(U.S.) Lawmaker's book finds "incompetence" at CIA (NYT/ IHT)

[Up2Late]

(I bet this book doesn't get much "Play" on Fox "news")

Lawmaker's book finds "incompetence" at CIA

By Scott Shane The New York Times

FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2005

WASHINGTON In a new book, a Republican congressman lambastes the Central Intelligence Agency, accusing it of "gross incompetence" for dismissing an Iranian expatriate who he says offered critical information about terrorist threats, the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden and Iran's nuclear weapons program. The congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, vice chairman of the House Homeland Security and Armed Services Committees, said he decided "in desperation" to publish the information because he feared the government was not acting on his source's warnings.

But Weldon's allegations have infuriated CIA officials, including a veteran case officer who said he had met with the congressman's source four times in Paris. "He's never given us any information that was the slightest bit credible," said Bill Murray, the CIA station chief in Paris when he met Weldon's source, an elderly Iranian who once served in the shah of Iran's government. "This guy was a waste of my time and resources."

Murray, who served in Iran in the 1970s and who retired recently after 35 years in the clandestine service, said he had decided to speak out to defend his reputation and that of other agency officials. Murray said he had come to believe that much of the data being passed on by the man Weldon called "Ali" originated with another Iranian exile, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who had been identified by the CIA as a "known fabricator" since he served as an arms deal middleman in the Iran-contra affair.

Weldon's book, "Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information That Could Prevent the Next Terrorist Attack on America and How the CIA Has Ignored It," reproduces dozens of faxes sent to Weldon since 2003 by a "former high-ranking member in the government of the shah of Iran." The book, produced by the conservative Regnery Publishing, includes Weldon's commentary and proposals for intelligence reform, including a "mass purge of the intelligence community" in which virtually the entire top tier of management would be fired.

(More at link above)

[punpirate]

1. Note who Weldon's publisher is...

... Regnery. `Nuff said.

[Up2Late]

3. Who's "Regnery" and did you ever hear about this bit of "news"???

This is from a review at CQ .com <http://www.cq.com/public/20050603B_homeland.html>

"...According to Weldon aide Russ Caso, the information “Ali” provided was vindicated later when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 19 terrorist suspects who had been taking flight lessons and had extensive information on nuclear power plants...."

I never heard of this, I don't really follow the news from Canada, but I think I would have heard of this.

[punpirate]

4. Nope, hadn't heard... I would guess that the Canadian press would have...

... been really hopping if the RCMP had captured nineteen of anything. :)

Regnery is the publisher who put out the Swift Boat Liars' book, Unfit for Command and one of whose executives is a relative of Novakula.

[MrPrax]

8. So that's where the info came from...

Some links:

One of 19 terrorist suspects to be released

Last Updated Thu, 28 Aug 2003 18:29:22

TORONTO - One of the 19 men with suspected ties to al-Qaeda was ordered released on bail Wednesday after an adjudicator found no concrete evidence against any of the men.

Adjudicator Aina Martens said she was obliged to release 30-year-old Mohammad Akhtar, who came to Canada from Pakistan in 1999, because of the lack of evidence of wrongdoing.

"At this point, nothing has ever been proven about anybody arrested," said Martens.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/08/28/qaeda_hearing030828

Students often fly over nuclear plant: lawyer

TORONTO - Flying over a nuclear generating station east of Toronto is standard practice for flight students, a lawyer representing a man suspected of having terrorist links said on Thursday.

Anwar ur Rehman Mohammed appeared at a detention review hearing, where government lawyers argued he should be kept behind bars pending the results of an investigation because his status as a flight student appeared suspicious.

Mohammed was among 19 men rounded up on Aug. 14, and held since then on suspicion of being involved in an al-Qaeda sleeper cell.
<snip>
Muslim groups are upset at the arrests of 18 Pakistanis and one Indian, decrying the arrests as examples of racial profiling.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2003/08/28/19_arrests030828.html

My understanding they are all either released or deported -- the whole thing was scandalous.

One is a little hesitant to think this 'Curveball-esque' informer from Iran feeding garbage to some GOP nutbar has any credibility, if this 'information', that resulted in erroneous arrests, in Canada is too be taken at all seriously...

[Up2Late]

10. Thanks for these links! this definitely looks like the beginings...

...of the "Attack Iran" Plan. I might start a new thread called something like "The 'Attack Iran Plan' beginning to take shape."

[brentspeak]

2. This is part of the Republican effort to point the finger at someone else

The CIA has its flaws, no doubt, and could be greatly improved.

But the CIA never advocated or prodded Bush to rush to war. And the CIA didn't force Bush to have a month-long vacation prior to 9/11.

[blm]

5. Weldon is a lackey for RevMoon. He and MoonieTimes' Bill Gertz are

always spreading and planting disinformation for their BushMoonie agenda.

Weldon should have been voted out of office after Moon's crowning.

[Up2Late]

6. Oh, is this the guy who set THAT up?

Well, that means we REALLY need to Fully discredit this book before it "Gains Traction" as the RW Whores like to say.:bounce:
:kick:

[blm]

7. He was a major part of it. Weldon also concerns himself with "Korean"

issues and Moon is neckdeep into our North and South Korea policy. Many believe he's in CHARGE of it.

[Frederik]

9. Ghorbanifar!

That's the guy Doug Feith has been having meetings with since late 2001, probably in order to fix the facts around the policy of attacking Iran. He's Iran's Chalabi, and just as much of a lying scumbag.

[struggle4progress]

11. CIA dismisses claims of terrorist threat in U.S. politician's book

June 9, 2005 - 19:18

WASHINGTON (CP) - The CIA dismissed renewed claims Thursday by a U.S. politician that an Iranian exile provided credible information about a terrorist plot to hijack a Canadian airliner and fly it into a nuclear reactor near Boston.

Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, who first went public with the hijacking scheme in December 2004, repeats the assertion in a new book, Countdown to Terror, which accuses the CIA and others of ignoring information passed to him from a man he code-names Ali. <snip>

Weldon credited his source with disrupting the attack and pointed to the August 2003 arrest in Toronto of 19 men, most Pakistani, on suspicions of terrorism.

However, all security-related charges were dropped and the case was quickly downgraded to routine immigration fraud.

http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w060997A

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. I believe Richard Mellon Scaife is funding Regnery through one of his....

...three foundations.

Remember that name?