"Tice May Not Be Hoekstra's Whistleblower
Who got House Intel Chair Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) hot and bothered over secret intelligence programs?
Earlier, I guessed it may be Russ Tice. But I've been doing some thinking -- and I just talked with Tice. Now, frankly, I'm not so sure. (Tice thinks he could be, but he doesn't know either.)
Here are a couple reasons I'm leaning away from Tice: First, he says he never told Hoekstra anything.
Tice met with Hoekstra's staff in early April -- and it didn't go well. "They had a lawyer there, and the lawyer said, 'If you tell us anything at the SAP [highly-classified Special Access Program] level you could be arrested,'" Tice recalled. "The rest of the meeting comprised of them twisting my arm trying to get me to tell them everything." (Tice declined.)"
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So who got Hoekstra so exercised? And what did they tell him?
And perhaps more importantly, why is it coming out now? Hoekstra's letter was made public after the administration briefed him on whatever secret programs he wanted to know about. Why did the letter come out now -- and why, if it wasn't supposed to be public, did he appear on Fox News Sunday to talk about it?
Update: Confirmed -- National Review says no dice on Tice.
* tpmm:
"Now another candidate has stepped forward: Dave Gaubatz. Gaubatz, a former Air Force special investigator who worked as a civilian employee in Iraq, has volunteered that he's the "whistleblower."clear as mud.
TPMm readers should be familiar with Gaubatz as the man who Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) wanted to lead his great adventure to find the WMD himself in Iraq.
Gaubatz told me that the program Hoekstra referenced Sunday, the "major" activity the Intelligence Committee wasn't briefed on, is a Defense Department program run out of the Air Force Research Lab. Gaubatz said that there were “several programs” there that the Congressman wasn't aware of, but “one major program” in particular. He wouldn't give too many details about the program, but said that "it pertains to WMD and ways to move the WMD."
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The timing also fits. On February 16th this year, Gaubatz says he briefed Hoekstra's staff, and then the Congressman himself on May 4th, two weeks before Hoekstra wrote his letter. He told them about the location of the four WMD sites and also the existence of the Air Force's WMD program.
Gaubatz said he "was really stunned they weren't aware" of the program, and then put them in touch with the official at Kirtland Air Force Base who could confirm the program's existence, a two star general. He said they then confirmed it."
4 comments:
Not quite what I had in mind when I positted the source for the WMD and the mystery program might be the same. I was off on the Hoekster taking both stories and to get the most propaganda mileage out of them.
Methinks he needs a little more attention...
There's been another update over at tpmm
"the chairman's source is not someone who has been publicly identified or someone who would be out trying to claim that they were his source."
But all the same, "it pertains to WMD and ways to move the WMD.", what the heck is this all about?
It's apparently related to this stuff, from last February:
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=129617
Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special
By Sherrie Gossett CNSNews.com Staff Writer February 15, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - Secret audiotapes of Saddam Hussein discussing ways to attack America with weapons of mass destruction will be the subject of an ABC "Nightline" program Wednesday night, a former federal prosecutor told Cybercast News Service.
The tapes are being called the "smoking gun" of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The New York Sun reported that the tapes have been authenticated and currently are being reviewed by the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The panel's chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), declined to give the Sun details of the content or context of the recordings, saying only that they were provided to his committee by former federal prosecutor John Loftus.
Loftus has been tight-lipped about the tapes, telling the Sun only that he received them from a "former American military intelligence analyst." However, on Wednesday he told Cybercast News Service, "Saddam's tapes confirm he had active CW [chemical weapons] and BW [biological weapons] programs that were hidden from the UN."
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200602200720.asp
February 20, 2006, 7:20 a.m.
“He Shall Direct Thy Paths to the Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
The former U.N. inspector behind the “Saddam Tapes” says God revealed WMD sites to him.
William Tierney, the former United Nations weapons inspector who unveiled the so-called "Saddam Tapes" at a conference in Arlington, Virginia, Saturday, told National Review Online that God directed him to weapons sites in Iraq and that his belief in the importance of one particular site was strengthened when a friend told him that she had a vision of the site in a dream.
In his presentation at the so-called "Intelligence Summit," Tierney, an Arabic speaker, described how he received the "Saddam Tapes" from federal authorities last year as part of his job as a contract translator. It was supposed to be a routine assignment, but Tierney said he soon realized the tapes had special significance and decided to make them public. Tierney said he believes other tapes, which have not yet been heard, will eventually reveal that Iraq was behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Tierney also said that he believes Iraq orchestrated the 2001 anthrax attacks, with Saddam Hussein using American scientist Steven Hatfill as a "proxy" to carry out the mission.
Afterward, in a talk with NRO, Tierney addressed comments he made in February 2003 on "Coast to Coast AM," a radio program devoted to paranormal phenomena. On the program, hosted by George Noory, (who took over from predecessor Art Bell), Tierney discussed a possible nuclear-related facility in Iraq. A description of Tierney's remarks on the "Coast to Coast AM" website says:
Tierney's methods of ascertaining this location were rather unconventional. "I would ask God and just get a sense if something was valid or not, and then know if I needed to pursue it," he said. His assessments through prayer were then confirmed to him by a friend's clairvoyant dream, where he was able to find the location on a map. "Everything she said lined up. This place meets the criteria," Tierney said of the power generator plant near the Tigris River that he believes is actually a cover for a secret uranium facility.
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Following out connections from the people involved in John Loftus's "Intelligence Summit" suggests that Hoekstra is primarily dealing with (1) the gang of Neocons that got us into Iraq and are trying to get us into Iran, many of them operating through the PR firm of Benador Associates and (2) Crazy Curt Weldon and his ties to Ghorbanifar and MEK. Weldon's pushing of the Able Danger story may be a part of the larger picture, as well -- an attempt from the right to suggest that the US government has been suppressing information about terrorists and their supposed state sponsors.
For that matter, Sherrie Gossett, the author of the first of the articles quoted above, often seems to function as a mouthpiece for the Neocon/Benador set. So there is a story here that is being pushed very deliberately on several fronts, even if the overall picture isn't yet clear.
thnx anon
these guys are all freaks.
btw - what's the consensus on Loftus?
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