Revealed: Neocon's attempt to tie Iran to nuclear arms plot: Michael Ledeen, SISMI, Harold Rhode, Curt Weldon, Stephen Hadley, Ghorbanifahr, & Ali Baba (Mahdavi)
Arash
January 11, 2006
Spurious attempt to tie Iran, Iraq to nuclear arms plot bypassed U.S. intelligence
channels
Update: Retired Paris CIA station chief Bill Murray confirms and corrects.
By Larisa Alexandrovna
Several U.S. and foreign intelligence sources, along with investigators, say an
Iranian exile with ties to Iran-Contra peddled a bizarre tale of stolen uranium to
governments on both sides of the Atlantic in the spring and summer of 2003.
The story that was peddled -- which detailed how an Iranian intelligence team
infiltrated Iraq prior to the start of the war in March of 2003, and stole enriched
uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons program -- was part of an attempt to
implicate both countries in a WMD plot. It later emerged that the Iranian exile was
trying to collect money for his tales, sources say.
By all credible accounts, the source of this dubious tale was Manucher Ghorbanifar
[known Mossad agent], an Iranian arms dealer who used middle-men and cut-outs to
create the appearance of several sources. Manucher Ghorbanifar played a key role in
the Iran-Contra scandal (http://nsarchive.chadwyck.com/icintro.htm) that threatened
to take down the Reagan administration, in which the U.S. sold arms to Iran and
diverted the proceeds to Nicaraguan militants.
While the various threads of the larger story of Manucher Ghorbanifar
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manucher_Ghorbanifar) and his intelligence peddling
began in December of 2001, meetings in Paris in 2003 are far more important in
illustrating -- as a microcosm -- the larger difficulties faced in untangling the
facts relating to global intelligence trafficking.
Tall Tale of Uranium
During the spring and summer of 2003, Congressman Curt Weldon
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Weldon , curt.weldon[AT]mail.house.gov) made
several visits to Paris to meet with a source believed to have important military
intelligence information.
Unbeknownst to Congressman Weldon, the informant, who he would dub simply "Ali", was
already peddling a tale of stolen uranium traveling between Iraq and Iran that had
been deemed false by most intelligence agencies.
As reported by American Prospect (http://tinyurl.com/9m9bw) and confirmed by
intelligence sources, "Ali" is a pseudonym used to identify a former commerce
minister in the Shah's Iran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi),
Fereidoun Mahdavi.
Fereidoun Mahdavi himself is a secretary to Ghorbanifar, the originating source of
the uranium fable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowcake_forgery).
The American Prospect's reporters wrote, " 'Ali' is actually a cipher for Manucher
Ghorbanifar, the notorious Iranian arms dealer and accused intelligence fabricator --
and the potential instrument of another potentially dangerous manipulation of
American policy in the Persian Gulf region".
The Washington Post (http://tinyurl.com/c4p64) discusses "Ali" as follows: " 'These
secrets', he says, come from 'an impeccable clandestine source', whom Congressman
Weldon code-names 'Ali', an Iranian exile living in Paris who is a close associate of
Manucher Gorbanifar. Gorbanifar is a well-known Iranian exile whom the CIA branded as
a fabricator during the 1980s but who was used by the Reagan White House as a
middleman for the arms-for-hostages deal with Iran".
According to several intelligence sources on both sides of the Atlantic, the tale
that "Ali" tells Weldon and others was as intricate as it was false.
"Ali provided information that indicated Iranian intelligence had sent a team to
Baghdad to extract highly enriched uranium (weapons grade) from a stockpile hidden by
Saddam", one intelligence source said.
Ali asserted that an Iranian intelligence team had infiltrated Iraq prior to the
start of the war and stole enriched uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons
program, sources say.
Manucher Ghorbanifar said "the team successfully extracted the stockpile but on the
way back to Iran contracted radiation poisoning", one source remarked.
Upon learning this information Congressman Weldon says that he immediately notified
then-CIA director George Tenet.
"George Tenet appeared interested, even enthusiastic about evaluating Ali and
establishing a working relationship with him", Congressman Weldon wrote in his book,
"Countdown to Terror: The Top-Secret Information that Could Prevent the Next
Terrorist Attack on America... and How the CIA has Ignored it"
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895260050). "He agreed to send his top spy,
Stephen Kappes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Kappes), the deputy director of
operations, along with me to Paris for another debriefing of Ali.
"On the day of our scheduled second meeting with Ali in Paris, Stephen Kappes bowed
out, claiming that "other commitments" compelled him to cancel", Congressman Weldon
continued. "Later, the CIA claimed to have met with Ali independently. But I
discovered this to be untrue... Incredibly, I learned that the CIA had apparently
asked French intelligence to silence Ali".
But according to the American Prospect and several sources in intelligence abroad,
the CIA did investigate, as did the Department of Defense. According to the
Washington Post, the agency tasked then-Paris station chief Bill Murray with
investigating the claim, who ultimately found Ali to be a "fabricator".
The CIA, understanding Ali to be Manucher Ghorbanifar, did not think him a credible
source.
Intelligence sources and a source close to the UN Security Council tell RAW STORY
Bill Murray took Ali (either Ghorbanifar or his agent) to Iraq in order to retrace
the footsteps of the alleged mission in which the uranium was stolen from Saddam's
own stockpile and taken back to Iran. In the end, sources say, the entire event
proved a wild goose chase because Ali's earlier clarity all but evaporated.
"Soon it became apparent that Ali and his sources were fabricators and were trying to
extract large sums of money", one intelligence source said.
Bill Murray says he did meet with the source, but was not part of a trip to Iraq.
"I did not make any such trip", Bill Murray said. "I met with the source, found that
he was not credible, forwarded the information he gave us to Washington, where it was
thoroughly analyzed by many people and found not to add anything new to what we knew
about Iran. The sensational charges that the source made could not be substantiated".
Congressman Weldon's office declined to comment for the record after several extended
conversations. RAW STORY delayed the article for a day to give Weldon's office a
chance to comment.
The neoconservative movement has long expressed an inherent distrust of the CIA. Many
neoconservatives note that the agency undercounted Russia's nuclear stockpile in the
waning days of the Soviet Union, and believe that it routinely underestimates foreign
threats.
Congressman Weldon, who had been led to believe the CIA never opened an investigation
into the information he provided, took his case directly to Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld then pressured the CIA to investigate further.
"CIA reluctantly, after pressure from Rumsfeld, followed up by detaching one of their
weapons experts from the team that was hunting WMD in Iraq", one former CIA officer
who asked to remain anonymous said.
Sources say that this second investigation resulted in another wild goose chase. The
question of motive, however, seems to either have been entirely missed or simply
glossed over.
Congressman Weldon seen caught in web
By all accounts, Congressman Weldon seems to be more of an innocent bystander taken
in by an internationally known con-man and the lure of spook-like activities than an
inside player with an agenda or material participant in these events.
The Ali composite seems to have used Congressman Weldon as a conduit by which to
provide the CIA with information.
There was good reason to be cautious of Manucher Ghorbanifahr, who, along with his
secretary, made up the "cipher" of Ali.
The CIA had already had issued two burn notices against Manucher Ghorbanifahr as
early as 1984 and his role in Iran-Contra as a middleman between the hardline
neoconservative and another Iran-Contra figure, Michael Ledeen.
In his book, Weldon said he met Ghorbanifahr after being approached by a Democratic
congressman.
"On March 7, 2003, a former Democratic member of Congress and my good friend Ron
Klink called and asked to meet with me. . . . The source was Ali. My contacts with
him were at first by telephone. Subsequently, Ali sent faxes to my home on a regular
basis from different hotels in Paris, where he lives in exile. Eventually, as the
information became more detailed and critical, I decided on a face-to-face meeting".
(Countdown to Terror, p. 4). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0895260050
Why such highly important information would be provided to Klink and then Congressman
Weldon as opposed to the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee remains
unclear.
Neoconservative Michael Leeden explains meetings
Manucher Ghorbanifahr has strong ties to Michael Ledeen
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen), and both of them were involved in a
controversial meeting in Rome of 2001. That meeting, whose purpose is unknown,
included high level officials in Italian intelligence
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SISMI), Iranian nationals and Larry Franklin
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Franklin), a former Defense Department analyst
who current pled guilty to charges of passing classified information to Israel and
Iran.
Also in attendance was Middle East expert Harold Rhode
(http://www.sw-asia.com/People/Bio954.htm), also under investigation for charges of
passing classified information to Israel and Iran. Both Rhode and Larry Franklin
worked for Feith in the Office of Special plans
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Special_Plans).
Michael Ledeen was consulting for OSP when all three were dispatched to Rome in 2001.
He says the meetings had nothing to do with Iraq.
"The Rome meetings had nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq, but with Iran and
Afghanistan", Michael Ledeen wrote in an email. "I don't think a single word was
pronounced, by anyone, on Iraq".
Later, in a phone conversation, Michael Ledeen explained that the Rome meeting had to
do with what his sources told him was going on on the ground in Afghanistan, namely
that Iran was allegedly fueling the Afghan insurgency.
"I reported this back", Michael Ledeen said. "This information saved American lives".
According to James Risen's New York Times article
(http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120803F.shtml) dated December of 2003, Michael
Ledeen was a paid consultant to the National Security Council at the time of the
meeting. James Risen reports that National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was
informed of the plans for the meeting and that Hadley expressed reservations given
Ledeen and Ghorbanifahr's background.
The Office of Special Plans (OSP), however, authorized the meeting without notifying
any other agency, violating protocol. They did not notify the Rome CIA station chief
or the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Mel Sembler.
Michael Ledeen, however, says that Stephen Hadley
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hadley) had authorized the trip. This would
also implicate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then-National Security Advisor.
"Stephen Hadley authorized it and he could not have done so without reporting it to
his direct superior", said Michael Ledeen
(http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261).
Michael Ledeen also denies that he had anything to do beyond that first meeting in
December of 2001.
"I was involved in one meeting, in Rome, in December 2001", Michael Leeden said.
"Period".
Paris, Again
The uranium story peddled to Congressman Weldon is strikingly similar to the story
told to Michael Ledeen.
"I approached a variety of government officials, lots of them, and told them that I
had a reliable source that told me about how and where the Iranians stole enriched
uranium from Iraq", Michael Ledeen said.
Michael Ledeen says his source then went on to explain that the "stash" was buried in
an underground facility and recounted, much like Weldon did, that neither the CIA,
the Defense Department or the State Department would listen to his concerns.
Asked if his source was Ghorbanifahr, Michael Ledeen said "No," but was unable to
tell the identity of his source for fear said source might be "put in danger".
Who arranged the meetings and their ultimate purpose remains unclear. One
intelligence official, however, described the series of events and the market of
intelligence trafficking as follows: "If you were going to launder intel to make up a
war, you could easily send some fool on an errand".
* Larisa Alexandrovna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larisa_Alexandrovna) is a
Ukrainian Jewish journalist (born in Odessa, Ukraine).
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.html
Related articles:
Iran is ready to attack U.S. nuclear reactors
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/baf9ff71921ae596
Congressman Warns of Iranian Attack on U.S.
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/2833d754eb9f7035
Threat to Nuke Plant Revealed
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/8a6cc407a90329a5
CIA fights allegations of missing Iran danger signs
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/ee0e848f8a0ebc69
Lawmaker's Book Warns of Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/9f5e18738f33a1e5
Books add to right-wing campaign to demonize Iran
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/54b7aba8e8520c91
Kenneth Timmerman, Curt Weldon, Ghorbanifar, and Ali-Baba
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/4e6948de9c7ff3f9
Lawmakers met with Iranian exile scrutinized over intelligence
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/d9bd00a0920b05bf
Revealed: Right-wing contacts with Iranian exiles
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/49795cfee87ed5d1
The Next Fake Threat
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/69169b77d05b733a
Experts: Iran Ready to Take It to the Brink
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/6ee113a7cb1a92f5
Jew Ledeen, Bolton, Ghorbanifar and the rest of Mossad thugs
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.iranian/msg/c69395cf61282cb6
How a Shady Iranian Kept the Pentagon's Ear
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120803F.shtml