by StarmanSkye » Tue Feb 14, 2006 6:35 pm
Nomo and SLD:<br><br>Thanks for posting this BIG item, cutting to the quick of what Plame was REALLY involved in, and offering insights to the real reasons behind the outing of Plame. As I see it and the Raw Story article hints at but which the DU American Judas post really makes explicit -- Plame got 'too close' to uncovering American links to the nuclear and weapons 'Walmart' industry. <br><br>I'd read a Raw Story excerpt but didn't link to the full story -- I guess I assumed I'd gotton the gist of it, and so missed RS's revelation from insider sources that Intel. estimates place the CIA back to a ten-year disadvantage, with at least three deep-covers blown and several front companies and perhaps dozens of contacts and sources compromises -- a HUGE intel sabotage.<br><br>I didn't suspect Cheney's intimate financial links to AQ Khan and his network, but rather that Plame's investigation was getting too close to covert US links to the terrorist and arms-drugs smuggling rackets -- which appears to be a National Security State duplicious necessity with the goal of providing the backdrop for America's perpetual war and Middle East occupation agenda -- realpolitic force-projection that deflects the site of US's longstanding ideological and economic conflict with Europe while 'protecting' America's pre-eminent globalist interests and status. As is evident, US policy revolves around maintaining the dollar as an oil-sales reserve currency, even or especially against Europe's keen interests being better served if the Euro would at least share the benefits enjoyed by the dollar's featured position/role.<br><br>It's mind-boggling, there's just SO much that has been kept hidden and unacknowledged, which the American Judas post shines the light of day on, not least being that the US helped create the monster which is Pakistan's ISI and which is the nexus for so much of what the US officially claims it is opposed to and fighting against. <br><br>Like a lot of folks, my own awareness of something incredibly devious and foul in the CIA-ISI connection was triggered by discovering ISI's financial link to the alleged 911 terrorists -- and reified by the red flag of US officialdom burying the fact that the Pentagon/Defense Dept. was feteing the ISI chief Ahmed (who authorized the $100,000 wire transfer to Mohammed Atta, who the FBI claimed was the 911 lead terrorist) on 911, and the days before and after. This official non-event is almost as auspicious as the US excising all public acknowledgement and reference to the fact that under Reagan/Bush 41 the US subsidized and facilitated Saddam's acquisition of (technically-prohibited but allowed) weapons-materials, equipment and technology that it has since used as justification for attacks, invasion and economic sanctions.<br><br>A lot of material to absorb in the American Judas post, but I'm determined to read it thoroughly (beyond my first skimthru).<br>Starman<br><br>Additional snippets:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD/8-10-03/discussion.cgi.54.html">www.apfn.net/MESSAGEBOARD...gi.54.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>Scandals / Iraqgate<br><br>Friedman, Alan. Spider's Web: The Secret History of How the White House Illegally Armed Iraq. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. 455 pages.<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.namebase.org/books57.html">www.namebase.org/books57.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br>This is the story that Bill Clinton promised to investigate if he got elected, but now (January 1994) it appears that his handlers have other plans. It's about how the White House, with assistance from allies in London and Rome, violated the law in order to support Saddam Hussein. Then, following the invasion of Kuwait, George Bush compared him to Hitler, set up the American response, and he and Margaret Thatcher began covering up their past dealings. The story involves the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), the Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation, Iraq's nuclear procurement program, and the CIA and Carlos Cardoen (a Chilean arms dealer). Given this ten-year history, it was not unreasonable for Saddam Hussein to assume that U.S. ambassador April Glaspie was giving him the green light to invade Kuwait. And maybe she was; perhaps Bush thought he needed a quick-fix war to try out the Pentagon's new toys and crank up his popularity.<br><br>Alan Friedman is an American citizen who began covering Iraqgate while serving as the Milan correspondent for the Financial Times of London. His book includes 74 pages of reproduced bank and government documents, as well as extensive end notes.<br><br>Mantius, Peter. Shell Game: A Story of Banking, Spies, Lies, Politics, and the Arming of Saddam Hussein. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1995. 288 pages.<br>When the feds arrested Christopher Drogoul in 1991, the manager of the Atlanta branch of the Italy's Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL), they charged him with 347 felony counts. The story was that Drogoul had hoodwinked his Italian bosses and funneled billions to Saddam Hussein. The prosecutor, Gale McKenzie, was given her lines by U.S. intelligence insiders, and tried to place all of the blame on Drogoul. The bosses at BNL were only too happy to go along, and hired lawyers with close connections to the prosecution. But judge Marvin Shoob saw that the government was pulling a fast one. It was attempting to blame Drogoul for what amounted to an off-the-books effort by Fortune 500 corporations and U.S. policymakers to recruit Iraq as an ally, by giving them credits that were used to purchase arms.<br><br>Congressman Henry Gonzalez, who is a tenacious muckraker when his targets are Republicans, tried to make hay out of Iraqgate in 1992. But Shoob was sufficiently outspoken that he had to give the Drogoul case to another judge, whereupon Drogoul cut a deal and ended up serving 33 months. There was a bit of BNL fallout back in Italy, and an Iraqgate scandal in Britain, while in the U.S. the story was already dead. The fact that our media had been so unabashedly enthusiastic over the high-tech death and destruction of the Gulf War may have had something to do with it.<br><br>*******<br>Report: Valerie Plame Was in Covert Op on Iran When Outed<br>Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story breaks important news today: Intelligence officials say that at the time of her outing as a CIA employee/operative, she was "part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran."<br><br>Speaking under strict confidentiality, intelligence officials revealed heretofore unreported elements of Plame's work. Their accounts suggest that Plame's outing was more serious than has previously been reported and carries grave implications for U.S. national security and its ability to monitor Iran's burgeoning nuclear program.<br><br>...Intelligence sources would not identify the specifics of Plame's work. They did, however, tell RAW STORY that her outing resulted in "severe" damage to her team and significantly hampered the CIA's ability to monitor nuclear proliferation.<br><br>The import:<br><br>The revelation that Iran was the focal point of Plame's work raises new questions as to possible other motivating factors in the White House's decision to reveal the identity of a CIA officer working on tracking a WMD supply network to Iran, particularly when the very topic of Iran's possible WMD capability is of such concern to the Administration.<br><br>Update: More from Steve Clemons at Washington Note who writes Larissa's article is "rather huge news" and adds more details:<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001246.php">www.thewashingtonnote.com...001246.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>An important and provocative report has just been published that suggests that Iran was the target of much of Valerie Plame's covert investigative work and that outing her identity had far worse consequences than has thus far been acknowledged.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>