PLAME INDICTMENTS #18 -HIGH CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS-Tip of the Iceberg

AMERICAN JUDAS -THE SELLING OF THE SECURITY OF AMERICAN & THE WORLD FOR 30 PIECES OF SILVER = Part 1

By Robert Paulsen & the DU Plame Think-Tank

Compiled From the Research by Posters on “The Plame Indictment Threads” At democraticunderground.com

A. Introduction

This paper is intended as a supplement to The Waterman Paper and an exploration into Goal #3: Why Cheney Exposed Plame.

It involves researching possible connections between businesses connected to Vice President Dick Cheney that may be associated with the sale of WMD components to countries in the Middle East and Asia.

In addition to reviewing known information regarding the “leaking” of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity and the nature of her work, there will be an overview of A.Q. Khan’s network of nuclear proliferation, a listing of compromising positions involving financial ties in Cheney’s past and finally an exploration into possible links connecting Cheney to nuclear proliferation markets for profit.


B. Valerie Plame’s “Sting Operation”

On July 14,2003, Robert Novak exposed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent in his syndicated column. He sourced his story to two senior White House officials. http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0602/p08s02-comv.html

It is important to understand that, as Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson says,“Compromising the officer means compromising a career, a network, and every person with who the officer might have ever worked. Slips of the tongue cost people their lives.”(The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson, p.13.)

What was the nature of this career, this network that was compromised? Joe Klein hints at the broad outlines of this nature. “Furthermore, there is intense anger over the White House’s revealing the identity of Plame, who may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components.”
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,11010 ... )

According to Wayne Madsen, the cover company that Plame was connected with was a CIA firm called Brewster,Jennings & Associates. “Active since 1994, Brewster-Jennings was instrumental in tracking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had agents or correspondents in a number of countries…Sensitive CIA operations that were compromised by the leak included companies, government officials, and individuals associated with the nuclear smuggling network of Pakistan’s chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer
Khan.”(http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/062504_grand_ ... )
Yet in spite of, or perhaps as a result of, the compromises resulting from the leak, the CIA helped expose Khan’s network, according to Newsweek.. It involves a CIA investigation into a company in Malaysia called Scomi connected with an A.Q. Khan “middleman” named Bukhari Sayed Abu Tahir. Last August, the company's name was found stamped in bold letters on five crates of centrifuge parts seized en route to Libya. Since then Scomi has been at the center of an international detective story that has uncovered an astonishing global nuclearweapons "black market." All of it leads back to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who fathered the underground network. In pursuit of both profits and a kind of Islamic nuclear parity, Khan passed on equipment and know-how to Iran and Libya, and made offers to Iraq and most recently Syria, officials say. Khan also helped North Korea's covert program.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )

Is it possible that Plame’s “sting operation” directly tracked and helped expose the nuclear proliferation network of A.Q. Khan? If so, why was Plame’s operation exposed from the White House? Joe Klein says, “’Only a very high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the payroll’ of the CIA, an
intelligence source told me.” (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,11010 ... )
And Mohamed El Baradei says A.Q. Khan is just the tip of the nuclear iceberg. “Dr. Khan was not working alone,” International
Atomic Energy Association chief Mohamed El Baradei told reporters, adding he had help from people in many countries. (http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_7-2 ... )

Could Cheney have had a financial relationship with the Nuclear Walmart, which would have provided a motive for exposing Plame’s operation? We shall explore this in sections D and E of this paper.

First it is important to understand what is currently known about A.Q. Khan’s network before we uncover Cheney’s connection with it.
The purpose of this examination is not intended as a comprehensive index of the network, but as an exploration into some of the more sinister elements of the network that led to relationships not only among state sponsors of terrorism, but to relationships with terrorist organizations themselves.

C. A.Q. Khan’s Nuclear Walmart

Nuclear experts are aghast at the size of the network, which extends from Switzerland to Japan to Dubai. Over 30 years, Khan put together what Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called "a veritable Wal-Mart" for nuclear-weapons buyers, a not-so-secret netherworld where proliferation meshed with globalization. Khan even held nuclear-related symposiums. "The horse is out of the barn. At this point, we can't stop the technology from spreading," says former Clinton official Gary Samore. One senior U.S. official told NEWSWEEK that Khan's role in destabilizing the 21st century will "loom up there" with Hitler's and Stalin's impact in the 20th. Even so, most of the A.Q. Khan network's key operatives will likely escape punishment, officials concede.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )

Who were some of the people and organizations connected with A.Q. Khan?

1. B.S.A. Tahir - The recent investigations into the clandestine nuclear proliferation activities of A.Q.Khan, the socalled
father of the Pakistan atom bomb, have revealed that Bukhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim of Indian origin, married in Malysia and with business interests in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, was one of the external kingpins of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear procurement network. In a speech at the National Defence University of Washington DC in February last, President Bush had described this Sri Lankan Tamilspeaking Muslim as the "chief financial officer and money-launderer" of A.Q.Khan's clandestine operations.(http://www.saag.org/papers11/paper1026.html )
As chief financial officer, B.S.A. Tahir played an important role in his connection with a Malaysian company called Scomi that will be explored in greater detail in section E of this paper.

2. Lashkar-e-Toiba - or LET is a terrorist group of Pakistan, consisting of Pakistani, Afghan and Arab cadres, headed by Pakistani office-bearers, with its headquarters at Muridke near Lahore. Its annual conventions at Muridke are attended, amongst others, by serving and retired officers of the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment, by serving and retired scientists of the Pakistani nuclear and missile establishment and by political leaders.
Amongst those, who regularly attend its annual conventions, are Lt. Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul and Lt.Gen.(retd) Javed Nasir, both former Directors-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan, the selfstyled father of the Pakistani atom bomb, Dr.Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the former scientist of the Pakistan
Atomic Energy Commission who was recently detained by the Pakistani authorities under US pressure for being in contact with bin Laden and Mohd.Rafique Tarar, former President of Pakistan.(http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper381.html )

To finance its day-to-day activities, the LeT leverages its contacts in Saudi Arabia as well as launches donation campaigns with overseas Pakistanis, especially middle class and wealthy Punjabis in Britain, Australia and the Middle East. According to Jane's Terrorism & Insurgency Centre, Osama bin Laden has also financed LeT activities until recently. The LeT, under its new name JuD, uses its outreach networks including schools, social service groups and religious publications to attract and brainwash recruits for jihad in Kashmir and other places.
(http://www.crikey.com.au/politics/2004/05/18-0003.html )

Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) has been showing increasing interest in taking jihad to the Muslims of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. The LET is very close to the ISI and it would not have taken its initial moves to explore the possibility of using Sri Lanka as a clandestine base for its activties and for creating sleeper cells there without the knowledge and prior clearance of the ISI(http://www.saag.org/papers11/paper1026.html ) Since
there is such a close relationship between ISI and this terrorist organization whose conventions ISI officials and A.Q. Khan attended, it is important to take a closer look at ISI, as well as another cited convention attendant, Dr. S.B. Mahmood, to uncover the relationship they share with al Qaeda and expose how their actions aided them.

a. Inter Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) The ISI plays a much more significant role in the Pakistani government than do its counterparts in other countries. Time Magazine has noted, "Even by the shadowy
standards of spy agencies, the ISI is notorious. It is commonly branded 'a state within the state,' or Pakistan's 'invisible government.'"

The ISI grew into its present form during the war between the Soviet Union and mujaheddin guerrillas in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The CIA thought the Afghan war could be Russia's own costly Vietnam War, and they funneled billions to the mujaheddin resistance to keep them a thorn in Russia's side. The strategy worked: Soviet soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, partly due to the costs of the war. But the costs to keep the mujaheddin fighting were staggering, with estimates ranging between $6 billion and $40 billion. While a substantial portion of this amount came from the CIA and the Saudi Arabian government,
who were both funneling the money through the ISI, much of the cost was deferred by Afghanistan's opium trade. Although the Afghan war has ended, the ISI has continued to profit from opium. In 1999, the United Nations Drug Control Programme estimated that the ISI was making around $2.5 billion annually from the sale of illegal drugs. The drug trade helped unite the ISI and Osama bin Laden, who was said to have taken a 15% cut of the Afghan drug trade money in exchange for protecting smugglers and laundering their profits. By 1994,
the Taliban, a group of Muslim radicals studying in Pakistan, began conquering Afghanistan. The Taliban had been recruited by the ISI and molded into a fanatical force that conquered Afghanistan's capital by 1996. CNN reported, "The Taliban are widely alleged to be the creation of Pakistan's military intelligence . Experts say that
explains the Taliban's swift military successes." The ISI didn't create the Taliban simply for strategic reasons; they shared the Taliban's extreme radical vision. As the Wall Street Journal remarked in November 2001,"Despite their clean chins and pressed uniforms, the ISI men are as deeply fundamentalist as any bearded fanatic; the ISI created the Taliban as their own instrument and still supports it."
The relationship between the US and the ISI is hard to fathom. On September 4, 2001, ISI Director Mahmood Ahmed arrived in Washington, D.C. On September 10, a Pakistani newspaper reported on the visit, saying that it had "triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council" as well as meetings with CIA Director George Tenet, unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon, and his "most important meeting" with Mark Grossman, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. In May 2001, both CIA Director George Tenet and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had visited South Asia. It's not known if they met with Mahmood or anyone else in the ISI, but according to credible news reports, Tenet had "unusually long" consultations with President Musharraf. It is also worth noting that Armitage is known for his "large circle of friends in the Pakistani military and ISI" as well as his connections to the Iran-Contra affair.

On the morning of September 11, Lt. Gen. Mahmood was at a breakfast meeting at the Capitol with the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, Senator Bob Graham (D) and Representative Porter Goss (R). The meeting was said to have lasted at least until the second plane hit the World Trade Center. Goss is a self-admitted 10-year veteran of the CIA's clandestine operations wing. Goss and
Graham were later the heads of the joint House-Senate investigation into the September 11 attacks, and Goss in particular made headlines for saying there was no "smoking gun" indicating that the government had sufficient foreknowledge to prevent the September 11 attacks.
(http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essays ... )

1) Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed - On October 7, 2001, Pakistani President Musharraf fired Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, the head of the ISI. The next day, some newspapers, mostly in India but also in Pakistan, shockingly said he was fired for his role in the 9/11 attacks. For instance, a Pakistani newspaper stated, "Lt. Gen. Mahmood Ahmed has been replaced after the FBI investigators established credible links between him and Umar Sheikh, one of the three militants released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked Indian Airlines plane in 1999... Informed sources said there were enough indications with the US intelligence agencies that it was at Gen. Mahmood's instruction that Sheikh had transferred 100,000 US dollars into the account of Mohammed Atta..."

In the US, surprisingly, the only mention was in a one short piece in the Wall Street Journal, mentioning that, "The US authorities ... confirm the fact that $100,000 wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan by Ahmad Umar Sheikh at the insistence of General Mahmood."
(http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essays ... )

2) Saeed Sheikh - He was born in Britain with the name Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh. In 1993 he emerged in Pakistan as a member of a militant group fighting for the liberation of Kashmir from India. Pakistan has been fighting India for years over control of Kashmir, and it appears Saeed was put on the ISI payroll around this
time, to help the Pakistani cause in Kashmir. In 1994, Saeed began training at a training camp in Afghanistan. He soon was teaching the classes. He developed close ties with al-Qaeda while training there. By the end of the year he was known as Osama bin Laden’s "favored son" or "my special son." Even more curiously, the Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review suggested in March 2002, "There are many in Musharraf's government who believe 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." (http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essays ... )

While this exploration may seem like a diversion from finding the answer to why Valerie Plame had her cover blown as a CIA agent, it is intended to illustrate that the network was so vast that many relationships overlapped, and the CIA was no stranger to the network. Now, getting back to the focus of Plame’s operation, WMD trafficking, here is a seemingly altruistic organization created by a Lashkar-e-Toiba convention attendant whose actions are worth noting.

b.Ummah Tameer-e-Nau (UTN) - Reconstruction of the Muslim Ummah, a non-governmental organization whose stated mission was to conduct relief work and investment in Afghanistan. It was established by two wellrespected Pakistani nuclear scientists, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood and Chaudiri Abdul Majeed. Not much is known about Majeed. But Mahmood had a long career in Pakistan's nuclear program and held a variety of senior positions. The Associated Press reported on October 24, 2001 that officials in the Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission (PAEC) said Mahmood had been a director for the nation's nuclear program and remained in key positions until his retirement. In publications, he is credited with playing a pioneering role in establishing the uranium enrichment project in Pakistan. Subsequently, Abdul Qadeer Khan took over and is known as the father
of Pakistan's uranium enrichment program. He ended his career as Director for Nuclear Power at the PAEC. For his outstanding contributions to Pakistan's nuclear program, he was awarded the prestigious Sitara-e-Imtiaz award by the President of Pakistan in March 1999. Mahmood is reported to have resigned from the PAEC in the spring of 1999 in protest of the government's willingness to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) after Pakistan conducted a series of underground tests in May 1998. There was also pressure put on Mahmood to resign. The New York Times reported that the United States wanted Mahmood removed after it learned that he had sympathies for Islamic militant groups, including the Taliban. Mahmood was often publicly supportive of the Taliban in Pakistan and in speeches at
universities said that the Taliban was a model for Pakistan. Even after September 11th, Mahmood remained supportive of the Taliban, addressing a gathering of intellectuals in mid-October 2001 where he proposed a three-month cease-fire to resolve the situation in Afghanistan. Senior Pakistani officials reportedly were
concerned because Mahmood had been vocally advocating extensive production of weapon-grade plutonium and uranium to help equip other Islamic nations with these materials. According to the Washington Post, however, Mahmood and Majeed admitted that they had long discussions with al Qaeda officials in August 2001 about nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Pakistani intelligence officials
told the Washington Post that they believe that the scientists used UTN partially as a cover to conduct secret talks with bin Laden. During repeated UTN visits to Afghanistan, UTN directors and members met with bin Laden, al Qaeda leaders, and Mullah Omar and discussed the development of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons; UTN has been linked to WAFA Humanitarian Organization and Al Rashid Trust, two other NGOs with ties to al Qaeda that have been designated as supporters of terrorism under Executive Order 13224.
During 2001, Mahmood met with Mullah Omar and bin Laden. During a follow-up meeting where bin Laden's associate indicated he had nuclear material and wanted to know how to use it to make a weapon, Mahmood provided information about the infrastructure needed for a nuclear weapon program and the effects of nuclear weapons; and after the fall of the Taliban regime, searches of UTN locations in Kabul yielded documents setting out a plan to kidnap a U.S. attaché and outlining basic nuclear physics related to nuclear weapons.
In the August 2001 meeting, Mahmood and his colleagues appear to have provided al Qaeda a road map to building nuclear weapons. This information is typically very helpful in understanding the steps that must be accomplished in making a nuclear weapon, identifying the necessary equipment and technology, and locating suppliers of key equipment. In addition, Mahmood and his colleagues appear to have recruited other scientists with more direct knowledge of making nuclear weapons. Transfer of sensitive nuclear weapons information could have happened in many ways. The scientists could have
provided direct assistance to al Qaeda's nuclear weapons program, including nuclear weapons and RDD information. They may have obtained secret documents during the course of their career that they passed to the Taliban or al Qaeda. They also could have been a "funnel" through which Pakistani nuclear weapons experts provided sensitive assistance, including documents or technical advice. The transfer of sensitive information by UTN officials or their colleagues may have occurred either in Pakistan or Afghanistan. UTN officials may have had another advantage. The success of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program depended on extensive illicit foreign procurement. Mahmood headed a large reactor project that also needed to import illicitly or secretly many items, including sensitive technology, materials, components, and manufacturing equipment. He and his colleagues must have had extensive information about procuring sensitive items for a
nuclear weapons program. Several UTN projects were aimed at reestablishing Afghanistan's manufacturing, scientific, and engineering capabilities in universities and industries. Projects focused on such reconstruction could have provided a convenient cover for importing sensitive items for WMD programs. Even if the procurement was illicit, a procurement effort is more likely to succeed if the exporting company believes it is sending items to a civil institution. Because many UTN projects were medical or humanitarian in nature, imports to these projects may have been exempt from the UN embargo on Afghanistan. Some nuclear dual-use equipment, such as vacuum furnaces, would have been hard to procure, especially for al Qaeda. The involvement of the Pakistani scientists may significantly eased the task of obtaining such equipment.

In late January 2002, Pakistan officials said that Pakistan decided not to press criminal charges against Mahmood and Majeed, despite concluding that the scientists violated a secrecy oath during trips to Afghanistan. The main reasons reported in the media were Pakistan's concern that a trial would cause further international
embarrassment and risk disclosure of nuclear secrets. (http://www.exportcontrols.org/pakscientists.html )

3. B.C.C.I. - BCCI was the largest criminal corporate enterprise ever, the biggest Ponzi scheme, the most pervasive money-laundering operation in history, the only bank - so far as anyone knows - that ran a brisk sideline business in both conventional and nuclear weapons, gold, drugs, turnkey mercenary armies, intelligence
and counterintelligence, shipping, and commodities from cement in the Middle East to Honduran coffee to Vietnamese beans.
Though it was fundamentally a financial fraud, BCCI itself was not a bank in any conventional sense. Or, more precisely, banking was only a part of the global organism, the ingeniously constructed platform from which its other lines of business were launched....
This "bank" possessed its very own diplomatic corps, intelligence network, and private army, its own shipping and commodities trading companies. And BCCI itself was so thoroughly enmeshed in the official affairs of Pakistan that it was often impossible to separate the two.
BCCI was bigger even than that: It was the unsettling next-stage evolution of the multinational corporation, the one the theorists had been predicting for years but which never seemed to be able to shed its sovereign boundaries. (General Motors and Mitsubishi are both good examples of this - huge companies with holdings and operations all over the world that nonetheless persist in being fundamentally American and Japanese entities.) In taking that step, BCCI became truly stateless and very nearly invisible to the authorities in each country where it did business.
{BCCI founder} Abedi had money to spare to underwrite the protocol department: In 1981 Ghulam Ishaq Khan granted BCCI a special tax-free status allowing Abedi to avoid tens of millions of dollars in taxes and to pour his huge Pakistan profits into one of his front companies and into Pakistan's atomic bomb project. Most of the millions that flowed through the foundation went to two uses: first, to investments - patently noncharitable - in a company called Attock Cement, owned by Abedi's associate and U.S. front man Ghaith Pharaon. The second beneficiary was something called the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology. According to its brochures, the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute trains young scientists and engineers.

The reality is a little more ominous . . . The director of the institute is Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man most closely linked with Pakistan's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. Khan, a German-trained metallurgist, once worked as a classified enrichment plant in
the Netherlands, where he gained access to key plans. So important is he to the Pakistani national interest that even his whereabouts are considered a national secret.http://www.the-catbird seat.net/BCCI.htm

Right from its inception, the clandestine nuclear and missile project in Pakistan were treated as a top secret intel op of the ISI to ensure deniability. All payments to the foreign suppliers were made not from the accounts of the Govt of Pakistan, but from private accounts in the BCCI, which collapsed in 1991, and other Dubai and
Geneva based banks. These accounts were opened by the Gokul brothers of Geneva, one of whom was jailed for cheating in the UK after the collapse of the BCCI; Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan’s present Finance Minister, who was working in the Gulf for the Citibank in the 1990s; Dawood Ibrahim, the mafia leader who was designated by the US as an intl terrorist in Oct; Dubai-based Pakistani smugglers, and AQ Khan and other trusted Pakistani scientists.(http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/nuclearjih ... )

Given that A.Q. Khan began his network from such sinister and corrupt beginnings, this next relationship should come as no surprise.

4. Osama bin Laden –The following is an excerpt from an investigation by the Kashmir Herald into several of A.Q. Khan’s travels to Africa.
He had kept the Pakistani Foreign Office informed of his travels. The Foreign Office had instructed the Pakistani diplomatic missions in the countries visited by him to accord the due honours of protocol to him. In all the countries, he was received by officers of the Pakistani diplomatic missions and entertained by the heads of missions. In Sudan, he was accorded the honours of protocol generally given to a member of the Cabinet and called on the President of the country.

He was accompanied by senior serving scientists of Pakistan's nuclear establishment, who were among those responsible for Pakistan's military nuclear development. They could not have gone abroad and remained absent for days without the knowledge and clearance of the Government. At least one Lt.Gen. belonging to the Pakistan Army's Medical Corps, who had headed it, and two Brigadiers had accompanied him. They could not have gone and remained away from the country without the knowledge and clearance of the Military Headquarters.

The uranium enriched at KRL, Kahuta, used to come from Africa, mainly Niger. This partly explains the frequent travels of A.Q.Khan to Africa. From the accounts given by the Pakistani author, two intriguing questions arise:

Why did Khan consider it necessary to visit the site of a factory in Sudan, which became the target of US Cruise missile attacks after the explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam by Al Qaeda in August 1998? The Americans had alleged at that time that this factory belonged to Osama bin Laden and was producing chemicals for weaponisation purposes. Denying this, the Sudanese authorities had claimed that it was producing anti-malaria drugs.

Why was he visiting frequently Timbuktu, which has apparently no importance from the nuclear point of view? Pakistani officials have alleged that he had illegally constructed a hotel there ( Hotel La Colombe?) in the name of his wife. If he was going there to supervise the construction of the hotel, he should have been accompanied by experts in building construction and the hotel industry. No such person accompanied him. He was always accompanied by scientists and Army officers associated with KRL and Tahir Mian, who was helping him in the procurement of centrifuges. It is reliably learnt from well-placed observers that it also came out during the recent interrogation of the associates of Khan in Pakistan's nuclear establishment that after Osama bin Laden shifted from Khartoum to
Afghanistan in 1996, Dr.Khan was also looking after bin Laden's extensive investments in the mining industry in
many African countries and that the money invested in the Timbuktu hotel had come from these investments of bin Laden. The Pakistani authorities have reportedly suppressed this information and not shared it with the US. (http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/khanandbin ... )

This investigation has yielded some amazing information. In addition to widespread government cooperation with the network that has not been reported to the US, A.Q. Khan obtained uranium from Africa, mainly from Niger, where Valerie Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, discovered the evidence that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium there was a forgery. Most frightening is the extent of Khan’s relationship with bin Laden, apparently trusted enough to look after bin Laden’s investments in Africa. Only time will tell how much bin Laden profited, both in monetary terms and in expanding al Qaeda’s WMD potential, from the generosity of Khan’s nuclear Walmart.

5. Unnamed U.S. Firm - More than 20 firms - including at least one American company - have supplied rogue nations seeking nuclear arms, marking the first time a U.S. company has been linked to the black market network.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director GeneralMohamed ElBaradei, who is heading a probe into the illicit sales, avoided specifics on the locations of the companies in an interview with The Associated Press Friday. But a senior diplomat said at least one was in the United States - the first time in five months of investigations
by the U.N. nuclear agency that an American company has been implicated in the black market network headed by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Kahn.
(http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=r ... )

What American company would possibly have had the means and the motive to risk potentially treasonous activity by profiting off black market nuclear proliferation to terrorist organizations and their state sponsors?

In the next two sections, an examination into the motives of why Dick Cheney, through his association with Halliburton, would have wanted a sting operation focused on A.Q. Khan’s nuclear Walmart terminated will be conducted, as well as an exploration into how the profits from such a treacherous enterprise could possibly have been laundered.

D. Compromising Positions in Cheney's Past

1. Cheney helped cover-up Pakistani nuclear proliferation in 1989 so US could sell country fighter jets. - When Pakistan's clandestine program involving its top nuclear scientist selling rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, blueprints for building an atomic bomb was uncovered last month, the world's leaders waited, with baited
breath to see what type of punishment George W. Bush would inflict upon Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff. Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the
means to build WMD. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description. Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMD, which was the primary reason he gave for the
United States launching a preemptive strike on that country a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have
given its WMD to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S.

Bush,Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan's proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act.

In fact, it was actually a coverup designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.

Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan's sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S. nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen. In 1989, the year Khan first started selling nuclear secrets on the black-market; Richard Barlow, a young intelligence analyst working for the Pentagon prepared a shocking report for Cheney, who was then secretary of defense under the Bush I
administration: Pakistan built an atomic bomb and was selling its nuclear equipment to countries the US. said was sponsoring terrorism. But Barlow's findings, as reported in a January 2002 story in Mother Jones magazine, were "politically inconvenient."

"A finding Pakistan possessed a nuclear bomb would have triggered a congressionally mandated cutoff of aid to the country, a key ally in the CIA's efforts to support Afghan rebels fighting a pro-Soviet government. It also would have killed a $1.4-billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad," Mother Jones reported. Ironically,
Pakistan, critics say, was let off the hook last month so the U.S. could use its borders to hunt for al-Qaeda leader and alleged 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Cheney dismissed Barlow's report because he desperately wanted to sell Pakistan the F-16 fighter planes. Several months later, a Pentagon official was told by Cheney to downplay Pakistan's nuclear capabilities when he testified on the threat before Congress. Barlow complained to his bosses at the Pentagon and was fired.
(http://www.pakistanfacts.com/article.php/2004031621042 ... )

During the time that Barlow prepared his report on Pakistan, Bryan Siebert an Energy Department analyst, was looking into Saddam Hussein's nuclear program in Iraq. Siebert concluded that "Iraq has a major effort under way to produce nuclear weapons," and said that the National Security Council should investigate his findings. But the Bush administration—which had been supporting Iraq as a counterweight to the Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran—ignored the report, the magazine reported. "This was not a failure of intelligence," Barlow told Mother Jones. "The intelligence was in the system." (http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031004Leop ... )

Cheney went to great lengths to cover-up Pakistan's nuclear weaponry. In a New Yorker article published on March 29, 1993, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh quoted Barlow as saying that some high-ranking
members inside the CIA and the Pentagon lied to Congress about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal so as not to sacrifice the sale of the F-16 fighter planes to Islamabad, which was secretly equipped to deliver nuclear weapons. Pakistan's nuclear capabilities and had become so grave by the spring of 1990 that then CIA deputy director Richard Kerr said the Pakistani nuclear threat was worse than the
Cuban Missile crisis in the 1960s. "It was the most dangerous nuclear situation we have ever faced since I've been in the U.S. government," Kerr said in an interview with Hersh. "It may be as close as we've come to a nuclear exchange. It was far more frightening than the Cuban missile crisis."

Still, in 1989 Cheney and others in the Pentagon and the CIA continued to hide the reality of Pakistan's nuclear threat from members of Congress. Hersh explained in his lengthy New Yorker article that reasons behind the cover-up "revolves around the fact . . . that the Reagan Administration had dramatically aided Pakistan in its pursuit of the bomb."
(http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?040119fr_arch ... )

In addition to these three sources that corroborate the fact that Cheney knew about A.Q. Khan’s network and rather than report it, chose to profit through sales to Pakistan of fighter jets that could deliver nuclear weapons, Cheney was caught on another case of nuclear proliferation.

2. Halliburton fined $1.2 million in 1995 for selling dual-use nuclear equipment to Libya. - Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties.

During his chairmanship of Halliburton, Cheney criticized U.S. sanctions against "rogue" nations such as Iran and Libya in a 1998 speech. According to a July 26, 2000, Washington Post story, Cheney complained the sanctions "are nearly always motivated by domestic political pressure, the need for Congress to appeal to some domestic
constituency."
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/article ... )

3. Current criminal probe - - A grand jury issued a subpoena to oil field services company Halliburton Co. seeking information about its Cayman Islands unit's work in Iran, where it is illegal for U.S. companies to operate, Halliburton said on Monday.The company,formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, said it understood the investigation of its subsidiary's work in Iran had been transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice from the Treasury Department,which first initiated an inquiry in 2001.(http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&s ... )

4. Existing Halliburton ties to Vice President Dick Cheney – Rather than crack down on Halliburton, however, the Bush administration's Energy Task Force, which was headed by Cheney, presented a draft report in April 2001 saying the United States should reevaluate the sanctions against Iran, Iraq, and Libya that prohibited U.S. oil companies from “some of the most important existing and ‘prospective’ petroleum-producing countries in the
world.” Cheney asserted there was no conflict on his part because “Since I left Halliburton to become George Bush’s vice president, I’ve severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest.” Cheney neglected to mention that he was still due approximately $500,000 in deferred compensation from Halliburton and could potentially profit from his 433,333 shares of unexercised Halliburton stock options. A Congressional Research Service report requested by Senate Democrats concluded that unexercised stock options in a private corporation, as well as deferred salary received from a private corporation, were “retained
ties” or “linkages” to a former employer and should be reported as “financial interests.”(House of Bush House of Saud by Craig Unger, p. 225.)

Since Halliburton continues to engage in business practices with state sponsors of terrorism and Cheney continues to profit from it, all that is left to do is, in the words of Deep Throat, “Follow the money.”

The proceeding section uses circumstantial evidence to show a relationship between several individuals and companies through which the unnamed US firm in Khan’s nuclear Walmart,presumably Halliburton, profited from nuclear proliferation.

E. Links in the Chain Connecting Cheney with Nuclear Proliferation]/b]

1. B.S.A. Tahir – Remember this man from Section C? This associate of A.Q. Khan who was identified by President Bush in a speech as the nuclear Walmart’s"chief financial officer and money launderer. "
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )
BSA TAHIR, a SRI LANKAN businessman based in DUBAI was a trusted and close confidante of A. Q. Khan and was actively involved in supplying centrifuge components for Libya's uranium-enrichment program. BSA TAHIR,who was involved in the business of SCOMI PRECISION ENGINEERING SDN BHD (SCOPE). He used the company to produce components for the centrifuge unit for the uranium enrichment program.

However, investigations have revealed that the components, on their own, cannot form a complete centrifuge unit. In this context, it has to be noted that SCOPE is a subsidiary of SCOMI GROUP BHD, i.e. a company involved in the petroleum services industry. As a subsidiary, SCOPE is also involved in precision engineering services, which involves the production of components for a variety of equipments
including parts for cars, petroleum and gas. This makes evident that SCOPE could not be labeled as a company directly involved in nuclear proliferation.
Furthermore, the supply of components by middlemen was carried out in a discreet manner and involved suppliers from other countries to blur the sources of the components. Some of the suppliers were believed to be aware that these components could be for uranium enrichment centrifuges. Generally these suppliers mostly from Europe were those who had dealings with the nuclear expert since the 1980s, at a time when PAKISTAN was developing its nuclear technology. There were a number of individuals and companies which supplied the components but were unaware of the implications because some of the components were similar to components used in oil drilling, water treatment and equipment for several other general use.(http://icssa.org/Nuclear_Malaysia.htm )

Which companies could possibly have been connected with the suppliers that helped blur the source of the components?
Amazingly, a connection between Scomi and Halliburton can be established with only one other company serving as a buffer between the two: Cognis.

a. Cognis – Service specialist Scomi Group Bhd, is offering multinational oil and gas companies a special fluid to
make offshore drilling friendlier to the sea and its inhabitants. Scomi, together with German chemicals specialist, Cognis Gmbh, offers ester-based drilling fluid derived from palm kernel oil. The agreement is between Scomi’s wholly-owned Kota Minerals & Chemicals Sdn Bhd (KMC) and Cognis’ 50%-owned unit, Cognis Oleochemicals (M) Sdn Bhd.
(http://www.mida.gov.my/beta/news/view_news.php?id=398 )

Sounds like a perfectly benign, perhaps even altruistic enterprise. How is this company connected with Halliburton? It’s through collaboration with one of Halliburton’s subsidiary companies,Baroid.

b. Baroid – The drilling fluids containing esters based on renewable natural resources are developed by Cognis in collaboration with Baroid, the drilling fluids service company within the Halliburton Energy Services Group.
(http://bbriefings.com/cdps/cditem.cfm?NID=252&CID=10&CF ... )

To reiterate the serpentine link, A.Q. Khan's financial officer (money launderer) was B.S.A. Tahir. Tahir used Scomi to produce components for the centrifuge unit for the uranium enrichment program. Scomi, through its company KMC, worked with Cognis Oleochemicals. Cognis is connected with Baroid (part of the Halliburton Group). But the extent of Halliburton/Cheney profiting from nuclear proliferation does not stop there. And Cheney is not the only member of the Bush administration to profit from it.

2. Donald Rumsfeld - Rumsfeld was on ABB board during deal with North Korea. The Swiss-based ABB on Friday told swissinfo that Rumsfeld was involved with the company in early 2000, when it netted a $200 million (SFr270million) contract with Pyongyang. The ABB contract was to deliver equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, on North Korea’s east coast. Rumsfeld – who is one of the Bush administration’s most strident “hardliners” on North Korea – was a member of ABB’s board between 1990 and February 2001, when he left to take up his current post. Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB, told swissinfo that Rumsfeld “was at nearly all the board meetings” during his decade-long involvement with the
company.
(http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=10 ... )

It's a well-known fact--oft detailed in this column--that the boys in the Bush Regime swing both ways. We speak, of course, of their proclivity--their apparently uncontrollable craving--for stuffing their trousers with loot from both sides of whatever war or military crisis is going at the moment. That's why it came as no surprise to read last week that just before he joined the Regime's crusade against
evildoers everywhere (especially rogue states that pursue the development of terrorist-ready weapons of mass destruction), Pentagon warlord Donald Rumsfeld was trousering the proceeds from a $200 million deal to send the latest nuclear technology--including plenty of terrorist-ready "dirty bomb" material--to the rogue state of
North Korea, Neue Zurcher Zeitung reports.

In 1998, Rumsfeld was citizen chairman of the Congressional Ballistic Missile Threat Commission, charged with reducing nuclear proliferation . Rumsfeld and the Republican-heavy commission came down hard on the deal Bill Clinton had brokered with North Korea to avert a war in 1994: Pyongyang would give up its nuclear weapons
program in exchange for normalized relations with the United States, plus the construction of two nonweaponized nuclear plants to generate electricity. The plants were to be built by an international consortium of government-backed business interests called KEDO.
Whatever happened to Bush's much-trumpeted "era of responsibility?"

These guys are not only chiselers, hustlers, hypocrites and war profiteers--they're a bunch of gutless wonders as well. So you'll pardon us if we are just the tiniest bit cynical about the "moral arguments for war" and other such buckets of warm spit this gang is
now forcing down the world's throat.(http://www.counterpunch.org/floyd03042003.html )

It’s bad enough for Rumsfeld to profit off selling nuclear equipment to North Korea. But it doesn’t end there, the organizations
involved in this transaction link back to Halliburton once again.

a. KEDO - ABB, which was already building eight nuclear reactors in South Korea, had an inside track on the $4 billion U.S.-sponsored North Korea project. The firm was told "our participation is essential, " recalls Frank Murray, project manager for the reactors. (He plays the same role now at Westinghouse, which was acquired by Britain's BNFL in 1999, a year before it also bought ABB's nuclear power business.) The North Korean reactors are being primarily funded by South Korean and Japanese export-import banks and supervised by KEDO, a consortium based in New York. "It was not a matter of favoritism," says Desaix Anderson, who ran KEDO from 1997 to 2001."It was just a practical matter. "(www.worldmessenger.20m.com/news4.html )

b. KNOC - The KEDO (Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization) is the official Korean government energy corporation. By reading their 2001 energy development summary one can make out all the myriad
countries that contribute to KEDO. North Korea lacks necessary production facilities to drill and test for its oil. It is reaching out to many firms and countries to help them while the government attempts to develop some oil fields with as much capital as it can muster. A Singapore firm recently announced (August 29, 2002) significant oil and gas reserves in North Korea. Additionally, Halliburton has partnered with KNOC to develop offshore drilling platforms in South Korea.(www.rmfdevelopment.com/political/NorthKoreaOil.htm )

Yet another serpentine link through which money could be laundered into the willing hands of Halliburton.

Rumsfeld-ABB-KEDO-KNOC-Halliburton.
But were these links completely separate, or is it possible that there were any other companies besides Halliburton involved with both links of possible proliferation profits? One company not previously mentioned has relationships with companies on both links.

3. Goldman Sachs – a lucrative investment firm that is listed quite prominently as one of the main investors in Cognis on their website.(http://www.cognis.com/framescout.html?/company/company .... )

Also there is a link with Donald Rumsfeld to two organizations, Bilderberg and ABB through the chairman of Goldman Sachs,General Peter Sutherland from Ireland.

Some of the Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend Bilderberg. Rumsfeld is an active Bilderberger. So is General Peter Sutherland from Ireland, a former European Union commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs and of BP. Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of the Swedish/Swiss energy company ABB.
( http://www.factindex.com/b/bi/bilderberg_group.html )

These links are not in and of themselves direct proof of the laundering of nuclear proliferation profits. But they are proof of a relationship between these companies sharing common goals, through which individuals involved in nuclear proliferation, and there were many in these companies, could operate their network covertly.

F. Conclusions and Recommendations – To conclude, this paper asserts that Dick Cheney is directly responsible for the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name that resulted in sabotaging her CIA career and her cover company,Brewster, Jennings & Associates. CIA operations that were compromised by the leak were associated with A.Q.Khan’s network of nuclear smuggling. Khan’s network, vast enough to be dubbed by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei a “nuclear Walmart”, was examined here for the connections it has with terrorist organizations and state sponsors, as well as areas in which the CIA could have been following their activities.

It proves conclusively that Dick Cheney knew about A.Q. Khan’s nuclear Walmart as early as 1989, and chose not to expose the network but to profit from it, which gives him the strongest motive to blow Valerie Plame’s cover.

State sponsors of terror that were proven recipients of Cheney’s nuclear proliferation include Pakistan, Libya and possibly Iran. The links between Khan and Cheney involved suppliers from other countries designed to blur the source of the components, but research concludes individuals affiliated with collaborative companies such as Cognis and their investor Goldman Sachs would be the most obvious links in the chain.

Such links also exist in the case of Donald Rumsfeld profiting through ABB’s $200 million sale of nuclear equipment to North
Korea, which would prove that Halliburton profited from this example of nuclear proliferation as well.

The main recommendation to all who read this is to spread the word. Anyone who reads this who is in a positionto investigate this matter further, whether as an activist, investigative reporter or government official, should do so with care and thoroughness. The names and organizations listed in the paper should,with a proper investigation, lead to more damaging evidence that will help solve the crime and establish justice.

That is perhaps the most important aspect of this case to remember, that regardless of the prestige and power connected with the parties involved, this is a criminal investigation. It is hoped that no matter what your political persuasion is, that as a law abiding citizen, you stand with us in condemnation of the exposure of Valerie
Plame’s identity as a CIA agent as a highly criminal act, and join us in the pursuit of justice for the perpetrators.
______________________________________________________________________

...I downloaded a copy in Word (14 pages ) I'll re-read more carefully later. Thanks for your efforts.

use it and let them know you want judicial hearings and
criminal charges brought against these people who have
been committing treason against the US for more than 20
years while inside the government.

THE DANGER TO THE CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY BY Waterman Jul-25-04


The Revolutionary Presidency vs The Bill of Rights


1) Introduction

This paper will examine the dangers to constitutional democracy posed by the Bush Administration. It will review the concepts of separation of federal powers, the practice of the balancing of those powers, and scrutinize several areas where Bush/Cheney have corrupted this constitutional system that our democracy is based upon.

This paper will focus primarily on how the growing menace of an Imperial Presidency of the Nixon era has become the threatening reality of the Revolutionary Presidency today.

2) The Balance of Powers

A- The theories behind the constitutional democracy of the United States are the "distinctive American contribution(s) to the art of government." (The Imperial Presidency; Schelsinger; pg vii)

The idea of the 13 Colonies forming a confederate federal state came directly from meetings between Founding Fathers, primarily Ben Franklin, and the Grand Council of the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. Jefferson was influenced by the Iroquois' concepts of the freedoms of individuals; these, along with the contributions of progressive European thought (found primarily in France), led to the Bill of Rights.

However, in European history, governments had assumed a unified authority that allowed them to control, and deny, basic human rights to citizens of the state. Jefferson and Madison and others created the more perfect union, which allowed citizens to control the government through a series of checks and balances implied in the separation of powers on the federal level.

B- The three branches of the federal government are the executive, legislative, and judiciary. These three are intended to form a balanced triangle. The separation of powers is not intended to make all three to be locked into an equal status; rather, it offers checks and balances that creates an inertia that keeps any one branch from assuming unlimited powers. The goal, according to Justice Brandis (Myers v US 1926) is "not to promote efficiency, but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power."

The executive, or the office of the president, has the implied power to provide leadership in emergency situations. In our early history, from the Revolutionary to the Civil War, this power was used only to respond to threats to the safety of citizens ( re: pirate attacks, which generally came from Tripoli, and which share important parallels with today's situation) and wars with foreign nations.

In these cases, these emergency powers were onlyintended for a brief period, before congressional controls took over. The Senate is the seat of the actual war powers. Further, according to Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, "The House of Representatives ... forms the grand inquest of the state. They will dilegently inquire into grievences, arising both from men and things." (Grand Inquest; New York; 1961; pgs 22-30)

C- The history of democracy has been imperfect in the United States. The most basic rights have been denied to both groups and individuals, based upon their sex, age, race, and religion. Issues including gay marriage show that we still have a long way to go.

Yet, for all of its faults, our constitutional democracy has shown the greatest of promise. The efforts of each generation of Americans has brought us closer to providing the rights of free people to a larger, more inclusive population. This is a great nation.

From the Revolutionary to the Civil War was known as the "Golden Age" of the congress.Also, the sequence of presidents, and the series of federal courts moved the nation towards the promise of the Founding Fathers, found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The reasons were found not only in those great documents, but in that separation and balance of powers at the federal level. These insured the Bill of Rights was a living entity. In fact, while many today note that President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil war, there "was no effective censorship, no Sedition Act, no Espiionage Act." (Schlesinger; pg 335)

However, after the Civil War, changes in the economy which were a result of the change from an agrarian to industrial national base, led directly to unprecedented influence of business on the national politics. This new level of extreme corruption led Mark Twain to refer to the phenomenon as the "Gilded Age" of politics.

It is important to note that all of industry would be connected, either directly or indirectly, to the production of oil. By 1870, all of the economies of the industrialized nations were based on oil. The significance of this is explored in greater detail in the book, "Farewell America."

D- Business interest rapidly became central to the decision-making processes of (1) citizens electing officials to the legislative and executive branches; and (2) the domestic and foreign policies of those elected officials in both branches. While the federal courts are defined as the branch that is supposed to "do the least harm to democracy," the changes in the executive and legislative branches created changes in the judiciary, just as surely as the pulling of two sides of a triangular mobile suspende above the crib of democracy.

Thus: (1) the president begins to increasingly dominate the legislative process; (2) the congress increasingly delegates its authority to the president; and (3) the federal courts tend to become "activist" to offset congressional impotence. And despite the best of intentions, and while acknowledging the value of many progressive decisions, the federal courts should not be "activist," as the dangers posed by current federal courts demonstrate.

3) Threats to our Constitutional Democracy

The deteriorative influences of business interests on the separation of federal powers accelerated during WW2. If we examine the relationship of the competition of the world economy on American political life, we can note a progression in the executive branch (including FDR, Truman, Ike, JFK, & LBJ) moving towards the Imperial Presidency of the Nixon Era. The two areas where this threat to our constitutional democracy were concentrated were (a) the war powers, and (b) secrecy. (Schlesinger)

The history of the war powers in terms of the president responding to a threat to the nation's security evolved significantly after WW2. This was due to the influence of the military industrial complex. All American foreign policy, with the exception of some initial attempts by JFK which ended on 11-22-1963, equated the access to foreign resources with national security, and domestic security with bureaucratic secrecy.

This was in opposition to the 64th Federalist Paper, in which John Jay interpreted the Constitution to recognize but two needs for federal secrecy: (1) diplomatic negotiations, and (2) intelligence.

Democracy by its very nature demands the disclosure of information by all three branches of government. Even among the widely varying opinions of the Founding Fathers, there was complete agreement that the free diffusion of information was vital to insure a stable federal government.

Yet as the executive branch created an elastic definition of "national security," the presidents began a more undemocratic relationship with the bureaucracies of the military indistrial complex. And the instinct of bureaucracy is "to increase the superiority of the professionally informed by keeping their knowledge and intentions secret." (Max Weber: Essays in Sociology; Grath & Mills; New York; 1946)

4) External Threats to our Constitutional Democracy

The external threats to the USA from WW2 to the prsent tend to fit into three groups: the Nazi/ Axis powers; the communist menace; and the Islamic terrorist/"axis of evil" group of today. With the exceptions of Pearl Harbor and 9-11, all defined threats to our national interest tended to be defined as occuring in other countries, either to American business interests, or to trading partners. The cultural implications of Pearl Harbor and 9-11 are obvious.

Another external threat to our national security has become known to a large segment of our population through a cultural phenomenon, Michael Moore's movie "F 9-11." The threat is posed by foreign investments going beyond a few acres of land, or shares in a corporate stock. F 9-11 demonstrates clearly that a significant segment of our economy is controlled by foreign governments. One, for example, is Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal family shows no appreciation for constitutional democracy.

Moore's movie demonstrates that the Saudi royal family is able to compromise the balance of powers in our federal government. Their influence with the Bush administration has stopped a serious investigation into what role they played in the 9-11 attack on the USA; allows them to manipulate what information becomes known to the American public; and interferes with the legal system, when James Baker represents the Saudis in a court action filed by the families of 9-11 victims.

5) The Revolutionary Presidency

The danger to our constitutional democracy could be measured in 2003 by the following: (a) the Bush administration was comprised almost exclusively by people with ties to business that define "conflicts of interest;" (b) both houses of congress, if not impotent, had at least agreed to a legislative abstinence of duty; the only elected representitives who attempted to stand up to the executive were from "minority" populations; and (c) the US Supreme Court had disgraced the judicial institution with its 2000 selection of Bush for president, based entirely upon political and economic interests.

The dangers of an imperial presidency pales in comparison to the current threat posed by the revolutionary presidency. Consider that: (a) George Bush has become the most absolute monarch of any world power in today's world. Add to that the fact that VP Cheney has more concentrated power than any dictator in world history, including Mao Tse-tung; (b)the congress is divided and weakened. The Senate has lost any control over the White House urge for increased war-making, and the House of Representatives no longer enquires into grievences, unless they concern issues such as oral sex rather than Enron, 9-11, the Plame exposure, or the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of black citizens in Florida; and (c) the idea of 13 Colonies demanding freedom of speech is disgraced by 13 states having "libel" laws making it illegal to express concerns about food farms, or the safety of related "agro-business" food products. (Crimes Against Nature; Robery Kennedy, Jr)

6) You Reap What You Sow

The Bush administration rules through fear, the "threats" to national security that they define, through manipulating the 9-11 national emergency, and through secrecy. Their policies pose a threat to individual liberties in order to benefit business interests, and they are the greatest threat to constitutional democracy today. The extent of this threat is exposed by a series of books associated with John Dean, Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Robery Kennedy, Jr., and many others. It is also exposed to grass-roots America by the movie "F 9-11."

The reaction of the administration is to attempt to discredit the individuals involved in exposing the political corruption of this administration. This is not a new tactic. Before the FBI focused on Martin Luther King's sex life, before the COINTELPRO operations of the 1960s and '70s, we remember the efforts of two congressional leaders in the mid-50s. Senator Thomas Hennings, Jr. and Rep. John Moss questioned the bureaucratic secrecy that threatened the democratic system, by discussing why the government labled a Pentagon study of the bow & arrow ("Silent Flashless Weapons") as "top secret."
They were accused of threatening national security.

This administration and its corporate sponsors, including the news media, are involved in a similar campaign to discredit critics. This campaign includes Ambassador Joseph Wilson. (see Plame Indictment Threads #1-12)

An unintended consequence of the high level of bureaucratic secrecy is that it leads to no respect for individual secrecy. This is evident from a reading of the Patriot Act: things like medical and library records, which should be protected by the US Constitution, are no longer private.

Further, the exposure of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative stands as the moststark example of the administration's contempt for the rights to privacy implied by the Constitution.

7) Conclusion

At the time of the American Revolution, the "founding fathers" met in secret. They were almost exclusively from the "upper class," and needed to keep their actions secret from King George. While they may have spoken more openly as individuals, their group efforts were not known to the upper class, including the newspapers of the day.

However, the middle class and the poor spread the word. They were aware of King George's spies, so they spread the word on a democratic underground. It took root -- and grass roots democracy has been the most important part of the foundation for this country ever since. The grass roots are more powerful than those three branches of the federal government.

We're in similar circumstances today. Our president is no more in favor of democracy than old King George was. We have two chances of kicking him out of power. The most obvious is the election in November. But there's also the Plame Indictments.

If there is any life breath in the balance of powers, the legislative and judiciary must do their jobs. This is a criminal outfit. There are now numerous "upper class" people organizing to hold this administration liable for their crimes. It's not just democrats hoping to reclaim the presidency in 2004. It's a wide range of citizens who know that Bush and Cheney intend to fully destroy the constitutional democracy we should enjoy.

You and I aren't meeting in their secret get-togethers. We're that grass-roots democratic power. Our primary job is to continue to educate the public, register voters, and increase participation in those treasures defined by the Bill of Rights. Please work to spread the message about the Plame Indictments. We've seen a preview of the administration's late summer counter-offensive.

Let's expose them as totally offensive.

Thank you,
H2O Man

The Waterman Paper (Plame Affair - High Crimes & Misdemeanors)

The Waterman Paper (as published on the Home Page of Democratic Underground)

The Waterman Paper
By H2O Man


This paper examines the possibility that Vice President Dick Cheney orchestrated the "leaking" of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to the news media in the summer of 2003, in order to accomplish three goals.

These include (1) to punish Joseph Wilson for challenging "16 words" in President Bush's 1-28-03 State of the Union address; and (2) to intimidate other sources from publicly challenging the White House's version of events involving the "war on terrorism" and the US invasion of Iraq. Both of these goals are well-known from numerous reports on this White House scandal.

The other, (3) is that VP Cheney was attempting to derail an investigation that Plame may have been involved in at the time that her identity was exposed. This third potential goal has not been the subject of any major media attention.
The author of this paper put it forward on an internet forum, the Democratic Underground, in early July, 2004. The resulting eleven DU "threads," which consist of over 3,000 posts from interested citizens across the country, is the only known forum debating this theory.

Besides the eleven DU "Plame Indictment" threads, the information in this paper comes from the following four sources: The Politics of Truth, by Joseph Wilson; Worse Than Watergate, by John Dean; Don't Tread on Joseph Wilson, NYT book review by John Dean on 5-23-04; and Plenty to Swear About, by Joe Klein, Time, 7-5-04.

Time Line

While the case involving Wilson's investigation in Niger, and the White House's efforts to expose Plame is long and complicated, this paper will focus on a "time line" established by Wilson in his book.

1. Jan '02: The first reports of a Niger-Iraq uranium connection surface in the White House.

2. Feb '02: Wilson is asked to investigate by the CIA.

3. March '02: Wilson returns from Niger and briefs the CIA on the investigation. His conclusion supports those of two others that there was no Niger-Iraq connection.

4. Jan '03: Bush includes the "16 words" in his State of the Union address.

5. On or about March 5, '03: the CIA gives VP Cheney an oral report, informing him of Wilson's conclusions.

6. March 7, '03: the IAEA announces the US's documents on Niger-Iraq are forgeries.

7. March 8, '03: (a) a State Department spokesperson admits, "We fell for it" in regard to the forged document; (b) Wilson tells CNN that the State Department has more information on the subject; and (c) a workshop meeting is held in VP Cheney's office. It is attended by top republican officials, possibly including Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Newt Gingrich. The group discusses ways to discredit Wilson.

8. June 8, '03: Condoleeza Rice denies knowledge of the weakness of the Niger uranium claim on Meet The Press. She states, "Maybe someone down in the bowels of the Agency knew about this, but nobody in my circles."

9. July 6, '03: Wilson's NYT op-ed is published. By the following day, two senior White House officials began contacting at least six reporters, informing them of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA operative.

10. July 8, '03: Reporter Robert Novak tells a complete stranger on a Washington street: "Wilson's an asshole. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She's a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." In the following days, Novak would ask the CIA for confirmation of Plame's identity. He was asked not to print her name or identity in any article regarding Wilson.

11. July 14, '03: Novak's article exposes Plame.

12. July 20, '03: NBC's Andrea Mitchell tells Wilson that senior White House officials told her that the "real story" was not the 16 words, but was Wilson and his wife.

13. July 21, '03: NBC's Chris Matthews tells Wilson that Karl Rove called him and said," Wilson's wife is fair game." Matthews said he would confirm that if asked.

This time line indicates that while the exposing of Plame's identity was a result of Wilson's op-ed, it was also part of a larger strategy that had been planned in VP Cheney's office since March 8. It clearly confirms goal #1: by exposing Plame, and putting her safety at risk, the White House had severely punished Joseph Wilson.
It also supports goal #2: the White House had a strategy to intimidate any other potential intelligence operatives from exposing the administration for distorting information regarding Iraq.

Likewise, the exposing of Plame supports goal #3: exposing Plame put an immediate end to any activities that Plame was participating in at the time. This is supported by Wilson (pg 345): "She immediately began to prepare a checklist of things she needed to do to minimize the fall-out to the projects she was working on."

Also, Wilson notes: "Compromising the officer means compromising a career, a network, and every person with who the officer might have ever worked. Slips of the tongue cost people their lives." (pg 13)

The Leakers' Identities

Robert Novak sourced his story to two senior White House officials. Other reporters, including Andrea Mitchell, made mention of the two unidentified senior White House officials. These two are among the at least six reporters contacted by these two officials.
Chris Matthew's call identifies Karl Rove as being involved in the efforts to make "Wilson's wife ... fair game." This call took place after the calls from the senior officials to the six reporters.
Wilson's book indicates a belief that the two senior officials were Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Eliot Abrams. Abrams is no stranger to White House disgrace, having been convicted on two charges during the Iran-Contra scandal.

There is evidence the three were operating with the knowledge of, and perhaps under the direction of VP Cheney. The March 8 "workshop" in VP Cheney's office indicates that this was a long-standing, well-organized effort to discredit Wilson. As Wilson notes (pg 387) : "... a plan to attack me had been formed before the moment. It was cocked and ready to fire .... an organized smear campaign directed from the highest reaches of the White House."

Cheney and Pre-War Intelligence

Those involved in the "workshop" to discredit Wilson were also active in efforts to influence pre-war intelligence reports. On page 6, Wilson discusses "leaks" that Cheney, Libby, and Newt Gingrich pressured the intelligence community "to skew intelligence analysists" to fit their own needs.

On page 338, Wilson notes that these three reportedly intimidated analysts by implying, "if you do a 'Wilson' on us, we will do worse to you."

Wilson notes (pg 434) that VP Cheney runs a "parallel national security office," which has no congressional oversight, and hence can "circumvent long-standing and accepted reporting structures and to skew decision-making practices."

As a result, as reported by Joe Klein in Time (7-5-04) "the intelligence community is at war with the White House." Klein notes that "multiple intelligence sources" indicated to him their belief that Cheny strong-armed out-going CIA Director George Tenet, to make him support Cheney and Rumsfeld's positions on Iraq.

Cheney, Niger, and Wilson's Trip

Wilson notes a report on a possible Niger-Iraq yellow cake uranium transaction had "aroused the interests of Vice President Dick Cheney." (pg 14) Cheney's office "had tasked the CIA to determine if there was any truth to the report." (pg 14)

It is clear that Cheney was aware of the Niger report, and had directed his office to have the CIA do an investigation of it. There is evidence that on March 5, the CIA gave VP Cheney an oral report on Wilson's findings. This was three days before the State Department spokesperson told the media, "We fell for it," and that Wilson told CNN that the State Department had more information on that subject. March 8 was also the day that the "workshop" to discredit Wilson was held in Cheney's office.

"What I Didn't Find" vs "16 Words"

The White House retracted President Bush's infamous 16 words immediately after Wilson's op-ed appeared in the New York Times.
On 7-13-03, Condi Rice told Fox News Sunday that, "It is ludicrous to suggest that the president of the United States went to war on the question of whether Saddam Hussein sought uranium from Africa."
On 7-14-03, Robert Novak exposed Valerie Plame's identity. It is important to recognize that Novak was aware that Plame was an operative who specialized in WMDs, and that he had been asked by the CIA not to reveal her identity, or even print her name, in an article on Wilson.

The White House continued to engage in efforts to discredit Wilson, including sending three identical e-mails of "talking points" to Keith Olbermann when Wilson was appearing on MSNBC's Countdown.
1982 Intelligence Identity Protection Act

Wilson notes that the administration had already acknowledged the Niger-Iraq link was unsubstantiated, and that logically, they should have focused attention on how the 16 words made their way into the president's State of the Union address. The effort to expose Plame's identity made little sense. (pg 7)

Later, he continues with, "The White House gained nothing by publicizing Valerie's name..." (pg 7)
"Then it struck me that the attack by Rove and the administration on my wife had little to do with her, but a lot to do with others who might be tempted to speak out." (pgs 5-6)
"The decision of the president's people to come after me .... arose from no concerns over the emergence of secrets from my mission -- there weren't any." (pg 339)
"However offensive, there was a certain logic to it. If you have something to hide, one way to keep it secret is to threaten anyone who might expose it. But it was too late to silence me." (pg 338)


Goal #3: Why Cheney Exposed Plame

Wilson notes that Sandy Berger, President Clinton's national security advisor, pointed out that since the Bush people had never backed down before, the fact that they had been "so quick to admit their error this time meant they must have something more important to protect." (pg 4)

In Worse Than Watergate, John Dean calls the exposing of Plame the "Dirtiest of Dirty Tricks." He writes that "revealing her identity damaged the national security and her career, and resulted in the loss of a valuable government asset." He called this action "literally life-threatening." (pgs 170-171)

What could have possibly been so important to VP Cheney that he oversaw the violating of the 1982 IIPA, and risked a White House scandal? The answer clearly can not be found in goals #1 or #2.
The answer, which supports goal #3, appears in Klein's article: "Furthermore, there is intense anger over the White House's revealing the identity of Plame, who may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components. ..... 'Only a very high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge that Plame was on the payroll' of the CIA, an intelligence source told me."

And that very high-ranking official may have known through his parallel national security office about the activities that Plame was involved with at that time. The answer to goal #3 likely is to be found in the checklist of things Valerie Plame did to mitigate the damage done by Novak's article immediately after she read it.

Conclusions

This paper presents direct evidence that the intelligence group that operates out of VP Cheney's office orchestrated the exposure of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative, in order to realize goal #1, the "punishing" of Joseph Wilson for publicly challenging President Bush.

It includes both direct and circumstantial evidence from sources including Wilson, Dean, Klein, and others, that indicates they also had goal #2 in mind: to intimidate any other potential sources that could challenge their reasons for invading Iraq, as well as other measures in their "war on terorism."

Yet these two goals alone do not explain why VP Cheney would (1) take part in a measure that would violate a federal law against exposing a CIA operative, or (2) risk a serious scandal for the Bush Administration.

The possibility that VP Cheney was hoping to derail a sting operation involving Valerie Plame, which is our identified goal #3, does explain why VP Cheney would condone the breaking of the federal law, and risk the most serious scandal that this administration faces.

Further research by an ad hoc DU "think tank" has identified possible connections between businesses connected to VP Cheney that may be associated with the sale of WMD components to countries in the Middle East. It is our belief that this theory and the evidence that supports it needs a more in-depth investigation.
At the time of publishing, the most recent message board thread on this subject can be found here:

PLAME INDICTMENTS - "HIGH CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS- THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG"




July 24, 2004

COVER UP OF TREASON -color flyer to distribute everywhere


. Just click on the URL below and print it out


http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/letter.pd


About this flyer and why we have made it: We, you and I, are THE grass-roots democratic power.

It's your country. You and we have to help ourselves by this movement against non stop war on other countries, on our jobs,on
our standard of living, and most of all the war on our liberties and
the Constitution.

Our primary job is to continue to educate the public, pressure Congress through our letters, faxes and phone calls, register voters, and increase participation in those treasures defined by the Bill of Rights.

While thousands of us on the internet truly know the danger this country is on the verge of, millions who are not on the internet have no idea of the neo-con/PNAC One World Government and destruction
of our Freedoms through the Patriot Act.

Here's an easy way to work to spread the message about the Plame Indictments, Sibel Edmonds' and the High Crimes and Misdemeanors committed by elected officials and their appointees in this administraton:

Become ACTIVELY involved in educating the American public without drawing attention to yourself. You can spread the word of our Government's deception and betrayal from one citizen to another without any personal exposure.

Here's how: Make ten or more copies of these "letters" and leave them in a public place where someone else will find it and read it. Ideal locations for maximum exposure include book stores, copy shops, libraries and train stations. Buses, taxis, laundromats, and check-out lines at the grocery store. Hair salons, rest rooms, gas stations and convenience stores. Anywhere you happen to be will work just fine. Do this every week from now until November.

You can just happen to leave this flyer everywhere you
visit (just cut and paste into "Word" and print or print directly in color from URL above ) and you'll know you've done your part to help protect America from the most destructive force that has ever occupied our government.

GO FOR IT !

with thanks to DU'er Dist22Dem for this magnificent professionally
printed color flyer

Plame PDFs 1-16 can be found here,
http://s93118771.onlinehome.us/DU/PlameIndictments.html

MEDIA LIST all set up for e mailing


list of other media contacts, here's some for you.

producers@democracynow.org,
counterpunch@counterpunch.org, mike@michaelmoore.com,
editor@commondreams.org, zmag@zmag.org,
familyliaison@9-11Commission.gov,
cbcinput@toronto.cbc.ca, news@commondreams.org,
Imus@msnbc.com, hardball@msnbc.com,
countdown@msnbc.com, abramsreport@msnbc.com,
joe@msnbc.com, voices@msnbc.com,
msnbcinvestigates@msnbc.com, headliners@msnbc.com,
webmaster@septembereleventh.org, evening@cbsnews.com,
EarlyShow@CBS.com, 48hours@cbsnews.com,
60II@cbsnews.com, ftn@cbsnews.com, talbotd@salon.com,
kamiya@salon.com, scottr@salon.com, lauram@salon.com,
ruth@salon.com, kaufman@salon.com, boehlert@salon.com,
szacharek@salon.com, ayork@salon.com,
klauerman@salon.com, areiter@salon.com,
wise@motherjones.com, backtalk@motherjones.com,
bauerlein@motherjones.com, laura@motherjones.com,
terrain@ecologycenter.org, editors@texasobserver.org,
associates@thenation.com, kluwer@wkap.com,
tcs@ntu.ac.uk, thesis11@latrobe.edu.au,
sqadir@globalnet.co.uk, thismag@web.net,
mavmedia@aol.com, transformations@ramapo.edu,
brucem@athabascau.ca, swniven@sagewoman.com,
sysop@zmag.org, news@michaelmoore.com,
admin@michaelmoore.com, mmflint@aol.com,
samarcollective@yahoo.com,
sierra.letters@sierraclub.org, sociala@nothingness.org,
gregorys9@aol.com, 101456.2153@compuserve.com,
eugene.a.teselle@vanderbilt.edu, review@webster.edu,
lydia.sargent@zmag.org, erf@rachel.org,
info@radiancemagazine.com, webmaster@commondreams.org,
rp@centralbooks.com, iade@rcc.com.ar,
redpepper@redpepper.org.uk, emichaeli@thecha.org,
remarx.1@nd.edu, rethink@exepc.com,
iwaller@binghamton.edu



other individual reporters or news outlets can be found at
Drudgereport.com

(sorry, it's the pits but the news contacts are nicely listed for
us. )



Individual Reporters & Newspaper List

forgive me, it's on the drudge rag site, but it's useful

http://www.drudgereport.com /

"Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los

Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is

especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from

beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very

existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with

world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every

man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario,

individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee

of their well being granted to them by their world government."

Henry Kissinger, Speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. Bilderberg

meeting.

JUST TO MAKE US MORE MALLEABLE AND WILLING TO GO TO WAR, A PLAN
ORIGINALLY HATCHED IN THE 1960'S - BUT APPARENTLY STILL AS ALIVE
TODAY AS HENRY KISSINGER:

NORTHWOODS -The original US MILITARY plan to attack US CITIZENS
to get Americans to support war.

JFK STOPPED THE PLAN AND FIRED GENERAL LEMNITZER.

126. Here ORIGINAL NORTHWOOD DOCUMENTS-our Military plan to attack US citizens to make American citizens angry enough to support war......

I THINK WE SHOULD MAIL/ FAX THIS TO EVERY CONGRESS PERSON AND SAY WE KNOW! WE KNOW! AND YOU'D BETTER REMOVE THIS ADMINISTRATION OR YOU WILL BE OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE AND DESERVE JAIL TERMS FOR TREASON ALONG WITH THE WHITE HOUSE.


http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/jointchiefs ...

picture of Lemnitzer


Operation Northwoods: The Pentagon’s Secret Plot to Murder US Citizens to Provoke a War September 13, 2002

General Lyman L. Lemnitzer. Credit: NATO.

On May 1, 2001, ABC News broadcast a chilling revelation: “In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in US cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.”
http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/dailynews/jointc ...

The Pentagon’s secret “Operation Northwoods” proposed that the US assassinate Cuban émigrés, hijack planes, sink ships, and stage an incident of violent terrorism in US cities. The Joint Chiefs at the time were headed by Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer.

The Pentagon’s top brass were even willing to murder US troops, if that’s what it took to stampede the country into a war. "We could blow up a US ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," they wrote, noting with cold logic that, "casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

The Joint Chiefs even saw the potential death of astronaut John Glenn as an opportunity to falsely provoke a war with Cuba. If Glenn’s rocket failed to make it safely into orbit, the Pentagon was prepared to falsely accuse Cuba of shooting down Glenn’s space capsule.

An analysis of Operation Northwood is contained in James Bamford’s new book, Body of Secrets (Doubleday) discloses that the plans were approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and presented to President Kennedy's Defense Secretary Robert McNamara on March 13, 1962. Lemnitzer argued that Operation Northwoods should be run by the military but McNamara apparently had second thoughts. The civilians in the White House overruled the soldiers in the Pentagon and the plan was rejected. All copies of the memorandum were ordered destroyed. The existence of the plot remained undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

"Although no one in Congress could have known at the time," Bamford writes, "Lemnitzer and the Joint Chiefs had quietly slipped over the edge." Bamford characterized the Joint Chiefs’ plot as, perhaps “the most corrupt plan ever created by the US government." But even after Lemnitzer retired, Bamford charges, the Joint Chiefs continued to plan similar "pretext" operations at least through 1963.

The documents only saw the light of day after the popular success of Oliver Stone’s 1992 blockbuster film JFK about the Kennedy assassination. Congress passed a law to increase public access to government records related to the assassination. In the process of combing through reams of declassified papers, a single surviving copy of the 15-page memo on Operation Northwoods was discovered.

Particularly disturbing — especially in the aftermath of the many unanswered questions surrounding the September 11 terrorist attack — is the Pentagon’s elaborate plan to falsely trigger a war by staging the fake destruction of a civilian commercial jetliner.

The document is reprinted below in its entirety. A PDF version of the actual 15-page document is available at the website of George Washington University’s National Security Archive project: <www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20010430 >



The first page of the 15-page Operation Northwoods terror plot. Credit: The National Security Archives/George Washington University <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv />.
TOP SECRET SPECIAL HANDLING NOFORN (declassified 2000)
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Washington DC Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense

SUBJECT: Justification for U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba (TS)

JCS to Secretary of War Robert McNamara March 13, 1962

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have considered the attatched memorandum for the chief of Operations, Cuba Project, which responds to a request by that office for brief but precise description of pretexts which would provide justification for US military intervention in Cuba.


The Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend that the proposed memorandum be forwarded as a preliminary submission suitable for planning purproses. It is assumed that there will be similar submissions from other agencies and that these inputs will be used as a basis for developing a time-phased plan. Individual projects can then be considered on a case-by-case basis.


Further, it is assumed that a single agency will be given the primary responsibility for developing military and para-military aspects of the basic plan. It is recommended that this responsibility for both overt and covert military operations be assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
For the Joint Chiefs of Staff signed: L.L. Limnitzer Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

Note by the Secretaries to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Northwoods

Footnoted memorandums:
"Operation Mongoose"
"Instances to Provoke Military Actions in Cuba"
RECOMMENDATIONS:
This paper NOT be forwarded to commanders of specified or unified commands.

This paper NOT be forwarded to US officers assigned to NATO activities.

This paper NOT be forwarded to the Chairman, US Delegation, United Nations Military Staff Committee.

Such a plan would enable a logical buildup of incidents to be combined with other seemingly unrelated events to camoflage the ultimate objective and create the necessary impression of Cuban rashness and irresponsibility on a large scale, directed at other countries in addition to the United States. The desired resultant from the execution of this plan would be to place the United States in the apparent position of suffering defensible grievances.
1. A series of well-coordinated incidents will be planned to take place to give genuine appearance of being done by hostile Cuban forces.

2. Incidents to establish a credible attack:
1. Start rumors (many). Use clandestine radio. 2. Land friendly Cubans in uniform "over-the-fence" to stage attack on the base. 3. Capture Cuban (friendly) sabateurs inside the base. 4. Start riots near the entrance to the base (friendly Cubans). 5. Blow up ammunition inside the base; start fires. 6. Burn aircraft on airbase (sabatage) . 7. Lob morter shells from outsidethe base to inside the base. Some damage to installation. 8. Capture assault teams. 9. Capture militia group which storms the base. 10. Sabotage ship in harbor; large fires -- napthalene . 11. Sink ship near harbor entrance. Conduct funerals for mock-victims.

(b) United States would respond by executing offensive operations.
3. A "Remember the Maine" incident could be arranged in several forms:
We could blow up a US ship and blame Cuba.

We could blow up a drone (unmannded) vessel anywhere in the Cuban waters. The presense of Cuban planes or ships merely investigating the intent of the vessel could be fairly compelling evidence that the ship was taken under attack. The US could follow with an air/sea rescue operation covered by US fighters to "evacuate" remaining members of the non-existant crew. Casualty lists in US newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation.
4. We could develop a Communist Cuba terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Flordia cities and even in Washington. The terror campaign could be pointed at Cuban refugees seeking haven in the United States. We could sink a boatload of Cubans enroute to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cubans in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized. Exploding a few bombs in carefully chosen spots. The arrest of Cuban agents and the release of prepared documents substantiating cuban involvement.

5. A "Cuban-based, Castro-supported" filibuster could be simulated against a neighboring Caribbean nation. These efforts can be magnified with additional ones contrived for exposure. "Cuban" B-26 or C-46 type aircraft could make cane-burning raids at night. Soviet Bloc incidiaries could be found. This could be coupled with "Cuban" messages to the Communist underground and "Cuban" shipments of arms which would be found, or intercepted, on the beach.

6. Use of MIG-type aircraft by US pilots could provide additional provocation. Harassment of civil air, attacks on surface shipping, and destruction of US military drone aircraft by MIG type palnes would be useful. An F-86 properly painted would convince air passengers that they saw a Cuban MIG, especially if the pilot of the transport were to announce that fact.

7. Hijacking attampts against US civil air and surface craft should be encouraged.

8. It is possible to create an incident which would demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civilian airliner from the United States.
An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual civil aircraft and the passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone.

Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rondevous. From the rondevous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly to an auxiliary airfield at Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. Meanwhile the drone aircraft will continue to fly the filed flight plan. The drone will be transmitting on the international distress frequency "MAY DAY" message stating it is under attack by Cuban MIG aircraft. The transmission will be interrupted by the destruction of aircraft which will be triggered by radio signal. This will allow IACO radio stations to tell the US what has happened to the aircraft instead of the US trying to "sell" the incident.
9. It is possible to create an incident that will make it appear that Communist Cuban MIGs have destroyed a USAF aircraft over international waters in an unprovoked attack.
On one such flight, a pre-briefed pilot would fly Tail-end Charlie. While near the Cuban island this pilot would broadcast that he had been jumped by MIGs and was going down. This pilot would then fly at extremely low altitude and land at a secure base, an Eglin auxiliary. The aircraft would be met by the proper people, quickly stored and given a new tail number. The pilot who performed the mission under an alias would resume his proper identity. The pilot and aircraft would then have disappeared.

A submarine or small craft would distribute F-101 parts, parachute, etc. The pilots retuning to Homestead would have a true story as far as they knew. Search ships and aircraft could be dispatched and parts of aircraft found.

It is understood that the Department of State is also preparing suggested courses of action to develope justification for US military intervention in Cuba.

WHICH HAS OVERTAKEN THE USA

finally a word from Mussolini:


"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it

is a merger of State and corporate power."

Benito Mussolini, 1883-1945, Fascist dictator of Italy

DIRECTORY TO CONTACT ANYONE IN CONGRESS


www.congress.org - for a directory to ANYBODY on the Hill, AND their

local/regional offices.

http://truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archiv ...

February 2003


Blood Money
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 27 February 2003

"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes."
- President Dwight Eisenhower, January 1961.

George W. Bush gave a speech Wednesday night before the Godfather of conservative Washington think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute. In his speech, Bush quantified his coming war with Iraq as part of a larger struggle to bring pro-western governments into power in the Middle East. Couched in hopeful language describing peace and freedom for all, the speech was in fact the closest articulation of the actual plan for Iraq that has yet been heard from the administration.

In a previous truthout article from February 21, the ideological connections between an extremist right-wing Washington think tank and the foreign policy aspirations of the Bush administration were detailed.

The Project for a New American Century, or PNAC, is a group founded in 1997 that has been agitating since its inception for a war with Iraq. PNAC was the driving force behind the drafting and passage of the Iraqi Liberation Act, a bill that painted a veneer of legality over the ultimate designs behind such a conflict. The names of every prominent PNAC member were on a letter delivered to President Clinton in 1998 which castigated him for not implementing the Act by driving troops into Baghdad.

PNAC has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to a Hussein opposition group called the Iraqi National Congress, and to Iraq's heir-apparent, Ahmed Chalabi, despite the fact that Chalabi was sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to 22 years in prison on 31 counts of bank fraud. Chalabi and the INC have, over the years, gathered support for their cause by promising oil contracts to anyone that would help to put them in power in Iraq.

Most recently, PNAC created a new group called The Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Staffed entirely by PNAC members, The Committee has set out to "educate" Americans via cable news connections about the need for war in Iraq. This group met recently with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice regarding the ways and means of this education.

Who is PNAC? Its members include:

* Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the PNAC founders, who served as Secretary of Defense for Bush Sr.;

* I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's top national security assistant;

* Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, also a founding member, along with four of his chief aides including;

* Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, arguably the ideological father of the group;

* Eliot Abrams, prominent member of Bush's National Security Council, who was pardoned by Bush Sr. in the Iran/Contra scandal;

* John Bolton, who serves as Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security in the Bush administration;

* Richard Perle, former Reagan administration official and present chairman of the powerful Defense Policy Board;

* Randy Scheunemann, President of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, who was Trent Lott's national security aide and who served as an advisor to Rumsfeld on Iraq in 2001;

* Bruce Jackson, Chairman of PNAC, a position he took after serving for years as vice president of weapons manufacturer Lockheed-Martin, and who also headed the Republican Party Platform subcommittee for National Security and Foreign Policy during the 2000 campaign. His section of the 2000 GOP Platform explicitly called for the removal of Saddam Hussein;

* William Kristol, noted conservative writer for the Weekly Standard, a magazine owned along with the Fox News Network by conservative media mogul Ruppert Murdoch.

The Project for the New American Century seeks to establish what they call 'Pax Americana' across the globe. Essentially, their goal is to transform America, the sole remaining superpower, into a planetary empire by force of arms. A report released by PNAC in September of 2000 entitled 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' codifies this plan, which requires a massive increase in defense spending and the fighting of several major theater wars in order to establish American dominance. The first has been achieved in Bush's new budget plan, which calls for the exact dollar amount to be spent on defense that was requested by PNAC in 2000. Arrangements are underway for the fighting of the wars.

The men from PNAC are in a perfect position to see their foreign policy schemes, hatched in 1997, brought into reality. They control the White House, the Pentagon and Defense Department, by way of this the armed forces and intelligence communities, and have at their feet a Republican-dominated Congress that will rubber-stamp virtually everything on their wish list.

The first step towards the establishment of this Pax Americana is, and has always been, the removal of Saddam Hussein and the establishment of an American protectorate in Iraq. The purpose of this is threefold: 1) To acquire control of the oilheads so as to fund the entire enterprise; 2) To fire a warning shot across the bows of every leader in the Middle East; 3) To establish in Iraq a military staging area for the eventual invasion and overthrow of several Middle Eastern regimes, including some that are allies of the United States.

Another PNAC signatory, author Norman Podhoretz, quantified this aspect of the grand plan in the September 2002 issue of his journal, 'Commentary'. In it, Podhoretz notes that the regimes, "that richly deserve to be overthrown and replaced, are not confined to the three singled-out members of the axis of evil. At a minimum, the axis should extend to Syria and Lebanon and Libya, as well as 'friends' of America like the Saudi royal family and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, along with the Palestinian Authority, whether headed by Arafat or one of his henchmen." At bottom, for Podhoretz, this action is about "the long-overdue internal reform and modernization of Islam."

This casts Bush's speech to AEI on Wednesday in a completely different light.

Weapons of mass destruction are a smokescreen. Paeans to the idea of Iraqi liberation and democratization are cynical in their inception. At the end of the day, this is not even about oil. The drive behind this war is ideological in nature, a crusade to 'reform' the religion of Islam as it exists in both government and society within the Middle East. Once this is accomplished, the road to empire will be open, ten lanes wide and steppin' out over the line.

At the end of the day, however, ideology is only good for bull sessions in the board room and the bar. Something has to grease the skids, to make the whole thing worthwhile to those involved, and entice those outside the loop to get into the game.

Thus, the payout.

It is well known by now that Dick Cheney, before becoming Vice President, served as chairman and chief executive of the Dallas-based petroleum corporation Halliburton. During his tenure, according to oil industry executives and United Nations records, Halliburton did a brisk $73 million in business with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. While working face-to-face with Hussein, Cheney and Halliburton were also moving into position to capitalize upon Hussein's removal from power. In October of 1995, the same month Cheney was made CEO of Halliburton, that company announced a deal that would put it first in line should war break out in Iraq. Their job: To take control of burning oil wells, put out the fires, and prepare them for service.

Another corporation that stands to do well by a war in Iraq is Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Ostensibly, Brown & Root is in the construction business, and thus has won a share of the $900 million government contract for the rebuilding of post-war Iraqi bridges, roads and other basic infrastructure. This is but the tip of the financial iceberg, as the oil wells will also have to be repaired after parent-company Halliburton puts out the fires.

More ominously is Brown & Root's stock in trade: the building of permanent American military bases. There are twelve permanent U.S. bases in Kosovo today, all built and maintained by Brown & Root for a multi-billion dollar profit. If anyone should wonder why the administration has not offered an exit strategy to the Iraq war plans, the presence of Brown & Root should answer them succinctly. We do not plan on exiting. In all likelihood, Brown & Root is in Iraq to build permanent bases there, from which attacks upon other Middle Eastern nations can be staged and managed.

Again, this casts Bush's speech on Wednesday in a new light.

Being at the center of the action is nothing new for Halliburton and Brown & Root. The two companies have worked closely with governments in Algeria, Angola, Bosnia, Burma, Croatia, Haiti, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Somalia during the worst chapters in those nation's histories. Many environmental and human rights groups claim that Cheney, Halliburton and Brown & Root were, in fact, centrally involved in these fiascos. More recently, Brown & Root was contracted by the Defense Department to build cells for detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The bill for that one project came to $300 million.

Cheney became involved with PNAC officially in 1997, while still profiting from deals between Halliburton and Hussein. One year later, Cheney and PNAC began actively and publicly agitating for war on Iraq. They have not stopped to this very day.

Another company with a vested interest in both war on Iraq and massively increased defense spending is the Carlyle Group. Carlyle, a private global investment firm with more than $12.5 billion in capital under management, was formed in 1987. Its interests are spread across 164 companies, including telecommunications firms and defense contractors. It is staffed at the highest levels by former members of the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. Former President George H. W. Bush is himself employed by Carlyle as a senior advisor, as is long-time Bush family advisor and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

One company acquired by Carlyle is United Defense, a weapons manufacturer based in Arlington, VA. United Defense provides the Defense Department with combat vehicle systems, fire support, combat support vehicle systems, weapons delivery systems, amphibious assault vehicles, combat support services and naval armaments. Specifically, United Defense manufactures the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the M113 armored personnel carrier, the M88A2 Recovery Vehicle, the Grizzly, the M9 ACE, the Composite Armored Vehicle, the M6 Linebacker, the M7 BFIST, the Armored Gun System, the M4 Command and Control Vehicle, the Battle Command Vehicle, the Paladin, the Crusader, and Electric Gun/Pulse Power weapons technology.

In other words, everything a growing Defense Department, a war in Iraq, and a burgeoning American military empire needs.

Ironically, one group that won't profit from Carlyle's involvement in American military buildup is the family of Osama bin Laden. The bin Laden family fortune was amassed by Mohammed bin Laden, father of Osama, who built a multi-billion dollar construction empire through contracts with the Saudi government. The Saudi BinLaden Group, as this company is called, was heavily invested in Carlyle for years. Specifically, they were invested in Carlyle's Partners II Fund, which includes in that portfolio United Defense and other weapons manufacturers.

This relationship was described in a September 27, 2001 article in the Wall Street Journal entitled 'Bin Laden Family Could Profit From Jump in Defense Spending Due to Ties to US Bank.' The 'bank' in question was the Carlyle Group. A follow-up article published by the Journal on September 28 entitled ' Bin Laden Family Has Intricate Ties With Washington - Saudi Clan Has Had Access To Influential Republicans ' further describes the relationship. In October of 2001, Saudi BinLaden and Carlyle severed their relationship by mutual agreement. The timing is auspicious.

There are a number of depths to be plumbed in all of this. The Bush administration has claimed all along that this war with Iraq is about Saddam Hussein's connections to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, though through it all they have roundly failed to establish any basis for either accusation. On Wednesday, Bush went further to claim that the war is about liberating the Iraqi people and bringing democracy to the Middle East. This ignores cultural realities on the ground in Iraq and throughout the region that, salted with decades of deep mistrust for American motives, make such a democracy movement brought at the point of the sword utterly impossible to achieve.

This movement, cloaked in democracy, is in fact a PNAC-inspired push for an American global empire. It behooves Americans to understand that there is a great difference between being the citizen of a constitutional democracy and being a citizen of an empire. The establishment of an empire requires some significant sacrifices.

Essential social, medical, educational and retirement services will have to be gutted so that those funds can be directed towards a necessary military buildup. Actions taken abroad to establish the preeminence of American power, most specifically in the Middle East, will bring a torrent of terrorist attacks to the home front. Such attacks will bring about the final suspension of constitutional rights and the rule of habeas corpus, as we will find ourselves under martial law. In the end, however, this may be inevitable. An empire cannot function with the slow, cumbersome machine of a constitutional democracy on its back. Empires must be ruled with speed and ruthlessness, in a manner utterly antithetical to the way in which America has been governed for 227 years.

And yes, of course, a great many people will die.

It would be one thing if all of this was based purely on the ideology of our leaders. It is another thing altogether to consider the incredible profit motive behind it all. The President, his father, the Vice President, a whole host of powerful government officials, along with stockholders and executives from Halliburton and Carlyle, stand to make a mint off this war. Long-time corporate sponsors from the defense, construction and petroleum industries will likewise profit enormously.

Critics of the Bush administration like to bandy about the word "fascist" when speaking of George. The image that word conjures is of Nazi stormtroopers marching in unison towards Hitler's Final Solution. This does not at all fit. It is better, in this matter, to view the Bush administration through the eyes of Benito Mussolini. Mussolini, dubbed 'the father of Fascism,' defined the word in a far more pertinent fashion. "Fascism," said Mussolini, "should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power."

Boycott the French, the Germans, and the other 114 nations who stand against this Iraq war all you wish. France and Germany do not oppose Bush because they are cowards, or because they enjoy the existence of Saddam Hussein. France and Germany stand against the Bush administration because they intend to stop this Pax Americana in its tracks if they can. They have seen militant fascism up close and personal before, and wish never to see it again.

Would that we Americans could be so wise.

-------

William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times bestselling author of two books - "War On Iraq" (with Scott Ritter) available now from Context Books, and "The Greatest Sedition is Silence," available in May 2003 from Pluto Press. He teaches high school in Boston, MA.

Scott Lowery contributed research to this report.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

© : t r u t h o u t 2004

http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples ...



June 3, 1997

American foreign and defense policy is adrift. Conservatives have criticized the incoherent policies of the Clinton Administration. They have also resisted isolationist impulses from within their own ranks. But conservatives have not confidently advanced a strategic vision of America's role in the world. They have not set forth guiding principles for American foreign policy. They have allowed differences over tactics to obscure potential agreement on strategic objectives. And they have not fought for a defense budget that would maintain American security and advance American interests in the new century.

We aim to change this. We aim to make the case and rally support for American global leadership.


As the 20th century draws to a close, the United States stands as the world's preeminent power. Having led the West to victory in the Cold War, America faces an opportunity and a challenge: Does the United States have the vision to build upon the achievements of past decades? Does the United States have the resolve to shape a new century favorable to American principles and interests?


We are in danger of squandering the opportunity and failing the challenge. We are living off the capital -- both the military investments and the foreign policy achievements -- built up by past administrations. Cuts in foreign affairs and defense spending, inattention to the tools of statecraft, and inconstant leadership are making it increasingly difficult to sustain American influence around the world. And the promise of short-term commercial benefits threatens to override strategic considerations. As a consequence, we are jeopardizing the nation's ability to meet present threats and to deal with potentially greater challenges that lie ahead.

We seem to have forgotten the essential elements of the Reagan Administration's success: a military that is strong and ready to meet both present and future challenges; a foreign policy that boldly and purposefully promotes American principles abroad; and national leadership that accepts the United States' global responsibilities.


Of course, the United States must be prudent in how it exercises its power. But we cannot safely avoid the responsibilities of global leadership or the costs that are associated with its exercise. America has a vital role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. If we shirk our responsibilities, we invite challenges to our fundamental interests. The history of the 20th century should have taught us that it is important to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire. The history of this century should have taught us to embrace the cause of American leadership.

Our aim is to remind Americans of these lessons and to draw their consequences for today. Here are four consequences:

• we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global
responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future;


• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;


• we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad;


• we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.

Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.

Elliott Abrams Gary Bauer William J. Bennett Jeb Bush

Dick Cheney Eliot A. Cohen Midge Decter Paula Dobriansky Steve Forbes

Aaron Friedberg Francis Fukuyama Frank Gaffney Fred C. Ikle

Donald Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad I. Lewis Libby Norman Podhoretz

Dan Quayle Peter W. Rodman Stephen P. Rosen Henry S. Rowen

Donald Rumsfeld Vin Weber George Weigel Paul Wolfowitz



Some we now know are in the cabal government, some have been disgraced
and some like Schneider (poll reporter on CNN) are a surprise:
____________________________________________________________________

here's the letter where they tried to get Big Dawg to attack Iraq:


http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm



January 26, 1998



The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States
Washington, DC


Dear Mr. President:

We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor.

The policy of “containment” of Saddam Hussein has been steadily eroding over the past several months. As recent events have demonstrated, we can no longer depend on our partners in the Gulf War coalition to continue to uphold the sanctions or to punish Saddam when he blocks or evades UN inspections. Our ability to ensure that Saddam Hussein is not producing weapons of mass destruction, therefore, has substantially diminished. Even if full inspections were eventually to resume, which now seems highly unlikely, experience has shown that it is difficult if not impossible to monitor Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons production. The lengthy period during which the inspectors will have been unable to enter many Iraqi facilities has made it even less likely that they will be able to uncover all of Saddam’s secrets. As a result, in the not-too-distant future we will be unable to determine with any reasonable level of confidence whether Iraq does or does not possess such weapons.


Such uncertainty will, by itself, have a seriously destabilizing effect on the entire Middle East. It hardly needs to be added that if Saddam does acquire the capability to deliver weapons of mass destruction, as he is almost certain to do if we continue along the present course, the safety of American troops in the region, of our friends and allies like Israel and the moderate Arab states, and a significant portion of the world’s supply of oil will all be put at hazard. As you have rightly declared, Mr. President, the security of the world in the first part of the 21st century will be determined largely by how we handle this threat.


Given the magnitude of the threat, the current policy, which depends for its success upon the steadfastness of our coalition partners and upon the cooperation of Saddam Hussein, is dangerously inadequate. The only acceptable strategy is one that eliminates the possibility that Iraq will be able to use or threaten to use weapons of mass destruction. In the near term, this means a willingness to undertake military action as diplomacy is clearly failing. In the long term, it means removing Saddam Hussein and his regime from power. That now needs to become the aim of American foreign policy.

We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.

We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk.

Sincerely,

Elliott Abrams Richard L. Armitage William J. Bennett

Jeffrey Bergner John Bolton Paula Dobriansky

Francis Fukuyama Robert Kagan Zalmay Khalilzad

William Kristol Richard Perle Peter W. Rodman

Donald Rumsfeld William Schneider, Jr. Vin Weber

Paul Wolfowitz R. James Woolsey Robert B. Zoellick

now...

thanks

and you're welcome.

I might have missed it


DoYouEverWonder (1000+ posts) Tue Aug-10-04 04:00 PM
Response to Reply #13

15. He was with Sen Bob Graham that morning


http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html

Eight months later on the 18th of May, two days after the "BUSH KNEW" headline hit the tabloids, the Washington Post published an article on Porter Goss, entitled: "A Cloak But No Dagger; An Ex-Spy Says He Seeks Solutions, Not Scapegoats for 9/11". Focussing on his career as a CIA agent, the article largely served to underscore the integrity and commitment of Porter Goss to waging a "war on terrorism". Yet in an isolated paragraph, the article acknowledged the mysterious 9-11 breakfast meeting with ISI Chief Mahmoud Ahmad, while also confirming that "Ahmad :ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban":

"Now the main question facing Goss, as he helps steer a joint House-Senate investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks, is why nobody in the far-flung intelligence bureaucracy -- 13 agencies spending billions of dollars -- paid attention to the enemy among us. Until it was too late.

Goss says he is looking for solutions, not scapegoats. "A lot of nonsense," he calls this week's uproar about a CIA briefing that alerted President Bush, five weeks before Sept. 11, that Osama bin Laden's associates might be planning airline hijackings.

"None of this is news, but it's all part of the finger-pointing," Goss declared yesterday in a rare display of pique. "It's foolishness."

(...) Goss has repeatedly refused to blame an "intelligence failure" for the terror attacks. As a 10-year veteran of the CIA's clandestine operations wing, Goss prefers to praise the agency's "fine work."

(...)

On the morning of Sept. 11, Goss and Graham were having breakfast with a Pakistani general named Mahmud Ahmed -- the soon-to-be-sacked head of Pakistan's intelligence service. Ahmed ran a spy agency notoriously close to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. 17

"WHY" THEORY PLAME>CHENEY>HALLIBURTON>ILLEGAL WMD TRADE

A THEORY ON THE WHY - Plame -> Cheney->Halliburton

On my way home today, as I thought about the why the outing of Valerie Plame was necessary, I was so engrossed I drove 4 exits past my exit.

Here's what we know:

1) Valerie Plame was "active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of Weapons of Mass Destruction components"" when her identity was exposed by the White House. It also said" Only a high-ranking official could have had access to the knowledge" that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA agent.

2) Vice President Cheney since 1995 as CEO of Halliburton was fined 1.2 milion dollars for illegal sales of components to Libya which could be used for nuclear purposes. Shortly before becoming Vice President he bitterly assailed US policy against selling such components to Syrria and Iran, which apparently hurt Halliburton's bottom line.

3) There is an investigation of Vice President Cheney in other countries for illegal bribery and various other offenses connected to Halliburton as well as paying amounts to secret Swiss bank accounts

4)The Atomic Energy Commission has said a North American company is one of 20 being investigated for black market sales of WMD materials.

Here's the theory:

Valerie Plame was stopped in her tracks and the biggest treasonous taboo of revealing a CIA sting operation was done because she/it was coming close to discovering even more serious violations of the laws against trading nuclear materials with certain countries by our own Vice President and the Hallibuton company he has awarded billions of US taxpayer dollars to in non-bid contracts after he became VP.

Recently Libya was accused of having WMD components and the US threat
ened to invade unless Quaddaffi gave the WMD components to the US.
Bush 2 was seen on TV this week inspecting the cases of returned materials from Iraq triumphantly. The fact that Quaddafi received these illegal shipments of components from Cheney/Halliburton was not
mentioned in the victory video.

Dick Cheney, even after the Senate Intel Committee, The Atomic Commission and numerous other agencies have said no WMD exist in Iraq,
insists Iraq has WMD even in the last week.

Why? Because Dick Cheney knows he, through an offshore Halliburton company with a PO Box, at some time in the past sold Saddam Hussein WMD or components of WMD. In the same way "they" under Bush 1 adminstration sold Hussein lethal gas which he used, and then attacked him for using it saying he was a threat to the community.

Why do Cheney and Bush insist they must attack Syrria and Iran as the next step in making the world safe and that Syrria and Iran have
WMD? Cheney-Halliburton know that Syrria and Iran have WMD components because Cheney illegally sold the WMD components to Syrria and Iran.

Why did Bush Cheney know that North Korea had WMD and where did they gget the components?

Why were Pakistan and India able to test and develop nuclear weapons undetected by the CIA's "big eye in the sky" or any agency's seismic
discovery? And where did India and Pakistan purchase the components
for WMD which were illegal for any company to sell them?

What was Valerie Plame investigating?


good spooks vs the bad spooks in the FBI and CIA becomes very confusing to most, I think.



Not to add confusion to my "theory " above, but I also thought:

When Saudi Arabia asked Junior and Company to get out of Saudi Arabia
afer we had built a monstrous and expensive base armed with the newest weaponry - one might call it a home base -why would they do that, when they had wanted US to protect them and their oil fields for years???

The reason given for asking us to vacate was to calm the anti-American element. Hmmm. But if they needed our protection from that very element, WHY would they ask their protector to leave.
BECAUSE they "likely" also received WMD from certain parties.

So now, we can guess, the entire Middle East is armed with illegal components of WMD...supplied by whom?hmmm

And I agree with you ROBERTPAULSEN- it's a great racket. Supply them
with the components, collect payment. Shuttle back and forth between
private employment and government employment, selling WMD for your company's bottom line while a private CEO, earning large bonuses and
deferred "payment" plus increased stock option value, go back into government, create a war on those countries who have the WMD you have sold them, then you have created a situation where your company and the other companies you hold stock in, or which belong to your other associates, can supply the army with munitions, destroy the country you have sold WMD to, and then the very same companies who supplied the munitions for destruction, go in and rebuild the country.


So. Now how many times have you profiteered?
1) illegal selling of WMD
2) earn bonus, increase value of stock options
3) Supply Army Munitions on no bid contracts
4) Rebuild the country on no bid contracts

would you like to develop that a little more here?

Have any other connections with Goss and Pakistanis?

Goss and Halliburton

Goss and Cheney

Goss and Rumsfeld

Goss and any of the Neo-Cons

Goss & Pappy

How about organizations Goss belongs to?

One World Govt?

Bilderberg?

Trilateral?

Calrlyle?

You see how we develop info and then theory.
Just that one statement is not enough. Got anything else

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

In an interview with his hometown newspaper, Mr. Goss spoke out strongly against the investigation into the White House's exposing CIA operative Valerie Plame. For more information, see:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104981/

Reply to #285 in thread # 17

H. - Of course you said that about Rove before. In previous threads and then on 17 you used the word"cooperated". Chalk it up to a brain fogged by a lack of sleep.

Since Rove isn't (?) going to be frogmarched and presumably made a deal, does that diminish his testimony and is the reason why they need the journalists? Also, how close are we, do you think to this really hotting up? And do you think the "lil darlins" in the WH are at each others throats, and couldn't this divide and conquering be good for us

By the way, good to have you back where you belong!

when the article by Corn came out in The Nation last summer, in which it was pointed out that exposing Plame may have been a federal offense. He freaked out, and pointed his shakey finger at Libby and Cheney, and ranted about the trouble they caused the president. For the next several months, there was measurable tension between the offices of the president and vice president.

Remember that Att. Gen. Ashcroft thought he could "smother" the investigation. The Dept of Justice barely responded to the letters by CI requesting an investigation. In the fall of 2003, an administration official told a reporter that "we've put earth-movers on top of this." But then, in the late fall, information started seeping through. In part, this was because over-confident jackasses in the administration talked far too much. (Remember on thread #2 or 3, I spoke of how having more than two people involved in a crime tends to increase the chances of getting caught.)

It was also because they had contacted at least 6 media sources when peddling this story. I've said that I believe there were more: I think it is at least 7, and likely 9 reporters called within a two week period after Wilson's op-ed was in the NYT. Reporters are herd animals, and tend to talk a lot among themselves. It was a hot topic, which had the added thrill of being "secret," and not being reported in the news. Get a few reporters sitting down to drinks, laughing about what a dick dripping Robert Novak is, and word spread .... quickly, in fact.

The "investigation" then picked up some information that forced his Honesty the Att Gen to remove himself due to a conflict of interest. The investigation hit a higher gear. When a couple people talked, openly (hint: "Rove said it, and I'll go on the record!") it was only a matter of time until a soft-bellied weak-link had his attorney approach the investigator's office. There have been a couple people who have turned over.

The inner-conflict that you describe (!) is between Rove and Libby. Of course, Libby = Abrams, Gingrich, and a few others. But it's the president's staff vs the vice president's cabinet.

When you think of it like this, the judge's decision(s) to force certain gentlemen to testify makes a lot more sense, doesn't it?

But this article by Joe Trippi speaks to the already established and growing power that grass roots internet groups are acquiring and using to change politics and subsequently the country.


The revolution will not be televised

Former Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi on how Internet democracy is transforming politics— and American life


"Is this a revolution? You bet. And like the Boston Tea Party that launched a democratic revolt more than two centuries ago, it started small— in this case it began sixteen months ago with 432 supporters of Howard Dean each pledging to find one more person to contribute whatever they could to his nascent campaign. Nine months later, the Dean campaign had 650,000 supporters and had raised more than $50 million, in average contributions of $77. More important, when the time came to decide whether Howard Dean should forego public financing— and the restrictive fundraising and spending limits that go with it— those same small donors voted overwhelmingly in an online referendum to opt-out of the system." snip

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5353944 /

And I think it is very closely related to the rest of the information on here. I'm always glad to see him on tv, and will be buying his book very soon. I think he was the reason Dean caught the attention of the young people and left-wing of the democratic confederacy. If it wasn't for his work with Dean, I do not believe Kerry would be in a position to beat bush in November.

<Insert Witty Comment Here>

on thread #17

I don't believe in coincidence

should we bring forward? Why don't you check and bring them up to 18.

is the Herald-Tribune, if that helps. He gave an interview in which he spoke out against the Plame investigation. See:

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104981 /

It's an article by Fred Kaplan, exposing Goss as perhaps the very last human being on the planet who should be in charge at CI.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/mcgovern.php?articleid=2944

"There seems a better than even chance the Bush administration will nominate Goss, and use the nomination hearings as yet another forum at which to blame the Iraq debacle on faulty intelligence. And, as a bonus for Bush, if there is time before the election, it would seem a safe bet that Goss will be able to bring to heel recalcitrant analysts who are still "fighting the problem," still staring in disbelief at the given wisdom (given, apparently, only to the Pentagon and White House) that Iraq and al-Qaeda were in bed with each other. Nor should anyone rule out the possibility that Goss will see to it that "weapons of mass destruction" are found – perhaps as an October surprise."

I'll try to copy pertinent W88 and Musharref info on here if possible. I'll be around for another half hour, but I'll do my best.

It's hard to tell if Venice is in the district or just outside the border, but Goss might have the excuse of plausible deniability if MIHOP ever hit mainstream.

AMERICAN JUDAS
Selling the Security of America and the World for 30 Pieces of Silver
By
Robert Paulsen
Compiled From the Research by Posters on “The Plame Indictment Threads”
At democraticunderground.com
1st Edition Abridged (Unabridged version available on General Discussion and Editorial Forums at DU)


A. Introduction

This paper is intended as a supplement to The Waterman Paper and an exploration into Goal #3: Why Cheney Exposed Plame. It involves researching possible connections between businesses connected to Vice President Dick Cheney that may be associated with the sale of WMD components to countries in the Middle East and Asia.

In addition to reviewing known information regarding the “leaking” of CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity and the nature of her work, there will be an overview of A.Q. Khan’s network of nuclear proliferation, a listing of compromising positions involving financial ties in Cheney’s past and finally an exploration into possible links connecting Cheney to nuclear proliferation markets for profit.

B. Valerie Plame’s “Sting Operation”

On July 14,2003, Robert Novak exposed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent in his syndicated column. He sourced his story to two senior White House officials.(http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0602/p08s02-comv.html ) It is important to understand that, as Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson says, “Compromising the officer means compromising a career, a network, and every person with who the officer might have ever worked. Slips of the tongue cost people their lives.”(The Politics of Truth by Joseph Wilson, p. 13.)

What was the nature of this career, this network that was compromised? Joe Klein hints at the broad outlines of this nature. “Furthermore, there is intense anger over the White House’s revealing the identity of Plame, who may have been active in a sting operation involving the trafficking of WMD components.”(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,11010 ... )

According to Wayne Madsen, the cover company that Plame was connected with was a CIA firm called Brewster, Jennings & Associates. “Active since 1994, Brewster-Jennings was instrumental in tracking the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and had agents or correspondents in a number of countries…Sensitive CIA operations that were compromised by the leak included companies, government officials, and individuals associated with the nuclear smuggling network of Pakistan’s chief nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.”(http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/062504_grand_ ... )
Yet in spite of, or perhaps as a result of, the compromises resulting from the leak, the CIA helped expose Khan’s network, according to Newsweek.. It involves a CIA investigation into a company in Malaysia called Scomi connected with an A.Q. Khan “middleman” named Bukhari Sayed Abu Tahir. Last August, the company's name was found stamped in bold letters on five crates of centrifuge parts seized en route to Libya. Since then Scomi has been at the center of an international detective story that has uncovered an astonishing global nuclear-weapons "black market." All of it leads back to Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who fathered the underground network. In pursuit of both profits and a kind of Islamic nuclear parity, Khan passed on equipment and know-how to Iran and Libya, and made offers to Iraq and most recently Syria, officials say. Khan also helped North Korea's covert program.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )

Could Cheney have had a financial relationship with the Nuclear Walmart, which would have provided a motive for exposing Plame’s operation? We shall explore this in sections D and E of this paper. First it is important to understand what is currently known about A.Q. Khan’s network before we uncover Cheney’s connection with it. The purpose of this examination is not intended as a comprehensive index of the network, but as an exploration into some of the more sinister elements of the network that led to relationships not only among state sponsors of terrorism, but to relationships with terrorist organizations themselves.

C. A.Q. Khan’s Nuclear Walmart

Nuclear experts are aghast at the size of the network, which extends from Switzerland to Japan to Dubai. Over 30 years, Khan put together what Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called "a veritable Wal-Mart" for nuclear-weapons buyers, a not-so-secret netherworld where proliferation meshed with globalization. Khan even held nuclear-related symposiums. "The horse is out of the barn. At this point, we can't stop the technology from spreading," says former Clinton official Gary Samore. One senior U.S. official told NEWSWEEK that Khan's role in destabilizing the 21st century will "loom up there" with Hitler's and Stalin's impact in the 20th. Even so, most of the A.Q. Khan network's key operatives will likely escape punishment, officials concede.(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )

Who were some of the people and organizations connected with A.Q. Khan?

1. B.S.A. Tahir - The recent investigations into the clandestine nuclear proliferation activities of A.Q.Khan, the so-called father of the Pakistan atom bomb, have revealed that Bukhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan Tamil Muslim of Indian origin, married in Malysia and with business interests in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, was one of the external kingpins of Pakistan's clandestine nuclear procurement network. In a speech at the National Defence University of Washington DC in February last, President Bush had described this Sri Lankan Tamil-speaking Muslim as the "chief financial officer and money-launderer" of A.Q.Khan's clandestine operations.(http://www.saag.org/papers11/paper1026.html ) As chief financial officer, B.S.A. Tahir played an important role in his connection with a Malaysian company called Scomi that will be explored in greater detail in section E of this paper.

2. Lashkar-e-Toiba - or LET is a terrorist group of Pakistan, consisting of Pakistani, Afghan and Arab cadres, headed by Pakistani office-bearers, with its headquarters at Muridke near Lahore. Its annual conventions at Muridke are attended, amongst others, by serving and retired officers of the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment, by serving and retired scientists of the Pakistani nuclear and missile establishment and by political leaders.

Amongst those, who regularly attend its annual conventions, are Lt. Gen. (retd) Hamid Gul and Lt.Gen.(retd) Javed Nasir, both former Directors-General of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI),Dr. Abdul Qadir Khan, the self-styled father of the Pakistani atom bomb, Dr.Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, the former scientist of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission who was recently detained by the Pakistani authorities under US pressure for being in contact with bin Laden and Mohd.Rafique Tarar, former President of Pakistan.(http://www.saag.org/papers4/paper381.html )

3. Osama bin Laden – The following is an excerpt from an investigation by the Kashmir Herald into several of A.Q. Khan’s travels to Africa.

The uranium enriched at KRL, Kahuta, used to come from Africa, mainly Niger. This partly explains the frequent travels of A.Q.Khan to Africa. From the accounts given by the Pakistani author, two intriguing questions arise:

Why did Khan consider it necessary to visit the site of a factory in Sudan, which became the target of US Cruise missile attacks after the explosions outside the US Embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam by Al Qaeda in August 1998? The Americans had alleged at that time that this factory belonged to Osama bin Laden and was producing chemicals for weaponisation purposes. Denying this, the Sudanese authorities had claimed that it was producing anti-malaria drugs.
Why was he visiting frequently Timbuktu, which has apparently no importance from the nuclear point of view? Pakistani officials have alleged that he had illegally constructed a hotel there ( Hotel La Colombe?) in the name of his wife. If he was going there to supervise the construction of the hotel, he should have been accompanied by experts in building construction and the hotel industry. No such person accompanied him. He was always accompanied by scientists and Army officers associated with KRL and Tahir Mian, who was helping him in the procurement of centrifuges.

It is reliably learnt from well-placed observers that it also came out during the recent interrogation of the associates of Khan in Pakistan's nuclear establishment that after Osama bin Laden shifted from Khartoum to Afghanistan in 1996, Dr.Khan was also looking after bin Laden's extensive investments in the mining industry in many African countries and that the money invested in the Timbuktu hotel had come from these investments of bin Laden. The Pakistani authorities have reportedly suppressed this information and not shared it with the US.(http://www.kashmirherald.com/featuredarticle/khanandbin ... )

This investigation has yielded some amazing information. In addition to widespread government cooperation with the network that has not been reported to the US, A.Q. Khan obtained uranium from Africa, mainly from Niger, where Valerie Plame’s husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, discovered the evidence that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium there was a forgery. Most frightening is the extent of Khan’s relationship with bin Laden, apparently trusted enough to look after bin Laden’s investments in Africa. Only time will tell how much bin Laden profited, both in monetary terms and in expanding al Qaeda’s WMD potential, from the generosity of Khan’s nuclear Walmart.

4. Unnamed U.S. Firm - More than 20 firms - including at least one American company - have supplied rogue nations seeking nuclear arms, marking the first time a U.S. company has been linked to the black market network. .(http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=r ... )

What American company would possibly have had the means and the motive to risk potentially treasonous activity by profiting off black market nuclear proliferation to terrorist organizations and their state sponsors? In the next two sections, an examination into the motives of why Dick Cheney, through his association with Halliburton, would have wanted a sting operation focused on A.Q. Khan’s nuclear Walmart terminated will be conducted, as well as an exploration into how the profits from such a treacherous enterprise could possibly have been laundered.

D. Compromising Positions in Cheney's Past

1. Cheney helped cover-up Pakistani nuclear proliferation in 1989 so US could sell country fighter jets. - When Pakistan's clandestine program involving its top nuclear scientist selling rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, blueprints for building an atomic bomb was uncovered last month, the world's leaders waited, with baited breath to see what type of punishment George W. Bush would inflict upon Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff. Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMD. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.

Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMD, which was the primary reason he gave for the United States launching a preemptive strike on that country a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have given its WMD to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and top members of the administration reacted with shock when they found out that Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistan's top nuclear scientist, spent the past 15 years selling outlaw nations nuclear technology and equipment. So it was sort of a surprise when Bush, upon finding out about Khan's proliferation of nuclear technology, let Pakistan off with a slap on the wrist. But it was all an act. In fact, it was actually a coverup designed to shield Cheney because he knew about the proliferation for more than a decade and did nothing to stop it.(emphasis added)

Like the terrorist attacks on 9-11, the Bush administration had mountains of evidence on Pakistan's sales of nuclear technology and equipment to nations vilified by the U.S. nations that are considered much more of a threat than Iraq but turned a blind eye to the threat and allowed it to happen. In 1989, the year Khan first started selling nuclear secrets on the black-market; Richard Barlow, a young intelligence analyst working for the Pentagon prepared a shocking report for Cheney, who was then secretary of defense under the Bush I administration: Pakistan built an atomic bomb and was selling its nuclear equipment to countries the U.S. said was sponsoring terrorism. But Barlow's findings, as reported in a January 2002 story in Mother Jones magazine, were "politically inconvenient."

"A finding that Pakistan possessed a nuclear bomb would have triggered a congressionally mandated cutoff of aid to the country, a key ally in the CIA's efforts to support Afghan rebels fighting a pro-Soviet government. It also would have killed a $1.4-billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Islamabad," Mother Jones reported. Ironically, Pakistan, critics say, was let off the hook last month so the U.S. could use its borders to hunt for al-Qaeda leader and alleged 9-11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. Cheney dismissed Barlow's report because he desperately wanted to sell Pakistan the F-16 fighter planes. Several months later, a Pentagon official was told by Cheney to downplay Pakistan's nuclear capabilities when he testified on the threat before Congress. Barlow complained to his bosses at the Pentagon and was fired. (http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/2004031621042 ... )
"This was not a failure of intelligence," Barlow told Mother Jones. "The intelligence was in the system."(http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/031004Leop ... )

In a New Yorker article published on March 29, 1993, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh quoted Barlow as saying that some high-ranking members inside the CIA and the Pentagon lied to Congress about Pakistan's nuclear arsenal so as not to sacrifice the sale of the F-16 fighter planes to Islamabad, which was secretly equipped to deliver nuclear weapons. Pakistan's nuclear capabilities and had become so grave by the spring of 1990 that then CIA deputy director Richard Kerr said the Pakistani nuclear threat was worse than the Cuban Missile crisis in the 1960s.(http://www.newyorker.com/archive/content/?040119fr_arch ... )

In addition to these three sources that corroborate the fact that Cheney knew about A.Q. Khan’s network and rather than report it, chose to profit through sales to Pakistan of fighter jets that could deliver nuclear weapons, Cheney was caught on another case of nuclear proliferation.

2. Halliburton fined $1.2 million in 1995 for selling dual-use nuclear equipment to Libya. - Halliburton came under fire in the early '90s for supplying Libya and Iraq with oil drilling equipment which could be used to detonate nuclear weapons. Halliburton Logging Services, a former subsidiary, was charged with shipping six pulse neutron generators through Italy to Libya. In 1995, the company pled guilty to criminal charges that it violated the U.S. ban on exports to Libya. Halliburton was fined $1.2 million and will pay $2.61 million in civil penalties.

During his chairmanship of Halliburton, Cheney criticized U.S. sanctions against "rogue" nations such as Iran and Libya in a 1998 speech. According to a July 26, 2000, Washington Post story, Cheney complained the sanctions "are nearly always motivated by domestic political pressure, the need for Congress to appeal to some domestic constituency." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/article ... )

3. Existing Halliburton ties to Vice President Dick Cheney – Cheney neglected to mention that he was still due approximately $500,000 in deferred compensation from Halliburton and could potentially profit from his 433,333 shares of unexercised Halliburton stock options.(House of Bush House of Saud by Craig Unger, p. 225.)

Since Halliburton continues to engage in business practices with state sponsors of terrorism and Cheney continues to profit from it, all that is left to do is, in the words of Deep Throat, “Follow the money.” The proceeding section uses circumstantial evidence to show a relationship between several individuals and companies through which the unnamed US firm in Khan’s nuclear Walmart, presumably Halliburton, profited from nuclear proliferation.

E. Links in the Chain Connecting Cheney with Nuclear Proliferation

1. B.S.A. Tahir – Remember this man from Section C? This associate of A.Q. Khan who was identified by President Bush in a speech as the nuclear Walmart’s "chief financial officer and money launderer."(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 ) BSA TAHIR, a SRI LANKAN businessman based in DUBAI was a trusted and close confidante of A. Q. Khan and was actively involved in supplying centrifuge components for Libya's uranium-enrichment program. BSA TAHIR, who was involved in the business of SCOMI PRECISION ENGINEERING SDN BHD (SCOPE). He used the company to produce components for the centrifuge unit for the uranium enrichment program. Furthermore, the supply of components by middlemen was carried out in a discreet manner and involved suppliers from other countries to blur the sources of the components. Some of the suppliers were believed to be aware that these components could be for uranium enrichment centrifuges. (http://icssa.org/Nuclear_Malaysia.htm )

Which companies could possibly have been connected with the suppliers that helped blur the source of the components? Amazingly, a connection between Scomi and Halliburton can be established with only one other company serving as a buffer between the two: Cognis.

a. Cognis – Service specialist Scomi Group Bhd, is offering multinational oil and gas companies a special fluid to make offshore drilling friendlier to the sea and its inhabitants. Scomi, together with German chemicals specialist, Cognis Gmbh, offers ester-based drilling fluid derived from palm kernel oil. The agreement is between Scomi’s wholly-owned Kota Minerals & Chemicals Sdn Bhd (KMC) and Cognis’ 50%-owned unit, Cognis Oleochemicals (M) Sdn Bhd.(http://www.mida.gov.my/beta/news/view_news.php?id=398 )

Sounds like a perfectly benign, perhaps even altruistic enterprise. How is this company connected with Halliburton? It’s through collaboration with one of Halliburton’s subsidiary companies.

b. Baroid – The drilling fluids containing esters based on renewable natural resources are developed by Cognis in collaboration with Baroid, the drilling fluids service company within the Halliburton Energy Services Group.(http://bbriefings.com/cdps/cditem.cfm?NID=252&CID=10&CF ... )

To reiterate the serpentine link:
A.Q. Khan's financial officer (money launderer) was B.S.A. Tahir. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4270904 )
Tahir used Scomi to produce components for the centrifuge unit for the uranium enrichment program. (http://icssa.org/Nuclear_Malaysia.htm )
Scomi, through its company KMC, worked with Cognis Oleochemicals. (http://www.mida.gov.my/beta/news/view_news.php?id=398 )
Cognis is connected with Baroid (part of the Halliburton Group). (http://bbriefings.com/cdps/cditem.cfm?NID=252&CID=10&CF ... )

But the extent of Halliburton/Cheney profiting from nuclear proliferation does not stop there. And Cheney is not the only member of the Bush administration to profit from it.

2. Donald Rumsfeld - Rumsfeld was on ABB board during deal with North Korea.
The Swiss-based ABB on Friday told swissinfo that Rumsfeld was involved with the company in early 2000, when it netted a $200 million (SFr270million) contract with Pyongyang. The ABB contract was to deliver equipment and services for two nuclear power stations at Kumho, on North Korea’s east coast. Rumsfeld – who is one of the Bush administration’s most strident “hardliners” on North Korea – was a member of ABB’s board between 1990 and February 2001, when he left to take up his current post. Wolfram Eberhardt, a spokesman for ABB, told swissinfo that Rumsfeld “was at nearly all the board meetings” during his decade-long involvement with the company.(http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=10 ... ) It’s bad enough for Rumsfeld to profit off selling nuclear equipment to North Korea. But it doesn’t end there, the organizations involved in this transaction link back to Halliburton once again.

a. KEDO - ABB, which was already building eight nuclear reactors in South Korea, had an inside track on the $4 billion U.S.-sponsored North Korea project. The firm was told "our participation is essential," recalls Frank Murray, project manager for the reactors. (He plays the same role now at Westinghouse, which was acquired by Britain's BNFL in 1999, a year before it also bought ABB's nuclear power business.) The North Korean reactors are being primarily funded by South Korean and Japanese export-import banks and supervised by KEDO, a consortium based in New York. "It was not a matter of favoritism," says Desaix Anderson, who ran KEDO from 1997 to 2001. "It was just a practical matter."(www.worldmessenger.20m.com/news4.html )

b. KNOC - The KEDO (Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization) is the official Korean government energy corporation. By reading their 2001 energy development summary one can make out all the myriad countries that contribute to KEDO. North Korea lacks necessary production facilities to drill and test for its oil. It is reaching out to many firms and countries to help them while the government attempts to develop some oil fields with as much capital as it can muster. A Singapore firm recently announced (August 29, 2002) significant oil and gas reserves in North Korea. Additionally, Halliburton has partnered with KNOC to develop offshore drilling platforms in South Korea.(www.rmfdevelopment.com/political/NorthKoreaOil.htm )

Yet another serpentine link through which money could be laundered into the willing hands of Halliburton.
Rumsfeld-ABB (http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=10 ... )
ABB-KEDO (www.worldmessenger.20m.com/news4.html )
KEDO-KNOC-Halliburton (www.rmfdevelopment.com/political/NorthKoreaOil.htm )

But were these links completely separate, or is it possible that there were any other companies besides Halliburton involved with both links of possible proliferation profits? One company not previously mentioned has relationships with companies on both links.

3. Goldman Sachs – a lucrative investment firm that is listed quite prominently as one of the main investors in Cognis on their website.(http://www.cognis.com/framescout.html?/company/company .... ) Also there is a link with Donald Rumsfeld to two organizations, Bilderberg and ABB through the chairman of Goldman Sachs, General Peter Sutherland from Ireland. Some of the Western world's leading financiers and foreign policy strategists attend Bilderberg. Rumsfeld is an active Bilderberger. So is General Peter Sutherland from Ireland, a former European Union commissioner and chairman of Goldman Sachs and of BP. Rumsfeld and Sutherland served together in 2000 on the board of the Swedish/Swiss energy company ABB. ( http://www.fact-index.com/b/bi/bilderberg_group.html )


These links are not in and of themselves direct proof of the laundering of nuclear proliferation profits. But they are proof of a relationship between these companies sharing common goals, through which individuals involved in nuclear proliferation, and there were many in these companies, could operate their network covertly.

F. Conclusions and Recommendations – To conclude, this paper asserts that Dick Cheney is directly responsible for the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name that resulted in sabotaging her CIA career and her cover company, Brewster, Jennings & Associates. CIA operations that were compromised by the leak were associated with A.Q. Khan’s network of nuclear smuggling. Khan’s network, vast enough to be dubbed by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei a “nuclear Walmart”, was examined here for the connections it has with terrorist organizations and state sponsors, as well as areas in which the CIA could have been following their activities.

It proves conclusively that Dick Cheney knew about A.Q. Khan’s nuclear Walmart as early as 1989, and chose not to expose the network but to profit from it, which gives him the strongest motive to blow Valerie Plame’s cover. State sponsors of terror that were proven recipients of Cheney’s nuclear proliferation include Pakistan, Libya and possibly Iran. The links between Khan and Cheney involved suppliers from other countries designed to blur the source of the components, but research concludes individuals affiliated with collaborative companies such as Cognis and their investor Goldman Sachs would be the most obvious links in the chain. Such links also exist in the case of Donald Rumsfeld profiting through ABB’s $200 million sale of nuclear equipment to North Korea, which would prove that Halliburton profited from this example of nuclear proliferation as well.

The main recommendation to all who read this is to spread the word. Anyone who reads this who is in a position to investigate this matter further, whether as an activist, investigative reporter or government official, should do so with care and thoroughness. The names and organizations listed in the paper should, with a proper investigation, lead to more damaging evidence that will help solve the crime and establish justice. That is perhaps the most important aspect of this case to remember, that regardless of the prestige and power connected with the parties involved, this is a criminal investigation. It is hoped that no matter what your political persuasion is, that as a law abiding citizen, you stand with us in condemnation of the exposure of Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent as a highly criminal act, and join us in the pursuit of justice for the perpetrators.

_____________________________________________________________________

very impressive!!!

readers.

May I suggest that you start out with the "grabber" your conclusion,
but dont call it your conclusion...

then without too much detail, show Cheney's connections to illegal WMD
shell companies of Halliburton selling to Khan, Khan overseer for bin Laden, Rumsfeld joining in -both selling to North Korea which was illegal under United States sanction list...but which they though they could avoid by establishing off shore mailbox companies...etc.etc



Then as an ending repeat your conclusion, because you have shown how gyou got there.

Check front page for instructions from DU on what length of article should be...I suggest you try to make it no longer than 3 or 3 1/2 pages long.....leaving out itty bitty detail which most readers wont have patience for, such as Baroid, GCA,Suisse NBA..which owned agri bld which owned corgis SMA etc etc ..(for example made up)

and just call it Baroid Company,,,a subsidiary of Halliburton

keep it as simple as possible..too many details just confuse people.
they can always be referred to the full story.

Check out some of the front page stories and Waterman's and you will find that they are very very simple.

What you have written is a wonderful investigative report fit for the
Senate Intelligence Committee,and the Judiciary Committee and they absolutely should receive it in full paper form ! and probably special delivery before Goss gets confirmed.

Maybe the mods would consider posting this paper in its entirety, as a week-long series? Seems to me, you have five days' worth of articles.

Each day, you could tease the next topic:
Tomorrow, we examine A.Q. Khan’s "Nuclear Walmart": a not-so-secret netherworld where proliferation meshed with globalization.

Then, with each new article, you could link to the previous article.

(I agree with Pallas180 that your conclusion is your beginning. It's a nice summation, in layman's terms, with a call-to-action purpose. Maybe tighten up the last paragraph. Suggestion:

Regardless of the prestige and power of the parties involved in this case, this is a criminal investigation. No matter what your political persuasion, law-abiding citizens must stand together and condemn the criminal act of exposing CIA agent Valerie Plame.

We urge everyone—activists, investigative reporters, government officials—to help spread the word and join us in the pursuit of justice.)

22 DEM 5 part ..absolutely great idea

"tease the next topic"....what does Rove think he's the only one who
knows how to market?

and last para too....

It's a complicated story subject because of the convoluted ways they
worked to hide what they were doing and the many other crooks they
tied in with..

So my view is to start at A, tell em how you get to B, how B goes to
C.......but in the simplest terms...

How would any of us like to be the prosecutors working Enron and some
of these others and trying to figure these things out?

BTW -- Enron is established in INdia....be interesting to google
Halliburton or Brown Root and Enron wouldnt it?

Thanks Pallas, and good morning. Both you and Dist22Dem have some great ideas there. I'll get to work on giving this baby some suspense and intrigue!

I'm glad this is making some blogs in its present form. But I do want this info to reach as many people as possible. So we'll see how it goes!

exactly which direction we want to go with our googling now? I'm lost.

.

We've got some good stuff recently on Atta and the whole Sheikh/Mahmood/ISI affair. I'm a little lost myself but I'm gonna go back to thread 17 and see what direction we were going.

I think I want to look into Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz and see if he has any connections with the Saudis. Especially the Saudis that died mysteriously - the Prince Ahmed bin Salman connection.

Pakistan's dubious al-Qaeda suspect
Thursday, September 18 2003 @ 05:34 PM Eastern Daylight Time
B Raman
Time magazine of the United States (August 31) carried a commentary on a book written by Gerald Posner, titled Why America Slept. The commentary says, "Most of his new book is a lean, lucid retelling of how the CIA, FBI and US leaders missed a decade's worth of clues and opportunities that, if heeded, Posner argues, might have forestalled the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Posner is an old hand at revisiting conspiracy theories. He wrote controversial assessments dismissing those surrounding the JFK and Martin Luther King Jr assassinations. And the Berkeley-educated lawyer is adept at marshaling an unwieldy mass of information - most of his sources are other books and news stories - into a pattern made tidy and linear by hindsight.

"His indictment of US intelligence and law-enforcement agencies covers well-trodden ground, though sometimes the might-have-beens and could-have-beens are stretched thin. The stuff that is going to spark hot debate is Chapter 19, an account - based on Zubaydah's claims as told to Posner by 'two government sources' who are unnamed but 'in a position to know' - of what two countries allied to the US did to build up al-Qaeda and what they knew before that September day." The reference is to Abu Zubaydah, then projected by the US intelligence agencies as the No 3 to Osama bin Laden in the al-Qaeda. He was arrested by Pakistani authorities at the insistance of the US intelligence, from the house of an office-bearer of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front (IIF), at Faislabad in Pakistani Punjab on March 28 last year and flown by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to the US naval base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia for interrogation. It is not known where he is kept presently.

The book, according to the commentary, refers to a 1996 meeting in Pakistan between bin Laden and Mushaf Ali Mir, a high-ranking officer of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), who subsequently became the chief of the air staff in November 2000 and died in a mysterious plane crash in February this year. The book, according to Time, cites Abu Zubaydah as having claimed that he was present at the meeting during which "bin Laden struck a deal with Mir, then in the military but tied closely to Islamists in Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to get protection, arms and supplies for al-Qaeda. Zubaydah told interrogators bin Laden said the arrangement was blessed by the Saudis." The mention of Mushaf Ali Mir by Abu Zubaydah as the ISI's contact man with bin Laden is surprising for the following reasons. First, the Pakistani army, which has always controlled the ISI, never associates officers of the air force and the navy with its sensitive covert operations. Second, it generally does not allow officers of the air force and the navy to head the ISI or to occupy sensitive positions in it.

Since 1988, when the Pakistan army used bin Laden and his tribal hordes to brutally suppress a Shi'ite revolt in Gilgit in Pakistan, contacts with bin Laden have always been handled by senior officers of the army. Among those who had handled bin Laden (in order of importance) are General Mohammad Aziz, a Kashmiri from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK) belonging to the Sudan tribe, who is now chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Pervez Musharraf (now president), General Mehmood Ahmed, director general of the ISI from October 1999 to October 2001, when he was reportedly removed under US pressure because of his links with al-Qaeda, and Lieutenant-General Ehsanul Haq, the present director general of the ISI since October 2001, who was before that the Corps Commander at Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

General Aziz was deputy director general of the ISI as a major-general until November, 1998, when Musharraf appointed him as his Chief of the General Staff (CGS) after his promotion as a Lieutenant-General. Since Musharraf did not trust Lieutenant-General Ziauddin, whom Nawaz Sharif, the then prime minister, had appointed as the director general of the ISI, he ordered the transfer of all files relating to the Taliban, al-Qaeda and terrorist operations in India from the ISI to the office of the CGS. Aziz continued handling these operations. There were four phases in the ISI's relations with bin Laden. In the first phase before 1990, the ISI did not feel the need to keep the relations secret from the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).The two were operating him jointly. In fact, it was the CIA which brought him from Saudi Arabia initially, to make use of his civil engineering skills for the construction of tunnels in difficult terrain in Afghanistan. He subsequently became the head and mentor of the Arab mercenaries who had been brought by the Western intelligence agencies to Afghanistan for helping the Afghan mujahideen in their jihad against the Soviet troops.

In the second phase between 1990 and 1996, there were no reports of any contacts between the ISI and bin Laden. He was initially in Saudi Arabia and then the Sudan. During this period, Pakistani jihadi leaders such as Maulana Masood Azhar, then of the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) and now of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM), Fazlur Rahman Khalil, then of the HUA and now of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HUM), and Professor Hafeez Mohammad Sayeed, the head of the Markaz Dawa al-Irshad, the political wing of the LET, used to visit bin Laden, initially in Saudi Arabia and then in Sudan. Since all these jihadi leaders had close contacts with the ISI, it was very likely that they had kept the ISI informed of their discussions with bin Laden and of the activities of al-Qaeda in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. The third phase was between 1996 and October 7, 2001. In the beginning of 1996, the Sudanese government asked him to leave Khartoum. Through the Pakistani jihadi leaders, he sought the permission of the Burhanuddin Rabbani government, then in power in Kabul, to shift to Jalalabad in Afghanistan. After consulting the Benazir Bhutto government, then in office in Islamabad, Rabbani allowed him and his entourage to shift to Jalalabad. Shortly thereafter, the Taliban captured Jalalabad and Kabul in September, 1996. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the head of the Taliban, ordered the shifting of bin Laden and his entourage to Kandahar, where the Taliban had set up its religious headquarters.

A number of serving and retired officers of the Pakistan army and the ISI, such as Mohammad Aziz, Lieutenant-General (retd) Hamid Gul, former director general of the ISI, and Lieutenant-General (retd) Javed Nasir, another former director general of the ISI, called on bin Laden at Jalalabad and then Kandahar and used to remain in touch with him. Aziz used to organize his periodic medical check-ups at a Pakistani military hospital at Peshawar. None of the reports received during this period mentioned the presence of either Mushaf Ali Mir or Abu Zubaydah at any of these meetings. The US was aware of the shifting of bin Laden and his entourage to Afghanistan. Though al-Qaeda had been suspected in the attack on US troops in Somalia in 1993, and in the explosions in Saudi Arabia in 1996 targeting US troops, the US did not exercise pressure on the Taliban to hand over bin Laden. During this period, Unocal, a US oil company, was very hopeful of getting the approval of the Taliban government for its oil and gas pipeline project, and US officials such as Robin Raphael, then assistant secretary of state, used to interact with the Taliban on this subject. There were no reports of their ever having raised the issue of bin Laden with the Taliban.

It was only after bin Laden formed his International Islamic Front (IIF) in February 1998 and called for a jihad against the US and Israel that the US started pressuring the Nawaz Sharif government to make the Taliban hand over bin Laden to the US for trial. The pressure increased after the explosions organized by al-Qaeda outside the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam in August 1998. By then, Unocal had also abandoned its pipeline project in collaboration with the Taliban following an outcry among women's groups in the West over the Taliban's anti-women policies. In the midst of all these happenings, Mohammad Aziz and Hamid Gul kept in regular touch with bin Laden and the Taliban leader. The Taliban had allowed the HUM to set up training camps in its territory with Arab and Chechen instructors from al-Qaeda. These were among the camps destroyed by the US cruise missile strikes in retaliation for the explosions in Kenya and Tanzaniya.

As the US pressure increased, Musharraf and Mohammad Aziz presented to Nawaz in the beginning of 1999 a plan for shifting all the terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda and its allied organizations from Afghanistan to the Kargil heights in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and let them loose against the Indian army. They argued that by doing so they would be able to escape US pressure and, at the same time, add to the difficulties of the Indian army. It was this plan which Nawaz approved. After the fighting in Kargil broke out, Nawaz was totally surprised to learn that Musharraf and Aziz had used regular Pakistani army troops and not the terrorists for occupying the Kargil heights. Why Musharraf changed the plan is not clear. Some say that he and Aziz did shift some of the terrorists from Afghanistan to Skardu in Gilgit, and sent them to occupy the Kargil heights. They were surprised by the ease with each they moved into the heights, and by the reports received from the terrorists that there was no Indian army presence on the other side. They then decided to send the army in to replace the terrorists and occupy the area.

Others say that Musharraf and Aziz had from the beginning planned to send the troops and not the terrorists, but had told Nawaz that they would be using the terrorists since they felt that Nawaz would never approve the plan if they told him that they intended to use regular troops. After the withdrawal of the Pakistani troops from the Kargil area under US pressure, the US again took up with Nawaz the question of Pakistani help to get hold of bin Laden. This matter came up during a visit of Ziauddin to Washington. The US wanted Pakistan's help for organizing a commando operation into Kandahar to catch bin Laden and his entourage. Nawaz asked the US to be patient, and sent Ziauddin to Kandahar to persuade Mullah Omar to hand over bin Laden to the US. He refused.

Nawaz and Ziauddin had not kept Musharraf and Aziz in the picture. On coming to know of Ziauddin's secret visit to Kandahar, Musharraf sent Aziz to Mullah Omar to tell him that he should not obey any instructions of Ziauddin. Nawaz came to know of this, and this was one of the factors that contributed to his decision to sack Musharraf on October 12, 1999, which in turn led to his overthrow and Musharraf assuming power in a bloodless coup. After Musharraf took over power, Aziz, who continued to be his CGS, and Lieutenant-General Mahmood Ahmed, who had replaced Ziauddin as the director general of the ISI, continued to remain in touch with bin Laden, who kept coming to Peshawar for his medical check-ups at the local military hospital. In the middle of 2001, a function was held in Kabul at which the first group of Taliban officers trained by the Pakistan army passed out. Among those who attended this function were bin Laden, Hamid Gul and Ehsanul Haq, then Corps Commander, Peshawar.

After September, under US pressure, Musharraf sent a team of Pakistani mullahs headed by Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai, the chief of the Binori madrassa (religious school) of Karachi, to Kandahar, ostensibly to persuade the Taliban to hand over bin Laden to the US. Mahmood Ahmed accompanied them. Surprisingly, instead of asking him to hand over bin Laden, the mullahs, in the presence of Mahmood Ahmed, complimented him for resisting US pressure. It was reported that the US somehow came to know of this and it was under its pressure that Musharraf had to remove Aziz and Mahmood Ahmed from their posts when the US operations began in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001.

http://www.pakistan-facts.com/article.php/2003091821341...

Wow. Musharraf, Aziz, and Mahmood Ahmed used to "handle" bin Laden.

Hope I highlighted all the good stuff. If I missed anything important, please repost it.

Here are the new bits, the rest is at the link.

25. Since August last year, bin Laden has disappeared from the Binori madrasa. One is no longer certain whether he is alive or dead and, if he is alive, where he is . Since a number of messages purported to be of his have been circulating, he is presumed to be alive unless proved to be dead. After August last year, there has not been a single reliable report of his being sighted anywhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan or elsewhere in the world. Like the proverbial ghosts, he is only heard, but not seen.

26.Why did Abu Zubaidah mention to his FBI and CIA interrogators that it was Mushaf Ali Mir who was in touch with bin Laden? One can only speculate. It was probably to draw suspicion away from Mohammad Aziz, Musharraf and Ehsanul Haq.

27. There is, however, one intriguing aspect about Mushaf Ali Mir. He did not enjoy a great reputation in the PAF. He was heading the military equipment manufacturing complex at Kamra. In November,2000, Musharraf, who liked Mushaf Ali Mir tremendously, superseded five highly distinguished officers of the PAF and appointed Mir as the Chief of the Air Staff. The supersession of so many officers came in for strong criticism from a number of retired officers of the Pakistani Armed Forces. Why did Musharraf feel obliged to promote this mediocre officer even at the risk of causing widespread unhappiness in the PAF? A question to which there has been no answer.

http://www.saag.org/papers8/paper786.html

Perhaps Zubaydah threw Mushaf Ali Mir out as a red herring. But why did Mir die in a plane crash?