For Sale

Next week China and Pakistan will meet and greet and celebrate 55 years of diplomatic ties between the 2 nations. All about common interests, economic interests, stability in the regions, etc. Our new best friends are best friends too.

Nearly a year ago Pakistan admitted that the "father" of its nuclear program, A.Q. Khan (a Dubai businessman), did give centrifuges to Iran, but as an individual and not in connection with the Pakistani government of course. Pakistan refused the US any direct access to Khan; as of a year ago Khan was under Pakistan "house arrest." Western diplomats suspect Khan also aided North Korea's nukes over the years.

Internationally every nation knows who is getting what from who, when, and where. Diplomats and ambassadors hear as much at dinner parties (that's why they "suspect" so much so often). Khan reminded me of the Edwin P. Wilson case. Fallguy Wilson had to do 22 years in prison for playing in Libya with the CIA.

But with guys (and gals) like Edwin Wilson I'm waiting for the current American connection to the black market to be made public. Wilson was convicted in 1983 for illegally exporting explosives. Eddie's playground and friend was Libyan bad guy (US new best friend) and terrorist at the time, Muammar Ghadafi. Wilson was "former" CIA (1955-1971) and his defense in '83 was he still worked for the agency. Wilson was convicted in Texas, and in Virginia for unauthorized exporting of firearms, attempted murder, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

A year ago Wilson's conviction was vacated by the Southern District of Texas court and the DOJ announced they would not seek retrial. The court ruling states that "Because the government knowingly used false evidence against him and suppressed favorable evidence, his conviction will be vacated." What?! The CIA suppressed evidence and planted false evidence? But the Texas vacation didn't vacate his Virginia conviction. He was paroled finally last year at the ripe old age of 75, however.

Wilson's bio reads a lot like Val Plame's. From 1955 through early 1971, Wilson was employed full-time, mostly as an undercover agent (NOC), by the US government through the Central Intelligence Agency. His assignments sometimes required him to establish and use “front” companies to gain access to information and to support CIA operations here and abroad.

Did the CIA frame Wilson, one of their own? Or was Wilson a true patriot just doing a lengthy assignment after giving aid to the enemy of the Reagan era, which unfortunately for whatever reason did not create the War on Terror so long sought. (Check out Colonel H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Sr. Yep, the daddy of Schwarzkoph Junior who did Iraq for daddy Bush. Schwarz Sr. helped set up and train the Iranian police forces and reinstall the Shah way back. Remember Condi said this was a generational war. It's been going on for generations and will continue to do so.)

Personally, I believe Wilson guilty of all charges; he must have been skimming big CIA profits to have been punished so long. Anyway, it all just makes me wonder – can you trust the Plame/Wilson affair (back in the news again today) to not be just another CIA operation? Wonder why in Plame's 20 years of service she never stumbled on at least one American doing Wilsonian type business. And isn't it odd that BushCo outing Plame hampers the administration's ability to learn more about Iran's nuclear program (or so we're told) – just one more excuse for BushCo's better safe than sorry mushroom cloud policy.