Talk:Michael Ledeen

Billy Carter/Libya

In articles in The New Republic (1979 and 1980) and others reprinted in the Atlantic Constitution and Now (a UK magazine), Ledeen, then opinion editor for Washington Quarterly, accused the President's brother, Billy Carter, of having met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and George Habash, a PLO military leader, in Libya in Oct. 1978. Ledeen's article also accused Carter of having accepted loans and expense money from the Libyans. "More Adventures of Billy Carter," TNR, Feb. 10, 1979; "Preposterous Emissaries," TNR, Aug. 2, 1980 (http://www.tnr.com/arch/search.mhtml)

In an "unusal public deposition" to counsel of a Senate subcommittee investigating Billy Carter's ties to with Libya, Ledeen testified that he believed the president's brother was "one pawn in an ambitious influence-peddling scheme." Ledeen told Senate investigators that his sole source for the information was Michele Papa, a Sicilian lawyer who Ledeen claimed was a Libyan agent. Billy Carter denied meeting Arafat and having received a $50,000 payment from the Libyans. "Billy Source Described," The Washington Post, Oct. 29, 1980, p. A-4 (http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/130652822.html?did=130652822&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Oct+29%2C+1980&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post++(1974-Current+file)&desc=Billy+Source+Described)

Various sources have repeated charges that far from merely reporting on Billy Carter's meetings in Libya, Ledeen collaborated with Italian intelligence sources to use Billy Carter's ill-conceived trip to Libya to create an "influence peddling scandle."

• "With the illicit support of the SISMI and in collaboration with the well-known American 'Italianist' Michael Ledeen, Pazienza succeeded in extorting, also using fraudulent means, information -- then published with great evidence in the international press -- on the Libyan business of Billy Carter, the brother of the then-president of the United States." [ From the indictment of Francesco Pazienza as reported in "Tale of Intrigue: How an Italian Ex-Spy Who Also Helped U.S. Landed in Prison Here," Jonathan Kwitny, The Wall Street Journal, Aug 7, 1985 ]
• "'SISMI was the architect of the scandal over Billy Carter,' and that the material in this case was gathered mostly by Pazienza and by his American friend Michael Ledeen..." The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection, Edward S. Herman, Frank Brodhead, Sheridan Square Publications, 1986 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0940380064/qid=1123044146/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1439625-8737537?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
• "Pazienza was ultimately indicted in an Italian court (with Ledeen as an unindicted co-conspirator) for luring President Carter's brother Billy into a compromising relationship with Qaddafi during the 1980 presidential campaign." The Iran-Contra Connection: Secret Teams and Covert Operations in Reagan Era, Jonathan Marshall, Peter Dale Scott, Jane Hunter, 1987 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0896082911/qid=1123043955/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-1439625-8737537?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
• "L'Espresso" repeats charges that Pazienza and Ledeen collaborated with SISMI in investigating Billy Carter's dealings with libya, prior to the 1980 U.S. Elections. Cable from U.S. Embassy Rome, Oct. 30, 1984

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.144.176.149 (talk • contribs)