banque Nationale de Paris, where Iraq’s Oil-for-Food revenues were initially kept until 2001, when they were redistributed among several undisclosed banks approved by Iraq. Meanwhile French oil company TotalFinaElf received Oil-for-Food vouchers and held a contract to develop oil fields in southern Iraq.2
When the US and UK first began considering military action against Iraq, Bush faced the same resistance Clinton had encountered in 1998 from France and Russia. Already in December 2001, Russia had announced it would not support a US attack on Iraq.3 Then shortly after President Bush’s January 29, 2002 State of the Union Address named Iraq as a member of a terrorist-sponsoring “Axis of Evil", France announced on February 22, 2002 that Europe would not support a US attack on Iraq.4
French intelligence soon began a campaign to discredit the US case for war against Iraq. In 1999, French intelligence had begun investigating the security of uranium supplies in Niger, where uranium production was controlled by a consortium led by the French mining company COGEMA, a division of the French state-owned nuclear energy firm AREVA. At that time, Italian businessman Rocco Martino provided French intelligence with genuine documents revealing that Iraq was planning to expand trade with Niger. French intelligence took an interest in the documents and asked Martino to provide more information. In 2000 he used a contact in the Nigerian embassy in Rome to provide French intelligence with documents purporting that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. These documents were later exposed as forgeries; Martino claims that at the time he was unaware they were forged. In October 2002, as the case for war against Iraq was being debated in the UN, Martino attempted to sell the same documents to Italian journalist Elisabetta Burba, who was skeptical of their authenticity and insisted on verifying them before purchasing them. Burba’s editors had the US embassy check the documents and sent Burba on a fact-finding mission to Niger, and Burba concluded that the documents were not authentic and abandoned her story on them. However French intelligence continued trying to convince British and US intelligence that the documents were authentic.5
Prior to receiving Martino’s documents, US intelligence had already begun investigating similar reports of Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger. On October 15, 2001, a report of a uranium deal between Niger and Iraq had come to the attention of the US intelligence community through an undisclosed “foreign government service". US intelligence analysts were initially skeptical of the report, partly because France controlled Niger’s uranium supply through COGEMA and presumably would not allow such a transaction to occur. Then on February 5, 2002, US intelligence received a second, similar but more detailed report from a foreign government service. The second report seemed more credible to some analysts, but others continued to raise doubts, prompting Vice President Cheney to request a CIA analysis of the report. As the CIA was investigating the issue, a CIA agent in the Agency’s Directorate of Operations Counterproliferation Division, Valerie Plame Wilson, suggested that the investigation be assigned to her husband Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger.6
Wilson, a lifetime Francophile, had spent the bulk of his diplomatic career in former French African colonies like Niger.7 His second wife from 1986 to 1998, Jacqueline, had served the French embassy in Burundi as a “cultural counselor" (a function often used as a cover by French intelligence).8 From Wilson’s experience in Niger he was familiar with the Niger uranium industry. Additionally, he had worked in Iraq during the days leading up to the Gulf War. (Intriguingly, on the eve of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait Wilson had dined at the home of an arms dealer who bought weapons for Iraq from France; a Vanity Fair profile on Wilson mentions his wife’s presence at this event, but Wilson’s book states “I was the only guest.").9 After the Gulf War he had helped provide support to US/UK/Turkish operations in northern Iraq, while stationed as political advisor to the United States European Command in Germany during the Kosovo War. In 1998 he left the State Department and began putting his diplomatic contacts to business use. He formed J.C. Wilson International Ventures Corporation, a business development and management company which ventured in gold, oil, and telecommunications and served clients in Africa, Western Europe, and Turkey. At this time new African markets were emerging due to the recent passage of an African trade bill Wilson had helped President Clinton promote. Wilson’s African investment interests included oil markets in several parts of Africa and the gold market in Niger. Wilson also kept abreast of the gold market in Iraq, where the price of gold was exceptionally cheap, as Wilson observed in one of his lectures.10 Meanwhile his then-wife Jacqueline, whom he would soon leave for Valerie Plame, became a registered lobbyist for the Presidency of Gabon, where Wilson had a good relationship with President Omar Bongo.11
Wilson ran his company out of the offices of an investment company called Rock Creek Corporation. Rock Creek was controlled by Mohammed Alamoudi, whom Wilson had met in 1997 at a reception organized for the World Bank by Westar Group. Alamoudi was a member of the Saudi-Ethiopian Alamoudi dynasty, which was heavily invested in the segments of the African economy Wilson was seeking to penetrate. The Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Services--a Swiss subsidiary of the Saudi company Delta Oil--handled Iraqi oil export contracts in 2000 and 2001 and was revealed in 2003 as a recipient of Iraqi Oil-for-Food vouchers channeled through Abu Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist with Iraqi connections. Delta Services also cooperated with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime in a project to build an oil pipeline from Afghanistan to Pakistan, prior to this project’s suspension in 1998. In 1999, Alamoudi was accused by USA Today reporter Jack Kelley of heading a bank which was being investigated for financing Al Qaeda. USA Today printed retractions of several details in Kelley’s article in 2004, after another member of the Alamoudi family--Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American Muslim lobbyist--was indicted on terror-related charges involving a Libyan-backed conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah. Abdurahman was ultimately convicted in October 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.12 Under Mohammed Alamoudi’s direction, Rock Creek was chaired by Elias Aburdene, an Arab-American international banking advisor and lobbyist who had previously advised banks linked to organized crime and intelligence community figures involved in the S&L Scam. In 2003 and 2004 Aburdene donated to the Sandhills Political Action Committee, which was affiliated with Senator Chuck Hagel, 13 a leading Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.14
While working out of Rock Creek’s offices, Wilson also advised American-Turkish investment groups who shared Hagel’s negative views of Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson had developed Turkish contacts during his diplomatic career. While stationed in Iraq, he had shared intelligence with members of the Turkish embassy there, including ambassador Ahmet Okcun, who would later become Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Coordinator for Reconstruction of Iraq.15 Also, while in Germany, Wilson had worked on Iraqi-related issues with Turkish General Cevik Bir, a critic of US policy towards Iraq.16 Wilson and Bir expressed similar views on Iraq when they spoke together at events held by the American-Turkish Council (ATC), a Turkish-American business association headed by Brent Scowcroft,17 another prominent Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.18 Scowcroft and Wilson shared the view that President Bush’s policy towards the Middle East and Iraq was dominated by a cabal of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" represented by Richard Perle--as Wilson expressed his views in a June 2003 lecture, Bush’s invasion of Iraq “was all done to make Sharon's life easier. . .American soldiers are dying in order to enable Sharon to impose his terms upon the Palestinians. . .American boys and girls are dying for Israel".19 Wilson’s contact with the ATC also brought him into contact with his future wife, Valerie Plame, whom he met while receiving an ATC award during a reception at the Turkish embassy in Washington.20 In addition to advising the ATC, Wilson also headed the Washington branch of a Turkish business group founded in 2000 by Turkish-American businesswoman Tumu Gumustekin, the Corporate & Public Strategy Advisory Group (CPS), which sought to capitalize on business opportunities opened up by Turkey’s 1999 acceptance as a candidate for EU membership.21 Meanwhile, as Turkey competed for EU membership, Saddam Hussein’s regime had been bribing Turkish oil companies through the Oil-for-Food Program, and in December 2001 had awarded a drilling contract to one of these companies, the Turkish state oil company Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC), a subsidiary of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO).22 Also at this time the Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Oil was involved in several oil development projects in Turkey and the surrounding region, including a joint project with TotalFinaElf and Turkish Petroleum and other companies to build a major oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, from Turkey through Georgia to Azerbaijan.23
While Wilson was pursuing his foreign investment ventures, he also served as a foreign policy advisor to the 2000 Presidential campaign of Al Gore. A company the Gore family had a long-term relationship with, Occidental Petroleum, shared business interests with Alamoudi-affiliated companies in Africa and the Middle East, and employed as Vice President for Middle East business Odeh Aburdene,24 who shared a complex network of relationships with Rock Creek’s Elias Aburdene and Joseph Wilson--notably, all three contributed to Arab-American Congressional Caucus leader Nick Rahall,25 who supported Muslim lobbying groups linked to terrorists and opposed military action in Iraq.26 Abdurahman Alamoudi also contributed to Rahall, and sat on the steering committee of Arab Americans for Clinton/Gore '96 along with his associate James Zogby, who later advised Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign.27 Wilson had worked as an aide to Gore from 1985 to 1986 and had developed a friendly relationship with him. Wilson says Gore was the first person outside the State Department to contact him expressing support when he was caught in Iraq in the middle of the diplomatic crisis leading up to the Gulf War. In 1997 Gore recommended Wilson to President Clinton to help him plan a trip to Africa. When Wilson began publicly opposing Bush’s Iraq policy in 2002, Gore was still considered a potential candidate in the 2004 election. Gore’s speeches were then being sponsored by the antiwar group Moveon.org, which Wilson would support in September 2003 in an attempt to petition Congress against appropriating funds for Iraq operations.28 Moveon.org was financed by billionaire George Soros,29 who had business interests encompassing, among other things, the BTC Pipeline that Mohammed Alamoudi’s Delta Oil was helping build.30 Later, after Gore announced in December 2002 that he would not be running in the 2004 campaign,31 Moveon.org began supporting John Kerry’s campaign.32 Wilson began advising Kerry’s campaign on foreign policy matters around May 2003, several months prior to his public entry into the Niger uranium controversy.33 By this time, from at least fall 2002, the French intelligence operation to push the Niger forgeries on British and US intelligence was already underway. Meanwhile, from as early as at least January 6 2003--prior to President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address where the President made the African reference which Wilson criticizes--the Democratic National Committee was already circulating a memo planning a public relations strategy which would include “[c]laiming the Bush administration has ‘manufactured’ evidence against Saddam Hussein and used that evidence to encourage Britain and other allies to join the American fight against Iraq."34
Wilson’s business and political background raise questions about the motive behind his wife’s recruitment of him to assist the CIA’s Niger investigation, and about his subsequent politicization of the investigation to undermine the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. While the media has focused attention on the question of who leaked the fact that his wife worked for the CIA, Wilson has attempted to evade the natural question of what role his wife’s CIA connection played in the CIA’s decision to send him to investigate the Niger uranium report. In his book, published in April 2004, Wilson wrote, “Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger’s uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip. The suggestion that Valerie might have improperly influenced the decision to send me to Niger was easy to disprove."35 But contrary to Wilson’s confident-sounding denial, in July 2004 a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report found that, as The Washington Post reported, “Wilson. . .was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has stated publicly. . .[A] CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame ‘offered up’ Wilson’s name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband ‘has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’"36 So it turns out that Wilson lied to conceal his wife’s role in procuring his CIA assignment. This raises the question: why?
Another question that might be raised is why Wilson and the CIA’s investigation did not explore at least the possibility of the French-led company COGEMA covertly allowing Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. In Wilson’s book, while explaining the method that led him to conclude the report of Niger selling uranium to Iraq was false, Wilson explains that he ruled out the possibility of an off-the-books transaction partly because “COGEMA, as the managing partner, would have had to know and be complicit."37 This seems to rule out a priori the very thing Wilson was sent to investigate, and in the process, to rule out the possibility of French complicity in arming Saddam Hussein’s regime, which seems a hasty exoneration in light of the fact that France had a long history of selling Iraq military equipment and resisting UN sanctions against Iraq.38 It is now known that in fact French companies were helping Iraq skirt UN sanctions.39
Since it is now also known that French intelligence was trying to push Martino’s forgeries on US and British intelligence, as simultaneously the Democratic National Committee was planning to discredit President Bush’s Iraq policy by accusing his administration of manufacturing evidence against Hussein’s regime, heightened suspicion is cast on Wilson’s use of the Niger investigation to discredit the Bush administration’s case for war. Prior to Wilson publicly joining the debate over Iraq in May 2002, since September 11, 2001 he and Brent Scowcroft had shared a growing concern over their perception of the alleged influence of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" on Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson’s first public contributions to the Iraq debate were made to Scowcroft’s American-Turkish Council in May 2002, in conjunction with a presentation by Cevik Bir. Scowcroft himself entered the public debate with a Wall Street Journal article opposing military action on August 15, 2002. He also helped Wilson communicate his own antiwar views to the White House. Meanwhile, in June 2002 Wilson joined forces with the Alliance for American Leadership, an antiwar-oriented, Democrat-dominated foreign policy group headed by Clinton’s former ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg. While serving as ambassador, Ginsberg had coordinated new US trade and investment initiatives in the Middle East--including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Investment Fund, which had a Turkey-Azerbaijan project under the funding control of the Soros Private Fund Management--and now as a private citizen he consulted for companies doing business in the Middle East. Ginsberg arranged for Wilson to begin appearing on the news-show circuit, and Wilson began to emerge as an antiwar spokesman. Wilson wrote his first article on the debate for the San Jose Mercury on October 13, 2002. During this same time period Al Gore was making antiwar speeches sponsored by Moveon.org; Joseph Biden, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and Carl Levin were leading opposition to a Senate resolution on Iraq; and the UN, Russia, China, and France were helping Saddam Hussein stall US/UK military action by prolonging the weapons inspection process.40
During the course of this debate, in September 2002 British intelligence produced a white paper which alleged that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, an allegation subsequently repeated by President Bush in late January 2003 and Secretary of State Powell in early February 2003. A month after Powell’s speech, UN International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed El Baradei told the UN Security Council that the Niger documents were not authentic, and Wilson and the antiwar media began attacking the British and US references to Africa, conveniently ignoring the fact that the references had been to “Africa" rather than “Niger" and there was other data on Africa being referenced. At first Wilson worked behind the scenes, trading information with political insiders like African State Department specialist Walter Kansteiner and speaking anonymously to antiwar media allies like Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby of The Washington Post and David Shipley of The New York Times. Finally on July 6, 2003 he wrote an article under his own name in The New York Times called “What I Didn’t Find in Africa", published simultaneously with a Washington Post profile of his diplomatic career by Leiby. A couple days later Wilson learned from a friend that Robert Novak had said privately, “Wilson’s an [expletive deleted]. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She’s a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." A week later Novak published this information, provoking controversy and an investigation which remains ongoing. Meanwhile Wilson promoted the antiwar efforts of Moveon.org and other antiwar groups, and he became a foreign policy advisor to John Kerry’s campaign in spring 2003, after Al Gore had been effectively eliminated from serious consideration as a candidate and Kerry had emerged as the frontrunner.41
Wilson’s various allegations against the Bush administration would eventually be discredited, as summarized in a July 2004 bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report which contradicted Wilson’s key claims.42 However, Wilson’s antiwar and anti-Bush allies in the media have not bothered reporting this with the same fervor they have devoted to undermining American policy in Iraq. It is high time that the media broadened its focus beyond what Wilson didn’t find in Africa, and started looking into what Wilson didn’t say about Africa.
1RNC Research Briefings, “The Facts Keep ‘Dribbling’ on Wilson’s Parade", GOP.com, http://www.rnc.org/RNCResearch/Read.aspx?ID=4497, August 2, 2004. Cf. United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.
2"Encyclopedia: Oil for Food", NationMaster.com, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Oil-for-Food; "The Beneficiaries of Saddam’s Oil Vouchers: The List of 270", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA16004, Number 160, January 29, 2004; Nimrod Raphaeli, “The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=ia&ID=IA16404, Number 164, February 20, 2004; Robert Winnett and Mark Hollingsworth, "MI6 probes French links to Iraq scam", Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,1-1197984,00.html, August 1, 2004; Central Intelligence Agency, Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/; William Safire, “Duelfer report catches France red-handed", International Herald Tribune, http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/13/opinion/edsaffire.html, October 14, 2004.
3"Russia Would Oppose Attack on Iraq", AP, December 2, 2001, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/582565/posts.
4Steve Park, “France Won’t Back U.S. Attack on Iraq", The Washington Times, February 22, 2002, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/633019/posts.
5"Profile: Elisabetta Burba", Center for Cooperative Research, http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=elisabetta_burba; "Italian journalist claims she supplied Iraq-Niger uranium documents to US", Agence France-Presse, July 19, 2003, online at Clari News, http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bi/Qus-iraq-niger-italy.Rt17_DlJ.html; Seymour M. Hersh, “The Stovepipe: How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq’s weapons.", The New Yorker, October 27, 2003, online at http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact; Nicholas Rufford, “Italian spies ‘faked documents’ on Saddam nuclear purchase", Times Online, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2763-1198188,00.html, August 1, 2004; Mark Huband, “French Probe Led to ‘Fake Niger Uranium Papers’", Financial Times, August 2, 2004, online at Global Policy Forum, http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/justify/2004/0802niger.htm; Juan Cole, “Rocco Martino: ‘I am the Source of the False Niger/Iraq Uranium Story’", Bellaciao, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=2364, August 3, 2004; Renato Farina, “Italy Blames France for Niger Uranium Claim", Libero, August 9, 2004, translated at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1208597/posts; Bruce Johnston and Kim Willsher, “Italy Blames France for Niger Uranium Claim", news.telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wuran05.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/05/ixworld.html, September 5, 2004; Gian Marco Chiocci, “Nigergate: Interview with the French Spy Rocco Martino", Il Gironale, September 21, 2004, translated at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1222497/posts.
6United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.
7For general background on Wilson, see Joseph C. Wilson 4th, “What I Didn’t Find in Africa", The New York Times, July 6, 2003, online at Common Dreams News Center, http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm ; Vicky Ward, “Double Exposure", Vanity Fair, January 17, 2004, online at “Standing up for truth amid a culture of lies", Jim Gilliam, http://www.jimgilliam.com/2004/01/vanity_fairs_profile_on_joseph_wilson_and_valerie_plame.php ; Ambassador Joseph Wilson, The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir, New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2004.
8"FRANCE: The Colonel Who Riles a Minister", United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo: UNMIK, http://www.unmikonline.org/press/mon/mechain.html.
9Cf. Ward; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 107-108.
10Ward; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 275-276; “Des Hommes d’Affaires Bien Introduits", La Lettre de l’Océan Indien, Number 876, October 23, 1999, online at Africa Intelligence, http://www.africaintelligence.fr/LOI/archives/default_archives.asp?num=876&year=; “Forums: War with Iraq: A Cost-Benefit Analysis", Middle East Policy Council, October 9, 2002, online at http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/forums_chcs/30.asp; Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "The Iraq Forum: Informing Iraq Advocates Since 1998: The 2003 Iraq Forum: June 14, 2003, Washington, DC: Evening Public Lecture: A State of the Movement Address: Evening Keynote Lecture", audio online at EPIC: Education for Peace in Iraq Center, http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=68&showlogin=1.
11"Gabon", United States Department of Justice Criminal Division: Foreign Agents Registration Unit (FARA), http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fara/fara1st98/COUNTRY/GABON.HTM; “Le Jackpot Des Lobbyistes US?", La Lettre du Continent Number 328, June 5, 1999, online at Révélations: Politique et Economie, http://www.bdpgabon.org/ancien_site/bdp/revelationspol1.html; Jim Lobe: “USA: African Governments Spend Millions on Lobbying", Inter Press Service, May 20, 2001, online at CorpWatch, http://corpwatch.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=98.
12On the Alamoudis and Delta Oil/Delta Services, see Harry Hurt III, “Silver Finger", Playboy, September 1980, online at ShareLynx Gold, http://www.sharelynx.com/papers/BunkerHunt.php; Robert Lacey, The Kingdom: Arabia & the House of Sa’ud, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1981, 323, 473, 477; “Le Jackpot Des Lobbyistes US?"; “Surveys: Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi", articles collected from La Lettre de l’Océan Indien, translated online at Africa Intelligence, http://www.africaintelligence.com/dossiers/aia/dos_aia_amoudi.asp; Nimrod Raphaeli, “The Saddam Oil Vouchers Affair", MEMRI: The Middle East Media Research Institute: Inquiry and Analysis Series, http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Area=ia&ID=IA16404, Number 164, February 20, 2004; Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., James Phillips, and James Dean, "The Oil-for-Food Scandal: Next Steps for Congress", The Heritage Foundation, http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/bg1772.cfm, June 30, 2004; Central Intelligence Agency, “Regime Finance and Procurement", Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Volume I, 167-201, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/, 302-336; "Encyclopedia: Oil for Food", NationMaster.com, http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Oil-for-Food; Jack Kelley, “Saudi money aiding bin Laden", USA TODAY, October 29, 1999, archived at ViTrade: Global Strategic Intelligence, http://www.vitrade.com/who_is_who/991029_saudi_money_aiding_bin_laden.htm (cf. “Corrections and Clarifications", USATODAY.com, http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-04-12-correction_x.htm, April 12, 2004; “Corrections and Clarifications", USATODAY.com, http://www.usatoday.com/news/2004-09-23-correction_x.htm, September 23, 2004); “Key Persons", Work in Saudi Arabia, http://www.workinsaudi.com/key_persons.htm; Marc Perelman, “Oil for Food Sales Seen As Iraq Tie To Al Qaeda: U.S. Probes Bank Network", Forward, June 20, 2003, online at http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.06.20/news2.html; Marc Perelman, “Terror Trail Fund Leads To Alpine Kingdom", Forward, October 17, 2003, online at http://www.forward.com/issues/2003/03.10.17/news4.terror.html; J. Michael Walker, “The Background of Abdurahman Alamoudi", Insight on the News, http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=525867 , October 13, 2003; Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, “Testimony of Dr. Michael Waller, Annenberg Professor of International Communication, The Institute of World Politics, October 14, 2003", Terrorist Recruitment and Infiltration in the United States: Prisons and Military as an Operational Base, October 14, 2003, online at United States Committee on the Judiciary, http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=960&wit_id=2719 ; “Bin Mahfouz Wins Libel Case in UK", Arab News, Libertythink, http://www.libertythink.com/2004_08_08_archives.html, August 14, 2004; United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, “Supplemental Declaration in Support of Detention", UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. Abdurahman Muhammad Alamoudi, a/k/a Abdulrahman Alamoudi, Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, Abdulrahman Mohamed Omar Alamoudi, Criminal Case No. 03 - A, The Honorable Claude M. Hilton, Appeal from Case No. 03-1009M, online at , http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/usalamoudi102203sdec.pdf; “Abdurahman Alamoudi Sentenced to 19 Years in Prison in Terror Financing Case: Sentencing Follows ICE, IRS, FBI Investigation in Northern Virginia", U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, http://www.ice.gov/graphics/news/newsreleases/articles/101504alamoudi.htm, October 15, 2004. Cf “US Companies Doing Business in KSA: Links to U.S. Companies Doing Business in Saudi Arabia", The Saudi Network, http://the-saudi.net/business-center/links-usa.htm. On Abu Abbas, see “Abu Abbas", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Zaidan.
13On Aburdene, see “2004 Political Campaign Contributions from WASHINGTON, District of Columbia 20008", CampaignMoney.com, http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/district_of_columbia_washington_20008.asp ; “NAAA: The National Association of American Arabs", CafeArabica: The Arab-American Online Community Center, http://www.cafearabica.com/organizations/org12/orgnaaa.html; “Political Advocacy Groups: Arab Americans", Political Advocacy Groups: A Directory of United States Lobbyists, http://www.csuchico.edu/~kcfount/arabamer.html (cf. “Our Mission", American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee, http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=125); “Board of Advisors", Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, http://ccas.georgetown.edu/center-board.cfm ; “Elias F. Aburdene: Wilson Council", Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, http://wwics.si.edu/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.profile&person_id=26766.
14On Hagel, see Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 395; John B. Judis, “Below the Beltway: Neo-Cons vs. New York Times", The American Assembler, http://americanassembler.com/issues/iraq_gate/prewar_warnings/Below%20the%20Beltway.html; John J. Miller, “Sen. Skeptic (R., France): Chuck Hagel is Bush’s #1 war critic in Congress", National Review, August 12, 2002, online at National Review Online, http://www.nationalreview.com/12aug02/miller081202.asp; Dan Balz and John F. Harris, “Some Republicans Predict Upheaval Within the Party: Concerns Include Changing Electorate, Lack of Heir Apparent", The Washington Post, September 4, 2004, Page A08, online at washingtonpost.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60480-2004Sep3.html; “Senator (R-NE) Chuck Hagel: 1996 Election Cycle", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/1996os/index/S6NE00087.htm; “Chuck Hagel (R-NE): Top Contributors", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?cid=N00005301&cycle=2002.
15Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 91-92. Cf. Alan Cowell, “Turks Wonder Whether U.S. Will Share Spoils of Rebuilding", The New York Times, April 23, 2003, online at Subnuclear Physics//Linux//The Political, http://rasputin.physics.uiuc.edu/~paris/AW/21042003nyt; “Iraqi Delegation Continues Meetings in Ankara", TurkishPress.com, http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=14071, October 11, 2003.
16Joshua Micah Marshall, "The TPM Interview with Ambassador Joseph Wilson", Talking Points Memo, http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/wilson.interview.pdf, September 16, 2003, 23-24; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 215-218, 240-241, 291-292. Cf. Cevik Bir, http://cevik-bir.wikiverse.org/; “CSIS Turkey Project Meeting: General Cevik Bir", February 11, 2003, online at The Center for Strategic and International Studies, http://www.csis.org/turkey/030211bir.pdf.
17Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 240-241, 283, 291-292. Cf. “2004 ATC Executive Committee", American-Turkish Council, http://www.americanturkishcouncil.org/files/about.us/04.08.04.executive.committee.pdf.
18Brent Scowcroft, “Don’t Attack Saddam: It would undermine our antiterror efforts.", WSJ.com Opinion Journal, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110002133, August 15, 2002; “Scowcroft: Sharon has a ‘mesmerized’ Bush wrapped around his little finger", israelinsider, http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/4248.htm, October 16, 2004.
19Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, IV, "The Iraq Forum: Informing Iraq Advocates Since 1998: The 2003 Iraq Forum: June 14, 2003, Washington, DC: Evening Public Lecture: A State of the Movement Address: Evening Keynote Lecture", audio online at EPIC: Education for Peace in Iraq Center, http://www.epic-usa.org/Default.aspx?tabid=68&showlogin=1; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 290-292, 294-297.
20Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 240-241.
21"Our Team", CPS: Corporate & Public Strategy Advisory Group, http://www.cpsag.com/our_team/default.htm; Michael Kuser, "Guiding Turks to EU bounty: Tulu Gumustekin's Brussels-based consultancy advises multinationals, top Turkish firms and NGOs on the benefits of engaging the European Union", Turkish Daily News, September 10, 2001, cached at http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:P8jJ_eFuyCgJ:www.turkishdailynews.com/old_editions/09_10_01/dom2.htm+Tulu+Gumustekin+joe+wilson&hl=en.
22"The Beneficiaries of Saddam’s Oil Vouchers: The List of 270"; Selcon Hacaoglu, “Turkish Co to Drill for Oil in Iraq: ‘This is a sign of our improving relations with Iraq’", Yahoo! News, December 14, 2001, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/590778/posts; Central Intelligence Agency, “Regime Finance and Procurement", Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq’s WMD, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Volume I, 22-52, 104-107, online at http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/, 157-187, 239-242.
23Untitled, Boston Herald, December 10, 2001, archived at “The Press on the BCCI-bin Mahfouz-bin Laden Intelligence Nexus", Peter Dale Scott, http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/q4c.html; “Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan_Pipeline; Pepe Escobar, “Silk Road Roving Part 12b: Pipelinestan Revisited", Asia Times Online, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/EL25Ag02.html, December 25, 2003.
24Cf. Hurt; “Dr. Odeh Aburdene", Wharton Middle East Conference, http://clubs.wharton.upenn.edu/arabia/bios/conf_aburdene.html; “Africa focuses on business", BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/63729.stm, March 9, 1998. On Gore and Occidental Petroleum, see Charles Lewis and the Center for Public Integrity, The Buying of the President 2000, New York: Avon Books, 2000, 142-152; John Elvin, “Gore Family Ties", Insight on the News, http://www.insightmag.com/news/2000/05/22/CoverStory/Gore-Family.Ties-213210.shtml, May 22, 2000.
25On the Aburdenes, Wilson, and Rahall, see “Search Criteria: Donor name: aburdene: Recipient: rahall: Cycle(s) selected: 1992, 1990", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=aburdene&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=rahall&txt1992=Y&txt1990=Y&Order=N; “Search Criteria: Donor name: aburdene: Recipient: rahall: Cycle(s) selected: 2004, 2002, 2000", opensecrets.org, http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=aburdene&txtState=%28all+states%29&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=rahall&txt2004=Y&txt2002=Y&txt2000=Y&Order=N; Shirl McArthur, “Congress Launches Fawning Frenzy Over Netanyahu's Har Homa Decision", Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, June/July 1997, 14-17, online at http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0697/9706014.htm; “Joseph Wilson’s federal campaign contributions", Newsmeat, http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=DC&last=Wilson&first=Joseph.
26On Rahall, see“Nick Rahall on Principles & Values", OnTheIssues, http://www.issues2000.org/House/Nick_Rahall_Principles_+_Values.htm; “Nick Rahall on War & Peace", OnTheIssues, http://www.issues2000.org/House/Nick_Rahall_War_+_Peace.htm; “Kucinich headlines Muslim fund-raiser: CAIR group tied to Hamas, Muslim goals", WorldNetDaily, http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35883, November 30, 2003; Susan Webb, “Delegation heads for Baghdad", People’s Weekly World, September 17, 2002, online at http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/1913/1/109.
27FReeper GOPcapitalist, "Democrats who took radical isalmic & terrorist campaign $$$ (McKinney, Kennedy, Bonoir & more)", FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/734671/posts, August 17, 2002; FReeper palmer, Post 11, commenting on Freepr Fzob, “FBI investigates spread of radical Islam in U.S.", FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/994999/posts, Octobr 4, 2003; Kenneth R. Timmerman, “Al Gore’s Arab Moneyman", The American Spectator, November 1997, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38e076d8237d.htm; “OU Protests Zogby Appointment as Advisor to Gore Campaign", Institute for Public Affairs, http://www.ou.org/public/statements/2000/betty34.htm, October 13, 2000.
28Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 63-65, 163-164, 239-240, 280-282, 376-377, 389, 442.
29David Horowitz and Richard Poe, “The Shadow Party: Part I", FrontPageMagazine.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15392, October 6, 2004; David Horowitz and Richard Poe, “The Shadow Party: Part II", FrontPageMagazine.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15408, October 7, 2004.
30Svetlana Taslik, Caspian Investment Windfalls: Who Will Benefit? Overview and Recommendations, foreword by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Open Society Institute, 2003, online at Open Society Institute & Soros Foundations Network, http://www.soros.org/initiatives/cep/articles_publications/publications/caspianoilwindfalls_20030514/a_caspianoverview.pdf; Ernst & Young, “An EYe on Azerbaijan", Ernst & Young, http://www.ey.com/global/download.nsf/Azerbaijan/eye_on_azerbaijan_jan03/$file/eye_azerbaijan_jan03.pdf, January 2003; Mark MacKinnon, “Georgia revolt carried mark of Soros", The Globe and Mail, November 26, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1029727/posts.
31"Al Gore", Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore.
32See Note 29.
33"Diplomat’s ‘outrage’ finds political outlet", The Boston Herald, October 25, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1007776/posts; Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 410-411, 442.
34Doug Thompson, “Dems plan to undermine America to beat Bush", CapitolHillBlue, January 6, 2003, archived at FreeRepublic.com, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/830866/posts.
35Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 5, 6-7.
36Susan Schmidt, "Plame’s Input is cited on Niger Mission", washingtonpost.com, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html, July 10, 2004. Cf. United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 108th Congress, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2004, Chapter 2, 36-84, online at GPO Access, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/iraq.html.
37See Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 23-26.
38Cf. Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor, The Generals’ War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995, 19, 102-110, 221, 334, 461, 468.
39Cf. Safire.
40Wilson, The Politics of Truth, 283-303, 376-377. On Ginsberg, see “Marc Ginsberg: Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco", GTN: Greater Talent Network, Inc., http://www.greatertalent.com/bios/ginsberg.shtml; “Marc Ginsberg", APCO Worldwide, http://www.apcoworldwide.com/content/bios/ginsberg.cfm. On OPIC’s connection to Soros see “OPIC Board Resolutions: BDR(02)10", , http://www.opic.gov/FOIA/BoardResolutions/2002BDR/BDR-02-10.htm, July 23, 2002; Alfred Mendes, “The Crux of the Matter", Spectrezine, http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Mendes5.htm.
41Wilson, The Politics of Truth,302-450.
42See Note 36.
Dr. Wiktorowicz, invited at the request of Senator Hagel, is an acknowledged expert on Islamic culture, including charities, and will discuss the scope of the problem and the importance of charity in the Muslim community.
More from, Just One Minute
Lest some of you don't get the point re Elias Abur
consider this blurb at the bottom of
an October 1997 article by
the "Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs" :
"National Association of Arab Americans (NAAA) President Khalil Jahshan and Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) co-chaired a fact-finding visit to the Middle East between March 22 and April 5. The group, which also consisted of NAAA Board Chairman George Gorayeb
and Executive Vice-Chairman Elias Aburdene,
visited Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Lebanon and Syria, after which Jahshan went on his own to Jordan, Israel and Palestine....."
Ref: Bottom of page at
http://www.washington-report.org/backissues/0697/9706014.htm
Those wanting to find out more about the National Association of Arab Americans are invited to Google. "
END EXCERPT
I have never followed up on that, but...
I would think finding a connection between Wilson's group and the voucher recipients would be nightmarishly complex. And it is odd to think of Wilson being on Saddam's payroll, given their antagonistic history. But both were opposed to the war.
Posted by: TM | October 11, 2004 12:44 PM
A “Don Williams” left a similar trail at Roger Simon’s 10/1/03 and anotherat Calpundit 10/4/04
That'd be my guess--or at least part of the same operation that tried to pass the forgeries off to the British and US after the French already knew they were phony.
I need to log off for the night soon, but I will follow up on what you've posted here and come back to the Aburdene and Alamoudi stuff.
Every venture that Hagel is involved with has an Aburdene on the board or in some other position. Chuck Hagel is bought and paid for by the Islamists. Scary thought.
Oh, I also read of a Miller/Plame/Ritter tie.
That is what I had suggested earlier. Note that Wilson claimed to have seen the forgeries before they were even circulated, then back tracked and said, that he had seen some papers that Andra Mitchell had shown him. I'm thinking that he did see the forgeries.
the vouchers that he is speaking of are oil for food vouchers. I read somewhere that Wilson met with players in the oil for food scandal on behalf of his company, while he was in Africa.
I did a teeny bit of research on that very angle about a year ago but I can't find some of my old bookmarks.
There's this from FR: FR STORY SEARCH (OIL FOR FOOD & MARC RICH)
And this one bookmark I still had handy: MARK RICH WAS A 'MOSSAD' SPY FOR ISRAEL (linked to money laundering)
The photo from that web page is strikingly similar in attitude to the Vanity Fair cover of Wilson & Plame, no?
I'm done with these rich creeps for the night. I'm going to sleep. :o)
Take a look at this one.
Okay, I got a chance to review my notes on this. There is a connection between Holy Land Foundation and Abdurahman Alamoudi (aka Abdulrahman Alamoudi, Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, Abdulrahman Mohamed Omar Alamoudi--you can see why I had lots of "fun" searching on the Alamoudis when I was writing this, LOL). Note that this guy is NOT the Rock Creek Alamoudi but is from the same clan (it is a large clan like the Bin Ladens and many members have similar middle/last names):
III. Alamoudi’s Financial Support of HAMAS
11. Alamoudi is the President of the American Muslim Foundation (“AMF”) and the Secretary of Success Foundation (“Success”). According to a document titled the “Statement of Abdurahman Alamoudi”, found in the search warrant conducted on September 28, 2003, as of March 2003, Alamoudi is also a director of Success. I know based on the review of IRS Forms 990, Return of an Organization Exempt from Income Tax (“IRS Form 990"), for Success for the years 1999 and 2000, that Almoudi was a director of Success through at least July 20, 2001, the date the 2000 IRS Form 990 was filed. Mohamed S. Omeish, in turn, is Success’s President and the Vice President of AMF. Both of these entities are located at 3606B Forest Drive, Alexandria, VA. The common physical location and interlocking directorates creates common control of these organizations.
12. An entity known as Happy Hearts Trust is also under the same control. According to its bank statements for an account maintained at Habibsons Bank in London, England, Happy Hearts Trust also uses the address 3606 Forest Drive, Alexandria, Virginia 22302 as its mailing address. I have seen correspondence directed to Habibsons Bank which states that Omeish is also a trustee of the Happy Hearts Trust.
SNIP
B. Humanitarian Appeal International (HAI)
18. Happy Hearts Trust bank account number 21069477 at Habibsons Bank, Ltd., London, England, had a balance of $232,138 as of February 28, 2002. The account statement shows that on February 6, 2002, Happy Hearts Trust transferred $6,500 to an account in the name of HAI in Amman, Jordan. Exhibit 18.7
19. I have also reviewed a copy of a document which was maintained on the hard drive of a computer which was located at 3606B, Forest Drive, Alexandria, VA, the offices of Success and AMF, and seized pursuant to search warrants in March 2002. This document, entitled “Response to IRS Letter 1312" identifies certain “campaigns undertaken by Success Foundation,” which is an entity exempt from federal income taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This document states that, in May 1999, Success sent $6950 to HAI. Exhibit 19.
20. According to the Memorandum of Dale Watson, Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, dated November 5, 2001, HAI has a close relationship to HAMAS and the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLFRD). HAI has received large amounts of funding from HLFRD, HAMAS’s North American fund-raiser, which was designated a SDGT pursuant to Executive Order 13224. The Watson Memorandum recites the following transfers of funds from HLFRD to HAI:
Year Amount
1997 $31,475
1998 $105,236
1999 $281,608
January-September 2000 $233,377
Watson Memorandum at p.45.
21. I have reviewed evidence which indicates Alamoudi was aware of the activities of HLFRD on behalf of HAMAS. In the same recorded statement referenced at paragraph 9 of the Declaration in Support of Detention, dated September 30, 2003, Alamoudi also stated:
Q: After we spoke about the situation of Arabs and Muslims in America, what do you expect from the Islamic community and movement? As we know these movements are operating to liberate their countries, the Arabic land, the holy land. What is the role of the Islamic organizations which you mentioned. Did they give some support to this right? Is there any support for Palestinian rights?
A: Yes, there is support. (interrupted….)
Q: I am asking about the struggle for survival not for borders. Is there any material support for the Islamic organizations in this area?
A: Yes. There is an organization called Holy Land Foundation.
This organization for this holy land collects money from the Islamic and Arab communities in America so as to serve our nation in the occupied land. Even in the occupied land the HLF attempted to open a branch, but the Israeli enemy stopped that. There is some wicked institute inside America that tries to affect these activities, but thank God, and I said that with full trust, this charity organization, all its papers are legal and it is doing a great job, thank God. There are also other organizations in America to support Muslims in Bosnia and Kashmir.
22. The Watson Memorandum stated that, unlike other HAMAS fronts, HAI is not controlled by HAMAS, but is a well-funded Gulf organization. It continues:
It currently appears that HAI-Jordan could be serving as a conduit through which HLFRD sends funds to its HLFRD representative in Amman. The HLFRD is not licensed to operate in Jordan and thus cannot legally have an office or bank account in Amman, Jordan. It is likely that this close relationship with HAI allows the HLFRD to circumvent this restriction on its activities.
Watson Memorandum at p.46.
23. I have reviewed a Report of Investigation (“ROI”) maintained within the internal files of ICE which states that Swiss Police authorities provided the following information regarding HAI. HAI is a registered corporation located in Onex, Switzerland. It was incorporated March 8, 1996. According to the ROI, the President of HAI was Lazhar Mokdad.
24. I have spoken to ICE SA David Kane who obtained a copy of Interpol arrest warrant for Lazhar Mokdad based upon violations of Tunisian laws. He has told me that the arrest warrant (in French) includes these charges: attempt to blow up a vehicle, molotov cocktail attacks, murder, and attempt to blow up an airplane. The Interpol arrest warrant also states that Mokdad is wanted for being a member of an "extremist terrorist organization".
Abdurahman also donated to the Clintons, so arasina, there is a Clinton connection there, too:
A Troubling Influence - An Islamic Fifth Column penetrates the White House"
See piasa's Post 791:
1995 : (ALAMOUDI IS APPOINTED A "GOOD WILL AMBASSADOR") The close relationship between the Clintons and al-Amoudi was traced back to 1995, when al-Amoudi was appointed a "Good Will Ambassador" to the Middle East. Once overseas, al-Amoudi was quoted as being thankful he could now speak freely, and he engaged in violent anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric. Despite this, the Clinton administration gave him high marks. - "Clinton Era "Good Will Ambassador" Arrested," multi-sourced, 9/29/03 , vanity VIA FREEREPUBLIC
AUGUST 2003 : (USA : VA : REPUBLICAN STATE SENATE CANDIDATE NAWASH RETURNS TWO $5,000 CAMPAIGN DONATIONS FROM ALAMOUDI & HIS WIFE) Just a month before Alamoudi's arrest Nawash, a Republican candidate for the Virginia state Senate, returned two $5,000 campaign donations from Alamoudi and his wife, saying it would not be in his best interests to accept the contributions at that time. Asked about this, Nawash campaign manager William Lockhart said Oct. 10 that the candidate is "not representing Alamoudi now."
AUGUST 19, 1999 : (LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS : ALAMOUDI) ALLTEL and Riyad Bank, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, have reached an agreement for ALLTEL to provide application software support services to Riyad Bank. The seven-year contract is valued in excess of $49 million. ALLTEL Information Services will provide core banking software support and development services under the agreement. ALLTEL will also train Riyad Bank staff members to support world-class banking systems totally within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
"We are very pleased to be entering into this long-term agreement with ALLTEL Information Services," said Abdul Rahman Al-Amoudi, senior executive vice president of Riyad Bank. "We chose ALLTEL because of its experience in supporting banking software and the knowledge of the financial industry. We believe that with that expertise ALLTEL Information Services can add value to our business. "By bringing global banking expertise to Riyad Bank, our staff will become better able to support our goal of providing world-class products and services to our customers," he said. - "Riyad Bank Selects ALLTEL Information Services for Major Software Support Services Initiative," Release date: August 19, 1999, see http://www.alltel.com/news/news_releases/99/aug/n411aug1999.html
JUNE 2000 : (USA : BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS : ALAMOUDI DONATES $50,000 TO HILLARY CLINTON AT FUNDRAISER) Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent member of the American Muslim Council, ... presented a $50,000 check to Mrs. Clinton at a June 2000 fundraiser in Boston.Alamoudi also personally donated $1,000 to Mrs. Clinton. Her campaign camouflaged the donations in Federal Election Commission filings as coming from "the American Museum Council," but later said the mistake was a typo. - "Hillary Donor, Terrorist Sympathizer, Arrested," Monday Sept. 29, 2003; 12:07 p.m. EDT
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 : (ALAMOUDI DONATION TO DEMOCRAT CONGRESSWOMAN CYNTHIA MCKINNEY - HER SECOND LARGEST FUNDRAISING DAY IN 2001) Alamoudi also gave Cynthia McKinney $2,000 on Sept. 11, 2001, according to a Federal Election Commission (FEC) report. His donation was part of the total of 24 donations worth $13,850 on Sept. 11, 2001—her second-biggest fundraising day of the year, according to FEC records. - source : FEC reports via freeper Browardchad
2002 : (BONIOR & DONATIONS FROM AL AMOUDI & SAMI AL ARIAN???) Recently, Congressman Bonior of Michigan fell under attack from others in his own party for his close association to Islamic "terrorists." The attempt to discredit the Michigan Democrat is related to his recent announcement to run for governor of our state. Democrats, fearing that the Republicans will use "association with terrorists" during the coming gubernatorial elections to frighten voters to their cause, believe that even the tamest Muslims are still a source of danger and can't be touched. Members of the Democratic Party were upset that Mr. Bonior refused to return the donations made by Dr. Sami Al-Arian (a University of South Florida professor) and Abdul-Rahman Al-Amoudi (former Executive Director of the AMC). - "WHY BONIOR DOESN'T HAVE TO GIVE BACK MUSLIM MONEY," Found in Google.Com cache at http://www.kufrproof.com/myth.html
Also see:
See esp. Uncle Bill's Post 9:
"Meanwhile, Alamoudi, who heads the American Muslim Council that was invited to the White House by Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Muslim Eid holidays, has been raising funds for "charitable" organizations whose branches in Gaza and the West Bank were closed down in late September by none other than Arafat. . .Also, Timmerman reported that Gabriel had sat together with James Zogby and Abdulrahman Alamoudi on the steering committee of the Arab Americans for Clinton/Gore “96. The “Moneyman” article described a “former DNC employee” who alleged that Gabriel served as a conduit for campaign contributions to the DNC from Arab businessmen in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Syria. The source claimed the funds were solicited by Gabriel and Zogby, and then paid out to Arab Americans, who then legally contributed to the Gore/Clinton campaign in amounts of $1000, $5000, and even $10000. Abdulrahman Alamoudi was executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC) in April 1996. Abdulrahman met with Clinton’s National Security Advisor, Anthony Lake, in the White House on December 8, 1995 to receive a briefing on the Dayton Peace Agreement and to represent the interests of the Muslim Community. This access to the White House may have been connected to the donations arranged by Ed Gabriel for Gore and the DNC."
EXCLUSIVE-$MUGGLER LINKED TO BIN LADEN
The American Muslim leader [Abdulrahman Alamoudi--Fedora] charged with smuggling $340,000 out of Libya was suspected of funneling cash from Osama bin Laden to blind Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman in the failed 1993 attempt to blow up New York City landmarks, The Post has learned.
Money-laundering ping.
Do you remember what it was? This is basically what I'm finding on that:
Plame Investigation - Perjury?
And where does Judith Miller fit in? My guess is that at some time she contacted Plame. Miller was regarded as a “genuine expert on weapons of mass destruction or, in Washington parlance, WMD.” I don’t know what circles NYT reporters travel in or if it’s likely that Miller knew Plame, but WMD folks probably cross paths a bunch. (Miller has interviewed Scott Ritter and was an embedded reporter with the unit tasked to search for Iraqi WMD.) But in her 9/16/04 WaPo article Susan Schmidt writes: “Miller did not write an article about Wilson and his wife, but, according to the judge's order, she contemplated doing so, and "spoke with one or more confidential sources regarding Wilson.” It’s probable that she spoke with Plame at some point, no? And Fitz wants in on the girl-talk.
Do you remember any details? That would be very interesting.
Investigating Marc Rich and his deals with Nigeria's Oil
Fourth, he has been a key player for well over 25 years in Nigeria's export of its crude oil. He is not your garden-variety businessman. In fact, at certain points in Nigeria's recent economic history, Marc Rich has been the kingpin.
For example, ...surprise, surprise(?) in August of 1999, three months after taking office, former retired General and two-time Nigerian President Obasanjo (picture, right) and his government announced 16 crude oil contracts to replace the 41 approved under previous military governments. Remarkably, the controversial international businessman Marc Rich "survived" the overhaul of the established international crude oil trading houses who dominated Nigeria's exports. They were called the "magnificent seven."
The seemingly ubiquitous Mr. Rich reemerged as a contractor. Unknown to some less savvy officials in Nigeria, he is the operator of Glencore International AG. The man, in that fateful month had netted a new deal, the third best, a direct contract for 90,000 bpd (barrels per day). Also, G[l]encore was licensed to operate Ghana National Petroleum Corporation's 30,000 bpd and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) partner Napoil's 20,000 bpd for a total 150,000 bpd. Such is the power and reach of Marc Rich, inside Nigeria, even in these days of "democracy accountability, probity and integrity...."
In an insightful report titled "Corruption Flourished In Abacha's Regime", James Rupert of the Washington Post Foreign Service wrote on Tuesday, June 9, 1998: Much of the oil that Nigeria pumps each day goes to the major international oil companies -- Shell, Mobil, Chevron and others -- that operate the oil fields. But the largest single share goes to Nigeria's state oil company, which, under the direction of Abacha's camp, sells its oil to independent traders. According to official announcements of oil sales and reporting by the London-based oil newsletter Energy Compass, Nigeria's main trading partners in the Abacha era have been the London-based firms Arcadia and Addax, and the Swiss-based company Glencore, which was under the control of Marc Rich, an American commodities dealer. (He later renounced his American citizenship; he holds Spanish, Israeli and, I believe, Belgian citizenships currently). Rupert added that Abacha's predecessor, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, "doled out the contracts" to a wide circle of supporters, allowing them to take commissions from oil traders, said Patrick Smith, editor of the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential."
Rupert's report underscored the fact that when the 1991 Persian Gulf War drove oil prices upward, Nigeria earned a windfall that never made it to government coffers. Soon after taking power as he wooed political support, Abacha named a commission headed by Nigerian economist Pius Okigbo to investigate. Okigbo reported that $12.2 billion in oil earnings had disappeared between 1990 and 1994, but no one was ever prosecuted. The former trader, a European, said he participated in three oil purchases in recent years -- technically from Nigeria's state oil company but negotiated with Abacha aides at the presidential villa. Each contract specified a "commission" to be paid to a specific beneficiary, he said. He declined to name the beneficiaries on the contracts he helped negotiate. He said other traders had noted that sometimes the beneficiary is a well-known Nigerian, and at other times "it's a completely unknown person" who traders believe is a front for someone else. He said the contracts he dealt with ordered the commissions paid to bank accounts in Singapore, Bermuda and Switzerland."
Also, the Sunday Nigerian Tribune ran a mid-March report which linked Marc Rich and some soldiers (including former head of state retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari) to the December 31, 1983 coup which removed Alhaji Shehu Shagari as an elected president of Nigeria. The report noted that Rich's oil deals had been on even before Shagari's election, implying but without specifying the obvious that he was equally active during the first tenure of then Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (with the latter) as a military dictator in Nigeria (February 1976-October 1979).
USAfricaonline.com can report that a number of Nigeria's retired soldiers and a number of civilian executives in the oil industry were willing allies of Rich as he milked the sweet Bonny Light crude and laughed to the banks while children and women in Nigeria's riverine areas and in the Sahelian, drought-stricken parts, and indeed, most of the country, went to bed hungry and with no books to study in school. He utilized his deft and far-reaching "logistical leverage" in Switzerland to "assist" his Nigeria cohorts in making huge deposits in private, secure accounts. Bribery and massive inducement through hard currency transfers were staples of the Marc Rich financial machine inside Nigeria, and beyond.
He operated a number of corporations, and the most significant being Marc Rich & Co. The same company was involved in the Kaduna Refinery Supplemental Steam Production Project.
Michael Dobbs' brief bio of him, includes the following: Mr. Rich was born Marc Reich on Dec. 18, 1934, in the Belgian city of Antwerp, the only child of a prosperous Jewish family. When the Nazis took over Belgium in 1942, the family fled to the United States, settling first in Kansas City, Missouri, and then in New York, where Mr. Rich's father, David, went into the burlap bag business. The Korean War created huge demand for burlap bags used for sandbags, pushing prices sky-high and turning David Rich into a millionaire. For Marc, it was an early lesson in the economics of scarcity. Dropping out of New York University at age 19, he set his sights on becoming a commodities trader." The rest is about the history of controversial deals with Libya's Muammar Ghaddafi, Iranian mullahs, Soviet Communists and a whole lot more.
Another look at Rich by the U.K-based OneWorld organization chronicles Rich's schemes which weakened Nigeria's oil and embargo of all business with then apartheid South Africa. He is identified as one of the "notorious sanctions busters." Among other deeds, OneWorld recalled: For example, in the mid-1980's they copied lists of tankers which called at loading points and determined whether any of the vessels had called at South African ports in the previous year. Tankers so implicated in sanctions busting were not loaded with crude in Nigeria. The oil workers rejected out of hand the apartheid propaganda that an oil embargo against the racist regime would hurt ordinary South African citizens. They also cast unwanted light on corrupt petroleum sales by Nigerian middlemen, where 'private' sales of state-owned crude put Nigerian oil in the hands of notorious sanctions busters such as Marc Rich."
In researching Mr. Rich's deals in Africa, I had access to the valuable report made by Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (EAAR), complied during the Cameron Commission of Inquiry of 1994/95, titled "The Betrayal of the Struggle Against Apartheid." Again, Rich factors into the deals of the ruinous bank, the BCCI.
Before anyone underestimates the credibility and insight of the EAAR, let me cite the leadership of the group: the chairman is globally-acclaimed economist James K. Galbraith while the vice-Chairs are Jurgen Brauer, Michael Intriligator and Ann Markusen. Some of the trustees include Robert S. McNamara, formerly of the World Bank and the U.S. State Department, Clinton's Labor Secretary Prof. Robert Reich and Harvard's international economics scholar Prof. Jeffrey Sachs.
Although dated September 28, 2000, the EAAR report looks back and quoted from the executive summary of the United States Senate investigation into notorious BCCI Bank (it had branches in Nigeria, too), as follows:
"BCCI's unique criminal structure -- an elaborate corporate spider-web with BCCI's founder, Agha Hasan Abedi and his assistant, Swaleh Naqvi, in the middle -- was an essential component of its spectacular growth and a guarantee of its eventual collapse. The structure was conceived by Abedi and managed by Naqvi for the specific purpose of evading regulation or control by governments. It functioned to frustrate the full understanding of BCCI's operations by anyone. BCCI's criminality included fraud by BCCI and BCCI customers involving billions of dollars; money laundering in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas; BCCI bribery of officials in most of those locations; support of terrorism, arms trafficking, and the sale of nuclear technologies; management of prostitution; the commission and facilitation of income tax evasion, smuggling and illegal immigration, illicit purchases of banks and real estate. Unanswered questions include BCCI's financing of commodities and other business dealings of international criminal financier Marc Rich."
Recall that one of Obasanjo's efforts which gained him some regional stature during his first rulership of Nigeria was his actions (initiated by his predecessor the late Gen. Murtala Muhammad) against aparthied South Africa and British Petroleum (which later became AP). Such commendable efforts included the Muhammad-Obasanjo support for southern Africa nationalists. Remarkably, Rich was working against their efforts.
I've also read the informative Platt's Oilgram (Volume 79 Number 15, January 23, 2001) where it is reported: In 1973, with oil trading profits soaring after the first Arab embargo, Rich left Phibro to form his own firm, Marc Rich & Co, which soon became a major player in world oil markets. He was particularly adept at securing supplies of Nigerian and Iraqi crudes, and gained a reputation as a reliable supplier in tough times to crude-short oil majors."
Here's some of the Ritter tie stuff, but it was loaded with hot links that you had to follow. This is all from Just One Minute. The last poster is a flaming liberal that is trying to tie Aburdene back to the administration.
osted by: The Kid | October 10, 2004 09:07 PM
Is it possible that Fitzgerald has moved past the Plame outing into something more serious?
Everyone assumes that Plame nominated her husband for the non-paying Niger trip out of dull domestic motives. It is further assumed that he misrepresented his findings because he's a politically motivated horse's ass. What if those assumptions are wrong?
The Niger documents found in Italy were forgeries. The forger says he created them for French Intelligence, with the expectation that they would be exposed and thus damage the Saddam/yellowcake link. In other words, the French - possibly with the connivance of others - ran a counterintelligence operation against the United States.
Joe Wilson's credentials for the Niger trip were weak. He was not an investigator. But because he was sent, a professional investigator was not. When his findings were ignored, he went public via the New York Times - with a claim that is now known to be false. Just as false as those Italian forgeries, in a distinctly similar way, with distinctly similar intent.
Wilson was not paid for the Niger trip but he does receive a paycheck from Arab sources. It would be easy to hide a payoff in plain sight. Has Fitzgerald found something suspicious? Is it possible that Wilson and his wife were part of the same operation that created the Italian forgeries?
Posted by: lyle | October 10, 2004 09:18 PM
The head rats have weighed in.
Posted by: The Kid | October 10, 2004 09:21 PM
Speaking of investigations that have fallen off the radar screen, what about the neocon(s) who supposedly were leaking secrets to the Israeli government?
Posted by: Jerry | October 11, 2004 05:32 AM
Jerry,
The subject was dropped because it was discovered that the "so called secrets leak" was false. It was discovered that the leak was one lower level flunky who WAS NOT passing secret information. What he gave out was readily available Non-secret information.
The Terrorist supporting, Jew hating Demoncratic press struck out. They are still foaming at the mouth, as usual.
Posted by: leaddog2 | October 11, 2004 06:52 AM
These are the questions I have yet to see asked:
1. What, if any, the connection is there between Saddam's bribing of diplomats and Joe Wilson, a UN diplomat?
2. Was Joe Wilson mentioned in the list of officials bribed by Iraqi intelligence?
3. What connection, if any, is there between, Saddam's mention of a "susceptible" weapons inspector and Plame? Everyone suspects Scott Ritter, an outspoken critic of the war. Could Plame also have been passing counter-intelligence using her status as a WMD "expert"?
4. Was Plame "outed" rather than simply "taken care of" due to her diplomatic husband? Outing her effectively terminated her access to confidential materials and end her CIA career.
5. What is Ms. Miller's connection to Chalabi (http://slate.msn.com/id/2083736/) and how does Chalabi's connection to Iran (outed by Tenet) imapact this story? Was Miller a conduit feeding CIA inside information to Chalabi via Plame?
Interesting indeed.....
Posted by: Retrograde | October 11, 2004 07:11 AM
Retrograde's number 4 has been swirling as a rumor inside the CIA. Many people inside the CIA are furious how Kerry supporters, including Plame, have been politicizing intelligence. That was the alleged motivation of the outing. Some forms of the rumors have Tenet as the person who outed Plame.
We shall see if the rumors are true.
Posted by: Rich | October 11, 2004 07:35 AM
Read Novak's original column. Nowhere does he say that the administration sources gave him Wilson's wife's name or identified her as a CIA agent. Novak gets some info from the admin sources. Novak names Plame. He does not say that the name came from the admin sources.
Posted by: tipton cole | October 11, 2004 09:21 AM
So I was chuckling at Retrograde’s speculations, figgerin’ that the answer to #1. was “probably none” because Wilson was a US, not a UN diplomat. The answer to #2 will take some time because US law prevents the naming of US citizens in this case. But then I got to #3 and vaguely remembered that Ritter had Iraqi-linked financing for his movie, did a Google, and got this:
Mr Ritter formed a partnership with Mr al-Khafaji to finance the film, Shifting Sands which, according to Mr Ritter, "proved" that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. In an interview with the New York Times in 2001, Mr Ritter stated that none of Mr al-Khafaji's funding came from Saddam's regime. Of the £250,000 spent on the film, he said that only £26,250 went into his own pocket.
While he confirmed that he had received money from Mr al-Khafaji, Mr Ritter said that he had had his business associate checked by CIA "sources" via a friend who was a reporter, and was reassured.
(Further on the article does mention Iraq’s thoughts of funding Mr al-Khafaji through an oil deal.)
So I’m going to go wrap my head in duct tape – after I apply a double layer of tin foil – right after I note that:
For #4, per the NYT’s Kristof, the CIA brought Plame and others back to Washington for safety reasons out of concern that Aldrich Aimes had disclosed their identities to the Russian’s before his arrest in 1994.
For #5, Miller and Chalabi were an item, and Fitzgerald has subpoenaed Miller’s phone records.
BTW, I recommend Nashua 398 as the very best duct tape for home or business use - it'll stick when others won't - and ditto for Reynolds heavy duty - it really keeps those mind rays out. I think. I hope.
Posted by: The Kid | October 11, 2004 10:00 AM
Kid, even paranoids have real leads. I am cutting and pasting a comment left by a "Don Williams" from a July 22 post:
BEGIN EXCERPT
...Actually , the real target of New Republic is probably the money man behind Joe Wilson --
Elias Aburdene.
I posted the following over on Roger L Simon's blog back in Oct 2003 (See http://rogerlsimon.com/archives/00000404.htm
and scan for my name )
Intra-Times Battle Over Iraqi Weapons
The Chalabi connection surfaced when John Burns, the paper's Pulitzer Prize-winning Baghdad bureau chief, scolded Miller over her May 1 story on the Iraqi without clearing it with him.
"I am deeply chagrined at your reporting and filing on Chalabi after I had told you on Monday night that we were planning a major piece on him -- and without so much as telling me what you were doing," Burns wrote that day, according to e-mail correspondence obtained by The Washington Post. [Who at NYT leaked this to the Post?--Fedora]
"We have a bureau here; I am in charge of that bureau until I leave; I make assignments after considerable thought and discussion, and it was plain to all of us to whom the Chalabi story belonged. If you do this, what is to stop you doing it on any other story of your choosing? And what of the distress it causes the correspondent who is usurped? It is not professional, and not collegial."
Miller replied to Burns: "I've been covering Chalabi for about 10 years, and have done most of the stories about him for our paper, including the long takeout we recently did on him. He has provided most of the front page exclusives on WMD to our paper."
She apologized for any confusion, but noted that the Army unit she was traveling with -- Mobile Exploration Team Alpha -- "is using Chalabi's intell and document network for its own WMD work. . . . Since I'm there every day, talking to him. . . . I thought I might have been included on a decision by you" to have another reporter write about Chalabi.
Reached by phone, Miller said: "I'm not about to comment on any intra-Times communications." Andrew Rosenthal, assistant managing editor for foreign news, said it is "a pretty slippery slope" to publish reporters' private e-mail and "reveal whatever confidential sources they may or may not have."
"Of course we talk to Chalabi," he said. "If you were in Iraq and weren't talking to Chalabi, I'd wonder if you were doing your job."
According to the New Yorker's Seymour Hersh [another reporter linked to Wilson--Fedora], Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress was a key source of information about weapons for the Pentagon's own intelligence unit -- information sometimes disputed by the CIA [by who in CIA is an important question--Fedora]. Chalabi may have been feeding the Times, and other news organizations, the same disputed information.
There's a little more in Posts 77, 81, and 84. I'll keep an eye out for more.
Like I said, the poster that was talking about the Chalabi/Miller link is anti Bush, so his conclusions must be viewed from that prospective. If you continue reading on the blog, the owner calls the poster a fool.
The interesting part is that Miller was very strong on WMDs being in Iraq. At the time of the Plame affair she wrote about the British WMD specialist who committed suicide due to the falsification of his reports and Miller included the information that he had been under terrible pressure from the anti-war forces to change his estimates. It was concluded that perhaps Miller was feeling some of that same pressure. (Actually, we know that she was)
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