Libby questioned on forged letter linking Saddam to 9/11 ( Archived) (55)

John Byrne / Raw Story | August 20, 2008

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued letters of inquiry Wednesday to Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, regarding a forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.

The Michigan Democrat also sent letters to senior former Bush intelligence officials, including Robert Richer, former CIA Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations, who claimed that Cheney’s office pushed the CIA to develop a phony letter to aid their argument for a preemptive strike on Iraq. The letters were copied to RAW STORY.

“I have become very concerned with the possibility that this Administration may have violated federal law by using the resources of our intelligence agencies to influence domestic policy processes or opinion,” Conyers wrote Libby, who was convicted of obstruction of justice in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. “The law specifically provides that “o covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.”

Conyers letters come in the wake of claims by author Ron Suskind, who quotes Richer in his most recent book as saying a forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery.

“What I remember is George saying, ‘we got this from’–basically, from what George said was ‘downtown,’” Richer says in a transcript Suskind released. “He may have hinted–just by the way he said it, it would have–cause almost all that stuff came from one place only: Scooter Libby and the shop around the vice president.”

Richer contests the account. In an unusual move, the White House issued a denial in Richer’s name when the details of the book were released earlier this month.

In it, Richer declared, “I never received direction from George Tenet or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document … as outlined in Mr. Suskind’s book.”

Suskind, however, says he has a tape of their conversation, which took place earlier this year. His prior accounts of internal Administration machinations have stood up under scrutiny. Conyers asked that Richer “set up a time” to discuss allegations surrounding the false letter.

“According to recent allegations in your capacity as the former CIA Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations and Chief of the Near East Division, you were tasked by former CIA Director George Tenet to create the false letter and may even have seen the White House stationery on which the false letter assignment was reportedly written,” Conyers wrote Richer Wednesday. “Given your reported direct knowledge of these events, I am requesting that you contact Judiciary Committee staff as soon as possible to set up a time to discuss your involvement and knowledge of the allegedly false letter.”

Conyers also wrote John Hannah, Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs.
Book asserts White House ordered forged letter.

Continued...

I stopped reading when I got to Conyers....


Sorry~

Conyers is not the issue here Indy.

The whitehouse had apparently forged memos in order to create war with Iraq!

You really should have read it.

I think it is worth reading.

Did they also forge the pictures of all the Kurds he used sarin gas on?Thats one reason he had to be stopped,he was a monster.

no one doubts that Sadam was a monster. But we are a civilized nation of laws. Did we break the law in our pursuit of Sadam, is the question. If we can justify our breaking international laws in our pursuit of a criminal, then we are just as guilty as the criminal. If we say the end justified the means, then all Sadam was guilty of is trying to bring stability to his country.


We did not invade Iraq because of treatment of the Kurds, we invaded, presumably, because he had WMDs. Those charges proved false, even with the forged documents.

Well Ship I dont believe in standing by and watching, even little children, die because some idiot wants to test a chemical.I for one do not believe the reports of no mass destruction.I believe they were moved.When ur dealing with the middle east,its a scary thing.They might like u one minute and kill u the next.This is their culture,its been this way for hundreds of yrs.And it wont change.Though many think they can change them,They cant.They kill each just as easily as they kill, what they call an infidel.We waited untill we were attacked in ww2 before we acted.In my opioin we were attack on 9-11 and I believe Sadam was a part of that.It was reported he was paying familys 25000 to send one as a suicide bomber.He was one of the sects of Islam that is violent and hates america.We had been hit 3 times before we acted.The attacks just kept getting bigger and killing more Americans,on american soil.Now we are not blindly accepting every thing that comes into the country now.Thats JMO

The problem comes when people believe what they want. That means they ignore the facts. Again, our reason supposedly for going into Traq was not 9-11, that was added, later. It was not the Kurds, it was the false claim of WMD. Let's het the facts straight even, if you choose to believe otherwise.


Why was Bush planning to invade Iraq 18 days after assuming office?? 9-11 did not even occur. The whole thing revolved around Sadams attempt to kill his daddy. 4000 Americans have paid the price for his revenge. It had nothing to do with the Kurds or 9-11.

If it were an issue involving the Kurds, Bush would have stood and benn righteously indignant and said we are going to save the Kurds. If it were 9-11 affiliated, he would have boldly stood and said we are seeking revenge. But he LIED and SAID IT WAS ABOUT WORLD SECURITY AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, OF WHICH WE HAVE MORE THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD PUT TOGETHER, and therefore, it is our responsibility to save the world