Cliff Kincaid
Investigate The CIA
Thu Oct 9 17:11:43 2003
64.140.158.177
Investigate The CIA
By Cliff Kincaid
October 7, 2003
http://www.aim.org/publications/weekly_column/2003/10/07.html
The liberals in the media were not alarmed when pro-communist activists were
naming CIA agents for the purpose of destroying secret operations against the
Soviet empire. In fact, journalists relied on people such as CIA defector
Philip Agee, who specialized in naming the names of CIA operatives, for
stories. The federal law that prohibits the naming of agents under cover was
passed in response to Agee’s activities.
Today, however, it has become a major "scandal" that one or two Bush
administration officials named Ambassador Joseph Wilson’s wife as a CIA
employee to Robert Novak, a conservative columnist. Novak may have made a
mistake in publishing the name, but the information those officials provided
was far different than anything that Agee and his collaborators ever did. The
officials were trying to explain why Wilson was picked by the CIA to conduct a
mission to investigate the Iraq/uranium matter. Internet writer Darren Kaplan
points out that Wilson’s selection might violate the federal anti-nepotism
statute, which prohibits federal employees from even recommending the
appointment of family members for jobs.
It is significant that Agee, who is now living in Havana under the protection
of the Castro regime, has come to the CIA’s defense, calling the naming of
Wilson’s wife "dirty politics." As Novak says, the affair smells of
Bush-bashing.
Another bizarre development is that Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity, a group of mostly former CIA employees, has taken sides against the
administration. Its spokesman, Ray McGovern, had a 27-year career in the CIA
and his articles critical of the administration on various foreign policy
issues have appeared in Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), a publication
associated with Lyndon LaRouche. McGovern told me that he gave EIR permission
to reprint his articles because researchers for LaRouche "do some fairly good
work" and he sees "no downside" to them using his material. He claims to know
nothing about LaRouche.
LaRouche, now running for the Democratic presidential nomination, began his
political career as a Marxist and served time in prison on financial fraud
charges. Back in 1976, he called for bringing into being "a new Marxist
International throughout the capitalist sector" and issued a statement of
support for Iraq before the first Persian Gulf War. LaRouche recently asked
the U.N. to declare President Bush and Vice President Cheney insane.
If a former high-level official like McGovern is in the dark about LaRouche,
the CIA may be in far worse shape than anyone suspected.
The CIA had also kept Joseph Wilson’s name a secret. But he went public with a
column in the New York Times because he wanted to bash the administration
without the public knowing that his wife may have played a covert role in
getting him that mission. As a Wall Street journal editorial put it, the real
story is whether a faction in the CIA is "hoping to defeat" Bush by
undermining his foreign policy and whether the Wilson mission was part of that
effort.
Director George Tenet said that "CIA’s counter-proliferation experts, on their
own initiative, asked" Wilson to make that trip. But these "experts" are also
in the dark if they thought that Wilson’s quick trip to Niger would settle the
matter. It looks like another CIA failure in pre-war intelligence. Disclosing
her identity, which was not a highly protected secret anyway, probably caused
no demonstrable damage. A simple Internet search could have revealed that her
CIA-front company was bogus.
In fairness, Tenet had reported that Wilson confirmed Bush’s charge that Iraq
sought uranium from Africa. Discussing Wilson’s report, Tenet said, "The same
former official [of Niger] also said that in June 1999 a businessman
approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi
delegation to discuss ‘expanding commercial relations’ between Iraq and Niger.
The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium
sales."Similarly, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that, "…Ambassador
Wilson’s report also noted that in 1999 an Iraqi delegation sought the
expansion of trade links with Niger—and that former Niger government officials
believed that this was in connection with the procurement of yellowcake.
Uranium is Niger’s main export. In other words, this element of Ambassador
Wilson’s report supports the statement in the government’s dossier."But in his
Times column about investigating the Iraq/uranium story, Wilson did not
discuss this. Instead, he focused on information that a deal was never
completed so he could bash the administration. The media took the bait.
The investigation of the "leak" to Novak should be expanded to include those
in the CIA behind Wilson’s trip to Africa. That’s the story the liberal media
want to avoid.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at aimeditor@yahoo.com.
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Briton held as terror suspect says CIA threatened torture
First account of US methods from UK detainee
By Vikram Dodd
[The Guardian - UK - 4 October 2003]:
A British businessman arrested as a suspected terrorist has told the Guardian
that US agents threatened him with beatings and rape in an attempt to break
him.
Wahab al-Rawi, 38, was denied a lawyer, held incommunicado for four weeks in
Gambia, and repeatedly questioned by CIA agents before being released without
charge. His account is the first from any Briton about their treatment by the
US while held as a suspect in the two year "war on terror".
The account also challenges US denials of the use of torture or the threat of
torture on terrorist suspects, thousands of whom have been detained and
interrogated across the world.
The Guardian revealed in July that Mr Rawi's business partners, including his
brother, Bisher, and Jamil al-Banna, who were arrested with him, have been
incarcerated in the US camp at Guantanamo Bay without charge.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Rawi, 38, said:
· CIA agents twice threatened him with torture if he did not cooperate;
· He was subjected to sleep deprivation, with lights permanently kept on in
his cell;
· During his interrogation, material from British intelligence interviews with
an alleged extremist detained in London were put to him.
Mr Rawi, born in Iraq but now a British citizen, had set up a business in
Gambia and travelled there in October 2002. He was joined by his brother and
the others on November 8. At the airport all four men were arrested by the
Gambian national intelligence agency.
Mr Rawi says he demanded to see the British high commissioner. A CIA agent he
knew as Lee responded: "Why do you keep asking for the high commissioner? The
British asked us to arrest you."
Once in detention and left alone with two CIA agents, Mr Rawi says Mr Lee made
a threat: "He said, 'you're under US protection or you'd be beaten up by the
Gambians. You know how Africans are, you know what happens in these countries.
We can let the Gambians at you'."
During interrogation, another US agent insinuated that he and his brother were
gay because they were not married.
In the third week of detention, Mr Rawi says, the agents increased the
pressure. They were transferred to a stricter regime in a house in Banjul, the
capital, after being handcuffed and having hoods placed over their heads. The
men's belts and shoes were taken, and each was kept in solitary confinement.
The first time the door to Mr Rawi's room opened, he saw a tall US agent
wearing a balaclava.
"Believe me, it's intimidating, no matter how hard you are," said Mr Rawi.
In the new house, the toilet was a bucket kept in the room, there was no
exercise, and a shower was allowed just once a week.
"For the shower, we were given long handcuffs and had to strip in front of a
Gambian guard and the American with the balaclava," Mr Rawi said.
As well as the constant light in Mr Rawi's room, a noisy fan continuously
whirred outside the door to stop the detainees talking to each other.
"One week after, I could still hear the whirring of the fan. They were trying
sleep deprivation. I did not sleep for the first three days," he said.
Mr Rawi alleges that once the US agents again threatened him with a beating
and also rape, after first playing a psychological game with him: "They
knocked hard on my door, and shouted, 'We are coming in. Stand facing the wall
with your hands above your head. Don't look back.'
"They came in and started laughing. Lee said: 'Did we scare you?' in a
sarcastic voice, and then they started interrogating me.
"I said to them, they can't intimidate me, I lived through my father's
experience when he was held and tortured by Saddam Hussein. I told them, in
Iraq they don't threaten, they do things, they rape people, they torture.
"The little American said: 'We can be just as ruthless as Saddam Hussein' - he
was trying very hard to scare me.
"They were threatening me with rape and assault."
Mr Rawi says that to him, the nature of the threat from the Americans was
clear: "They were trying to threaten me into whatever state of mind they
wanted me to be."
During interrogation, the agents tried to get Mr Rawi to admit his business
trip was a cover for terrorism.
"They asked: 'What are you really here to do, attack US interests or put
together a terrorism camp?'"
He was not impressed with the quality of the agents interviewing him. "I have
seen with my own eyes snails that have more brains," said Mr Rawi.
One of the CIA agents even admitted a fondness for Bisher, according to Mr
Rawi: "Lee said, 'I can't help liking him.'"
Since his release, Mr Rawi says he has had to battle his demons.
"My mother and sister have been hit very hard," he adds. "They are crying all
the time and praying."
Mr Rawi's family fled to London from the Saddam regime in Iraq. "I have been
loyal to Britain," he says; but of the CIA agents, he adds: "To me, they're no
different to Saddam Hussein."
Mr Rawim, whose home is in London, is now in hiding in the north of England.
It is almost certain that the reason that he and the other men came under
suspicion was the links that three of them have with the British-based Muslim
cleric Abu Qatada.
He was arrested under anti-terrorism laws in London in October 2002, weeks
before Mr Rawi and the others were held in Gambia.
Mr Rawi had previously been stopped at London City airport when leaving for
Gambia on October 26 2002, and questioned about his relationship with Mr
Qatada.
"They said: 'Would you like to work for us?' I said no. They said: 'There is
good money in in for you'."
During his interrogation in Gambia, Mr Rawi says material from the now
detained Mr Qatada's interviews in Britain was put to him - further evidence,
he says, of collusion between Britain and the US.
"I saw no danger in knowing Abu Qatada. I know this person is incapable of
organising anything.
"I thought, if I know that, the security services will know that."
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CIA leak spotlight falls on career prosecutor used to working in
