so former u.s. republican congressman curt weldon (bounced in 2006) is in libya, talking to gaddafi. he was one of the principal brokers of the 2004-05 deal(s) with gaddafi.
this weldon guy has quite a background. hired his daughter as a lobbyist. been investigated by the fbi. investigated by the house ethics committee. yes, more corruption. iran, iraq, private defense contractors, dealings with folks close to milosevic, ties to a russian energy firm, ties to iran-contra, ties to an italian arms maker, even sun myung moon!
and now he's back in libya, "trying to persuade gaddafi to step down." probably true. and probably not the whole story, no?
ok. i'll follow this thing as it develops. (or so i tell myself). for now i'll just post a partial list of "related links," re: weldon (from the link above)...
************************* "Add Karen Weldon, daughter of Rep. CurtWeldon, to the list of congressional sons, daughters, spouses, and in-laws whose lack of credentials, experience, or expertise hasn't stopped them from enjoying lucrative careers as government lobbyists," Washington Monthly (FindArticles.com), April 2004.
* John Gorenfeld, "Weldon, Khadafy and Moongate," Where In Washington, D.C. Is Sun Myong Moon?, June 12, 2004.
* June 9, 2005. Weldon has warned that Iran is protecting Osama bin Laden in Tehran.
* Laura Rozen, "Curt Weldon's Deep Throat. The Pennsylvania Republican’s freelance spying has once again brought a discredited arms dealer's fabrications to the CIA," The American Prospect, June 10, 2005.
* "NY Post editorial advanced Weldon's unsubstantiated claims on Able Danger, Atta, 9-11 Commission," Media Matters for America, August 16, 2005.
* Larisa Alexandrovna, "Curt Weldon's attempt to tie Iran to nuclear arms plot," The Raw Story, January 11, 2006.
* Tom Ferrick Jr., "Indiana Jones? No, it's Weldon," Philadelphia Inquirer, June 28, 2006.
* “CREW releases second annual most corrupt members of Congress report,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, September 20, 2006.
* Greg Gordon, "FBI investigates Rep. Curt Weldon," McClatchy Newspapers (CentreDaily.com), October 13, 2006.
* Matt Kelley and Peter Eisler, "Relatives have 'inside track' in lobbying for tax dollars," USA TODAY, October 16, 2006.
* Elana Schor, "Weldon’s Itera ties long known," The Hill, October 18, 2006.
* R. Jeffrey Smith and Carol D. Leonnig, "Weldon's Ties to Serbian Businessman Part of Probe," Washington Post, October 18, 2006.
* Laura Rozen, "Crossed Lines? E-mails allege that Curt Weldon’s office attempted to obtain information on his opponent from the Navy," The American Prospect, October 26, 2006.
* Leslie Wayne, "Italian Arms Contractor and Pennsylvania Congressman Share Close Ties," New York Times, October 31, 2006.
* Steve Goldstein, "Weldon earmark is study in the ways of the Hill," Philadelphia Inquirer, October 31, 2006.
* Bonnie L. Cook, "Defense contractor in Exton appoints Weldon to post," Philadelphia Inquirer, February 5, 2007.
ok i lied. here is some interesting info (from 2005), re: weldon and iran...
http://prospect.org/cs/articles?articleId=9836
Countdown to Terror, Representative Curt Weldon's sensationalistic new book about his personal struggle to combat the Iranian terrorism threat despite the alleged resistance of the CIA, is based entirely on the Pennsylvania Republican's freelance communications with a secret source he code-named "Ali."
here's more on weldon, ledeen, iran and iraq:... Weldon's "Ali" -- who was identified in an April article by me and Jeet Heer as Fereidoun Mahdavi, a frail, elderly former minister of commerce in the shah's government and a longtime business associate of Iran-Contra arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar Mahdavi also said that the bulk of the information that he had provided to Weldon was originally sourced from none other than Ghorbanifar, the subject of a rare CIA “burn notice” after the agency found him to be a "fabricator" more than two decades ago during the Iran-Contra affair.
According to Murray, Mahdavi only sent two faxes on the secure line -- one with all the information he had already sent Weldon and Michael Ledeen, the neoconservative scholar and longtime Ghorbanifar champion, and another with a plan to overthrow the mullahs in Tehran. . . . Several Iranian exile associates of the pair have told the Prospect that Mahdavi, living in reduced circumstances and caring for his cancer-stricken wife, is in fact financially dependent on Ghorbanifar. They have been involved in various businesses together, from petroleum shipping to arms dealing to (more recently) intelligence peddling, since both washed up in Paris after the Iranian revolution in 1979.
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2005/Backc ... _0111.html
(the o.s.p., as you may recall, was the cheney-controlled pentagon (neo-con) unit that cooked up the "case" for invading iraq).Ghorbanifahr has strong ties to Michael Ledeen, and both of them were involved in a controversial meeting in Rome of 2001. That meeting included high level officials in Italian intelligence, Iranian nationals and Larry Franklin, a former Defense Department analyst who pled guilty to charges of passing classified information to Israel and Iran. Also in attendance was Middle East expert Harold Rhode, also under investigation for charges of passing classified information to Israel and Iran. Both Rhode and Franklin worked for Feith in the Office of Special plans. Ledeen was consulting for OSP when all three were dispatched to Rome in 2001. He says the meetings had nothing to do with Iraq.
National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was informed of the plans for the (Rome) meeting, and expressed reservations given Ledeen and Ghorbanifahr's background. The Office of Special Plans, 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. Ledeen, however, says that Hadley had authorized the trip. This would also implicate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then-National Security Advisor.
********************************The uranium story peddled to Weldon is strikingly similar to the story told to 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," Ledeen said. Asked if his source was Ghorbanifahr, 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."
and here's an article about obama's expanding, "secret war"...
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/ ... 7543.shtml
Obama, one senior military official said, has allowed "things that the previous administration did not."
The United Nations, in a report this week, questioned the administration's authority under international law to conduct such raids, particularly when they kill innocent civilians. One possible legal justification -- the permission of the country in question -- is complicated in places such as Pakistan and Yemen, where the governments privately agree but do not publicly acknowledge approving the attacks. Former Bush officials, still smarting from accusations that their administration overextended the president's authority to conduct lethal activities around the world at will, have asked similar questions. "While they seem to be expanding their operations both in terms of extraterritoriality and aggressiveness, they are contracting the legal authority upon which those expanding actions are based
The Obama administration has rejected the constitutional executive authority claimed by Bush and has based its lethal operations on the authority Congress gave the president in 2001 to use "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons" he determines "planned, authorized, committed, or aided" the Sept. 11 attacks. Many of those currently being targeted, Bellinger said, "particularly in places outside Afghanistan," had nothing to do with the 2001 attacks.