Enter the FBI (Newsweek)

[Nambe]

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

The FBI, plunging full steam into the Iraq intelligence controversy, is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the forged documents that purported to show that Saddam Hussein’s regime was seeking to buy significant quantities of uranium, NEWSWEEK has learned.

THE PREVIOUSLY undisclosed probe is being conducted by the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Division and, although formally labeled a “preliminary inquiry,” is described by knowledgeable sources as active and ongoing.

Only three months ago, FBI director Robert Mueller had brushed aside a request from Congress to probe the Niger documents after bureau officials concluded that the forgeries did not appear to be part of a broader disinformation campaign to influence U.S. policy by a foreign intelligence service.

But more recently, the Counter-Intelligence Division, overseen by its aggressive assistant director, David Szady, has revisited the matter—in part after further prodding by the office of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, three sources tell NEWSWEEK.

Agents have been dispatched to Italy and other foreign countries to look into the murky origins of the documents. In addition, Szady has ordered the questioning of officials at the State Department and the CIA, a particularly awkward development given the longstanding rivalry between the bureau and the agency.

Ride Don’t Drive It’s Global Cool

[Dhalgren]

1. Man! This could be big!!

Now, how trustworthy is the FBI? Could this be for real or a whitewash?

[joeybee12]

2. Whitewash

The FBI never gets to the bottom of anything. They're only brought in to make it look like something is being done.

[dArKeR]

16. The FBI is more corrupt than the CIA and NSA combined

Lost In Translation
Edmonds says that the supervisor, in an effort to slow her down, went so far as to erase completed translations from her FBI computer after she'd left work for the day.


“The next day I would come to work, turn on my computer and the work would be gone. The translation would be gone,” she says. “Then I had to start all over again and retranslate the same document. And I went to my supervisor and he said, ‘Consider it a lesson and don't talk about it to anybody else and don't mention it.’”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/25/60minutes/main526954.shtml


FBI official charged with obstruction after concealing Ruby Ridge report
(Harp was in on this too and now he heads the anthrax cover-up.)
http://www.cnn.com/US/9610/22/ruby.ridge.final/


Busting the FBI
The Judi Bari verdict bares government lies and deceit
They found that six agents of the FBI and the Oakland police twisted a murder attempt against Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, two Earth First! activists working to reform logging practices
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/02/31/news-kuipers.php


Fighting an FBI frame-up
An Earth First! member relates how she and Darryl Cherney were framed by the FBI for a car bombing that nearly killed them. The frame-up was one of a long series of events in the FBI's campaign against the environmental movement. It has been four years since Darryl Cherney and I were nearly killed in a 1990 car-bomb assassination attempt, then arrested for possession of the bomb
http://www.wildrockies.org/cove/news/62194nw.html


Did The FBI Destroy Evidence?
The FBI and prosecutors ordered the destruction in 1999 of evidence from a bank robbery they once suspected linked Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh to white supremacists who were threatening before McVeigh's bombing to attack the government, documents show.
The evidence included a surveillance videotape of a bank robbery by some of the supremacists that occurred in Ohio five months before the bombing. The FBI lab compared the tape to pictures of McVeigh, but concluded a match was "inconclusive," internal memos show.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/12/national/main540266.shtml



FBI Whistleblower Harassed
Special agent John Roberts says he was threatened, intimidated and humiliated for exposing what he said has become a pattern of misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI and that has gone unpunished.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/25/60minutes/main530750.shtml



FBI Meeting Called A Sham
A Justice Department investigation into a 1997 retirement dinner for former FBI Deputy Director Larry A. Potts said senior bureau executives used a sham conference at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Va., to justify using taxpayer funds for cross-country travel to Washington.
http://www.americansovereign.com/newsarchive/fbisham.htm



Phone records: Link from state official to FBI
Deputy AG reportedly sought federal aid to find missing Democrats
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/politics/state/stories/061103dntexdps.aca2d.html


The FBI is conducting an exhaustive review of each of its thousands of human intelligence sources to ensure the information they provide is accurate and that their relationships with FBI handlers are proper.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/04/28/national/main551346.shtml

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Earth Threatened, Wen Ho Lee Released
http://unquietmind.com/wenholee.html

Wen Ho Lee is Just one more example of FBI Misdirection. Many elements of the case are similar to Unabomber Charade. Together they are textbook examples of Government tactics on Black Ops.
http://www.unabombers.com/z23.htm

http://www.wenholee.org/

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FBI Agent, Turner, blew whistle on Ground Zero, 911, theft.
She says she immediately reported the problem to a federal prosecutor, then to her supervisor, and waited for him to act.
Two weeks later, after nothing apparently had been done, Turner seized the globe, bagged it as evidence and took it to Justice Department officials in Washington.
(She's being fired.)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/907004.asp?0cv=CB10

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Poll: 4 out of 10 Americans don't trust FBI
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001-05-22-mcveigh-pollstory.htm

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With defense lawyers stepping up challenges to genetic evidence, the Justice Department inspector general is examining the FBI lab unit that analyzes DNA in hundreds of cases a year after a technician was caught failing to follow proper procedure.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/11/tech/main543575.shtml

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FBI says it withheld evidence from McVeigh lawyers
http://www.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/10/mcveigh.evidence.02/

Nichols: FBI Withheld On Purpose
A lawyer for Terry Nichols, who was convicted as Timothy McVeigh's assistant in the Oklahoma City bombing, claimed the FBI may have intentionally withheld documents from defense lawyers and misled federal prosecutors.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/05/14/national/main291113.shtml


http://www.geocities.com/darkerxdarker

[LauraK]

17. Sheesh...way too much information.

next

[1monster]

3. Red herring?

"But the correspondence was on obsolete letterhead, including the wrong symbol for the presidency of Niger, and made reference to state bodies that no longer existed at the time that the letters were written. In addition, an Oct. 10, 2000, letter, allegedly signed by the foreign minister of Niger, had the signature of a man who hadn’t served in that position since 1989.

These were all conclusions that, investigators believe, should have been easily deciphered by the CIA much earlier—had it not been for the bureaucratic foul-ups that are just now coming to light." <snipped from the article>

Hadn't these already been discredited big time by the man (Wilson?) that Cheney had sent to Niger? Didn't he find that the "state bodies" no longer existed and that the minister, who was supposed to have signed the papers had not served in that office since 1989?

This article is just trying to throw the onus on to George Tennet and the CIA to take some of the heat off of *.

[1monster]

4. Red herring?

"But the correspondence was on obsolete letterhead, including the wrong symbol for the presidency of Niger, and made reference to state bodies that no longer existed at the time that the letters were written. In addition, an Oct. 10, 2000, letter, allegedly signed by the foreign minister of Niger, had the signature of a man who hadn’t served in that position since 1989.

These were all conclusions that, investigators believe, should have been easily deciphered by the CIA much earlier—had it not been for the bureaucratic foul-ups that are just now coming to light." <snipped from the article>

Hadn't these already been discredited big time by the man (Wilson?) that Cheney had sent to Niger? Didn't he find that the "state bodies" no longer existed and that the minister, who was supposed to have signed the papers had not served in that office since 1989?

This article is just trying to throw the onus on to George Tennet and the CIA to take some of the heat off of *.

[Rose Siding]

6. Very fishy.

Makes the CIA- note the last few pp- look like real bumblers.

Going after the CIA makes sense, especially considering they may have averted the war with Syria- for now.

[lanlady]

11. red herring--yes

CIA probably would not be the only agency to look at these docs. At a minimum, the NSA and DIA experts would be consulted as well.

What bureaucratic foul-ups is the article referring to? Amazing how journalists swallow this crap.

[bobthedrummer]

5. Remember that there was a wave of early "retirements"

in CIA and FBI, many supervisors left when Ashcroft, the witchfinder entered, also check out how Robert Mueller III became head.

The FBI ignored the consistent reports about terrorists at flight schools prior to 9-11.

Hopefully the retired will speak out.

[grasswire]

7. argh!!!

the FBI will probably scoop up evidence and FIXER Mueller will stonewall.

[baby_bear]

8. Now, there's a good point, bobthedrummer

Those who left the agency for whatever reason should speak up on these matters now.

It's like at the EPA, only we need current career staffers to speak up. They have been doing so lately, and that really puts the heat on the administration.

Emperor has no clothes and all that. I don't know what kind of restrictions (or implied threats) exist for former FBI and CIA staffers to speak up, regarding matters that are political rather than national security. However, these days, everything is stamped with the nationaly security imprimatur.

s_m

[Frances]

9. I think I know who forged the documents

<<But the correspondence was on obsolete letterhead, including the wrong symbol for the presidency of Niger, and made reference to state bodies that no longer existed at the time that the letters were written. In addition, an Oct. 10, 2000, letter, allegedly signed by the foreign minister of Niger, had the signature of a man who hadn’t served in that position since 1989. >>

The forgery would have been much harder to prove back in 1989 because then the info would have been current.

Think about it--1989 is when the PNAC people were trying to get Bush1 to go into Iraq. My best guess is that PNAC operatives dug up info they had from that time and used it to create the forgery.

However underpaid, a diplomat from Niger would have known who the current officials are.

All my life I have seen my fellow white Southerners escape the consequences of their actions by blaming blacks. It doesn't surprise me that Bush's buddies are suggesting that an underpaid black man forged the documents. They think Americans will buy into the stupid black man stereotype without bothering to check the facts.

[lanlady]

12. I think the documents originated with an Iraqi defector--

Someone who got the Iraqi details correct but couldn't be bothered to verify the Nigeran details.

If a Nigeran diplomat had forged the stuff, he would have gotten the Nigeran names, titles, and letterhead correct and perhaps messed up the Iraqi details.

It makes no sense to pin it on a Nigeran. Logic points in the direction of an Iraqi defector and/or Chalabi minion.

[starroute]

14. That's about what Xymphora suggests

http://xymphora.blogspot.com/2003_07_01_xymphora_archive.html#105825854829569895

I think the forger used as his starting point copies of genuine documentation involving the government of Niger and the government of Iraq. The only unusual aspect of this is that these documents were from the 1980's. In other words, the forger took copies of documents from fifteen years ago, and cut and pasted them to look like they were documents from a few years ago. So the forger must have been an individual who:


1. is not a professional intelligence agent, as a professional would have done a much better job and wouldn't have made the serious and obvious errors,

2. is not from Niger, for someone from Niger wouldn't have made the errors, and

3. is someone who had access to internal Iraqi government files from the 1980's.


In other words, the forger was almost certainly a functionary in the Iraqi bureaucracy of the 1980's, who took copies of the Niger documents with him when he defected out of Iraq. He is almost certainly one of the Iraqi defectors that Cheney has been using to provide much of the raw material on which the attack on Iraq was justified. All this talk about Italian intelligence, and French intelligence, and intelligence sources from 'another country', and a mysterious diplomat from Niger, are all fog meant to confuse the issue.

[Rose Siding]

13. PNAC would make sense

and some of those guys were tight with Chalabi- I ALWAYS think he's involved in the shady stuff.

[wabeewoman]

15. I think you are right, Frances

That is the most logical explanation. They just pulled the memo out of an old file and being so arrogant and sure they wouldn't be challenged didn't even try to update it. Now, the topping on the cake would be if junior got it from senior.

[sandnsea]

10. Request from "Congress"... Bullpucky

It was a request from Jay Rockefeller. The Republican Senator, the Roberts from Kansas, wouldn't sign onto the letter. This request was made months and months ago and the FBI wouldn't touch it. This is another HUGE part of this story and somebody needs to haul his ass into Congress and ask him why he wasn't interested in a forged document fed to the CIA. And ask Roberts the exact same thing. Kansas DUers anywhere? Blast your senator and newspapers.