House oversight panel may look past Rice, Tenet in inquiry into uranium

House oversight panel may look past Rice, Tenet in inquiry into uranium
By Helen Fessenden and Jackie Kucinich
May 01, 2007

Following a subpoena to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a letter to former CIA Director George Tenet last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee may cast an even wider net in its probe into why the administration made false pre-war claims that Iraq was seeking to acquire uranium from Niger.

~snip~

Some of the other names that have surfaced in this story include Alan Foley of the CIA and Robert Joseph of the National Security Council, who negotiated the language in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq was seeking to buy uranium from Africa. There is also Rocco Martino, the Italian free-lance operative who peddled the forged documents that were the genesis of this claim, which ultimately found its way into the State of the Union speech even though Tenet had previously intervened to take out similar language in an earlier speech.

Several members expressed strong interest in hearing from these individuals, and the panel’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis (R-Va.) said it would be “entirely appropriate to bring in others” even though he opposed the subpoena for Rice.

~snip~

If Waxman ultimately chooses to cite Rice for failure to respond to the subpoena, and a resolution to hold her in contempt passes the House floor, her case could land at the foot of embattled colleague Attorney General Albert Gonzales, according to House rules.

more:http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/house-oversight-panel-may-look-past-rice-tenet-in-inquiry-into-uranium-2007-04-30.html

Alan Foley to head national security programs at Argonne
ARGONNE, Ill. (March 16, 2004) — Alan A. Foley has been named associate laboratory director for national security at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Foley most recently was director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Center for Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control. He was associated with the CIA for 26 years, and has held positions including serving as chief of the Arms Control Intelligence Staff and as senior member of the U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (SALT) from 1987 to 1990.

Foley was awarded the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal for “exceptional performance, leadership and professionalism” in 2001. He has a bachelor's degree in political science from Tufts University, a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and was a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Fellow at Moscow and Leningrad State Universities.

more:http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2004/news040316.htm

Profile: Alan Foley
Positions that Alan Foley has held:
Senior CIA official
Alan Foley was a participant or observer in the following events:
A day or two days before January 28: National Security Council Official Puts Pressure on CIA Official to Include Africa-Uranium Allegation in Powell’s UN SpeechRobert G. Joseph, director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council (NSC), telephones Alan Foley, director of the CIA’s Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation, and Arms Control Center (WINPAC), and mentions plans to include the Africa-uranium claim in Bush’s upcoming State of the Union address. When Foley warns that the allegation has little evidence to support it, Joseph instead suggests including a statement about the British learning that Iraq was seeking uranium in Africa, leaving out the bit about Niger and the exact quantity of uranium that was allegedly sought. Joseph claims he does not recall the discussion and White House communications director Dan Bartlett calls Foley’s version of events a “conspiracy theory.”

more:http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=alan_foley

In late January 2007, Robert Joseph, one of a passel of George W. Bush administration hardliners opposed to pursuing vigorous diplomatic strategies with states like North Korea, announced his intention to resign as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security. The announcement came just as signs of a negotiated solution to North Korea's nuclear weapons program seemed to be gaining traction, prompting speculation that his resignation was tied to his disagreement with this approach (Reuters, January 24, 2007). Joseph's resignation also followed closely on the heels of resignations of other administration hardliners, including former UN representative John Bolton, who was Joseph's predecessor as undersecretary of state.

Asked during a January 25 press briefing about the reasons for Joseph's resignation, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said: "Secretary Rice has the greatest respect for Bob personally as well as professionally. He has been an important voice in the administration's policymaking on nonproliferation as well as other matters. He is—the president proposed it, but I think Bob is—I'll take some liberty, Bob is the godfather of the Proliferation Security Initiative. He really was the driving intellectual force behind that and we—certainly, we in the administration wish Bob all the best." Though Joseph plans to leave office, there seemed to be the promise that he would retain some measure of influence. At the press briefing, McCormack added: "The Secretary would like to find ways to draw upon his expertise and his experience in the coming two years, so we're going to see what we can do in that regard."

more:http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1235

The Italian Connection, Part III

I discussed in installments one and two of this series my early reporting on the origins of the Niger forgeries and how we later learned the identity of, and made contact with, the man at the center of the drama: Rocco Martino. As I discussed in the earlier installments I was working with a team from 60 Minutes, sharing sources, each of us pursuing the Niger story for publication in our separate mediums.

I first met Martino at a restaurant in mid-town Manhattan in early June 2004. He?d come to New York to be interviewed for the upcoming segment on 60 Minutes and also, per our arrangement, to be interviewed by me. I should add that in this conversation and in the subsequent ones I will describe I always spoke to Martino through a translator, though there were occasional moments, and more over time, when it seemed he had some working command of English.

In the various press accounts that have appeared over recent months Martino is often described as ?dapper? or refined in appearance. And that is largely correct. In fact there was a genteel quality in his appearance and manner that belied the scrounging, always-desperate-for-money life which we learned he had led.

Martino was in his mid-sixties, thickly-built and robust for his age. In notes I took when I met with him for the final time two months later I described him as ?all gray on the sides, salt & pepper on top, dark complected, thick mustache, mainly grey, S&P in middle, thick features, delta nose, bags chiseled under eyes.?



http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_11_06.php#006975

many more here: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=Rocco+Martino&search.x=13&search.y=14

:shrug: It's a simple majority, but don't know if they could pull it off.