The Habbush letter is in the news again, thanks to Ron Suskind's new book The Way of the World.
Simply put, the Habbush letter was a forgery designed to connect Saddam Hussein with al-Qaeda and 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. William Saffire in The New York Times and The Telegraph in the UK were completely deceived and reported the letter as authentic back in 2003. The contents of the letter were used by Dick Cheney and others to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Juan Cole speculates that the letter was designed to cast doubt on Ambassador Joe Wilson's revelation that Saddam did not buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. (And we all remember what else the White House did to discredit Wilson, don't we ?)
Ron Suskind alleges in his book that the Habbush forgery was directly ordered by the White House and carried out by CIA officials. Furthermore, Suskind wrote that Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti (Habbush) was secretly resettled in Jordan by the CIA.
Former CIA officer Phillip Giraldi reported an "extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community" confirmed much of Suskind's allegations. Giraldi's source confirmed that Dick Cheney was behind the forgery but used the Office of Special Plans, not the CIA, to do the job.
I'll leave you with some relevant bits of Ron Suskind's interview with the CIA's Rob Richer as they discussed the Habbush letter. My only conclusion is that Cheney somehow directed the forgery with Scooter Libby's help.
Since Cheney and Libby got away with discrediting our own Ambassador and illegally revealing the name of a covert CIA operative, I'll assume they did the same with the Habbush letter...
Ron Suskind: The Way of the World Transcripts
Simply put, the Habbush letter was a forgery designed to connect Saddam Hussein with al-Qaeda and 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. William Saffire in The New York Times and The Telegraph in the UK were completely deceived and reported the letter as authentic back in 2003. The contents of the letter were used by Dick Cheney and others to justify the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Juan Cole speculates that the letter was designed to cast doubt on Ambassador Joe Wilson's revelation that Saddam did not buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. (And we all remember what else the White House did to discredit Wilson, don't we ?)
Ron Suskind alleges in his book that the Habbush forgery was directly ordered by the White House and carried out by CIA officials. Furthermore, Suskind wrote that Tahir Jalil Habbush al-Tikriti (Habbush) was secretly resettled in Jordan by the CIA.
Former CIA officer Phillip Giraldi reported an "extremely reliable and well placed source in the intelligence community" confirmed much of Suskind's allegations. Giraldi's source confirmed that Dick Cheney was behind the forgery but used the Office of Special Plans, not the CIA, to do the job.
I'll leave you with some relevant bits of Ron Suskind's interview with the CIA's Rob Richer as they discussed the Habbush letter. My only conclusion is that Cheney somehow directed the forgery with Scooter Libby's help.
Since Cheney and Libby got away with discrediting our own Ambassador and illegally revealing the name of a covert CIA operative, I'll assume they did the same with the Habbush letter...
Ron Suskind: The Way of the World Transcripts
Rob: No, no, no. What I remember is George saying, 'we got this from'--basically, from what George said was 'downtown.'
Ron: Which is the White House?
Rob: Yes. But he did not--in my memory--never said president, vice president, or NSC. Okay? But now--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.
Ron: Yeah, right.
Rob: But he didn't say that specifically. I would naturally--I would probably stand on my, basically, my reputation and say it came from the vice president.
Ron: Right, I'm with you, I'm with you. But there wasn't anything in the writing that you remember saying the vice president.
Rob: Nope.
Ron: It just had the White House stationery.
Rob: Exactly right.
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