"Operation Squelch Congressional Investigation"

[kpete]

CIA contra Suskind: Operation Squelch Congressional Investigation

The CIA has now joined the White House and former CIA director George Tenet in releasing a statement denying explosive charges at the heart of a new book by journalist Ronald Suskind, The Way of the World. In the book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter charged that a letter falsely alleging that lead 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta had trained in Iraq, which was purported to have been written by former Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Habbush and which was leaked to journalist Con Coughlin who wrote about it in the Sunday Telegraph in December 2003, had materialized as the result of a White House ordered CIA forgery plot. Newsweek quickly exposed the letter as a fake, and it was later revealed that the letter had been passed to Coughlin by an Iraqi exile politician close to the CIA Ayad Allawi, who reportedly happened to be in meetings at Langley around the time Suskind claimed the White House directive came down. So how did the letter purported to be from Habbush with the discredited claims come to be? In a statement today, the CIA writes:

.......................

The timing is interesting. Just this week, the House Judiciary committee moved forward with plans to investigate Suskind's claims, issuing letters to several of the participants named asking them to testify. As a reader friend suggests, whether Suskind got details in his account wrong or not, "there can be no doubt whatsoever that what motivated this statement by CIA echoed by Tenet's new statement is an effort to scare off and squelch Congress from pursuing its investigation."

Suskind has said in media appearances that he wants the officials involved to testify under oath. He has also posted the partial transcript of an interview with Rob Richer, a former top CIA official he cites as telling him about the White House order on Habbush. Richer has denied the account took place as Suskind reported it. But his denial is carefully worded. And as my reader friend notes, "Richer's comments on the record on Suskindresponse contradict the CIA's official response, insofar as he simply acknowledges as a fact Habbush's defection while CIA acts like it knows nothing about it and as far as it is concerned Habbush is still a wanted man."

Let's see if Operation Squelch Congressional Investigation succeeds.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/08/9350_cia_contra_susk.html

[DCKit]

1. The complete lack of subtlety in everything they do is shocking.

The old guard spies of the cold war period must be ashamed of these hacks.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

2. K & R

[leveymg]

3. This isn't your father's CIA. They don't even lie and cover-up well anymore.

Helms was actually convicted of Obstruction of Justice for his lies to Congress about Nixon and Kissinger's involvement in the 9/11/73 coup in Chile. He had to be pardoned, after being sentenced to 12 mos. imprisonment. But, that was effectively the end of it.

This isn't going away that easily. Pardons or no pardons, starting next year, there are going to be Grand Juries, issuing dozens of subpoenas (the kind you can't ignore), and people are going to jail.

[hootinholler]

5. We can hope that's how it plays out!

I'm on board with that!

-Hoot

[fascisthunter]

4. lol... man