Scott Horton Interviews Sibel Edmonds and Luke Ryland

Sibel Edmonds and Luke Ryland discuss the London Times series on her case and the international nuclear black-market network surrounding A.Q. Kahn, the U.S. government’s total clamp-down by gag orders even against Congress, the American foreign policy hypocrisy of demonizing certain nuclear ambitions and supporting others, the military-industrial-congressional complex revolving door, the bipartisan lack of enthusiasm in pursuing whistleblower cases, the movie about Sibel’s case “Kill The Messenger,” and how it only takes one congressman to call her to testify to blow the case wide open.

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

tuesday reads

Luke Ryland interviews Sibel Edmonds


Kenya slides toward a civil war.


Glenn Greenwald on yesterday's FISA vote which failed 48-45 on the motion of cloture.


Islamic militants known as the Pakistani Taliban have extended their reach across all seven of Pakistan's frontier tribal regions and have infiltrated Peshawar, the provincial capital, heightening U.S. concerns that an insurrection may be broadening in the nuclear-armed nation.


Protesters who re-enacted one of Blackwater's worst civilian massacres in Iraq got jail time, while the real killers remain free.


The Washington Independent:CIA Largely in the Dark on Interrogation Tactics


James Carroll: Our one-way trip to disaster

YOU AND everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified - but your reactions are irrelevant.

Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing. Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address.

Brewster Jennings compromised by mole in 2001

The Sunday Times: Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe

AN investigation into the illicit sale of American nuclear secrets was compromised by a senior official in the State Department, a former FBI employee has claimed.

The official is said to have tipped off a foreign contact about a bogus CIA company used to investigate the sale of nuclear secrets.

The firm, Brewster Jennings & Associates, was a front for Valerie Plame, the former CIA agent. Her public outing two years later in 2003 by White House officials became a cause célèbre.

[snip]

One group of Turkish agents who had come to America on the pretext of researching alternative energy sources was introduced to Brewster Jennings through the Washington-based American Turkish Council (ATC), a lobby group that aids commercial ties between the countries. Edmonds says the Turks believed Brewster Jennings to be energy consultants and were planning to hire them.

But she said: “He [the State Department official] found out about the arrangement . . . and he contacted one of the foreign targets and said . . . you need to stay away from Brewster Jennings because they are a cover for the government.

Lost In Translation

Sibel Edmonds interviewed by Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes - Lost In Translation

sibel edmonds - lost in translation - part 1


sibel edmonds - lost in tarnslation - part 2


sibel edmonds - lost in translation - part 3


sibel edmonds - lost in translation - part 4

Found in Translation

Former CIA case officer Philip Giraldi on Sibel Edmonds in The American Conservative:

Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistleblower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels—sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fabulist, but Edmonds’s account is full of dates, places, and names. And if she is to be believed, a treasonous plot to embed moles in American military and nuclear installations and pass sensitive intelligence to Israeli, Pakistani, and Turkish sources was facilitated by figures in the upper echelons of the State and Defense Departments. Her charges could be easily confirmed or dismissed if classified government documents were made available to investigators.

But Congress has refused to act, and the Justice Department has shrouded Edmonds’s case in the state-secrets privilege, a rarely used measure so sweeping that it precludes even a closed hearing attended only by officials with top-secret security clearances. According to the Department of Justice, such an investigation “could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the United States.”

[snip]

Charismatic and articulate, the 37-year-old Edmonds has deftly worked the system to get as much of her story out as possible, on one occasion turning to French television to produce a documentary entitled “Kill the Messenger.” Passionate in her convictions, she has sometimes alienated her own supporters and ridden roughshod over critics who questioned her assumptions. But despite her shortcomings in making her case and the legitimate criticism that she may be overreaching in some of her conclusions, Edmonds comes across as credible. Her claims are specific, fact-based, and can be documented in detail. There is presumably an existing FBI file that could demonstrate the accuracy of many of her charges.

Official Documents Prove FBI lied to protect US officials

The Sunday Times (UK): The FBI has been accused of covering up a file detailing government dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets

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

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

[snip]

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

Luke Ryland and Daniel Ellsberg have more.

For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets

Sibel Edmonds talks to The Sunday Times

A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.

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

[snip]

She claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names – who were aiding foreign agents.

Luke Ryland and The Brad Blog have tons of analysis and background.

Sibel Edmonds' State Secrets Privilege Gallery

friday reads

Barack Obama Iowa Caucus Vicory Speech


Juan Cole: Iraq, the Youth Vote, Women and Iowa
Guadian Unlimited: Iowa upsets deliver wins for Huckabee and Obama
Ariana Huffington: Whay Everyone Has a Reason to Celebrate Tonight
McClatchy analysis: Iowa sent the country a message Thursday night: We want change!
Don't forget Wyoming


Sibel Edmonds Case: 'Obstruction' & the 911 Commission


Payrolls rose by 18,000, capping the worst year for job creation since 2003, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate increased to 5 percent from 4.7 percent in November, while the Institute for Supply Management said growth in U.S. service industries cooled last month.


Truce monitors banished in Sri Lanka

thursday reads

Rep. John Conyers is demanding a special counsel with a "full investigative mandate" in the CIA destroyed tapes case.


Sibel Edmonds Case: Benazir and the 'Islamic' Bomb


Conservative courts likely to be Bush legacy

After nearly seven years in the White House, President Bush has named 294 judges to the federal courts, giving Republican appointees a solid majority of the seats, including a 60%-to-40% edge over Democrats on the influential U.S. appeals courts.

The rightward shift on the federal bench is likely to prove a lasting legacy of the Bush presidency, since many of these judges -- including his two Supreme Court appointees -- may serve for two more decades.

And despite the Republicans' loss of control of the Senate, 40 of Bush's judges won confirmation this year, more than in the previous three years when Republicans held the majority.

At least 10 anti-war demonstrators were arrested yesterday during protests in Des Moines over the lack of debate on the war on Iraq in the election campaign.

Sibel Edmonds Update

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

more explosive than the Pentagon Papers

Brad Blog

"I'd say what she has is far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers," Daniel Ellsberg told us in regard to former FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

"From what I understand, from what she has to tell, it has a major difference from the Pentagon Papers in that it deals directly with criminal activity and may involve impeachable offenses," Ellsberg explained. "And I don't necessarily mean the President or the Vice-President, though I wouldn't be surprised if the information reached up that high. But other members of the Executive Branch may be impeached as well. And she says similar about Congress."

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

monday reads

Sibel Edmonds prepared to tell all


New York Times Magazine: The Evangelical Crackup


Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination


Thousands march against the war in S.F., across the country


The Air Force has been forced to use Russian commercial cargo jets to rush mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles from the U.S. to Iraq because it does not have enough C-5 and C-17 planes to do the job, the service’s top civilian official said recently.

The commander of the fast-attack submarine Hampton was fired Thursday for what officials said was a “loss of confidence in his ability to command.” The relief comes amid reports that crew members skipped necessary chemical tests on the boat’s nuclear reactor and then forged the records to make it look as though those tests were completed.

A Navy commander accused of striking a sailor and then forcing his crew to deny the incident will not be going to court-martial. Instead, the matter was resolved through an “administrative proceeding,” Navy Region Mid Atlantic spokesman Mike Giannetti said.


Are rising obesity rates linked to U.S. farm aid?


MissLaura reviews Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy


Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin

Sibel Edmonds and 911

Sibel Edmonds case: The real culprits of 911

As we approach another 911 anniversary, it's time we learnt:
1) Who are these mid and high-level al-Qaida operatives?
2) What role did they play in planning 911?
3) What operational support did they provide?
4) Why they are still roaming free today?
5) Why did the US authorities continually exclude key participants from the official narrative?

The Highjacking of a Nation

Sibel Edmonds

Part 1: The Foreign Agent Factor

Part 2: The Auctioning of Former Statesmen & Dime a Dozen Generals

Kafka-esque

Sibel Edmonds, Nsa Spying, State Secrets and Kafka

tuesday reads

Lukery - Sibel Edmonds' case and the heroin connection

BooMan - Memory Hole: War, Intelligence, and the Mafia

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

Let Sibel Edmonds Speak