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Title: Sibel Edmonds' case and the heroin connection
Source:
Daily Kos
URL Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/13/174055/265
Published: Aug 13, 2007
Author: Lukery
Post Date: 2007-08-13 18:04:21 by Zipporah
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Views: 163
Comments: 17
Sibel Edmonds' case and the heroin connection Everyone is talking about "How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad" in yesterday's NYT - but what stands out for me is that in a 7-page article on Afghanistan, there's not one mention of heroin, opium, or even poppies. As a companion piece to the NYT article about losing the 'good war,' I strongly suggest that you read this recent article by former UK Ambassador to Uzebekistan, Craig Murray from late last month. Murray explains that Afghanistan is run by drug lords. Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds often points to the fact that whenever the media does mention the heroin industry, they almost never go beyond reporting about the poor farmers in the Afghan poppy fields. Sibel asks the leading question: "Who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?" Before I proceed, let's start with a little background into Sibel's case. When Sibel worked as a translator for the FBI, one of the main cases she was working on was a counter-intelligence operation against Turkey's equivalent of AIPAC, the American Turkish Council (ATC). On the Turkish side, the ATC is (largely) represented by Turkey's "Deep State – the politicians, military officers and intelligence officials who worked with drug bosses to move drugs from Afghanistan..." (On the American side, the ATC is represented by the 'Defense' contractors, and Turkey's American lobbyists - people like Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, former House Speaker Bob Livingston, former Defense Secretary William Cohen, former Minority Leader Dick Gephardt and others.) Now, we've all heard the statistics that Afghanistan is the source of 90% of the world's opium etc - but what many people don't know is that most of that opium is imported into Turkey where it is transformed, on an industrial scale, into heroin. It is warehoused on an industrial scale, repackaged and marketed on an industrial scale, and re-exported on an industrial scale. As Sibel says: "This multi billion-dollar industry requires highly sophisticated networks and people. So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields? In other words, the folks who supply much of the world's heroin break bread (and share lots of dough) with their American counterparts at places like the American Turkish Council. Sibel says that there are at least four people in Congress that she knows of who are being bribed by the Turkish gang, and according to Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes, they also have "spies... inside the US State Department and at the Pentagon." In Craig Murray's article, he notes all of the impressive statistics regarding Afghanistan's opium production - 2006 beat the previous record by 60%, and this year promises to be stronger still - and then he makes two important points. Firstly, he says that all of the 'value-add' activity that was previously performed in Turkey (turning poppies into heroin) is now conducted within Afghanistan. We don't know whether this is a massive shift in the underlying structure of the industry, or whether the incumbent gangs that Sibel refers to have simply decided to 'off-shore' their production from Turkey to Afghanistan. I suspect that it is the latter, simply because we haven't seen the type of blood-bath that we would expect to see if there was a serious turf-war taking place. From Murray's piece: " According to the United Nations, 2006 was the biggest opium harvest in history, smashing the previous record by 60 per cent. This year will be even bigger. Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations. It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops. (FTR, I have seen no evidence for Murray's claim that Afghanistan is now primarily exporting heroin rather than opium) The second point that Murray makes is that this activity takes place with the the active participation of the authorities, just as Sibel said was the case in Turkey. Murray: How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government – the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect. When we attacked Afghanistan, America bombed from the air while the CIA paid, armed and equipped the dispirited warlord drug barons – especially those grouped in the Northern Alliance – to do the ground occupation. We bombed the Taliban and their allies into submission, while the warlords moved in to claim the spoils. Then we made them ministers. President Karzai is a good man. He has never had an opponent killed, which may not sound like much but is highly unusual in this region and possibly unique in an Afghan leader. But nobody really believes he is running the country. He asked America to stop its recent bombing campaign in the south because it was leading to an increase in support for the Taliban. The United States simply ignored him. Above all, he has no control at all over the warlords among his ministers and governors, each of whom runs his own kingdom and whose primary concern is self-enrichment through heroin. More Murray: He became concerned at the vast amounts of heroin coming from Afghanistan, in particular from the fiefdom of the (now) Head of the Afghan armed forces, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, in north and east Afghanistan. Dostum is an Uzbek, and the heroin passes over the Friendship Bridge from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan, where it is taken over by President Islam Karimov's people... The heroin Jeeps run from General Dostum to President Karimov. The UK, United States and Germany have all invested large sums in donating the most sophisticated detection and screening equipment to the Uzbek customs centre at Termez to stop the heroin coming through. But the convoys of Jeeps running between Dostum and Karimov are simply waved around the side of the facility. More Murray: "In Afghanistan, General Dostum (Head of the Afghan armed forces)is vital to Karzai's coalition, and to the West's pretence of a stable, democratic government. Opium is produced all over Afghanistan, but especially in the north and north-east – Dostum's territory. Again, our Government's spin doctors have tried hard to obscure this fact and make out that the bulk of the heroin is produced in the tiny areas of the south under Taliban control. But these are the most desolate, infertile rocky areas. It is a physical impossibility to produce the bulk of the vast opium harvest there. That General Dostum is head of the Afghan armed forces and Deputy Minister of Defence is in itself a symbol of the bankruptcy of our policy. " None of this information was included in the NYT's 7 page article on how we 'lost' Afghanistan. In fact, in a fantastic recent interview, Sibel wonders aloud whether the media silence is intentional: "Who prevents the media, or is it happening, from publishing the real facts? The Turks, their involvement, UAE and their position in laundering this money, Pakistan and narcotics. It's saying "Oops! They are our 'allies' and we don't want to touch them. We don't want to turn them off." In fact, we have a lot of business, "sensitive diplomatic relations", as John Ashcroft put it." As if to prove Sibel's point, just last week, ABC's blog The Blotter reported: Heroin Found in Car Allegedly Owned by Top Afghan Border Official A manhunt is on in Afghanistan for the man President Hamid Karzai wanted to name head of his country's border police, ABC News has learned, following the discovery that the official owned a car filled with heroin intercepted by members of the Kabul City Criminal Investigations Division. U.S. authorities confirmed the seizure of 130 kilograms of heroin in June in a car that allegedly belonged to Haji Zahir Qadir, the former chief of the border police for northern Takhar province. Haji Zahir was not in the car when it was intercepted. His cousin and "right hand," Bilal, was present and arrested. Afghan officials say Karzai wanted to name Haji Zahir to head the border police, but a U.S. military intelligence assessment obtained by ABC News in 2006 named Zahir as a drug smuggler. News of the seizure and the manhunt came at a most embarrassing time for Karzai, who was at Camp David with President George Bush to meet on regional issues, including the upsurge in violence in Afghanistan and cross-border issues with Pakistan. The information fed to The Blotter was apparently designed to cause some embarrassment (coming 6 weeks after the event), but it wasn't very embrassing at all. As best as I could tell, ABC's blog entry was the only mention of this story at all, anywhere (1,2,3). For more on my coverage of the heroin angle of Sibel's case, see Sibel Edmonds: America's Watergate, Sibel Edmonds & the Neocons' Turkish Gravy-Train, and Daniel Ellsberg: Hastert got suitcases of Al Qaeda heroin cash, should be in jail. I'll give Craig Murray the final word: "Remember this article next time you hear a politician calling for more troops to go into Afghanistan. And when you hear of another brave British life wasted there, remember you can add to the casualty figures all the young lives ruined, made miserable or ended by heroin in the UK. They, too, are casualties of our Afghan policy." Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
by lukery [Subscribe]
Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 02:40:55 PM PDT
[snip]
These operations are run by mafia groups closely controlled by the MIT (Turkish Intelligence Agency) and the military. According to statistics compiled in 1998, Turkey’s heroin trafficking brought in $25 billion in 1995 and $37.5 billion in 1996. That amount makes up nearly a quarter of Turkey’s GDP. Only criminal networks working in close cooperation with the police and the army could possibly organize trafficking on such a scale. The Turkish government, MIT and the Turkish military, not only sanctions, but also actively participates in and oversees the narcotics activities and networks.
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#1. To: Zipporah (#0)
Sheesh - only being bribed? I thought a number of them were share-holders in this enterprise...why else has there been this lock down on Sibel's testimony ever seeing the light of day? Bribes would not be enough to buy this type of full court suppression of her testimony, IMO.
Stay safe and well, Sibel.
I see the whole interview with Sibel is transcribed here
(Sibel Edmonds) My case has been known to a certain degree because of the activities that I have been engaging in, in terms of going to courts, going to Congress, etc. There are similar cases we are not hearing about. For example, the Larry Franklin case, with the espionage case that they pursued with AIPAC. And what the American public doesn’t know is the fact that there were other counter-intelligence operations within the FBI that obtained far more information not only limited to Mr. Franklin. Other operations were shut down in 2000 and 2001 because they ended up going to higher levels and involving way too many people. I’m talking about individuals who are breaking the law, misusing the trust and abusing their power, and in some cases I would even say engaging in treason. Again it’s very easy to see what happened with my case. 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. Many of these people are the breadwinners for their families. They’re conscientious people, but they have put 15-20 years into their careers and think, “Oh, I’m 5 years away from my retirement and I don’t want to damage that.” So you have many reasons why more people aren’t coming forward. 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. You’re also looking at all the other channels being culprits, sometimes without even intending. For example, there is a lot of blame to be placed on our mainstream media today. Willingly or not, they have become accomplices by not reporting what they should be reporting, and not investigating what they should be investigating. They have abdicated their responsibilities. And where do we look at when we talk about issues such as accountability investigations? We look at Congress. And they have been a major reason we are not seeing more people coming forward from the FBI, agents that I worked with—solid, patriotic, good Americans, dedicated people. They were as outraged as I was when I was going through these cases and reporting them internally. If one of these committees, be it the Judiciary Committee or the Government Affairs Committee in the House, would set a hearing and call these individuals to testify, these agents would tell the truth under oath. (Sibel) I’m talking about individuals who are breaking the law, misusing the trust and abusing their power, so high level people in our government are breaking the law and engaging in treason and all 3 Branches of Government what the heck is going on ???!!! don't they all realize this is how the ground is prepared for a police state...
(Interviewer) So in your opinion, what is the definition of an agent today in the U.S.? What is his job? An important portion of his work is what we are talking about, things that are actually not being dealt with and that are being covered up. So it seems that agents are “good agents” as long as they’re dealing with the enemy. But this enemy is decided by people who are often corrupt and even committing treason… (Sibel Edmonds) I can’t speak for other agents but I can speak for the FBI, and within the FBI you have different types of operations. For example, if they are looking at criminal cases, it is the agent’s job to collect evidence with court warrants, etc., to go after the criminals and bring them to justice. To a certain degree, the same concept holds true for counter-terrorism operations, the one division within the FBI that I consider the most important, but unfortunately the worst run. You have agents and translators and analysts overseeing the activities—sometimes criminal or espionage-related—of foreign entities in our country. Now, if they come across criminal activities and U.S. persons engaged in these what they should be doing and what they are able to do is to take it, report it, go to the Justice Department, go to the courts and start parallel investigations, no longer under counter-intelligence but through criminal or espionage cases. Now, by accident, this happened with this AIPAC case. ... Now the same thing was about to take place with Turkish counter-intelligence in the main portion of the documented—wiretapped or paper—operations that I translated verbatim not only for the Washington Field Office but also for the Chicago and New Jersey offices. They were obtained before 2001. If we were to put a date on it you’re looking at end of 1996 to 2001. Now, in 1998 and 1999, there were so many pieces of evidence of U.S. individuals’ involvement. We’re talking about people with official positions, whether they were in the State Department or the Pentagon or the U.S. Congress. The agents did the right thing again by starting a parallel investigation that targeted individuals who were possibly committing acts of treason. However, as I was told by first-source agents I was working with, this was put on hold in 1999 because President Clinton was then going through the Lewinsky scandal. After the current administration came into power and after I was working there, the agents were told to shut down. The people who made that decision were not the Justice Department or the FBI, and that’s what I try to emphasize all the time—they were pressured, they were forced by higher-up forces within the Pentagon and the State Department. And what was their reasoning behind the scenes? I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but they gave similar explanations and justifications with the courts: “You’re talking about very sensitive diplomatic relations.” And in fact, then-Attorney General Ashcroft said this in his declaration when he invoked the State Secrets Privilege in my case. He said that exposing these issues in courts, whether or not I’m right, would damage certain sensitive diplomatic relations and would hurt certain U.S. foreign business relations. In this case we know one of the countries is Turkey. So you have a U.S. citizen here who has been deprived of her First Amendment rights. Gagged. I mean, is that an American concept, gagging a person? You’re not talking about an enemy combatant, you’re not talking about a terrorist suspect. You’re looking at a tax-payer, a law-abiding American citizen. So these business relations, these diplomatic relations have justified depriving a U.S. citizen of her First Amendment rights, of her Fourth Amendment rights in court. In fact, the U.S. State Department did a retroactive classification illegally and Congress was effectively gagged in May 2004. They’re not even saying what diplomatic relations they refer to. Are they ashamed of it? Are we talking about billions of dollars of weapons procurement? Why don’t they be more specific? Because this is top-secret, classified stuff. That’s why I have been writing these papers, relying on outside sources, getting all the data. You’re looking at $5 billion every two years of weapons procurements? That’s not top-secret. Who benefits from this? What companies? Who are the individuals who are benefiting from this? And is there anything in the issues that I dealt with that if exposed would harm the Americans and their security? None. None whatsoever. In fact, they are issues and they are cases that would help with their national security because the same activities also involve money laundering or certain narcotic activities. All you have to do is look at the State Department’s own reports on Turkey and opium. Ninety-two percent of the heroin supplied in Europe is coming through Turkey, and it’s being marketed and distributed by Turkish individuals. This is not classified. This is within the State Department’s own report. The poppies are being produced in Afghanistan and Taliban-esque people are getting benefits, and Al-Qaeda people are getting the benefits of these poppies being sold to individuals in Turkey who then distribute and provide 92 percent of Europe’s heroin market. Have we said “clamp down on these narcotic activities because it’s helping the terrorists, and the terrorists are threats to our national security?” No, we haven’t. Time Magazine ran a piece about 11 pages long on how the Afghanistan opium production has increased. They also put the value on that opium production. And there were statements from various Congressmen including Walter Jones who went to Afghanistan saying a lot of it goes to support Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The number was somewhere between $38 billion to $50 billion a year. This same article limited the issue of poppy production to some farmers. And you’re looking at these Afghans in shalvars cultivating the poppies there, and you think, these people aren’t capable of managing a $50 billion industry. They only get a small share. Processing the poppies into heroin and then transporting them through the Balkan route is done by Turkish individuals. And you’re not looking at street thugs in Turkey, you’re looking at the Turkish military and the Turkish police. In 2000, a professor in Turkey issued a documented report saying that a quarter of Turkey’s economy relies on heroin production and distribution. Of course, he had to escape the country, go to Germany and ask for political asylum because he committed treason by criticizing the Turkish government. The Time Magazine article didn’t talk about the main actors, the big people, the powerful ones who are distributing, processing, marketing and laundering the proceeds. Those people are not touched. If you look at the report you’ll see the countries involved—Turkey, Cyprus, the UAE. But they were conveniently left out of the Time Magazine article, leaving any American to conclude that the farmers are making $50 billion a year. Again, the culprit is Time Magazine because that is not the case. While the report shows Turkish, UAE and Pakistani involvement, we say they are our allies, we don’t want to touch them, we don’t want to turn them off. In fact, we have lots of good business and sensitive diplomatic relations with them, as Don Ashcroft put it. Now if one of them were part of the axis of evil, if one of them was Syria, if one of them was Iran, if one of them was Korea, if it was Saddam, you would see the stink they would raise—how Saddam’s country and people are helping the Taliban with their finances and helping Al-Qaeda with these cases. But there was this big oops! They’re our very close allies, the ones who we are giving billions of dollars of aid to, the ones who come back and buy our weapons. We can’t mess around with things like that. We have too many powerful people, too many powerful companies that are benefiting from this. There is this huge lobby industry that is benefiting from this. Who is representing the American people? Well we know former chairman Mr. Livingston today is representing these outside interests, therefore our Congress is representing these foreign powers. But who is really representing the American public? And how? It’s very hard to see the track record. And these are the issues that you wish the mainstream media here in this country would cover, and they’re not. It is the nexus between greedy, corrupt, criminal high government officials, Sibel Edmonds is the voice in the wilderness warning us what is going on right now please note this was put in place 1996-2001 during clinton's administration Daily Kos posters (where Lurkey posted this article) blame everything on the big bad Republicans all I can do is pray there are enough citizens in our country who are willing to recognize the problem is bi-partisan we are a country at risk!
bump!
(Sibel Edmonds) Are we talking about billions of dollars of weapons procurement? Why don’t they be more specific? Because this is top-secret, classified stuff. That’s why I have been writing these papers, relying on outside sources, getting all the data. You’re looking at $5 billion every two years of weapons procurements? That’s not top-secret. Who benefits from this? What companies? Who are the individuals who are benefiting from this? And is there anything in the issues that I dealt with that if exposed would harm the Americans and their security? In fact, they are issues and they are cases that would help with their national security because the same activities also involve money laundering or certain narcotic activities. All you have to do is look at the State Department’s own reports on Turkey and opium Processing the poppies into heroin and then transporting them through the Balkan route is done by Turkish individuals. And you’re not looking at street thugs in Turkey, you’re looking at the Turkish military and the Turkish police. In 2000, a professor in Turkey issued a documented report saying that a quarter of Turkey’s economy relies on heroin production and distribution. Of course, he had to escape the country, go to Germany and ask for political asylum because he committed treason by criticizing the Turkish government. $50 billion a year from heroin The Time Magazine article didn’t talk about the main actors, the big people, the powerful ones who are distributing, processing, marketing and laundering the proceeds. Those people are not touched. If you look at the report you’ll see the countries involved—Turkey, Cyprus, the UAE. But they were conveniently left out of the Time Magazine article, leaving any American to conclude that the farmers are making $50 billion a year. Again, the culprit is Time Magazine because that is not the case. While the report shows Turkish, UAE and Pakistani involvement, we say they are our allies, we don’t want to touch them, we don’t want to turn them off. In fact, we have lots of good business and sensitive diplomatic relations with them They’re our very close allies, the ones who we are giving billions of dollars of aid to, the ones who come back and buy our weapons. We can’t mess around with things like that. We have too many powerful people, too many powerful companies that are benefiting from this. There is this huge lobby industry that is benefiting from this
I thank you Robin and Lodwick from the bottom of my heart for your posts I am going to start reading Part 2 of the Interview now All my love, Palo
By all accounts, the Taliban government in Afghanistan effectively suppressed the production of opium poppies throughout the country. (So much for the justification offered by a DOJ memo in early 2002 arguing that people captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to Geneva Convention protections, because Taliban Afghanistan, as a "failed state," could not count as a signatory to the Conventions.)
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
(Sibel Edmonds) I can’t say it’s been easy, the anger and disappointment over knowing that my country, my government, has let me down, that the mainstream media has let all of us down. With many whistleblowers, the pressure reaches a point where they either have nervous breakdowns or they explode. And many of them do explode or they get disgusted and go away. After one or two years of fighting, they say the heck with it, I’m just going to leave. If you explode, you have given them the perfect excuse to point at you and say, look this person is crazy, she’s not legitimate. If you go and expose some documents, they have an excuse to say you have breached security and should be jailed—and again, they benefit. They get away with this because nobody has been willing to come forward, and right now, it’s only me. If there had been one or two other agents who had committed to that much compromise and sacrifice and come forward, maybe we would have seen some progress. But the fear factor is so great out there. I’ve lived in this country for 18 years and am an American citizen. Maybe a lot of people born here take their citizenship for granted, but for me it was a conscious choice. At that point I was a student of this country’s history and its laws, and I was mesmerized. As part of that oath you make a commitment to stand up for this country’s constitution and rights and people, whether the enemies threatening it are foreign or domestic. And I did take it seriously and I do take it seriously, and I also look at the alternative—the alternative being count your losses and go away; it’s just going to get worse. Again, many Americans think this is about one whistleblower who lost her job, that this is one case, and they don’t see themselves affected by it. With September 11, they saw themselves directly affected—”I can be next.” Well, I’m trying to tell them that with the money laundering, the narcotics, their own representatives going against their own interests, they’re all being affected by the cover-ups. It’s been five years, and I never thought it would continue for this long. I went to the Judiciary Committee in March 2002, and I thought that was it. I thought that all I had to do was give them the documents, give them the facts, the names, and everything would be taken care of. It was not. When I went to the Inspector General’s Office, I thought that was it. When I went to the courts, I thought this was it, it was done. I never thought I would be sitting here, five years later, saying that everything was shut down successfully, and no accountability and no justice whatsoever had taken place. I set up this organization http://[www.justacitizen.com] to encourage other whistleblowers, those good agents out there who dealt with Turkish counter-intelligence operations in the FBI. And that’s not the only agency. There are other agencies in this nation, within our government, with good conscientious people who should be saying enough is enough, it’s time to stand up. how scary! and they are destroyed for it I think when this is all over, and we have succeeded (God willing!) in saving our country
(Interviewer) What can be done? What can the ordinary citizen do? (Sibel Edmonds) It boils down to the people standing up and demanding their rights, the right actions. I don’t want to get my job back with the FBI. That’s not what I’m after. I’m not asking to be compensated in any way for my suffering. I can never go back to Turkey and visit my family. I have been blacklisted because I have committed, as any good journalist in Turkey would automatically commit: the act of treason. Under their laws, anyone who criticizes Turkey, or shows it under some negative light or hurts certain official thugs there, is treasonous and should be arrested and taken to military tribunals. All you have to do is read the Human Rights Watch reports and see what happens to good reporters in Turkey. If they’re lucky, by the way, they will end up in a military tribunal, if not, they will end up dead or disappear. If you look at the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared in the past 10 years in Turkey for political reasons, the number is astonishing for a country that is considered a democracy and a great ally. You have tens of thousands of good activist students who have just disappeared into thin air and nobody knows where they are. It happened once upon a time in Argentina and Chile, but I don’t know how easy it is to say that things like that happen in a great democracy and an ally country. But I’m not asking to be compensated, I’m not asking to get my position back. All I have been asking is for justice to take place, for the American people to know what’s going on, and for those people who are working against their interests to be held accountable. Some respected, great Representatives, Democratic Congressmen, have expressed interest in my case. The leader of that group was Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and I briefed his staff several times, by giving them the same details I gave five years ago to the Judiciary Committee. They obtained the classified version of the Inspector General’s report two years ago and they were outraged. I have several letters from Congressman Waxman saying he finds these gag orders stunning and that the Republicans were preventing a hearing from taking place on my case. Well, in January, after we went through the change [in Congress], Congressman Waxman is now Chairman Waxman and there is no power within Congress that can prevent him from holding this hearing. He has the jurisdiction, the authority to put the hearing there, and I have already obtained the consent and names of conscientious, good agents. One of them was the head of the Turkish counter-intelligence operations who actually retired two years ago. They’re all willing to come forward and testify on all the issues I have been gagged on. And that gag doesn’t work in Congress during a hearing. So in January, after the election results, especially since we have such a great Chairman today, 30 organizations have put together this petition addressed to Chairman Waxman saying you have been promising us for the past five years. These are major organizations, and we call them transpartisan, because there are organizations from the right, organizations from the left, organizations that are whistleblower-related such as the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), the Government Accountability Project (GAP), the National Whistleblower Center, human rights organizations, the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), civil liberties-related organizations such as the American Civil Liberties union (ACLU). We have 30 solid organizations. According to the ACLU, there has been no case of an American citizen who has had so many gag orders issued on her. We also had 15,000 citizens sign the petition, and they delivered it to Chairman Waxman’s office in March 2007, just over a month ago. And based on the office’s own report, tens of thousands of people in the past 3-4 weeks have called to say, well, when are you going to hold a hearing? But we have received no response and we don’t know why. None of these organizations know why because they have all the facts, they have all the confirmation, they have the IG report, they have the executive branch’s own report saying she’s credible and her allegations have been supported by other witnesses and documents. We are not talking about allegations. We are talking about facts, documented and witnessed facts. And I still believe that the Americans who care about their rights can make this happen. Maybe it hasn’t happened because one of the factors that is not present there is the mainstream media. We know the mainstream media has such influence over the Congress. Maybe Congress is not finding it worthy of their attention despite all these severe consequences because the media isn’t there. The citizens can change this, the constituents of Chairman Henry Waxman in California, in the LA area, can change that. They can say, you represent us, you represent our interests, and you are the chairman of the Government Reform Committee. So after not hearing back from Chairman Waxman through this petition and 30 organizations, I’m trying to reach out to those constituents in California, I’m trying to reach out to all citizens in this country and say, forget about me, this is not about Sibel Edmonds. Let’s go to the core issues: What was it that I reported that caused all these gag orders and firings and threats? What was it? What I reported had nothing to do with me. It had to do with the interests of the American public being stomped upon. It had to do with elected officials abusing their authority to obtain lucrative early retirement positions afterwards as representatives of foreign interests. And this is very important. In order to obtain it afterwards they had to serve those foreign interests while they were working and had those positions. In every single one of them that’s how it happens. You start serving the interests of outside influences before you obtain your positions afterwards and say bye to your civil service career. And that is, especially in some cases, criminal. That is not something that should be tolerated by this country, and we need to set an example of those people. We have the facts, we have the documents, we have the witnesses, and it’s time to do it. So stand up and call Chairman Waxman’s office, keep calling until you get an answer on when the hearing will take place. For each citizen it may cost four minutes. But the benefit to this country, and the number of issues that we are going to shed light on, is worth it. And if it was not, they would not have gone this far to gag it. I have been fighting very hard, but they have been fighting very hard, too. This is unprecedented. If I am the most gagged woman in the history of this country, and if they have gone as far as invoking the States Secrets Privilege, the issue is important enough. So for anyone who may say, well, how do I know this case is credible? I’ll tell you that there is a report, there are statements from bipartisan senators, Senator Grassley, Senator Leahy, Congressman Waxman. And these are all on the record establishing the credibility of the case. Call Chairman Waxman and write to him and do not stop until we have this hearing in place, and we have the agents testifying. I’m going to emphasize two things here: a) that they testify on oath, and b) that the hearings be public. I have had some hearings, and they have been behind closed doors in the Congress. I have briefed them. They already have this information. It’s the American public’s turn to hear about this. It’s possible that in light of the Chairman’s decision to hold a hearing, the government comes in and says it has to be in close session and not in public because these are classified issues. But they’re not. If that happens, we won’t get anywhere because then it’s futile. I would not even be willing to testify because I have already done so. Five years ago I gave them testimony behind closed doors. So did other witnesses. It’s time to have open, public hearings and have people under oath. I will testify under oath, and the consequences of lying are severe. So let’s make this happen, and let’s say that when all channels we rely upon—be it the courts and the Congress and the executive branch and the mainstream media—fail us, we still should move forward and not stop, and reach out to the American public, and make it happen. I hope we can do it, because not being able to do it sends a very bad, awful message to our children and our grandchildren, to say that active citizenry is dead in this country. Chairman Waxman carries water for the corrupt Dem Party leadership
Ancillary to this discussion (or, off topic to those who wish to hump my leg) is, What would you bet that this is what every US soldier in country knows but dares not speak, and Pat Tillman was ready to blow the whistle? That Americans are dying to protect 90% (with the hope of gaining the entire market) of the third rock's down? Tillman may have been emotionally immature and naively patriotic the way we all were before the America we loved came crashing down when we learned the truth. But, if the US Govt was on the level then that fearsome warrior, that real life Conan would have made us all damned proud. The very thought that those evil, shape shifting owl worshipers can send good people on bad missions and that terrible things always happen to righteous folk who won't sell their souls makes me think thoughts I shouldn't be thinking. May those responsible suffer painful urination in Hell.
You should put the adjectivals "militant" and "propagantistic" prefixes before any article relating to the NYT, IMVHO.
"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men" Plato
we are a country at risk! Well said and scary bump.
"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men" Plato
thank you Tom
who are being bribed by the Turkish gang
#2. To: Zipporah (#0)
A lady who learned too much.
#3. To: Zipporah (#0)
I will read it tomorrow when I am fresh
I kiss your toes for posting this Zip
Love, Palo
#4. To: All, Zipporah, lodwick (#3)
(font color=green>I am starting to read Sibel Edmonds' interview
I am at the very beginning of Part I of interview
and in some cases I would even say engaging in treason.
both Parties
and our mass media are turning a blind eye to it
#5. To: All, lodwick, Zipporah, Lukery, Fred Mertz, statesecrets, aristeides, Sherlock, every concerned citizen (#4)
from Part 1 of Interview
gangsterism, and drug dealing
which brings about police state and fascism
and State Departartment and Pentagon have pressured the current administration to go along with it
naively stupidly blindly believing putting Dems in White House and Congress will solve it
and at this point, I think only citizens are willing to do something about it
because no one in government, or around government, nor our corporate owned mass media
will do anything to stop this!
#6. To: Zipporah, lizz76, kiki, Mekons4, Dakmar, Eoghan, lodwick, Ferret Mike (#0)
Call Embarrass Waxman. Demand public open hearings:
DC phone: (202) 225-3976
LA phone: 323 651-1040
Capitol switchboard phone: 800-828-0498
#7. To: palo verde (#5)
what you said bump
#8. To: All (#5)
some extracts from above by Sibel Edmonds
Re: Turkish heroin industry, USA arms industry
#9. To: lodwick, robin (#7)
and I will post anything which strikes me as crucial
#10. To: Zipporah (#0)
#11. To: aristeides (#10)
#12. To: All, lodwick, robin, Zipporah, ALL (#9)
(Interviewer) Let us talk about you: your frustrations, your feelings. How do you deal with all of this?
someone works for a government department
they witness (and have proof of) corruption, criminality, traitorism
they courageously try to report it
it is time for our mass media to be destroyed (sent into oblivion)
consciously or not, they are abetting the fertle breeding grounds for police state and fascism in USA
#13. To: All, lodwick, Zipporah, Lukery, Fred Mertz, statesecrets, aristeides, Sherlock, every concerned citizen (#12)
here is now interview ends
he will not do anything to help Sibel
I wish I knew a way we could effectively help Sibel
she is doing all this for us
we have to join her in saving our country
Love, Palo
#14. To: Zipporah, Diana, robin, rowdee, christine, lodwick, Jethro Tull, Ellis Wyatt (#0)
#15. To: Zipporah (#0)
Everyone is talking about "How a ‘Good War’ in Afghanistan Went Bad" in yesterday's NYT
#16. To: palo verde (#5)
all I can do is pray there are enough citizens in our country who are willing to recognize the problem is bi-partisan and at this point, I think only citizens are willing to do something about it because no one in government, or around government, nor our corporate owned mass media will do anything to stop this!
#17. To: tom007 (#16)
Love, Palo
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