a justification for war?
Holy Shit, my mind is going in circles trying to keep up with the scandal inside a scandal wrapped up in another scandal.
According to the timeline established in the Pincus article, in September 2002, the NGIC determined that the aluminum tubes Iraq was purchasing were "'highly unlikely' to be used for rocket motor cases," e.g. they were likely to be for a nuclear weapons program -- which was "completely wrong" the Silberman-Robb report found. Then in October 2002, MZM got its first orders from the NGIC, to "perform a seven-week, $194,000 analysis of 'FIRES', a computer program concept to collect blueprints of facilities worldwide to create an intelligence database," Pincus reported. Then in December 2002, according to the Pincus report, MZM hired the NGIC executive director's son, William Scott Rich III. Shortly thereafter, "MZM received multimillion-dollar orders to continue work on FIRES and other programs," Pincus reports.
So is this all about conflict of interest, corruption, bribery, contracting improprieties? Or is there something else going on here? It's not clear. But guess what. The CIA hired a contractor in September 2002 (the month before the NGIC gave MZM its first orders) who also claimed the tubes were for a nuclear centrifuge, eRiposte pointed out to me in the email. Who was that contractor? The Senate Select Intelligence report has redacted it. Here's what eRiposte writes:
...I wanted to bring this to your attention because one of the issues I was planning to discuss in my ongoing series on WMDgate related to the deliberate fabrications and/or misrepresentations by CIA/NGIC on the aluminum tubes issue using a mysterious contractor to “bolster” their claims. The Senate (SSCI) report points out that in September 2002 CIA hired a contractor who conveniently “confirmed” the fraudulent tubes-as-centrifuges story for the CIA (and NGIC).
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003244.htmlSo, MZM gets spun off from Wilkes ADC
Aug 2002 - Coconspirator #2 (formerly MZM) paid $140,000 for "Duke-Stir" yacht but allows Duke to live there and use it as his own.
Sept 2002 - MZM issues false report that Iraqi aluminum tubes were for nuclear weapons program according to Silberman-Robb report
Oct 2002 - MZM gets $194,000 contract to do a 7 week program compiling blueprints into intel database
Dec 2002 - MZM hires NGIC executive director's son, William Scott Rich III. MZM now gets multimillion $$$ orders to continue and expand original $194,000 contract, making it into the top 100 defense contractors.
How much of this bribery was used to lie the US into a war and where are the people looking into it?