LEAKGATE
[LEAK-GATE] Ex-envoy won't back off of Bush
Sun Feb 8 13:02:05 2004
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SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/159769_wilson07.html

Ex-envoy won't back off of Bush
Wilson says his wife was smeared because of his Iraq stance

Saturday, February 7, 2004

By CLAUDIA ROWE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Any thought that public ridicule and the exposure of his wife as an
undercover CIA agent might quiet former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in
his criticism of the Bush administration has missed the mark by a
mile.

During a two-day visit in Seattle, the former envoy, who served under
five presidents and was the last American official to speak with
Saddam Hussein before the United States launched Desert Storm in
1991, revealed a depth of anger unusual for a career diplomat.

But the combination of what he sees as the administration's
manipulation of intelligence about Iraq and its smearing of his
family for political ends has galvanized Wilson, who urged most
everyone he met to vote the president out of office.

Not long ago, Wilson was contributing to Republican causes and
leading the life of a circumspect public servant. Only in 2003, after
traveling to Africa at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney to
investigate reports that Saddam was buying uranium for nuclear
weapons, did the former ambassador begin to speak out. The weapons
rumors, he found, were baseless. This week, CIA Director George Tenet
and former U.S. weapons inspector David Kay reiterated the same thing.

But President Bush in his State of the Union address last year
rallied support for a war in Iraq by insisting that Saddam was
building weapons of mass destruction and referring to the findings of
an "unnamed envoy" -- who turned out to be Wilson -- as evidence.

Wilson published an opinion piece in The New York Times debunking the
president's assertion and days later, unnamed staff members in the
Bush administration told a columnist that the former ambassador's
wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent.

"It is absolutely unprecedented in our national politics to be
publicly beaten like that in a public square," Wilson said during an
interview in his Seattle hotel room.

"When it all happened, I was thinking, 'Why would my government do
this?' And the only rational reason I could think of would be to
discourage people from coming forward."

Others, however, have suggested that the administration's actions
were "motivated by spite -- pure spite," Wilson added.

An independent prosecutor was appointed to investigate the leak of
Plame's name, and at least one report suggests indictments are
imminent. But Wilson insists that he knows no more about this than
any other citizen.

"If there was a crime committed, the victim is not me or my wife,
even though our names have been tied to it," he said.

"The victim is the country and the national security of the country."

For all his evident disgust and an admitted temper, the former
diplomat affects a mild demeanor. He wore blue jeans and a silver
wrist cuff during his Seattle talks -- "my author clothes," he said,
referring to his book, due out in May. And if he felt unease at
earlier Bush administration policies, only after his wife was smeared
did he become incensed enough to act.

"I never envisioned myself as a darling of the progressive left,"
Wilson said. "But it had to be done, not as a matter of heroism, but
of simple civic responsibility."

For most of last summer, the couple awoke to newspapers splaying
Plame's name across the front page.

"Valerie said it was like an out-of-body experience," Wilson
said. "If I could give her back her anonymity I would do it in a
second."

Plame is still working for the CIA, and while the past few months
have been gut wrenching, they have only made the couple's marriage
stronger, Wilson said. Raising 4-year-old twins is at least as
wearing as the sudden, unwanted publicity, he said.

Several months ago, Wilson endorsed presidential candidate John Kerry
and is now crisscrossing the country on his behalf. His visit to
Seattle a day before the Democratic caucuses bore the unmistakable
stamp of a get-out-the-vote campaign rally.

"We went to war under false pretenses, and that is becoming
abundantly clear to the American people," he told students during a
foreign-policy forum at the University of Washington. "I don't care
who you vote for, but get out there and caucus. Don't leave it to the
neo-conservatives and evangelical Christians."

Later he reiterated much of that message to frequent applause from
1,000 people who gathered for a talk at Seattle Center's McCaw Hall.

Throughout the day, his words inspired many.

Mike Zuver, a 24-year-old political-science major at the University
of Washington, said the former ambassador had spurred him to action.

"I admire him for standing up and taking it and not being afraid to
be critical of this administration," he said. "This is the second
election I will be voting in, and it seems extremely important. The
stakes are so much higher now."

Wilson said he had never quarreled with the move to disarm Saddam. It
was a matter of the means, not the end. As far as he was concerned,
sanctions and weapons inspections were working.

"Where I parted ways with the administration was in the decision to
invade, conquer and occupy in order to achieve those objectives," he
said.

The result, he added, is far worse: International goodwill toward the
United States has been dashed, the world is less safe for Americans,
and the pool of possible terrorists enlarged. Meanwhile, Iraq spirals
ever downward.

"We're not getting it right there, and I really fear that we're never
going to get it right," Wilson said. "If Iraq collapses, we will
forever be blamed. Arabs remember. They remember expulsion of the
Moors in 1492 better than we remember who won the Super Bowl two
years ago. Whatever befalls Iraq, we will be blamed."

Blasé Briar-Bonpane, a 31-year-old graduate student at the
university, found the ambassador's talk "the most important
commentary about anything political" he had heard in years.

Through 25 years in public service, Wilson, a California native who
once worked as a carpenter in Sequim, has long considered himself a
moderate. He contributed to the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2000, and the
first President Bush described him as "a true American hero."

"I never expected to become Public Enemy No. 1," he said with a
laugh. "But what the hell, it's worth it. This democracy is worth
fighting for."

P-I reporter Claudia Rowe can be reached at 206-448-8320 or
claudiarowe@seattlepi.com

© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

====================

<http://www.kurtnimmo.com/images/gul.jpg> February 8, 2004

Photo: Hamid Gul, former director general of Pakistan's ISI. "I held
the whole Mujahideen movement in the palm of my hands. We were all
pro-American. But then America left us in the lurch and everything
went to pieces, including Afghanistan."

Islamic terror: CIA spawned Frankensteins from Hell?

Is it time for al-Qaeda to retire and other "regional militant Islamic
groups" to take center stage? Since there is no shortage of these
groups and they seem to fade in and out of obscurity with a confusing
rapidity, the threat of terrorism can be used effectively by the
Bushites and their ideological allies -- who exist in on the Democrat
side of the War Party as well (this includes Kerry) -- for a long
time to come. Recall Bush telling us the "war against terrorism" will
last a long.

"On September 11, 2001, our nation made a fundamental commitment that
will take many years to see through," said
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/1/16/232041.shtml Dick
Cheney, Halliburton war profiteer. "Scattered in more than 50
nations, the al-Qaeda network and other terrorist groups constitute
an enemy unlike any other that we have ever faced. And as our
intelligence shows, the terrorists continue plotting to kill on an
ever-larger scale, including here in the United States." Is it
possible Cheney is talking about the same "intelligence" that warned
Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction?

"The landscape of the terrorist threat has shifted, many intelligence
officials around the world say, with more than a dozen regional
militant Islamic groups showing signs of growing strength and broader
ambitions, even as the operational power of Al Qaeda appears
diminished," writes the
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/08/international/asia/08TERR.html?hp
New York Times.

One of the groups mentioned in the Times are is Lashkar-e-Taiba.

"Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] is understood to have
been instrumental in providing the Lashkar-e-Taiba chief, Hafeez
Saeed, with the services of the former ISI chief, Hamid Gul, who was
instrumental in the creation of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda," writes
the >a
href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/07/04/stories/2003070405
990100 .htm" target="_blank">Hindu. Of course, the Indians have their
own ax to grind with Pakistan, so they seize every chance to make the
Muslims in Pakistan look like terrorism supporters. Even so, it is
true the ISI and the CIA essentially created both the Taliban and al-
Qaeda.

Hamid Gul is an interesting character. He was director general of the
Pakistani ISI. "The retired Pakistani general who is closest to the
Taliban and Osama bin Laden contends the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
on New York City and Washington were the work of renegade U.S. Air
Force elements working with the Israelis," writes the
<http://www.robert-fisk.com/hamid_gul_interview_sept26_2001.htm>
National Journal.

In an interview with Arnaud de Borchgrave, United Press International
editor at large, Gul more or less admitted he collaborated with the
CIA as director general of the ISI. According to Gul, that
relationship was ruined by US "[b]etrayals and broken promises... As
ISI director, I held the whole Mujahideen movement in the palm of my
hands. We were all pro-American. But then America left us in the
lurch and everything went to pieces, including Afghanistan."

But according to <http://www.hvk.org/articles/1001/432.html> Chidanand
Rajghatta of the Times of India, the ISI and the CIA still work
together, if uneasily. "Although the two agencies fell out in the
early 1990s amid reports of financial skullduggery by the ISI and a
spat over weapons inventory, especially missing Stinger missiles,
Washington continued to engage important Pakistani spooks. It was
mandatory for all new ISI chiefs to pay their respects in appearance
at least -- to Langley and Foggy Bottom, home of the CIA and the
State Department respectively."

In March, 2001, <http://www.multiline.com.au/~johnm/taliban.htm> Selig
Harrison from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
and who has had extensive contact with the CIA and political leaders
in South Asia, said "The CIA still has close links with the ISI... I
warned them that we were creating a monster."

If the Rajghatta's research is credible, the CIA remains involved
with the ISI, even though two former "monster" CIA-ISI assets, Osama
bin Laden and Mir Aimal Kansi, turned against the United States,
possibly due to the betrayal mentioned by Gul. Kansi assassinated two
CIA officers outside their office in Langley, Virginia, in 1993, and
<http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/deathpenalty/msg00521.html>
sentenced to death after his apprehension. Another CIA-ISI asset was
Ramzi Yousef, who was involved in the failed bomb attack on the World
Trade Center. (See
<http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2001/sydneymh092701.html>
Washington's Pakistani Allies: Killers and Drug Dealers, Sydney
Morning Herald, September 27, 2001.)

Another curious figure in the CIA-ISI alliance and potential actor in
the 9/11 terrorist attack is former ISI Chief Gen. Mahmood Ahmed. Not
only did Ahmed encourage Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar on
September 17, 2001,
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/2002/ap022102.html not
to hand over bin Laden to the United States, it was reported in early
October 2001 that Mahmood ordered
<http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/saeedsheikh.html>
Saeed Sheikh to send $100,000 to hijacker Mohamed Atta and Marwan
Alshehhi. In addition,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dynpagename=article&node=&contentId=A36091-2002May17¬Found=true
Ahmed was having breakfast in Washington with the chairmen of the
House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob
Graham and Representative Porter Goss, on the morning of September
11, 2001. Goss, an ex-CIA man, will head up Bush's "intelligence
failure" whitewash committee. The
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/datelinedc/s_20141.html Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
suggested that Saeed Sheikh's "power comes not from the ISI, but from
his connections with our own CIA. The theory is that ... Saeed Sheikh
was bought and paid for."

You can bet the farm none of these details will emerge when
the "bipartisan commission" issues its report on May 27. Both the
9/11 commission and Bush's "intelligence failure" commission are
designed to whitewash and cover up events related to 9/11 and the
invasion of Iraq.

In the meantime, the "monster" created by the CIA, al-Qaeda, will
slowly dissolve and other Islamic threats will eventually replace it.
For now, however, al-Qaeda is still useful as the specter of ultimate
Islamic evil -- for instance, "US forces in Iraq found seven pounds
of cyanide during a raid late last month on a Baghdad house believed
connected to an al-Qaeda operative (Abu Musab Zarqawi)... a Jordanian
whom CIA officials have described as a senior associate of Osama bin
Laden. He also is connected with Ansar al-Islam," according to
http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.phpnewsId=en53068&F_catID=&f_type
=source Hi Pakistan.

Note the Ansar al-Islam connection. In February, the leader of Ansar
al-Islam, Mullah Krekar (aka Fateh Najmeddin Faraj), told
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/030503_ansar.html Agence
France-Presse: "I had a meeting with a CIA representative and someone
from the American army in the town of Sulaymaniya (Iraqi Kurdistan)
at the end of 2000. They asked us to collaborate with them ... but we
refused to do so."
Last month, Krekar was arrested in Oslo, where he was granted
political asylum, and allegedly ordered suicide bomb attacks US
occupation troops in Iraq. "CIA officials passed the messages from
Krekar... to Norwegian prosecutors," reports the
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/18/wirq18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/18/ixnewstop.html
UK Telegraph. "The investigation into Krekar... has widened to take
in his alleged role in plotting recent attacks, in Europe as well as
Iraq."

Is it possible the CIA and the Bushites are attempting to finger Ansar
al-Islam for the deadly Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and Kurdistan
Democratic Party bombings in Arbil, northern Iraq? "The little-known
Ansar al-Sunna group claimed responsibility for the attack in Arbil,
while expressing sympathies with the 'brothers' of Ansar al-Islam,"
reports
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=4698KurdishMedia.

These "little-known" Islamic terrorist groups will become more
important in the months ahead and will eclipse al-Qaeda. Expect the
Bushites to insist the CIA and other US intelligence agencies be
given more power and resources to provide intelligence on these
shadowy groups. In fact, this will be at least part of the conclusion
reached by the former CIA agent Goss and Bush's so-
called "independent" commission on "intelligence failures."

Expect to hear nothing about how the CIA created and nurtured Islamic
terrorism over the years.

• It comes down to this: What did Blair know? — Geoff Hoon, Sun Feb 8 20:28