Saturday, September 19 2009   -   Other Important News

4,000 word exclusive interview with 'the gagged FBI whistleblower on espionage, al-Qaeda, and secrets for sale'...

9/18/2009
Source: www.bradblog.com


Broke the news on air tonight. 4,000 word cover story on FBI translator turned whistleblower Sibel Edmonds in The American Conservative to hit stands and web tomorrow, by former CIA agent Phil Giraldi.

We'll pick this up tomorrow after I get a look at it. You East Coasters will likely beat me to it. But here's the teaser from TAC...:

There’s a new issue of The American Conservative going to press today, and it includes a story that will make more than a few congressmen and foreign lobbyists intensely uncomfortable: an in-depth interview between Phil Giraldi and FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. She tells us exactly how Turkish intelligence have penetrated national secrets, suborned government officials, and blackmailed Congress. It’s going to be explosive.

 

Monday, September 7 2009   -   Other Important News

Brad Friedman
September 5, 2009
Huffingtonpost.com

Breaking Down the Under-Oath Disclosures of the Formerly-Gagged Sibel Edmonds...

It has now been over a week since the video tape and transcript from the remarkable 8/8/09 deposition of former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was publicly released. Previously, the Bush Administration invoked the so-called "state secrets privilege" in order to gag Edmonds, in attempting to keep such information from becoming public.

The under-oath, detailed allegations include bribery, blackmail, espionage and infiltration of the U.S. government of, and by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials and agents of the government of Turkey. The broad criminal conspiracy is said to have resulted in, among other things, the sale of nuclear weapons technology to black market interests including Pakistan, Iran, North Korea, Libya and others.

Even as many of these allegations had been previously corroborated to varying extents, by a number of official government reports, documents and independent media outlets (largely overseas), not a single major mainstream media outlet in the U.S. has picked up on Edmonds' startling claims since her deposition has been made fully available.

 

Friday, August 28 2009   -   Other Important News

by Philip Giraldi
Posted on August 27th, 2009
The American Conservative

Those who are interested in issues like widespread corruption of our elected officals by foreigners have no doubt followed the ex-FBI traslator turned whistle blower Sibel Edmonds saga for the past few years. Sibel has finally testified in court under oath about some of the things that she learned while working for the bureau. The testimony was in a court in Ohio about two weeks ago. A full transcription and a useful summary appear at http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374. In short, she names a number of Congressmen including former Speaker Dennis Hastert who took money from Turkish lobbyists. She also identifies senior State Department and Pentagon officials who apparently did the same, including our friends Marc Grossman, Paul Wolfowitz, and Doug Feith. Interestingly, she claims that Grossman blew the cover of Valerie Plame’s company Brewster Jennings back in 2001, causing CIA to shut it down, so Robert Novak was not guilty of exposing the CIA cover mechanism. In another interview given a few weeks ago, Edmonds claims that CIA was working closely with al-Qaeda in the Balkans and continued to do so until 9/11.

As I have reported before, Edmonds is a credible witness who is ignored by the mainstream media and congress because her tales, if true, would be devastating to both political parties and to the Israel and Turkish lobbies. She is dismissed as a crackpot. She might in fact be blowing smoke, but now that she has testified under oath and in considerable detail making very specific accusations isn’t it time for someone in the administration to review the FBI files and stand up to say whether her accounts are true or not? Corruption in the US government is something that no one wants to talk about, particularly if powerful foreign interests are involved.

 

Tuesday, August 25 2009   -   Other Important News

Sibel Edmonds finally gets to tell her story

August 24, 2009
Newsdemocrat.com
The newspaper of record for Brown County, Ohio

Ohio Second District Congresswoman Jean Schmidt, R-Cincinnati, filed nine election complaints against independent candidate David Krikorian concerning the 2008 election in May this year.

Krikorian opposed Schmidt in the Second District Congressional race as an independent in 2008 and is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2010 race in April. The complaints focus on Krikorian's statements during the election stating that Rep. Schmidt was taking money from organizations related to the Turkish government in exchange for denying the occurrence of what Krikorian called the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Turks during World War I.

The complaints also relate to Election Commission records on campaign contributions Schmidt received from the Turkish American Heritage PAC and the Turkish Coalition USA PAC.

Since filing the complaints, Schmidt's counsel has withdrawn four complaints, and an Ohio Elections Commission three-person panel decided there was probable cause to hear the remaining complaints on Thursday, Aug. 13. The five remaining complaints will be reviewed by the entire Commission on Sept. 3.

 

Monday, August 24 2009   -   Other Important News

'Preliminary review' looks at whether interrogations followed guidance of the Bush 'torture memos.'
By Warren Richey
Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 24, 2009 edition

In a highly contentious move, Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday appointed a special prosecutor to take a fresh look at whether US officials violated the law through harsh treatment of detainees during the Bush administration's war on terror.

Mr. Holder said he was authorizing John Durham, a career Justice Department prosecutor, to conduct a "preliminary review into whether federal laws were violated in connection with the interrogation of specific detainees at overseas locations." He did not identify those detainees by name or where they were allegedly mistreated.

"I fully realize my decision to commence this preliminary review will be controversial," Holder said. "In this case, given all the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take."

The announcement came shortly after the administration released a redacted version of a 2004 CIA Inspector General's report on harsh interrogation tactics.

The report said CIA interrogators threatened to kill the children of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, and threatened another detainee with a power drill and suggestions that if he didn't talk his mother would be brought into the room and raped in front of him.

 

Friday, August 14 2009   -   Other Important News

by Prof. Peter Dale Scott
August 11, 2009
Global Research

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Dwight David Eisenhower, "Military-Industrial Complex Speech," 1961,¹

"My observation is that the impact of national elections on the business climate for SAIC has been minimal. The emphasis on where federal spending occurs usually shifts, but total federal spending never decreases. SAIC has always continued to grow despite changes in the political leadership in Washington." Former SAIC manager, quoted in Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, "Washington's $8 Billion Shadow." Vanity Fair, March 2007²

"We make American military doctrine" Ed Soyster, MPRI³

The Myth of the Grand Chessboard: Geopolitics and Imperial Folie de Grandeur

In The Road to 9/11 I summarized the dialectic of open societies: how from their energy they expand, leading to a higher level of more secretive corporations and agencies, which eventually weaken the home country through needless and crushing wars.⁴ I am not alone in seeing America in the final stages of this process, which since the Renaissance has brought down Spain, the Netherlands, and Great Britain.

Much of what I wrote summarized the thoughts of writers before me like Paul Kennedy and Kevin Phillips. But there is one aspect of the curse of expansion that I underemphasized: how dominance creates megalomanic illusions of insuperable control, and how this illusion in turn is crystallized into a prevailing ideology of dominance. I am surprised that so few, heretofore, have pointed out that from a public point of view these ideologies are delusional, indeed perhaps insane. In this essay I will argue however that what looks demented from a public viewpoint makes sense from the narrower perspective of those profiting from the provision of private entrepreneurial violence and intelligence.

 

Monday, August 10 2009   -   Other Important News

By Erik Larson

Aug 8, 2009, Sibel Edmonds gave a sworn deposition in which she testified to her knowledge of treasonous crimes and corruption involving current and former members of Congress and State and Defense Dept. officials. Given the nature of the deposition, the lines of questioning focused on Turkish espionage and services obtained through bribery and blackmail by Turkish officials and proxies. However, Edmonds has previously disclosed that the corruption involving U.S. officials also includes money laundering, trafficking in drugs, arms and nuclear secrets, U.S. support for Bin Laden/Al Qaeda, and obstruction of FBI investigations related to 9/11, before and after the attacks; she said these things came up “briefly” during the deposition. Edmonds learned of these things from wiretaps she listened to while working as a translator for the FBI in 2001-2002.

 

Thursday, July 23 2009   -   Other Important News

123realchange.blogspot.com

Announcing Sibel Edmonds Podcast Show with Co-Host Peter B. Collins - "THE BOILING FROGS"
July 12, 2009
Sibel Edmonds (If you're not already famliar with Sibel, read more about her here)

I am pleased to announce the launch of my Podcast show, 'The Boiling Frogs.'
This site will present two in-depth interviews per month, one-hour each, with well-respected and controversial guests. My guest list will include:

* Investigative reporters
* Authors with controversial and bold track records
* Courageous and legitimate whistleblowers
* Well-respected academic and legal experts on our relevant issues ...

Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - Podcast Show #1

The Boiling Frogs Presents James Bamford

James Bamford discusses the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, the ties between NSA and the nation's telecommunications companies including the Israeli companies involved in intercepting highly sensitive communications for the U.S. government, the agency's failings pre-9/11 and the relevant information blackout by the 9/11 Commission, the US mainstream media, President Obama's 'no change' so far, and more.

 

Saturday, July 18 2009   -   Other Important News

James Corbett
The Corbett Report
17 July, 2009

Government sources immediately began blaming North Korea for the recent cyberterror attacks on South Korea and the U.S., despite having no evidence to back up those claims. Now, an examination of the evidence by independent computer experts show that the attack seems to have been coordinated from the UK. The hysterical media coverage in the attack's wake, however, echoing the government line that it was likely the work of North Korea, served to cement in the minds of many that this was an act of cyberwarfare.

The idea that this surprisingly unsophisticated attack could have come from a well-organized, hostile state or terrorist group comes as a blessing in disguise to those groups, agencies and advisors who have been calling for greater and greater federal snooping powers in the name of stopping a "cyber 9/11" from happening.

The "cyber 9/11" meme stretches back almost to 9/11 itself. Back in 2003, Mike McConnell, the ex-director of the National Security Agency (NSA), was fearmongering over the possibility of a cyber attack "equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Center" if a new institution were not created to oversee cyber security. Since then, report after report has continued to use the horror of 9/11 as a way of raising public hysteria over "cyber terrorism," a subject more often associated with juvenile hackers and lone misfits than radical terrorist organizations.

 

Thursday, July 16 2009   -   Other Important News

from Barrie Zwicker
July 14, 2009
911blogger.com

Canadian-born James Douglass of Birmingham, Alabama is a Christian pacifist , a 9/11Truther and author of JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters (Orbis Books).

The book rose to number 31 on Amazon's best seller list two weeks after Oliver Stone appeared on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on June 26th last holding a copy of the 2008 book, which was shown on camera. Stone said it is a "great book."

The question "why" that Douglass's book addresses in the case of JFK's assassination arguably is also the most important question concerning 9/11. Douglass recently has been added under "Religious Leaders for 9/11 Truth" on http://PatriotsQuestion911.com

Douglass's book deserves wide readership. It's a tremendously well-researched work, one of the best of the 400+ books on JFK's assassination. Douglass conducted original interviews with people now able and willing to talk after decades of silence. He also drew on thousands of recently released US government documents to reveal the logic of the plot to kill Kennedy. The plot's purpose was not only to assassinate a president who was turning toward peace but also to implicate the Soviet Union and Cuba in his murder so as to justify pre-emptive attacks upon them. The parallels with 9/11 are highly educative.

 

Thursday, July 16 2009   -   Other Important News

by Kevin Fenton
July 15, 2009
History Commons Groups
Complete 911 Timeline

The CIA assassination programme that was recently in the media was actually first partially revealed by the Washington Post in 2005, when details enabling his originator to be identified were published. The programme made news in the last few days as CIA Director Leon Panetta admitted that the agency withheld information about it from Congress, although the CIA never actually used it to assassinate anybody. Nevertheless, the programme’s “duties” seem to have been taken over by something journalist Seymour Hersh called an “executive assassination wing” that was run out of the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney, and this grouping did go on missions and kill people.