The person whose response I most wanted is Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who has claimed to discover that Saddam was guiltless on the charge of seeking uranium from Niger, and has further claimed to be the object, along with his CIA wife, of a campaign of government persecution. On Keith Olbermann's show on April 10, Wilson was asked about my article and about Zahawie. He replied that Zahawie:
is a man that I know from my time as acting ambassador in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. ... He was ambassador to the Vatican, and he made a trip in 1999 to several West and Central African countries for the express purpose of inviting chiefs of state to violate the ban on travel to Iraq. He has said repeatedly to the press, he's now in retirement, and also to the International Atomic Energy Agency, to their satisfaction, that uranium was not on his agenda.In other words (I am prepared to keep on repeating this until at least one cow comes home), Joseph Wilson went to Niger in 2002 to investigate whether or not the country had renewed its uranium-based relationship with Iraq, spent a few days (by his own account) sipping mint tea with officials of that country who were (by his wife's account) already friendly to him, and came back with the news that all was above-board. Again to repeat myself, this must mean either that A) he did not know that Zahawie had come calling or B) that he did know but didn't think it worth mentioning that one of Saddam's point men on nukes had been in town. --------------- Christopher Hitchen's article in Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2140058/
1984 : (IRAQI DIPLOMAT ZAHAWI TRIES TO BLOCK ISRAELI PRESIDENT FROM SPEAKING AT THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY) In 1984, he tried to block Israeli President Chaim Herzog from speaking to the General Assembly. "Wissam Zahawie of Iraq objected on the ground that, according to United Nations resolutions, Israel's claim that Jerusalem was its capital was 'null and void,'" reported The New York Times.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
1995 : (UN CONFERENCE ON EXTENDING THE NPT : IRAQI DIPLOMAT AL ZAHAWI COMMENTS) At a 1995 UN conference on extending the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Zahawie (sometimes spelled "Zahawi") argued that unless Israel was stripped of nuclear weapons, other states would need to engage in "a secret or public" arms race to "restore a certain balance."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
APRIL 24, 1995 : (UN CONFERENCE ON EXTENDING THE NPT : IRAQI DIPLOMAT AL ZAHAWI COMMENTS) In an official UN summary of the April 24, 1995, session of this [UN] conference [on extending the NPT]—provided to me by the United Nations Library—Zahawie sometimes referred to Israel as the "entity." "In that entity," the summary cites him as saying, "there was a powerful opposition party which was expected to win the forthcoming elections and which was urging that not a single inch of the occupied territories should be surrendered, and was ready, in its fanaticism, to go to any lengths, whatever the cost. It was not hard to see what that party would do with its nuclear bomb."
"[B]y exempting one State [Israel] from applying the provisions of the Treaty while expecting others to respect it forever," the UN summary cites Zahawie as saying, "there would inevitably be attempts to restore a certain balance. That meant an arms race, whether secret or public"
"Efforts must therefore be made either to establish equity and equilibrium," the UN summary reports Zahawie as saying, "or—preferably—to attain the ultimate goal sought by all mankind, namely the complete and permanent elimination of the nuclear threat."
Citing what he characterized as belligerent statements by various U.S. leaders of the Cold War era, Zahawie argued that the U.S. refrained from using nuclear weapons only out of fear of Soviet retaliation. "Apparently, the military and civilian leaders of the United States were very attached to the idea of atomic bombing designed to destroy a city or an entire country, since their experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," the UN summary reports him saying.
"If there had been any equilibrium at the beginning," it cites him as saying, "the world would not have experienced the atrocities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
Zahawie's belligerence did not go unnoticed at the time. "Iraq's delegate at the conference, Wissam Al-Zahawi," reported Agence France Presse, "warned that if the international community allowed Israel to remain outside the NPT it would lead to 'inevitable attempts' to reestablish 'some kind of equilibrium' in the region, followed by a 'secret or open' arms race."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
NOVEMBER 12, 1997 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE) In a letter published on Nov. 12, 1997, in the International Herald Tribune, Zahawie, identified as Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, was more direct. "Iraq has shown that there are Arabs who refuse to bow to American bullying," he wrote. "It has challenged a Zionist-American diktat by trying to achieve the forbidden strategic balance that would enable Arabs to resist Israeli aggression."-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
FEBRUARY 10, 1998 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE : ZAHAWI COMPLAINS ABOUT ARTICLES WRITTEN BY BOTH WILLIAM SAFIRE AND ALSO BY THOMAS FRIEDMAN THAT ADVOCATED USING FORCE TO DISARM SADDAM HUSSEIN'S IRAQ REGIME) In a letter published in the International Herald Tribune on Feb. 10, 1998, he objected to columns by William Safire and Thomas Friedman that advocated the use of force to disarm Saddam. "The present rabid braying and warmongering will surely serve to stiffen Iraqis' resolve, to increase their hatred of their American tormentors and to rally people around their president," he wrote.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
DECEMBER 30, 1999 : (ZAHAWI LETTER TO THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE COMPLAINS ABOUT THE RESUMPTION OF UN SANCTIONS)On December 30, 1999, 10 months after his trade mission to Niger, the International Herald Tribune published a letter from Zahawie objecting to resumption of UN weapons inspections. "It should come as no surprise that Iraq should resist the return of the so-called inspectors who were relaying to the United States and Britain the information they need to choose the targets for their systematic bombing of Iraq," Zahawie wrote.-------Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger
APRIL 2000 : (FRENCH PRIEST FATHR BENJAMIN ORGANIZES 'HUMANITARIAN' FLIGHT TO IRAQ IN ViOLATION OF SANCTIONS)
SEPTEMBER 16, 2001 : (FRENCH PRIEST FATHER BENJAMIN CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN TIPPED OFF ABOUT 9/11 ATTACKS ON THE USA AT A WEDDING IN TODI, ITALI ON SEPT 7, 2001) ------http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=9943
BTTT
You'll want to read this little gem by Hitchens.
mark for later read.
I don't like Hitchens on a persoanl level but I give the guy his due. He is very smart, very erudite and a pit bull when it comes to his views. Here, he makes mince meat of the loons in the senate.
Thanks for the ping, howlin. :)
Hitchens Bump to WPtG...
Jeepers Mister Wilson, you lied....
Senate and intelligence is an oxymoron.
Interesting comparison with another player in this saga: How does Wissam al-Zahawie JOE WILSON himself answer the question: What is a FORMER diplomat so senior--with or without nuclear experience--doing on a mission to a country to which he is not accredited?
Ping for later.
My but our senators are stupid. I think they are clowns before the whole world (Coburn excepted).
Quick.... tell Joe Wilson about this
Bless your heart!!!
thanks MUCHO for the ping. (I'm on my way to a dinner with Ann Coulter the honored guest and speaker, so will have to save this fabulous read till I get home. )
Covering up Iraq's quest for uranium in Africa
American Thinker ^ | 10-26-05 | Douglas Hanson - Commentary and Analysis
Posted on 10/26/2005 10:32:11 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Covering up Iraq's quest for uranium in Africa
October 26th, 2005
The left accepts as gospel the Joseph Wilson-inspired allegation that President Bush lied in his State of the Union address reference to Iraq seeking uranium in Africa. The media and much of the public parrots this line. The allegation is itself a lie. All evidence points to the Plame leak investigation as another battle in the ongoing internal war between US intelligence agencies and the Bush administration. Of course, the mainstream media is only too happy to support a leftist CIA, which is out to keep its power intact at all costs.
But this operation is just as tactically clumsy as the intelligence agencies' ill-prepared efforts to find Saddam's WMD. Available information shows that the Iraq-Niger connection is, at best, another goof-up of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), or at worst, a red herring constructed by disgruntled intelligence functionaries to discredit the President.
First of all, President Bush never said Saddam tried to buy uranium from Niger. His exact words were:
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
As it turns out, the President's statement was accurate concerning African uranium production and distribution, since Niger isn't the only country on the continent that has sizable uranium deposits. The Congo, Namibia, South Africa and Gabon also have large uranium mines.
Therefore, how Plame and her co-conspirators at the CIA were able to finagle a trip for Wilson to Africa to refute the President's statement by producing "forged" documents with a singular focus on Niger is puzzling.
Iraq does indeed have a history of buying uranium from Niger, but that was decades ago, and it wasn't the only foreign source for nuclear raw materials. Two organizations provide us with a reasonably accurate inventory of Saddam's uranium and other related compounds: the IAEA and the Iraq Survey Group (ISG). Iraq has imported hundreds of tons of yellowcake, highly enriched uranium (HEU), and Low-enriched uranium (LEU) from Europe, Russia and other Western countries.
According to the IAEA, Saddam bought about 151 tons of yellowcake from Niger in 1981, and then made an additional purchase of 153 tons in 1982. [For some reason, Duelfer's ISG report does not mention the second procurement from Niger in 1982. There are several other discrepancies in the ISG final report that will be discussed in a later article.]
The Congo connection
The British intelligence report that GW cited in his State of the Union address didn't even concern Niger, but rather focused on the Congo. According to the U.K. Telegraph, the Congo was a far more promising source of uranium since the country had been in throes of a civil war, and since it also had a reasonable level of proven uranium reserves. The country's history of uranium production goes back to 1939, when a Congo mine supplied the material for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Congo also has one of the few nuclear power reactors on the continent.
Ironically, the backing for the British intelligence report targeting the Congo is none other than our own ISG, which was largely composed of elements of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In his final report, Duelfer notes that the ISG had found a document that told of a post-Gulf War I contact between Baghdad and Africa concerning an offer of uranium; and the source of the uranium was not Niger, but – surprise – from the Congo. As the ISG report notes:
In mid-May 2003, an ISG team found an Iraqi Embassy document in the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) headquarters related to an offer to sell yellowcake to Iraq. The document reveals that a Ugandan businessman approached the Iraqis with an offer to sell uranium, reportedly from the Congo. The Iraqi Embassy in Nairobi—in reporting this matter back to Baghdad on 20 May 2001—indicated it told the Ugandan that Iraq does not deal with these materials, explained the circumstances of sanctions, and said that Baghdad was not concerned about these matters right now.
Duelfer accepts the Iraqi ambassador's refusal of the Congo uranium offer as fact, while his analysis soft pedals the extreme Islamic undertones of the May 2001 letter. The Ugandan "friend" who wanted to arrange the uranium transfer, also said that
...he will do his best to help Iraq and Iraq's regime for Jihad together against our enemy, and he considers supporting the power of Iraq to be his participation which is power for all Muslims, and he feels that his duties are to support and strengthen that power.
There was apparently no urgency on the part of the ISG to pursue the Congo connection, despite the evidence provided by the letter and the views of British intelligence. Yet, Duelfer felt compelled to investigate the "specific allegations of uranium pursuits from Niger," even though there was no paperwork or recent intelligence that logically pointed to a recent Niger-Iraq uranium deal. Nevertheless, the ISG pursued this line of investigation by obtaining information from none other than Ja'far Diya' Ja'far, who was the head of Iraq's pre-1991 nuclear weapons program! In other words, the ISG investigated a potential Niger-Iraq uranium link by using the same dubious methods I noted last year.
True to form, they relied on questioning former regime scientists without corroborating documentation that could potentially validate their stories and reduce the possibility of deception and obfuscation.
According to the ISG, Ja'far claimed Iraq did not purchase uranium from abroad after it bought its first shipment of yellowcake from Niger in 1981. Duelfer duly notes, however, that Saddam purchased uranium dioxide from Brazil in 1982 and that Iraq did not declare this to the IAEA. This indicated that the Iraqi government was willing to pursue uranium illicitly. [The ISG report states that Iraq also did not declare a second shipment of yellowcake from Niger. Presumably, this is the 1982 shipment that is noted in the IAEA inventory, but not in the ISG list of Iraqi nuclear materials.] Talking about Niger, Ja'far claimed:
…that after 1998 Iraq had only two contacts with Niamey [capital of Niger] – neither of which involved uranium. Ja'far acknowledged that Iraq's Ambassador to the Holy See traveled to Niamey to invite the President of Niger to visit Iraq. He indicated that Baghdad hoped that the Nigerian President would agree to the visit as he had visited Libya despite sanctions being levied on Tripoli. Former Iraqi Ambassador to the Holy See Wissam Zahawie has publicly provided a similar account.
Ja'far claims a second contact between Iraq and Niger occurred when a Nigerian minister visited Baghdad around 2001 to request assistance in obtaining petroleum products to alleviate Niger's economic problems. During the negotiations for this contract, the Nigerians did not offer any kind of payment or other quid pro quo, including offering to provide Iraq with uranium ore, other than cash in exchange for petroleum.
ISG recovered a copy of a crude oil contract dated 26 June 2001 that, although unsigned, appears to support this arrangement.
So, despite Ja'far's penchant for lying to the ISG about uranium acquisitions, Duelfer's report used one scientist's testimony and an unsigned crude oil contract to conclude that Iraq had not purchased any uranium from Niger for over 20 years. Even if Ja'far, however unlikely, is telling the truth about the Niger-Iraq connection as no more than innocent diplomatic contacts, the ISG apparently lends no greater credence to the Congo connection, which was based on sound analysis by British intelligence and documentation that the ISG itself had uncovered.
It is clear that a greater geo-political game has been afoot for some time. The fact that France had paid to have the Niger documents forged to embarrass the Bush administration is only part of the deception. The other aspect of this operation is that the CIA and ISG deliberately ignored or downplayed information provided by British intelligence and documents found in Iraq indicating that an Iraq-Africa uranium connection was a logical and reasonable conclusion, and that connection most likely involved the Congo.
On would think that by now, the rogue agents would have realized that their attempt to slam the President on pre-war intelligence has been undone by their own post-war audit trail. The media will, naturally, wait for historians to correct the record.
Douglas Hanson is our national security affairs correspondent.
Note: Reference material in support of his analysis can be found by going to the American Thinker link at the top of this article.
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:ICfMmlTIcQgJ:www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509628/posts+Ja%27far+Diya%27+Ja%27far&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1
BTTT !!
Hitchens bump...
To quote Ann Coulter, it's all about goat's milk and chick peas.