When was it "known" the Niger documents were forged?

[Hamlette]

Some jerk GOP talkinghead said yesterday that Wilson said he learned, on his trip to Niger, that the docs were forged BUT according to the "Senate Intell. Committee Report" that wasn't known until 8 months AFTER Wilson got back.

I'm trying to keep informed on the smear tactics...for self defense.

Anyone know the answer to this?

Anyone know where I can find the alleged Senate Intelligence Committee Report showing "Wilson is a liar?" As I remember the 9-11 commission took some cheap shots at Wilson but I don't remember a formal report from the Senate. This person (Tony Snow or Cliff May, I heard them both yesterday and I can't keep their rants straight) said it was a bipartisan report. What dems signed off on it?

[chelsea0011]

1. The twisting of Wilson by the right is screwy.

I heard this week that Wilson's trip and discoveries actually backed up the administration and their yellow cake story, but the media keeps making the mistake by reporting that Wilson showed it to be a false story. :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: :crazy:

[vi5]

2. All I know is that I remember the night of the State of the Union speech

wherein chimpy referenced them, and people on here were all screaming that the information he was citing was false/forged. I also remember before the war started pointing out to my bush apologist father in law that Bush had cited forged documents in his SOTU speech. And I'm not exactly a thorough researcher so I must have gotten it from pretty common sources (message boards, blogs, etc.)

[rodeodance]

5. here--from American Progress.org

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=klLWJcP7H&b=914257&ct=1548875

October 28, 2005

ETHICS
The Forgery Fiasco

Today, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to end his long silence, possibly with the indictment of one or more administration officials. But even as one chapter of the scandal draws to a conclusion, a new one emerges. Reports in Italian newspapers have refocused attention on the origins of the poorly forged documents helped justify the 16 words from President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address that started it all: "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." Condoleezza Rice said subsequently, "knowing what we now know, that some of the Niger documents were apparently forged, we wouldn't have put this in the President's speech." Emerging information casts doubt on Rice's portrayal of the administration as hapless bystanders. There are strong indications that senior administration officials and others with close ties to the White House had a far more direct roll in the peddling of false intelligence.

THE STEPHEN HADLEY CONNECTION: The forged documents originated with the Italian government. Nicolo Pollari, chief of Italy's military intelligence service, peddled tales of Iraq seeking Uranium from Niger to the CIA in 2001 and 2002 but his insistent overtures were consistently rebuffed. On Tuesday, an "exclusive report in La Repubblica reveal that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley." (At the beginning of Bush's second term, Hadley was promoted to National Security Adviser.) The previously unreported meeting, which was confirmed in the AP this morning by National Security Counsel spokesman Frederick Jones, occurred at "a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons." A month later, "forged documents were cabled from the U.S. embassy in Rome to Washington after being delivered to embassy officials" by an Italian reporter.

CLASSIC NON-DENIAL DENIAL: National Security Counsel spokesman Fredrick Jones said that during the Hadley-Pollari meeting, "the subject of Iraq's supposed uranium deal with Niger is not believed to have come up." Jones described the meeting as "a courtesy call that lasted fewer than 15 minutes." He added, "no one present has any recollection of yellowcake being discussed."

HADLEY IGNORED REPEATED WARNING THAT THE INTELLIGENCE WAS FLAWED: Prior to the 2003 State of the Union, Hadley was warned three separate times by the CIA not to push the claim that Iraq sought to purchase uranium from Niger. On October 5, Hadley and speechwriter Michael Gerson received a memo from the CIA noting "that CIA had told the Congress about concerns about the British claim." Another CIA memo sent to Hadley the next day warned that the Africa uranium story “was one of two issues where we differed with the British intelligence.” The written warning was accompanied by a phone call from then-CIA Director George Tenet requesting "that any reference to Iraq’s attempt to purchase uranium from sources from Africa to be deleted" from a speech the president gave in Cincinnati in October. On July 22, 2003, Hadley confessed "the fact is that given the October 5 and 6 CIA memorandum, and my telephone conversation with the DCI Tenet at roughly the same time, I should have recalled at the time of the State of the Union speech that there was controversy associated with the uranium issue.”

HADLEY DEEPLY INVOLVED IN LEAK SCANDAL: Laura Rozen writes in the American Prospect, "Hadley's meeting with Pollari, at precisely the time when the Niger forgeries came into the possession of the U.S. government, may explain the seemingly hysterical White House overreaction to Wilson's article almost a year later." Hadley played an integral part in that overreaction. After Karl Rove discussed Valerie Plame's covert identity with Time reporter Matt Cooper, he emailed Hadley: "When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn’t this damaging? Hasn’t the president been hurt? I didn’t take the bait..." Hadley also headed up the administration effort to pin the blame on the CIA. The Washington Post reported, "Behind the scenes, the White House responded with twin attacks: one on Wilson and the other on the CIA, which it wanted to take the blame for allowing the 16 words to remain in Bush’s speech. As part of this effort, then-deputy national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley spoke with Tenet during the week about clearing up CIA responsibility for the 16 words, even though both knew the agency did not think Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, according to a person familiar with the conversation.” (For more details on administration involvement in the leak scandal see our cast of characters).

THE WEB ADMINISTRATION CONNECTIONS: The AP also reports that "Pollari used his own contacts in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans...to promote the dossier" of forged documents. Pollari had very good connections with the Office of Special Plans, which was run by Douglas Feith. (Gen. Tommy Franks calls Feith "the stupidest guy on the face of the earth.") In 2001, Polari attended secret meeting with three employees of the Office of Special Plans, Harold Rhode, Michael Ledeen and Larry Franklin. (Franklin has subsequently "pled guilty to passing information about U.S. policy towards Iran to Israel through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).") The purpose of the meetings, which violated protocol because the CIA was in attendance, was to set up direct contact between the Pentagon and Iranian dissidents. One Iranian in attendance was "arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar." The CIA "believes Ghorbanifar is a serial 'fabricator' and forbids its officers from having anything to do with him."

[rodeodance]

6. lots of clickable stories about this issue at the site.

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. Yes, I remember that

because I was screaming at the TV about it and we had discussed it on DU at least a month before the SOTU.

[Turbineguy]

3. Found this:

http://www.watchingamerica.com/larepubblica000007.html

[Hamlette]

4. I'm grateful to Gaby Hayes for answering most of my questions here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5215940&mesg_id=5215940

I'd forgotten the smear addendum that no dems would sign. That's where they are getting their talking points and then they have the gall to call it part of the bipartisan report!

It's why we can't beat them at their own game. We're unwilling to lie like they do. It is ALL spin to them.

I get more disgusted each and every day. They must truly believe they create the reality and it doesn't matter that it bears no relationship to the truth. It's like we've been invaded by an alien race which is more concerned with money than the country. And they seem to have convinced themselves its the same thing. Sorry. Rant over.

[leveymg]

7. They were described as forgeries by Italian intelligence shortly

after they appeared in early 2002 after the burglary of the Niger Embassy in Rome, on whose letterhead and stolen seals they were manufactured.

The breakin happened several weeks after Michael Ledeen arranged for Larry Franklin and Harold Rhode of the Pentagon Office of Special Plans (OSP) to meet with Manoucher Ghorbanifar in Rome. Larry Franklin was recently convicted of trading classified Iran and Iraq WMD documents with the Israelis. (See below) The Niger Yellowcake forgeries were then shared with the Brits, who reached the same conclusion.

Unable to get them into the pipline, the Niger Yellowcake documents were offered by an Italian "security consultant" to an Italian newspaper columnist. The editor refused to pay $10,000 for them, but passed photocopies on to the US Embassy in Rome, where they made their way to Washington. Both the CIA and the State Dept intell concluded they were fakes, but Cheney insisted they be checked out further, so Wilson was dispatched to Niger. Wilson came back and said they were unfounded.

Nonethless they formed the basis for the "16 poisoned words" that appeared in Bush's January 2003 SOTU speech that paved the way for the Iraq inveasion three months later.

This from Cooperative Research: http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=larry_franklin

Larry Franklin actively participated in the following events:




December 2001 US confrontation with Iran


The Bush administration sends two Defense officials, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin, to meet with Iranians in Rome in response to an Iranian government offer to provide information relevant to the war on terrorism. The offer had been back-channeled by the Iranians to the White House through Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms trader and a central person in the Iran-Contra affair, who contacted another Iran-Contra figure, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. Ledeen passed the information on to his friends in the Defense Department who then relayed the offer to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Hadley expressed no reservations about the proposed meeting and informed George J. Tenet, the director of the CIA, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage. According to officials interviewed by the New York Times, the United States Embassy in Rome was not notified of the planned meeting as required by standard interagency procedures. Neither the US embassy nor CIA station chief in Rome learn of the three-day meeting, apparently attended by both Ghorbanifar and Ledeen, until after it happens. When they do catch wind of the meeting, they notify CIA and State Department headquarters in Washington which complain to the administration about how the meetings had been arranged.
People and organizations involved: Larry Franklin, Stephen Hadley, George Tenet, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Michael Ledeen, Condoleezza Rice, Harold Rhode





December 9, 2001 Complete Iraq timeline


The Bush administration sends two defense officials, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin, to meet with Iranians in Rome in response to an Iranian government offer to provide information relevant to the war on terrorism. The offer had been backchanneled by the Iranians to the White House through Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian arms trader and a central person in the Iran-Contra affair, who contacted another Iran-Contra figure, Michael Ledeen of the American Enterprise Institute. Ledeen passed the information on to his friends in the Defense Department who then relayed the offer to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Hadley expressed no reservations about the proposed meeting and informed George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, and Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage. According to officials interviewed by the New York Times, the United States Embassy in Rome was not notified of the planned meeting as required by standard interagency procedures. Neither the US embassy nor CIA station chief in Rome learns of the three-day meeting until after it happens (see December 12, 2001). When they do catch wind of the meeting, they notify CIA and State Department headquarters in Washington which complain to the administration about how the meetings were arranged. In addition to Ghorbanifar, Ledeen, Franklin, and Rhode, the meeting is attended by Nicolo Pollari, head of SISMI, and Antonio Martino, Italy's minister of defense. According to the Boston Globe, either at this meeting, a similar one in June (see June 2002), or both, Ledeen and Ghorbanifar discuss ways to destabilize the Iranian government, possibly using the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, a US-designated terrorist group, as a US proxy.
People and organizations involved: Antonio Martino, Nicolo Pollari, Stephen Hadley, George Tenet, Harold Rhode, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Larry Franklin, Michael Ledeen, Harold Rhode





June 2002 Complete Iraq timeline


In Paris, an unnamed Pentagon official (either Harold Rhode or Larry Franklin) meets with Manucher Ghorbanifar (Ghorbanifar says he did not attend this meeting ), an Iranian arms trader who had been a central figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Though an unnamed senior Defense official claims the meeting resulted from “an unplanned, unscheduled encounter,” Ghorbanifar later tells the Washington Monthly that “he arranged that meeting after a flurry of faxes between himself and DoD official Harold Rhode.” According to Ghorbanifar, an Egyptian and an Iraqi are present at the meeting and brief the Pentagon official about the general situation in Iraq and the Middle East, and what would happen in Iraq if the US were to invade. But other reports will suggest that Ledeen and Ghorbanifar may have discussed US collaboration with the Mujahedeen-e Khalq, a US-designated terrorist group, as a means to destabilize the Iranian regime. The meeting, which took place without White House approval, was preceded by a similar meeting involving Pentagon officials and Ghorbanifar that took place seven months earlier (see December 9, 2001). When Secretary of State Colin Powell learns of the meeting, he complains directly to Condoleezza Rice and the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
People and organizations involved: Colin Powell, Manucher Ghorbanifar, Michael Ledeen, Harold Rhode, Larry Franklin