Two stories re; CIA/Lockerbie
MichaelP
Michael
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http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=AMERICANSPY-03-11-04&cat=II
Former Capitol Hill press aide charged as an Iraqi agent
By LISA HOFFMAN and LANCE GAY Scripps Howard News Service March 11, 2004
- A former journalist and Capitol Hill press aide to four lawmakers
Thursday became the first American to be charged with serving as an Iraqi
agent and scheming to help insurgent groups now battling U.S. forces
there.
Susan Lindauer, 40, was arrested at her $250,000 suburban Washington
condominium and appeared in federal court in Baltimore on suspicion of
being involved as early as 1999 with members of the Iraqi Intelligence
Service, whom she met on visits to Iraq's U.N. diplomatic mission in New
York City.
A federal grand jury indictment alleges that Lindauer, a 1985 Smith
College graduate and former student at the London School of Economics,
also met twice last summer with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as
a Libyan spy bent on backing groups fighting American troops in Iraq.
As she was led to a car outside the Baltimore FBI office Thursday,
Lindauer told WBAL-TV, a Scripps Howard television station in Baltimore,
that she "did more to stop terrorism in this country than anybody else,"
and had worked to get weapons inspectors back into Iraq.
"I'm an anti-war activist and I'm innocent," Lindauer told WBAL.
Lindauer - who was charged with conspiracy, acting as an unregistered
Iraqi agent and engaging in financial dealings with a terrorist-supporting
nation - does not stand accused of being a spy.
But the 14-page indictment describes how she covertly dropped documents at
a pre-arranged "dead drop" spot in Maryland for the fake Libyan spy.
Lindauer gave away the names and locations of Iraqi exiles living in the
United States, including that of the son of a former Iraqi diplomat, the
indictment said.
The daughter of a wealthy Alaska newspaper publisher with Texas oil
holdings, Lindauer also traveled to Baghdad in 2002 to meet with Iraqi
intelligence officials, and received a total of $10,000 for her services
over five years, according to the indictment.
Lindauer is also a distant cousin of White House chief of staff Andrew
Card, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Thursday.
Her alleged Iraq entanglements were not her first foray into the world of
Middle East terrorism and spy intrigue.
While employed as press secretary to then-Rep. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Lindauer
gave a sworn deposition in 1994 to a commission studying the 1988
terrorist airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Lindauer said she had met with a man named Richard Fuisz, who she
described as a major CIA operative in Syria, who believed it was not Libya
but Syria that was behind the Lockerbie attack. She said Fuisz complained
that the Clinton administration had slapped a gag order on him because it
did not want to implicate Syria in such wrongdoing. (Libyan leader Muammar
Khadafy has since acknowledged it was his country that was guilty.)
In her deposition, which the pro-Israel Middle East Intelligence Bulletin
recounted in July 2000, Lindauer contended she had come under "intense
surveillance, threats and attacks" since she made her charges public.
"Someone put acid on the steering wheel of my car on a day I was supposed
to drive to NYC for a meeting at the Libya House. I scrubbed my hands with
a toilet brush, but my face was burned so badly that 3 weeks later friends
worried I might be badly scarred," Lindauer told the monthly online
publication. MEIB. "Also, my house was bugged with listening devices and
cameras - little red laser lights in the shower vent. And I survived
several assassination attempts."
According to online databases, news reports and old congressional
directories, Lindauer lived on and off in Alaska from July 1994 to June
2001. Her father, John Lindauer, was a Republican gubernatorial candidate
in Alaska's 1998 elections whose disastrous political campaign led to a
criminal investigation. Before the election, the state GOP withdrew its
support for him, and Democratic incumbent Tony Knowles won in a landslide.
John Lindauer pleaded no contest in 2000 to misdemeanor charges that he
hid the source of some of the $1.7 million he used during his unsuccessful
campaign. The money had come from his second wife.
In the past 15 years, Susan Lindauer hopped from job to job. She was a
reporter and editorial writer for two Washington state newspapers between
1987 and 1989. Later she worked as a researcher for the U.S. News & World
Report news magazine.
Richard Folkers, director of media relations at the magazine, said she was
employed there from September 1990 to August 1991, but said few at the
magazine now remember her.
"In this business, that is a lifetime ago, and although I was around at
that time, that name meant nothing to me,'' Folkers said.
Later, Lindauer turned her sights to Capitol Hill.
According to congressional directories, Lindauer worked in the press
office of Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., in 1993. In January 1994, she began
work as press secretary for then-Rep. Wyden, a liberal lawmaker who now is
a U.S. senator from that state.
She did a stint in the press operation of then-Sen. Carol Moseley Braun,
D-Ill., in 1996 and later landed in the office of Rep. Zoe Lofgren,
D-Calif., in April 2002 - about the time the indictment alleges Lindauer
traveled to Baghdad.
Lindauer now works as a freelance media consultant, according to court
papers.
If convicted, she could face up to 25 years in prison.
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LOCKERBIE: CIA WITNESS GAGGED BY US GOVERNMENT
http://www.sundayherald.com/8759
Sunday Herald (Glasgow) March 8
A FORMER CIA agent who claims Libya is not responsible for the Lockerbie
bombing is being gagged by the US government under state secrecy laws and
faces 10 years in prison if herevealsanyinformation about the terrorist
attack.
United Nations diplomats are outraged that the US government is apparently
suppressing a potential key trial witness. Diplomats are now demanding
that the CIA agent, Dr Richard Fuisz, be released from the gagging order.
Fuisz, a multi-millionaire businessman and pharmaceutical researcher, was,
according to US intelligence sources, the CIA's key operative in the
Syrian capital Damascus during the 1980s where he also had business
interests.
One month before a court order was served on him by the US government
gagging him from speaking on the grounds of national security, he spoke to
US congressional aide Susan Lindauer, telling her he knew the identities
of the Lockerbie bombers and claiming they were not Libyan.
Lindauer, shocked by Fuisz's claims, immediately compiled notes on the
meeting which formed the basis of a later sworn affidavit detailing
Fuisz's claims. One month after their conversation, in October 1994, a
court in Washington DC issued an order barring him from revealing any
information on the grounds of "military and state secrets privilege".
When contacted by the Sunday Herald last night, Fuisz said when asked if
he was a CIA agent in Syria in the 1980s: "That is not an issue I can
confirm or deny. I am not allowed to speak about these issues. In fact, I
can't even explain to you why I can't speak about these issues." Fuisz
did, however, say that he would not take any action againstanewspaperwhich
named him as a CIA agent.
Congressional aide Lindauer, who was involved in early negotiations over
the Lockerbie trial, claims Fuisz made "unequivocal statements to me that
he has first-hand knowledge about the Lockerbie case". In her affidavit,
she goes on: "Dr Fuisz has told me that he can identify who orchestrated
and executed the bombing. Dr Fuisz has said that he can confirm absolutely
that noLibyannationalwas involved in planning or executing the bombing of
PanAm 103, either in any technical or advisory capacity whatsoever."
Fuisz's statements to Lindauer support the claims of the two Libyan
accused who are to incriminate a number of terrorist organisations,
including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General
Command, which had strong links to Syria and Iran.
Lindauer said Fuisz told her he could provide information on Middle
Eastern terrorists, and referred to Lockerbie as an "example of an
unsolved bombing case that he said he has the immediate capability to
resolve".
Lindauer says Fuisz told her CIA staff had destroyed reports he sent them
on Lockerbie. Lindauer also refers in her affidavit to speculation that
the USA shifted any connection to Lockerbie away from Syria to Libya in
return for its support during the Gulf war.
She added that Fuisz told her: "If the [US] government would let me, I
could identify the men behind this attack today. I could do the right
thing . I could go into any crowded restaurant and pick out these men
. I can tell you their home addresses . You won't find [them] anywhere in
Libya. You will only find [them] in Damascus. I was investigating on the
ground and I know."
The 1994 gagging order was issued following disclosures by Fuisz during
other legal proceedings about alleged illegal exports of military
equipment to Iraq. The order claims that the information held by Fuisz is
vital to the "nation's security or diplomatic relations" and can not be
revealed "no matter how compelling the need for, and relevance of, the
information". The submission also makes clear that the government is
empowered to "protect its interests in this case in the future", thereby
gagging Fuisz permanently.
Details of Fuisz's gagging have been passed to the United Nations,
including UN secretary general Kofi Annan, Russia's UN ambassador Sergey
Lavrov and the Libyan UN ambassador, as well as representatives of France
and China. The report on the Fuisz gagging, containing Lindauer's
affidavit, refers to "the history of US interference . [and] . sabotage by
the United States".
One senior UN diplomat said: "In the interests of natural justice, Dr
Fuisz should be released from any order which prevents him telling what
he knows of the PanAm bombing." With Fuisz prohibited from speaking,
neither the defence nor prosecution can call him as a witness.
A legal source close to Fuisz said: "We want the truth out. The naming of
knowledgeable witnesses who can't be called would utterly change the face
of this trial. Dr Fuisz obviously cannot claim he has any knowledge
because of national security issues and he could face 10 years in jail.
However, if he is not allowed to talk the entire case should be dropped.
"Apart from the US government freeing him from the gag, the only way to
allow him to speak would be to subpoena him to the Scottish Court, but the
court has no power of subpoena in America."
The Sunday Herald will make the Lindauer affadvit and Fuisz gagging order
available to both the Crown and defence if they require the documents.
Joseph Cannon
affair is fishier than Sea World.
Lindauer's broadcast denials, which she delivered as she was being
"led away" (as they say) struck me as persuasive.
This whole business struck me with such a profound sense of deja vu.
Anyone else out there recall the George Galloway affair?
Galloway is a (VERY) left-wing MP in Britain. Last year, the Christian
Science Monitor published a story, based on documentation found in
Iraq, claiming that Galloway had received money from Saddam Hussein.
The documentation behind this report later turned out to be forged.
For most people, the matter ended there. But it shouldn't have.
Forgeries don't make themselves. This particular put-up job was, by
all accounts, a very clever business, apparently done by pros.
Winners write the history. The winners of the Iraq war may be intent
on writing history in such a way as to eradicate enemies.
I have no idea if Lindauer's present predicament has any linkage to
her previous involvement in the Lockerbie affair. (I give excerpts of
her testimony on my site.) But one cannot rule out the notion.
I was particularly bothered by today's New York Times account, which
refered to Lindauer's contact, Dr. Fuisz, as a mere "businessman."
The NYT refused even to mention Lindauer's claim that he was CIA. That
claim would seem to be borne out by the fact that he was forbidden by
law to testify at the Lockerbie trial.
Lindauer may have come close to upsetting the apple cart vis-a-vis the
warming relations between Libya and the United States. Motive for a
frame-up?
Cannonfire can be found at http://cannonfire.blogspot.com
-- Joseph Cannon