Suskind's CIA Claim and the Niger Forgeries

[kpete]

Suskind's CIA Claim and the Niger Forgeries
As Politico writes about Ron Suskind's new book:

Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html

The letter’s existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, “Terrorist behind September 11 strike ‘was trained by Saddam.’”

The Telegraph story by Con Coughlin (which, coincidentally, ran the day Hussein was captured in his “spider hole”) was touted in the U.S. media by supporters of the war, and he was interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Rereading the Coughlin story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/1449442/Terrorist-behind-September-11-strike-was-trained-by-Saddam.html

Details of Atta's visit to the Iraqi capital in the summer of 2001, just weeks before he launched the most devastating terrorist attack in US history, are contained in a top secret memo written to Saddam Hussein, the then Iraqi president, by Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti, the former head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
...
The second part of the memo, which is headed "Niger Shipment", contains a report about an unspecified shipment - believed to be uranium - that it says has been transported to Iraq via Libya and Syria.

Although Iraqi officials refused to disclose how and where they had obtained the document, Dr Ayad Allawi, a member of Iraq's ruling seven-man Presidential Committee, said the document was genuine.

"We are uncovering evidence all the time of Saddam's involvement with al-Qaeda," he said. "But this is the most compelling piece of evidence that we have found so far. It shows that not only did Saddam have contacts with al-Qaeda, he had contact with those responsible for the September 11 attacks."

When the White House ordered the CIA to forge the letter with regard to al-Qaeda, it also ordered to include something that furthered their claim on Niger uranium shipment. When the Coughlin story appeared the Niger claim had already been debunked. I wonder why it was included at all.

If Suskind is correct this increases the likelihood that both the Atta case and the Niger forgeries were genuine CIA products.

more at:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2008/08/suskinds-cia-cl.html

UPDATE: Sidenote: In 2006 Con Coughlin claimed that Iran is training Al-Qaeda.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2006/11/ides_of_march.html

[fascisthunter]

1. How is This Not High Crimes and an Impeachable Offense?

[asjr]

2. I remember when it was Nyjer. Now it is

Neejaire. Sure changes the limerick

There once was a lady from Niger
who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
with the lady inside, and the smile
on the face of the tiger.

[bdf]

3. If the CIA were behind the Niger forgeries

The first question is why did the CIA tell Cheney that the forgeries were a hoax. I think it's probably the case that one department of the CIA is responsible for dirty tricks and another for analysing intelligence and those departments do not normally say anything to each other.

But if that assumption is true, the second question is a doozy. Why were the forgeries so bad that CIA analysts said they were hoaxes? If the CIA dirty tricks guys were behind the forgeries they'd have done the best job they knew how and so the analysis guys would have found them to be credible. The only the dirty tricks guys would turn out bad forgeries is if that is what they were actually requested to do.

Which raises the third question. Why would they be requested to produce bad forgeries? It makes no sense that Cheney would ask for bad forgeries that the analysts would reject as a hoax if he wanted to rely on them to support his calls for war. No sense at all.

Well, it does make sense if you make different assumptions about the reason those documents were created. I came up with this idea a few years ago. It's heavy-duty :tinfoilhat: territory. Some of the time I don't believe it myself, but then I recall just how evil these people are and that any time you look at some tragic event (like 9/11) that these guys benefited from and find yourself thinking "It couldn't have worked out any better for them if they planned it all themselves." then they almost certainly did.

So, those who have the appropriate protective headgear (:tinfoilhat:) can take a look at this and tell me where my facts are wrong and/or my logic is flawed.

[myrna minx]

4. K&R n/t

[katty]

5. CIA: something's in the kitchen - and Cheney's nonstop 'visits' to the CIA

[spanone]

6. if the letter is genuine than bu$h* and the cabal should all be tried in the courts

i can't imagine a worse crime....ordering the falsification of documents that help steer the united states to war....

if we found out england or god forbid france had done this, we would be declaring war.

susskind claims his book is ON THE RECORD

maybe these people will be willing to come forward?