Sunday, January 20, 2008

FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft




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.

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

She says the FBI was investigating a Turkish and Israeli-run network that paid high-ranking American officials to steal nuclear weapons secrets. These were then sold on the international black market to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

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.

Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.

“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002. The file refers to the counterintelligence programme that the Department of Justice has declared to be a state secret to protect sensitive diplomatic relations,” she said.

The freedom of information request had not been initiated by Edmonds. It was made quite separately by an American human rights group called the Liberty Coalition, acting on a tip-off it received from an anonymous correspondent.

The letter says: “You may wish to request pertinent audio tapes and documents under FOIA from the Department of Justice, FBI-HQ and the FBI Washington field office.”

It then makes a series of allegations about the contents of the file – many of which corroborate the information that Edmonds later made public.

Edmonds had told this newspaper that members of the Turkish political and diplomatic community in the US had been actively acquiring nuclear secrets. They often acted as a conduit, she said, for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, because they attracted less suspicion.

She claimed corrupt government officials helped the network, and venues such as the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington were used as drop-off points.

The anonymous letter names a high-level government official who was allegedly secretly recorded speaking to an official at the Turkish embassy between August and December 2001.

It claims the government official warned a Turkish member of the network that they should not deal with a company called Brewster Jennings because it was a CIA front company investigating the nuclear black market. The official’s warning came two years before Brewster Jennings was publicly outed when one of its staff, Valerie Plame, was revealed to be a CIA agent in a case that became a cause célèbre in the US.

The letter also makes reference to wiretaps of Turkish “targets” talking to ISI intelligence agents at the Pakistani embassy in Washington and recordings of “operatives” at the ATC.

Edmonds is the subject of a number of state secret gags preventing her from talking further about the investigation she witnessed.

“I cannot discuss the details considering the gag orders,” she said, “but I reported all these activities to the US Congress, the inspector general of the justice department and the 9/11 commission. I told them all about what was contained in this case file number, which the FBI is now denying exists.

“This gag was invoked not to protect sensitive diplomatic relations but criminal activities involving US officials who were endangering US national security.”

Insight: Chris Gourlay, Jonathan Calvert and Joe Lauria

22 comments:

Gerald said...

Nazi America's nuclear secrets have been stolen ever since Nazi Israeli spies infiltrated the highest levels of our Nazi American government. Theft of Nazi America's nuclear secrets is a given fact. In fact Hitler Reagan and Hitler Bush I gave the Chinese nuclear secrets to counter the Russian influence in Europe and Asia. My source is from the book, "Seeds of Fire." No country is more stupid than Nazi America.

For the Iraqis who are suffering because of Nazi American influence in the region all I can say that is the Nazi American way to have people suffer. Even Nazi Americans are suffer in Nazi America.

Gerald said...

Extinguishing Liberty's Light

Gerald said...

Bush's Legacy: The Master of Disaster

Gerald said...

Bush's Legacy of Shame

Gerald said...

Defending Death and Destruction

Gerald said...

Bush's Thinking

Gerald said...

No Tax Rebates are going to fix this mess

Gerald said...

Profit is an addiction

Gerald said...

Keeping a Sabbath

An article in Our Sunday Visitor newspaper said that “there are no mechanisms in today’s society to support your decision to make Sunday a holy day.” Here are a few suggestions to reclaim the day as a true Sabbath:

Have communal, family and individual worship and prayer.

Make a conscious decision not to visit the mall or shop.

Plan so that weekend chores are mostly completed.

Gather the family for meals around a table set with a tablecloth, napkins, flowers and candles and the good dishes.

Say a special Sabbath grace before meals.

Use a crock pot to free Mom or Dad from cooking.

Include quiet time, outdoor activities, games, cultural events.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said an internalized Sabbath was what has preserved Judaism. That’s a splendid example for Christians and people of all faiths.

Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord. . . . . (who) blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it. (Exodus 20:9-10,11)

Gerald said...

Bloody Reality

Gerald said...

Is US on Brink of War with Iran?
by Catherine Kavanaugh

FERNDALE- Scott Ritter, one of the former United Nations inspectors who didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, denounced the Bush administration for going to war with WMDs as the primary rationale in March 2003.

Now he fears the United States is on the brink of war with Iran. Ritter points to a military buildup in the region, the so-called threats to the U.S. Navy from Iranian speed boats last week and a U.S. Senate resolution that labels elements of Iran as a terrorist organization.

“It’s like filling up a house with gasoline and flicking matches at the door,” Ritter said. “Sooner or later it will connect.”

Ritter spoke to the Daily Tribune via telephone Friday while on the road in Colorado. He and media critic Jeff Cohen were driving to meet with school and church groups in Boulder and Denver this weekend for U.S. Tour of Duty, a series of public forums aimed at starting a national dialogue about global engagement.

The tour will bring Ritter and Cohen, a former Detroit resident who refers to mainstream media as the “weapons of mass distraction,” to First United Methodist Church of Ferndale, 22331 Woodward Ave., from 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26.

The local tour stop is sponsored by the Huntington Woods Peace, Citizenship and Education Project. Spokeswoman Linda Ashley said the church can hold 700 people and she urges area residents to attend.

“We think Iran and U.S. foreign policy is a real important topic,” Ashley said. “This is a unique forum that gives our community the chance to participate in a national discussion.”

Ritter said he will present factual data that the country is heading toward another military conflict in the Middle East.

“I draw heavily on the words of the Bush administration and people can draw their own conclusion,” he said.

To him, President George W. Bush has been waging a war of words with Iran for years. He points to the president saying “all options are on the table” regarding Iran and its alleged nuclear program in 2005 and then calling Iran “a threat to world peace” last week.

“The president isn’t talking about sending Condoleezza Rice to Iran as an option,” Ritter said. “We’re not on the path of peaceful resolution through diplomacy.”

His conclusion: “What’s really going on is a road map for global domination. The war in Iraq initiated a long-term strategy neo conservatives have been formulating to divide the world into spheres of influence and dominate them economically, militarily and diplomatically.”

Wouldn’t some savvy, headline hungry reporter be following the story if that were the case? Cohen says not if they work for corporate media.

A former on-air commentator and senior producer at MSNBC, Cohen was assigned to Phil Donohue’s show before it was canceled in February 2003. He says he obtained a memo criticizing Donohue for seeming to delight in presenting guests who were anti-war, anti-Bush and skeptical of the administration’s motives.

“It’s because we practiced journalism and had opposing views that were terminated,” Cohen said.

After the show’s cancellation, Cohen said MSNBC issued ordered that every anti-war guest needed to be countered by two pro-war guests.

“That was their quota system to shift the debate for pro-invasion forces,” according to Cohen, who has a book out called “Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media.”

Where does he get his news? Cohen said his home page opens to www.commondreams.org, which bills itself as a news center for the “progressive community.”

“The good news in the realm of media is that amazing things are happening with independent journalists,” Cohen said. “They are filling a huge vacuum left by corporate media that practice jingoism when it comes to war and tabloidism in general.”

Cohen and Ritter scoffed at the USA Today headline in Friday’s edition proclaiming “75 percent of Baghdad secure.”

The article says data given by the military to the newspaper provides a clear snapshot of how security has improved in Baghdad since 30,000 additional American troops arrived in Iraq last year.

“The average citizen will say things are working, but the small print shows it’s a smoke and mirrors game,” Cohen said. “It’s really quieter in Baghdad because of ethnic cleansing, concrete walls, checkpoints and al-Sadr declared a cease fire. We haven’t defeated them or got them on our side. USA Today is a misrepresentation of reality.

Gerald said...

Hopefully

Gerald said...

The new occupant of the Oval Office can but hope today’s dislike for America is directed at a leader, not at a country. That may well be, but one thing is for sure. Never again will the US occupy that extraordinary position of supremacy - military, moral and economic - that it held in the interlude between the demise of Communism and the attacks of September 2001.

To the 44th President falls the task of explaining that truth to the country, as well as dealing with the concrete day-to-day problems left by George Bush. Indeed, one wonders, why would anyone want the job?

Gerald said...

The Little Taxpayer Pays the Bill

Gerald said...

When the big boys get into trouble, they expect Uncle Sam to bail them out. Who pays the ultimate bill? You guessed it. The small taxpayer and the consumer.

So next time your hear the words–deregulation or over-regulation-by the thoughtless think tanks, heavily funded by business money, remind yourself that you believe in tough law and order for big business and your demand that politicians weigh in with a strong enforcement crackdown on corporate crime and fraud.

Gerald said...

America's New Generation

Gerald said...

For as long as the United States has sent its young men - and later its young women - off to war, it has watched as a segment of them come home and lose the battle with their own memories, their own scars, and wind up without homes.

Gerald said...

Mental illness, financial troubles and difficulty in finding affordable housing are generally accepted as the three primary causes of homelessness among veterans, and in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, the first has raised particular concern.

Iraq veterans are less likely to have substance abuse problems but more likely to suffer mental illness, particularly post-traumatic stress, according to the Veterans Administration. And that stress by itself can trigger substance abuse.

Some advocates say there are also some factors particular to the Iraq war, like multiple deployments and the proliferation of improvised explosive devices, that could be pulling an early trigger on stress disorders that can lead to homelessness.

capt said...

There are more homeless Veitnam Vets than the total number of troops killed in Vietnam.

40% of the homeless vets have children.

Gerald said...

Bush of Arabia

Gerald said...

The ultimate irony: Those huge sovereign funds riding to America’s rescue are, of course, fueled by the rampant petroleum prices that Americans (among others) are paying.

At what point does all this become a major U.S. political issue?

capt said...

Supreme Court denies Kucinich ballot bid


WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Friday allowed Texas to print presidential primary ballots without Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich's name.

The court refused to step into a dispute between Kucinich and the Texas Democratic Party over a loyalty oath all candidates must sign to make the ballot.

Kucinich and singer-supporter Willie Nelson objected to the party oath that a presidential candidate must "fully support" the party's eventual nominee. Kucinich crossed out the oath when he filed for a spot on the primary ballot.

A federal judge in Austin ruled against Kucinich last week. U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled the state party has the right to require the oath. Kucinich and Nelson argued it violated Kucinich's First Amendment right to free speech.

Texas said its deadline is Saturday to print absentee ballots so that they can reach overseas voters in time for the March 4 primary.

*****

This isn’t America - not even close.