That Washington
Potential WA Contender Kucinich Offered to Help Qadaffi
US Rep Dennis Kucinich---the Ohio Democrat who may move to Washington State to run for the congressional seat US Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) is vacating to run for governor (Kucinich is likely to be redistricted out of his current seat)---offered to help the Qadaffi regime end US involvement in Libya earlier this month, Al Jazeera reports.
According to files discovered in the Tripoli headquarters of Libya's intelligence agency by Al Jazeera producer Jamal Elshayyal, Kucinich asked an intermediary for one of Qadaffi's sons for evidence of corruption within the Libyan National Transitional Council, the rebel group that deposed Qadaffi's regime, any evidence linking the rebels to al-Qaeda, and any evidence "that The Leader had already planned to step down before the uprisings."
"The document also lists specific information needed to defend Saif Al-Islam, who is currently on the International Criminal Court's most-wanted list."
Kucinich later issued the following statement: "Al Jazeera found a document written by a Libyan bureaucrat to other Libyan bureaucrats. All it proves is that the Libyans were reading the Washington Post... I can't help what the Libyans put in their files... Any implication I was doing anything other than trying to bring an end to an unauthorized war is fiction."
However, Kucinich did not deny talking to the Libyan officials.
Also in the files Elshayyal sneaked out of the intelligence agency: Minutes of a meeting between top Libyan officials and David Welch, a former assistant secretary of state under Bush, in which Welch reportedly advised the Libyans on how best to defeat the rebel uprising.
Editorial aside: Al Jazeera is the best thing that has happened to the Middle East in 100 years.
According to files discovered in the Tripoli headquarters of Libya's intelligence agency by Al Jazeera producer Jamal Elshayyal, Kucinich asked an intermediary for one of Qadaffi's sons for evidence of corruption within the Libyan National Transitional Council, the rebel group that deposed Qadaffi's regime, any evidence linking the rebels to al-Qaeda, and any evidence "that The Leader had already planned to step down before the uprisings."
"The document also lists specific information needed to defend Saif Al-Islam, who is currently on the International Criminal Court's most-wanted list."
Kucinich later issued the following statement: "Al Jazeera found a document written by a Libyan bureaucrat to other Libyan bureaucrats. All it proves is that the Libyans were reading the Washington Post... I can't help what the Libyans put in their files... Any implication I was doing anything other than trying to bring an end to an unauthorized war is fiction."
However, Kucinich did not deny talking to the Libyan officials.
Also in the files Elshayyal sneaked out of the intelligence agency: Minutes of a meeting between top Libyan officials and David Welch, a former assistant secretary of state under Bush, in which Welch reportedly advised the Libyans on how best to defeat the rebel uprising.
Editorial aside: Al Jazeera is the best thing that has happened to the Middle East in 100 years.
