Friday, March 30, 2007
Still Going Strong
To those who have been reading this blog, keep the faith. This is a period of relative silence, but that doesn't mean things might not be happening behind the scenes. All good things come to those who wait...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Petition for open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case & SSP
This post will stay on top. Scroll down for new posts. Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 - and Conyers - (202) 225-5126 - demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege. (Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)
The Petition:
-------------------------------------
To: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A Petition to require public hearings by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform into confirmed reports by FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds of wrongdoing, criminal activities, cover-ups against the security and interests of the United States and its citizenry, and the erroneous use of the State Secrets Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in her case.
In March 2002 the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-IG) began its investigation of Ms. Edmonds’ reports.
In June 2002, in at least two unclassified Senate briefings, FBI officials confirmed the validity of Ms. Edmonds reports; however, in May 2004 Attorney General Ashcroft retroactively classified information from these briefings and gagged the Congress, preventing further investigation.
In October 2002 Attorney General Ashcroft invoked the ‘State Secrets Privilege’ to block all court proceedings in Edmonds’ case.
In July 2004 the DOJ-IG investigation into Edmonds' dismissal was completed but was entirely classified.
In January 2005 the DOJ-IG released an unclassified summary report on Edmonds’ case which concluded that Edmonds was fired for reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency's translation program, and that many of her allegations were supported by other witnesses and documents.
The issues that were reported by Ms. Edmonds include:
Edmonds filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Department of Justice, but the government successfully argued that the state secrets privilege was an absolute bar to her suit going forward. She was even barred from the courtroom during the argument of her appeal! The Supreme Court declined to review the case. The government's invocation of the state secrets privilege in a motion to dismiss her case contradicts the core idea of judicial review and essentially allows the Executive Branch to dictate to the federal courts what cases they can and can’t hear.
Invoking the State Secrets Privilege is a tactic frequently used by the Executive Branch to stop potentially embarrassing lawsuits against the government. Many of these suits are brought by government employees, such as Ms. Edmonds, who allege fraud, mismanagement, or other unlawful conduct, and the state secrets privilege has successfully been invoked by the government to silence them. The state secrets provision has been used too frequently and with too little public protection.
Given the seriousness of Ms. Edmonds’ reports and in the best interests of the security of the country, it is incumbent upon the Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities and authority as representatives of the people of the United States, therefore:
We, the undersigned, now call upon the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Congress to hold public hearings into the case of FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, and the erroneous use of the State Secrets Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in her case.
-------------------------------------
See here for the full list of signatories including 30 liberal, libertarian and conservative groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizen Outreach, OMB Watch, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Government Accountability Project, Electronic Freedom Foundation, and the National Coalition Against the Censorship
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman and Conyers demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.
Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498
Update: Emailers have suggested that those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov) & David Rapallo. Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.
Waxman Contact Details:
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
Conyers Contact Details:
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
You can also contact two senators who have previously showed support for Sibel.
Senator Grassley: ph: 202.224.3744 Full contact details here
Senator Leahy: ph: (202) 224-4242 senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov Full contact details here
NB: If you click on the envelope just below here, on the right, next to the word 'Comments' you can email this entire petition to anyone, including John Conyers at John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
(NB - this post has been 'post-dated' to keep it on top. Originally posted March 7th)
The Petition:
-------------------------------------
To: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
A Petition to require public hearings by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform into confirmed reports by FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds of wrongdoing, criminal activities, cover-ups against the security and interests of the United States and its citizenry, and the erroneous use of the State Secrets Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in her case.
In March 2002 the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-IG) began its investigation of Ms. Edmonds’ reports.
In June 2002, in at least two unclassified Senate briefings, FBI officials confirmed the validity of Ms. Edmonds reports; however, in May 2004 Attorney General Ashcroft retroactively classified information from these briefings and gagged the Congress, preventing further investigation.
In October 2002 Attorney General Ashcroft invoked the ‘State Secrets Privilege’ to block all court proceedings in Edmonds’ case.
In July 2004 the DOJ-IG investigation into Edmonds' dismissal was completed but was entirely classified.
In January 2005 the DOJ-IG released an unclassified summary report on Edmonds’ case which concluded that Edmonds was fired for reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency's translation program, and that many of her allegations were supported by other witnesses and documents.
The issues that were reported by Ms. Edmonds include:
• Cases of espionage activities within the FBI, DOD, and the Department of State
• Cases of cover-up of information and leads pre and post 9/11, under the excuse of protecting certain diplomatic relations
• Cases of intentional blocking and mistranslation of crucial intelligence by FBI translators and management
• Cases of foreign entities bribing certain government officials and elected representatives
Edmonds filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Department of Justice, but the government successfully argued that the state secrets privilege was an absolute bar to her suit going forward. She was even barred from the courtroom during the argument of her appeal! The Supreme Court declined to review the case. The government's invocation of the state secrets privilege in a motion to dismiss her case contradicts the core idea of judicial review and essentially allows the Executive Branch to dictate to the federal courts what cases they can and can’t hear.
Invoking the State Secrets Privilege is a tactic frequently used by the Executive Branch to stop potentially embarrassing lawsuits against the government. Many of these suits are brought by government employees, such as Ms. Edmonds, who allege fraud, mismanagement, or other unlawful conduct, and the state secrets privilege has successfully been invoked by the government to silence them. The state secrets provision has been used too frequently and with too little public protection.
Given the seriousness of Ms. Edmonds’ reports and in the best interests of the security of the country, it is incumbent upon the Congress to exercise its oversight responsibilities and authority as representatives of the people of the United States, therefore:
We, the undersigned, now call upon the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Congress to hold public hearings into the case of FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, and the erroneous use of the State Secrets Privilege to shut down all court proceedings in her case.
-------------------------------------
See here for the full list of signatories including 30 liberal, libertarian and conservative groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Citizen Outreach, OMB Watch, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Government Accountability Project, Electronic Freedom Foundation, and the National Coalition Against the Censorship
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman and Conyers demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.
Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498
Update: Emailers have suggested that those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov) & David Rapallo. Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.
Waxman Contact Details:
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
Conyers Contact Details:
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
| 2426 Rayburn Building | 2615 W. Jefferson |
|
You can also contact two senators who have previously showed support for Sibel.
Senator Grassley: ph: 202.224.3744 Full contact details here
Senator Leahy: ph: (202) 224-4242 senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov Full contact details here
NB: If you click on the envelope just below here, on the right, next to the word 'Comments' you can email this entire petition to anyone, including John Conyers at John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
(NB - this post has been 'post-dated' to keep it on top. Originally posted March 7th)
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Saturday, March 24, 2007
no news
Here's just a quick message to let you know that we haven't heard anything from Waxman's office, and they were unusually reticent to return phone calls.
I'm not sure what it means.
Will keep you posted.
I'm not sure what it means.
Will keep you posted.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Goyette interview
The audio of my interview with Charles Goyette from today is available for download here (15 minutes)
Sibel Edmonds: Last chance to put Perle, Feith & Hastert in orange jumpsuits
Today is the final day of our Let Sibel Edmonds Speak campaign where we have been asking people to call Henry Waxman's office (202-225-3976, Capitol switchboard 800-828-0498) to demand *public* hearings into the case of former FBI translator and whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds.
Sibel guarantees that if we have public hearings, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman, and Dennis Hastert will go to prison for a long time. If any of that appeals to you, for any reason, call Waxman today. Please.
If you want some more background on the case, please see lukery.dailykos.com - particularly "What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?"
We've been getting positive feedback from Waxman's office, and we just need to drive the final nail into the coffin today.
Today's fresh content is an interview that Sibel and I did with Peter B Collins on Monday evening. (audio)
Here's the interview, I appear to have missed the start.
-----------------------
Peter: ... Your voice has been ruthlessly suppressed at a time when we really need to hear the truth about what you know and how you were treated when you attempted to blow the whistle at the FBI.
Sibel: Peter, as you know, the ACLU declared me as the most gagged American citizen in the US history. They invoked the State Secrets Privilege twice in my case, they have issued various gag orders, they even ordered a gag order in May 2004 on Congress - this is the Department of Justice, first under then-Attorney General Ashcroft, and then later by Alberto Gonzales. Basically, these gag orders and the State Secrets Privilege, deprive you of your 1st amendment right, your 4th amendment right, and your 5th amendment right - and they aren't doing this to some suspected terrorist, or what they call foreign terrorists, they're doing it to an American citizen who reported serious, confirmed wrongdoing through the appropriate channels, by the way. As you know the DoJ's IG's office issued a report 18 months ago that vindicated my report, and they basically said that my allegations were confirmed by other witnesses, evidence and documents, etc. Also, we had two senators, bi-partisan, Senators Grassley and Leahy who publicly confirmed my case and my report, and this was the statement by Senator Grassley, who said: 'Even the FBI management confirmed her report.' So you're not looking, as I said, with these phony, quasi cases that they usually refer to as 'We only do this to suspects, terrorists, etc' - this is what they're doing inside our country, this is what they're doing to an American citizen, and this is what they are getting away with - both in court, and up to this point, in Congress. I have been fighting to reverse this, because what they're doing is not constitutional, it's against the Bill of Rights - plus, covering up these reports absolutely damages our national security. So, 30-plus organizations came together, including the ACLU, POGO, GAP, National Coalition Against Censorship, Liberty Coalition, its transpartisan, you have 30-plus organizations involving civil liberties issues and whistleblower issues and privacy issues, and they put together this joint petition that they served Chairman Waxman of the House government Reform Committee two weeks ago. This petition says 'Chairman Waxman, it's been five years, and there are other witnesses, other FBI witnesses who want to testify in this case, because this case involves some criminal activities by certain people in our own government! We are not only talking about terrorist activities here and we want you to have open public hearings on this case' So we served the committee, we served Chairman Waxman, and all these organizations put out press releases saying 'this is what we did' - and we have had 15-20 thousand American citizens who have signed the petition, we've had thousands of people who have called, and we're still asking them to call - basically urging the committee and as the name of the committee suggests - this is the government Reform Committee - and these wrongdoings have occurred within our government agencies, by our government officials, and they have the power - Chairman Waxman has been great, before they became the majority, they actually, the committee and Chairman Waxman promised me, before he was Chairman, saying 'we want to have a hearing, and the only reason that we're not have hearings is because the Republicans are blocking us from having this hearing' - now that obstacle has been removed.
Peter: Yes it has!
Sibel: Ok! SO now we are saying 'please fulfil your promise, please do what you told us you were going to do' Granted, this is not a glitzy case in the media - as you know Peter, the mainstream media has been absolutely awful with these cases - so it's not a glitzy case, and it's not really a partisan case either. it involves certain corrupt individuals, and some of these people have been in the government agencies in various positions since 1989 - so it's not a really partisan issue, although a lot of it falls within this administration, and the gag orders have been issued by this administration, so we are saying 'Chairman Waxman, do what you are supposed to be doing' and we are waiting to hear back, and I’m hopeful. We have given them until the end of this week to come out and publicly commit to having these public, let me emphasize 'public,' hearings. I have testified behind closed doors, several times, I have testified inside these SCIFs - Secure Facilities - where you can talk about classified stuff. So we're talking about public hearings, and we have a list of several veteran FBI agents and managers who want to testify and tell the truth. They want to present their case, related to my case, and present congress and the American public with documents.
Peter: And where can we go if we want to sign this petition online, and also if you have Chairman Waxman's phone number, let's give that out.
Sibel: Well, you're going to have a guest, Luke Ryland, he has been leading that action campaign that is sponsored by 30+ organizations, and he's going to give out all that information. I don't have it right now in front of me. But we have already delivered the petition, so at this stage, we just want people to keep calling - keep calling Chairman Waxman, and Chairman Conyers, and say 'Please come out publicly and commit publicly that you are going to have this hearing, because they have already said 'Yes, there needs to be a hearing' - so now we want them to confirm this publicly. So it has come to a point where we just basically need to bombard them with calls, and emails, and tell them 'Do the right thing, and do it now.'
Peter: Very good. We need to take a break. Luke Ryland will be joining us from Australia after the break... (Break) We're talking to Sibel Edmonds about her case, and you've just heard, she speaks very articulately, but there are a lot of things that she can't say, because of the gag order issued under this murky State Secrets Privilege, which has been asserted under the Bush administration more times in the last 5 years than it was in the entire century or so that it existed prior to that. And I want to give out the phone number here, if you wanted to call Chairman Waxman's Washington office, it's 202-225-3976 - and his LA office is 323 -651-1040. Sibel Edmonds remains with us, and we're joined by Luke Ryland from Australia, he's an investigative journalist. Luke, welcome to the Peter B Collins show.
Luke: Hi Peter, thanks for having me on.
Peter: My pleasure, and if you're an advocate for Sibel Edmonds, I already like you, Luke.
Luke: Oh - that's very good! Unfortunately I missed the first segment of the show, so I'm not exactly sure what you've already spoken about
Peter: Well we gave a little background for people who might not have been familiar with Sibel’s case - I've talked with her many times over the last 3 years or so, and I always like to recap for people who may not know the background - so that's pretty much what we've covered. Luke, I wanted to ask you first for the website so people can add their names to the petition.
Luke: It's called Let Sibel Edmonds Speak at letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com - in fact, we're not asking people to sign the petition any more. Sibel may have mentioned that we're asking people to call those offices this afternoon and tomorrow when we'll have the final push, trying to swamp those offices so that we can have open hearings into Sibel’s case.
Peter: And based on what you've been able to ferret out, what would occur if Sibel was permitted to testify, in public, under oath.
Luke: Well, firstly, we'd see a lot of senior American politicians and statesmen go to prison, for a long time. You'll be familiar with some of the names, particularly the neocons - Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman who was the number 3 guy at the State Department under Richard Armitage, and, of course, members of Congress, most notably Dennis Hastert.
Peter: The former Speaker. From what I've been able to read online, there was a great post at DailyKos on Friday , there are some linked, subgroups that most members of the public aren't aware of that link some of the factions that are influential in the government of the nation of Turkey, with people who are clearly very powerful in our government in the US
Luke: That's right. There’s an organization called The American Turkish Council (ATC) which is the prime body involved that has been investigated by the FBI and the CIA for years, going back to 1996. In the Vanity Fair article about Sibel's case, she says that the ATC is a front for criminal activity - so the ATC is the main one, there are a couple of other subsidiary, Turkish-related organizations, but Sibel’s case also touches very heavily on AIPAC, the Israeli lobby.
Peter: Yes, we talk about them quite a bit - the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee
Luke: That's right. Sibel intimates that AIPAC and the American Turkish Council are both essentially front groups for a larger criminal network that deals with illegal arms trafficking and other illegal activities. So, it's going to be an explosive case if we can get the hearings - Sibel has probably mentioned that she's had hearings in congress before but they've all been behind closed doors, and nothing ever happens, so hopefully if we get public hearings, we'll see Richard Perle and Doug Feith in orange jumpsuits before long.
Peter: Let's take a call from Dave - Dave, you're on the air
Dave: ... I believe that the White House was up to their neck in bringing about 911, it served their purposes, and there’s' no place for an honest competent translator, fluent in the languages of the Middle East, to be going through all of the emails and transmissions that were taking place... and that's why they had to get rid of you, Sibel...
Peter: Sibel shouldn't comment on your question Dave, but let's turn to Luke Ryland.
Luke: I had some trouble hearing the question, I think the question was about whether you could have an honest FBI translator - there was a great interview that Sibel did last week with David Swanson called "What Would Happen if the FBI Hired an Honest Translator?" - and it goes into that exact issue. The key point that we can take away from that is that Sibel's co-worker and her boss were engaged in espionage, protecting this American Turkish Council that we mentioned earlier - that's documented, proven, signed & sealed.
Peter: That, I know, has been evaluated by Glenn Fine, the INSPECTOR GENERAL of the DoJ who evaluated Sibel Edmonds' allegations and found them highly credible.
Luke: Right, and if I can give you the kicker of the story, her boss at the time, Mike Feghali, has been promoted and promoted, and he's now in charge of the Arabic desk at the FBI translation unit. He has all 300 Arabic translators working under him - so he was corrupt back in 2001, and was probably being blackmailed, or bribed, one or the other, and he's been promoted ever since and now he's in charge of all Arabic speakers. America is obviously less safe, having a compromised person in that position.
Peter: And Luke, if you can tell us, is he the same individual who would erase the hard drive of Sibel’s work at the end of the day, and tell her to do it again because he wanted to create a backlog so that he could get a bigger budget for translation?
Luke: His argument was that he wanted a bigger budget, I have doubts about that. He was apparently in the pay of this criminal network, so arguing for a larger bureaucratic budget might be about the only thing that he could have fallen back on, but as far as I can read the case, that's complete nonsense.
Peter: (break) We have Sibel Edmonds, and Luke Ryland, who is advocating for Sibel Edmonds, because as we explained, Sibel has to be very careful because of a Federal Judge's imposition of a gag order under the so-called State Secrets Privilege - and Sibel, is there anything you'd like to add to what Luke & I discussed before we move on?
Sibel: I would like to actually go back and talk about the individuals that Luke Ryland named - for example, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman - another individual is Eric Edelman, because most people here already know, and they associate these guys with the neocons and also Israel, but there is another element there that ties all four individuals here. If you look at, for example, Richard Perle, & Douglas Feith, these two individuals between 1988/89 to about 1995/96, they set up a lobbying firm called International Advisors Inc, and they registered as foreign agents, representing the government of Turkey, this is Richard Perle, & Douglas Feith, and of course we know that they became top guys within the Pentagon after the Bush administration came into power. And then you look at Marc Grossman - Marc Grossman was the US ambassador to Turkey, from 1993 to 1997, and Marc Grossman became the number 3 guy in the State Department in this administration, and he resigned in 2005 and currently he is hired by one very large Turkish company that is also a front for a lot of illicit activities. Then you can look at Eric Edelman who, 2 or 3 years ago, took Douglas Feith's old position at the Pentagon, and Eric Edelman was another ambassador to Turkey until he took this position at the Pentagon, so not only do these guys have Israel in common, they have Turkey in common - and people really should be paying attention to this, and looking into it, and this is why Luke Ryland has been doing this incredible job in terms of piecing these elements together, and packaging it, because this information is public! It doesn’t matter if I’m gagged on some issues, there's so much out there and so much that can easily be pieced together that our mainstream media has failed us
Peter: Yeah, they're not interested
Sibel: They are not, and maybe there are some other reasons that we don't know about that occurs - a little bit of that we got a taste of during this Libby trial - about what happens behind closed doors with these hotshot mainstream media reporters - so these are the issues that Luke Ryland can talk about in detail and give more information on, and he's been leading this action campaign that is sponsored by 30+ organizations and he's been doing an extraordinary job in piecing the various aspects of my case.
Peter: So Luke, tell us a little more about the US-Turkey connection, because one of the things that surfaces that appears to, not contradict but to mitigate against this relationship, is that the US tried very hard to get Turkey to permit us to use Turkish bases to stage our attack on Iraq four years ago this week. And during the run-up, we kept increasing our bribery to $5-6 billion was offered to Turkey to permit us to do that, and in the end they said 'No' and that struck me as unusual independence from Turkey to the US.
Luke: That was an odd decision, and I think the Turkish government had to listen to the people, I think that 90-something percent of the population was against allowing the US to use Turkey as a staging ground. One of the issues that Sibel talks about is that there's an underlying governing elite in Turkey which includes the military and drug dealers and certain politicians that basically control what happens there, but for one reason or other, the current Prime Minister was able to withstand the pressure and block US access to Turkey - apart from that I can't really answer the question, Peter.
Peter: Understood. What do you know about these various relationships including Perle and Feith who I'm very interested in, not only because of their neocon status, but also they were very active in the Project For the New American Century, which many of us who are critical of the Bush administration is the blueprint for this imperial march which they have tried to lead us on. So what more can you tell us in terms of those connections and how they act against the interest of the American public.
Luke: Well, both Perle & Feith were also involved in writing the "Clean Break" document for Israel so Perle & Feith were both agents for Turkey as Sibel described, but they're also agents for Israel.
Peter: Well - they worked for the campaign for Bibi Netanyahu, didn't they?
Luke: Correct, and they wrote this document, A Clean Break, which outlined a lot of the military activity that they hoped to achieve, including invading Iraq. I think that document dates back to 1996. So they are agents of both Turkey and Israel - and they also have strong connections to defence companies - particularly Israeli defence companies - and they make a lot of money, there as well. Ex-CIA agent Phil Giraldi wrote a terrific article about 6 months ago that Sibel says describes her case "100%" - and in the article Giraldi describes how these neocons, Feith and Perle and others involved with Turkey, 'enrich themselves and distort foreign policy at the same time.' Now, a lot of what he is talking about is the military industrial complex, and having the neocons taking some cream off the top of each transaction that goes through - selling technology to both Israel and Turkey. And it appears that the ATC is one of the organizations that they use to bribe congress to make sure that these military sales go through.
Peter: Now, referencing Congress here Luke, the information that I’m familiar with indicates that when Hastert was Speaker, he received an unusual number of political campaign contributions to I think his Leadership PAC, that were in the amount of $199 - which is one dollar below the threshold that requires detailed reporting on who the donor is, as required by our Federal laws. Has anybody further investigated those bundled contributions from alleged Turkish groups that were funnelled into those campaigns?
Luke: We haven't got to the bottom of that. CREW - Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington - filed an appeal for an investigation that didn't go very far. But to clarify what you were saying, those alleged crimes go back to 1996, long before Hastert was Speaker, and that's one of the reasons why we need hearings into Sibel's case - because when you have this criminal activity, it cascades and snowballs, so even though Hastert was known to have been bribed, not only with these campaign contributions, but also a lot of other cash bribes delivered in suitcases and brown paper bags. This goes back to 97 and 98, and in 1999, Clinton tried to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and charge Hastert, and others, for these crimes, but the investigation got shut down, and Hastert subsequently ascended to the Speakership. So you see this situation happen again and again in Sibel's case, the people who are known criminals keep getting promoted to higher and higher positions which gets us to the situation we have today where we get wars for no reason and that sort of thing.
Peter: Luke, as you look at this, some of the information that Sibel would probably provide in a public hearing if Henry Waxman follows through on his commitment, would challenge the official stories about what occurred in the attacks of September 11, 2001. And this gets into a whole difficult area, it is truly a Pandora’s box, just last night over dinner, talking with some very well-informed friends, I was trying to make the case about the serious questions about Building 7 at the WTC - which of course, came down well after the other two, late in the afternoon of Sep11 and we know have this stunning video from the BBC of a real-time report, at the point when WTC7 did come down, approximately 5.25pm. The problem we have is the BBC report precedes the event that it's reporting on by about 23 minutes, and there's a stunning shot of a reporter who is doing a 'stand-up,' as they call it, appears to be several miles away from the WTC site, but WTC7 is still clearly visible over her shoulder, in the background of this framed picture, as she is describing in the past tense, that WTC7 has come down! And there are many Americans who simply cannot process this, because it leads to questions about government complicity, advanced knowledge, of what occurred on 911.
Luke: Right - well, as far as I know, Sibel can't talk to anything that happened with WTC7 (Ed Note: I actually said, incorrectly, "Sibel can't talk to anything that happened with 911") but a lot of the information that she has does relate to 911 - the covering up of related information both before and after 911. I'll give you an example of 'before' - in April 2001 there was an event, an interrogation, where one of the FBI's longstanding informants told them that 'Osama bin Laden is going to attack the US with planes, 4 or 5 cities, in a few months, and the hijackers are all in place' (ed note: correction: only 'some' of the hijackers were in place). I don't think that many Americans know that they had such a specific warning, and one of the reasons they don't know is because that particular piece of information didn't surface in the 911 Commission report in their "Missed Opportunities" section - which I think is outrageous. There are some other things that Sibel knows about 911 that didn't make the report, for example, some of the people that she listened to on the wiretaps, I think it was the ATC but I'm not sure, organized passports (ed note: that should be visas) for at least two of the hijackers. So this information has been available, but again, didn't make it into the report. So the big question that Sibel has, if I can put words into her mouth, is 'Why on earth are they covering up all of this information?'
Peter: Sibel, what would you like to say at this juncture, please?
Sibel: Well, actually Luke did a great job. But that's one of the things that I've been trying to convey, and that is that there are so many different pieces of 911 that have been either covered up or classified and not everyone has access to everything. And I know about certain events and certain issues and certain pieces, others have their own area - and what I tell people is 'just take a look at the picture in general' - I mean, we still have that CIA report on 911 completely classified, peter. Here we are more than 5 years after 911 and the IG, so-called 'independent' IG, after years of investigation and questioning people and reviewing documents, they issued this report on 911: what the CIA knew, what they did, and the entire report is classified, and then you have the Phoenix Memo, and Colleen Rowley's piece, and Robert Wright in Chicago that had to do with Yassin al-Qadi, and then you have what Luke Ryland just referred to which is this documented incident which was given by a credible informant, and there are these forms, 302 forms, that the agents have to file after they get information from their informants, from their undercover informants, and they filed these 302 forms, they were not destroyed, they are still there in the FBI, and these agents reported these issues, and they gave the 911 Commission these 302 forms, yet it did not make it into the report. And in another case it had to do with certain translations of information of blueprints of these skyscrapers being sent to a certain region on the border of Pakistan and Iran, and this occurred in July 2001. I don't have any information, any idea about the buildings, World Trade Centre and WTC7, because that was not my area, again, my information was limited to what I’m reading, and that is basically the same thing that you are reading, but the other information, and the other pieces that I have first hand direct knowledge of, I have already documented that, I have already given it in a public letter to the 911 Commission, after they issued their quasi-report, and before that report was issued I testified inside the SCIF, I provided them with file numbers, I provided them with the names of the agents who would corroborate this information. Not only that, I drove some of these translators and agents who are not whistleblowers, they are not known individuals, to the Commissioners - and this was with the help I received from the 911 family members, and they testified inside the SCIF, these are the veteran agents involved in the counter-terrorism division of the Washington Field Office, and the headquarters. SO the question is 'What happened to all this information? Why are they going out of their way to cover it?"
Peter: We’ve got to take a break, Luke Ryland, thankyou very much for your work, thanks for joining us from Australia today - I hope we'll talk again.
Luke: Great to speak to you. I hope everyone can call Henry Waxman's office this afternoon and tomorrow. (break)
Peter: We're back with Sibel Edmonds, learn more about her work at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition at NSWBC.org Sibel - do you want to listen in here? I'm going to make a call to Henry Waxman's office.
Sibel: Please!
Peter: Let's see what happens - see how they treat me. This is the LA office. (dials phone)
Doug (answers phone): Congressman Waxman's office.
Peter: Good afternoon - I'm Peter B Collins calling and I'm on the air on my talk-show here in San Francisco. I just called because I wanted to lend my voice, and ask you to pass the word to the congressman, that I support Sibel Edmonds, and I would like him to follow through on his promise to her to hold a public hearing where she can testify under oath and in public about what she knows.
Doug: Great - well I can certainly give him that message. We've received numerous calls today and previously regarding the same issue.
Peter: And has anyone called who is opposed to it?
Doug: Have not received one, no, not yet.
Peter: And do you have any indication that the Congressman is ready to schedule such a hearing?
Doug: We have not received any word in our district office here. That would be a matter to take up with the Washington office directly
Peter: Ok - What's your name please?
Doug: My name is Doug Merkel
Peter: Doug, thanks for taking my call, I appreciate it
Doug: We appreciate any calls, especially those related to the Oversight Committee.
Peter: Sibel, that's a pretty good reception
Sibel: It is, and I must really go on the record, and say that the committee, House government Reform committee, has been doing a great job. I don't know if you know about it or not, but last week, they finally passed this legislation in the House on the Whistleblower protection and this was the legislation that all our Whistleblowers - our organization, and other supporting organizations such as POGO and GAP have been fighting for, for 2.5-3 years, and they kept blocking it and not introducing it, and Chairman Waxman kept his promise on that issue, he really pushed it hard, and he has some really good people, staff members in the committee, and they really pushed it hard. It's not 100%, but by far it's the best legislation so far introduced and passed, as far as Whistleblower protection goes. Now it's going to the Senate, and of course it will be blocked there because we don’t have many Democrats there who are actually supporting the Whistleblowers in the Senate - it's very unfortunate. So Waxman has been good, and he promises, and so far we are optimistic, and positive, and we also believe that they need the push, they need that little last push to really do the right thing, because they have a lot of different issues, they have a lot of different cases. This has been going on for five years, and it's not a case to be investigated, that part has already been done by the Senate Judiciary Committee, by the DoJ's Inspector Generals office, so it just have to have a hearing and just put an end to it and see some oversight and accountability as a result. So, as you said, it's looking good, and I'm so hopeful, and again, if your callers would please keep calling - both the DC office and the LA office, and just lend your support and urge them to hold these hearings, I think we can get to the bottom of this, and get it done, Peter.
Peter: The LA office for Henry Waxman again is 323-651-1040. The Washington office is 202-225-3976. And Sibel, once again, I really appreciate your courage in coming forward, and for spending this time with us, and you don't only focus on your own issues at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, you have attracted support from what, 100 whistleblowers now?
Sibel: Correct - we have more than 100 whistleblowers from the FBI, CIA, NSA, DoD and Department of Homeland Security.
Peter: And there’s a lot of work to be done. Even if we can just roll back some of the worst efforts of the Bush administration... some of these problems precede Bush, to be fair, and there's a lot of work to pull back the curtains and bring sunshine to some of the nefarious relationships, connections, and outright criminal behaviour which has occurred inside our government, and remains unexposed in most cases.
Sibel: Thank you peter, it's always good to be on your show, and hopefully we'll have another show in the near future, announcing some success here and basically have a cheery conversation about 'Hey, sometimes you'll see a little bit of justice taking place within out government and sometimes we have representatives who are doing their jobs and representing the people.
Peter: Well, I want you to testify, and I’d really like to be there, so let me know if you get word that you'll be invited.
Sibel: I certainly will, Peter
Peter: Sibel Edmonds. A fine American, thank you for joining us today.
-------------------------
A fine American indeed.
Today's your last chance folks.
Call Henry Waxman's office (202-225-3976, Capitol switchboard 800-828-0498) to demand *public* hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case.
It's easy. And important.
I'll be doing one final interview for the campaign on Charles Goyette's show at 9.05aam today for 30 mins. Listen live here.
For more, see campaign HQ at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak.
We have a post over there called: "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)" where you can let us know that you made a call and helped put Perle & Feith in prison. Is there a better way to start your Tuesday? I think not.
Sibel guarantees that if we have public hearings, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman, and Dennis Hastert will go to prison for a long time. If any of that appeals to you, for any reason, call Waxman today. Please.
If you want some more background on the case, please see lukery.dailykos.com - particularly "What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?"
We've been getting positive feedback from Waxman's office, and we just need to drive the final nail into the coffin today.
Today's fresh content is an interview that Sibel and I did with Peter B Collins on Monday evening. (audio)
Here's the interview, I appear to have missed the start.
-----------------------
Peter: ... Your voice has been ruthlessly suppressed at a time when we really need to hear the truth about what you know and how you were treated when you attempted to blow the whistle at the FBI.
Sibel: Peter, as you know, the ACLU declared me as the most gagged American citizen in the US history. They invoked the State Secrets Privilege twice in my case, they have issued various gag orders, they even ordered a gag order in May 2004 on Congress - this is the Department of Justice, first under then-Attorney General Ashcroft, and then later by Alberto Gonzales. Basically, these gag orders and the State Secrets Privilege, deprive you of your 1st amendment right, your 4th amendment right, and your 5th amendment right - and they aren't doing this to some suspected terrorist, or what they call foreign terrorists, they're doing it to an American citizen who reported serious, confirmed wrongdoing through the appropriate channels, by the way. As you know the DoJ's IG's office issued a report 18 months ago that vindicated my report, and they basically said that my allegations were confirmed by other witnesses, evidence and documents, etc. Also, we had two senators, bi-partisan, Senators Grassley and Leahy who publicly confirmed my case and my report, and this was the statement by Senator Grassley, who said: 'Even the FBI management confirmed her report.' So you're not looking, as I said, with these phony, quasi cases that they usually refer to as 'We only do this to suspects, terrorists, etc' - this is what they're doing inside our country, this is what they're doing to an American citizen, and this is what they are getting away with - both in court, and up to this point, in Congress. I have been fighting to reverse this, because what they're doing is not constitutional, it's against the Bill of Rights - plus, covering up these reports absolutely damages our national security. So, 30-plus organizations came together, including the ACLU, POGO, GAP, National Coalition Against Censorship, Liberty Coalition, its transpartisan, you have 30-plus organizations involving civil liberties issues and whistleblower issues and privacy issues, and they put together this joint petition that they served Chairman Waxman of the House government Reform Committee two weeks ago. This petition says 'Chairman Waxman, it's been five years, and there are other witnesses, other FBI witnesses who want to testify in this case, because this case involves some criminal activities by certain people in our own government! We are not only talking about terrorist activities here and we want you to have open public hearings on this case' So we served the committee, we served Chairman Waxman, and all these organizations put out press releases saying 'this is what we did' - and we have had 15-20 thousand American citizens who have signed the petition, we've had thousands of people who have called, and we're still asking them to call - basically urging the committee and as the name of the committee suggests - this is the government Reform Committee - and these wrongdoings have occurred within our government agencies, by our government officials, and they have the power - Chairman Waxman has been great, before they became the majority, they actually, the committee and Chairman Waxman promised me, before he was Chairman, saying 'we want to have a hearing, and the only reason that we're not have hearings is because the Republicans are blocking us from having this hearing' - now that obstacle has been removed.
Peter: Yes it has!
Sibel: Ok! SO now we are saying 'please fulfil your promise, please do what you told us you were going to do' Granted, this is not a glitzy case in the media - as you know Peter, the mainstream media has been absolutely awful with these cases - so it's not a glitzy case, and it's not really a partisan case either. it involves certain corrupt individuals, and some of these people have been in the government agencies in various positions since 1989 - so it's not a really partisan issue, although a lot of it falls within this administration, and the gag orders have been issued by this administration, so we are saying 'Chairman Waxman, do what you are supposed to be doing' and we are waiting to hear back, and I’m hopeful. We have given them until the end of this week to come out and publicly commit to having these public, let me emphasize 'public,' hearings. I have testified behind closed doors, several times, I have testified inside these SCIFs - Secure Facilities - where you can talk about classified stuff. So we're talking about public hearings, and we have a list of several veteran FBI agents and managers who want to testify and tell the truth. They want to present their case, related to my case, and present congress and the American public with documents.
Peter: And where can we go if we want to sign this petition online, and also if you have Chairman Waxman's phone number, let's give that out.
Sibel: Well, you're going to have a guest, Luke Ryland, he has been leading that action campaign that is sponsored by 30+ organizations, and he's going to give out all that information. I don't have it right now in front of me. But we have already delivered the petition, so at this stage, we just want people to keep calling - keep calling Chairman Waxman, and Chairman Conyers, and say 'Please come out publicly and commit publicly that you are going to have this hearing, because they have already said 'Yes, there needs to be a hearing' - so now we want them to confirm this publicly. So it has come to a point where we just basically need to bombard them with calls, and emails, and tell them 'Do the right thing, and do it now.'
Peter: Very good. We need to take a break. Luke Ryland will be joining us from Australia after the break... (Break) We're talking to Sibel Edmonds about her case, and you've just heard, she speaks very articulately, but there are a lot of things that she can't say, because of the gag order issued under this murky State Secrets Privilege, which has been asserted under the Bush administration more times in the last 5 years than it was in the entire century or so that it existed prior to that. And I want to give out the phone number here, if you wanted to call Chairman Waxman's Washington office, it's 202-225-3976 - and his LA office is 323 -651-1040. Sibel Edmonds remains with us, and we're joined by Luke Ryland from Australia, he's an investigative journalist. Luke, welcome to the Peter B Collins show.
Luke: Hi Peter, thanks for having me on.
Peter: My pleasure, and if you're an advocate for Sibel Edmonds, I already like you, Luke.
Luke: Oh - that's very good! Unfortunately I missed the first segment of the show, so I'm not exactly sure what you've already spoken about
Peter: Well we gave a little background for people who might not have been familiar with Sibel’s case - I've talked with her many times over the last 3 years or so, and I always like to recap for people who may not know the background - so that's pretty much what we've covered. Luke, I wanted to ask you first for the website so people can add their names to the petition.
Luke: It's called Let Sibel Edmonds Speak at letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com - in fact, we're not asking people to sign the petition any more. Sibel may have mentioned that we're asking people to call those offices this afternoon and tomorrow when we'll have the final push, trying to swamp those offices so that we can have open hearings into Sibel’s case.
Peter: And based on what you've been able to ferret out, what would occur if Sibel was permitted to testify, in public, under oath.
Luke: Well, firstly, we'd see a lot of senior American politicians and statesmen go to prison, for a long time. You'll be familiar with some of the names, particularly the neocons - Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman who was the number 3 guy at the State Department under Richard Armitage, and, of course, members of Congress, most notably Dennis Hastert.
Peter: The former Speaker. From what I've been able to read online, there was a great post at DailyKos on Friday , there are some linked, subgroups that most members of the public aren't aware of that link some of the factions that are influential in the government of the nation of Turkey, with people who are clearly very powerful in our government in the US
Luke: That's right. There’s an organization called The American Turkish Council (ATC) which is the prime body involved that has been investigated by the FBI and the CIA for years, going back to 1996. In the Vanity Fair article about Sibel's case, she says that the ATC is a front for criminal activity - so the ATC is the main one, there are a couple of other subsidiary, Turkish-related organizations, but Sibel’s case also touches very heavily on AIPAC, the Israeli lobby.
Peter: Yes, we talk about them quite a bit - the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee
Luke: That's right. Sibel intimates that AIPAC and the American Turkish Council are both essentially front groups for a larger criminal network that deals with illegal arms trafficking and other illegal activities. So, it's going to be an explosive case if we can get the hearings - Sibel has probably mentioned that she's had hearings in congress before but they've all been behind closed doors, and nothing ever happens, so hopefully if we get public hearings, we'll see Richard Perle and Doug Feith in orange jumpsuits before long.
Peter: Let's take a call from Dave - Dave, you're on the air
Dave: ... I believe that the White House was up to their neck in bringing about 911, it served their purposes, and there’s' no place for an honest competent translator, fluent in the languages of the Middle East, to be going through all of the emails and transmissions that were taking place... and that's why they had to get rid of you, Sibel...
Peter: Sibel shouldn't comment on your question Dave, but let's turn to Luke Ryland.
Luke: I had some trouble hearing the question, I think the question was about whether you could have an honest FBI translator - there was a great interview that Sibel did last week with David Swanson called "What Would Happen if the FBI Hired an Honest Translator?" - and it goes into that exact issue. The key point that we can take away from that is that Sibel's co-worker and her boss were engaged in espionage, protecting this American Turkish Council that we mentioned earlier - that's documented, proven, signed & sealed.
Peter: That, I know, has been evaluated by Glenn Fine, the INSPECTOR GENERAL of the DoJ who evaluated Sibel Edmonds' allegations and found them highly credible.
Luke: Right, and if I can give you the kicker of the story, her boss at the time, Mike Feghali, has been promoted and promoted, and he's now in charge of the Arabic desk at the FBI translation unit. He has all 300 Arabic translators working under him - so he was corrupt back in 2001, and was probably being blackmailed, or bribed, one or the other, and he's been promoted ever since and now he's in charge of all Arabic speakers. America is obviously less safe, having a compromised person in that position.
Peter: And Luke, if you can tell us, is he the same individual who would erase the hard drive of Sibel’s work at the end of the day, and tell her to do it again because he wanted to create a backlog so that he could get a bigger budget for translation?
Luke: His argument was that he wanted a bigger budget, I have doubts about that. He was apparently in the pay of this criminal network, so arguing for a larger bureaucratic budget might be about the only thing that he could have fallen back on, but as far as I can read the case, that's complete nonsense.
Peter: (break) We have Sibel Edmonds, and Luke Ryland, who is advocating for Sibel Edmonds, because as we explained, Sibel has to be very careful because of a Federal Judge's imposition of a gag order under the so-called State Secrets Privilege - and Sibel, is there anything you'd like to add to what Luke & I discussed before we move on?
Sibel: I would like to actually go back and talk about the individuals that Luke Ryland named - for example, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman - another individual is Eric Edelman, because most people here already know, and they associate these guys with the neocons and also Israel, but there is another element there that ties all four individuals here. If you look at, for example, Richard Perle, & Douglas Feith, these two individuals between 1988/89 to about 1995/96, they set up a lobbying firm called International Advisors Inc, and they registered as foreign agents, representing the government of Turkey, this is Richard Perle, & Douglas Feith, and of course we know that they became top guys within the Pentagon after the Bush administration came into power. And then you look at Marc Grossman - Marc Grossman was the US ambassador to Turkey, from 1993 to 1997, and Marc Grossman became the number 3 guy in the State Department in this administration, and he resigned in 2005 and currently he is hired by one very large Turkish company that is also a front for a lot of illicit activities. Then you can look at Eric Edelman who, 2 or 3 years ago, took Douglas Feith's old position at the Pentagon, and Eric Edelman was another ambassador to Turkey until he took this position at the Pentagon, so not only do these guys have Israel in common, they have Turkey in common - and people really should be paying attention to this, and looking into it, and this is why Luke Ryland has been doing this incredible job in terms of piecing these elements together, and packaging it, because this information is public! It doesn’t matter if I’m gagged on some issues, there's so much out there and so much that can easily be pieced together that our mainstream media has failed us
Peter: Yeah, they're not interested
Sibel: They are not, and maybe there are some other reasons that we don't know about that occurs - a little bit of that we got a taste of during this Libby trial - about what happens behind closed doors with these hotshot mainstream media reporters - so these are the issues that Luke Ryland can talk about in detail and give more information on, and he's been leading this action campaign that is sponsored by 30+ organizations and he's been doing an extraordinary job in piecing the various aspects of my case.
Peter: So Luke, tell us a little more about the US-Turkey connection, because one of the things that surfaces that appears to, not contradict but to mitigate against this relationship, is that the US tried very hard to get Turkey to permit us to use Turkish bases to stage our attack on Iraq four years ago this week. And during the run-up, we kept increasing our bribery to $5-6 billion was offered to Turkey to permit us to do that, and in the end they said 'No' and that struck me as unusual independence from Turkey to the US.
Luke: That was an odd decision, and I think the Turkish government had to listen to the people, I think that 90-something percent of the population was against allowing the US to use Turkey as a staging ground. One of the issues that Sibel talks about is that there's an underlying governing elite in Turkey which includes the military and drug dealers and certain politicians that basically control what happens there, but for one reason or other, the current Prime Minister was able to withstand the pressure and block US access to Turkey - apart from that I can't really answer the question, Peter.
Peter: Understood. What do you know about these various relationships including Perle and Feith who I'm very interested in, not only because of their neocon status, but also they were very active in the Project For the New American Century, which many of us who are critical of the Bush administration is the blueprint for this imperial march which they have tried to lead us on. So what more can you tell us in terms of those connections and how they act against the interest of the American public.
Luke: Well, both Perle & Feith were also involved in writing the "Clean Break" document for Israel so Perle & Feith were both agents for Turkey as Sibel described, but they're also agents for Israel.
Peter: Well - they worked for the campaign for Bibi Netanyahu, didn't they?
Luke: Correct, and they wrote this document, A Clean Break, which outlined a lot of the military activity that they hoped to achieve, including invading Iraq. I think that document dates back to 1996. So they are agents of both Turkey and Israel - and they also have strong connections to defence companies - particularly Israeli defence companies - and they make a lot of money, there as well. Ex-CIA agent Phil Giraldi wrote a terrific article about 6 months ago that Sibel says describes her case "100%" - and in the article Giraldi describes how these neocons, Feith and Perle and others involved with Turkey, 'enrich themselves and distort foreign policy at the same time.' Now, a lot of what he is talking about is the military industrial complex, and having the neocons taking some cream off the top of each transaction that goes through - selling technology to both Israel and Turkey. And it appears that the ATC is one of the organizations that they use to bribe congress to make sure that these military sales go through.
Peter: Now, referencing Congress here Luke, the information that I’m familiar with indicates that when Hastert was Speaker, he received an unusual number of political campaign contributions to I think his Leadership PAC, that were in the amount of $199 - which is one dollar below the threshold that requires detailed reporting on who the donor is, as required by our Federal laws. Has anybody further investigated those bundled contributions from alleged Turkish groups that were funnelled into those campaigns?
Luke: We haven't got to the bottom of that. CREW - Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington - filed an appeal for an investigation that didn't go very far. But to clarify what you were saying, those alleged crimes go back to 1996, long before Hastert was Speaker, and that's one of the reasons why we need hearings into Sibel's case - because when you have this criminal activity, it cascades and snowballs, so even though Hastert was known to have been bribed, not only with these campaign contributions, but also a lot of other cash bribes delivered in suitcases and brown paper bags. This goes back to 97 and 98, and in 1999, Clinton tried to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and charge Hastert, and others, for these crimes, but the investigation got shut down, and Hastert subsequently ascended to the Speakership. So you see this situation happen again and again in Sibel's case, the people who are known criminals keep getting promoted to higher and higher positions which gets us to the situation we have today where we get wars for no reason and that sort of thing.
Peter: Luke, as you look at this, some of the information that Sibel would probably provide in a public hearing if Henry Waxman follows through on his commitment, would challenge the official stories about what occurred in the attacks of September 11, 2001. And this gets into a whole difficult area, it is truly a Pandora’s box, just last night over dinner, talking with some very well-informed friends, I was trying to make the case about the serious questions about Building 7 at the WTC - which of course, came down well after the other two, late in the afternoon of Sep11 and we know have this stunning video from the BBC of a real-time report, at the point when WTC7 did come down, approximately 5.25pm. The problem we have is the BBC report precedes the event that it's reporting on by about 23 minutes, and there's a stunning shot of a reporter who is doing a 'stand-up,' as they call it, appears to be several miles away from the WTC site, but WTC7 is still clearly visible over her shoulder, in the background of this framed picture, as she is describing in the past tense, that WTC7 has come down! And there are many Americans who simply cannot process this, because it leads to questions about government complicity, advanced knowledge, of what occurred on 911.
Luke: Right - well, as far as I know, Sibel can't talk to anything that happened with WTC7 (Ed Note: I actually said, incorrectly, "Sibel can't talk to anything that happened with 911") but a lot of the information that she has does relate to 911 - the covering up of related information both before and after 911. I'll give you an example of 'before' - in April 2001 there was an event, an interrogation, where one of the FBI's longstanding informants told them that 'Osama bin Laden is going to attack the US with planes, 4 or 5 cities, in a few months, and the hijackers are all in place' (ed note: correction: only 'some' of the hijackers were in place). I don't think that many Americans know that they had such a specific warning, and one of the reasons they don't know is because that particular piece of information didn't surface in the 911 Commission report in their "Missed Opportunities" section - which I think is outrageous. There are some other things that Sibel knows about 911 that didn't make the report, for example, some of the people that she listened to on the wiretaps, I think it was the ATC but I'm not sure, organized passports (ed note: that should be visas) for at least two of the hijackers. So this information has been available, but again, didn't make it into the report. So the big question that Sibel has, if I can put words into her mouth, is 'Why on earth are they covering up all of this information?'
Peter: Sibel, what would you like to say at this juncture, please?
Sibel: Well, actually Luke did a great job. But that's one of the things that I've been trying to convey, and that is that there are so many different pieces of 911 that have been either covered up or classified and not everyone has access to everything. And I know about certain events and certain issues and certain pieces, others have their own area - and what I tell people is 'just take a look at the picture in general' - I mean, we still have that CIA report on 911 completely classified, peter. Here we are more than 5 years after 911 and the IG, so-called 'independent' IG, after years of investigation and questioning people and reviewing documents, they issued this report on 911: what the CIA knew, what they did, and the entire report is classified, and then you have the Phoenix Memo, and Colleen Rowley's piece, and Robert Wright in Chicago that had to do with Yassin al-Qadi, and then you have what Luke Ryland just referred to which is this documented incident which was given by a credible informant, and there are these forms, 302 forms, that the agents have to file after they get information from their informants, from their undercover informants, and they filed these 302 forms, they were not destroyed, they are still there in the FBI, and these agents reported these issues, and they gave the 911 Commission these 302 forms, yet it did not make it into the report. And in another case it had to do with certain translations of information of blueprints of these skyscrapers being sent to a certain region on the border of Pakistan and Iran, and this occurred in July 2001. I don't have any information, any idea about the buildings, World Trade Centre and WTC7, because that was not my area, again, my information was limited to what I’m reading, and that is basically the same thing that you are reading, but the other information, and the other pieces that I have first hand direct knowledge of, I have already documented that, I have already given it in a public letter to the 911 Commission, after they issued their quasi-report, and before that report was issued I testified inside the SCIF, I provided them with file numbers, I provided them with the names of the agents who would corroborate this information. Not only that, I drove some of these translators and agents who are not whistleblowers, they are not known individuals, to the Commissioners - and this was with the help I received from the 911 family members, and they testified inside the SCIF, these are the veteran agents involved in the counter-terrorism division of the Washington Field Office, and the headquarters. SO the question is 'What happened to all this information? Why are they going out of their way to cover it?"
Peter: We’ve got to take a break, Luke Ryland, thankyou very much for your work, thanks for joining us from Australia today - I hope we'll talk again.
Luke: Great to speak to you. I hope everyone can call Henry Waxman's office this afternoon and tomorrow. (break)
Peter: We're back with Sibel Edmonds, learn more about her work at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition at NSWBC.org Sibel - do you want to listen in here? I'm going to make a call to Henry Waxman's office.
Sibel: Please!
Peter: Let's see what happens - see how they treat me. This is the LA office. (dials phone)
Doug (answers phone): Congressman Waxman's office.
Peter: Good afternoon - I'm Peter B Collins calling and I'm on the air on my talk-show here in San Francisco. I just called because I wanted to lend my voice, and ask you to pass the word to the congressman, that I support Sibel Edmonds, and I would like him to follow through on his promise to her to hold a public hearing where she can testify under oath and in public about what she knows.
Doug: Great - well I can certainly give him that message. We've received numerous calls today and previously regarding the same issue.
Peter: And has anyone called who is opposed to it?
Doug: Have not received one, no, not yet.
Peter: And do you have any indication that the Congressman is ready to schedule such a hearing?
Doug: We have not received any word in our district office here. That would be a matter to take up with the Washington office directly
Peter: Ok - What's your name please?
Doug: My name is Doug Merkel
Peter: Doug, thanks for taking my call, I appreciate it
Doug: We appreciate any calls, especially those related to the Oversight Committee.
Peter: Sibel, that's a pretty good reception
Sibel: It is, and I must really go on the record, and say that the committee, House government Reform committee, has been doing a great job. I don't know if you know about it or not, but last week, they finally passed this legislation in the House on the Whistleblower protection and this was the legislation that all our Whistleblowers - our organization, and other supporting organizations such as POGO and GAP have been fighting for, for 2.5-3 years, and they kept blocking it and not introducing it, and Chairman Waxman kept his promise on that issue, he really pushed it hard, and he has some really good people, staff members in the committee, and they really pushed it hard. It's not 100%, but by far it's the best legislation so far introduced and passed, as far as Whistleblower protection goes. Now it's going to the Senate, and of course it will be blocked there because we don’t have many Democrats there who are actually supporting the Whistleblowers in the Senate - it's very unfortunate. So Waxman has been good, and he promises, and so far we are optimistic, and positive, and we also believe that they need the push, they need that little last push to really do the right thing, because they have a lot of different issues, they have a lot of different cases. This has been going on for five years, and it's not a case to be investigated, that part has already been done by the Senate Judiciary Committee, by the DoJ's Inspector Generals office, so it just have to have a hearing and just put an end to it and see some oversight and accountability as a result. So, as you said, it's looking good, and I'm so hopeful, and again, if your callers would please keep calling - both the DC office and the LA office, and just lend your support and urge them to hold these hearings, I think we can get to the bottom of this, and get it done, Peter.
Peter: The LA office for Henry Waxman again is 323-651-1040. The Washington office is 202-225-3976. And Sibel, once again, I really appreciate your courage in coming forward, and for spending this time with us, and you don't only focus on your own issues at the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, you have attracted support from what, 100 whistleblowers now?
Sibel: Correct - we have more than 100 whistleblowers from the FBI, CIA, NSA, DoD and Department of Homeland Security.
Peter: And there’s a lot of work to be done. Even if we can just roll back some of the worst efforts of the Bush administration... some of these problems precede Bush, to be fair, and there's a lot of work to pull back the curtains and bring sunshine to some of the nefarious relationships, connections, and outright criminal behaviour which has occurred inside our government, and remains unexposed in most cases.
Sibel: Thank you peter, it's always good to be on your show, and hopefully we'll have another show in the near future, announcing some success here and basically have a cheery conversation about 'Hey, sometimes you'll see a little bit of justice taking place within out government and sometimes we have representatives who are doing their jobs and representing the people.
Peter: Well, I want you to testify, and I’d really like to be there, so let me know if you get word that you'll be invited.
Sibel: I certainly will, Peter
Peter: Sibel Edmonds. A fine American, thank you for joining us today.
-------------------------
A fine American indeed.
Today's your last chance folks.
Call Henry Waxman's office (202-225-3976, Capitol switchboard 800-828-0498) to demand *public* hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case.
It's easy. And important.
I'll be doing one final interview for the campaign on Charles Goyette's show at 9.05aam today for 30 mins. Listen live here.
For more, see campaign HQ at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak.
We have a post over there called: "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)" where you can let us know that you made a call and helped put Perle & Feith in prison. Is there a better way to start your Tuesday? I think not.
Monday, March 19, 2007
You can help Sibel Edmonds & your country, today.
Let Sibel Edmonds Speak is a campaign we've been running for the last week asking people to demand that Henry Waxman hold hearings into former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.
We've had a lot of support here as people learn more about Sibel's case, and I ask that you help turn that energy into hearings by calling Waxman and Conyers today, Monday, and Tuesday and we'll be asking Waxman to go on the record midweek and state that he will have hearings.
Congressman Waxman: ph: (202) 225-3976, fax: (202) 225-4099
Congressman Conyers: (202) 225-5126, fax (202) 225-0072
(Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)
Over at campaign headquarters, I have a new post called "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)" where we're asking you to go on the record and leave a comment saying that you made a call or sent a fax, and perhaps share any feedback that you received.
Downstairs, I'll discuss a few things that you might not know about Sibel's case...
------------
First, here's the video of the speech:
The official transcript is here. A snippet:
I wrote a post yesterday that some of you may have missed which attempts to document a very simple component of Sibel's story that should outrage everyone, and it doesn't require any familiarity with Sibel's case to comprehend. Sibel's boss was actively involved in espionage to protect the targets of the FBI's investigations. This is documented and acknowledged by the FBI and the Department of Justice etc. He got promoted, and now, five years later, he is in charge of the entire desk of 300 Arabic speaking translators. He was apparently being bribed and/or blackmailed 5 years ago into protecting targets of FBI investigations, and I can only presume that he is still being bribed/blackmailed by the same people - he certainly is compromised and a security risk. His promotion seems to suggest that all of the people above him are also compromised. That should scare the living daylights out of you and ought to be sufficient to get even your right-wing uncle in fly-over country to call Waxman and demand hearings.
Perhaps you could send him the post and ask him to make a call or two (hint, hint) and you won't even have to discuss the merits of firing gay Arabic linguists under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
What else? Well, there's the fact that "Turkish (criminal) groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to (steal) information about black market nuclear weapons." These criminal groups were bribing people at the State Department to ensure that these 'students' got placed at the nuclear labs. Being criminal groups, they then sold their loot to the highest bidders, including America's state-based and terrorist enemies.
What else? Sibel is aware of an April 2001 FBI briefing that indicated that:
Incidentally, this event didn't make it into the 911 Commission's section on "missed opportunities."
What else? Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman and Dennis Hastert (and others) will all go to prison for a long time, presuming that the standard penalty for treason isn't implemented.
What else? To clarify, a lot of the writing I have done about Sibel's case has, for simplicity, assumed that the American Turkish Council is the only organization involved. There are a number of other Turkey-related organizations - Phil Giraldi mentions some of them in his article. More importantly, Sibel says (and Giraldi hints at this as well) that AIPAC and the ATC are both (equal?) fronts for the same criminal network that her case involves.
What else? In case you missed my "Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings" post from last week, Valerie Plame's Brewster Jennings was investigating the ATC for years, which appears to support the claims that the ATC was involved in WMD proliferation. It isn't known whether Brewster Jennings was also investigating AIPAC
What else? In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote a post last week called "What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?"
What else? Because Sibel was a translator, there is documented evidence for all of her claims. She says:
What else? Sibel and I will be interviewed Monday night at 7eastern on Peter B Collins. Listen live or it'll be available at WhiteRoseSociety at some point soon. If it's a good interview, I'll try to transcribe it quickly, but time is going to be short in the next day or two (and it probably won't be great - I've only ever done 3 interviews in my life, all of them I the last 2 weeks - so I'm a total amateur)
What else? I think that's about it for now. Except, you know, begging that you call and demand hearings on Monday and Tuesday.
If I had to 'order' our priorities in terms of who to contact first etc, I'd say (I'd prefer calls and faxes rather than emails):
1. Waxman's DC office:
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov)
David Rapallo (David.Rapallo@mail.house.gov)
2. Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
(202) 225-5051 (phone)
email
3. John Conyers' DC office:
(202) 225-5126 (phone)
(202) 225-0072 (Fax)
email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
What else? Don't forget to tell us how you get along, and register that you helped ungag Sibel at "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)"
We've had a lot of support here as people learn more about Sibel's case, and I ask that you help turn that energy into hearings by calling Waxman and Conyers today, Monday, and Tuesday and we'll be asking Waxman to go on the record midweek and state that he will have hearings.
Congressman Waxman: ph: (202) 225-3976, fax: (202) 225-4099
Congressman Conyers: (202) 225-5126, fax (202) 225-0072
(Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)
Over at campaign headquarters, I have a new post called "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)" where we're asking you to go on the record and leave a comment saying that you made a call or sent a fax, and perhaps share any feedback that you received.
Downstairs, I'll discuss a few things that you might not know about Sibel's case...
------------
First, here's the video of the speech:
The official transcript is here. A snippet:
"We must be vigilant & fight back, for our freedom is under assault – not from terrorists – for they only attack us, not our freedom, and they can never prevail. No, the attacks on our freedom are from within, from our very own government; and unless we recognize these attacks for what they are, and stand up, and speak out – no shout out – against those despots in government who are attempting to silence the brave few who are warning us; then we are doomed to wake up one sad morning and wonder when and where our freedom died."
I wrote a post yesterday that some of you may have missed which attempts to document a very simple component of Sibel's story that should outrage everyone, and it doesn't require any familiarity with Sibel's case to comprehend. Sibel's boss was actively involved in espionage to protect the targets of the FBI's investigations. This is documented and acknowledged by the FBI and the Department of Justice etc. He got promoted, and now, five years later, he is in charge of the entire desk of 300 Arabic speaking translators. He was apparently being bribed and/or blackmailed 5 years ago into protecting targets of FBI investigations, and I can only presume that he is still being bribed/blackmailed by the same people - he certainly is compromised and a security risk. His promotion seems to suggest that all of the people above him are also compromised. That should scare the living daylights out of you and ought to be sufficient to get even your right-wing uncle in fly-over country to call Waxman and demand hearings.
Perhaps you could send him the post and ask him to make a call or two (hint, hint) and you won't even have to discuss the merits of firing gay Arabic linguists under Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
What else? Well, there's the fact that "Turkish (criminal) groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to (steal) information about black market nuclear weapons." These criminal groups were bribing people at the State Department to ensure that these 'students' got placed at the nuclear labs. Being criminal groups, they then sold their loot to the highest bidders, including America's state-based and terrorist enemies.
What else? Sibel is aware of an April 2001 FBI briefing that indicated that:
1) Osama bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting four or five major cities; 2) the attack was going to involve airplanes; 3) some of the individuals in charge of carrying out this attack were already in place in the United States; 4) the attack was going to be carried out soon, in a few months. The agents who received this information reported it to their superior, Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism Thomas Frields at the FBI Washington Field Office... No action was taken by the special agent in charge, and after 9/11 the agents and the translators were told to "keep quiet" regarding this issue.
Incidentally, this event didn't make it into the 911 Commission's section on "missed opportunities."
What else? Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Marc Grossman and Dennis Hastert (and others) will all go to prison for a long time, presuming that the standard penalty for treason isn't implemented.
What else? To clarify, a lot of the writing I have done about Sibel's case has, for simplicity, assumed that the American Turkish Council is the only organization involved. There are a number of other Turkey-related organizations - Phil Giraldi mentions some of them in his article. More importantly, Sibel says (and Giraldi hints at this as well) that AIPAC and the ATC are both (equal?) fronts for the same criminal network that her case involves.
What else? In case you missed my "Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings" post from last week, Valerie Plame's Brewster Jennings was investigating the ATC for years, which appears to support the claims that the ATC was involved in WMD proliferation. It isn't known whether Brewster Jennings was also investigating AIPAC
What else? In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote a post last week called "What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?"
What else? Because Sibel was a translator, there is documented evidence for all of her claims. She says:
"Put out those tapes. Put out those wiretaps. Put out those documents. Put out the truth. The truth is going to hurt them. The truth is going to set me free."
What else? Sibel and I will be interviewed Monday night at 7eastern on Peter B Collins. Listen live or it'll be available at WhiteRoseSociety at some point soon. If it's a good interview, I'll try to transcribe it quickly, but time is going to be short in the next day or two (and it probably won't be great - I've only ever done 3 interviews in my life, all of them I the last 2 weeks - so I'm a total amateur)
What else? I think that's about it for now. Except, you know, begging that you call and demand hearings on Monday and Tuesday.
If I had to 'order' our priorities in terms of who to contact first etc, I'd say (I'd prefer calls and faxes rather than emails):
1. Waxman's DC office:
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov)
David Rapallo (David.Rapallo@mail.house.gov)
2. Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
(202) 225-5051 (phone)
3. John Conyers' DC office:
(202) 225-5126 (phone)
(202) 225-0072 (Fax)
email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
What else? Don't forget to tell us how you get along, and register that you helped ungag Sibel at "Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)"
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!)
Ok - This is it folks. We are headed into the last 2 days of the campaign. We want everyone to call Henry Waxman's office and demand open hearings into Sibel's case. We are having a last minute push - Monday and Tuesday of this week - to make calls, and send faxes.
If you make one call, call Waxman's office. If you can make two calls, call his other offices, if you can make three calls, call Conyers' office. (contact details below)
Sibel is the most gagged person in US history - if we get hearings, then by definition, she'll be the most 'ungagged' person in US history. If you make a call on Monday and Tuesday, then you will be able to take credit for making this happen. We are nearly there.
When you've made a call, leave a comment in this post and go on the record here that you've done your bit. You'll be able to tell your kids, and your grandkids, and if you live long enough, their grandkids. More than that, imagine how much fun it will be watching the hearings, and seeing Perle, Feith and Hastert hauled away in orange jumpsuits..
------------------
Contact details:
Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498
Waxman Contact Details:
(ask for Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov) & David Rapallo (David.Rapallo@mail.house.gov) )
In Washington, D.C.
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
Conyers Contact Details:
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
(ask for Elliot Mintzberg)
Trenton, MI 48183
(734) 675-4084
(734) 675-4218 Fax
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-5670
(313) 226-2085 Fax
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Sibel Edmonds: we aren't safe today. you can help.
Former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds discovered massive criminality when she was at the FBI and was told to shut up. Sibel is the most gagged person in US history. We're in the final days of a campaign, Let Sibel Edmonds Speak, to demand that Henry Waxman hold hearings into her case and the State Secrets Privilege. (contact details downstairs)
Because Sibel is gagged, and because her case is complicated, it can be difficult to understand of all the different elements. In this post, I will lay out the most simple of the issues that Sibel raised - espionage in the FBI translation department - and why it is still important today (hint: a confirmed 'mole'/foreign agent is in charge of all Arabic translators at the FBI.)
In other words, I hope that you can send this diary to your friends and family - people who may not be involved in politics, people who have never heard of Sibel - and they are sufficiently outraged that they can't wait to call Waxman on Monday morning and demand hearings.
The reason they should be outraged is because America is more likely to be attacked because of the information in this diary.
Last week, more than 30 'good-government' groups from across the political spectrum petitioned Henry Waxman to hold hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case.
From the petition:
Today I want to describe exactly what she's talking about regarding espionage at the FBI translation unit, and prove that we are all less safe because the problems have not been rectified - in fact, the problems are much worse today.
When Sibel Edmonds joined the FBI immediately after 911, she was the first and only Turkish translator there. Shortly afterwards, the FBI recruited two other translators, Melek Can Dickerson and Kevin Taskasen. Their boss was former translator Mike Feghali.
Let's dispense with Kevin Taskasen first, because he isn't particularly important in the scheme of things, although his situation does demonstrate the massive incompetence and cronyism in the translation department. Taskasen failed two language proficiency exams, English and Turkish, but his wife worked at the FBI's language testing center so... he got the job. Three months later he was sent to Guantanamo Bay to translate the interrogations: to perhaps help foil a new terror attack, or to help determine the guilt or otherwise of the prisoners held there.
Now on to more serious matters: Melek Can Dickerson.
In a fantastic interview with Sibel last week titled "What if the FBI Hired Someone Honest to Look into 9-11?" David Swanson said:
Not all translators are traitors, of course, but translators do have tremendous power, as Sibel described in the same interview:
In other words, America's enemies are motivated to A) try to recruit existing translators B) place their own translator 'moles' in the translation unit and C) if they're really lucky/skilled/successful, take over an entire 'desk' in the FBIs translation unit. Unfortunately, and scarily, in Sibel's case, we see all three.
Melek Can Dickerson had worked for at least three organizations that were under investigation by the FBI's counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism divisions. She lied on her application form, saying that she'd never worked before in her life, and was given Top Secret clearance and immediately began working in the translation unit. We don't know whether Dickerson was given her job, and Top Secret clearance, as a result of FBI incompetence or corruption - I suspect corruption - but it doesn't really matter, because within weeks of her arrival, the Turkish desk of the FBI translation unit was completely corrupted.
On Sunday December 2nd, 2001, Dickerson and her husband, Doug, arrived at Sibel's house and tried to persuade Sibel and her husband, Matthew, to join the American Turkish Council (ATC) - one of the organizations that Dickerson had previously worked for and failed to mention on her FBI application form. The Dickersons promised Sibel and her husband, Matthew, an early retirement if they joined the ATC. Sibel immediately recognized that she was being recruited to be a mole in the translation unit because the ATC, and some of the Dickersons' other friends, were targets of counter-intelligence & counter-terrorism investigations that Sibel had been translating at the FBI.
According to the 10-page Vanity Fair article on Sibel and her case, the ATC "was being used as a front for criminal activity" involving "laundering the profits of large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder." In other words, serious business. We also have evidence from a bunch of other places that suggest that the ATC was involved with all sorts of illegal activity - not least, we know that Valerie Plame's CIA front company, Brewster Jennings, had been investigating the ATC for years.
Brewster Jennings' main focus was Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and we know that companies involved with the ATC were actually supplying rogue nations with nuclear technology - hardware, and nuclear secrets, stolen (via bribes paid to vaious State Dept officials) from US nuclear labs (Sandia, Los Alamos etc)
Story so far: FBI employed Melek Can Dickerson, an agent/mole for a foreign/criminal network involved in WMD (among other things). Dickerson tried to recruit Sibel into the network.
Sibel immediately reported the Dickerson's 'recruitment' attempt to her boss at the FBI, Mike Feghali, but he had already (if not before) been co-opted by Dickerson and the ATC. Within a month of Dickerson joining the FBI, she had changed the FBI translation unit's internal procedures, with the help of her boss, Feghali, so that she alone was in charge of translating any intercepts from her friends at the ATC (and elsewhere). Of course, now that Dickerson, the mole, was in charge of 'translating' her criminal friends' wiretaps, whenever she came across anything incriminating (and there were many such situations), she simply didn't translate it, or marked it 'Not Pertinent.'
Sibel thinks that Feghali and Dickerson were having an affair - often conducted in his office, during business hours. Not only that, he also
"covered-up information and leads pre and post 9/11" (for more, see Sibel's open letter to the 911 Commission)
Sibel reached out to Dennis Saccher, the F.B.I.’s special agent in charge of Turkish counter-intelligence, and told him what had happened. He said "It sounds like espionage to me." We aren't sure of what other payoffs Feghali may have received, from Dickerson or the ATC, but he clearly shouldn't be in charge of such a sensitive translation facility at the FBI. "The translator is a traitor."
Sibel took her case up the FBI hierarchy - eventually pleading her case that the translation unit, the frontline against America's enemies, had been infiltrated by a criminal network to FBI Director Robert Mueller, to no avail - and was eventually fired 'at the government's pleasure.'
Despite being fired, Sibel continued to try to bring attention to the fact that America was in danger because foreign criminal elements had taken over the FBI translation unit. She went to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (internal affairs), the Department of Justice's Inspector General, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the 911 Commission, and Henry Waxman's office. Every one of them confirmed Sibel's allegations - Republican Senator Charles Grassley explains why:
"Absolutely, she's credible. And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."
Veteran FBI counterintelligence agent John Cole said the same thing:
In fact, in a CBS 60 Minutes report (download, 300 megs) by Ed Bradley about Sibel's case in 2002, Charles Grassley said angrily, about these facts, "We need to turn the FBI upside down." Five years later, and the FBI has indeed been turned upside down. Five years ago, Mike Feghali was in charge of three Turkish translators, a patriot, an incompetent, and a foreign agent - he fired the patriot, sent the incompetent to Guantanamo, and had an affair, and probably received payment, from the foreign agent. Five years later, he is no longer at the bottom of the pyramid, but at the top. The FBI has been turned upside down! Feghali has been promoted, and promoted again, and is now in charge of all Arabic speakers at the FBI. "The translator is a traitor."
And if Feghali's promotion isn't bad enough, in and of itself, let me repeat that Sibel's claims about him have been reported up the chain all the way to Direct Mueller, and her allegations have been verified by the FBI OPR, the Dept of Justice's Inspector General, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 911 Commission. All of them know of Sibel's claims, all of them know that her claims have been validated, and all of them know that Feghali has been promoted again and again and that he is now in charge of all 300 Arabic translators.
Surely that makes us all much less safe.
For more detail on just this one element of Sibel's case, see my "Sibel Edmonds' Corrupt Boss is STILL the key to National Security" post.
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman and Conyers demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege. We need you to call on Monday and Tuesday of this week - and we'll demand an answer from Waxman mid-week. Contact details below.
------------------
Some other matters.
1. If you are interested in more about the issues Sibel has raised, see this post from earlier in the week:
What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?
2. Sibel and I will be doing a joint interview on The Peter B. Collins Show on Monday at 7pm Eastern. You can listen live, or get the archive at White Rose Society.org
3. I gave a 90 min interview to Expert Witness Radio about Sibel's case last week. If you are quick, you'll be able to download the first 60mins from that site now. Tomorrow, they'll post the final 30 mins - which is mostly about Feghali and the 'incompetence-vs-corrupt' issue.
4. We have 2 days to go, folks. If we can't get hearings now, I don't think Sibel has anywhere to turn to. I'm serious - this is her/our last best chance. She's done EVERYTHING she possibly can. If you ever thought 'wow - she's tough' or 'wow - she's brave' or 'wow - she can bring down these bastards' or 'gee - I wish she'd just tell us what she knows' or 'wow - i'd love to know what sibel knows' or 'gee - Douglas Feith and Richard Perle should be in jail' or 'gee - I hope we are doing everything we can to keep the country safe' - well, now's your chance to help out. If you ever thought any of those things, you owe it to yourself, and to all of us to call Waxman (and Conyers) and demand hearings. And you should probably recruit as many people as you can to do the same. Call all the numbers below, and call them repeatedly. If we get hearings, imagine how much fun it will be to think 'Ya know, I helped in my own little way.' And if we don't get hearings, and you didn't make your phone call, my patience will be very thin every time I hear someone say 'The Dems are weak' or 'Why doesn't Sibel just tell us everything she knows?' or "How come Doug Feith, Richard Perls and Dennis Hastert are enjoying their riches and not in jail?" or any of a thousand similar statements I could conjur.
Seriously. This is it. We've had amazing support these last two weeks - our diaries have repeatedly been in the top recommended lists at DailyKos and DemocraticUnderground, and people have been re-posting our stuff like crazy all over the InterToobz - and we are eternally grateful for all the support. If we can also get you to call Waxman's office (and Conyers' if you have the time) then we'll make the Plame hearings yesterday look like Laura Bush's book club.
5. We are asking everyone who calls Waxman's office to go on the record at:Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!) - with any luck, the most gagged woman in US History will soon be free to speak, and thus become the most ungagged woman. If you make a call, you can claim some credit. Make your call, then head over there and let us know that you did good. You great grandchildren will be proud.
I think that's all for the moment. More tomorrow.
=====================================
Contact details:
Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498
Emailers have suggested that those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov) & David Rapallo. Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.
Waxman Contact Details:
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
Conyers Contact Details:
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
Trenton, MI 48183
(734) 675-4084
(734) 675-4218 Fax
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-5670
(313) 226-2085 Fax
Because Sibel is gagged, and because her case is complicated, it can be difficult to understand of all the different elements. In this post, I will lay out the most simple of the issues that Sibel raised - espionage in the FBI translation department - and why it is still important today (hint: a confirmed 'mole'/foreign agent is in charge of all Arabic translators at the FBI.)
In other words, I hope that you can send this diary to your friends and family - people who may not be involved in politics, people who have never heard of Sibel - and they are sufficiently outraged that they can't wait to call Waxman on Monday morning and demand hearings.
The reason they should be outraged is because America is more likely to be attacked because of the information in this diary.
Last week, more than 30 'good-government' groups from across the political spectrum petitioned Henry Waxman to hold hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case.
From the petition:
The issues that were reported by Ms. Edmonds include:• Cases of espionage activities within the FBI...
• Cases of cover-up of information and leads pre and post 9/11, under the excuse of protecting certain diplomatic relations
• Cases of intentional blocking and mistranslation of crucial intelligence by FBI translators and management
Today I want to describe exactly what she's talking about regarding espionage at the FBI translation unit, and prove that we are all less safe because the problems have not been rectified - in fact, the problems are much worse today.
When Sibel Edmonds joined the FBI immediately after 911, she was the first and only Turkish translator there. Shortly afterwards, the FBI recruited two other translators, Melek Can Dickerson and Kevin Taskasen. Their boss was former translator Mike Feghali.
Let's dispense with Kevin Taskasen first, because he isn't particularly important in the scheme of things, although his situation does demonstrate the massive incompetence and cronyism in the translation department. Taskasen failed two language proficiency exams, English and Turkish, but his wife worked at the FBI's language testing center so... he got the job. Three months later he was sent to Guantanamo Bay to translate the interrogations: to perhaps help foil a new terror attack, or to help determine the guilt or otherwise of the prisoners held there.
Now on to more serious matters: Melek Can Dickerson.
In a fantastic interview with Sibel last week titled "What if the FBI Hired Someone Honest to Look into 9-11?" David Swanson said:
There's a saying in Italian "Traduttore traditore" which means "The translator is a traitor"...
Not all translators are traitors, of course, but translators do have tremendous power, as Sibel described in the same interview:
You know, a lot of people consider the language specialists as like a clerical job, but you need to realize, when the information comes... the first people exposed to it are the language specialists. Before that information gets transferred to agents or analysts, the first person who sees it is the language specialist... and that language specialist is in a position to decide whether or not this particular piece of information... is important enough to be translated, whether or not it should be translated verbatim - in detail, or just a summary translation. So by the time that information goes to an analyst or an agent, it has already gone through this filter of the language specialist.
In other words, America's enemies are motivated to A) try to recruit existing translators B) place their own translator 'moles' in the translation unit and C) if they're really lucky/skilled/successful, take over an entire 'desk' in the FBIs translation unit. Unfortunately, and scarily, in Sibel's case, we see all three.
Melek Can Dickerson had worked for at least three organizations that were under investigation by the FBI's counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism divisions. She lied on her application form, saying that she'd never worked before in her life, and was given Top Secret clearance and immediately began working in the translation unit. We don't know whether Dickerson was given her job, and Top Secret clearance, as a result of FBI incompetence or corruption - I suspect corruption - but it doesn't really matter, because within weeks of her arrival, the Turkish desk of the FBI translation unit was completely corrupted.
On Sunday December 2nd, 2001, Dickerson and her husband, Doug, arrived at Sibel's house and tried to persuade Sibel and her husband, Matthew, to join the American Turkish Council (ATC) - one of the organizations that Dickerson had previously worked for and failed to mention on her FBI application form. The Dickersons promised Sibel and her husband, Matthew, an early retirement if they joined the ATC. Sibel immediately recognized that she was being recruited to be a mole in the translation unit because the ATC, and some of the Dickersons' other friends, were targets of counter-intelligence & counter-terrorism investigations that Sibel had been translating at the FBI.
According to the 10-page Vanity Fair article on Sibel and her case, the ATC "was being used as a front for criminal activity" involving "laundering the profits of large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder." In other words, serious business. We also have evidence from a bunch of other places that suggest that the ATC was involved with all sorts of illegal activity - not least, we know that Valerie Plame's CIA front company, Brewster Jennings, had been investigating the ATC for years.
Brewster Jennings' main focus was Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and we know that companies involved with the ATC were actually supplying rogue nations with nuclear technology - hardware, and nuclear secrets, stolen (via bribes paid to vaious State Dept officials) from US nuclear labs (Sandia, Los Alamos etc)
Story so far: FBI employed Melek Can Dickerson, an agent/mole for a foreign/criminal network involved in WMD (among other things). Dickerson tried to recruit Sibel into the network.
Sibel immediately reported the Dickerson's 'recruitment' attempt to her boss at the FBI, Mike Feghali, but he had already (if not before) been co-opted by Dickerson and the ATC. Within a month of Dickerson joining the FBI, she had changed the FBI translation unit's internal procedures, with the help of her boss, Feghali, so that she alone was in charge of translating any intercepts from her friends at the ATC (and elsewhere). Of course, now that Dickerson, the mole, was in charge of 'translating' her criminal friends' wiretaps, whenever she came across anything incriminating (and there were many such situations), she simply didn't translate it, or marked it 'Not Pertinent.'
Sibel thinks that Feghali and Dickerson were having an affair - often conducted in his office, during business hours. Not only that, he also
"covered-up information and leads pre and post 9/11" (for more, see Sibel's open letter to the 911 Commission)
Sibel reached out to Dennis Saccher, the F.B.I.’s special agent in charge of Turkish counter-intelligence, and told him what had happened. He said "It sounds like espionage to me." We aren't sure of what other payoffs Feghali may have received, from Dickerson or the ATC, but he clearly shouldn't be in charge of such a sensitive translation facility at the FBI. "The translator is a traitor."
Sibel took her case up the FBI hierarchy - eventually pleading her case that the translation unit, the frontline against America's enemies, had been infiltrated by a criminal network to FBI Director Robert Mueller, to no avail - and was eventually fired 'at the government's pleasure.'
Despite being fired, Sibel continued to try to bring attention to the fact that America was in danger because foreign criminal elements had taken over the FBI translation unit. She went to the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (internal affairs), the Department of Justice's Inspector General, the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, the 911 Commission, and Henry Waxman's office. Every one of them confirmed Sibel's allegations - Republican Senator Charles Grassley explains why:
"Absolutely, she's credible. And the reason I feel she's very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."
Veteran FBI counterintelligence agent John Cole said the same thing:
"I knew (Sibel) was doing the right thing. I knew because she was right."
Cole tells how he had “talked to people who had read her file, who had read the investigative report, and they were telling me a totally different story” than FBI officials...
“They were telling me that Sibel Edmonds was a 100 percent accurate, that management knew that she was correct.”
In fact, in a CBS 60 Minutes report (download, 300 megs) by Ed Bradley about Sibel's case in 2002, Charles Grassley said angrily, about these facts, "We need to turn the FBI upside down." Five years later, and the FBI has indeed been turned upside down. Five years ago, Mike Feghali was in charge of three Turkish translators, a patriot, an incompetent, and a foreign agent - he fired the patriot, sent the incompetent to Guantanamo, and had an affair, and probably received payment, from the foreign agent. Five years later, he is no longer at the bottom of the pyramid, but at the top. The FBI has been turned upside down! Feghali has been promoted, and promoted again, and is now in charge of all Arabic speakers at the FBI. "The translator is a traitor."
And if Feghali's promotion isn't bad enough, in and of itself, let me repeat that Sibel's claims about him have been reported up the chain all the way to Direct Mueller, and her allegations have been verified by the FBI OPR, the Dept of Justice's Inspector General, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the 911 Commission. All of them know of Sibel's claims, all of them know that her claims have been validated, and all of them know that Feghali has been promoted again and again and that he is now in charge of all 300 Arabic translators.
Surely that makes us all much less safe.
For more detail on just this one element of Sibel's case, see my "Sibel Edmonds' Corrupt Boss is STILL the key to National Security" post.
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman and Conyers demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege. We need you to call on Monday and Tuesday of this week - and we'll demand an answer from Waxman mid-week. Contact details below.
------------------
Some other matters.
1. If you are interested in more about the issues Sibel has raised, see this post from earlier in the week:
What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care?
2. Sibel and I will be doing a joint interview on The Peter B. Collins Show on Monday at 7pm Eastern. You can listen live, or get the archive at White Rose Society.org
3. I gave a 90 min interview to Expert Witness Radio about Sibel's case last week. If you are quick, you'll be able to download the first 60mins from that site now. Tomorrow, they'll post the final 30 mins - which is mostly about Feghali and the 'incompetence-vs-corrupt' issue.
4. We have 2 days to go, folks. If we can't get hearings now, I don't think Sibel has anywhere to turn to. I'm serious - this is her/our last best chance. She's done EVERYTHING she possibly can. If you ever thought 'wow - she's tough' or 'wow - she's brave' or 'wow - she can bring down these bastards' or 'gee - I wish she'd just tell us what she knows' or 'wow - i'd love to know what sibel knows' or 'gee - Douglas Feith and Richard Perle should be in jail' or 'gee - I hope we are doing everything we can to keep the country safe' - well, now's your chance to help out. If you ever thought any of those things, you owe it to yourself, and to all of us to call Waxman (and Conyers) and demand hearings. And you should probably recruit as many people as you can to do the same. Call all the numbers below, and call them repeatedly. If we get hearings, imagine how much fun it will be to think 'Ya know, I helped in my own little way.' And if we don't get hearings, and you didn't make your phone call, my patience will be very thin every time I hear someone say 'The Dems are weak' or 'Why doesn't Sibel just tell us everything she knows?' or "How come Doug Feith, Richard Perls and Dennis Hastert are enjoying their riches and not in jail?" or any of a thousand similar statements I could conjur.
Seriously. This is it. We've had amazing support these last two weeks - our diaries have repeatedly been in the top recommended lists at DailyKos and DemocraticUnderground, and people have been re-posting our stuff like crazy all over the InterToobz - and we are eternally grateful for all the support. If we can also get you to call Waxman's office (and Conyers' if you have the time) then we'll make the Plame hearings yesterday look like Laura Bush's book club.
5. We are asking everyone who calls Waxman's office to go on the record at:Sibel Edmonds: The most ungagged person in American History (and I helped!) - with any luck, the most gagged woman in US History will soon be free to speak, and thus become the most ungagged woman. If you make a call, you can claim some credit. Make your call, then head over there and let us know that you did good. You great grandchildren will be proud.
I think that's all for the moment. More tomorrow.
=====================================
Contact details:
Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498
Emailers have suggested that those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash (Michelle.Ash@mail.house.gov) & David Rapallo. Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.
Waxman Contact Details:
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
Conyers Contact Details:
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
Trenton, MI 48183
(734) 675-4084
(734) 675-4218 Fax
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-5670
(313) 226-2085 Fax
Steve Elson: Call Waxman & Conyers
Steve Elson, Veteran Agent at the FAA, has just sent out this release:
=================================================================
I received this note from Sibel Edmonds.
What Sibel has to say does have to do with national security -- she is trying to expose those in the government who are violating national security. For this she was fired, has had the FBI take her computers, her home searched, had threats, is hated by the Turkish government, and really had her life made miserable. All she did was accept an FBI request to come work for them after 9/11 and when she found foreign spies in the FBI, when she found corruption and criminal activities by leaders in congress, she reported them, within the chain of command. For this she was fired. The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, at a Christopher Shay's hearing last year, stated in sworn testimony, that his investigation and that of FBI OPR (internal affairs) found that Sibel Edmonds was 100% right! Yet Sibel remains fired, persecuted, and gagged. According to her gag order, imposed by Ashcroft and Gonzales, the AGs, it is illegal for her to even state where she went to school or what languages she speaks. If anyone thinks this is a national security issue, please let me hear from you. Additionally the government went back and retroclassified open source/public information, something I have never heard of before.
I forward the note from Sibel, one of my favorite and most admired people and great Americans (a naturalized, formerly legal alien). Take a look. There is so much information and the website can get confusing so all I am asking is that you look to the right when the site pops up and write and call or e-mail, the four congressmen to the right. I would also ask that you contact your own congress(wo)men and demand that Sibel be allowed under oath to state her case. If she violates national security and reveals classified information, then they can arrest her and I can sent her cakes.
In America, what happened to her should never been allowed to happen, but it did and must be corrected. I haven't met or discussed Sibel and her plight with anyone who has not been sympathetic. But it is time for action. Riding around with a little yellow ribbon on your car saying "support the troops" does absolutely nothing to support the troops. Calling and writing your congressperson and asking them why the hell the troops are living with rats and mold and demanding something being done -- now that is supporting the troops. Do that! And do the same thing to support, not really Sibel Edmonds, but her cause which is pure, basic and simply an American constitution cause/issue.
Remember when her story broke, the media was all over it because, "it was entertainment." But when it was no longer "news" but "olds" the media let it die and in doing so, lets part of America die. This is what the evil in the government count on and we can and must make a difference.
THANKS.
=================================================================
Thanks Steve. Great work.
=================================================================
I received this note from Sibel Edmonds.
Greetings,Sibel has done a lot to help whistle blowers, not people who reveal classified information, but those who honor their oaths of office and after going through their respective chains of command, went to congress (which did nothing), and finally went public.
This is a new site for the public action campaign to secure hearings on my case and the erroneous use of state secrets privilege to shut up and gag national security whistleblowers.
Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
What Sibel has to say does have to do with national security -- she is trying to expose those in the government who are violating national security. For this she was fired, has had the FBI take her computers, her home searched, had threats, is hated by the Turkish government, and really had her life made miserable. All she did was accept an FBI request to come work for them after 9/11 and when she found foreign spies in the FBI, when she found corruption and criminal activities by leaders in congress, she reported them, within the chain of command. For this she was fired. The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, at a Christopher Shay's hearing last year, stated in sworn testimony, that his investigation and that of FBI OPR (internal affairs) found that Sibel Edmonds was 100% right! Yet Sibel remains fired, persecuted, and gagged. According to her gag order, imposed by Ashcroft and Gonzales, the AGs, it is illegal for her to even state where she went to school or what languages she speaks. If anyone thinks this is a national security issue, please let me hear from you. Additionally the government went back and retroclassified open source/public information, something I have never heard of before.
I forward the note from Sibel, one of my favorite and most admired people and great Americans (a naturalized, formerly legal alien). Take a look. There is so much information and the website can get confusing so all I am asking is that you look to the right when the site pops up and write and call or e-mail, the four congressmen to the right. I would also ask that you contact your own congress(wo)men and demand that Sibel be allowed under oath to state her case. If she violates national security and reveals classified information, then they can arrest her and I can sent her cakes.
In America, what happened to her should never been allowed to happen, but it did and must be corrected. I haven't met or discussed Sibel and her plight with anyone who has not been sympathetic. But it is time for action. Riding around with a little yellow ribbon on your car saying "support the troops" does absolutely nothing to support the troops. Calling and writing your congressperson and asking them why the hell the troops are living with rats and mold and demanding something being done -- now that is supporting the troops. Do that! And do the same thing to support, not really Sibel Edmonds, but her cause which is pure, basic and simply an American constitution cause/issue.
Remember when her story broke, the media was all over it because, "it was entertainment." But when it was no longer "news" but "olds" the media let it die and in doing so, lets part of America die. This is what the evil in the government count on and we can and must make a difference.
THANKS.
=================================================================
Thanks Steve. Great work.
more interviews
Sibel and I will be doing a joint interview on The Peter B. Collins Show on Monday at 7pm Eastern. You can listen live, or get the archive at White Rose Society.org
We're going to have a final push for phone calls & faxes to Waxman on Monday and Tuesday.
A couple of typical messages that we've been getting:
Call Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 - and Conyers - (202) 225-5126. - demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege. (Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)
We're going to have a final push for phone calls & faxes to Waxman on Monday and Tuesday.
A couple of typical messages that we've been getting:
I called (Waxman) and Conyers offices a few days ago. Both receptionists were extremely receptive to my calls expressing how requests for Edmonds hearings had been escalating.and
I just had a very pleasant conversation with one of Congressmen Waxman's staffers.Buckle up folks. And please, please, please get on the phones on Monday & Tuesday.
After she fully acknowledged the flood of calls they have received about Sibel specifically, the intensity of the subject, the excitement of being involved in something of such magnitude... her inability to confirm one way or the other about plans and/or "announcements"... "you should stay tuned", was basically her summation.
Call Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 - and Conyers - (202) 225-5126. - demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege. (Capitol switchboard number - 800-828-0498)
Friday, March 16, 2007
Sibel Edmonds, Valerie Plame and Brewster Jennings
With the Plame hearings scheduled today, I just wanted to make sure that everyone understands the link between Sibel Edmonds' case, Brewster Jennings and Valerie Plame.
I don't know a lot about how congressional hearings work - but it'll be interesting today to see if Waxman asks Valerie Plame what damage, if any, was done to Brewster Jennings when she was outed by Cheney/Libby/Armitage/Rove/Grossman in the summer of 2003.
It appears that there's some confusion about when Plame worked for Brewster Jennings, and Corn/Isikoff/JTFI notwithstanding, it appears that there is a general presumption that Plame was working for Brewster Jennings when she was outed after Joe Wilson's op-ed was published in the NYT.
As I discussed in yesterday's diary, the American Turkish Council (ATC) was at the core of the criminality that Sibel became privvy to - including, but not limited to, the nuclear black market.
From the diary:
It appears, and I'm speculating here, that Sibel actually heard that particular conversation where Grossman 'outed' Brewster Jennings, and I can only presume that Brewster Jennings was dismantled immediately.
In the new movie about Sibel "Kill The Messenger" there's a scene where Sibel 'describes' her familiarity with Brewster Jennings. I interviewed Mathieu Verboud, the director of the film, and he described it thusly:
This raises a whole bunch of other questions - including why did douchebag Novak write his second column 'outing' Brewster Jennings, and why did the administration take so much heat for 'outing' Brewster Jennings (when they outed Plame) if they didn't actually out Brewster Jennings? A very clever blogger suggested to me privately (and I'd credit them with the idea but I haven't asked for permission) that the administration realized that they'd got themselves in trouble after outing Plame, and so they decided to reach back to the Brewster Jennings claim so that they could pretend that they were working off old (not new, not classified) information (given that Brewster Jennings had been wound down 2 years earlier.)
Under this hypothesis, it appears, the administration/OVP realized they were on very shaky legal ground, and were happy to take the hits to what is left of their reputation by riding out the 'OMG! They outed Brewster Jennings!' fallacy, rather than risk shedding light on the fact that they were just using the old Brewster Jennings information as a CYA mechanism. At least, that's how we can (conceivably) read the story given what we know publicly - they may very well have used the 'but Brewster Jennings is long defunct!' argument behind closed doors. Regardless, their silence on this issue is deafening.
As an aside, I also want to share this anecdote from my interview with Kill The Messenger director Mathieu Verboud:
Congress must hold hearings to get to the bottom of these crimes. If you agree, please call Congress, today, and demand public, open hearings.
I don't know a lot about how congressional hearings work - but it'll be interesting today to see if Waxman asks Valerie Plame what damage, if any, was done to Brewster Jennings when she was outed by Cheney/Libby/Armitage/Rove/Grossman in the summer of 2003.
It appears that there's some confusion about when Plame worked for Brewster Jennings, and Corn/Isikoff/JTFI notwithstanding, it appears that there is a general presumption that Plame was working for Brewster Jennings when she was outed after Joe Wilson's op-ed was published in the NYT.
As I discussed in yesterday's diary, the American Turkish Council (ATC) was at the core of the criminality that Sibel became privvy to - including, but not limited to, the nuclear black market.
From the diary:
"Sibel's case also involves the nuclear black market - some Turkish members of the ATC have supplied Pakistan's A.Q. Khan network with hardware, as have American companies that Sibel overheard on the wiretaps. Perhaps even more disturbing, as reported in Vanity Fair, other wiretaps indicate that "Turkish groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to acquire information about black market nuclear weapons." Daniel Ellsberg says that, according to Sibel, bribes were paid to people at the State Department to facilitate this activity.The thing is, Brewster Jennings was 'outed' (privately, within the criminal network) long before Valerie Plame was officially outed. In fact, Brewster Jennings' cover was blown in the Summer of 2001 by Marc Grossman.
These are extraordinary claims, of course, and we have a lot of evidence to support the claims - including, but not limited to, the fact that Valerie Plame's front company, Brewster Jennings, had been conducting a counter-intelligence operation against the ATC for years."
It appears, and I'm speculating here, that Sibel actually heard that particular conversation where Grossman 'outed' Brewster Jennings, and I can only presume that Brewster Jennings was dismantled immediately.
In the new movie about Sibel "Kill The Messenger" there's a scene where Sibel 'describes' her familiarity with Brewster Jennings. I interviewed Mathieu Verboud, the director of the film, and he described it thusly:
"In November 2005, we learnt from the Turkish paper Hurriyet that Plame was investigating Turkey, but not only that: she was investigating the ATC! Our intuition had proved right.
Later, in April 2006, we confronted Sibel with this set of facts and ask her to go on the record. Sibel’s line about Plame and Brewster Jennings is just gold. She said: "During my time at the FBI, I never heard the name Valerie Plame - but if you are asking me about Brewster Jennings, that's another story, a story that I cannot comment on because I cannot talk about anything that I did at the FBI - and the targets and the details of the investigations." The message is crystal clear: there are mentions of Brewster Jennings on the wiretaps! Praises to Sibel to be so smart in front of a camera."
This raises a whole bunch of other questions - including why did douchebag Novak write his second column 'outing' Brewster Jennings, and why did the administration take so much heat for 'outing' Brewster Jennings (when they outed Plame) if they didn't actually out Brewster Jennings? A very clever blogger suggested to me privately (and I'd credit them with the idea but I haven't asked for permission) that the administration realized that they'd got themselves in trouble after outing Plame, and so they decided to reach back to the Brewster Jennings claim so that they could pretend that they were working off old (not new, not classified) information (given that Brewster Jennings had been wound down 2 years earlier.)
Under this hypothesis, it appears, the administration/OVP realized they were on very shaky legal ground, and were happy to take the hits to what is left of their reputation by riding out the 'OMG! They outed Brewster Jennings!' fallacy, rather than risk shedding light on the fact that they were just using the old Brewster Jennings information as a CYA mechanism. At least, that's how we can (conceivably) read the story given what we know publicly - they may very well have used the 'but Brewster Jennings is long defunct!' argument behind closed doors. Regardless, their silence on this issue is deafening.
As an aside, I also want to share this anecdote from my interview with Kill The Messenger director Mathieu Verboud:
Mathieu Verboud: Coming back to Grossman, exposing his role would have been interesting for the film, but the guy being what he is, there was no way that he would have given an interview if we had brought up any kind of charges. So we decided to just let him talk, give us his vision of Turkey...In any case, it'll be interesting to see if any of this comes out in the hearings today. As you know, Waxman knows all of this - Sibel has briefed his office in classified hearings - and it appears that he is going to make a decision (& announcement) early next week about whether he will hold separate hearings into her case.
Then we tested him - we asked him about Valerie Plame - and it was amazing to see his face change! He had the nerves to say that he didn’t know anything about Valerie Plame, or about Brewster Jennings - which is simply false! As mentioned earlier, his name had already appeared publicly in the Valerie Plame's case! Anyway, we didn't point out to that simple fact and fended off.
Next, we just mentioned that there was this little woman of Turkish origin whose name was mentioned in an article in Vanity Fair speaking about FBI and Turkey… His face changed again, and he came up with this answer: "Vanity Fair? I am afraid it is not a magazine I read!" We then asked him directly about Sibel Edmonds and he said that he didn't know anything about her. Even the name was "unfamiliar".
Luke Ryland: That's hysterical. When was that interview?
MV: early May 2006.
LR: (laughs) Oh that's great. And he's never heard of Sibel Edmonds and Valerie Plame. That's fantastic. I'd love to see that footage.
MV: Well - if we ever sell this film in the U.S, we will consider adding a small chapter on him.
Congress must hold hearings to get to the bottom of these crimes. If you agree, please call Congress, today, and demand public, open hearings.
Contact Information
Congressman Henry Waxman (contact page)
(Those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash & David Rapallo.)
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
House Government Reform Committee (contact page)
By Mail or Phone:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5051
Please also contact Congressman John Conyers, asking him to support hearings by Chairman Waxman.
(Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.)
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington, DC
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
Thursday, March 15, 2007
What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about?
As part of our campaign this week to call for hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case, below is a short-as-possible piece which hopes to answer the burning question in Sibel's case: What the heck is her case about?
For a longer version, see my recent interview with Scott Horton
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 - and Conyers - (202) 225-5126 - demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.
Sibel Edmonds' case is about the intersection of illegal arms trafficking, heroin trafficking, money laundering, terrorist activities and the corruption of many "highly-recognizable, highly-known names" in and around the US government. Sibel says that the people involved will go straight to prison if we can get hearings into her case. Richard Perle, in prison. Douglas Feith, in prison. Dennis Hastert, in prison. Marc Grossman, in prison.
According to Sibel, the best place to begin trying to understand the case is a recent article by Phil Giraldi in the American Conservative. Sibel says “Giraldi has it 100% right; this I consider the most accurate summary of my case.”
Giraldi writes:
The American Turkish Council (ATC)
The main Turkish lobbying group in the US is an organization called the American Turkish Council (ATC) - one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country. The ATC is heavily stacked with former government officials - statesmen, lobbyists and 'dime a dozen generals' - lobbyists and representatives of the military-industrial-complex (MIC). Brent Scowcroft is the chairman, and heavy hitters from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrup Grumman and other 'defense' contractors populate the board.
It's perhaps not surprising, then, that Turkey is a major recipient of US military aid - running to the billions of dollars - with much of it financed by the US taxpayer. Giraldi suggests in his article that this largesse appears to be the result of bribes paid to congressmen - a suggestion that shouldn't surprise anyone - but there's much more to the story than the usual Iron Triangle / Revolving Door story that we're all familiar with.
In a 10-page article in Vanity Fair on Sibel's case, the ATC is described as "a front for criminal activity" involving "large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder." We'll discuss the drug side of the story shortly, but let's first take a quick look at the military technology element - not only are the MIC contractors bribing congress to ensure that military aid flows to Turkey (and Israel), the Turks and the Israelis are also illegally selling that technology to the highest bidder - which inevitably includes America's enemies, States, and terrorist groups.
Sibel's case also involves the nuclear black market - some Turkish members of the ATC have supplied Pakistan's A.Q. Khan network with hardware, as have American companies that Sibel overheard on the wiretaps. Perhaps even more disturbing, as reported in Vanity Fair, other wiretaps indicate that "Turkish groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to acquire information about black market nuclear weapons." Daniel Ellsberg says that, according to Sibel, bribes were paid to people at the State Department to facilitate this activity.
These are extraordinary claims, of course, and we have a lot of evidence to support the claims - including, but not limited to, the fact that Valerie Plame's front company, Brewster Jennings, had been conducting a counter-intelligence operation against the ATC for years.
One very interesting aspect of Sibel's case that has not really gained traction is that while the ATC is understood to be the key focus of her case, it appears that AIPAC is equally involved. In a terrific 2005 interview with Chris Deliso. Sibel said:
Reading between the lines (in a number of different places), it appears that Sibel was actively involved in 'the AIPAC investigation' as well as the investigation into the ATC. As she says, both the ATC and AIPAC are both 'fronts' for the 'same (criminal) operation.'
Drug Trafficking.
As I document in "Sibel Edmonds & the Neocons' Turkish Gravy-Train," Afghanistan supplies almost 90% of the world's heroin, and most of that goes straight to Turkey where it is processed, packaged, warehoused, and then re-exported to other countries for final consumption. Turkey supplies approximately 80% of Europe's heroin, and 15% of heroin in the US - worth approximately $40 billion at street prices.
Turkey is widely acknowledged to be controlled by a "Deep State." In 1996, a deadly car crash at a place called Susurluk blew this out into the open. In the car were four people who probably shouldn't have been in the car together:
And if that's not bad enough, we also know that:
When we are discussing issues such as al-Qaeda smuggling heroin through Afghanistan and the other 'Stans, sometimes it can seem remote and distant, so let's come back to something more concrete. In Adrian Gatton's terrific recent article, The Susurluk Legacy, he quotes Huseyin Baybasin, a Turkish heroin kingpin who is now in jail in Holland:
The parallels with Sibel's case couldn't be clearer. As 60 Minutes first reported (youtube) in 2002, and Vanity Fair later reported, the Turkish Embassy was directing a lot of the heroin trafficking activity - in conjunction with people at the ATC.
One of the difficulties in trying to unravel the Sibel Edmonds case is that we aren't sure where one case ends and another begins. We know that some of the wiretaps were from the ATC, and some from the Turkish embassy in DC, and some from the embassy in Chicago. We also know that many of the wiretaps involve conversations between the embassies and the ATC.
Some of the wiretaps relate to drug trafficking, some relate to the nuclear black market and other weapons trafficking, and some refer to terrorist activity - including 9/11.
Perhaps it's not surprising, then, when she says:
If what Sibel says is true, and her claims are all backed by documents and wiretaps, and also backed up by other agents who have filed similar complaints, and are ready and willing to testify. All of these people should be in jail. For a long, long time.
Congress must hold hearings to get to the bottom of these crimes. If you agree, please call Congress, today, and demand public, open hearings.
For a longer version, see my recent interview with Scott Horton
Please call the offices of Congressmen Waxman - (202) 225-3976 - and Conyers - (202) 225-5126 - demanding open hearings into Sibel Edmonds' case and the State Secrets Privilege.
Sibel Edmonds' case is about the intersection of illegal arms trafficking, heroin trafficking, money laundering, terrorist activities and the corruption of many "highly-recognizable, highly-known names" in and around the US government. Sibel says that the people involved will go straight to prison if we can get hearings into her case. Richard Perle, in prison. Douglas Feith, in prison. Dennis Hastert, in prison. Marc Grossman, in prison.
According to Sibel, the best place to begin trying to understand the case is a recent article by Phil Giraldi in the American Conservative. Sibel says “Giraldi has it 100% right; this I consider the most accurate summary of my case.”
Giraldi writes:
"Sibel Edmonds... could provide a major insight into how neoconservatives distort US foreign policy and enrich themselves at the same time. On one level, her story appears straightforward: several Turkish lobbying groups allegedly bribed congressmen to support policies favourable to Ankara. But beyond that, the Edmonds revelations become more serpentine and appear to involve AIPAC, Israel and a number of leading neoconservatives who have profited from the Turkish connection.Giraldi goes on to list some neocons who are "linked to Turkey" - Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, Eric Edelman, and Stephen Solarz - and he suggests that they "enrich themselves" via drug trafficking and arms dealing.
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Turkey benefits from the relationship by securing general benevolence and increased aid from the US Congress - as well as access to otherwise unattainable military technology. The Turkish General Staff has a particular interest because much of the military spending is channeled through companies in which the generals have a financial stake, making for a very cozy and comfortable business arrangement. The commercial interest has also fostered close political ties, with the American Turkish Council, American Turkish Cultural Alliance and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations all developing warm relationships with AIPAC and other Jewish and Israel advocacy groups throughout the US.
Someone has to be in the middle to keep the happy affair going, so enter the neocons, intent on securing Israel against all comers and also keen to turn a dollar."
The American Turkish Council (ATC)
The main Turkish lobbying group in the US is an organization called the American Turkish Council (ATC) - one of the most powerful lobby groups in the country. The ATC is heavily stacked with former government officials - statesmen, lobbyists and 'dime a dozen generals' - lobbyists and representatives of the military-industrial-complex (MIC). Brent Scowcroft is the chairman, and heavy hitters from Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Northrup Grumman and other 'defense' contractors populate the board.
It's perhaps not surprising, then, that Turkey is a major recipient of US military aid - running to the billions of dollars - with much of it financed by the US taxpayer. Giraldi suggests in his article that this largesse appears to be the result of bribes paid to congressmen - a suggestion that shouldn't surprise anyone - but there's much more to the story than the usual Iron Triangle / Revolving Door story that we're all familiar with.
In a 10-page article in Vanity Fair on Sibel's case, the ATC is described as "a front for criminal activity" involving "large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder." We'll discuss the drug side of the story shortly, but let's first take a quick look at the military technology element - not only are the MIC contractors bribing congress to ensure that military aid flows to Turkey (and Israel), the Turks and the Israelis are also illegally selling that technology to the highest bidder - which inevitably includes America's enemies, States, and terrorist groups.
Sibel's case also involves the nuclear black market - some Turkish members of the ATC have supplied Pakistan's A.Q. Khan network with hardware, as have American companies that Sibel overheard on the wiretaps. Perhaps even more disturbing, as reported in Vanity Fair, other wiretaps indicate that "Turkish groups had been installing doctoral students at U.S. research institutions in order to acquire information about black market nuclear weapons." Daniel Ellsberg says that, according to Sibel, bribes were paid to people at the State Department to facilitate this activity.
These are extraordinary claims, of course, and we have a lot of evidence to support the claims - including, but not limited to, the fact that Valerie Plame's front company, Brewster Jennings, had been conducting a counter-intelligence operation against the ATC for years.
One very interesting aspect of Sibel's case that has not really gained traction is that while the ATC is understood to be the key focus of her case, it appears that AIPAC is equally involved. In a terrific 2005 interview with Chris Deliso. Sibel said:
Essentially, there is only one investigation – a very big one, an all-inclusive one... But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved, a lot of ranking officials, and a lot of illegal activities that include multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling operations, black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes, you name it... You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people.And she went a little bit further in a great interview with David Swanson this week:
"AIPAC helped form the American Turkish Council - look at the board members, look at the people. You will see the same people involved in both fronts, because it is the same operation."
Reading between the lines (in a number of different places), it appears that Sibel was actively involved in 'the AIPAC investigation' as well as the investigation into the ATC. As she says, both the ATC and AIPAC are both 'fronts' for the 'same (criminal) operation.'
Drug Trafficking.
As I document in "Sibel Edmonds & the Neocons' Turkish Gravy-Train," Afghanistan supplies almost 90% of the world's heroin, and most of that goes straight to Turkey where it is processed, packaged, warehoused, and then re-exported to other countries for final consumption. Turkey supplies approximately 80% of Europe's heroin, and 15% of heroin in the US - worth approximately $40 billion at street prices.
Turkey is widely acknowledged to be controlled by a "Deep State." In 1996, a deadly car crash at a place called Susurluk blew this out into the open. In the car were four people who probably shouldn't have been in the car together:
"an MP, a police chief, a beauty queen and her lover, a top Turkish gangster and hitman called Abdullah Catli... Catli, a heroin trafficker on Interpol’s wanted list, was carrying a diplomatic passport signed by none other than the Turkish Interior Minister himself.Sibel spells it out:
[]
The Susurluk Incident became Turkey’s Watergate, exposing the deep links between the Turkish state, terrorists and drug traffickers. It revealed what Turks call the Gizli Devlet, or Deep State – the politicians, military officers and intelligence officials who worked with drug bosses to move drugs from Afghanistan into Europe."
"The Turkish government, MIT and the Turkish military, not only sanctions, but also actively participates in and oversees the narcotics activities and networks."As I outlined in the curiously-titled "Sibel Edmonds: America's Watergate," Sibel's case demonstrates that Turkey's Deep State 'owns' large parts of the American establishment, to the point where it appears that there also is a 'Deep State' in the US as well. ATC/AIPAC appear to be headquarters for this Deep State in the US, a cozy club where drug dealers, weapons traffickers and past-and-present government officials coexist. Happily!
And if that's not bad enough, we also know that:
"Heroin trafficking is also the main source of funding for the al-Qaeda terrorists. A Time Magazine article in August 2004 reported that al-Qaeda has established a smuggling network that is peddling Afghan heroin to buyers across the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, and in turn is using the drug revenues to purchase weapons and explosives. The article states: “…al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies are increasingly financing operations with opium sales. Anti-drug officials in Afghanistan have no hard figures on how much al-Qaeda and the Taliban are earning from drugs, but conservative estimates run into tens of millions of dollars.”That is, our Turkish Deep State friends, the people we are directly providing with weapons, are outsourcing some of their distribution activities to al-Qaeda and the Taliban (and, while we're at it, to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA.))
When we are discussing issues such as al-Qaeda smuggling heroin through Afghanistan and the other 'Stans, sometimes it can seem remote and distant, so let's come back to something more concrete. In Adrian Gatton's terrific recent article, The Susurluk Legacy, he quotes Huseyin Baybasin, a Turkish heroin kingpin who is now in jail in Holland:
“I handled the drugs which came through the channel of the Turkish Consulate in England... I was with the Mafia but I was carrying this out with the same Mafia group in which the rulers of Turkey were part.”Gatton also describes how anyone in the UK government who dared speak about the issue were immediately rebuked by the Foreign Office (the UK equivalent of the State Department.)
The parallels with Sibel's case couldn't be clearer. As 60 Minutes first reported (youtube) in 2002, and Vanity Fair later reported, the Turkish Embassy was directing a lot of the heroin trafficking activity - in conjunction with people at the ATC.
"Sibel also recalled hearing wiretaps indicating that Turkish Embassy targets frequently spoke to staff members at the A.T.C.And just as the UK Foreign Office silenced anyone in the UK who tried to speak out, Sibel says:
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In her secure testimony, Edmonds disclosed some of what she recalled hearing... Many (calls) involved an F.B.I. target at (Chicago's) large Turkish Consulate... Some of the calls reportedly contained what sounded like references to large scale drug shipments and other crimes."
The Department of State is easily the most corrupted of the major government agencies.Elsewhere, Sibel says:
[]
In some cases where the FBI stumbles upon evidence of high-level officials being involved in drug-smuggling, they're even prevented from sharing it with the DEA [Drug Enforcement Agency]. The Department of State just comes in and says, "Leave it."
"For years and years, information and evidence being collected by the counterintelligence operations of certain U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies has been prevented from being transferred to criminal and narcotics divisions, and from being shared with the Drug Enforcement Agency and others with prosecutorial power. Those with direct knowledge have been prevented from making this information available and public by various gag orders and invocation of the State Secrets Privilege. Why?"Pay attention here, because the ATC is where the worlds of the MIC and the heroin trafficking collide. One of the key Turkish interfaces at the ATC is the Turkish Generals - people that Giraldi says own a stake in the companies through which the military spending is channeled. As described earlier, these exact same people, the Turkish Deep State, also control much of the global heroin market. In between the MIC and the heroin traffickers - are the "neoconservatives (who) distort US foreign policy and enrich themselves at the same time."
One of the difficulties in trying to unravel the Sibel Edmonds case is that we aren't sure where one case ends and another begins. We know that some of the wiretaps were from the ATC, and some from the Turkish embassy in DC, and some from the embassy in Chicago. We also know that many of the wiretaps involve conversations between the embassies and the ATC.
Some of the wiretaps relate to drug trafficking, some relate to the nuclear black market and other weapons trafficking, and some refer to terrorist activity - including 9/11.
Perhaps it's not surprising, then, when she says:
You have the same players when you look into these activities at high-levels you come across the same players, they are the same people.Those 'same people' - at least on the American side - according to Giraldi, appear to be Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, Eric Edelman, and Stephen Solarz. It appears that we can also add William Cohen and Joseph Ralston - and Dennis Hastert - to that roster, and I'm sure there are a few more that haven't yet been publicly identified.
If what Sibel says is true, and her claims are all backed by documents and wiretaps, and also backed up by other agents who have filed similar complaints, and are ready and willing to testify. All of these people should be in jail. For a long, long time.
Congress must hold hearings to get to the bottom of these crimes. If you agree, please call Congress, today, and demand public, open hearings.
Contact Information
Congressman Henry Waxman (contact page)
(Those calling Waxman's office should ask for Michelle Ash & David Rapallo.)
In Washington, D.C.
2204 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-3976 (phone)
(202) 225-4099 (fax)
In Los Angeles
8436 West Third Street, Suite 600
Los Angeles, CA 90048
(323) 651-1040 (phone)
(818) 878-7400 (phone)
(310) 652-3095 (phone)
(323) 655-0502 (fax)
House Government Reform Committee (contact page)
By Mail or Phone:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-5051
Please also contact Congressman John Conyers, asking him to support hearings by Chairman Waxman.
(Those calling Conyers' office should ask for Elliot Mintzberg.)
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington, DC
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
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