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October 31, 2005

Word to Mac

Wayne Madsen called, he wants his tin foil back. Joking!

From Mac's Mind:

So in a game of what if – “What if Joe Wilson’s second trip to Niger wasn’t as much to “check out a crazy report”, as it was to discredit such a report. Wilson had mentioned, that former Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki of Niger told him of a 1999 visit by the Iraqis to discuss "commercial relations" with a country whose major export was uranium.

But let's say that the deal actually did take place. Moreover, that it was Wilson himself who was in Niger in 1999 brokering the deal himself AT THE BEQUEST OF THE CIA.

The fact of the matter was that when other intelligence agencies - most likely because of being 'cut out' of the 'benefits' began to ‘leak” the sale in October of 2001, the CIA had to move quick and fast to discredit the report. - throw the dogs off the trail so to speak.

Far fetched? No, in fact is that our ‘rogues” had secured many such ‘deals’ throughout the 90’s, and for years before that.

From Wayne Madsen:

There are several cross currents in the aftermath of the Libby indictment. One is that the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson's name and status to the media did not have a drastic effect on the CIA's counter-proliferation work. This is being spun by the stenographer-laden Washington Post and other apologists for the Bush administration. WMR can report that the damage to the CIA, as well as allied intelligence services, was "devastating" -- a term consistently conveyed by a number of CIA and intelligence community insiders. Not only did the White House leak put Mrs. Wilson and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, in potential jeopardy but the entire Brewster Jennings & Associates non-official cover operation was "rolled up." The term "rolled up" has also been described to the editor by a number of current and former CIA sources. Foreign, including"denied nation," security services, even went to the lengths of checking out the hotels where Brewster Jennings employees stayed, when they stayed there, and what parties associated with their own nuclear programs stayed there at the same time. These individuals were identified and, in some cases, tortured and executed. Foreign security services had an easier time of checking attendee lists at various conferences to see whether their own officials and businessmen were in attendance with Brewster Jennings employees.

In addition to Brewster Jennings, a Boston-based brass plate firm, a predecessor CIA front company, Synergistic Technologies, Inc. -- its brass plate being based in Pittsburgh -- was also compromised. In the early 1990s, there was a nexus between the work of the two firms in their efforts to counter WMDs. That nexus was also compromised by the White House leak.

Bush's hand-picked CIA Director, Porter Goss, has just about completed his purge of the CIA's upper and mid-level management levels, replacing seasoned officers with Bush lickspittles. One of these is reportedly Burt Bechtel, the new head of the CIA's Counter Proliferation Division. Bechtel is spinning, along with Jennifer Millerwise Dyke (the CIA's public affairs spokeswoman who worked with Scooter Libby in the Vice President's office as press secretary and Porter Goss as spokesperson for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) and Goss himself, the story that the Valerie Plame/BJ&A leak had little effect on the CIA's counter proliferation program. That will be news to the half dozen or so BJ&A non-official cover agents who were put in physical harm by the leak. It will also be news to the hundreds of people BJ&A had spotted and helped recruit into a complex global network of informants and agents who closely worked with CIA case officers -- from North Korea to Pakistan, Iran to South Africa, and Libya to Malaysia -- in identifying sources and destinations for nuclear materials and components. After the revelation of the identities of the CIA counter-WMD team, there were reverberations around the world -- in places with names like Natanz, Bushehr, Dayr al Hajar, Yongbyon, King Abdulaziz City of Science and Technology, Salaspils, Almaty, Chelyabinsk, Nilore, and Kahuta. Midnight knocks on doors, computer disk erasing, paper shredding and burning, quick get aways, and worse, were the order of the day. No big deal, according to the Bush apologists.

Call me a sucker, but given the two alternatives, I'm more likely to believe that the CIA Counterproliferation Division was working against the black market weapons smugglers - not for them.

From 60 Minutes:

The CIA has yet to conduct a formal damage assessment. The agency wanted to wait until the investigation by the special prosecutor was over.

But agency representatives have come to Capitol Hill to brief the intelligence committees about steps they’ve taken to “mitigate the effects of the leak.”

“I think any time the identity of a covert agent is released, there is some damage. And it's serious,” says Congressman Rush Holt, a Democrat from New Jersey and a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Rep. Holt says some people Valerie Wilson came into contact with overseas, even those who didn’t know she was a covert operative, could be in danger.

“Have you had assurances that the agency is handling the fallout from this leak?” Bradley asked.

“They have taken the usual procedures to protect the damage from spreading,” Rep. Holt replied.

“Is it possible that someone overseas, someone is going to jail because of this?” Bradley asked Holt. “Sure, it's possible.”

“Is it possible that somebody lost their life?” Bradley asked. “It's possible. I don't know,” the congressman said.

Rep. Holt pointed out there has not yet been a formal assessment. “If there were, and I had been briefed on it, I couldn't talk about it.”

Posted by Mike at October 31, 2005 12:57 AM

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