What happened with the Hastert taking bribes from Turkey story?

[NewJeffCT]

Last week, or the week before, DU was abuzz about an upcoming article describing how House Speaker Dennis Hastert was taking bribes from Turkish officials. Did anything come of this? With our "librul media", you'd think a major story like this would be headline news, but I've heard nary a peep. Even on DU the past few days.

[acmavm]

1. It was just one of those 'go figure' moments. The surprise would have

been if the story said a repuke HADN'T taken a bribe from anyone.

[NewJeffCT]

2. I'm sure if it was a Democrat

it would not have been "ho hum"...

[KnaveRupe]

3. "Dog Bites Man" - not a news story.

What, another republican taking bribes? Yawn.

The ungodly corruption of DeLay has desensitized us to the rest of the GOP's shenanigans.

SHOULD it be a major news story? You bet your arse. But it's only one of about, oh, a THOUSAND stories about these bastards that should be front page. And aren't.

[cthrumatrix]

4. it's called "hope everyone forgets" and US media ignores = Democracy

[benburch]

5. Have no fear!

We in his district are planning on beating him over the head with it between now and the 2006 elections!!!

[Last Lemming]

9. Truly?

Is this possible? Who controls the vote talley in your district?

[NewJeffCT]

12. But, how safe is his district?

Is it one of those where he just shows up and gets 65% of the vote?

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I think Hasteret is a little fish compared to the rest of the goods that

Sibel offers. And I think we just got closer to finding out what Sibel knows, with this new ruling on the prison photos and information.

[Tesla]

7. he is a pretty big fish

to be getting away with taking bribes that hurt National Security!

Why aren't the DEMS SRCEAMING!!

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Don't know.

But any Dem who hasn't kept up to date with Sibel's interviews, should just step down.

[marions ghost]

10. agreed

Hastert is a big fish...

It's criminal overload. Nobody could get any work done otherwise if they had to address the criminal conduct of the BFEE all the time.
It's so bad nobody is shocked anymore--they're just trying to cope. We do not have a system that can deal with this level of corruption. It's going to take many people chipping away, chipping away...until the picture finally emerges. Our country is rotten from the ground up.

[Tesla]

11. He's only a couple of heart beats away from the top!!

Scary!!

[cascadiance]

16. Posted this last night to another thread that got buried...

But if what this post to usenet is even half true (which I'm still a bit skeptical about based on it not coming from a verifiable news source, independent or no), Hastert is *indeed* just a small fry compared to the others...

This post yesterday indicates that even Cheney may be under indictment by Fitzgerald's investigation, and that we intercepted British agents trying to bomb the subway underneath the Dirksen Federal Building where he was at the time in court proceedings.

Quote from article:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1706820&mesg_id=1707088

"Sources close to the jury probe have allegedly told Heneghen a host of administration figures under Bush have been indicted, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, imprisoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller and former Cheney advisor Mary Matalin. Heneghen also allegedly told sources White House advisor Karl Rove was indicted for perjury in a major document shredding operation cover-up.

If such information regarding these indictments is correct, the fact that the it has not made the media that the President and the Vice president have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal jury indicates there is a major cover up in operation."

Though this might be distorting what's really happening, the more stories I see like this, the more I think that we're sitting on top of a time bomb, that when it explodes, will make many cloak and dagger movie plots tame by comparison.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. In an interview, Sibel stated she was surprised the Vanity Fair

article was just focused on Hasteret. She definitely alluded that there were bigger fish to fry.

[NewJeffCT]

14. I had a letter in my local "Speak Out" about it

See the "corruption scorecard" one (warning, may take a bit to load on dialup!)

http://www.remindernewspapers.com/Daily/skins/Vernon/navigator.asp?skin=Vernon&BP=OK&AW=1124281486031

[rman]

13. the article did appear in Vanity Fair,

Democracy Now also did a bit on it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=344x7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=344x25

[JohnyCanuck]

15. Sibel has her say about the Vanity Fair story in her latest interview.

CD: On that note, why don't we discuss the recent Vanity Fair article in which your case was discussed. This is the first time any possible official associated with illicit activities related to your case was named. The author cites sources familiar with your testimony and speculates that Dennis Hastert took bribes to squash the Armenian genocide resolution –

SE: You know, that was such a surprise to me. I had no idea what the final article would look like, but when I opened the magazine and read this – well, it was a surprise.

CD: Why?

SE: Look, if you read the article you will see they mentioned that there were several other officials suspected of crimes. It's interesting because they mentioned the Department of State and the DOD – but they didn't get into it.

CD: And maybe some of these others were more important than Hastert?

SE: Of course they were more important! But they went with the Armenian angle.

http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=6934

[cascadiance]

17. Though she even said to me that she thinks Turks probably "hate me"...

I think her comments in this interview are right on. I don't think she's part of the Armenian lobby, and I really do think that she just wants the truth to get out. Perhaps she's as concerned about the corruption in her older country as we are concerned about the corruption that's going on in ours. There's many criminals at the top of our country's government now as many of us sense. I suspect that there have been and maybe still many criminals in the Turkish government too. That doesn't mean that there aren't some decent folks in both of our governments trying to make things better, no matter how much their hands may be tied now.

I suspect that the "Armenian lobby" might also have been bribing other congressmen too, which might have lead to the tit for tat "lobbying" that the Turks were caught doing here too. Neither sets of bribes (if both were happening) would be something I could accept. Our government should not be for sale, no matter who is trying to "buy" it! Those being bought should be pushed out. Unfortunately, with corporate financing of many politicians' campaigns now, bribery has become institutionalized and accepted if done in certain ways, which provokes other sorts of bribery that we are seeing here.

I don't think that David Rose was "consciously" just focusing on the Armenian question to make Sibel look bad either. I think it might have been some of the information sources that were trying to distort her into looking like she was for the Armenian lobby, perhaps in an effort to discredit her "motivations".