In the meantime, another important angle to Edmonds' case has opened up. Earlier this week, the New York Post ran a Page 6 piece, ODD FILM BY HILLARY BACKER, which highlights the close relationship between Hillary Clinton and Chicago-based Turkish businessman Mehmet Celebi.
Celebi, "one of the national leaders of the Turkish-American community in the US," is a key fundraiser for Clinton, and is one of Clinton's Chicago delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Celebi was also heavily involved in the controversial 2006 movie "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq" which has been widely regarded as "anti-Semitic, anti-American, conspiratorial agitprop."
Mehmet Celebi is also a key figure in the Sibel Edmonds case - he is heavily involved in the narcotics trade in the US and the corruption and bribery of high-level US officials.
According to Celebi's bio:
He has been serving as the President of the Turkish-American Cultural Alliance (TACA) since 2000, and as Member of the Board/Vice-President of the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), a Washington, D.C. based umbrella organization representing 57 organizations.
The Chicago-based Turkish-American Cultural Alliance (TACA) and the Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA) both figure prominently in Sibel Edmonds' case. Both are reported to be front groups for criminal activity involving illegal weapons sales, narcotics trafficking, and the bribery and corruption of high level US officials.
Mehmet Celebi first came to my attention in my first interview with Sibel in January 2006. My notes from that interview read:
"Sibel mentioned the mafia nature of the Turkish business establishment - in particular she mentioned Celebi as one of the key players - apparently they are involved in an arms trading cartel, and they ship narcotics in the cargo of their planes as they zoom around.
One of the Celebi family members (Mehmet Celebi) is chairman of the Turkish American Cultural Association (TACA) in Illinois. (Sibel has often pointed to both Chicago, and also to 'cultural exchanges')."
TACA and the ATAA were both targets of an FBI counter-intelligence operation investigating the corruption and bribery of high-level US officials from 1997 onward, including the period when Celebi had high level positions at these organizations.
According to the 2005 investigative piece in Vanity Fair into Sibel's case:
Vanity Fair has established that around ... December 2001, Joel Robertz, an F.B.I. special agent in Chicago, contacted Sibel and asked her to review some wiretaps. Some were several years old, others more recent; all had been generated by a counter-intelligence that had its start in 1997. “It began in D.C.,” says an F.B.I. counter-intelligence official who is familiar with the case file. “It became apparent that Chicago was actually the center of what was going on.”
Its subject was explosive; what sounded like attempts to bribe elected members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican. “There was pressure within the bureau for a special prosecutor to be appointed and take the case on,“ the official says. Instead, his colleagues were told to alter the thrust of their investigation – away from elected politicians and toward appointed officials. “This is the reason why Ashcroft reacted to Sibel in such an extreme fashion,” he says “It was to keep this from coming out.”
In her secure testimony, Edmonds disclosed some of what she recalled hearing. In all, says a source who was present, she managed to listen to more than 40 of the Chicago recordings supplied by Robertz. Many involved an F.B.I. target at the city’s large Turkish Consulate, as well as members of the American-Turkish Consulate, as well as members of the American-Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associates (ATAA).
Some of the calls reportedly contained what sounded like references to large scale drug shipments and other crimes. To a person who knew nothing about their context, the details were confusing and it wasn’t always clear what might be significant. One name, however, apparently stood out – a man the Turkish callers often referred to by the nickname “Denny boy.” It was the Republican congressman from Illinois and Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert."
Hastert is from Chicago, of course, but he wasn't the only congressmen who was bribed by these groups - others who were identified in Sibel's Rogues Gallery are Roy Blunt, Tom Lantos, Dan Burton, Robert Livingston and Steven Solarz.
The Vanity Fair article identifies a number of different mechanisms for bribing these Congressmen, and the bribes appear to come from three separate, yet overlapping, groups. In an article in 2006, I attempted to categorize these groups:
The first group is a criminal element of the Military Industrial Complex, represented primarily by Richard Perle, Doug Feith and Marc Grossman among others - generally using AIPAC and the American Turkish Council as front organizations.
The second group suspected of bribing Hastert is the 'mafia-like' Turkish 'Deep State', probably a mix of Turkish military, heroin producers and drug-runners. It is suspected that these funds are laundered through 'lobbyists' - originally Perle & Feith's company International Advisors Inc, and later (and currently) through Bob Livingston's company The Livingston Group.
The third group is a bit more hazy, but it is suspected that it is a group of Turkish heroin 'baba' (mafia) operating in the US, probably headquarted in Chicago. This group appears to use front organisations such as the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (A.T.A.A.) and the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (T.A.C.A.)
Mehmet Celebi is a key player in this third group, the Turkish heroin mafia.
Ex-CIA agent Phil Giraldi has also previously linked TACA and ATAA to Sibel Edmonds case,
"The commercial interest (between has also fostered close political ties, with the American Turkish Council, American Turkish Cultural Alliance (TACA) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) all developing warm relationships with AIPAC and other Jewish and Israel advocacy groups throughout the US."
Given the strong connections between the Turkish and Israeli lobbies identified in Sibel's case, it is perhaps not surprising to see members of Israeli lobbying groups stepping forward to defend Celebi in the NRO and elsewhere, although the claims made in his defense are easily debunked.
Why is Hillary Clinton involved with such a character? The claims against him are well documented, and extend back to her husband's presidency, including steps in place to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Celebi and the bribery of Hastert's and others. Sibel described the situation on a radio program in early 2006:
" In 1999, the Clinton Administration actually asked the Department of Justice to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate Hastert, and certain other elected officials that were not named in this (VF) article, to be investigated formally. And the Department of Justice actually went about appointing this prosecutor, but after the Administration changed they quashed that investigation and they closed it despite the fact they had all sorts of evidence, again I’m talking about wiretaps, documents - paper documents - that was highly explosive and could have been easily used to indict the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. That investigation was closed in 2001, and this was around the time I started reporting my cases to the Congress."
Has Hillary forgotten all this? Or is she too for sale to the highest bidder? We are all well aware of George Bush's fund-raising giants, the Rangers and Pioneers, which resulted in many a scandal and prosecution including Ken Lay, Jack Abramoff and Brent Wilkes - yet here is Hillary Clinton engaging in the exact same behaviour, taking large sums of money from corrupt interests, and appointing these people to positions of political power. How can we even hope that a Clinton presidency will be an improvement over the last 8 years?
The right-wing blogs are already beginning to pick up this story of Celebi and Clinton - Debbie Schlussel, National Review Online, Gateway Pundit - focusing solely on Celebi's involvement with the movie "Valley of the Wolves." The Right-Wing-Noise-Machine will no doubt go into overdrive if Hillary wins the nomination to be the next president. This information needs to be made public immediately.
When asked for a comment, Sibel said:
"In 2005, Vanity Fair reported that Dennis Hastert had been bribed by Turkish interests. If people want to investigate this further they should FOIA the FBI's Chicago Field Office for information regarding Mehmet Celebi going back to 1997. If the FBI is honest, there will be boxes and boxes of files responsive to these FOIA requests.
Hillary Clinton knows, or should know, about Mehmet Celebi's activities. If she doesn't, she should ask Bill Clinton or his Attorney General Janet Reno."
The FBI's Chicago Field Office has investigative files relating to Mehmet Celebi's involvement in the trafficking of narcotics as well as the corruption of high-level US officials. We need to recruit some prominent 'good government' groups, of any political persuasion, to file a FOIA request with the FBI's Chicago Field Office (CFO) for all information relating to Mehmet Celebi and this criminal activity. I expect that the CFO will deny and stonewall, but as we saw with the recent UK Times article, false denials can lead to other frustrated whistleblowers coming forward with documents and other evidence which can prove the case. Please contact me if you can prepare, file, and follow-up the FOIA request.
--------------------
Cross-posted at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak
(Email me if you want to be added to my Sibel email list. Subject: 'Sibel email list')
Special thanks to Sherlock at Liberty Post and Mizgin at Rasti for being on this story for months already.
8 comments:
Two of Hillary Clinton's top moneymen, John Merrigan and Matthew "Mac" Bernstein, signed a $100,000-per-month contract with the Turkish government last March to prevent "the introduction, debate and passage of legislation and other U.S. government action that harms Turkey's interests or image." Here is a copy.
I sincerely hope people are following the
FRANK GUISTRA WILLIAM CLINTON
saga on nukes dealing and uranium mining.
I notice that although I am a primary news source - that the Canadian government is not conducting securities fraud, environmental damange or any other legal steps yet.
I've been backtracking IP addresses and discovered that Guistra's brother died last year, but could find not one item about it on the net.
HiLIARy has helped provide nukes and DU weapons to a rogue nation - Kazahkstan!! Why is the NYT which endorsed her SO quiet? The story, just as Peter f. Paul's and others will eventually be discovered.
I found du documents that were classifed by Clinton on du on the Department of Energy's "treasure trove" yesterday .. what are they doing THERE?
Today, I discovered the amount of drugs going through Portugal - a member of the "coalition of the willing" ..
NO matter what I do, I cannot get my lowlevel radiation blog to "ping" and get listed on google. HOW COME?
Need I say this - we need investigations .
and keep your eyes on Kurdistan, there is plenty plenty plenty going on there. The puppets are holed up in Austria (on vaction) and the owners of the oil are in London making deals to make a pipeline using detox chemicals furnished by China .. I found out as I tracked back the activities of a the Danish guy who deals them.
This story is SO huge -
I sincerely hope people are following the
FRANK GUISTRA WILLIAM CLINTON
saga on nukes dealing and uranium mining.
I notice that although I am a primary news source - that the Canadian government is not conducting securities fraud, environmental damange or any other legal steps yet.
I've been backtracking IP addresses and discovered that Guistra's brother died last year, but could find not one item about it on the net.
HiLIARy has helped provide nukes and DU weapons to a rogue nation - Kazahkstan!! Why is the NYT which endorsed her SO quiet? The story, just as Peter f. Paul's and others will eventually be discovered.
I found du documents that were classifed by Clinton on du on the Department of Energy's "treasure trove" yesterday .. what are they doing THERE?
Today, I discovered the amount of drugs going through Portugal - a member of the "coalition of the willing" ..
NO matter what I do, I cannot get my lowlevel radiation blog to "ping" and get listed on google. HOW COME?
Need I say this - we need investigations .
and keep your eyes on Kurdistan, there is plenty plenty plenty going on there. The puppets are holed up in Austria (on vaction) and the owners of the oil are in London making deals to make a pipeline using detox chemicals furnished by China .. I found out as I tracked back the activities of a the Danish guy who deals them.
This story is SO huge -
Perhaps this explains why Dennis Hastert very suddenly pulled the legislation to recognize the Armenian Genocide.
Excellent post.
Sibel Edmonds has snared one tentacle of the octopus that has been dealing in narcotics, nuclear secrets, and illegal weapons sales for decades. The blog Antifascist Calling has just posted another very detailed piece on this international criminal network, titled Deep State, Corporate Crime. It's a must-read.
The term "deep state" refers to a political system, composed of high-level elements within the military, security and intelligence services, the judicial branch, and important commanders of organized crime. Although the term originated to describe Turkey's political system, it also correctly describes the USA, Great Britain, Pakistan, Israel, and others from roughly the 1970s through today. A peek at the ATC board members listed in Deep State, Corporate Crime gives one an idea of the numerous players who benefit politically and financially from deep state politics. Keep in mind the ATC board is one of hundreds of deep state lobbies and CIA cutouts created to carry out ilegal and deadly deep state activities.
Deep state activities during the 1970s and 1980s are well documented, though higly complex. The now defunct bank BCCI was one of the primary institutions used to launder the money used in this illegal narcotics, nuclear, and weapons trade. Although it is well-known that BCCI functioned as the CIA's money-laundering facility, Democratic Senator John Kerry helped whitewash the CIA's connections to BCCI during the investigations of the failed bank's criminal activities during poppy Bush’s presidency.
While the Bush crime family is well-known, with poppy Bush a former CIA chief, and generations of war profiteering and graft, the role of the Clinton crime family in deep state politics is more well-hidden. Here are a few of Clinton’s connections to the 1990s deep state. Support of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army, well-known for heroin trafficking, and the war on Serbia to ensure a secure flow of heroin from Turkey to western Europe is one. Another is the assistance governor Clinton provided to help cover for the CIA’s cocaine trafficking into Mena, AK. One of the best summaries of Bill Clinton’s connections to deep state politics is in this chart (top of page), depicting the relationships various Clinton associate had to BCCI, and this compilation of sales and thefts of weapons techology to China.
To learn more about the USA's deep state activities prior to 1990, start with The Politics of Heroin; CIA Complicity In The Global Drug Trade by Alfred McCoy, The Last Circle by Carolyn Marshall, and books by Peter Dale Scott.
It’s a steep learning curve to bring oneself up to speed on decades of CIA and deep state criminal activity, but it is crucial to know the context of Sibel Edmonds’ revelations, 9-11, and the threat posed by unaccountable intelligence agencies that also control much of the world’s narcotics and illegal weapons trade. The threat posed to democratic societies, and the world in general, by intelligence agencies run amok makes CIA asset al Qaeda look like a cuddy teddy bear. The war on terror is a mere cover for the profits and operations of those who control deep state politics.
"Has Hillary forgotten all this? Or is she too for sale to the highest bidder?"
Funny. Thanks for the links anti-empire.
Read Terry Reed's book "Compromised" for a first-hand look into the Clinton rise to power, as well as the nature of your "deep state" term.
Iran-Contra brought the Clintons and Bushes together as one. The big story is not so much arms dealing but the massive drug smuggling that's used to pay for covert operations and enrich the ruling class.
My conclusion is that putting another Clinton in office may change some social policies but otherwise its business as usual, and any of the Bush corruptions will be quietly swept under the rug, including each and every one of Sibel Edmonds' revelations.
Good luck with the FOIA...Bush is trying to bury it in the DOJ. There will be no FOIA.
Hi Lukery! :D
Been a LONG time m8 I am sorry to say. Was sad to see you had closed your blog, but glad to see you still doing what you do best! :)
I've been out of it for over a year (health, life... the usual, you know.) I'm just getting active again.
Anyway, I just wanted to say Hi and that I'll check out what happening with Sibel Edmonds as it's always been a keen interest of mine (and why I discovered "Wot is it good for?" in the first place!) :D
I also hope all is well with you.
At least we had one win in Oz! Howard the lame Duck is gone (hasn't he been amazingly quiet?) LOL
Cheers and thanks. I'll see you around. :)
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