It Ain’t About Hot Dogs & Fireworks

[Rogers]

By Sibel Edmonds

It Ain’t About Hot Dogs & Fireworks
Reflections on this Fourth of July
June 2, 2009
http://www.justacitizen.com/OpEd/It%20Aint%20About%20Hot%20Dogs%20and%20Fireworks.h tm

In Congress We Trust…Not
May 5, 2009
"The recent stunning but not unexpected revelations regarding Jane Harman by the Congressional Quarterly provide us with a little glimpse into one of the main reasons behind the steady decline in congress’s integrity. But the story is almost dead - ready to bite the dust, thanks to our mainstream media’s insistence on burying ‘real’ issues or stories that delve deep into the causes of our nation’s continuous downward slide."
http://www.justacitizen.com/OpEd/In%20Congress%20we%20Trust...Not-May5-09.htm


Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Discussing Aid for AIPAC Defendants
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=hsnews-000003098436

[Rogers]

"Edmonds was fired from her position as a language specialist at the FBI's Washington Field Office in March, 2002, after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals, alleging serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence which, she contended, presented a danger to the United States' security. Since that time, court proceedings on her whistleblower claims have been blocked by the assertion of State Secrets Privilege. On March 29, 2006, she was awarded the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in recognition of her defense of free speech as it applies to the written word.[5]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds

Allegations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds#Allegations

Sibel Edmonds Documentary - Kill The Messenger
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6063340745569143497

Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery :wink:
http://www.justacitizen.com/images/Gallery%20Draft2%20for%20Web.htm

[Rogers]

Found in Translation
FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds spills her secrets.

By former C.I.A. officer Philip Giraldi (The American Conservative, 2008)

"The ATC, founded in 1994 and modeled on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was intended to promote Turkish interests in Congress and in other public forums. Edmonds refers to ATC and AIPAC as “sister organizations.” The group’s founders include a number of prominent Americans involved in the Israel-Turkey relationship, notably Henry Kissinger, Brent Scowcroft, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, and former congressman Stephen Solarz. Perle and Feith had earlier been registered lobbyists for Turkey through Feith’s company, International Advisors Inc. The FBI was interested in ATC because it suspected that the group derived at least some of its income from drug trafficking, Turkey being the source of 90 percent of the heroin that reaches Europe, and because of reports that it had given congressmen illegal contributions or bribes. Moreover, as Edmonds told the Times, the Turks have “often acted as a conduit for the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s spy agency, because they were less likely to attract attention.”"

"She further reports that beginning in 1999, the FBI was investigating senior Pentagon officials who were assisting agents of foreign governments, including Turkey and Israel. Edmonds has not publicly named names at the Pentagon, but a website linked to her appears to be a non-incriminating instrument for identifying suspects without doing so directly. Its “rogues gallery” includes photos of Richard Perle and Douglas Feith. Perle was chief of the Pentagon’s prestigious Defense Policy Board when Edmonds was working at the FBI, and Feith was undersecretary of defense for policy. If either were being investigated, it would be a matter of record, as would any reasons for dropping the investigation. “If you made public all the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials,” Edmonds told the Times."

"Curiously, the states-secrets gag order binding Edmonds, while put in place by DOJ in 2002, was not requested by the FBI but by the State Department and Pentagon—which employed individuals she identified as being involved in criminal activities. If her allegations are frivolous, that order would scarcely seem necessary. It would have been much simpler for the government to marginalize her by demonstrating that she was poorly informed or speculating about matters outside her competency. Under the Bush administration, the security gag order has been invoked to cover up incompetence or illegality, not to protect national security. It has recently been used to conceal the illegal wiretaps of the warrantless surveillance program, the allegations of torture and the CIA’s rendition program, and to shield the telecom industry for its collaboration in illegal eavesdropping.

Both Senators Grassley and Leahy, a Republican and a Democrat, who interviewed her at length in 2002, attest to Edmonds’s believability. The Department of Justice inspector general investigation into her claims about the translations unit and an internal FBI review confirmed most of her allegations. Former FBI senior counterintelligence officer John Cole has independently confirmed her report of the presence of Pakistani intelligence service penetrations within the FBI translators’ pool."
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2008/jan/28/00012/

[chefmike]

I thought you said there would be hot dogs. :(

[Rogers]

I thought you said there would be hot dogs. :(

Sorry to disappoint you, chef. No dogs or fireworks here, only corruption.

Sibel Edmonds Case: the untellable story of AIPAC
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/9/11226/2103

Ex-FBI translator's case may reveal Plame's crucial CIA role
http://www.onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_340.shtml

[techi]

Meh, they should lock up Jane Harman and throw away the key. I'd give up 4th of July hotdogs to see that!