Real Journalists Corroborate FBI Whistleblower's Allegations

From the Times of London:

THE FBI has been accused of covering up a key case file detailing evidence against corrupt government officials and their dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets.

The assertion follows allegations made in The Sunday Times two weeks ago by Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower, who worked on the agency’s investigation of the network.

Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency’s Washington field office.

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file.

and so on ...

Luke Ryland points out the implications:

The Times has obtained official documents which prove that the FBI is lying about the existence of a counterintelligence operation targeting high-level US officials and Turkish operatives.

The FBI's comments demonstrate conclusively that either:
a) They are lying, or
b) They have destroyed the evidence of this multi-year investigation concerning the corruption of high-level US officials, the nuclear black market, money laundering and narcotics trafficking.
...

We are all familiar with the cliche that 'the cover-up is worse than the crime,' but that is often nonsense. Just as in the CIA tape destruction case, here we have rational people making 'rational' decisions, not in the heat of the moment, to commit felonies by destroying evidence of treason amongst other crimes. The original crimes are much worse than the cover-up, and the guilty parties know it, that's why they decided to destroy and cover up all of the evidence.

Will Congress finally hold hearings into the foreign criminal penetration of every branch of the US government which has been repeatedly corroborated?

We have the crimes, we have the cover-ups, where are the consequences?

Read the whole (short) piece. I'll be back.

Waxman Weasels, Kos Is Spooky, Sibel's Still Gagged, And Democracy Is BS

The Hollywood Liberal grabbed a half hour of Henry Waxman's time the other day (Waxman's district includes Hollywood) and the interview touched on a great many subjects, including Sibel Edmonds. As regular readers will remember, Sibel was thrown overboard, then gagged, when she told credible and verifiable tales of treachery in the FBI and elected and appointed officials who seem allied to a foreign country.

Luke Ryland, aka Lukery, who by my reckoning has done more than everyone else on the planet combined to keep Sibel's astonishing yet credible tale from going down the memory hole, picked up on the conversation and reposted the segment having to do with Sibel.

In addition to his fistful of blogs, Luke regularly posts Sibel-related material at Daily Kos, where not so long ago her story was viewed as tin-foil-hat material. But lately Luke has been making sense to the Kossacks and they've been getting behind the drive to pressure Waxman into holding hearings for Sibel, and allowing her to speak -- in public, for the record, and without fear of imprisonment -- of all the things she learned in her short time working as a language specialist for the FBI.

Considering that her story involves international terrorism, illicit trafficking in drugs and nuclear technology, undeniable signs of treason, and much else, she would certainly be an interesting witness. Waxman's office knows her whole story, that it's been confirmed repeatedly by thoroughly reliable people, and that thousands and thousands of Americans want her to be allowed to speak.

After Waxman spoke to HL about Sibel (no opinion of the case, no plans to hold hearings), Luke posted about it at Daily Kos, and some of the Kossacks have been a bit unhappy. Rightfully so, in my opinion, and clearly Luke feels the same way. No doubt Sibel does as well.

I've been itching to blog about this, but I've been busy dealing with all sorts of zaniness elsewhere (such as Washington, Islamabad, Iraq, Philadelphia and Phoenix, to summarize yesterday's headlines), so I've just been reading and waiting and reading some more ... and now HL has augmented the story with a post drawing on My Left Wing and talking about the spooky pre-DK history of the King Kossack himself, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who -- get this! -- "grew up" as a Reagan Republican, and was fully trained by the CIA!

I'll give you the most important links again and in my opinion you should click all of them and read them carefully, because there's a lot more that I haven't mentioned, but I can't resist quoting the final paragraph of HL's most recent post:

The “Kossacks” as they are called were all waiting for Henry to schedule the hearings about a case that involves drug running, trading state secrets, trading nuclear information with Turkey, and Israel, and involving both Democrats and Republicans. They all thought Henry was just biding his time. When they heard Waxman tell me in the interview that he had no opinion about Edmonds, and no intention of scheduling hearings for a state department employee and FBI whistleblower, some of the Kossacks began to have meltdowns proclaiming that this was the last straw, and they now finally see that Democracy is BS, and the whole thing was just a joke. That’s because they have been buying into that whole Kos mindset of working within the system, of lets just sit back and wait for the democrats to save us while the Republicans run roughshod over the US treasury, and the American people for 8 years. Welcome to the world of reality people.

No kidding.

HL: The Hollywood Liberal Interviews Henry Waxman

Luke Ryland @ DailyKos: Henry Waxman finally speaks out on Sibel Edmonds Case!

HL: More on the Daily Kos-CIA Connection

Francis L. Holland @ The Truth About Kos (DailyKos): Markos Alberto Moulitas ZÚÑIGA "Worked" at the CIA in 2001

~~~

PS:
speaking of BS, here's a special weekend bonus three-pack from the vaults...

On the "Historic Challenge" to the 2004 "Presidential Election":
The Triumph Of Bullshit

The one-year anniversary of the "liquid bombers" bust went by with nary a mention, so here's a reminder:
An Avalanche Of Bullshit

Not necessarily the same sort of stuff, but not necessarily very much different either:
Bring On The Horse Manure, It's Time For Another SOTU

Sibel Edmonds: Why Were All The Investigations Thwarted?

Why have so many investigations been dropped? Whose interests are being served? Demand hearings. Call Waxman. (202) 225-3976.

There's more at Luke Ryland's blog, Let Sibel Edmonds Speak dot blogspot dot com.

If you can't see the video link, click here.

Music VIDEO: Sibel Edmonds: Everybody Knows

Here's an extremely timely video featuring Sibel Edmonds, with music by Leonard Cohen; thanks to Luke Ryland.

Everybody knows Sibel Edmonds' claims. The Department of Justice, the FBI, Congress. Everybody except us.

Call Waxman and demand hearings.
(202) 225-3976

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

If you can't see the video link, click here.

Time To Help Sibel Edmonds -- Please Call Waxman's Office!

Here's Luke Ryland, from his latest post at Wot Is It Good 4:

Henry Waxman's House Government Oversight Committee has been doing great work lately with various hearings and investigations, and some have argued that we shouldn't pressure Waxman on Sibel's case given that he undoubtedly has a full schedule. I have a two-fold response:

a) We are simply asking that Waxman announce that he will have hearings, we can argue about the timing later.

b) All of the background work on this case has been completed. Sibel's claims have already been investigated, and confirmed, by a number of other bodies - Congress, FBI, Department of Justice.

Of course, given the nature of Sibel's work as a translator, all of her claims are easily verified by the source material that she translated. As she says in Kill The Messenger:

"Put out those tapes. Put out those wiretaps. Put out those documents. Put out the truth. The truth is going to hurt them. The truth is going to set me free."

It was Whistleblower Week in DC last week - and Sibel's case highlights a number of important issues regarding whistleblowers. Not only do we have the dereliction of Congress and the media, but also the chilling effect on other whistleblowers, and more importantly, whistleblowing.

As Sibel says in a new interview:

"What kind of example is my case presenting to those other people who may want to do the right thing and come forward? They would say it doesn’t make a difference at the end, because I pursued every channel possible. I went as high as I could go with the courts, including the Supreme Court, and as you know, they issued a gag order on me several times and invoked the State Secrets Privilege... I’m prevented from discussing whether or not I’m right. And I went all the way to Congress, I did the right thing. I was not what they call a “leaker” who goes straight to the media and starts divulging classified documents. I went to the appropriate committees, the Judiciary Committee and the Intelligence Committee, too, by the way, and the House and Senate... I went through the other legitimate channels — the courts, the Inspector General’s Office, which is the executive branch. I tried the media. So I don’t blame those people that get pessimistic and say it doesn’t make a difference, or think they’ll lose their job or possibly go to jail. "

Think about that. Even if you don't know anything about Sibel's case (there's a primer here), I urge you to call Waxman's office and demand public hearings into her case because if Sibel can't get hearings into her case, why would anyone with incriminating evidence step forward to assist Waxman, or anyone else, with any of his other hearings?

As Sibel said in the same interview:

"They make an example out of you. Because if one case, let’s say my case, would really bring justice and accountability, you would see so many people doing the same thing. And how many times — let’s just look at the past decade — have you seen a legitimate whistleblower from any of these agencies come forward and prevail? I don’t think you can name one case."

Again, if you have hope in Waxman and in the investigations that he will hold (as many of us do), I urge you to call his office and demand public hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case - if only because it will help facilitate investigations into the things that you most care about.

For whistleblowers, there are 'knowns' and 'unknowns' - the 'knowns' include the fact that you will be retaliated against, lose your job, and probably your career, and often your family and your home. The 'unknowns' include whether there will be any upside, any accountability, any justice, to mitigate against the known, guaranteed, downside.

How can we ask potential whistleblowers to stand up and be 'patriotic' and disclose wrong-doing if people like Sibel Edmonds, with documented proof of corruption, espionage, and treason by high-level US officials, validated by multiple investigations by Congress, FBI & DoJ, can't get any resolution or accountability?

Here's Sibel, again from the same interview:

"So you have this case which for the past five years has been confirmed by Congressional sources, and people familiar with my case, and the Department of Justice’s Inspector General’s Office, and has never been contradicted or denied by the Justice Department or the FBI, and still nothing has been done.

There has been no hearing and nobody has been held accountable. We are basically where we started and I find that really appalling."

Seriously, if we don't stand up for Sibel, and demand public hearings and accountability into her case, then we can't reasonably expect anyone with incriminating evidence to come forward regarding Waxman's other investigations - the Global Warming propaganda, the Niger caper, the Plame Wilson caper, war profiteering etc.

Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case. (Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)

We'll have more from Luke and Sibel later in the week, but for now: Please make Waxman's phone ring ... and ring and ring and ring!

Anger And Wit: A Powerful Combination

Democratic Presidential candidate Mike Gravel, formerly virtually unknown although first to declare, made a lot of sense on Thursday night in a debate I couldn't catch. Fortunately Joe Lauria of the Boston Globe had me covered, and reported that during the debate, Gravel

said the early leading Democratic candidates "frightened" him because they had taken nothing off the table, including nuclear weapons, for possible military action against Iran.

"Tell me, Barack, who do you want to nuke?" he asked Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

"I'm not planning on nuking anybody right now, Mike," Obama replied.

"Good, then we're safe for a while," Gravel said.

He's not just funny; he's absolutely spot-on!

"This war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis," he said in the debate.

No kidding, Mike! ... um ... Right ON, Senator Gravel!!

You can see more of Mike Gravel here:

Gravel has a solid anti-war history but and therefore no money:

A native of Springfield, Mass., Gravel served two terms in the Senate, representing Alaska from 1969 to 1981. He made his mark as a fierce Vietnam war critic who staged a one-man filibuster that led to the end of the military draft. He drafted legislation to end funding for the war and released the Pentagon Papers, which detailed government deception over Vietnam, at the end of June 1971.
...

"He started out with less money than the cost of a John Edwards haircut," said Elliott Jacobson, Gravel's national finance director.

Gravel told reporters after the debate: "We stayed in a $55 motel. I'll hitchhike to the next debate if I have to."

He's not just anti-war and anti-Bush; he has some good ideas too:

Believing that Congress has the power to both declare and end wars, he called for a law to end the war.
...

Gravel advocates a constitutional amendment and a federal statute establishing legislative procedures for citizens to make laws through ballot initiatives.

He also supports the Fair Tax, which would eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and corporate and individual income taxes, replacing them with a 23 percent national sales tax on all new goods and services. Each month, taxpayers would receive a check to offset the tax on basic items such as food and medicine.

Whoa! No wonder I'd never heard of him! I'll be paying attention from now on, though, and so will a lot of other people.

"He's the one to say not only that the emperor has no clothes, but that the emperor wannabes have no clothes," said national pollster John Zogby, adding, "There is an angry voter. I don't know how that will take shape, it's way too early. But you got a sense why Mike Gravel is in the race on Thursday and that he is in the race."
...

The reaction to Gravel's performance has overwhelmed his campaign. His aides said they got more requests for interviews yesterday than in the first 12 months of the campaign.

Gravel's website could not handle the flood of hits after the debate, they said. Bloggers complained that they were ready to donate money but were unable to get into the website.

I'm pretty sure they'll get that fixed right away.

There's more on Mike Gravel here and here, and a tip of the frozen cap to my Australian friend Gandhi for another good catch -- and a whole passel o' great blogs: Bush Death Watch, Howard Death Watch and Riding The Juggernaut!

There's even more about Mike Gravel here, and another frozen tip to another down-under friend with another passel o' blogs: Keep an eye on Lukery and Wot Is It Good 4, Kill the Messenger, Let Sibel Edmonds Speak, and disclose, denny!

Zogby usually gets the numbers right, but he may have been misunderestimating when he said "there is an angry voter."

There are zillions of angry voters. And David Michael Green is one of them. He makes a lot of sense, too, despite (or maybe because of) the anger, in "Schadenfreude Is My Middle Name"

I’m not an angry man. But I am angry.

I’m not a bitter person. But, boy, am I bitter.

And I’m not generally given to vindictiveness. But, you know what? Right now I’m open to persuasion.

The Bush administration is now beginning an inexorable process which will change its status from the worst administration in American history to the publicly-acknowledged worst administration in American history. I, for one, couldn’t be more delighted.

That delight is only partly based on having been on the receiving end of their atrocities these last six years. And it is only partly based on the assurance that those gifts will keep giving for decades into the future, like a bad case of political herpes.

And that delight is also only partly based on their motivations and the scale of their transgressions. People who believe that the regressive right came to Washington to implement a legitimate ideology that just happens to be different from ours, or who believe that they meant well but, ironically, the first MBA president couldn’t manage his way out of an empty wading pool, even with the entire federal bureaucracy to assist him – such people fundamentally misunderstand this administration and the movement which they spearhead.

I can't run it all here, and no excerpt can do it justice. You just have to read it all. Then hang around and discuss it in the comments thread, if you will. Good points, bad points ... certainly lots of interesting points to talk about.

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak!

Sibel Edmonds is the most gagged person in US history. The government has repeatedly invoked the State Secrets Privilege in her case - not for reasons of "national security" but to hide ongoing criminal activity.

Thus writes Luke Ryland, the Tasmanian journalist who has done more than anyone to keep us up to date on developments in the Sibel Edmonds story. Ms. Edmonds, as you may know, is a former FBI Language Specialist who joined the Bureau shortly after 9/11 in an attempt to use her considerable skills to enhance our National Security.

The FBI quickly learned that Sibel was more interested in National Security than "going along with the program", and they got rid of her as soon as they found out that they couldn't shut her up.

She's been trying to enhance our National Security ever since.

The things Sibel Edmonds saw, and the documents she translated, in her few months with the FBI are enough to make your head spin. It's all so incredible! And yet, according to one expert after another, every word is true!

As if her story hadn't been sufficiently confirmed, a document released Monday -- a report written by a former FBI Special Agent (for whom Ms. Edmonds once worked) -- lends even more support to her accusations.

What exactly is her story? That's what we don't exactly know. We do know that it involves Turkey, heroin smuggling, money laundering, illegal weapons trafficking, terrorism, and corruption of US government officials.

We know that Sibel Edmonds is gagged -- according to a so-called State Secrets Privilege -- and that her formerly public testimony has been retroactively classified -- because otherwise the information she revealed would jepoardize important business ties and sensitive diplomatic relations!

Did you read that right? I think you did. Sibel Edmonds' public testimony has been retroactively classified -- as if that made any sense! -- because the information is damaging ... but to what?

Why can't we find out all there is to find out -- about Turkey, about terrorism, about 9/11 and all the circumstances surrounding it!! -- and then decide for ourselves which business ties and which diplomatic relations deserve to be damaged?

How can we hope to protect ourselves against "another 9/11" if we don't even understand what caused the "first" one?

9/11 is far from the only issue here. Sibel Edmonds' story is not exclusively -- or even mainly -- about 9/11. It's about the environment: the severely compromised "National Security" environment within which 9/11 happened.

I don't believe Sibel Edmonds needs any more corroboration. The fact that she's been gagged shows how dangerous she is. If she were a nutcase telling a fruitcake tale, they'd let her speak and then they would ridicule her. This ain't that, as they say.

How do you know who to believe? When do you decide whether or not to believe somebody? I think it's different for everybody. One size certainly does not fit all. Personally, I've thought she sounded credible ever since I first heard of her, but I became firmly convinced that she must be telling trying to tell us the truth -- and a very dangerous truth at that -- in the spring of 2005, when I learned about her hearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals, from which she was evicted!

That's right. Sibel Edmonds and her attorneys were evicted from the courtroom -- and guards were placed at the doorway so they couldn't even listen in! -- as the judge conferred with attorneys representing the federal government. When they finally opened the doors again, the judge had a ruling: case dismissed!

Under the terms of her state secrets gag order, Ms. Edmonds cannot speak freely, but she has been quite artful in speaking less-than-freely. There've been games of will-you-deny-this? disguised as interviews; there have been all kinds of things.

Among recent things, one of the most excellent has been a short article in the American Conservative. According to Ms. Edmonds, this piece, by Philip Giraldi, is 100% accurate: (space and emphasis added)

Sibel Edmonds, the Turkish FBI translator turned whistleblower who has been subjected to a gag order could provide a major insight into how neoconservatives distort US foreign policy and enrich themselves at the same time.

On one level, her story appears straightforward: several Turkish lobbying groups allegedly bribed congressmen to support policies favourable to Ankara. But beyond that, the Edmonds revelations become more serpentine and appear to involve AIPAC, Israel and a number of leading neoconservatives who have profited from the Turkish connection.

Israel has long cultivated a close relationship with Turkey since Ankara's neighbours and historic enemies -- Iran, Syria and Iraq -- are also hostile to Tel Aviv. Islamic Turkey has also had considerable symbolic value for Israel, demonstrating that hostility to Muslim neighbours is not a sine qua non for the Jewish state.

Turkey benefits from the relationship by securing general benevolence and increased aid from the US Congress -- as well as access to otherwise unattainable military technology. The Turkish General Staff has a particular interest because much of the military spending is channeled through companies in which the generals have a financial stake, making for a very cozy and comfortable business arrangement.

The commercial interest has also fostered close political ties, with the American Turkish Council, American Turkish Cultural Alliance and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations all developing warm relationships with AIPAC and other Jewish and Israel advocacy groups throughout the US.

Someone has to be in the middle to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain.

Doug Feith's International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 - 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant.

Other noted neoconservatives linked to Turkey are former State Department number three, Marc Grossman, current Pentagon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman, Paul Wolfowitz and former congressman Stephen Solarz.

The money involved does not appear to come from the Turkish government, and FBI investigators are trying to determine its source and how it is distributed. Some of it may come from criminal activity, possibly drug trafficking, but much more might come from arms dealing. Contracts in the hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars provide considerable fat for those well placed to benefit.

Investigators are also looking at Israel's particular expertise in the illegal sale of US military technology to countries like China and India. Fraudulent end-user certificates produced by Defense Ministries in Israel and Turkey are all that is needed to divert military technology to other, less benign, consumers.

The military-industrial-complex/neocon network is also well attested. Doug Feith has been associated with Northrup Grumman for years, while defense contractors fund many neocon-linked think tanks and "information" services. Feith, Perle and a number of other neocons have long had beneficial relationships with various Israeli defense contractors.

Quite a witch's brew going on there, isn't it?

I want to know more about all of these things.

I want to know more about 9/11. I want to know more about Turkey, Israel and the USA. I want to know more about the connection between drug smuggling and terrorism (although some of the connections are obvious) and I want to know about the weapons trading too.

I am told we are talking about the sale of restricted nuclear weapons technology on the international black market. I want to know more about that.

If you would like to know more about all these things, I may have some good news for you. Finally, finally!, there may be something we can do about it.

The Democrats supposedly control both houses of Congress. They definitely control the House of Representatives. They won't talk about impeachment but they will talk about oversight. This is a case demanding oversight, if ever there was one.

A coalition representing Americans on both sides of the political divide has presented a petition to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asking for open public hearings in this case and asking Congress to re-examine the so-called State Secrets Privilege. The key individuals on this committee are Henry Waxman and John Conyers.

Please phone, write, email, fax or visit the offices of Congressman Henry Waxman and Congressman John Conyers.

Please do it soon: This week! Today!! Right now!!!

Please demand open public hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.

And please enjoy this very short clip -- from the speech Ms. Edmonds gave when she accepted the 2006 PEN Award.

~~~

[contact]

Congressman Henry Waxman:
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)

Congressman John Conyers:
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

~~~

[see also]

Sibel Edmonds' website:
Just A Citizen

Luke Ryland's blog:
Wot Is It Good 4

A blog focused on the documentary about Sibel Edmonds called "Kill The Messenger":
Kill the Messenger: Sibel Edmonds

A blog focused on generating support for new hearings:
Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

[articles]

David Rose in Vanity Fair:
An Inconvenient Patriot

Miguel at Kill The Messenger:
The Incredibly, Credible Sibel

Sibel Edmonds at NSWBC:
The Hijacking of a Nation -- Part 1
The Hijacking of a Nation -- Part 2

Tom Flocco via WP:
Sibel Edmonds Won’t Deny It: Intelligence Intercepts Tied 9/11 Drug Money To U.S. Election Campaigns

[listen]

Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton:
Luke Ryland
Sibel Edmonds and James Bamford

[more from Winter Patriot]

Sibel Edmonds and the PEN Newman Award for 2006
Sibel Edmonds Holds The Keys

Luke Ryland On Antiwar Radio

Scott Horton:

Luke Ryland, of the Wot Is It Good 4 blog, explains the saga of FBI translator turned whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds and the criminality of some of the most powerful Americans that her story exposes.

Click here to listen.

The Litvinenko Murder Case Gets Stranger and Stranger

This just in (from Reuters UK): Second case of radiation poisoning

Scientists probing the death of Alexander Litvinenko said on Friday a second man had been poisoned by the same radiation that killed the former Russian spy.

Media reports said the man was Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact whom Litvinenko met at a London sushi restaurant on November 1, the same day he fell ll.

There's lots more, here and here and here for example.

Meanwhile: reports from Britain claim Letters 'revealed secret hit squad'

Detectives are investigating letters smuggled out of Russia purporting to show the existence of a secret squad set up to target poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko and others.

Scotland Yard has been passed copies of two letters apparently penned in jail by former Russian intelligence officer Mikhail Trepashkin, in one of which Mr Litvinenko is warned that both he and his family are at risk.

Mr Litvinenko's London friend Alex Goldfarb said scans of the letters came into his possession on Thursday and he passed them to Scotland Yard.

Mr Trepashkin, who worked for the KGB's successor the FSB until 1997, was tried in 2004, accused of being a British spy and passing secret information to Mr Litvinenko and his close friend the tycoon Boris Berezovsky, both exiled in London.

Meanwhile: Larisa's latest on this case is cool.

Her blog is way cool and getting cooler by the day. Guest journalist David Dastych boils it all down:

On Litvinenko's assassination:

1. The only truth: he was killed by Polonium-210 isotope (and perhaps by some other poisonous substance, too).

2. Cause: not known; given: his opposition to the Putin's regime.

3. Perpetrators: not known, possibly Russian intelligence operators.

and so on...

BTW Seeing Luke Ryland on Sibel Edmonds and Heroin at Larisa's blog is ultra-cool.

And as I've been saying, they all know a lot more than I do. So you can leave comments here if you like but don't expect me to answer your questions except for the occasional "I dunno", which I throw in every now and then simply in order not to appear rude.

That said, please consider this a half-open thread; not quite as open as the threads which start with cartoons, but certainly a place where you can speak freely about the Litvinenko murder case, no matter what you think about it...

as requested; ;-) BB2!

Hijacked Airplanes? Hijacked Nation!

Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI translator who lost her job when she started telling the truth about what was going on inside the FBI, then lost her right to free speech when she kept on telling the truth, still manages to say a great deal that's absolutely true, and somehow does it without violating her State Secrets gag order.

In my opinion the fact that she is gagged -- and that some of her pubic testimony has been retroactively classified -- proves beyond doubt that our government is impossibly corrupt. As I see it, if our so-called leaders really wanted to prevent "another 9/11", they would be most anxious to listen carefully to Sibel, and to the other former employees of the so-called National Security agencies who have been enjoined from telling us what they know.

As you may recall, Sibel is regarded as a danger to the security of the country because she asserts that

the FBI's translation service 1) is incompetent and corrupt and 2) received specific warnings about 9/11 before the attacks.

You may also remember that Sibel founded and now directs the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. In addition to supporting other truth-tellers formerly employed within our government, she writes the occasional killer op/ed piece. Her work is widely published, and with great respect. Rightly so, in my humble opinion.

I recently posted the YouTube video of the interview she did with the late Ed Bradley of CBS's "60 Minutes", and I urge you to watch it if you have not already done so.

Her most recent piece traces the path by which the USA has become what it is today -- a pawn in a larger game, putty in the hands of moneyed foreigners. I'll quote a few key excerpts from her rather lengthy essay, but I urge you to read the whole thing.

In his farewell address in 1796, George Washington warned that America must be constantly awake against “the insidious wiles of foreign influence…since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

Today, foreign influence, that most baneful foe of our republican government, has its tentacles entrenched in almost all major decision making and policy producing bodies of the U.S. government machine.
...
The fact that Saudi Arabia pours large sums into lobbying firms and public relations companies with close ties to congress does not come as a big surprise. The FARA database under the DOJ website lists Qorvis Communications as one of Saudi Arabia’s registered foreign agents. In 2003, for only a six months period, Qorvis received more than $11 million from the Saudi government. Another firm, Loeffler Tuggey Pauerstein Rosenthal LLP, another registered foreign agent, received more than $840,000 for the same six-month period, and the list goes on. Just for this six month period the government of Saudi Arabia paid a total of more than $14 million to 13 lobbying and public relations companies; all registered as foreign agents.

Why do the Saudis spend nearly $20 million per year in lobbying activities in the U.S. via their hired agents? What kind of return on investment are they getting out of the United States Congress?
...
Former secretaries and deputy secretaries with open access to the current ones, former congressmen and senators who used to be positioned on strategically valuable committees and know the rules of the congressional game, and millions of dollars available to be spent and channeled and re-channeled to various PACs go a long way toward ensuring results. Money counts. Money is needed to bring in votes. Professional skills and discretion are required to get this money to various final destinations. The registered foreign agents, the lobby groups, are geared for this task. The client is happy in the end; so are the foreign agents and the congressional actors.
...
Of course, the sanction and legitimization of far reaching foreign influence and strongholds in the U.S., despite the many dire consequences endured by its citizens, is not limited to the government of Saudi Arabia. Numerous well-documented cases can be cited for others such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Israel, to name a few.

I won’t get into the details and history of my own case, where the government invoked the state secrets privilege to gag my case and the congress in order to ‘protect certain sensitive diplomatic relations.’ The country, the foreign influence, in this case was the Republic of Turkey. The U.S. government did so despite the far reaching consequences of burying the facts involved, and disregarded the interests and security of the nation; all to protect a quasi ally engaged in numerous illegitimate activities within the global terrorist networks, nuclear black-market and narcotics activities; an ally who happens to be another compulsive and loyal buyer of the Military Industrial Complex; an ally who happens to be another savvy player in recruiting top U.S. players as its foreign agents and spending million of dollars per year to the lobbying groups [...]
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It used to be congressional ‘pork projects’ and ‘corporate influence’ that raised eyebrows now and then; here and there. Gone are those days. Today the unrestricted and uncontrollable money game and influence peddling tricks within the major decision-making and policy producing bodies of the U.S. government have reached new heights; yet, no raised eyebrows are registered.
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The other day I received a request to sign on to a petition put forth by a group of 9/11 family members urging the congress to reopen the investigations of 9/11 [...] My heart goes out to them. I do sympathize with them. [...] There are only two ways I can see that can bring about what they have been fighting for and what the majority of us desire to see [...]
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The family members, and their supporters, us, either have to tackle the major cause; the corruption of our government officials via unrestricted and undisciplined ‘revolving doors’ and ‘foreign influence & lobby’ practices, and push for expedient meaningful reforms by the new ambitious congress, and have them prove to us their worth. Or, they may as well give up their long-held integrity, go bid high for one or two former statesmen, hire a few dime a dozen generals, and buy themselves a couple of ex-congressmen turned lobbyists; that will do the job.

For more on Sibel Edmonds, corruption in the FBI, warnings that were ignored in advance of 9/11, and much else, I recommend Wot Is It Good 4, where Luke Ryland and his friends have been doing excellent work. As for Sibel herself, she is one of the bravest and most passionate Patriots we could ask for, and it's a pleasure to help her bring her message to The People. I wish I could do more, but I'm only a humble blogger. When I get elected to the Senate you'll see sparks fly; but in the meantime, please visit her site and read her work.

Sibel Edmonds' Allegations Still Under Investigation By FBI

Excerpts from a new article by John Stanton, writing in Online Journal (slightly edited by one very cold blogger):

Background:

Back in March of 2002, Sibel Edmonds was released from the FBI over her discovery of an array of espionage activities. Looking back, and with the benefit of new information from the FBI and elsewhere, it appears that the government of Turkey was spectacularly successfully in compromising FBI, CIA, DEA, DIA and DOS operations, and was also able to mount other espionage programs that allowed Turkish interests to obtain assorted military and WMD technology know-how, and garner US and Israeli military support for its bloody internal struggle against its significant and much maligned Kurdish population/opposition.
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The Turks would not have been successful in staging what may be recorded as one of history’s finest intelligence coups had it not been for many sympathetic US military personnel, bureaucrats and politicians who, whatever their egotistical reasons, believed themselves to be acting in the USA's best interests. Certainly, no one can accuse them of not effectively representing their powerful Turkish clients whether in defeating US congressional action recognizing the Armenian Genocide or ensuring that US corporations close lucrative deals in Turkey.

The names of the sympathizers are now overly familiar: Douglas Feith, Brent Scowcroft, William Cohen, Richard Perle, Michael Leeden, Bob Livingston, Marc Grossman, Paul Wolfowitz, Eric Edelman, Richard Armitage, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Dennis Hastert, et al. Rather than rehash their affiliations and track records here, visit rightweb.irc-online.org to find out more about their linkages to each other and Turkey (Israel, too).

Speaking of Hastert, Lukery at Wot Is It Good 4 has just dug up and transcribed a year-old interview in which Daniel Ellsberg talks about Hastert having received suitcases full of cash from the heroin trade.

Please see "Ellsberg: Hastert got suitcases of Al Qaeda heroin cash, should be in jail" for more details.

But now we take you back to John Stanton for some news:

On October 10, FBI spokesman Bill Carter confirmed that matters raised by Sibel Edmonds and shielded form public view by the invocation of the US States Secret privilege were still under internal investigation by the bureau.

“Due to the fact that the allegations of Sibel Edmonds reflect internal administrative and investigative matters it would not be appropriate to respond to your inquiry. I will point out that the DOJ Office of the Inspector General has reviewed this matter and released a public report. I would refer this report to you for your review. The Inspector General's report concluded that the FBI did not adequately investigate allegations Ms. Edmonds made regarding a co-worker. After the OIG's initial classified report, the FBI conducted further investigation into Ms. Edmonds' allegations. That investigation is continuing.”*

You can read much more in John Stanton's article, here.

You can also read much more at Lukery's excellent site, Wot Is It Good 4. I hope you will bookmark this site and return to it often.

Many thanks to Daniel Ellsberg and Sibel Edmonds, and to Lukery, John Stanton and Online Journal.

While you're at Online Journal, please stop and read Larry Chin's 'Call the US State Department “countermisinformation” office what it actually is: official misinformation'. I have been wanting to dismember this particular bit of State Department manure myself (and planning to do it in a much different way than Larry did), but I haven't got around to it yet, much to my chagrin. And Larry's piece, while much different than what I would have written, is very effective in its own way, perhaps better than I could have done. So thanks to Larry Chin for that as well.

While you're at Wot Is It Good 4, please check out the three-part interview with Larisa Alexandrovna, "All Roads Lead To Iran", "All Roads Lead To Iran, Again", and "Bad Leaks And Good Leaks".

Please also bookmark, visit and support Sibel Edmonds and her friends of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

I think that's about all for the moment.

Until next time, take good care of yourselves. And don't forget your homework! ;-)

Class dismissed.