CIA sued over WMD 'falsification'

A former CIA officer is suing his employers for retaliating against him for his alleged refusal to falsify reports on weapons of mass destruction.

In a complaint published on Wednesday, the unnamed operative said he was warned by a colleague that management wanted to "get him" for his actions.

The subject of the reporting has been blacked out, but correspondents say the complaint clearly refers to Iraq.

The CIA has refused to comment on the lawsuit, but spokeswoman Anya Guilsher told the Washington Post newspaper that the idea that officers were ordered to falsify reports was "flat wrong".

The plaintiff maintains that he had attempted to report intelligence on weapons of mass destruction in 2001 and 2002, but was thwarted by his superiors who then insisted on his falsifying his reports.

When he refused to do this, investigations were allegedly made against him into allegations that he had sex with a female informer and stole money used to pay informers.

The plaintiff said in the complaint that both investigations were "a sham, initiated for the sole purpose of discrediting him and retaliating against him".

The operative was sacked in August 2004 for "unspecific reasons", but is seeking the restoration of his salary, job and promotions denied to him, as well as compensation.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Roy Krieger, has requested a meeting with CIA Director Porter Goss, or another representative, to discuss the allegations in this case, "including deliberately misleading the president on intelligence concerning weapons of mass destruction".

Iraq is littered with chemical weapons testing kits. Iraq and its neighbours owned and used chemical weapons on each other. Iraq knows the terrible effects of the use of battlefield chemical weapons. Therefore it tried to equip its troops with the equipment to be able to keep its troops operating in a chemical environment. Remember Iraq/Iran war? Iraq armed forces was equipped with NBC equipment. Thousands of atropine kits, NBC suits and testing kits have been found. Iraq in the run up to the conflict bought on the open market large stocks of atropine and testing kits. Therefore a city the size of Fallujah is going to have a fair number of kits in existence. Many of the insurgents are ex-regime loyalist and therfore served and trained in the Iraqi armed forces therefore they may have had them in their possession. If you searched my house you would find all manner of NBC equipment. Testing kits the lot. Why? Because I serve in the military. My country (UK) has no chemical weapons, but it still trains its armed forces to fight in a chemical environment.

Chemical detection kits don't have SARIN, SOMAN in them! You posted the image. The caption in the image is totally misleading as though the vials containined SARIN. Do you honestly believe that SARIN or any other nerve agents would be carried in flimsy vials made from either glass or plastic? These were nothing but testing kits and/or atropine kits. The story broke via a journalist. The US military tested the kits found and no trace of chemical weapons were found. The journalist/newspaper withdrew the story yet you are still posting images with old news captions that the vials possibly contained SARIN.

Long after those finds have been found to have been erroneous or bogus you still publish images of them. You have done this in several posts. You ran with the SA-2 GUIDELINE images resulting in many Freepers patting you on the back with 'Good find' and 'Here's one that Hans Blix missed' posts. In similar fashion you are still running with the images of the green-banded warhead found at Kirkuk airbase. This is even after the meter readings were found to be erroneous and further investigations revealed that the warhead contained nothing but high-explosive filling. Yet you still continue to post this image of the warhead. You do realise that the green-band is US standard, but is not universal. It doesn't apply to Soviet warheads. Therefore you are posting bogus information and this is only re-enforced when the US military found the warhead to be a conventional air-surface warhead.

Do you not think it would have been major breaking news? A literal smoking gun that here was an Iraqi airbase where tactical fighter-bomber aircraft were found and that air-to-surface missiles were found fitted with chemical warheads? This would have been the smoking gun evidence and shouted to the world from the top of the White House. So why are you still posting erroneous images of air-to-surface missile warheads when this has been pointed out to you in the past?

You were also posting images on this thread of mortar shell and grenades. No mortar shells have been found in Iraq fitted with chemical warheads. The same as the Kirkuk warhead the initial testing using basic detection meters was erroneous. It went to press - breaking news - people bumping their gums and jumping up and down. The mortar shells were tested and found to contain no chemical munitions. Yet you posted an image on this thread of mortar shells primed by the Coalition with detonation cord ready for destruction. Why do you think that they would be destroying mortar shells fitted with chemical warheads in that fashion? If they contained chemical munitions they would be taken away and destroyed in a secure environment - not simply blown up with the possibility of chemicals being dispersed into the atmosphere or local ground contamination.

To sum up. Here are examples of your misleading and innacurate posts. With the Kirkuk warhead (green band) you are still posting it even though it was found to contain conventional high-explosives.

IRAQI MISSILES SEEN IN BAGHDAD -- Iraqi war crime BREAKING: WAR CRIME ALERT

CALLING HANS BLIX - IRAQI MISSILES SEEN IN BAGHDAD -

Image actually showed SA-2 GUIDELINE SAM - You do realise that it was legal for Iraq to own and operate. What was all the jumping up and down about 'War Crimes and Calling Hans Blix"?

Iraqi missiles given to, and now located in, Syria:

Picture of multi-barrelled rocket launcher. Again perfectly legal for Iraq to own and operate.

French missiles FIRST given to Iraq to be USED Against US and Coalition Heroes French missiles found by the Poles, and to protect France, blown up. Froggies said they did not say "2003". LOL. Decide for yourself.

Again totally misleading post of images. Why did you not post the images of the tags snipped off from the missile bodies themselves? Both the US and Polish military have discovered ROLAND SAMs in Iraq. All of them were from batches supplied to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war. The KND symbol was from the Iraqi Al Kindi weapons refurbishment facility showing either the refurbishment date or the missile shelf-life.

Link to your posting 1

Link to you posting 2

Link to your posting 3

Link to your posting 4

Chemical warhead found at an Iraqi air base, marked with a green band, the symbol for chemical weaponry. Trace amounts of a nerve agent were found at two spots along the ~meter-long warhead. These amounts are consistent with leakage from the chemically armed weapon. A 13-foot missile was found next to it.

You posted the above again on this thread. In bold was the greed band snippet. Even though you have been informed time and time again you still post the same image with the snippet in bold. Has is not sunk in that the green-band is not universal and does not apply to Soviet/Russian munitions? Since you originally posted the image the US military have tested the warhead and found it contained conventional high-explosives. Do you not find it strange that this would have been the smoking gun to convict the Iraqi regime. Chemical munitions ready for use found at an airbase where dispersed tactical-bombers were also found? This would be the same as if a cache of 155mm chemical shells were found nearby to a Republican Guard artillery unit. Proof positive that the regime still had useable/operational chemical munitions ready for immediate use. Yet you still post this image with the misleading caption. This warhead picture that you post is as misleading and innacurate as all the others that I have highlighted.

Post confirmed CENTCOM findings - not old breaking news stories that turned out to have been erroneous! If you can't see this then you are a lost cause. My posting of the US gov site with the wrongly captioned FROG as a SCUD is an example of the misleading images and captions that you have posted. If there had really been a chemical warhead found at Kirkuk then it would have been smoking gun / Saddam busted news as if a SCUD missile had really been photographed on the banks of the Tigris.

Tommyjo:
Thank you for the detailed information update.
Having reviewed your detailed post and comments:
First, you cite 4 posts where you claim I reposted an error in a caption
which was originally from captions made publicly by AP and CNN.
That may be true, but also note that I originally gave credit
from where the caption and figures came.
At least one the pictures still has CNN (etc) on it indicating the origin.
In retrospect, I should have not trusted CNN, etc., of course.

Second, you have compiled a list of four posts containing my purported error.
However, it is noted that in none of the 4 threads that you cite
did you, Tommyjo, do a single post attempting to correct the matter.

Third, given your careful erudite post and long-term FReeper status,
there is reason to trust you more than CNN or any other member of the mainstream media.
Looking forward, if another of a photos' captions is wrong, you might speak up at the time and
actually contribute to the thread. You might also consider approaching CNN, AP, etc.
who made the original putative error that was, as you claim, re-reported here.

Fourth, if these are errors (first made by CNN, AP, etc who were cited in each post)
then they have been (very rare) errors on the side of America, rather then what is
usually seen on, and heard by, the MSM. I hope you have been and remain as aggressive
against those posts which hurt America or our President.

Finally, given your superior recognition abilities and your connections to CENTCOM,
why don't you have the DOD release even more pictures and videos of our guys and women doing
great deeds. As important, why don't you volunteer to take over at least some of the "Gotta See This" posts,
and try to publish a few of these laborious posts yourself, to help improve the world
correctly seeing America's good deeds.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.