From NEWSWEEK, Dec. 15 issue:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002223.asp
An uncovered memo suggests the Iraqi National Congress was feeding
intelligence to Cheney's aides
Exclusive: Cheney and the ‘Raw’ Intelligence
By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK
A memo written by a top Washington lobbyist for the controversial
Iraqi National Congress raises new questions about the role Vice
President ***** Cheney’s office played in the run-up to the war in
Iraq.
THE MEMO, obtained by NEWSWEEK, suggests that the INC last year was
directly feeding intelligence reports about Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction and purported ties to terrorism to one of Cheney’s top
foreign- policy aides.
Cheney staffers later pushed INC info--including defectors’ claims
about WMD and terror ties--to bolster the case that Saddam’s
government posed a direct threat to America.
But the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have strongly
questioned the reliability of defectors supplied by the INC.
For months, Cheney’s office has denied that the veep bypassed U.S.
intelligence agencies to get intel reports from the INC.
But a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S.
Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on
Cheney’s staff, as one of two "U.S. governmental recipients" for
reports generated by an intelligence program being run by the INC and
which was then being funded by the State Department.
Under the program, "defectors, reports and raw intelligence are
cultivated and analyzed"; the info was then reported to, among others,
"appropriate governmental, non-governmental and international
agencies."
The memo not only describes Cheney aide Hannah as a "principal point
of contact" for the program, it even provides his direct White House
telephone number.
The only other U.S. official named as directly receiving the INC intel
is William Luti, a former military adviser to former House Speaker
Newt Gingrich who, after working on Cheney’s staff early in the Bush
administration, shifted to the Pentagon, where he oversaw a secretive
Iraq war-planning unit called the Office of Special Plans.
Hannah did not respond to a request for comment.
But another Cheney aide insisted that the memo was misleading, and
flatly denied that the vice president received "raw" intelligence from
the INC.
Hannah discussed only Iraqi political issues with INC representatives,
not intelligence, the aide said.
Francis Brooke, another D.C. lobbyist for the INC, said he often
orally discussed Iraqi issues--including claims about Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction and Saddam’s terrorist connections--with Hannah, Luti
and Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby.
But he insisted he talked with them only about INC intelligence
matters that had already been reported in the media.
A Pentagon official also denied Luti directly got INC intel reports,
suggesting the author of the memo was just "dropping names" to drum up
support for the INC on Capitol Hill.
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Goodness. The right wing seems to thrive on keeping all their
operations secret. One could almost conclude that everything that they
do is crooked, wouldn't one.
Harry
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