Sibel Edmonds Case: More Destruction of Evidence re Nuclear Black Market

Luke Ryland

It's remarkable, really.

The US government has taken some extreme measures to silence former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. Among other reasons, they are obviously very nervous about information that Sibel has regarding the involvement of US, Israeli, and Turkish officials in supplying the nuclear black market.

Now we have this: The US Government apparently demanded that the Swiss government destroy all evidence - all 30,000 pages of it - related to the pending prosecution of the Tinner family. The Tinners were "very key suppliers" of AQ Khan's nuclear proliferation network, but their court case is now unlikely to proceed, given the destruction of the evidence.

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

friday reads

The US is holding hostage some $50bn (£25bn) of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.


McClatchy: Did Iranian agents dupe Pentagon officials?

Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

A top aide to then-secretary of defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Paul Alexander: How Karl Rove played politics while people drowned


Tomgram: William Astore, Militarizing Your Cyberspace


Chris Hedges: What it means when the US goes to war


LA Times - 40 years later: The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy


The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.


Three businessmen at the centre of one of the biggest and longest-running frauds in banking history received stiff prison sentences yesterday after their £350m edifice of deceit was brought tumbling down by a fax sent to the wrong office.


Would You Believe Copyright Infringement Notices Are Based On Faulty Information?


A Tale of Two Speeches


The Drive-In Theater Turns 75


It's not a 'tumour'.

friday random ten

Photo by Ryan McManus


eleven



Let Me Through
The Ugly Beats
Take a Stand (2007)



Margaret's Injection
Kitchens of Distinction
Love is Hell (1989)



Le solstice
Karkwa
Le volume du vent (2008)



Kill the Hosers
Dayglo Abortions
Feed Us a Fetus (1985)



On the Move
Whispertown2000
Livin' in a Dream (2006)



International Badminton Championship: La P’Tite Grise vs. Jef
The Sainte Catherines
Dancing for Decadence (2006)



No Message
Appie Kim
(=AOK) (2007)



Ash
Thee Michelle Gun Elephant
Gear Blues (1998)



Guy Le Superhero
Trost
Trust Me (2006)



White Revolving Circles
Helicopter Girl
Voodoo Chic (2004)



Fire Walk With Me
Sissy Wish
Tuning In (2005)



Songbird
The Audreys
When the Flood Comes (2008)


listen

Top Air Force Leaders Resign

Air Force Times

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael W. Wynne were forced to resign Thursday during hastily arranged meetings with their Pentagon bosses.

Moseley was summoned to an early morning meeting with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to discuss a report on the Air Force’s problems handling nuclear weapons. The report, by Navy Adm. Kirkland Donald, director of naval nuclear propulsion, convinced Defense Secretary Robert Gates that senior officials should be held accountable.

Moseley resigned in response.

Later in the morning, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England was dispatched to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to ask for Wynne’s resignation, sources said. Wynne resigned during the meeting.

No one could have predicted

Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true

A long-awaited Senate Select Intelligence Committee report made public Thursday concludes that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made public statements to promote an invasion of Iraq that they knew at the time were not supported by available intelligence.

A companion report found that a special office set up by then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld undertook "sensitive intelligence activities" that were inappropriate "without the knowledge of the Intelligence Community or the State Department."

[snip]

In some cases, the administration made statements that were not backed up at all, the report found.

"Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information," the report concluded.

More over at TMPMuckraker

thursday reads

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.


The US military's estimate of the number of US troops that will be left in Iraq after all US "surge" brigades are withdrawn is now 142,000, up from 140,000, a senior US military official said Thursday.


Dan Fromkin: Pushing Bush to Attack Iran


Siegelman Prosecution Continues to Unravel


Jon Swift on McCain: Make Sure You Have the Right Change


Papers Please

D.C. police will seal off entire neighborhoods, set up checkpoints and kick out strangers under a new program that D.C. officials hope will help them rescue the city from its out-of-control violence.

Under an executive order expected to be announced today, police Chief Cathy L. Lanier will have the authority to designate “Neighborhood Safety Zones.” At least six officers will man cordons around those zones and demand identification from people coming in and out of them. Anyone who doesn’t live there, work there or have “legitimate reason” to be there will be sent away or face arrest, documents obtained by The Examiner show.

wednesday reads

After an epic five-month battle that has transformed American politics, Barack Obama claimed the Democratic nomination last night, continuing his extraordinary quest to become the first African-American president in his country's history.

Barack Obama should not pick Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential nominee, former president Jimmy Carter has told the Guardian.

Hope vs. Dope

BAGNewsNotes: The Clinch

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama



Sibel Edmonds Case: ABC News investigates Hastert scandals and the Turkish Connections.


If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime powers trump federal criminal statutes and court oversight, according to a statement released by his campaign Monday.


Americans are putting more and more stuff into self-storage purgatory. It's now a $22 billion-per-year industry, but what does it mean for the soul?

tuesday reads

A United Nations summit on resolving the world's food crisis opened this morning with a call from Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, for world farm production to rise by 50 per cent by 2030 to meet growing demand.


South Korea's ruling party urged President Lee Myung Bak to consider replacing the health and agriculture ministers after two months of street protests against U.S. beef imports undermined his popularity.


Cheney builds an explosive case


Dan Froomkin: Vindication for the Bush Critique


Driftglass takes a look at Team Clinton's disturbing iconography.


The Chinese Dust Bowl


We are what we buy.


Bo Diddley (1928 - 2008)

monday reads

Tom Engelhardt - Presidential Bloodlust; The Movie-Made War World of George W. Bush


The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.


Sibel Edmonds Case: Dennis Hastert to receive payoffs for 'services rendered'


A bomb went off outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital today killing four people and wounding 14, police and a hospital official said.


Obama flips the flip-flopper narrative


The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that the cost of driving rises faster above 60 mph — adding nearly 20 cents per gallon for each additional 5 mph. The Alliance to Save Energy, in Washington, estimates that restricting speeds to 55 mph could reduce the use of oil imported from the Persian Gulf by up to 20 percent a day.