You can download the whole show here courtesy of our good friends at WhiteRoseSociety - Sibel is on from 30-60 mins.
I've snipped much of the interview - particularly much of the background stuff.
Having the text of Sibel interviews is great for us Sibelologists so that we can parse the words and so on - but for the rest of you, I also recommend that you actually listen to the interview - because text can't possibly capture her frustration and exasperation and so on. This particular interview is also a good one for those of you who don't have much background about Sibel.
As always, errors are mine, much snippage. Emphasis is mostly mine.
Sibel: ... A week after Sep 11, in 2001, I started working for the FBI and immediately, within the first 2 months, I came across some major cases that were being covered up. Some of them had to do with certain Counter-Intelligence information - received under Counter-Intelligence operations that were 100% related to terrorist activities that occurred before Sep 11, and on Sep 11. They were not being transferred to the Counter-Terrorism division because of the pressure from the Pentagon and the State Department - they claimed that this would hurt certain sensitive diplomatic relations. For example - if those countries that their people were involved in some way happened to be from Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, or Turkey, or some of these Central Asian countries - and they were not part of this so-called 'Axis of Evil' - they didn't want to pursue those leads and those investigations - because they were our so-called allies.-------------------
Also, another important case that I stumbled upon had to do with certain translators who were granted Top Secret clearance and without having their background investigation done - and later on, in one case at least, we found out that this individual (ed: i presume this is Melek Can Dickerson) actually used to work for one of the top targets of FBI Counter-Terrorism investigation (ed - I presume Sibel is talking about the ATC) . And she had ongoing relationships with those targets - and somehow she was given the CSD (ed : i think this is a security clearance, I may have misheard the acronym) and was in charge of translating information, raw data, raw intelligence, coming from those targets!
And we (myself and the agents working on these cases) reported this to the FBI Head-Quarters - and instead of investigating this espionage case, they just wanted to cover it up. Remember, this was right after this big scandal with Robert Hanssen's case and the FBI didn't want to face any scandal or embarrassment saying that they hadn't fixed their internal security systems, and that they were allowing actual targets of investigations to actually obtaining jobs with the FBI!
So - to make a long story shorter - I ended up being the messenger who delivered these reports that the FBI didn't want to hear anything about, and the State Department and the Pentagon didn't want any of these issues or cases to become public - so instead of investigating these cases and pursuing these cases, they chose to come after me instead.
(SNIP)
...Here I am, four and half years later, with the Congress that has accepted this illegal gag order so willingly, with the courts refusing to fulfill their responsibility under our Constitution and with the Main Media not really pursuing these important issues that have implications for all of us. I remember getting outside of this Court, after we were excluded from the hearings when the government argued its case and we the plaintiffs - my attorneys and I - had to leave the courtroom while the government argued it's case. I came out of the court, and to the few reporters who were there, I said:'You think this is about one case, about one whistleblower, one FBI translator - this is about all of you. If they get away with this States Secret Privilege, and they are successful with this, they're going to come after you.'And they are going to go after a lot of other people with this States Secret Privilege. I was the first person of this States Secrets Privilege. Since my case, this administration has invoked the States Secrets Privilege twenty four times! Recently on this NSA illegal eavesdropping case, on the illegal detaining of this German citizen, in this case in Canada where they held this person illegally, and also they have been going after reporters for reporting what they are supposed to be reporting. So what I told these reporters two years ago, it's coming true and we are seeing the results of what they started four years ago, with one case, today. Right now.
(SNIP)
Ashcroft was successful in preventing the court procedures from moving forward, so once the court issued their decision saying that:"Well, the government is saying that even if Ms Edmonds is right in her allegations, the issues involved would hurt certain US sensitive diplomatic relations and US foreign business relations"And I want to emphasize this. I am being gagged, my due process has been taken away, and I was fired - in order to preserve certain US-foreign business relations. And the court just says 'we have to agree'!
Guy James: Someone sent me an email when I announced that you were going to be on the program, and they sent me an article which says:'Long after we all forget Plame and Wilson and Clarke, and the other high level national security whistleblowers, Edmonds story will be the one I still want to hear.'and it goes on to mention the American Turkish Council - and Valerie Plame and Ambassador Wilson's involvement in that - do you know anything about that?
Sibel: Well - I can provide you with some information that has already become public via this information being provided to this Vanity Fair reporter, David Rose, by certain people within the Congress, and the FBI, and... certain Congressional officials, and current FBI agents, familiar with the case, they told the magazine that some of these organizations that were involved in these illegal activities, related to the September 11 attacks, were the American Turkish Council (ATC), which is a lobbying firm here in Washington DC, for Turkey and Central Asian countries, and another organization called the American Turkish Association (ATA).
Interestingly enough, that is where Valerie Plame met her husband, Joe Wilson, in 1997. She went to one of the functions held in Washington DC as an analyst for Brewster Jennings, and we don't know why she was there, but we know that Turkey has played a major role, and still is playing a major role in nuclear black-market activities. They use their access here in the US, via people they have on the payroll from several nuclear agencies - and also some of their people within the Pentagon, and then they sell it to the highest bidder!
That highest bidder can be Pakistan, or it can be North Korea - in some cases, certain Turkish officials - officials! - were arrested in 2000 for providing this information and aiding Libya - in their nuclear black-market activities. So that is public information - and also, individuals such as Mark Grossman - who used to the be Ambassador in Turkey in the 1990's and later the assistant deputy secretary in the State Department - and his involvement with the ATC, and some of these Turkish organiations, and also the fact that Richard Perle and Douglas Feith - they established, in 1989, this lobbying group called the International Advisors Inc - IAI. They registered as foreign agents for Turkey, and they registered with the State Department as a foreign agent for Turkey, and this was during the time that Perle was still working for the Pentagon - and he had this huge conflict of interest.
And the fact that through this lobbying firm, they provided a lot of classified information to both Turkey and Israel - and of course, Larry Franklin's involvement in these activities, which has not yet really become public.
And again, if this case were to move forward, we would have a lot of this information becoming public and our people would know about these individuals, and their roles in terms of not serving our country, but having their loyalties to other - either to governments, or in certain cases, just with greed and the large fees that they have obtained from these individuals
Guy James: Yeah - the Larry Franklin case having to do with the passing of sensitive information to the Israelis. We don't have a lot of time left - but you mentioned Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings. We know, or at least we think that we know, that Brewster Jennings was involved with counter-nuclear-proliferation involving Iran
Sibel: Correct - well - not only Iran. I'm not at any liberty to say, but we are looking at several countries. It's not only Iran. You are looking at least at four countries.
And (before we go) I hope that you will mention the recent activities in Congress - by people like Senator Santorum and Conrad Burns and Senator Bond who are trying to make these gag orders on whistleblowers worse by passing this legislation on whistleblowers that will make it illegal for intelligence agencies and law enforcement employees to talk to the press, or even go to Congress and disclose information about government waste, fraud and abuse.
These are critical times, and I hope that we can cover these important issues when they are sending this chilling message to any potential whistleblowers saying that 'we are going to come after you - and we're going to do so lawfully by having these so-called senators passing laws legitimizing retaliation against whistleblowers
Guy James: Well - that's the idea - to make everything as secretive as possible so that they can do anything they want to do. Your website - NSWBC.org
Sibel: Correct that's our organizations website - and my personal website is justacitizen.com
updated to clarify, that Plame wasn't actually 'undercover' working at the ATC event where she met Wilson. The ATC party is a massive event, and Plame was there socially. (details here)
Also, as we've previously discussed:
Plame's team was just one team operating under the banner of Brewster Jennings, which was as we now know, a cover mechanism. There were other teams that were also operating under the Brewster Jennings banner.-------------------
For more background, see this article by Phil Giraldi which Sibel describes as:
"a fantastic short piece by Phil Giraldi; it sums up the case very well, considering the length... as far as published articles go, this one nails it 100%"For more on Sibel and 911, see my recent interview
For more on Turkey and weapons proliferation, and how it fits into Sibel's story, see Mike Mejia's piece here
For my recent interview with Sibel about whistleblower legislation and Congress' Dirty Dozen, see here
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this post updated here
3 comments:
"And the fact that through this lobbying firm, they provided a lot of classified information to both Turkey and Israel - and of course, Larry Franklin's involvement in these activities, which has not yet really become public."
So Luke, we were right about Perle and Feith weren't we!
We know see the link between Sibel's and the AIPAC case. Need to bring this to Scott Horton's attention.
scott was always on our side
i've sent him this interview now
scott rocks, a lot
"scott rocks, a lot"
Most definitely! Wish we could get his show back on the air..
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