Newt Gingrich: What does he know about Treasongate?

[Unknown Known]

We all know that Libby & Cheney were making frequent trips to CIA/Langley before the war to pressure analysts in skewing the intelligence to fit the neocon’s case for the Iraq war.

But there was another person who was also making frequent trips to Langley at this time – Newt Gingrich.

Julian Berger in the Guardian states -

Another frequent visitor was Newt Gingrich, the former Republican party leader who resurfaced after September 11 as a Pentagon "consultant" and a member of its unpaid defence advisory board, with influence far beyond his official title.

An intelligence official confirmed Mr Gingrich made "a couple of visits" but said there was nothing unusual about that.
Rick Tyler, Mr Gingrich's spokesman, said: "If he was at the CIA he was there to listen and learn, not to persuade or influence."

Mr Gingrich visited Langley three times before the war, and according to accounts, the political veteran sought to browbeat analysts into toughening up their assessments of Saddam's menace.
Mr Gingrich gained access to the CIA headquarters and was listened to because he was seen as a personal emissary of the Pentagon and, in particular, of the OSP.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html

Jim Lobe in Common Dreams states –

They (NESA and OSP) rarely communicated directly with the CIA, leaving that to political heavyweights, including Gingrich, who is reported to have made several trips to the CIA headquarters, and, more importantly, I Lewis ''Scooter'' Lilly, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser.

According to recent published reports, CIA analysts felt these visits were designed to put pressure on them to tailor their analyses more to the liking of administration hawks.

In some cases, NESA and OSP even prepared memos specifically for Cheney and Libby, something unheard of in previous administration because the lines of authority in the Vice President's office and the Pentagon are entirely separate. ''Luti sometimes would say, 'I've got to do this for Scooter' '', said Kwiatkowski. ''It looked like Cheney's office was pulling the strings''.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0807-02.htm

Lobe also brings up that this group was feeding info to Fox News and Weekly Standard – was it through Gingrich? We know Gingrich has/had a position with Fox as some sort of analyst.

''They would draw up 'talking points' they would use and distribute to their friends'', said Kwiatkowski. ''But the talking points would be changed continually, not because of new intel (intelligence), but because the press was poking holes in what was in the memos''.

The offices fed information directly and indirectly to sympathetic media outlets, including the Rupert Murdoch-owned 'Weekly Standard' and FoxNews Network, as well as the editorial pages of the 'Wall Street Journal' and syndicated columnists, such as Charles Krauthammer.

Could Gingrich also be involved in the Wilson affair? Enquiring minds want to know.

Be sure to read the piece by Lt. Col Karen Kwiatkowski about working with these people inside the Pentagon

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0805-08.htm

[Unknown Known]

1. How Gingrich is connected to the neocons

Deputy Undersecretary William Luti heads the NESA (Near East and South Asia bureau under Douglas Feith). NESA works hand in hand with OSP.

NESA is also the home of Dick Cheney's daughter.

Luti was a protege of Gingrich and Luti, in turn, hired Ret Col William Bruner, a former Gingrich staffer.

Similarly, Luti, a retired naval officer, was a protégé of another DPB board member also based at AEI, former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. Luti in turn hired Ret Col William Bruner, a former Gingrich staffer, and Chris Straub, a retired lieutenant colonel, anti-abortion activist, and former staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Through Feith, both offices worked closely with Perle, Gingrich, and two other DPB (Defense Policy Board) members and major war boosters -- former CIA director James Woolsey and Kenneth Adelman -- in ensuring that the ''intelligence'' they developed reached a wide public audience outside the bureaucracy.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0807-02.htm

[Unknown Known]

2. Kick

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