The Nose Knows [Clarke "brains" in bombing of Sudan aspirin factory - "sure" Iraqis behind plant]

The Village Voice ^ | March 10 - 16, 1999 | Jason Vest

[CobaltBlue]

In the days immediately following the bombing, "senior U.S. officials" (including a few "names," like national security adviser Sandy Berger) repeatedly claimed that Al Shifa produced "no commercial products," had a "secured perimeter patrolled by the Sudanese military," "in fact makes the components for VX gas and other chemical weapons," and "had links to Osama bin Laden." No details were given about how any of this was known. Within days, though, it all began to break down: it turned out that the plant was not only commercial but had been approved by the UN Security Council to package veterinary medicines for relief shipments to Iraq. (Indeed, medical vials and pharmaceutical parcels were identifiable among the wreckage at the plant formerly known as Al Shifa.) Scores of foreigners who had toured the facility— including the German and Italian ambassadors to Sudan— couldn't recall any security. And the British designers of the plant testified that it hadn't been built for, and couldn't produce, chemical weapons.

Then the administration changed its tune: Al Shifa had, officials claimed, been under CIA investigation for 18 months, and the CIA had a soil sample to prove that it had been up to no good. However, the agent who spoke to the Voice said there were problems on both fronts. Since the U.S. pulled out of Khartoum in 1996 (a decision based largely on false intelligence reports by a CIA asset), the CIA has treated Sudan as a "denied area"— off-limits to actual CIA officers. This led the CIA to depend on either recruiting a foreign national or one on loan from a friendly neighboring intelligence service. Egypt has no love for Sudan, and Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Uganda all receive "non-lethal" U.S. military aid used to help the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement fight the Islamist regime in Khartoum. While declining to confirm specifics about how the sample was collected, the agent stated that the choice of operative for the mission likely did not lend itself to ensuring entirely objective results.

Immediately after the bombing, the U.S. propagated the notion that Al Shifa had vats of lethal brew ready for action. Indeed, unnamed government sources told U.S. News & World Report that this was old news: that Al Shifa "had been in the Pentagon's inventory of targets for several years," and that "one final step" before loosing the Tomahawks was running "computer models of the risk that explosions at the chemical factory would unleash a plume of poison gas across Sudan." However, when it quickly became evident that the plant was not the "clear and immediate danger" that Clinton had declared it to be, backpedaling commenced: the scientific basis for the attack was a soil sample containing EMPTA, a non-lethal VX precursor.

No more details than that, sayeth the White House, in the name of protecting intelligence "sources and methods." However, everyone from an EMPTA authority at Oxford's chemistry department to the American Chemical Society has pointed out that the presence of commercially used EMPTA proves nothing. According to a recent issue of ACS's Chemical & Engineering News, the administration's refusal to examine the results of Professor Tullius's investigation, and its contention that intelligence activities would be "jeopardized by disclosing the amount found, the analytical techniques used, or the other chemicals detected . . . [serve] only to exacerbate people's disbelief of the U.S. government's claims."

No matter. On January 22, as demonstrated in The Washington Post, the government's story underwent yet another permutation. Currently, according to White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke, the U.S. is "sure" that the Iraqis were the sinister force behind Al Shifa, producing what the Post characterized as "powdered VX-like substance at the plant that, when mixed with bleach and water, would have become fully active nerve gas." This, says Professor Tullius, strains credulity: "Bleach is often used to detoxify nerve agents," he says. "Using bleach to activate an agent makes no sense." While the Iraqi and Sudanese militaries are known to have collaborated on limited munitions projects, says investigative reporter Frank Smyth, there is nothing linking these endeavors to Al Shifa or Bin Laden. "It looks like the administration acted based on inferences drawn from pieces of intelligence they presumed were connected," he says.

[mewzilla]

He sounds like a looney.

[CobaltBlue]

Clarke was too damned dumb to know that businesses don't run critical systems on the Internet, they run on secure networks. Apparently he knows as much about cyberspace as he does about nerve gas.

[johniegrad]

With the delusions of grandeur that he experienced, I would have demoted him also. He smacks of X42, it's all about him.

[cwb]

The fax is 202-296-5545. Good luck.

[js1138]

The Villiage Voice and the New Republic are leaving the plantation more and more often. The New Republic was one of the great cheerleaders for the Iraq war.

What will FR do if there is ever an honest leftist press?

[gatorbait]

This guy is/was into everything, isn't he? He's had his nose into everything that's been important for the last 15 years.

Richard Clarke, sage, philosopher,seeker, Master of the Universe.

[wtc911]

Good catch....and don't denigrate the VV....there are often pearls amid the dreck.

[CobaltBlue]

The VV has been doing very good work on Kerry abandoning Vietnam POWs and MIAs for political gain. Surprising.

[Indy Pendance]

And, when Bush took office he saw right through his game. Maybe he was decent prior to the Bush 43 admin (Reagan, Bush 41), but certainly he's shown he doesn't have what it takes anymore. And with President Bush (43) being a businessman, he can spot these has beens easily. At least that's my take. I have an MBA, abet, not from an Ivy league school, but nevertheless, it's a standard practice to relocate or remove incompetents from any business. President Bush saw something and acted upon it. Now, Clarke is mad, can't deal with reality. Boy, do I wish I could be dictator for a year.

[Darnright]

>I watched Cohen at the hearings today repeating this. He stated that the trail led through bin Laden into Baghdad.<

Yeah, wasn't that great? I know there were a whole lot of Democrats going "HUH?" at that statement. They've been fed the Kool Aid that there was no link between Iraq and Osama for ages.

[CobaltBlue]

Thanks. Letter with articles attached going through as I type. Text of letter:

9/11 Commission
VIA FACSIMILE only 202-296-5545
Re: Testimony of Richard Clarke
Dear Sir or Madam,

I believe that it is important for you to consider Mr. Clarke’s past record when determining how much weight to give his testimony.

Clarke was the “mastermind” behind the bombing of the Al Shifa aspirin factory in Sudan in 1998. On January 23, 1999, he told Vernon Loeb, Washington Post Staff Writer, that the U.S. government was "sure" that “Iraqi nerve gas experts actually produced a powdered VX-like substance at the plant that, when mixed with bleach and water, would have become fully active VX nerve gas.”

Loeb reported that Clarke said U.S. intelligence linked bin Laden to El Shifa's then-current and past operators, the Iraqi nerve gas experts and the National Islamic Front in Sudan. Thus, in 1999, Clarke believed that there was a connection between Iraq and bin Laden, and so did US intelligence he was citing.

I am sure I do not have to remind you that the Al Shifa bombing was, in retrospect, a complete disaster. No evidence of VX production was found, and the US became a laughing stock. President Bush is on record as vowing after 9/11, "When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt."

I suggest that this comment may have been taken as an insult by Mr. Clarke, who was the “brains” behind the Al Shifa bombing.

I am attaching the Washington Post article and a Village Voice article on the topic. I ask that you consider whether it is possible that Richard Clarke has an axe to grind when he condemns the Bush administration response to terrorism. It was probably not what he would have done if he had remained in charge.



Sincerely,

[GBA]

Sounds to me like Richard Clarke was able to bring the same level of professionalism to the state department that Joycelyn Elders brought to the office of the Surgeon General.

[anymouse]

What will FR do if there is ever an honest leftist press?

Quote 'em. :)

[cwb]

Great piphy letter...with a great point. It didn't even dawn on me that Clarke could have one more axe to grind because of Bush's slap-down on Al Shifa. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Good job.

[Vinnie]

So, the aspirin factory was making a precursor to VX, shipping it to Iraq, then Iraq was distributing it to Bin Laden.

Seems the dims have proved Bush's point concerning Iraq and WMD.

On the other hand, the Tomahawk attack was a diversion from the Monica testimony.

Dims lose both ways.

smile

[longshadow]

Quick!

Somebody check out the articles available via THIS link:

http://vmyths.com/resource.cfm?id=62&page=1

VMyths is a website dedicated to debunking bogus cyber threats and myths, and apparently Clarke had them working overtime with all sorts of inane nonesense.

[cwb]

I can't count how many times today both those on the committee and those questioned, referred to wag-the-dog as a way to excuse Clinton's incompetence on the WOT. Not only was Clinton suppose to be this great compartmentalizer, but he obviously didn't have any distractions while hitting Afghanistan and Sudan during Monica's first week of testimony...or his impeachment-eve bombing in Iraq, followed by his war in Kosovo.

What many people forget is that Clinton announced his own WOT when he attacked Afghanistan and Sudan...only to end that war once Monica's testimony concluded. For an administration that is claiming no public support for a war on terror, they sure had no problem waging it when it fitted their needs.

[CobaltBlue]

Wow. Can't think of a way to work that into my message, which has already been sent. Maybe you can fax it to them yourself? Fax number is 202-296-5545.

[longshadow]

Maybe you can fax it to them yourself? Fax number is 202-296-5545.

No fax here, but I just e-mailed the link to Drudge.

[CobaltBlue]

Why not email it to Rush and Sean, too?

My email is via AOL, and I can't get it to work on my new 'puter. Well, to be honest, what I am trying to do is send email via www.aol.com, and I can't do it.

This 'puter has never been sullied by AOL or any other ghoulish vampire service, and I'd like to keep it that way. Generic Internet Explorer is all.