Thursday, January 24, 2008

White House in panic over Sibel Edmonds?

Sixteen days after the UK Times' published a blockbuster article, For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, about how certain top US government officials were enabling Turkish and Israeli interests in supplying the nuclear black market, President Bush quietly announced on Tuesday that he wants Congress to approve sales of nuclear technology to Turkey.

Is this a reaction to the Times article? It sure looks like it. I wouldn't be surprised if we soon start hearing about retroactive immunity for the guilty parties, just as we are seeing in the illegal spying case currently in the Senate.

As always happens in this case, the silence in the US media is deafening.

Two years ago, Bush's efforts to sell nuclear technology prompted much "indignation and furor," but not a single major US media outlet has yet reported the proposed deal with Turkey. Agence France-Presse put out a report on its wires which has been picked up around the world, but that's about it.

The White House press release says that Bill Clinton agreed to the deal in 2000:
However, immediately after signature, U.S. agencies received information that called into question the conclusions that had been drawn in the required NPAS (Nuclear Proliferation Assessment Statement) and the original classified annex, specifically, information implicating Turkish private entities in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation. Consequently, the Agreement was not submitted to the Congress and the executive branch undertook a review of the NPAS evaluation.

It would certainly be interesting to know which "Turkish private entitities" Bush is referring to here. If he had said "Turkish private companies" instead, we could be comfortable in presuming that he was referring to the two named Turkish companies involved in A.Q. Khan's network, EKA and ETI Elektroteknik. The phrase "entities" on the other hand, is broader, and could very well include the American Turkish Council, the 'entity' named in the Times article as well as other articles about Sibel Edmonds case.

The timing here is also interesting; "immediately after" Clinton approved the deal in July 2000, US agencies became aware of this Turkish involvement in the AQ Khan network. This was fully three years before the Khan network was officially exposed.

The White House press release continues with some curiously descriptive narrative:
"My Administration has completed the NPAS review as well as an evaluation of actions taken by the Turkish government to address the proliferation activities of certain Turkish entities (once officials of the U.S. Government brought them to the Turkish government's attention)."
Given that the entire press release is basically written in 'legalese', this unnecessary parenthetical aside stands out like a sore thumb. I wonder who injected this statement into the announcement, and why. It sure looks like butt-covering to me, given the latest revelations in the Times.

The phrase 'once officials...' also appears to be a curious formulation. I'm not overly familiar with presidential statements and US government protocols, but I would imagine that "Agencies" or "Departments" would normally communicate with foreign governments on such important matters, and I would imagine that presidential statements would normally refer to such agencies, rather than 'officials.' Perhaps I'm wrong, and perhaps this is common practice, but it sure looks like an attempt to exonerate certain individuals such as Marc Grossman who was accused of some very serious crimes in the Times article.

Who were these officials? How, when, and in what format, did they bring this information to the Turkish government? I'd like to see the official communication, please.

And what, exactly, has the Turkish government done to 'address these proliferation activities'? We know that ETA and EKI continue to operate, and as far as I know haven't been penalized. The press release says that this information is all classified.

Summary
It appears as though certain administration officials have been illegally supplying the Turkish nuclear program for years, and now that they've been publicly outed, the Bush administration will simply make the entire program legal, just as they are trying to do with the illegal spying.

Congress has 90 days to amend or block this legislation, otherwise it automatically becomes law.

We need public open hearings to determine which officials have been supplying the nuclear black market before this becomes law.

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Cross posted at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

11 comments:

dqueue said...

I imagine you've heard of Wolfowitz's latest gig... I wonder if it gives him carte blanche access to nuclear proliferation intel (and contacts)? A cleaner of sorts, or are they just hiding him in plain sight?

The article reads, in part:
The State Department announced Wolfowitz's appointment as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's chairman of the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB).

ISAB, the department said, is "a source of independent insight, advice, and innovation on all aspects of arms control, disarmament, nonproliferation, political-military issues, and international security and related aspects of public diplomacy.

Anonymous said...

Strange, the first two links from the email didn't work. Twice ...

lukery said...

DQ - saw that, thnx.

US2OZ - hmmm - i just checked them, they work.

try again.
kos

du

Mizgîn said...

From Russia, with love, man:

Turkey considers uranium enrichment for own nuclear power plants.

lukery said...

thnx mizgin.

that is dated Jan 15.

perhaps this statement by the president was timed to go with the conference in istanbul next week.

odd that it has been so hush-hush tho.

Mizgîn said...

Here's an "after action" on the recent meeting in Istanbul (a week ago):

Turkish Daily News

Read through the whole thing to get an idea of how LAME everyone involved with this little venture is.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

They've allegedly been planning for all this since the 1990s--coinciding with the criminals involved in Sibel's story. Here's something from Greenpeace, circa July 2000.

Also, something from DOS:


QUESTION: Thank you. Onur Sazak with Turkish Business Daily Referans. There are rumors that Turkey is buying nuclear energy -- nuclear reactors from the United States. Can you confirm that? And my second question is certain lawmakers in Turkey are accusing of the -- the United States of selling raw (inaudible) technology, first-generation nuclear reactors to the country. And if I can get your comments on this. Thank you.

DEPUTY SECRETARY SELL: I cannot confirm the rumor. But I can tell you that Turkey is a classic example in our judgment of a nation that we would like to work in partnership with, not to bring old technology, but to bring advanced technology and the benefits of nuclear power. So I would anticipate this is something that leaders in Turkey would -- I would welcome and it's something that I hope we could work with them on.

lukery said...

Mizgin

You are the greatest.

Anonymous said...

"U.S. Diplomat Keith Ryan found dead in Islamabad Pakistan"
Does Sibel have a take on the REAL story here?

http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=12581

"The police had earlier declared it suicide. The pathologists at the PIMS hospital confirmed that Ryan sustained bullet injury on the rear upper neck. The medico-legal experts, however, said he was murdered."





Israel’s minister met Musharraf in Paris
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=12585

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=38,3816,0,0,1,0

January 28, 2008 7:57 PM

Anonymous said...

There has been a fight going on at another blog, a government intel blog. Syriacomment.com. Subject matter is M.E. topics. Israel was confronted about its treason to the USA on the blog. The secret FBI file 203a was referred to on this blog in connection with Iran and Israeli spying BEFORE the file name was even released in The London Times because the blogger knows for a fact that Sibel is telling the truth. Sibel is being heard.

Anonymous said...

Keith Ryan is the son of a big name columnist at the Boston Globe, where one of the Sibel series writers- Joe Lauria- also works.

Anonymous said...

When will the country wake up to a double reality. This is a particularly good time to bring these questions to the new presidential candidates . It seems the global internet brain has been anesthetized in the area of the USA but the rest of the world is quite aware and SIbel is one of the few neurons in the global brain of america that is firing and firing well.