Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds

[G_j]

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/horton.php?articleid=7032

Cracking the Case: An Interview With Sibel Edmonds

by Scott Horton

"Scott Horton:

erhaps your case is tied in with the AIPAC spy scandal?

"Sibel Edmonds: Absolutely. And I cannot go into any details. … But even the AIPAC spy scandal, as far as I'm reading today, is just touching the surface of it. It's going only to a certain degree. It doesn't go high enough, in what it involves and how far it goes, and that's as far, and the best – as far as I can explain."

The following is the transcript of my Aug. 13 interview with the courageous FBI linguist/whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. What connection does Sibel Edmonds' story have to the prosecution of Larry Franklin, Steve Rosen, and Keith Weissman of the Pentagon/AIPAC spy scandal? And for that matter, to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001? The answer has something to do with international drug, weapon, and money-laundering rings, and their ties to terrorists and unnamed officials of the Departments of State and Defense. This mess also goes back to at least 1997. Sibel says that when the truth comes out, it will make the AIPAC case look "lame" by comparison. Who are the State Department officials 1 and 2 and the Defense Department officials 1 and 2 referred to in the AIPAC indictments<1><2>? Are they the same unnamed officials in the new Vanity Fair piece about Edmonds? Are these the same neocons who hired Iranian spy Ahmed Chalabi, lied us into war with Iraq, drew up the occupation plans, and leaked the name of Valerie Plame to the press? Is the quashed federal investigation out of Chicago into corruption on the part of high-level members of both parties, referred to in the article as "the reason" Sibel was gagged by John Ashcroft, related to the investigation of terrorist financing by former agent Robert Wright? What does Patrick "Bulldog" Fitzgerald know about it? Which countries involved in the international heroin market are the subject of such "sensitive diplomatic relations" that their involvement in 9/11 should not be known to the people of the United States? Uzbekistan? Tajikistan? Kyrgyzstan? Pakistan? Kosovo?


The recent stories about the Army's "Able Danger" program having identified Mohammed Atta as the leader of a terrorist cell in New York a year before 9/11, coupled with Sibel Edmonds' statements in her own case and her reference to 25 other sworn and proven instances of precise knowledge of an impending attack that were omitted from the 9/11 commission report, ought to be enough to reopen the 9/11 case entirely.

All of the congressmen and senators who have heard her story, and Glenn Fine, the head of the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General, agree: Sibel is telling the truth – not that they'll do anything about it.

Transcript
..more..

[FtWayneBlue]

1. Siebel's gag order

needs to be lifted.

She needs to be able to freely tell her story,

ON NATIONAL TV!

Inquiring minds need to know. . .

[Roland99]

3. That gag order is the most un-American action taken in DECADES

[electropop]

13. That gag order will live in infamy.

And when the truth is known, the person who issued it will have an especially odious place in history.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

62. actually ...

As whistleblower Sibel Edmonds asked the Supreme Court to review her dismissed case against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), mainstream media continues to refer to the government’s defense – the so-called State Secrets Privilege – as “rarely used”. In fact it has been used over sixty times since its creation in the 1950s.

http://www.counterbias.com/376.html

[Richard Steele]

84. 60 times vs: how many hundreds of thousands of cases?

"Rarely Used" is a perfectly accurate description, IMO.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. kick

Will anyone ever gain our trust again?

[JohnyCanuck]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Check out the www.madcowprod.com site for Daniel Hopsicker's reports on drug smuggling terrorists and intelligence agency corruption which tends to back up Sibel's allegations.

Here's a snip from his latest article:

Able Danger Intel Exposed
"Protected" Heroin Trafficking
August 17,2005-Venice, FL.
by Daniel Hopsicker

<snip>

The juxtaposition of the discovery of a huge cache of heroin on a Lear jet belonging to Wallace J. Hilliard, 70, of Naples, Fl, Huffman Aviation’s owner, at the exact same time terrorist and Osama bin Laden associate Mohamed Atta arrived to attend his flight school from Afghanistan, a country producing well more than half of the world’s heroin, would normally have had U.S. Attorneys looking up the sentencing guidelines appropriate to major RICO narcotics trafficking cases, and getting ready to throw the book at him.

In fact, they did nothing of the sort, which strongly indicates that the Army’s secret military intelligence unit Able Danger’s inability to prod federal authorities to move on Atta and other terrorists known to be in the U.S. encountered the same obstacles, and for the same reason.

In fact, the only effort made at holding financier Wallace J. Hilliard, 70, of Naples, Florida accountable was the weak one of confiscating his plane. When Hilliard sued to get the DEA to return the Lear jet inn forfeiture hearings, attempting to show himself to have been an “innocent owner,” his motion was opposed by the Government and roundly rejected in court.

<snip>

Nor were we alone in our discovery of the officially-protected drug trafficking network. FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds, in the months after the attack, bumped into the arms for drugs deals. Edmonds alleged that the US State Department blocked investigations showing links between criminal drug trafficking networks and the terror attacks on 9/11.

http://www.madcowprod.com/08172005.html

[Dhalgren]

4. If the people of this country ever manage to have this whole

business spread out into the open, it will dwarf everything that has gone on before. The history of this country will be talked about in relation to before and after this scandal...

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. I told my son the same thing.

I told him what my dad told me back in Nixon's time. He said that I was witnessing history in the making. I told my son to pay attention to the news because he would be witnessing history in the making and that it would dwarf what happened to Nixon.

I told him that this point in U.S. history would forever be a turning point and that what we do from hereon, will determine what kind of nation we will become.

[Dhalgren]

11. Well put, and exactly correct...

[electropop]

15. I was a youngster,

but I distinctly recall that awareness of history in the making. :hippie: I felt much as I do now: alternately tingling with fear, and tingling with gleeful anticipation. We will ultimately prevail; the only question is how many more lives will be lost or ruined before we do? :mad: My personal guess is that Bushitler will be out within a year.

:party: :toast: :bounce:

There is a huge pent-up well of emotional opposition to this regime. Unfortunately, most watching the MSM believe themselves to be in a minority, and thus keep mum. As the huge (58%) majority who disapprove of Bushitler wakes to the reality that he's even worse than they realized, and that indeed, they are in the majority, they will become an irresistable force for wholesale change. It's like a jack-in-the-box: :+ the harder you press it down, the harder it snaps back when released. Watch out!

[petgoat]

59. "most watching the MSM believe [they're] a minority and thus keep mum"

Good point, pop. That's why I think some of the most important things
we can do is to challenge the culture of silence through freewayblogging
and the "Whispering Campaign" of leaflets left in laundromats and
distributing "Deception dollars."

http://www.freewayblogger.com/



http://psstpsstpsst.blogspot.com/


http://www.deceptiondollar.com/

http://www.deceptiondollar.com/8+/I8Front.jpg

[Imagevision]

5. REcommend: Edmunds story would oust Bush, gagorder must be removed

It's difficult to comprehend that NO Dem Senator can help to assist in allowing the Sibel Edmunds story to be investigated, but then she has also said it involves Senators from BOTH parties, so there you go!

plaese nominate for greatest (now need 5 votes}

[mmonk]

42. Yes, I've been trying to

ascertain which dems are also involved. They are standing in the way of the truth coming out (and the end of the bush administration). I always want to know who's on my side so I don't make any critical mistakes for my country by voting for any of them.

[notadmblnd]

48. lieberman would be a guess of mine

and possibly biden, my 3rd choice would be rockfeller. Thats only if I had to guess.

[mmonk]

49. Logical guesses

[cascadiance]

43. Has she actually said "senators"? I recall seeing "Democrats"...

but not pinpointing them as senators. Please give a link if this is so... Thanks!

[Imagevision]

98. Sibel Edmunds can expose the whole shooting match

I'm amazed she wasn't found in suicide scenario long ago. This woman is a true hero for persisting in trying to bring to light what this country needs to rid ourselves of those "few bad apples" for what she knows and believes in would bring the whole house down...

Do you realize what would happen if she were alllowed to speak?

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[rodeodance]

68. It seems that both Dems and Repugs are silent on this case. Makes

me scared!

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. It HAD to be tied together with the AIPAC scandal and Sibel says it is!

Scott Horton: Perhaps your case is tied in with the AIPAC spy scandal?

Sibel Edmonds: Absolutely. And I cannot go into any details. … But even the AIPAC spy scandal, as far as I'm reading today, is just touching the surface of it. It's going only to a certain degree. It doesn't go high enough, in what it involves and how far it goes, and that's as far, and the best – as far as I can explain.

And this part has got to have some criminals worried despite the gag order - and oh, I want to know MORE! :
The answer has something to do with international drug, weapon, and money-laundering rings, and their ties to terrorists and unnamed officials of the Departments of State and Defense. This mess also goes back to at least 1997. Sibel says that when the truth comes out, it will make the AIPAC case look "lame" by comparison.

According to to an excellent New Yorker article on how AIPAC affects US national policy, the AIPAC spy scandal is tied in turn to elements in the US and Israel who strongly want "regime change" in Iran, even more than they wanted it for Iraq:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050704fa_fact

More on AIPAC in article by Prof. Juan Cole:
"AIPAC's Overt and Covert Op"
http://www.antiwar.com/cole/?articleid=3467

[cascadiance]

14. I'm now wondering moreso if Google was quietly "gagged"...

Now that Sibel has herself confirmed that her case is linked with Larry Franklin and the AIPAC spy scandal, it makes me even more curious on my observation of what was happening when the AIPAC spy scandal broke to the press.

Up until it broke, Google almost had daily stories on Sibel Edmonds. I was doing daily news searches for info on her and still do it today. The day that this scandal broke and for weeks following that day, there was nothing (NADA) that returned back from a keyword search of "Sibel Edmonds" in the News area of Google. In light of what we've been hearing the last few weeks, this now seems even more curious. At the time, I'd wondered if the "country" she couldn't mention might not have been Israel. Others had speculated that she might have had Jewish background (based on her name, etc.) that might have meant she was actually Israeli rather than Turkish (which seemed more obvious to people at the time) and that the country she was covering for was actually Israel rather than Turkey.

But now it looks like whether or not it was her "country" or not that was being covered up then as being Israel, that these two cases are very much tied to each other in substance as well.

Moving forward, we still need to help her get her story out. We should even make this larger than Sibel Edmonds at some point. Ask that the Supreme Court has to rule on whether the government can keep their activity secret from us the citizenry. Because that is what the states secret gag act is all about, and it's being applied to more cases other than hers recently. Basically we need to make the case to the public that if they don't investigate and rule on this subject, they are in effect ending Democracy for the U.S.!

Call your congressperson.
Write a letter to the editor of your paper.
Get a mug or t-shirt, etc. from my site ( http://www.cafepress.com/sibel ).
Carry around a copy of Vanity Fair (and copies of this and other articles) to places where you're meeting your friends at (Dem group meetings, etc.)
Call talk radio shows and make a quick comment of "Keep our Democracy! Ungag Sibel Edmonds!"

I'm sure there are many ways to get the word out. But the big problem is that most of the people you talk to each day are unaware of who she is, let alone the gravity of the issues she's been talking about. That needs to change. I've told others that if I can get to a point before October when the Supreme Court decides on hearing her or not when at least half of the people I ask know about Sibel Edmonds, then I feel we'll have done our job. This is how we can help her most. Raising public awareness! Once you can find others as passionate as we are that understand its importance when you tell them, they will also spread the word. Give them that mission!

It would also be nice to try and pound on Hollywood Celebrity doorsteps with this. They are people that can be heard by a lot of people, and if they really want to make a difference, they are the ones that should champion a campaign to get the word out. Janeane Garafalo talks about her on Air America, as do others there, but this needs to go outside of just being heard on Air America where they are preaching to the choir. It needs to be something that's mentioned in other contexts too.



http://www.cafepress.com/sibel

[rosesaylavee]

70. Google news link here

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Sibel+Edmonds&btnG=Search+News

[cascadiance]

73. Yeah, they NOW are the best source of info on Sibel...

but at the time, there was nothing anyplace to be found.

I'm wondering if someone up in high places was really scared that she'd suddenly go public once the Israeli spy story broke, and then from those people's points of view, all hell would break loose. Perhaps they told Google and perhaps other search engines to keep a lid on any info that might be published for at least a few weeks so that they'd have time to have their spin-doctoring people ready to keep her info under control. At the time, I had no basis for connecting her and this event. I just noticed it as being rather curious. Now I suspect something was going on, with the recent news of the last week or so.

It's not the first time I think Google was censoring stuff... I remember for a period of time it was near impossible to get the image of this earlier DVD cover of "What A Girl Wants" that was censored by the film studios to come up on Google image search hits.



All of the google image hits returned the following image instead:



Looking at google now, it's amazing how many more of the peace sign images come up now than the "official" cover too.

[rosesaylavee]

83. Thanks for the info

I have heard similar things about google but not seen any first hand until now. I look at Google News a lot and have wondered how items are chosen for their news page.

[seemslikeadream]

8. ESPIONAGE - DOD employees A & B Foreign Officals 1, 2, & 3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4348269


:hi:

[sattahipdeep]

17. 'Don't Stop'

:loveya: seemslikeadream :hug:

Lindsay....

"After love is gone there is justice, after justice is gone there is force'.


We make all of our suns the same
Every one will suffer the fire we've made
They all explode just the same
And there's no going back on the plans we've made

Peacekeeper take your time
Wait for the dark of night
Soon all the suns will rise
Peacekeeper don't tell why
Don't be afraid to fight
Love is the sweet surprise

Only creatures who are on their way
Ever poison their own well
But we still have time to hate
And there's still something we can sell


Peacekeeper take your time
Wait for the dark of night
Soon all the suns will rise

Peacekeeper don't tell why
Don't be afraid to fight
Love is the sweet surprise

When the night is cold and still
When you thought you've had your fill
Take all the time you will
This is not a test, it's not a drill
Take no prisoners, only kill

You know all of our friends are gods
And they all tell us how to paint our face
But there's only one brush we need
It's the one that never leaves a trace

Peacekeeper take your time
Wait for the dark of night
Soon all the suns will rise

Peacekeeper don't tell why
Don't be afraid to fight
Love is the sweet surprise

Peacekeeper take your time
Wait for the dark of night
Soon all the suns will rise

Peacekeeper don't tell why
Don't be afraid to fight
Love is the sweet surprise

When the night is cold and still
When you thought you've had your fill
This is not a test, it's not a drill
Take no prisoners, only kill

Buckingham

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4408475&mesg_id=4414587

[seemslikeadream]

19. They subjugate the meek

There is no political solution
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Our socalled leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
They subjugate the meek
But it's the rhetoric of failure

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Where does the answer lie?
Living from day to day
If it's something we can't buy
There must be another way

We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world

Are spirits in the material world...
Are spirits in the material world...

Sting


The state of union

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should
And I know all the things you hide
Even though it's a good disguise
And we see all the things you do
And what you do will comeback on you
You think we can't fight what the eyes can't see
Because we are blinded by poverty

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

It's like the people you want them to rebel
And fire gunshots and burn buildings to hell
And after that you a go want treat me well
It's like you have the people under a spell
Talking to the people in a congress
A we vote you in, so you must put out your best
After all we no in a contest
It's the state of the union address

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

Broadcasting lies on the television sreen
Trying to get us hooked on your american dream
We up on your games if you know wha me mean
When you cheated on your wife with your money and your schemes
People rule and a that you fi follow
We and nuh no call me no nigga
Do a good term and you deserve another
Signed musically yours, the general sleepywonder

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

The people live in misery
Govemment a work
But govemment them is a monckery
Respect to the youths
Whether in front and all dem a back a me
Why don't you treat them the way you should

Thievery Corporation

seemslikeadream :loveya: sattahipdeep :hug:

[cascadiance]

21. Work for Peace...

- Gil Scott Heron (such a prophetic look from the first Gulf war)

Back when Eisenhower was the President,
Golf courses was where most of his time was spent.
So I never really listened to what the President said,
Because in general I believed that the General was politically dead.

But he always seemed to know when the muscles were about to be flexed,
Because I remember him saying something, mumbling something about a Military Industrial Complex.
Americans no longer fight to keep their shores safe,
Just to keep the jobs going in the arms making workplace.
Then they pretend to be gripped by some sort of political reflex,
But all they?re doing is paying dues to the Military Industrial Complex.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,

They turn our brothers and sisters into mercenaries, they are turning the
planet into a cemetery.

The Military and the Monetary, use the media as intermediaries,
they are determined to keep the citizens secondary, they make so many
decisions that are arbitrary.

We?re marching behind a commander in chief,
who is standing under a spotlight shaking like a leaf.
but the ship of state had landed on an economic reef,
so we knew he was going to bring us messages of grief.

The Military and the Monetary,
were shielded by January and went storming into February,
Brought us pot bellied generals as luminaries,
two weeks ago I hadn?t heard of the son of a bitch,
now all of a sudden he'?s legendary.

They took the honour from the honourary,
they took the dignity from the dignitaries,
they took the secrets from the secretary,
but they left the bitch an obituary.

The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles away in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
had us all scrambling for our dictionaries,
cause we couldn?t understand the fuckin vocabulary.

Yeah, there was some smart bombs,
but there was some dumb ones as well,
scared the hell out of CNN in that Baghdad hotel.

The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
War in the desert sometimes sure is scary,
but they beamed out the war to all their subsidiaries.
Tried to make So Damn Insane a worthy adversary,
keeping the citizens secondary,
scaring old folks into coronaries.

The Military and the Monetary,
from thousands of miles in a Saudi Arabian sanctuary,
kept us all wondering if all of this was really truely, necessary.

We?ve got to work for Peace,
Peace ain?t coming this way.
If we only work for Peace,
If everyone believed in Peace the way they say they do,
we?d have Peace.

The only thing wrong with Peace,
is that you can?t make no money from it.

The Military and the Monetary,
they get together whenever they think its necessary,
they?ve turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.

Got to work for Peace,
Peace ain?t coming this way.

We should not allow ourselves to be mislead,
by talk of entering a time of Peace,
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the
preparation for war.
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the time when we will all bring ourselves closer to each other,
closer to building a structure that is unique within ourselves
because we have finally come to Peace within ourselves.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary.
Get together whenever they think its necessary,
they?ve turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning parts of the planet, into a cemetery.

The Military and the Monetary,
The Military and the Monetary,
We hounded the Ayatollah religiously,
Bombed Libya and killed Quadafi?s son hideously.
We turned our back on our allies the Panamanians,
and saw Ollie North selling guns to the Iranians.
Watched Gorbachev slaughtering Lithuanians,
We better warn the Amish,
they may bomb the Pennsylvanians.

The Military and the Monetary,
get together whenever they think its necessary,
they have turned our brothers and sisters into mercenaries,
they are turning the planet, into a cemetery.

I don?t want to sound like no late night commercial,
but its a matter of fact that there are thousands of children all over the
world in Asia and Africa and in South America who need our help.

When they start talking about 55 cents a day and 70 cents a day,
I know a lot of folks feel as though that,
thats not really any kind of contribution to make,
but we had to give up a dollar and a half just to get in the subway
nowadays.

So this is a song about tomorrow and about how tomorrow can be better. if we
all, ?Each one reach one, Each one try to teach one?.

Nobody can do everything,
but everybody can do something,
everyone must play a part,
everyone got to go to work, Work for Peace.

Spirit Say Work, Work for Peace
If you believe the things you say, go to work.
If you believe in Peace, time to go to work.
Cant be wavin your head no more, go to work.

[Burried News]

44. Breathtaking.

"We should not allow ourselves to be mislead,
by talk of entering a time of Peace,
Peace is not the absence of war,
it is the absence of the rules of war and the threats of war and the
preparation for war."

I also share your view of google returns.

[Imagevision]

99. Sibel Edmunds national security threat? - you got that right!

She would bring down this corrupt govermnent while Sentors paid by us claim to be doing their job??

cover-up & corruption both parties!

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[Burried News]

41. The 'A' in the other post had me tracking the same way, yesterday.

I couldn't place where I had seen it and then I realized it was the Franklin case. That's why I went to Haaretz but I didn't search there. We're on the same wavelenght by I can't piece it together unless someone wants to use Britain as an example to what could happen here. That doesn't add up for me ... yet.

[Burried News]

46. Agree with your KhanSpiracy comments.

War is the ultimate shredder and camoflage.

[MetaTrope]

9. What I want to know is

Who gave Atta the amazing non-combustible trackable passport?

[JohnyCanuck]

16. Actually it was another hijacker's passport (not Atta's) that was found

Although it is common to read on the internet that Mohammed Atta's passport was found at the WTC, it appears that that it actually belonged to another hijacker, Satam Al Suqami.

From the Cooperativeresearch.org web site:

The passport of hijacker Satam Al Suqami is found a few blocks from the WTC. {ABC News, 9/12/01 (C); Associated Press, 9/16/01; ABC News, 9/16/01} The Guardian says, “The idea that Mohamed Atta's passport had escaped from that inferno unsinged (tests) the credulity of the staunchest supporter of the FBI's crackdown on terrorism.” {Guardian, 3/19/02} (Note that, as in this Guardian account, the passport is frequently mistakenly referred to as Atta's passport.) (emphasis added /jc)
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a091201passportfound

[Nothing Without Hope]

60. yes, that was only ONE of the many impossibilities that day that convinced

me soon after 9/11 that it was MIHOP. This was a set up job from the inside out. How did ANYONE ever believe that oh-so-conveniently this passport was found, "proving" the terrorist connection?

[Frederik]

12. Spill the beans

She should move to Canada and spill the beans. It will dwarf Watergate and Iran-Contras combined.

This is of course also connected to the Plame/Brewster Jennings outing. They were getting to close to this network, and had to be stopped.

[ooglymoogly]

27. she must get it all out for her own safety nt

[cascadiance]

18. Kick!

:kick:

[Frederik]

20. Protected spies with unlimited access to nuclear secrets

SH: And it's even worse than that. Because Douglas Dickerson continued to be employed by the U.S. military. Didn't he have a job at NATO or something?

SE: Correct. And with access, unlimited access, because of his clearance, to the nuclear secrets of the United States.

SH: Well, let's get back to why that ought to concern anybody. Who is this guy Douglas Dickerson, and what do you ever have against him?

SE: As far as I know, Douglas Dickerson was stationed in Turkey between 1992 and 1997. During those years he came under certain… some investigation – but I don't know much about that investigation – that focused on certain bribery he accepted, and I don't know by whom and I don't have any details on that. And then he came to U.S., and even though he had this access and clearance, he was in touch with certain organizations – and that's plural again – and some of these organizations I would call "semi-legit." And while his wife worked for… this article in Vanity Fair says she worked for two years for American Turkish Council, but for the same two years she was also working for this organization called the ATA, American Turkish Association, and again that information is public. So she was working for these two organizations, and ATC has a lot of sub-organizations like ATA, ATAA with chapters all over the United States. They have hundreds of chapters. They have it in various states and several in certain states.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Denny, oh Denny? Third in line for the presidency

You better pull out the old high school rasslin' gear, might have to defend all that money you took before the next election.

Mr. Hastert, special favors?

[Frederik]

24. Brent Scowcroft, America's Pablo Escobar?

SH: Did you learn anything that implicated Brent Scowcroft and/or the leadership of the ATC in this corruption?

SE: As I said, I do not talk about this information. I do not talk about targets.

SH: I understand. And David Rose did write in the Vanity Fair article that there wasn't anything that he knows of that you found that directly implicated Brent Scowcroft.

SE: That again depends on who was the source and the particular information that that particular source provided, but I cannot confirm or not confirm it.

He's Poppy's buddy, you know.

[Frederik]

25. Making the AIPAC case look lame

SH: I see. I want to get a promise out of you that when they finally lift this gag order, that I get to interview you first. I have a long list of questions that I can't ask.

SE: Sure. And believe me, once they lift the state-secrets privilege and once the court case actually begins and we have the witnesses and we can subpoena documents, it will be public. And it will be major. And it would make the AIPAC case look lame, actually.

SH: Oh, it will make the AIPAC case look lame?

SE: Correct.

[seemslikeadream]

29. some one recently appointed to a senior bush administration post

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m14800&l=i&size=1&hd=0


Now if you read the indictment filed against Rosen, his AIPAC colleague Keith Weissman, and Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin, you'll see that "USGO-2" is just one of a rather large cast of uncredited actors who appear in this movie. Others include:


"USGO-1," which the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has suggested is someone "recently appointed to a senior Bush administration post."

DoD employees "A and B," who accompanied Franklin on some of his clandestine meetings with AIPAC's dynamic duo.

"A senior fellow at a Washington D.C. think tank."

FO (foreign officials) 1, 2 and 3 -- all alleged diplomats at the Israeli embassy in Washington. FO-3 has been positively identified as Naor Gilon, former head of the embassy's political department, and a guy who, for a political officer, took an awfully keen interest in intelligence matters.

"A person previously associated with an Israeli intelligence agency, now running a think tank in Israel." This individual has also been identified as ex-Mossad official Uzi Arad.

[Frederik]

33. recently appointed

Couldn't possibly be this guy?

[cascadiance]

35. Might also be Gonzalez too...

He was on the list that was floating around that was rumored to be under indictment by Fitzgerald's grand jury.

[Burried News]

50. There are two new guys at DoD, replacing Feith and Wolf

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082100800.html
"Although Rumsfeld has resisted calls from some in Congress and elsewhere to resign over his handling of the Iraq conflict, his deputy and several top advisers responsible for policy, procurement and management of his inner office have departed. Gone are Paul D. Wolfowitz, the Pentagon's previous number two civilian, and Douglas J. Feith, the former policy chief -- both prominent neoconservative figures who helped craft the administration's approach to Iraq and who became public targets for critics of the invasion and decisions affecting its aftermath.

After four years in which the Pentagon often found itself enmeshed in controversy over such issues as the use of a preemptive strike, the quality of prewar intelligence and the treatment of detainees, the new team members by contrast have drawn little political fire as they transition into their new jobs.

Gordon England, who has taken Wolfowitz's place as deputy, still faces the ongoing challenges of Iraq and Afghanistan, but he has said little publicly about those conflicts or other international policy questions since taking office in May. Instead, he has focused on more parochial Pentagon priorities, most notably the streamlining of the department's business practices and the refashioning of the armed forces to deal with less conventional missions.

Eric Edelman, who this month succeeded Feith as policy chief, also has little public record of engagement in Washington's ideological battles but comes with a reputation as a skilled career diplomat with an easygoing personality."

[rman]

45. just one tip of the f'in iceberg

[Burried News]

51. I see em like Kuzu or Centipede grass.

PS Appreciate the graph you sent in the Peak Oil Thread. It got too late to reply.

[Al-CIAda]

22. .

[ooglymoogly]

26. epic reasons to fear our gubment...kick n nom

for a great lady.

[cascadiance]

28. When Nancy Pelosi takes over as president in 2006...

I would hope she would give strong consideration to give Sibel George Tenet's job!

[robertpaulsen]

30. Sibel Edmonds 9/11 comments are explosive!

Here's some snips that stood out for me:

SE: Well yes… I really don't feel like going through that, because that is really hard for me to speak about because my family's life has changed. They had to come to the U.S. They had to apply for political asylum, in fact, the Congress helped them to apply for political asylum based on documents they received from Turkey that had various threats in it. But that is not the point I want to make as far as the country goes, and that's why I usually tell people that I don't think the issue here is about whistleblowing, being fired, being wronged – that is not the most important issue here. The most important issue is: What were these criminal activities, and why instead of pursuing these our government chooses to cover it up and actually issue classification and gag orders so the American public will not know about what is going on within these agencies within their government – and even within the Congress? That is my focus point, and I have been trying – it is what I have written and have said in my interviews – to steer away from the fact that yes, I was fired, yes I was wronged, and they retaliated against me, and how they ruined my life – which is all true. But this is not where I want to focus, and this is not where I want the country to focus, this is not where I want the Congress to focus. I'm not saying, "Look, they did wrong to me, and this is not fair." I'm saying, "I came forward because criminal activities are taking place – have been taking place – some of them since 1997." Some of these activities are 100 percent related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and they are giving this illusion that they are pursuing these cases, but they are not. If the case touches upon certain countries or certain high level people, certain sensitive relations, then they don't. But, on the other hand, they go and talk about lower-level criminal activity that boils down to people like Atta and Hamdi.

snip

SE: No, but as I said, the reason I went to the Congress and to the 9/11 Commission had to do with criminal activities and the criminal activities I provided information on had a lot to do with 9/11. And it's very interesting for example this latest development with the 9/11 Commission and this information from the Department of Defense that had to do with Atta, right?

SH: Able Danger.

SE: And the main media is treating it as if "here's one piece of information the 9/11 Commission didn't include." I had this press conference last summer and together with 25 national security experts. These sort of people from NSA, CIA, FBI. And we provided the public during this press conference with a list of witnesses that had provided direct information, direct information. Some had to do with finance of al-Qaeda. These are people from NSA, CIA, and FBI to the 9/11 Commission, and the 9/11 Commission omitted all of this information, even though some of this information had been established as fact. One of them had to do with certain informants in April 2001. This informant provided very specific information about the attacks. The other had to do with certain information the FBI had in July and August 2001, where blueprints and building composites of certain skyscrapers were being sent to certain Middle Eastern countries, and many more information was just omitted. With my case they just said, "Refer to the inspector general's report," even though I had provided the commissioners with the documents and names of witnesses. So now today you're seeing the press talk about "Oh, one piece of information," which right now the Commission is denying: "We don't recall seeing that information." Well, I can put out 20 other cases. These are agents who worked for agencies such as FBI, CIA, some of them for 20 years, some for 18 years. I have their list, I have their affidavits that provided documents, and they were all omitted. But the media is treating it as if "oh, look, this one piece of information was omitted" from the 9/11 Commission report.

snip

SH: This is all about the question of prior knowledge and who knew what, when before the attack.

SE: And also what happened afterward. I started working three days after Sept. 11 with a lot of documents and wiretaps that I was translating. Some of them dated back to 1997, 1998. Even after Sept. 11, covering up these investigations and not pursuing some of these investigations because the Department of State says, "You know what, you can't pursue this because that may deal with this particular country. If this country that the investigation deals with are not one of the Axis of Evil, we don't want to pursue them." The American people have the right to know this. They are giving this grand illusion that there are some investigations, but there are none. You know, they are coming down on these charities as the finance of al-Qaeda. Well, if you were to talk about the financing of al-Qaeda, a very small percentage comes from these charity foundations. The vast majority of their financing comes from narcotics. Look, we had 4 to 6 percent of the narcotics coming from the East, coming from Pakistan, coming from Afghanistan via the Balkans to the United States. Today, three or four years after Sept. 11, that has reached over 15 percent. How is it getting here? Who are getting the proceedings from those big narcotics?


Everything in bold is proof of a 9/11 COVER-UP! Considering the evidence of financial involvement, I think the cover-up has less to do with hiding evidence of negligence and more to do with the treason of Letting It Happen On Purpose for Profit and Power!

[G_j]

31. absolutely

no doubt about it, and nobody has found any evidence to suggest Sibel is not a truthful person. She isn't just making this stuff up.

[Frederik]

34. Ask Grassley, Leahy, and the DoJ IG

She's telling the truth.

[JohnyCanuck]

36. I agree

I think the cover-up has less to do with hiding evidence of negligence and more to do with the treason of Letting It Happen On Purpose for Profit and Power!

Only I would add evidence of possible MIHOP (Making it Happen on Purpose) as well. To me the idea the Dick Cheney's office was in charge of war games and aircraft hijacking exercises on 9/11 which apparently provided cover for the launching of the attacks while at the same time they removed fighter aircraft coverage from the Northeastern air corridors implies they were actively participating themselves in making sure the attacks would be successful.

On September 11, at least five different "war games" were being conducted by the military and intelligence agencies. These exercises included simulations of 9/11 type events, a plane into building scenario near Dulles Airport in Virginia, and deployment of fighters to northern Canada and Alaska (which reduced the number of fighters that were available to protect the US?). It seems that these exercises were the means used to paralyze the air defenses, thereby ensuring the success of the "attacks."

The British Navy was conducting exercises in the Indian ocean near the Middle East. A biowar exercise was also about to start in New York City. Who has the power to coordinate all of these exercises? Osama bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah? Dick Cheney and the White House National Security Council?

It is difficult to believe that it is a bizarre "coincidence" that the military and CIA were conducting wargames similar to 9/11 on September 11, 2001. While it seems likely, if not blatantly obvious, that these war games were one of the means used to confuse the air defense system for sufficient time to allow the World Trade Center to be attacked, the war games do not answer the question of how the air defenses were suppressed for another half hour after the second tower was hit (at which time everyone knew that an attack was in progress). The Air Force had another half hour after the second tower to scramble interceptors to defend the Capitol (the plane that is alleged to have hit the Pentagon made its 180 degree turn over Ohio to head back toward D.C. about the time that the second tower was struck).

http://www.oilempire.us/wargames.html

Crossing the Rubicon
Simplifying the case against Dick Cheney

© Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.

by
Michael Kane


Additional war games on 9/11 included Northern Vigilance, an exercise that pulled Air Force fighters from the east coast of the United States up into Canada and Alaska simulating an attack out of Russia. All of those fighters were rendered useless as the 9/11 plot unfolded - too far away to respond.

One of the components of this drill included "false blips" (radar injects simulating aircraft in flight) placed on FAA radar screens. 21 At one point FAA head Jane Garvey said they suspected up to 11 hijackings on 9/11. Was she saying they couldn't determine which were real, which were simulated, and which were live-fly military exercises?

Regardless, all of this rendered Air Force response on 9/11 useless.

In Air War Over America it is documented that General Arnold of NORAD didn't pull out of the war game titled Vigilant Guardian until reports of flight 93 being hijacked were coming in. That was at 9:16, a total of 54 minutes after it was known that flight 11 was a hijacking. 22 What took so long? Were there still "false blips" on FAA radar screens at this time?

There were likely false blips on screen even after 9:16. The Kean Commission's report introduced "phantom flight-11" as being reported by the FAA at 9:25 on 9/11. The FAA reported flight 11 was heading to Washington D.C. at that time when in fact it had already struck the World Trade Center. The Kean Commission's report stated they were "unable to locate the source of the mistaken FAA information." 23

"Phantom flight-11" was a false blip, but since the war games are classified, specific information on "false blips" and other details can't be reported.

Now imagine being an air traffic controller with both real planes and "false blips" simulating hijackings on your screens when suddenly there are real, multiple, hijackings. Where do you send the few Air Force fighters that you have? You can't guess wrong, you don't have enough assets for that. The FAA doesn't even make that decision, the military does. The Kean Commission managed to scapegoat the FAA in their report, but the Air Force itself confirmed the FAA did its job properly on 9/11 in Air War Over America. 24

War games, terror drills and exercises are run by the military quite frequently. In this case, they mirrored the real attacks of 9/11 with such shocking congruence as to be beyond the realm of coincidence.

This is made clear when we consider the warnings that had flooded U.S. Intelligence prior to 9/11, indicating that terrorists were planning to hijack aircraft and crash them into American targets on the ground during the week of September 9th, 2001. 25 With that type of information, who in their right mind would then schedule war games that would leave New York and Washington D.C. completely undefended?

We've already shown that the man in charge of managing all such programs was Dick Cheney. Among the central decision-makers for the scheduling of so many simultaneous exercises would be Dick Cheney and Ralph Eberhart, head of NORAD.

It certainly was a perfect "match."

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011805_simplify_case.shtml

[StefanX]

63. "False Blips" and "Northern Vigilance"...

This information is absolutely horrifying.

[robertpaulsen]

77. I agree with you too! Phantom Flight 11 is a 21st century magic bullet.

When I read the piss-poor excuse by the 9/11 Commission in their "Report" that they were "unable to locate the source of the mistaken FAA information", I threw the book down. Obviously, they never bothered to look.

Sorry I didn't clarify my own position on 9/11 in the previous post, I agree with Ruppert that Cheney's control of the wargames is the MIHOP smoking gun. Most of the bold highlights that I copied from Edmonds deal with the aspects of US 9/11 financial complicity, which I think falls more into the LIHOP category. Of course, considering how often Sibel Edmonds uses the dread word treason to describe their activities, it would not surprise me if she had proof of MIHOP.

Here's another incident that should be receiving more attention in light of Karl Rove's penchant for lying. Did you know he lied about 9/11? He did, the only question is did he lie about White House codes being broken, or did he lie to cover up the truth that 9/11 was an inside job? Here's the story:

New York Times columnist William Safire, a one-time Nixon aide and fixture within the Republican Party, suggested that Bush had panicked and all but abandoned his post in the first hours of the crisis. Writing in a September 12 op-ed piece, Safire said, “Even in the first horrified moments, this was never seen as a nuclear attack by a foreign power. Bush should have insisted on coming right back to the Washington area, broadcasting—live and calm—from a secure facility not far from the White House.”

Stung by such criticisms, Bush’s chief political strategist Karl Rove and other top administration officials worked feverishly to reassure the political, corporate and military establishment, and bolster Bush’s authority among the population at large. By the afternoon of September 12, the Associated Press and Reuters were carrying stories, widely circulated throughout the media, that were intended to diffuse criticism of Bush’s actions the previous day. They quoted a White House spokesperson saying, “There was real and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were targets of terrorist attacks and that the plane that hit the Pentagon was headed for the White House.” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer repeated this claim at an afternoon news briefing that same day, saying the Secret Service had “specific and credible information” that the White House and Air Force One were potential targets.

In a further column in the New York Times on September 13, entitled “Inside the Bunker,” Safire described a conversation with an unnamed “high White House official,” who told him, “A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that ‘Air Force One is next.’” Safire continued: “According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible.”

snip

One thing is clear: the government lied to the people of America and the world. Either it lied on September 12 when it issued the story of the threat to Air Force One, or it lied two weeks later when it retracted the story. The millions of people who are being told they must accept unbridled militarism and the gutting of their democratic rights in the name of a holy war against terrorism must draw the appropriate conclusions from this indisputable fact.

more...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/bush-s28_prn.shtml

[cthrumatrix]

64. if americans knew they would disband the govt.... this is why the media

will NOT touch her.

Criminals are running our govt ............

[rodeodance]

69. letting it happen--yes.

[cascadiance]

32. .

:kick:

[Mr Rabble]

37. Man am I scared for her. She is one brave lady. nt

[Burried News]

52. She needs to stay visible in the media.

[Zhade]

38. Kick

Kick

[faithnotgreed]

39. my kind of american - sibel edmonds

we are beyond lucky to have her in our midst
lets pray it stays that way

[cascadiance]

40. .

:kick:

[cascadiance]

47. .

:kick:

[Burried News]

53. I keep thinking Sibel Edmonds is like Salman Rushdie.

On the lamb for truth.

[cascadiance]

55. Though my guess is that Cat Stevens (aka Yusuf Islam) likes Sibel

a lot more than he liked Salman Rushdie! :)

[Independent_Liberal]

54. Kick!

[Frederik]

56. Drugs and semi-allies

Even after Sept. 11, covering up these investigations and not pursuing some of these investigations because the Department of State says, "You know what, you can't pursue this because that may deal with this particular country. If this country that the investigation deals with are not one of the Axis of Evil, we don't want to pursue them." The American people have the right to know this. They are giving this grand illusion that there are some investigations, but there are none. You know, they are coming down on these charities as the finance of al-Qaeda. Well, if you were to talk about the financing of al-Qaeda, a very small percentage comes from these charity foundations. The vast majority of their financing comes from narcotics. Look, we had 4 to 6 percent of the narcotics coming from the East, coming from Pakistan, coming from Afghanistan via the Balkans to the United States. Today, three or four years after Sept. 11, that has reached over 15 percent. How is it getting here? Who are getting the proceedings from those big narcotics?

SH: Perhaps the same people who make it illegal to drive up the price? Maybe not, I don't know. Now listen, when you talk about the State Department cites diplomatic ties to foreign countries they would prefer not be stepped on. I'm sorry, but the word "Israel" is just screaming inside of my head here. I guess you can't give me any indication "yes" or "no" if that's what you're talking about?

SE: Well, one of the interesting things about the Vanity Fair article… I don't know how many people picked up on that. But they're saying Turkish countries. It's plural people. And to say OK, we're looking at this region of the world that nobody is referring to the War Against Terror. OK, you're looking at Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and these are the countries that now we are busy establishing bases in. And a large portion of their GDP depends on narcotics, and there is a huge al-Qaeda presence in their countries. We don't hear anything about Balkan countries, and again, their direct ties and direct relevance to al-Qaeda. They are not even naming these countries. The role that Pakistan played before and the role that Pakistan is playing today. So, as I have said before, there are several countries, there are several organizations, and you can't just isolate one country or one organization.

[Frederik]

57. Treason is the Reason

SH: I want to get to your appearance on Democracy Now! earlier in the week, referring to officials at the State Department, you used the word "treason." And I wonder whether this is specifically referring to the Sept. 11 attacks and whether you have information that indicates complicity on the part of American elites who are part of these semi-legit organizations that funded Sept. 11, or are we talking seven degrees of Kevin Bacon here?

SE: Again, it's hard to talk about this around the gag order, but this is what I have been saying for the past three years, that's why I refer to the transcript of CBS 60 Minutes. These people who call themselves Americans and these people are using their position, their official position within these agencies – some of them in the Department of Defense, some of them in the Department of State – and yet, what they are doing with their position, with their influence is against the United States' national security, it's against the best interests of its people, and that is treason. Be it giving information to those that are either quasi-allies – and I would underline quasi, who one day will be another al-Qaeda – and who are already engaged in activities that are damaging to our country, its security and its interests – and that is treason. So that's what I was referring to. And what would you call someone who, let's say if they were to go after Douglas Feith, and if they were to establish that Douglas Feith with his access to information, willingly, intentionally used the information he had and gave it to those that would one day use it or maybe right now are using that information against the United States. Would you call that treason?

SH: Well, if it's an overt act to benefit an American enemy then yes, that's treason.

SE: Correct, and I as I said, those lines are so blurry because there are certain countries that we call allies but I wouldn't call them allies, these people are, these countries are, quasi-allies.

[nomatrix]

92. Question to those who have read Sibel statements

Has she ever named or eluded to "slam dunk" Tenet?

I ask this for several reasons.

(1) The Douglas Feith references above.

(2) The "Dead Wrong" CNN program dumped all the blame on him.

(3) Her references to years prior.


To elaborate, 9/2000 issue TIME (U.S.S. Cole bombing) pg. 37

George Tenet pictured with Albright & Arafat in Gaza City

The Diplo-Spy
by Douglas Waller

-snip-

"That the head of the CIA was there at all was something of an astonishment. But in his three years as chief of the agency, the former National Security Council aide has rewritten his job description. Tenet is far less deskbound than his predecessors, ready to leave the security of the Langley, Va., headquarters for the action of the field. And though he's been working to clean up the inside of the agency-helping it adjust to post-cold war spying missions-he's also been a dramatic outside presence. President Clinton, for example, regularly calls on Tenet to chat with Arafat, relying on a loose friendship between the two men that dates back almost three years.

CIA hands grumble that their director has no business playing the diplomat. How can he give Clinton unbiased intelligence on whether Middle East peace initiatives are succeeding or failing if he has a stake in their success? The White House, at least, sees no conflict with its top spy moonlighting. "He winds up providing better intelligence" because he works more closely with the region's leaders, insists a Clinton aide. So Tenet will keep his seat at the negotiating table-to say nothing of his proximity to the front lines."


I find old issues of magazines at the library for a nickel. Well worth the references when making historical checks. Goggle doesn't always have online what will jump out in pictures.

Did you know, Islamic Army of Yemen, is headed by Bin Laden's brother?
(Sneak Attack article, pg 44 same issue)

Programs like "Dead Wrong" or National Geographics "9/11" present it as if it was some great surprise to this adminstration of terrorist actions, when issues that scream "TERROR" from 2000 say otherwise.

[Al-CIAda]

58. .

[cascadiance]

61. .

:kick:

[cascadiance]

65. .

:kick:

[cascadiance]

66. Kick, plus a new article...

here in the Vero Beach Press (requires a subscription registration) which may or may not be related. Sounds like someone's trying to help protect whistleblowers down there... I'm really trying to avoid more spam and don't want it from these guys. Bugmenot doesn't have a useful account either.

http://reg.tcpalm.com/tcp/web/loginForm?from=www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,2545,TCP_16736_4022230,00.html

The google summaries don't say much, but it does sound like they are looking for Sibel's NSWBC to help out if I"m reading google hits right...

[Karenina]

67. Kick!

:kick:

[rosesaylavee]

71. ANOTHER gutsy woman in the news

Anyone noticing that women are taking the lead in confronting the stupidity going on? Cindy Sheehan, Nancy Petosi, Barbara Boxer, Sibel Edmonds...

[JohnyCanuck]

75. Yup, that fact has been noted and commented on

by other DUers, myself included. You can also add to your list another very outspoken and courageous lady, Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

C-SPAN will be broadcasting the entirety of the McKinney congressional briefing on 9/11

Representative Cynthia McKinney organized a day-long briefing on July 22 to address the 9/11 Commission's Final Report one year later. The event included leading victims' family members, former government and intelligence workers, academics and authors speaking on the flaws and weaknesses of the 9/11 Commission's investigation, assumptions, omissions, conclusions and recommendations. It was filmed in entirety by C-SPAN.

C-SPAN has now set some times and dates for airing the event. They will air on C-SPAN2 from 8:00 pm to 11:30 pm on Wednesday, August 31 and from 8:00 pm to 1:00 am on Friday, September 2.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/081205_mckinney_911_cspan.shtml

[Al-CIAda]

72. .

[Al-CIAda]

74. .

[cascadiance]

76. New from the Village Voice: "Errors of Commission" by James Ridgeway

A story just out now from this magazine on their site...

Talks about how now the Righ Wing is trying to shift the blame on Clinton by saying he had knowledge of Atta earlier and didn't do anything about it. A lot of pointing fingers in many directions here in this article...

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0534,mondo1,67096,6.html

Mondo Washington
Errors of Commission
The hijacking of the probe into the 9-11 hijackers
by James Ridgeway, with Natalie Wittlin
August 23rd, 2005 11:49 AM

Whether or not U.S. military intelligence was prevented by Pentagon superiors from alerting the FBI to the presence of Mohammed Atta in 1998, there is little doubt the U.S. was well aware of the infamous hijacker by then. The Republican right wing is raising the Atta issue at a time when Bush is sinking in the polls, people are fed up with Iraq, and there are continuing questions about the administration's handling of 9-11 and the war on terror. One way to take some of the heat off is to shift the blame to Bill Clinton.

In his book Countdown to Terror, Republican Congressman Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, lays the blame for our lousy intelligence on Clinton: "Given the intelligence community's poor track record and the political corruption of the intelligence process during the Clinton administration, the intelligence community's failure to detect and stop the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington seems inevitable. "

By 1998, Atta was living in a Hamburg apartment (later found to be an Al Qaeda cell) and under surveillance by German intelligence. The Germans were passing along what they knew to the CIA. There are suggestions that Atta may have been known to U.S. intelligence as far back as 1993 and, according to the German press, the CIA itself had other people in the apartment under surveillance. This raises the question of whether this cell might not have been taken out well before 9-11.

In 2004, the German prosecutor who was in charge of the investigation was scheduled to testify about this Hamburg cell to the 9-11 Commission. But his testimony was unexpectedly canceled. The documents from the investigation are reported to be missing.

...

[G_j]

78. ~kICk~

[cascadiance]

79. Here's an interesting "analysis" of this interview and others on uruknet

From:
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m14974&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Sibel Edmonds and the war in Washington
Xymphora

August 23, 2005

From an interview by Scott Horton (SH) with Sibel Edmonds (SE):

"SH: Okay, I'm going to go ahead and name some people whom I suspect inside the State Department and the Pentagon, and I suppose you won't be able to answer affirmative or negative on any of these, but I'm very curious when I read about this kind of corruption going on in the State Department, I immediately think of John Bolton and David Wurmser. Do those names mean anything to you?

SE: Well, first of all, I'm not going to answer that question at all, but also you should pay attention to the fact that some of these people have been there for a while, and some of these people had their roots in there even in the mid-1990s.

SH: So more career officials rather than political appointees.

SE: Or maybe a mixture of both."


Who is she referring to? The United States has a peculiar habit of completely changing government officials from administration to administration - is that habit unique amongst sophisticated countries? - and it is quite unusual for a senior bureaucrat to survive from a Democrat President's administration to a Republican President's administration. Who survived from Clinton to Bush? The most prominent figure I can think of is Marc Grossman, who had until his recent retirement and cashing in been Bush's Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. Grossman had met with Pakistani General Mahmoud Ahmed when Ahmed was visiting Washington in the week before September 11, 2001. He had had a long career as a professional diplomat, and had been Clinton's ambassador to Turkey (remember that Edmonds' allegations refer to translations of Turkish documents for the FBI). He was appointed by Clinton to be Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs in 1997. From 1984 to 1986, he had been the Deputy Director of the Private Office of Lord Carrington, then Secretary General of NATO. The husband and wife team that Edmonds has fingered for wrongdoing are USAF Major Douglas Dickerson and Melek Can (aka Jan Dickerson). Douglas Dickerson, who had been working for the USAF selling American weapons systems to the 'Stans, was protected by posting him to NATO in Belgium. In the longer version of her interview (the thread, also contains information on the allegations made concerning Turkish bribes to Dennis Hastert), Edmonds said:

"Well, what is interesting with Vanity Fair article, I don't know how many people picked up on that, but they're saying Turkic - Turkish counTRIES. It's a plural, people. And to look and say, OK, you're looking at this region of the world that nobody is referring to in the War Against Terror. OK, you're looking at Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhistan and Uzbekistan, and these are the countries that now we are busy establishing bases in. And a large portion of their GDP depends on narcotics. And there's a presence, Al Qaida presence, in these countries. We don't hear anything about Balkan countries and, again, their direct ties and their direct relevance to Al Qaida. They are not even naming these countries. The role that Pakistan played before and the role that Pakistan is playing today. So, as I said, as I have said before, there are several countries, there are several organizations, and not just say, isolate just one country or one organization."

...

[robertpaulsen]

80. Well well well. Another Plame-Edmonds link with Grossman!

Marc Grossman, of course, is the infamous State Department Undersecretary who requested the memo brought aboard Air Force One containing the "secret" information about Valerie Plame that susequently leaked:

Plame's Identity Marked As Secret
Memo Central to Probe Of Leak Was Written By State Dept. Analyst

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 21, 2005; A01


A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

snip

The memo was drafted June 10, 2003, for Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, who asked to be brought up to date on INR's opposition to the White House view that Hussein was trying to buy uranium in Africa.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002517_pf.html

So if Grossman asked for it, who drafted it? I'll bet Sibel has a pretty good idea.

Thanks for the analysis!

[robertpaulsen]

90. Try googling Marc Grossman, then press I'm feeling lucky.

Hint: you won't get lucky.

http://www.state.gov/error_404.html

[JohnyCanuck]

81. kick n/t

[RBHam]

82. The 9-11 myths have no gag order.

They're even making movies based on these Government lies and propaganda.

[hootinholler]

85. Um, Something just occurred to me...

Please correct me if I don't have this right.

Fitzpatrick is a surrogate Attorney General. Sibel has publicly stated she has information germane to his investigations.

Does Fitzpatrick have the authority to lift the gag at least in respect to his case? Seems like he should.

-Hoot

[cascadiance]

86. .

:kick:

[Al-CIAda]

87. .

[JohnyCanuck]

88. kick n/t

[Al-CIAda]

89. .

[cascadiance]

91. kick and another article...

I started another thread, in case some of y'all haven't seen it yet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4444241

which has an article that didn't show up on earlier google news search hits. The article looks to make the case that Hastert's Turkish buddies were also tied to Al Queda as well. Some interesting juxtaposing of various other article content of Sibel Edmonds there to try and arrive at that conclusion. I'm curious what some others' take on it is.

[robertpaulsen]

93. Great find calidependence!

Not sure why no one else saw it. This is very important!

[cascadiance]

94. I think everyone like me does searches through Google News

This one didn't show up and I suspect wasn't scraped by Google's news bots. That's probably why none of us found it earlier.

I just happened upon it today when doing some browsing through "Web search" hits with some other more confined search criteria. Looked pretty interesting, and it turned out to be pretty good.

I think this just goes to show you (like my earlier concern that Google was being "gagged" at one point) how us relying on Google to have all of the decent alternative news sources being scraped is a dangerous assumption. That is a lifeline that needs to be reinforced in this very important time of needing to gather news. We really need a progressive search engine that tries to scrape all of the news sources that Google scrapes and more (radioleft, etc.). If any of you know of one hiding out there in the woodwork that we can start all using and giving site hits too, please let us know.

[robertpaulsen]

95. That's really a great idea!

A progressive search engine. I don't know of any site that does that. I like going to commondreams.org but they don't have that. We should put one here on DU!

[cascadiance]

96. It's a lot bigger job than it sounds...

I actually work for Yahoo. Not involved with the search parts of it, but I'm sure it would require some big funding and a lot of people to do it right. Google has had a whole array of machines that has most of its search hits (the cached stuff) stored in raw memory. A lot of money needed for that. Still, if we confine the spidering of this engine to certain subset of sites (but still hopefully "complete" enough for our purposes), perhaps we can limit the size and scope of such a project.

[cascadiance]

101. Just had an idea on this...

Don't know if you've looked at Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), but it is kind of an interesting search engine in that it amalgamates search results from multiple other search engines like Yahoo, Google, etc. together (weeds out duplicates, etc.) to put up one big search hit list of results.

If we were to put together a list of sites that we would want to get spidered in terms of news stories for their alternative news content, and put together a search engine for that, perhaps we could talk to Dogpile about them combining the results from this search engine with their results to give us a more complete search in that instance. That way an article like this would show up in their hit list.

Then we'd only have to find sites that aren't being spidered by any of the major search engines, and spider them ourselves and not try to be a "complete" search engine ourselves. Perhaps we could start a thread of different sites that people have found to have useful info but which aren't being spidered (Huffington Post, citizenspook.com, radioleft.com, Brad's Blog, etc.).

I'm willing to bet that Dogpile would love to have us do this, as it would make their engine that much more hit than google would be (until Google finds a way to include these other sites in their hits too).

If you think this is a good idea, then one of us should start a separate thread on this here someplace.

[robertpaulsen]

97. Kick for Sibel!

:kick:

[Al-CIAda]

100. .

[Al-CIAda]

102. .

[faithnotgreed]

103. sibel

[rrrevolution]

104. OK, she cannot violate the gag order, but ......

If there were a definitive written summary that had been prepared before the gag order was issued, AND
If that written summary was not in her possession at the time the gag order was issued, AND
If that written summary came into the possession of a foreign news service or journalist
-- THEN they certainly could publish it outside the reach of US authorities.

Once published it cannot be put back under the gag order, and it would take no time to travel across the internet.

This would also provide her with a semblance of protection since it is guaranteed that the parties likely to want her dead would have been identified. Hard to pull of those quiet executions when you have been named in advance.

Just a what if scenario all whistleblowers might want to consider

[robertpaulsen]

105. Another kick for Sibel!

:kick:

[Al-CIAda]

106. .

[cascadiance]

107. Kick AGAIN!

:kick:

[cascadiance]

108. Kickin'

:kick:

[cascadiance]

109. A post on the Hastert situation from the Armenian community...

Here's a Usenet post that is speculating what may be going on with the Hastert situation. Not a lot new here, except some degree of incredulity that the U.S. government would have in place that much espionage efforts covering the various Turkish targets that they observe being covered here...

From:
http://groups.google.com/group/soc.culture.usa/browse_thread/thread/f457dcc18a8cb293/bbbfed8e7c906967?lnk=st&q=%22WHY+IS+FBI+SPYING+ON+TURKS%3F%22&rnum=1&hl=en#bbbfed8e7c906967

WHY IS FBI SPYING ON TURKS?: TURKISH AGENTS BRIBING U.S. OFFICIALS

Aug 18, 2:20 pm

TURKISH OFFICIAL TALKS OF BRIBING HOUSE SPEAKER TO KILL GENOCIDE BILL

Vanity Fair is reporting in its September 2005 issue that a Turkish
diplomat spoke about arranging for $500,000 in illegal payments to
House Speaker Dennis Hastert in order to kill a congressional
resolution on the Armenian Genocide, in the fall of 2000.

Joel Robertz, an F.B.I. special agent in Chicago, had asked Sibel
Edmonds, one of F.B.I's Turkish interpreters, to review more than 40
recorded conversations of "a senior official" at the Turkish Consulate
in Chicago, as well as members of the American-Turkish Council and the
Assembly of Turkish American Associations in Washington, D.C.,
according to Vanity Fair.

The subject of the wiretapped conversations sounded like attempts to
bribe several members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans.
"Some of the calls reportedly contained what sounded like references to
large scale drug shipments and other crimes," the magazine said.

In the wiretaps, the Turkish callers frequently used the nickname
"Denny boy," to refer to the Republican Congressman from Illinois,
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The Turks monitored by the F.B.I.
said they had "arranged for tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to
Hastert's campaign funds in small checks. Under Federal Election
Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are not required to be
itemized in public filings. Hastert himself was never heard in these
conversations," Vanity Fair's David Rose wrote.

The magazine's examination of Speaker Hastert's federal filings for
the years 1996-2002 showed his campaign committee to have received
close to $500,000 in un-itemized payments - the second highest amount
in such contributions for all Congressmen. Vanity Fair stated that
there was no evidence that such payments were in fact made by these
Turkish subjects. "Nevertheless, a senior official at the Turkish
Consulate is said to have claimed in one recording that
the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at
least $500,000."

...

By Harut Sassounian; Publisher, The California Courier