Brewster Jennings Amp; Associates Article Index for
Brewster
Website Links For
Brewster
 

Information About

Brewster Jennings Amp; Associates





STAFF MEMBER: VALERIE PLAME

According to Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, in the ''Washington Post'' of October 4, 2003, Brewster Jennings & Associates is "the obscure and possibly defunct firm" at one time listing Valerie Plame as a staff member:
Plame's name was first published July 14, 2003, in a newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that quoted two senior administration officials. They were critical of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his handling of a CIA mission that undercut President Bush's claim that Iraq had sought uranium from the African nation of Niger for possible use in developing nuclear weapons.... The name of the CIA front company was broadcast yesterday 3, 2003, on CNN by Novak, the syndicated journalist who originally identified Plame. Novak, highlighting Wilson's ties to Democrats, said on CNN that Wilson's "wife, the CIA employee, gave $1,000 to Gore and she listed herself as an employee of Brewster-Jennings & Associates."


Whereas, in his appearance on database of company names lists a firm that is called both Brewster Jennings & Associates and Jennings Brewster & Associates.


The phone number in the listing is not in service, and the property manager at the address listed said there is no such company at the property, although records from 2000 were not available.

Pincus and Allen explain also that:
The company's identity, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission records on a form filled out in 1999 by Valerie Plame, the case officer at the center of the controversy, when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore's presidential primary campaign.


After the name of the company was broadcast on October 3, 2003, administration officials confirmed that it was a CIA front. They said the obscure and possibly defunct firm was listed as Plame's employer on her W-2 tax forms in 1999 when she was working undercover for the CIA.


Reiterating that the company was listed on the '', October 10 , 2003 , accessed March 17 , 2007 .

Furthermore, reporting for the news service Knight Ridder , Warren Stroebel writes:
Compounding the damage, the front company, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, the name of which has been reported previously, apparently also was used by other CIA officers whose work now could be at risk, according to '' ( Washington, D.C. ), October 11 , 2003 , rpt. in '' Common Dreams NewsCenter '', October 11 , 2003 , accessed May 5 , 2007 .



D&B STATEMENTS

A spokeswoman for Dun & Bradstreet , a New Jersey operator of commercial databases, said Brewster Jennings was first entered into its records on May 22 , 1994 , but wouldn't discuss the source of the filing. Its records list the company, at 101 Arch Street, Boston, Massachusetts , as a "legal services office," which could mean a law firm, with annual sales of $60,000, one employee, and a chief executive identified as "Victor Brewster, Partner."


ORIGIN OF THE COMPANY NAME

The front company appears to have based its name on the late Benjamin Brewster Jennings , a president and founder of the Socony-Vacuum oil company, which would later become Mobil Oil and which then merged to become part of ExxonMobil :
But the Jennings family denies any connection, said a grandson, Brewster Jennings, a real estate investor in Durango, Colo. He said that since the firm was named as a CIA front he's heard from many friends and family members who "find tremendous humor in all this."



PHYSICAL LOCATION

According to research published by Pincus and Allen, "The phone number in the & Bradstreet listing is not in service, and the property manager at the address listed said there is no such company at the property, although records from 2000 were not available."

101 Arch Street is a 21-story "tower finished in 1988 at the corner of Summer and Arch streets with 405,511 square feet m&2 of office space, then housing the upscale Dakota's restaurant, since succeeded by Vinalia. Many commuters pass through the building as they exit the Downtown Crossing subway station. 101 Arch was sold last year [2003] to CB Richard Ellis Investors of Los Angeles for an estimated $90 million."



SEE ALSO



REFERENCES