Sibel Edmonds: 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'

[lukery]

In the last few weeks, UK's Times has run a series of articles about the so-called 'Sibel Edmonds case.' (' For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, ' FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft' and ' Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe')

Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds stumbled into a world of espionage, nuclear black market, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and corruption at the highest levels of the US government.

I interviewed Sibel yesterday regarding the current investigation and reporting by the Times, the failures of the US media, and last week's decision by the Bush administration to legalize the sale of nuclear technology to Turkey, in an apparent to exonerate prior criminal activity by officials in his administration.

Sibel also has some urgent 'action items' so that we can stop these dangerous nuclear proliferation activities. I urge you to act on her suggestions.

*************

Luke Ryland: What do you have to say about the recent work by the Insight journalists - Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert, Joe Lauria - at the UK's Times?

Sibel Edmonds: They've done good, solid reporting so far by doing what reporters are supposed to. They have been chasing sources and getting their hands on documents. It's pretty simple. As you know, this story has been available to any journalist for six years now.

There's been a lot of speculation in the last few weeks that American reporters haven't touched this story because they are 'corporate owned' but it is wrong to exonerate these reporters so quickly. Many of them are too close to their official sources, and some are simply lazy. This Times team chases sources, and if they can't reach them one way, they'll try and try again, or they'll seek out alternate sources, or find other ways to ensure that they get the story.

When I hear from US reporters, they say 'Sibel, give us all the documents we'll need, and you line up all the sources for us, and then maybe we'll do a story' and if one source doesn't return their phone call, they simply give up. That's not journalism!


Luke Ryland: Why has the US failed on this story so dramatically for 6 years?

Sibel Edmonds: It's a combination of things, obviously. You need to consider that the entire US press corps has failed on this story; not only the regular print and TV media, but the alternative media has failed on this too.

Part of the reason is that journalists are simply too close to their official sources. Those sources might tell the journalist that there's nothing to the story, and so the journalist gives up on it, or the official sources might 'request' that the journalist to stay away from the story, and the journalist is then concerned about losing access to the source in the future.

Another reason is the partisanship. With the foreign press, there is no partisanship, and that's one reason why they have been more effective at covering this case, and I'm not just talking about the recent Times articles here. With the US media, it appears as though if there is no clear partisan angle, then there's no story. As you know, this case is spread over two administrations, and that appears to make it difficult for the reporters to cover the story. Even within one news organization you might have one journalist who wants to use the story to indict Clinton, and another who wants to use the story to bash Bush, and in the end neither of them write about the story because it doesn't fit their partisanship, their 'narrative', so they just drop it altogether.

I had such high hopes for the alternative press, and they do a lot of good work, but partisanship repeatedly gets in the way there too, on both sides.

The US media also suffers from a pack mentality. I was told by one executive that they weren't doing the story because it was 'old news' because 60 Minutes did a single segment in October 2002, even though they only covered a tiny part of the case. This executive literally told me that he'd only cover the story if it was 'hot and sexy.' I often think that I'd need to be able to hire Britney Spears to be a spokesperson - and this is not just for my case, but for any of the many other solid, important cases at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
Apparently this is what it would take to get any coverage.

Of course, given the pack mentality, if any of these stories does become 'hot and sexy' then all the journalists focus on the same issues and there's no differentiation in their reporting.

The other major problem in the US is the focus on symptoms, rather than root causes. My case is a good example, but there are lots of others too. Look at the early reporting on my case in 2002, the Washington Post broke the story in July 2002 about the espionage in the translation bureau and then they dropped the story after two weeks. They stopped reporting on it when more important information came out and the State Secrets Privilege was invoked. To this day not a single US reporter has asked 'Why was the State Secrets Privilege been invoked here? What is going on?'

Just this week I was approached by a major US outlet who wanted to do a story on Kevin Taskesen! <[em>Ed note: Taskesen was an incompetent FBI translator who got his job because his wife worked in the administrative office] This is absolutely the most trivial element of the case, and it has already been reported at length. I told them that they could learn everything they needed to know by watching 60 Minutes, 2002. Again, the US media needs to start looking at the root causes of these problems, not the symptoms.

Luke Ryland: Will the US media start reporting on this now that it is 'hot and sexy' again?

Sibel Edmonds: It's hard to know. After being told for years that they won't cover it because it is 'old news,' now there are certain officials in the agencies quietly telling journalists to stay away from the story because I came across a highly sensitive covert national security operation.

Also, Turkey's army of lobbyists in DC are very effective. The US press tends to stay away from any stories critical of Turkey, I would say even more than Israel.

There's also the possible problem of 'eating crow' but I hope this isn't an issue, this story is way too important for any of that. The information that has been published in the Times recently could have easily come out four years ago in the US press. We now need everyone to focus on the important issues.

I have one message for the US media: If they think this is over, it's not over. Much more will come out. They won't be able to ignore it any longer, and so I hope they get over any reluctance they might have.

Look at the positive press that the Times' series has received since their first article ran. Do you think their editors haven't noticed? The Times is adding more and more resources to the story, more journalists, bigger budgets, and more importantly, they are getting more and more sources coming forward to shed light on these illegal activities. As I have said from the beginning, this story is not about me, there are many sources who have been waiting for the right time to come forward, I've probably never even heard of most of them, and now they are coming forward. This will play out like Watergate played out, with the drip, drip, drip. So I say to everyone 'Buckle up, there's much more coming.'

So, hopefully American reporters will start to cover the story. I'm not particularly confident, but to a certain degree it doesn't matter that much because the internet and the blogs can spread the reporting from the UK as soon as it hits the wires.

Luke Ryland: Two weeks after the first article in the Times about the involvement of high-level US officials being involved with Turkish and Israeli interests in supplying the nuclear black market, President Bush quietly announced that the US will start supplying nuclear technology to Turkey. Do you think that is a coincidence?

Sibel Edmonds: The timing is certainly very, very suspicious. The proposals that are being floated are very suspicious too. There are reports that Turkey will build an enrichment facility, and that Turkey will become the key supplier of nuclear fuel to other Muslim countries who want nuclear power plants. None of this makes any sense.

And again, the US media is nowhere to be seen on this issue. Where are the journalists? Do you remember the noise made a couple of years ago when the US announced that it would supply India with nuclear technology? So far, nearly a week after the announcement and not a single major US media outlet has even reported on the deal! Think of the hypocrisy, with all the saber-rattling at Iran over enrichment.

If it's such a good idea to sell nuclear technology to Turkey, why isn't the White House out there selling the idea? Where are the arguments in the press saying that this will be good for regional stability, or that it will help reduce demand for oil, or even that it is simply good business because US firms will be able to sell their hardware and knowledge? There's nothing! Silence. What does that tell you?

Luke Ryland: What needs to be done?

Sibel Edmonds: The way they've structured this deal is that Congress has 90 days from the announcement, now 84 days, to block the 'agreement' otherwise it basically becomes law.

The first thing that we need to do is to make sure that this doesn't 'automatically' become law. We need the journalists, the experts, and the bloggers to raise hell over this issue, and we need to make sure that Congress investigates this properly before rubber-stamping it. The clock is ticking and we need to act now.

As you know, and this was even published in the White House press release on this issue, certain 'Turkish private entities' have been involved 'in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation.' This includes supplying the A.Q. Khan network - which built Pakistan's nuclear bomb, and also supplied North Korea, Iran and other countries - but as the recent Times stories indicate, so much more as well.

The White House press release states that all these issues have been resolved; that the Turkish government has addressed these issues, that the US government has evaluated these actions and that the US government is satisfied, and that all of this is secret, classified!

Given the track record of this administration in abusing classification and distorting intelligence, why on earth would we trust them with this? What is in the report? Is it truthful? Why is it classified? We saw these exact same people do the same thing in the late 80s when they enabled Pakistan to get nuclear weapons. Richard Barlow did his best to stop them then, but if Congress doesn't hold hearings this time around the same thing will happen again. We should have stopped Pakistan then, but unless this 'classified' report is made public and the contents publicly debated, then the Barlow of today won't even get the chance to debunk whatever is in that 'classified' report. What conceivable logic is there in classifying the details of how Turkey has cleaned up its act regarding nuclear proliferation? If they have, they should be proud of it!

There are many great anti-proliferation organizations out there, we need to rally all of them, and all of the 'pro-transparency' organizations, to this cause. We need journalists to contact these experts for their opinion and expertise, and we need these experts to contact journalists to ensure that the story, and the issues, is covered, and covered thoroughly.

We also need to recruit bloggers and alternative media to keep the pressure on. Perhaps a 'countdown clock' as we count down the 90 days might help.

Luke Ryland: What are the next steps in the process?

Sibel Edmonds: I'm not exactly sure of the process at the moment, but it has been reported that this 'automatically' becomes law after the 90 days, somehow, unless Congress blocks or amends the legislation.

Apparently the approval process somehow includes convincing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee not to object, so those committees appear to be our first firewall.

(Ed note: Senate Foreign Relations Committee includes Joe Biden (Chair), Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Barack Obama and Jim Webb for the Democrats, and Richard Lugar, Chuck Hagel and George Voinovich for the minority. Hopefully one of them will stand up on this important issue. The House side looks more difficult, the Chairman is Tom Lantos who was listed in Sibel's Rogue's Gallery, which apparently identifies 18 of the guilty parties in her case, so that might be a problem. Ron Paul is also on that committee, he might be a prime target for this campaign.)

Luke Ryland: Is there anything else we can do?

Sibel Edmonds: There is one other hope. As last week's White House press release states, Bill Clinton tried to pass this legislation in 2000 but "immediately after" Clinton tried to send it to Congress it was blocked because some people apparently highlighted Turkish involvement in the nuclear black market and, who knows, maybe threatened to blow the whistle. Those same individuals, and others like them, can stop this again, and they should do everything they can to make sure that this doesn't happen. They should try to do it internally, and if they can't do it internally, then they need reach out to journalists, either on or off the record. Hopefully some honest, dedicated people will try to block it again, but we can't rely on that. We need to pressure congress to ensure that this doesn't go through.

Time is running out, the countdown clock is ticking down, and we need to stop this now. We need the help of journalists, congress, nuclear proliferation experts, bloggers and those active citizens in the blogosphere and elsewhere.

--------------

Many thanks to Sibel, as always.

Please do what you can to help block this proposed legislation.

If you can create a 'countdown clock' please contact me, and we'll offer it so that everyone can place it on their blogs and use it in their sigs etc.

-------------
Regarding alternative media, Sibel is particularly grateful to American Conservative and Antiwardotcom for their objectivity and non-partisanship in covering this case. In particular, Phil Giraldi, Justin Raimondo, Joshua Franks and Scott Horton.

To reiterate Sibel's emphasis on the importance of the internet to help get the story out, Daily Kos statistics for the week Jan 19-25 have been released. During a primary week when many were (rightly) complaining that campaign diaries made it almost impossible for other issues to get any attention, diaries related to Sibel's case dominated the list. Sibel's story was both #1 and $2 for the week, and filled 3 of the top 11, and 4 of the top 25 diaries. Statistics at Democratic Underground will demonstrate the same level of interest in the case. Thank you to all of you, and I ask that you continue to support the case, and I ask that journalists and bloggers pick up the story and support the great work done by the Times. It's about time, no?

--------------

Cross-posted at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

( Email me if you want to be added to my Sibel email list. Subject: 'Sibel email list')

[davidwparker]

1. "highest levels of the US government" - Just like Iran/Contra.

[havocmom]

3. Of course. Lots of the same players that were around for Iran/Contra

SSDD

[robertpaulsen]

12. It IS Iran/Contra.

That's why Part Three of American Judas is titled:

Part Three: Ghorbanifar & Ledeen: Iran/Contra Redux

Since Plan A of having WMD planted by Iraqis for coalition forces to find failed in more ways than could possibly be expected, Plan B was intended, to paraphrase Patrick Fitzgerald’s description of Libby’s lying of his knowledge of Joseph Wilson’s wife, “to tell a story”. But this time, the storyteller was not Libby, or even Chalabi. Instead it is someone much darker from Iran/Contra infamy: Manucher Ghorbanifar. The story Ghorbanifar was trying to peddle, which detailed how an Iranian intelligence team infiltrated Iraq prior to the start of the war in March of 2003, and stole enriched uranium to use in their own nuclear weapons program, was part of an attempt to implicate both countries in a WMD plot. Though some, including Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA) were taken in by this con, the CIA thoroughly investigated the story spun by “Ali”, believed to be either Ghorbanifar or his agent, a former in the Shah’s Iran and a secretary to Ghorbanifar, Fereidoun Mahdavi. Though Ali succeeded in leading the CIA through multiple wild goose chases trying to prove his claims in what turned out to be an attempt to extract large sums of money, he did not succeed in selling this story, which was found to be not credible. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.html

To understand more completely how intricately woven the web of criminality is surrounding Ghorbanifar’s attempt to manipulate intelligence, it is necessary to understand how his history is connected with Michael Ledeen, and what a disturbing figure Ledeen is in his own right. Currently the main foreign policy advisor to Karl Rove http://www.sw-asia.com/People/Bio906.htm and a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Ledeen holds a Ph.D. in History and Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. His peculiar attitude toward whether the end justifies the means is evident in one of the many books he has authored, titled: "Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli's Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago." He is a former employee of the Pentagon, the State Department and the National Security Council. As a consultant working with NSC head Robert McFarlane, he was involved in the transfer of arms to Iran during the Iran/Contra scandal. http://www.alternet.org/story/15860/ Ledeen acted as a go-between for Oliver North in the early stages of the Iran/Contra scandal, working with Israeli spy David Kimche to gain the release of US hostages in Beirut through an Iranian arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar. http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261 Ghorbanifar then served as the medium between Oliver North and Iran in the Iran/Contra scandal. http://www.tribune-libanaise.com/tribune/article.php3?id_article=9

But this would not be the last time Ledeen and Ghorbanifar would join forces. Both were involved in a controversial meeting in December 2001 in Rome. While some believe it was Ledeen who organized this meeting, http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/19/145557/54 Ledeen says that Hadley had authorized the trip. This would also implicate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, then-National Security Advisor. "Hadley authorized it and he could not have done so without reporting it to his direct superior," said Ledeen. While the purpose of the meeting remains unclear, what is clear is that the OSP authorized the meeting without notifying any other agency, violating protocol. Ledeen was consulting for OSP when he and two other Americans we will examine in greater detail later were dispatched to Rome in 2001, but they did not notify the Rome CIA station chief or the U.S. Ambassador to Italy, Mel Sembler. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.html
All of the players at this mysteriously secret meeting deserve closer inspection; it serves almost as the nexus point of convergence for many of the scandals perpetrated by the dangerous group Sibel Edmonds refers to in the opening quote of this paper. In addition to Ghorbanifar, there were a number of other Iranians, including a former senior member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard who claimed to have information about dissident ranks within the Iranian security services. While the names of these Iranians have not been disclosed, two highly influential Italians have been identified as having attended the meeting. Nicolo Pollari, the head of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI, attended the meetings, as did the Italian Minister of Defense Antonio Martino, who is well-known in neoconservative circles in Washington. http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:x6WuoB2vSP0J:www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshall.html+italy+iran&hl=en

If the significance of the presence of these Italians at the meeting is to be understood, beyond the fact that the meeting took place in Rome, it is important to know the dark and twisted history of Michael Ledeen’s connection with Italian intelligence dating back to the 1970’s. Ledeen was allegedly tied to the Italian P2 Masonic Lodge, a violent right wing group that was involved in a number of terrorists attacks in Italy in the 1970s and the 1980s. In the late 1970s, while P2 was doing its dirty work, Ledeen was working as a consultant to Italian intelligence on terrorism issues. http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261 The involvement of P2 through Operation Gladio in terror attacks was known as the Strategy of Tension. It was a campaign of false-flag terror in the late 1970s, waged by outright fascists who enjoyed the patronage of the CIA, the Mafia and far right elements of the Italian State. These were the Gladio Brigades and Licio Gelli's P2 Lodge, and they intended to discredit the increasingly popular Communist Party, and to ensure it would not take power, by staging terrorist acts in the name of the Left. Their campaign culminated in the Bologna train station bombing of 1980. In an Italian criminal court in 1985, Francesco Pazienza, SISMI agent and P2 member was judged guilty of political manipulation, forgery, and the protection of criminals and terrorists, among other offenses. Indeed, according to the findings of the court, Pazienza falsified information about the Bologna bombing in order to divert attention away from the real (right-wing) terrorists who had staged the attack. From Barbara Honegger's October Surprise: “When the Italian police raided (P2 Lodge founder) Gelli's home in March 1981, it was Michael Ledeen who, at the instigation of Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger, offered to buy the list of 953 P2 members in an apparent attempt to keep it from becoming public. Henry Kissinger had also reportedly sent Ledeen to Italy to try to squash an investigation into his and Haig's involvement in the founding of P2. On the morning of August 2, 1980, a massive bomb since linked to Gelli...exploded in the waiting room of the central train station in Bologna, killing 81 people and injuring 200 others. General Santovito, the chief of Italy's military intelligence agency, SISMI, who was also reportedly a member of P2, testified in the wake of the bombing that it had been planned by the British-Swiss-American Montecarlo Comite, P2's "sister" organization based in Monaco. When P2 had come under increasing scrutiny in 1979, grandmaster Licio Gelli had reportedly made his base of operations the Montecarlo Comite.... Not surprisingly, reported members of the Montecarlo Comite are Gelli, Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig and Michael Ledeen.” http://rigorousintuition.blogspot.com/2004/08/yellow-cake-and-black-shirts.html

Honegger’s research on the links between influential Americans and false flag terror attacks can be verified from a number of different sources. Aside from our government’s flirtation with perpetrating false flag attacks on Cuba in 1962 through Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Lemnitzer’s documented proposal Operation Northwoods, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods CIA founder Allen Dulles was one of the key people in instituting Operation Gladio, and most of Gladio’s operations were financed by the CIA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Gladio Declassified secret service papers reveal that Ted Shackley, deputy chief of the CIA station in Rome in the 1970's introduced the notorious Licio Gelli - head of the neo-fascist P2 masonic lodge and for years a fugitive in Argentina - to General Alexander Haig, then Nixon's chief of staff, and later, from 1974 to 79, NATO Supreme Commander. After meetings between Gelli, Italian military brass and CIA men in the embassy, Gladio was given renewed blessing - and more money – by Haig and the then head of the National Security Council, Henry Kissinger. http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm In 1980, Ledeen and Shackley teamed up to provide "war games-type training" for European intelligence services, including Italy's intelligence service. Bologna bombing manipulator Pazienza even testified Ledeen received $120,000 from SISMI. While the CIA took a “dim view” of Ledeen and Shackley freelancing with foreign intelligence services, Ledeen's damage to Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, in colloboration with Pazienza who was indicted (Ledeen was an unindicted co-conspirator) for extorting, using fraudulent means, a compromising relationship between the President’s brother Billy Carter and Moammar Khaddafi earned the appreciation of Alexander Haig and other prominent Republicans. Ledeen further aggravated the CIA by becoming an unofficial conduit between Haig and General Giuseppe Santovito, head of the Italian Military Service (SISMI). http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Michael_Ledeen Though at least a thousand names are still secret, General Giuseppe Santovito is one of the 900 names that is listed of P2 members found in 1981. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due Not surprising, considering that control of Operation Gladio passed from NATO to SISMI in 1980. http://users.westnet.gr/~cgian/gladio.htm

Is this all just titillating history, or is there a link between this activity and the OSP engineered meeting in Rome in December 2001? The possibility of a link is certainly worth exploring in light of the fact that one of the Italians, Nicolo Pollari, is head of the organization (SISMI) last responsible for Operation Gladio, and the other Italian, Antonio Martino, is named on the infamous list of P2 members discovered in 1981. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due An even more intriguing question: is it possible Valerie Plame and her CPD cover company Brewster Jennings & Associates may have been tracking a false flag operation? Perhaps the OSP trying to have WMD planted for political purposes falls within that category. Or perhaps something darker was uncovered, along the lines of something similar to the Bologna train bombings of 1980? It is interesting to note as a prelude to investigating these questions that Ledeen has been emphatic about the December meeting he attended NOT being about Iraq, but Afghanistan and Iran, http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S._government_0111.html while Ghorbanifar says one of the things he discussed at the meeting was regime change in Iran. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/10/19/145557/54 It’s interesting because Plame’s focus in WMD proliferation was Iran; the damage sustained by the CIA impaired their ability to adequately monitor nuclear proliferation on the level of efficiency and accuracy it had prior to the White House leak for up to 10 years. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Outed_CIA_officer_was_working_on_0213.html What exactly Plame and the CPD might have been tracking regarding Iran that grew out of the December 2001 Rome meeting can be examined more closely by focusing on the relationships and activities of the other two Americans besides Ledeen who attended the meeting: Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin.

Harold Rhode was mentioned earlier in this paper as being responsible for recruiting David Wurmser to head the CTEG. He worked at the Pentagon in the Office of Net Assessment, an “in-house Pentagon think tank” under fellow neo-con Andrew Marshall. During their time there in 2001 and 2002, they helped purge career Defense officials considered not sufficiently neo-con enough. Not only did he attend the December 2001 meeting in Rome, but met again with Ghorbanifar in Paris with Larry Franklin in June of 2002. While shrouded in secrecy like the Rome meeting before, it is believed they may have discussed the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), a US designated terrorist group in Iran. http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?entity=harold_rhode He once described himself as Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz's chief adviser on Islam and is a protégé of Michael Ledeen. Rhode also acted as a liaison between Feith in the OSP and Ahmad Chalabi before the invasion of Iraq, http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1261 then became an advisor to Chalabi after the invasion in mid-2003. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0712-05.htm Both Rhode and Franklin worked for Feith in the Office of Special Plans. And there may be one more thing these men have in common: a bad habit of passing classified information to Israel and Iran. Rhode is under investigation for charges, while Franklin has already pled guilty to passing on a classified Presidential Directive, and other sensitive documents pertaining to US deliberations on foreign policy regarding Iran, to a powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who in turn provided the information to Israel in what has become known as the AIPAC spy scandal. http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Backchannels_used_to_bypass_U.S

http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html

Be sure to read the whole thing to understand how this ties in with Sibel Edmonds.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Ledeen!!

:hi:

[AntiFascist]

24. Excellent summary robertpaulson!

More on Michael Ledeen here: http://www.amconmag.com/06_30_03/feature.html

from a paleoconservative point of view. It is important to note Ledeen's thoughts on "creative destruction" with its violent overtones:

Seeing America undo traditional societies, they fear us, for they do not wish to be undone. They cannot feel secure so long as we are there, for our very existence—our existence, not our politics—threatens their legitimacy. They must attack us in order to survive, just as we must destroy them to advance our historic mission.

If you combine the PNAC agenda of regime change with the use of nukes (not just the threat of their use) then the consequences of this are deadly serious, although Americans already are becoming used to the scenario of 100,000s if not millions of deaths of innocents in a single war effort.

[AikidoSoul]

68. Brief background on Manucher Ghorbanifar

This background info on Manucher Ghorbanifar on Wikipedia corresponds with other
information on him, so I think it's o.k. to post here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manucher_Ghorbanifar

Manucher Ghorbanifar (nickname Gorba) is a well known expatriate Iranian arms dealer. He is best known as a middleman in the Iran-Contra Affair during the Ronald Reagan presidency. He is suspected to be a double agent for Mossad. He re-emerged in American politics during the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq during the first term of President George W. Bush as a back-channel intelligence source to certain Pentagon officials who desired regime change in Iran.

In the 1980s, Ghorbanifar's principal American contacts were National Security Council agents Oliver North and Michael Ledeen. Ghorbanifar also tried to get the US to support the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) opposition to the Khomeini government of Iran. Ledeen vouched for Ghorbanifar to National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane. Oliver North later claimed that Ghorbanifar had given him the idea for diverting profits from TOW and HAWK missile sales to Iran to the Nicaraguan Contras.

Ghorbanifar's suspected duplicity during the Iran-Contra deal led CIA Director William Casey to order three separate lie-detector tests, all of which he failed. Iranian officials also suspected Ghorbanifar of passing them forged American documents. The CIA issued a burn notice (or "Fabricator Notice") on Ghorbanifar in 1984, meaning he was regarded as an unreliable source of intelligence, and a 1987 congressional report on Iran-Contra cites the CIA warning that Ghorbanifar "should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator and a nuisance".

His own cohorts in the arms trading affair were also non-plussed. “I knew him to be a liar,” North eventually acknowledged. Robert McFarlane, the national-security adviser who approved the Iran-Contra arms trades, once described Ghorbanifar as “one of the most despicable characters I have ever met.”<1>

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<SNIP>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Am appreciating your post RobertPaulson. Thank you.

[NewJeffCT]

86. Thanks Robert - that is worthy of its own thread

great background information.

[TomClash]

2. Cui bono?

It's the "WHY" I don't get about this whole story. Is it simply money? Or is there something even more sinister going on?

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. Black Market Money to fund Black Ops... the Illuminati runs the black ops world

the shadow government is real, *not* a conspiracy theory. Iran/Contra and CIA cocaine smuggling/sales is just the tip of the iceberg. The dark rulers of the illuminati can't afford world peace, nor can they afford to stop the flow of drugs into the country and around the world, it would stop the flow of cash into their pockets from their cronies in the military industrial complex, as well as the prison industrial complex.

no tinfoil necessary....


Ghost

[cbears34]

8. cash?

So -- Follow the Money -- and Follow the Missing Evidence that Could Have Been Used to Follow the Money

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. Cocaine is a cash trade... dealers don't take checks or credit cards

it works like this:

The CIA sets up a front operation. They have operatives set up in the larger cities posing as major suppliers of cocaine & heroin. These guys supply the major gangs, who then turns around and sells at street level. The cash comes back to the "suppliers", which then goes into the coffers for the other black ops, which are carried out in the higher levels of the illuminati, like the arms deals, nuke deals, etc.

Manuel Noriega got greedy... so they took him out. Same with Pablo Escobar of the Cali cartel and Carlos Lehder from the Medellin cartel. Even with their arrests, the flow of cocaine into the US never slowed down. Why? Because the CIA simply took over their cartels, cutting out the middle men, thus funneling more cash into their black ops..

Check out the story of the "cocaine plane" with CIA markings that recently crashed in Mexico with 4 tons of cocaine on board, and read about the other one last year busted on a clandestine airstrip in Mexico, again with the CIA markings, that had 5.5 tons of cocaine onboard. As sheer "luck" would have it, the two American pilots got away, but a few very low level Mexican nationals were caught..

Welcome to DU, & happy reading!

Ghost

[AikidoSoul]

69. Cocaine and the CIA continued

I have direct experience with contractors who reported witnessing cocaine being loaded and unloaded from C-130 type cargo planes at Palmerolla AFB in Honduras during the 1980s -- all of who worked under the auspices of the American Embassy, but the work was actually contracted via a U.S.corporation under contract with the military, Dod, and NSA at different times during that period.

At first we thought the co-workers had to be mistaken about what they had seen, but they insisted it was cocaine. There were three contractors who reported this over a period of two years. These were wide-eyed young guys had high ideals. They had initially been wooed as corporation paid contractors for DoD, NSA and the U.S. military and were convinced that they were working for the highest ideals of the United States of America.

What was so striking and believable about their descriptions of what they saw -- cocaine cargo loaded and unloaded -- were their shaky, disturbed utterings. They were obviously shattered by what they saw. They were sick with disgust and worry... and became increasingly disturbed over the course of our tenure there. One of them was pale and had tears when he described what he saw. They all ended up quitting. It was apparent to me that they had no choice because of the sheer emotional impact this had on them and their pre-conceived notions of what the United States stood for.

Since we did not witness these events with our own eyes, we made note of what they said and filed it away. We considered it here-say simply because we could not directly corroborate it -- but the fact that three persons reported the same thing had a great impact on us.

It wasn't until years later that the reports by those young contractors about the cocaine shipments in Honduras -- were corroborated by Mike Levine in his book "The Big White Lie".

Later it was Gary Webb and his series at the San Jose Mercury News. At first Webb's editors backed him up until huge pressure from the CIA was exerted on them and they turned on Webb -- who eventually committed suicide, or possibly was suicided. We'll probably never know the truth about what really happened to Gary Webb.

Here's a description yanked from the web on two Levine books about the CIA and drug smuggling, and bout the complicity of the U.S. government in ALLOWING drugs to be smuggled as long as it SUPPORTED its agenda (right wing control and subjugation of leftists, and continued support of right-wing agendas):

Levine, Michael. The Big White Lie: The CIA and the Cocaine/Crack Epidemic -- An Undercover Odyssey. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993. 472 pages.

And from WikiPedia (this checks out fine):

Michael Levine is a former senior United States law enforcement agent and has been called "America's top undercover cop for 25 years" by 60 Minutes. A 25 year veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) he has gained much attention for his criticisms of the CIA and the DEA. He has even gone as far as claiming the CIA created La Corporacion, the "General Motors of cocaine".

Levine has testified as an expert witness in 500 civil and criminal trials internationally and domestically. He is a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement. <1>

Since 1995, he has hosted "The Expert Witness Radio Show" on the flagship station of the Pacifica Radio Network, WBAI-FM in New York. http://www.expertwitnessradio.org

[AntiFascist]

27. Historically, the "illuminati" referred to a group of European bankers....

the conspiracy may in fact be much broader, and not so much a conspiracy as a union of common agendas.

[Hydra]

16. Here's my take on it:

Almost every president has drooled at the idea of having his own army(Blackwater), his own enforcers(DoJ Corruption, CIA and FBI obfuscation/selective enforcement and National Guard under his command), His own operatives(The people Sibel is ratting on) and his own cashflow.

Why would they sell nuclear secrets? I think it's to bring certain countries like Pakistan under our control to act as hostile agents against countries we want to invade whether by armies or economics, and more importantly, to keep up the facade that the world is still in the midst of a grand cold war, to keep all the benefits and powers flowing to certain people.

Bottom line, this is the attempt to control the game so that there are no options that might possibly hurt them.

Now that congress is in their pocket...who knows what they will do?

[balantz]

40. Just more control games.

Unfortunately their kind of games could end up resulting in the incineration of countless numbers of innocent people.

Buttons can be pushed, cities can be destroyed, and the U.S. won't appear to be directly involved....at least at first glance.

[StateSecrets]

5. K & R

Thank you Luke.

Sibel

[lukery]

9. Thank you

I couldn't have done it without you :-)

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. K & R.

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. Thank you, Sibel Edmonds, you're a brave & patriotic hero, and you're not alone...

we've got your back. Any way we can help, just say the word.

Thank you also, Luke Ryland, for your unwavering dedication to Ms. Edmonds and to getting her story out.

Our democratic congress has been a huge let down and disappointment, almost to the point that it shames me, a yellow dog Democrat, to say that I *am* a Democrat.

Peace and best wishes to you both...

Ghost

[bjobotts]

73. You'd feel even more shamed to say you were a republican.

[Ghost in the Machine]

75. I'd kill myself before that happened.....

but tell me.... are *you* proud of what has become of our party? Are you proud of our Party leaders? I'm certainly not... but how many of lowly citizens are really pissed enough to do something about it? Where do you stand?

[antigop]

10. Briefly checked in after lunch....saw this and gave it k&r. Thanks, luke and Sibel. n/t

[balantz]

11. K&R

[Swamp Rat]

13. k&r

[pleah]

14. K&R! We need to keep this out there.

[lonestarnot]

15. Bookmarking for later tonight.

[NoFederales]

18. It is well past time for this story to be news. I cannot do much more than speak

with friends and co-workers, but truth to tell, farm animals are more attentive. I know the Public didn't "get this way overnight", but where the Hell was I at? and why didn't I pick up on it any better?

:spank:

NoFederales

[lukery]

33. email the story

You could also email the story around, including to the US media. That'd be a great help. Oh - and thank the guys at the Times for their work, I know that makes a difference too.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3257725.ece

[stubtoe]

55. Astonishingly enough, this was a subject of an op-ed in the Oregonian this weekend.

This is the first I've seen it in US media:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianopinion/2008/01/sandra_duffy_journalisms_first.html#more

The silence in the US media, as diligent DU'er lukery has pointed out http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2761324">in a recent post (in a series on this very topic), has been deafening. THAT's why you haven't heard about it! They've been stuffing it under the floorboards.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

87. Bradblog via the Oregonian, names names (How'd I miss this?!)

Here are those names, sectioned into three groups, as Edmonds has grouped the photos in her own "Gallery":

Current and former Pentagon and State Department officials...

Richard Perle
Douglas Feith
Eric Edelman
Marc Grossman
Brent Scowcroft
Larry Franklin
Current and former congressmen...

Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Ex-House Speaker
Roy Blount (R-MO)
Dan Burton (R-IN)
Tom Lantos (D-CA)
? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
Bob Livingston (R-LA), Ex-House Speaker
Stephen Solarz (D-NY)
The 3rd group includes people who all appear to work at think tanks - primarily WINEP, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Graham E. Fuller - RAND
David Makovsky - WINEP
Alan Makovsky - WINEP
? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
? (Photo simply a box with question mark in it)
Yusuf Turani (President-in-exile, Turkistan)
Professor Sabri Sayari (Georgetown, WINEP)
Mehmet Eymur (Former Turkish Spy Chief MIT)


http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5521#comments

[Coexist]

19. kick

[pberq]

20. The Times is adding more and more resources

Here's a good sign:

The Times is adding more and more resources to the story, more journalists, bigger budgets, and more importantly, they are getting more and more sources coming forward to shed light on these illegal activities.

[lukery]

26. sounds great huh?

It's weird, journalists do their job, and the story grows. Funny how that works.

[ptvet]

21. A thanks and a kick

First the thanks...Thanks for your work Lukery/Lurkery :hi:

Second, the kick :kick: with a rec.

[Oilwellian]

22. "Buckle up, there's much much more."

Mmmmm...those words are music to my ears.

:kick:

[Uncle Joe]

25. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, lukery.

[RuleOfNah]

28. Which alternative media?

Of course some alternative media may have joined the expensive media in failing to report. A few alternative media did succeed! When did DU joined in, years ago?

When I hear from US reporters, they say 'Sibel, give us all the documents we'll need, and you line up all the sources for us, and then maybe we'll do a story' and if one source doesn't return their phone call, they simply give up. That's not journalism!

For me the scariest thing is the fact that a major crisis has been laying around in public, for years, while law enforcement and military command and control have been AWOL on an important watch thereby putting our nation in peril. Lazy journalists are a disgrace but the majority of the shame is not theirs to bear.

[lukery]

30. journalists

You are right, journalists arent as complicit as the other guilty parties, but they could have put a stop to this four years ago.

[druidity33]

35. heck

they could've put a stop to the "s"election of 2000!

Thank you Lukery for your tireless efforts on this story. And you too, Sibel... without you, could we even guess how fucked up our gov't truly is?

k+r

and i'll be calling my LOCAL radio station that actually has people staffing its booth to see if i can take advantage of community airwaves... even if it's just to rant for a couple of minutes to the call-in guy.

Beyond that, i'll keep writing to my Sens (Kennedy + Kerry), though i think they've got the idea from me by now. Anything else?

:shrug:

[Echo In Light]

34. Hence no accountability. So much complicity involved/skeletons in the closet

[Lugnut]

29. K&R n/t

[Roland99]

31. I still wish Soros/Gore would start a 'real' news channel.

HDNet Reports and Dan Rather Reports and Frontline are about all we have that's willing to look under the covers.

[Pale Blue Dot]

32. Did it occur to you that if Clinton was up to his neck in this,

Gore probably was too?

[Kaleko]

43. Oh, no...

But you're right, Gore would have to have his eyes wide shut as VP.

[bagrman]

46. If you google Clinton and Cocaine, you'll get about 1/2 million hits...

The one thing that kept his butt out of the freckas was that he was elected president and then cut off funding to the investigation. Not a cover up just let it die.

[cascadiance]

60. I still wonder why Clinton LET Hastert claim it was Clinton that stopped the genocide vote!

... when it was the Turks that "owned" him. If Clinton wasn't complicit or knowledgeable about what was going on, you'd think he might raise up the red flag and call foul!

Things still stink that we don't know about!

[Roland99]

42. Well, Soros then!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

36. Big Ass

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

and Recommend

[lukery]

37. Scott Horton

Scott Horton had a god article on Sibel's case at harpers today
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/01/hbc-90002264

[MiniMe]

38. Go Sibel !!

Kick

[OneGrassRoot]

39. Fascinating insight. As always, a big thanks. K&R n/t

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. She's already changed my world.

[scarletwoman]

44. k&r -- thank you for keeping on top of all this and getting it out into the world!

Just wondering -- and maybe you've already addressed this and I missed it -- does she have some good people protecting her? Because I just can't imagine that she isn't under threat, and increasingly so as she continues to drop more "hints".

sw

[drm604]

45. K&R

Please, keep pursuing this!

[frog92969]

47. K&R & Thank You

[santamargarita]

48. Everyone must see this!

k/r

[Old and In the Way]

49. We really, really need to get thisstory out,

When is the media going to do their job?

[mmonk]

50. .

:kick:

[Norrin Radd]

51. k

[juno jones]

52. K&R

[annabanana]

53. 90 days to stop the sale of Nukes to Turkey.. . .without oversight.

And it's not even on the National radar... This is awful

[lonestarnot]

56. Unfucking real.

[mmonk]

57. That's the way they want it.

[shance]

61. False flag central. Should concern everyone.

n/t

[Orwellian_Ghost]

54. K&R n/t

[rhett o rick]

58. Hard to tell who is dirty in all this. Looks like it includes lots. K&R. nm

[mmonk]

59. Everyone should maybe try what I'm going to do.

It won't take too much of your time. I plan to fax Brad Miller on the issue of this Turkish agreement tomorrow. I plan to cite the three Times pieces and the timing. I plan to try the same thing with Dodd after that. I suggest folks do the same, picking a house and senate member on these committees (but be careful on the House side as I see Lantos from the gallery and I believe Wexler is a friend of Turkey).

[lukery]

63. you are a trooper

thanks so much, mmonk.

[mmonk]

67. I'll keep fighting

until I reach a point where I will fight no more. There's still a lot of fight in me right now. Thank you, you're the quintessential trooper. And thanks to Sibel for not backing down.

[wildbilln864]

62. And k&r! n/t

[blackspade]

64. I'll tell you what the answer to this is:

Sibel Edmonds: The timing is certainly very, very suspicious. The proposals that are being floated are very suspicious too. There are reports that Turkey will build an enrichment facility, and that Turkey will become the key supplier of nuclear fuel to other Muslim countries who want nuclear power plants. None of this makes any sense.

It makes perfect since to me.
These crazy rich corporate goons are setting up a little paradise in the Middle East.
The US will essentially become the long arm of the huge corporations that will (and are) relocating to places like Dubai, and our people will become the fodder in their corporate wars. Americans will become poor and desperate and it's people will have little choice but to become a mercenary army for these corporate thugs. But I digress....

Selling this technology to the turkey, and then the greater Middle East is part of their long term plans to set up shop there, right over the oil that the rest of the world, namely China and India want. This will lead to war sooner than later and we as Americans can expect to become involved as our corporate masters private army. While America bleeds out both economical and socially, the rich will move overseas. The reactors that they will build in the Middle East are to power these folks so that THEY don't have to rely on oil themselves. Nuclear power will work for them, because there will be far fewer people to support and they will count on a compliant US government to supply their nuclear needs.

OOPS! sorry for the rant.

[wildbilln864]

65. I like a good rant sometimes!

Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Desertrose]

90. Don't apologize...its a very good rant.

Seriously...it is right on.

[blackspade]

91. Thanks!

It must be all those years of watching and reading post Apocalypse stories that does this to me.
I can totally see these corporate thieves shanking the rest of us to save their own skins and lifestyle.

[ClayZ]

66. K & R Bookmarked .. THANKS!

:kick:

[AikidoSoul]

70. Keep looking for connections between illegal smuggling of illegal drugs, arms, nuclear technology

and see whether the profits from thes illegal activities by our own government -- can be traced. With the
complexity of today's financial transactions, I fear that none of this will ever be documented in prosecutable detail.

Do I have any reason to be optimistic? Are my dark thoughts about this being too big and too dangerous for anyone in authority to investigate -- would you please prove me wrong?

Kicked and recommended

This is the biggest, most interesting and most outrageous story in the world right now. If the MSM continues to ignore it, it will be at their own peril along with ours. They too must live in this country and watch as corruption and madness eat away every shred of decency from what once was considered to be the bright hope of the United States of America. All of our futures are in peril now.

[AntiFascist]

76. The CIA will never admit to drug trafficking...

but it is these illegal, covert routes for money laundering that also provide the platform for illegal arms and nuke sales. Notice that Afghanistan provides much of the poppy crop for worldwide heroin, notice also the role of Turkey in this trade.

[discman]

71. Sibel admits that she is completely full of it, finally

Sibel Edmonds: It's a combination of things, obviously. You need to consider that the entire US press corps has failed on this story; not only the regular print and TV media, but the alternative media has failed on this too.

The bolded part is Sibel's subconscious admission that she is 100% full of U.S. Grade A bullshit.

[orleans]

74. what are you psychic? or is that just your expert opinion on sibel?

[mmonk]

79. Who do you represent?

The mere fact they applied the state secrets privilege on her shoots down your position. So who do you represent?

[blogslut]

80. Do tell?

Enlighten us. Because the DOJ's Inspector General says different:

"A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker."

~snip~

"An official with knowledge of the report who spoke on condition of anonymity said investigators confirmed that some of Ms. Edmonds's allegations about translation problems were true, but could not corroborate others because of a lack of evidence. None of her accusations were disproved, the official said."

link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06EFDB103DF93AA15754C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

[conscious evolution]

82. IBTS!

[lala_rawraw]

92. wow, 2 whole posts

and you are an expert, eh?

[anitar1]

72. k&r

[mhatrw]

77. Kick n/t

[Pooka Fey]

78. K&R

[HamdenRice]

81. KRNT for this very important story!!!

[babydollhead]

83. kick

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

84. K & R! I'll make calls to SFRC members today. Thanks for this lukery.

:kick:

MKJ

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

85. dupe

[countryjake]

88. kick

[snappyturtle]

89. Wonderful work, lukery/sibel...thanks for your compilation and

persistence. Should we be contacting members of the foreign affairs committees and/or hammering MSM outlets to get the story out more? K&R