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SBD
Admiral

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 2:32 pm Post subject: Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners

Quote:

What Wilson Didn’t Say About Africa

Joseph Wilson's Silent Partners

By Fedora

with help from a few FReeper friends

Former ambassador Joseph Wilson has been a leading spokesman for critics who accuse President Bush of basing his case for war against Iraq on forged documents purporting that Iraq attempted to buy uranium from Niger. Wilson’s charge has been discredited by a Senate investigation,1 but what remains unanswered are questions arising from what is now known about French intelligence’s role in pushing the forged documents on British and US intelligence.

The role of France and Wilson in undermining Bush’s case for war looks particularly curious in light of disclosures about Saddam Hussein’s bribery of foreign political and business figures during the course of the Oil-for-Food program from 1996 to 2003. Saddam’s web of graft spun in many directions: among others, to UN officials, Russian and Chinese oil companies, British critics of Tony Blair’s Iraq policies, and US critics of President Bush’s Iraq policies, as well as France. Near the center of the web was the Banque Nationale de Paris, where Iraq’s Oil-for-Food revenues were initially kept until 2001, when they were redistributed among several undisclosed banks approved by Iraq. Meanwhile French oil company TotalFinaElf received Oil-for-Food vouchers and held a contract to develop oil fields in southern Iraq.2

When the US and UK first began considering military action against Iraq, Bush faced the same resistance Clinton had encountered in 1998 from France and Russia. Already in December 2001, Russia had announced it would not support a US attack on Iraq.3 Then shortly after President Bush’s January 29, 2002 State of the Union Address named Iraq as a member of a terrorist-sponsoring “Axis of Evil", France announced on February 22, 2002 that Europe would not support a US attack on Iraq.4

French intelligence soon began a campaign to discredit the US case for war against Iraq. In 1999, French intelligence had begun investigating the security of uranium supplies in Niger, where uranium production was controlled by a consortium led by the French mining company COGEMA, a division of the French state-owned nuclear energy firm AREVA. At that time, Italian businessman Rocco Martino provided French intelligence with genuine documents revealing that Iraq was planning to expand trade with Niger. French intelligence took an interest in the documents and asked Martino to provide more information. In 2000 he used a contact in the Nigerian embassy in Rome to provide French intelligence with documents purporting that Iraq had purchased uranium from Niger. These documents were later exposed as forgeries; Martino claims that at the time he was unaware they were forged. In October 2002, as the case for war against Iraq was being debated in the UN, Martino attempted to sell the same documents to Italian journalist Elisabetta Burba, who was skeptical of their authenticity and insisted on verifying them before purchasing them. Burba’s editors had the US embassy check the documents and sent Burba on a fact-finding mission to Niger, and Burba concluded that the documents were not authentic and abandoned her story on them. However French intelligence continued trying to convince British and US intelligence that the documents were authentic.5

Prior to receiving Martino’s documents, US intelligence had already begun investigating similar reports of Iraqi attempts to buy uranium from Niger. On October 15, 2001, a report of a uranium deal between Niger and Iraq had come to the attention of the US intelligence community through an undisclosed “foreign government service". US intelligence analysts were initially skeptical of the report, partly because France controlled Niger’s uranium supply through COGEMA and presumably would not allow such a transaction to occur. Then on February 5, 2002, US intelligence received a second, similar but more detailed report from a foreign government service. The second report seemed more credible to some analysts, but others continued to raise doubts, prompting Vice President Cheney to request a CIA analysis of the report. As the CIA was investigating the issue, a CIA agent in the Agency’s Directorate of Operations Counterproliferation Division, Valerie Plame Wilson, suggested that the investigation be assigned to her husband Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to Niger.6

Wilson, a lifetime Francophile, had spent the bulk of his diplomatic career in former French African colonies like Niger.7 His second wife from 1986 to 1998, Jacqueline, had served the French embassy in Burundi as a “cultural counselor" (a function often used as a cover by French intelligence).8 From Wilson’s experience in Niger he was familiar with the Niger uranium industry. Additionally, he had worked in Iraq during the days leading up to the Gulf War. (Intriguingly, on the eve of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait Wilson had dined at the home of an arms dealer who bought weapons for Iraq from France; a Vanity Fair profile on Wilson mentions his wife’s presence at this event, but Wilson’s book states “I was the only guest.").9 After the Gulf War he had helped provide support to US/UK/Turkish operations in northern Iraq, while stationed as political advisor to the United States European Command in Germany during the Kosovo War. In 1998 he left the State Department and began putting his diplomatic contacts to business use. He formed J.C. Wilson International Ventures Corporation, a business development and management company which ventured in gold, oil, and telecommunications and served clients in Africa, Western Europe, and Turkey. At this time new African markets were emerging due to the recent passage of an African trade bill Wilson had helped President Clinton promote. Wilson’s African investment interests included oil markets in several parts of Africa and the gold market in Niger. Wilson also kept abreast of the gold market in Iraq, where the price of gold was exceptionally cheap, as Wilson observed in one of his lectures.10 Meanwhile his then-wife Jacqueline, whom he would soon leave for Valerie Plame, became a registered lobbyist for the Presidency of Gabon, where Wilson had a good relationship with President Omar Bongo.11

Wilson ran his company out of the offices of an investment company called Rock Creek Corporation. Rock Creek was controlled by Mohammed Alamoudi, whom Wilson had met in 1997 at a reception organized for the World Bank by Westar Group. Alamoudi was a member of the Saudi-Ethiopian Alamoudi dynasty, which was heavily invested in the segments of the African economy Wilson was seeking to penetrate. The Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Services--a Swiss subsidiary of the Saudi company Delta Oil--handled Iraqi oil export contracts in 2000 and 2001 and was revealed in 2003 as a recipient of Iraqi Oil-for-Food vouchers channeled through Abu Abbas, a Palestinian terrorist with Iraqi connections. Delta Services also cooperated with Afghanistan’s Taliban regime in a project to build an oil pipeline from Afghanistan to Pakistan, prior to this project’s suspension in 1998. In 1999, Alamoudi was accused by USA Today reporter Jack Kelley of heading a bank which was being investigated for financing Al Qaeda. USA Today printed retractions of several details in Kelley’s article in 2004, after another member of the Alamoudi family--Abdurahman Alamoudi, a prominent American Muslim lobbyist--was indicted on terror-related charges involving a Libyan-backed conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah. Abdurahman was ultimately convicted in October 2004 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.12 Under Mohammed Alamoudi’s direction, Rock Creek was chaired by Elias Aburdene, an Arab-American international banking advisor and lobbyist who had previously advised banks linked to organized crime and intelligence community figures involved in the S&L Scam. In 2003 and 2004 Aburdene donated to the Sandhills Political Action Committee, which was affiliated with Senator Chuck Hagel, 13 a leading Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.14

While working out of Rock Creek’s offices, Wilson also advised American-Turkish investment groups who shared Hagel’s negative views of Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson had developed Turkish contacts during his diplomatic career. While stationed in Iraq, he had shared intelligence with members of the Turkish embassy there, including ambassador Ahmet Okcun, who would later become Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Coordinator for Reconstruction of Iraq.15 Also, while in Germany, Wilson had worked on Iraqi-related issues with Turkish General Cevik Bir, a critic of US policy towards Iraq.16 Wilson and Bir expressed similar views on Iraq when they spoke together at events held by the American-Turkish Council (ATC), a Turkish-American business association headed by Brent Scowcroft,17 another prominent Republican critic of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.18 Scowcroft and Wilson shared the view that President Bush’s policy towards the Middle East and Iraq was dominated by a cabal of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" represented by Richard Perle--as Wilson expressed his views in a June 2003 lecture, Bush’s invasion of Iraq “was all done to make Sharon's life easier. . .American soldiers are dying in order to enable Sharon to impose his terms upon the Palestinians. . .American boys and girls are dying for Israel".19 Wilson’s contact with the ATC also brought him into contact with his future wife, Valerie Plame, whom he met while receiving an ATC award during a reception at the Turkish embassy in Washington.20 In addition to advising the ATC, Wilson also headed the Washington branch of a Turkish business group founded in 2000 by Turkish-American businesswoman Tumu Gumustekin, the Corporate & Public Strategy Advisory Group (CPS), which sought to capitalize on business opportunities opened up by Turkey’s 1999 acceptance as a candidate for EU membership.21 Meanwhile, as Turkey competed for EU membership, Saddam Hussein’s regime had been bribing Turkish oil companies through the Oil-for-Food Program, and in December 2001 had awarded a drilling contract to one of these companies, the Turkish state oil company Turkish Petroleum International Company (TPIC), a subsidiary of the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO).22 Also at this time the Alamoudi-affiliated company Delta Oil was involved in several oil development projects in Turkey and the surrounding region, including a joint project with TotalFinaElf and Turkish Petroleum and other companies to build a major oil pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Pipeline, from Turkey through Georgia to Azerbaijan.23

While Wilson was pursuing his foreign investment ventures, he also served as a foreign policy advisor to the 2000 Presidential campaign of Al Gore. A company the Gore family had a long-term relationship with, Occidental Petroleum, shared business interests with Alamoudi-affiliated companies in Africa and the Middle East, and employed as Vice President for Middle East business Odeh Aburdene,24 who shared a complex network of relationships with Rock Creek’s Elias Aburdene and Joseph Wilson--notably, all three contributed to Arab-American Congressional Caucus leader Nick Rahall,25 who supported Muslim lobbying groups linked to terrorists and opposed military action in Iraq.26 Abdurahman Alamoudi also contributed to Rahall, and sat on the steering committee of Arab Americans for Clinton/Gore '96 along with his associate James Zogby, who later advised Gore’s 2000 Presidential campaign.27 Wilson had worked as an aide to Gore from 1985 to 1986 and had developed a friendly relationship with him. Wilson says Gore was the first person outside the State Department to contact him expressing support when he was caught in Iraq in the middle of the diplomatic crisis leading up to the Gulf War. In 1997 Gore recommended Wilson to President Clinton to help him plan a trip to Africa. When Wilson began publicly opposing Bush’s Iraq policy in 2002, Gore was still considered a potential candidate in the 2004 election. Gore’s speeches were then being sponsored by the antiwar group Moveon.org, which Wilson would support in September 2003 in an attempt to petition Congress against appropriating funds for Iraq operations.28 Moveon.org was financed by billionaire George Soros,29 who had business interests encompassing, among other things, the BTC Pipeline that Mohammed Alamoudi’s Delta Oil was helping build.30 Later, after Gore announced in December 2002 that he would not be running in the 2004 campaign,31 Moveon.org began supporting John Kerry’s campaign.32 Wilson began advising Kerry’s campaign on foreign policy matters around May 2003, several months prior to his public entry into the Niger uranium controversy.33 By this time, from at least fall 2002, the French intelligence operation to push the Niger forgeries on British and US intelligence was already underway. Meanwhile, from as early as at least January 6 2003--prior to President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address where the President made the African reference which Wilson criticizes--the Democratic National Committee was already circulating a memo planning a public relations strategy which would include “[c]laiming the Bush administration has ‘manufactured’ evidence against Saddam Hussein and used that evidence to encourage Britain and other allies to join the American fight against Iraq."34

Wilson’s business and political background raise questions about the motive behind his wife’s recruitment of him to assist the CIA’s Niger investigation, and about his subsequent politicization of the investigation to undermine the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. While the media has focused attention on the question of who leaked the fact that his wife worked for the CIA, Wilson has attempted to evade the natural question of what role his wife’s CIA connection played in the CIA’s decision to send him to investigate the Niger uranium report. In his book, published in April 2004, Wilson wrote, “Apart from being the conduit of a message from a colleague in her office asking if I would be willing to have a conversation about Niger’s uranium industry, Valerie had had nothing to do with the matter. She definitely had not proposed that I make the trip. The suggestion that Valerie might have improperly influenced the decision to send me to Niger was easy to disprove."35 But contrary to Wilson’s confident-sounding denial, in July 2004 a bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report found that, as The Washington Post reported, “Wilson. . .was specifically recommended for the mission by his wife, a CIA employee, contrary to what he has stated publicly. . .[A] CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame ‘offered up’ Wilson’s name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband ‘has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity.’"36 So it turns out that Wilson lied to conceal his wife’s role in procuring his CIA assignment. This raises the question: why?

Another question that might be raised is why Wilson and the CIA’s investigation did not explore at least the possibility of the French-led company COGEMA covertly allowing Niger to sell uranium to Iraq. In Wilson’s book, while explaining the method that led him to conclude the report of Niger selling uranium to Iraq was false, Wilson explains that he ruled out the possibility of an off-the-books transaction partly because “COGEMA, as the managing partner, would have had to know and be complicit."37 This seems to rule out a priori the very thing Wilson was sent to investigate, and in the process, to rule out the possibility of French complicity in arming Saddam Hussein’s regime, which seems a hasty exoneration in light of the fact that France had a long history of selling Iraq military equipment and resisting UN sanctions against Iraq.38 It is now known that in fact French companies were helping Iraq skirt UN sanctions.39

Since it is now also known that French intelligence was trying to push Martino’s forgeries on US and British intelligence, as simultaneously the Democratic National Committee was planning to discredit President Bush’s Iraq policy by accusing his administration of manufacturing evidence against Hussein’s regime, heightened suspicion is cast on Wilson’s use of the Niger investigation to discredit the Bush administration’s case for war. Prior to Wilson publicly joining the debate over Iraq in May 2002, since September 11, 2001 he and Brent Scowcroft had shared a growing concern over their perception of the alleged influence of pro-Israeli “neo-cons" on Bush’s Iraq policy. Wilson’s first public contributions to the Iraq debate were made to Scowcroft’s American-Turkish Council in May 2002, in conjunction with a presentation by Cevik Bir. Scowcroft himself entered the public debate with a Wall Street Journal article opposing military action on August 15, 2002. He also helped Wilson communicate his own antiwar views to the White House. Meanwhile, in June 2002 Wilson joined forces with the Alliance for American Leadership, an antiwar-oriented, Democrat-dominated foreign policy group headed by Clinton’s former ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg. While serving as ambassador, Ginsberg had coordinated new US trade and investment initiatives in the Middle East--including the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) Investment Fund, which had a Turkey-Azerbaijan project under the funding control of the Soros Private Fund Management--and now as a private citizen he consulted for companies doing business in the Middle East. Ginsberg arranged for Wilson to begin appearing on the news-show circuit, and Wilson began to emerge as an antiwar spokesman. Wilson wrote his first article on the debate for the San Jose Mercury on October 13, 2002. During this same time period Al Gore was making antiwar speeches sponsored by Moveon.org; Joseph Biden, Robert Byrd, Ted Kennedy, and Carl Levin were leading opposition to a Senate resolution on Iraq; and the UN, Russia, China, and France were helping Saddam Hussein stall US/UK military action by prolonging the weapons inspection process.40

During the course of this debate, in September 2002 British intelligence produced a white paper which alleged that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, an allegation subsequently repeated by President Bush in late January 2003 and Secretary of State Powell in early February 2003. A month after Powell’s speech, UN International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed El Baradei told the UN Security Council that the Niger documents were not authentic, and Wilson and the antiwar media began attacking the British and US references to Africa, conveniently ignoring the fact that the references had been to “Africa" rather than “Niger" and there was other data on Africa being referenced. At first Wilson worked behind the scenes, trading information with political insiders like African State Department specialist Walter Kansteiner and speaking anonymously to antiwar media allies like Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby of The Washington Post and David Shipley of The New York Times. Finally on July 6, 2003 he wrote an article under his own name in The New York Times called “What I Didn’t Find in Africa", published simultaneously with a Washington Post profile of his diplomatic career by Leiby. A couple days later Wilson learned from a friend that Robert Novak had said privately, “Wilson’s an [expletive deleted]. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie, works for the CIA. She’s a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him." A week later Novak published this information, provoking controversy and an investigation which remains ongoing. Meanwhile Wilson promoted the antiwar efforts of Moveon.org and other antiwar groups, and he became a foreign policy advisor to John Kerry’s campaign in spring 2003, after Al Gore had been effectively eliminated from serious consideration as a candidate and Kerry had emerged as the frontrunner.41

Wilson’s various allegations against the Bush administration would eventually be discredited, as summarized in a July 2004 bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report which contradicted Wilson’s key claims.42 However, Wilson’s antiwar and anti-Bush allies in the media have not bothered reporting this with the same fervor they have devoted to undermining American policy in Iraq. It is high time that the media broadened its focus beyond what Wilson didn’t find in Africa, and started looking into what Wilson didn’t say about Africa.

SBD

dcornutt
PO3

Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 267
Location: Brooklyn, NY

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:10 pm Post subject:

Good job! One discrepancy I don't know if everyone has picked up on: Wilson said that he was sent to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake in the late 90s. His wife in testimony said the CIA had this crazy report of Iraqi's trying to buy in the late 90s. If the only evidence that we/CIA had for this was the documents that were forged..we have a problem. They are dated in 2000...not the 90s. All of Rocco's stuff is from 2000. The reports you site above are about even later things. Wilson and the intel hearings both discuss his breifing in terms of a 90s (or late 90s) timeframe. The info he was checking out could not have been the referenced forged documents even if the US only had information on them and not the actual documents (which they didn't get until 7 months later) because they did not reference the same timeframe.

SBD
Admiral

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 3:21 pm Post subject:

dcornutt wrote:

Good job!

One discrepancy I don't know if everyone has picked up on:

Wilson said that he was sent to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake in the late 90s. His wife in testimony said the CIA had this crazy report of Iraqi's trying to buy in the late 90s. If the only evidence that we/CIA had for this was the documents that were forged..we have a problem. They are dated in 2000...not the 90s.

All of Rocco's stuff is from 2000. The reports you site above are about even later things. Wilson and the intel hearings both discuss his breifing in terms of a 90s (or late 90s) timeframe. The info he was checking out could not have been the referenced forged documents even if the US only had information on them and not the actual documents (which they didn't get until 7 months later) because they did not reference the same timeframe.

Apparently, the CIA had the Forged documents but they just filed them away into a safe until election day came closer. That is when they were sent to the UN for review and announced as forgeries. Also, keep in mind that there were actually two trips to Niger that Joe Wilson took and one was around the same time that his report says Iraq contacted Niger about a trade deal.

SBD

shawa
CNO

Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 4:47 pm Post subject:

Wilson's first trip to Niger was in 1999, as referred to in the SSCI report.
The Financial Times ran several articles back in 2004 stating the illicit yellow cake dealing was done in a timeframe 1999-2001 based on British intelligence separate from the phony docs. Interesting reading!!

FINANCIAL TIMES

Quote:

~SNIP~
Until now, the only evidence of Iraq's alleged attempts to buy uranium from Niger had turned out to be a forgery. In October 2002, documents were handed to the US embassy in Rome that appeared to be correspondence between Niger and Iraqi officials.

When the US State Department later passed the documents to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog, they were found to be fake. US officials have subsequently distanced themselves from the entire notion that Iraq was seeking buy uranium from Niger.

However, European intelligence officers have now revealed that three years before the fake documents became public, human and electronic intelligence sources from a number of countries picked up repeated discussion of an illicit trade in uranium from Niger. One of the customers discussed by the traders was Iraq.

These intelligence officials now say the forged documents appear to have been part of a "scam", and the actual intelligence showing discussion of uranium supply has been ignored.

The fake documents were handed to an Italian journalist working for the Italian magazine Panorama by a businessman in October 2002. According to a senior official with detailed knowledge of the case, this businessman had been dismissed from the Italian armed forces for dishonourable conduct 25 years earlier.

The journalist - Elisabetta Burba - reported in a Panorama article that she suspected the documents were forgeries and handed them to officials at the US embassy in Rome.

The businessman, referred to by a pseudonym in the Panorama article, had previously tried to sell the documents to several intelligence services, according to a western intelligence officer.

It was later established that he had a record of extortion and deception and had been convicted by a Rome court in 1985 and later arrested at least twice. The suspected forger's real name is known to the FT, but cannot be used because of legal constraints. He did not return telephone calls yesterday, and is understood to be planning to reveal selected aspects of his story to a US television channel.

The FT has now learnt that three European intelligence services were aware of possible illicit trade in uranium from Niger [b]between 1999 and 2001. Human intelligence gathered in Italy and Africa more than three years before the Iraq war had shown Niger officials referring to possible illicit uranium deals with at least five countries, including Iraq.

This intelligence provided clues about plans by Libya and Iran to develop their undeclared nuclear programmes. Niger officials were also discussing sales to North Korea and China of uranium ore or the "yellow cake" refined from it: the raw materials that can be progressively enriched to make nuclear bombs.

The raw intelligence on the negotiations included indications that Libya was investing in Niger's uranium industry to prop it up at a time when demand had fallen, and that sales to Iraq were just a part of the clandestine export plan. These secret exports would allow countries with undeclared nuclear programmes to build up uranium stockpiles.

One nuclear counter-proliferation expert told the FT: "If I am going to make a bomb, I am not going to use the uranium that I have declared. I am going to use what I acquire clandestinely, if I am going to keep the programme hidden."

This may have been the method being used by Libya before it agreed last December to abandon its secret nuclear programme. According to the IAEA, there are 2,600 tonnes of refined uranium ore - "yellow cake" - in Libya. However, less than 1,500 tonnes of it is accounted for in Niger records, even though Niger was Libya's main supplier.

Information gathered in 1999-2001 suggested that the uranium sold illicitly would be extracted from mines in Niger that had been abandoned as uneconomic by the two French-owned mining companies - Cominak and Somair, both of which are owned by the mining giant Cogema - operating in Niger.

"Mines can be abandoned by Cogema when they become unproductive. This doesn't mean that people near the mines can't keep on extracting," a senior European counter-proliferation official said.

He added that there was no evidence the companies were aware of the plans for illicit mining.

When the intelligence gathered in 1999-2001 was thrown into the diplomatic maelstrom that preceded the US-led invasion of Iraq, it took on new significance. Several services contributed to the picture.

The Italians, looking for corroboration but lacking the global reach of the CIA or the UK intelligence service MI6, passed information to the US in 2001 and to the UK in 2002.

The UK eavesdropping centre GCHQ had intercepted communications suggesting Iraq was seeking clandestine uranium supplies, as had the French intelligence service.

The Italian intelligence was not incorporated in detail into the assessments of the CIA, which seeks to use such information only when it is gathered from its own sources rather than as a result of liaison with foreign intelligence services. But five months after receiving it, the US sent former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to assess the credibility of separate US intelligence information that suggested Iraq had approached Niger.

Mr Wilson was critical of the Bush administration's use of secret intelligence, and has since charged that the White House sought to intimidate him by leaking the identity of his wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA agent.

But Mr Wilson also stated in his account of the visit that Mohamed Sayeed al-Sahaf, Iraq's former information minister, was identified to him by a Niger official as having sought to discuss trade with Niger.

As Niger's other main export is goats, some intelligence officials have surmised uranium was what Mr Sahaf was referring to.

© Copyright The Financial Times Ltd

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Comment: The assertion that Iraq sought uranium from Niger is a highly politicized issue because this assertion was in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech. The Niger assertion was capitalized upon by Bush critics as being false, and known to be false by U.S. intelligence at the time of the speech. See Who forged the uranium documents that bamboozled the U.S.? on this website.

It is also related to the Justice investigation of the Bush administration leak outing the CIA agent Valerie Plame, spouse of former Ambassador John Wilson.

Because this story by the Financial Times vindicates President Bush, one can expect the U.S. mainstream media to ignore it with a vengeance.

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_________________
“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” (Thomas Paine, 1776)

SBD
Admiral

Joined: 19 Aug 2004
Posts: 1022

Posted: Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:17 pm Post subject:

All articles are fom Lexis.

Quote:

Africa News
October 24, 1997
SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 432 words
HEADLINE: Ethiopia;
World Bank, US Gov't Honours Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al--Amoudi
BYLINE: Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)

Addis Ababa -- Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al--Amoudi, Founder and Chairman of the MIDROC Ethiopia Group, was honoured at a luncheon at the World Bank on 1 October, according to a press release from the Washington--based Westar Group, Inc. It was sponsored jointly between the US State Department and the World Bank Group. Mr. Isaac K. Sam, a senior World Bank official heading Private Sector Finance operations, co--hosted the event. In welcoming Mr. Al--Amoudi, he said, "This is the first time ever that the World Bank has hosted a luncheon for a private sector investor."

Ms. Regina C. Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and co--host of the luncheon on behalf of the US State Department, invited US government officials to speak about the priorities and aspirations of their agencies. The speakers expressed admiration for Sheikh Mohammed's private sector initiatives, saying, "He represents the best of the private sector entrepreneurs and he is proof that much is happening in African development."

In response, Sheikh Mohammed said that, "Africa is coming into its own and will play an important role in the world economic community in the 21st century," and urged other private companies to follow him with large investments in Africa.

Sheikh Mohammed observed that training is Africa's single most critical need and it is the area where major international donors should concentrate their efforts and their generosity. He stressed that "if Africa is to develop in the next century, people must acquire the skills and governments must create the environment to make it happen." He concluded by saying, "Investment in people is of the utmost importance,
because, in the final analysis, people matter."

Guests included the Ambassadors from Ethiopia and Morocco, key officials from the World Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, The International Finance Corporation, the African Development Foundation, the African Development Bank, the Export--Import Bank of the US, the Overseas Private Insurance Corporation and the US Trade and Development Agency.

Representatives of the Clinton Administration, were also present, including Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who is National Security Advisor for Africa and Mr. Bernard Gaillard from the US Department of transportation, who will visit several African countries in coming months, including Ethiopia. Key staff members of the US House of Representatives were on hand, as were members of the business community and private NGOs having an interest in Ethiopia specifically and Africa broadly.

Quote:

The Indian Ocean Newsletter
January 10, 1998
SECTION: POLITICS; ETHIOPIA; N. 794
LENGTH: 199 words
HEADLINE: Al Amoudi's American Connection

Ethiopian--Saudi millionaire Mohamed Al Amoudi, who owns the holding company Midroc and is Ethiopia's leading foreign investor, is brushing up his connections with the United States and US citizens. Sources report he is believed to have signed up former US ambassador to Ethiopia Irvin Hicks to work on preparing a major conference on the theme "Investing in Africa". It would be held in the Addis Ababa Sheraton -- which the Al Amoudi Group owns -- on March 8 to 10. Passing through Kampala at the end of December, Al Amoudi apparently dropped in head of state Yoweri Museveni and took the opportunity to invite him to the conference. Hicks, who is no longer a member of the US Administration, is thought to be in line to be board chairman of the Addis Sheraton. In October 1997, Al Amoudi had been guest of honour at a meeting held at the World Bank offices in Washington and organized by the Washington--based Westar Group Inc, of which he is chairman. Participants, apart from representatives of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, included members of the US Administration such as US president Bill Clinton's special adviser on African affairs, Joseph Wilson IV.

Quote:

Africa News
March 13, 1998
SECTION: NEWS, DOCUMENTS & COMMENTARY
LENGTH: 202 words
HEADLINE: United States and Africa;
Interview: Joseph Wilson, the US Director of African Affairs
BYLINE: Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)

Addis Ababa -- Addis Tribune interviewed Mr. Joseph C. Wilson, special Assistant to the US President and Senior
Director of African Affairs.

Asked why the US President has chosen not to come to Ethiopia, Mr. Wilson said Clinton doesn't have enough time. Ethiopia, as far as the US is concerned, has positive economic reforms, and political liberalisation. This would make it an ideal country for a presidential visit; however, Clinton just doesn't have the time.

Asked about his impressions of Addis Forum, Mr. Wilson said he was impressed by the large number of interested players. Americans aren't the only ones who want to deploy international resources to Africa, he noted. People from the Middle East also want to play an important role.

Prior to his current position, Ambassador Wilson and Political Advisor to the Commander--in--Chief of the US Armed Forces, in Europe, from 1995 to 1997. He is a career member of the Foreign Service and has held a variety of assignments in Africa before serving as the Ambassador to Gabon and to the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe from 1992 to 1995. From 1988 to 1991, Ambassador Wilson served in Baghdad, Iraq, as Deputy Chief of Mission.
LOAD--DATE: March 13, 1998

Quote:

The Indian Ocean Newsletter
October 23, 1999
SECTION: ECONOMICS & PROJECTS; ETHIOPIA / UNITED STATES; N. 876
LENGTH: 363 words
HEADLINE: Well--connected businessmen

The delegation of American businessmen which is to go to Addis Ababa from November 6 to 14 at the instigation of Ethio--American Trade and Investment Council (an organism managed by <B.Gezahegn Kebede</B. which is close to the Ethiopian government) has some solid connections with the US Administration. The visit will be sponsored by Osyka Corporation, a Texas oil company whose chairman Michael F. Harness is a member of both EATIC and of National Petroleum Council, an organism charged with advising US secretary for energy Bill Richardson. Another sponsor is F. C. Schaffer & Associates, a sugar company whose chairman Mina Nedelcovych is boss of Corporate Council on Africa which groups American enterprises active in Africa.

Several companies controlled by Saudi--Ethiopian magnate Mohamed Hussein Al Amoudi have helped to organize the trip: Westar Group, which administers Al Amoudi's interests in Washington and is chaired by Derige Mekonen after having been long managed by banker Jeff Wilson, and the Addis Ababa Sheraton whose board includes ex--US ambassador to Ethiopia Irvin Hicks and Al Amoudi's Midroc Ethiopia group. There is also Rock Creek Corporation, an investment company controlled by Al Amoudi and chaired since 1997 by Elias Aburdene, a Lebanese businessman very well introduced in Washington power circles. A former adviser to the Franklin National Bank in Washington DC, Aburdene right from his accession to the top of Rock Creek engaged US president Bill Clinton's former adviser for African affairs, Joseph Wilson IV as adviser. The latter had already met Al Amoudi in 1997 during a meeting organized at the World Bank by the Westar Group (ION 794). Apart from his responsibilities with Rock Creek, Aburdene is executive chairman of the very influential National Association of Arab Americans. A former lecturer at the University of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service, he is also very active with former students of the university where ex--assistant secretary of state for African affairs Chester A. Crocker and US mediator in the Eritrea--Ethiopia border dispute (and former national security adviser to Clinton) Anthony Lake are professors.

SBD

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