Nuclear Security at Heart of AIPAC Spy Case
American Free Press
By Mark Glenn
After four years of delays, the trial for two accused spies for Israel, Kenneth Weissman and Steve Rosen of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), is set for the end of April. The defense—terrified of the public relations disaster for the Jewish state that will ensue—has employed an incredible amount of obfuscation, sabotage and stalling in trying to scuttle the trial.
New revelations indicate the case involves the theft and sale of secrets dealing with U.S. nuclear weapons.
Sibel Edmonds was a translator of the Turkish andFarsi languages working for the FBI. She was hired after 9-11 and her job was to listen in on conversations garnered after extensive FBI surveillance teams working in counter-espionage. After six months, she reported serious breaches of national security taking place relating to what she heard. She was sacked and placed under a secret gag order by the attorney general.
Now, in defiance of those gag orders, she has come forward with explosive information regarding Israeli spying and the stealing of U.S. nuclear secrets with the intention of selling them on the black market. In the British newspaper Sunday Times, Edmonds reveals that an international nuclear smuggling ring involving the intelligence agencies of Israel, Pakistan and Turkey, has been permitted to operate in the U.S. with protection from the government at the highest levels.
In addition to the theft and selling of U.S. nuclear secrets, this spy ring was also involved in money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and blackmail of U.S. officials.
The spy ring enlisted the support of (in some cases) high-level U.S. officials in building a network of moles (spies) in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.
“What I found was damning,” Edmonds said. “While the FBI was investigating, several arms of the government were shielding what was going on.”
According to the newspaper, the Israelis (working through their Turkish proxies) had planted moles in military and academic institutions which handled nuclear technology with several transactions of nuclear material taking place every month and the Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. “The network appeared to be obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,” she said. “The moles were helped,” she says, “by a high-ranking State Department official who provided them–mainly PhD students–with security clearances to work in sensitive nuclear research facilities, including the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico.”
She said the State Department official also aided foreign operatives personally by “passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives.” She also claims that the FBI gathered evidence against senior Pentagon officials—including against some in the Pentagon whom she said were “household names”— who were aiding these foreign agents, saying “If you made public all the information that the FBI has on this case, you will see very high-level people going through criminal trials.”
Edmonds’s list includes Marc Grossman, former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, assistant secretary of state for European affairs and undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2001 to 2005. Arch-neocons Richard Pearle and Paul Wolfowitz were both investigated by the FBI in the past for passing classified information on to Israel during their periods working there.
Following 9-11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow aided the attacks.
Again, the State Department official proved useful. “A primary target (of the FBI investigation) would call the State Department official and point to names on the list and say, ‘We need to get them out of the U.S. because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans,’ at which point the official said that he would ‘take care of it’,” she said.
In the days and weeks following 9-11, hundreds of Israeli nationals, many of them known to be agents working for Mossad, were detained and then quietly deported back to Israel. One of the key players involved in this was the current director of the Department of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, (son of a former Israeli intelligence agent) who at that time was working with the Criminal Investigation Division of the Justice Department.
Let Sibel Edmonds Speak (video) (video)
Nukes, Spooks, and the Specter of 9/11: We're in big trouble if even half of what Sibel Edmonds says is true…
(...)
The darkest secrets of 9/11 are buried at the end of the trail laid out in Edmonds' testimony. As Luke Ryland, the world's foremost expert on the Edmonds case, writes:
"The Times article then notes something that I reported 18 months ago. Immediately after 911, the FBI arrested a bunch of people suspected of being involved with the attacks – including four associates of key targets of FBI's counterintelligence operations. Sibel heard the targets tell Marc Grossman: 'We need to get them out of the U.S. because we can't afford for them to spill the beans.' Grossman duly facilitated their release from jail and the suspects immediately left the country without further investigation or interrogation.Corruption and a massive cover-up organized at the highest levels of government – America's nuclear secrets and technology looted on a massive scale, and sold to our enemies via a network set up by our alleged foreign "friends," while the threat of nuclear terrorism hangs over our country like a thick fog of fear, and warmongering politicians scare us into going along with the program – if even half of what Edmonds alleges turns out to be true, then we are all in some very big trouble.----
"Let me repeat that for emphasis: The #3 guy at the State Dept. facilitated the immediate release of 911 suspects at the request of targets of the FBI's investigation."
Ça ne concerne pas juste les suspects du 9/11 mais aussi les bombes nucléairs "égarées" au début septembre 2007.
Voici la liste: elle contient les noms de plein de néocons, de membres du PNAC, (Project for a New American Century), ou du WINEP (the Washington Institute on Near East Policy) people.
Sibel speaks
Jan 7, 2008
The former FBI translator has named all the individuals who -- she says -- played a role in the convoluted tale of treasonous activity that she uncovered while working for the Bureau. The information comes to us in an interesting way: She provided photos, and lukery provides names. As added value, I'm including a few biographical details. (Larisa Alexandrovna offers her own list here.)
Here they are:
1. Pentagon and State Department officials...
Richard Perle: Chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee (2001-2003), leading member of neocon groups PNAC, JINSA and WINEP.(He's a registered Democrat, believe it or not, out of respect for Scoop Jackson.)
Douglas Feith: Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, 2001-2005; head of the Office of Special Plans (Pentagon intel/propaganda unit accused of using forged evidence); JINSA.
Eric Edelman: Principal Deputy Assistant to the Vice President for National Security Affairs (2001-2003); former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey (2003-2005); current Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
Marc Grossman: United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (2001-2005) Met with Pakistan's notorious intelligence head, General Mahmoud Ahmed, just before September 11, 2001.
etc. lire la suite
Sibel Edmonds Names Names in "States Secrets" Gallery
As Edmonds has said, her case involves "highly-recognizable, highly-known names", as can be confirmed below.
| ©bradblog.com |
Current and former Pentagon and State Department officials:
Richard PerleCurrent and former congressmen:
Douglas Feith
Eric Edelman
Marc Grossman
Brent Scowcroft
Larry Franklin
Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Ex-House SpeakerThink Tank members:
Roy Blount (R-MO)
Dan Burton (R-IN)
Tom Lantos (D-CA)
?
Bob Livingston (R-LA), Ex-House Speaker
Stephen Solarz (D-NY)
Graham E. Fuller - RANDSo what are these men guilty of? In response to this summary of the allegations, Edmonds as said: "as far as published articles go, this one nails it 100%":
David Makovsky - WINEP
Alan Makovsky - WINEP
?
?
Yusuf Turani (President-in-exile, Turkistan)
Professor Sabri Sayari (Georgetown, WINEP)
Mehmet Eymur (Former Turkish Spy Chief MIT)
Sibel Edmonds, the Turkish FBI translator turned whistleblower who has been subjected to a gag order 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. Israel has long cultivated a close relationship with Turkey since Ankara's neighbours and historic enemies - Iran, Syria and Iraq - are also hostile to Tel Aviv. Islamic Turkey has also had considerable symbolic value for Israel, demonstrating that hostility to Muslim neighbours is not a sine qua non for the Jewish state.
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. In fact the neocons seem to have a deep and abiding interest in Turkey, which, under other circumstances, might be difficult to explain. Doug Feith's International Advisors Inc, a registered agent for Turkey in 1989 - 1994, netted $600,000 per year from Turkey, with Richard Perle taking $48,000 annually as a consultant. Other noted neoconservatives linked to Turkey are former State Department number three, Marc Grossman, current Pentagon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman, Paul Wolfowitz and former congressman Stephen Solarz. The money involved does not appear to come from the Turkish government, and FBI investigators are trying to determine its source and how it is distributed. Some of it may come from criminal activity, possibly drug trafficking, but much more might come from arms dealing. Contracts in the hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars provide considerable fat for those well placed to benefit. Investigators are also looking at Israel's particular expertise in the illegal sale of US military technology to countries like China and India. Fraudulent end-user certificates produced by Defense Ministries in Israel and Turkey are all that is needed to divert military technology to other, less benign, consumers. The military-industrial-complex/neocon network is also well attested. Doug Feith has been associated with Northrup Grumman for years, while defense contractors fund many neocon-linked think tanks and "information" services. Feith, Perle and a number of other neocons have long had beneficial relationships with various Israeli defense contractors. (Philip Giraldi from Cannistraro Associates, April 24 edition of The American Conservative)
While Edmonds claims the Times published only 20% of her allegations, antiwar.com's Justin Raimondo has published a good analysis
that gets to the heart of some of the deeper implications of her case,
including Israeli involvement in 9/11, and the
American-Israeli-Turkish-Pakistani-"Al-Qaeda" (i.e., CIA/Mossad/ISI)
terror connections.
by Justin Raimondo,
January 08, 2008
"The next president may have to deal with a nuclear attack," averred ABC’s Charles Gibson at Saturday
night’s Democratic presidential debate. "The day after a nuclear weapon
goes off in an American city, what would we wish we had done to prevent
it and what will we actually do on the day after?"
It’s a
question that frightens everyone, and one to which there is no easy
answer: none of the candidates really rose to the occasion, and most
seemed baffled. Hillary Clinton made sure she used the word "retaliation"
with unusual emphasis, and when pressed on the question of how she
would retaliate against "stateless" terrorists nevertheless insisted
that she would indeed retaliate against someone, because the perpetrators had to have a "haven" somewhere within a state.
Yes,
well, that’s not necessarily true, but what if that "haven" is… right
here in the U.S.? Or, perhaps, in a NATO country, say, Turkey?
Say what?
Impossible, you say? Not if you believe Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI who listened in on hundreds of telephone intercepts and has now told the London Times
that several top U.S. government officials conspired with foreign
agents to steal U.S. nuclear secrets and sell them on the black market.
The Times reports:
"Edmonds
described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of
U.S. officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and
nuclear institutions.
"Among the hours of covert tape
recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior
official in the U.S. State Department was being paid by Turkish agents
in Washington who were selling the information on to black market
buyers, including Pakistan. The name of the official – who has held a
series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times.
He strongly denies the claims. However, Edmonds said: ‘He was aiding
foreign operatives against U.S. interests by passing them highly
classified information, not only from the State Department but also from
the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political
objectives.’
"She claims that the FBI was also gathering
evidence against senior Pentagon officials – including household names –
who were aiding foreign agents. ‘If you made public all the information
that the FBI have on this case, you will see very high-level people
going through criminal trials,’ she said."
Edmonds brought all this to the attention of lawmakers, as well as the American media, and several news organizations filed reports – until a federal judge issued an unprecedented gag order. Edmonds’ story was deemed too hot to handle: if the public were allowed to know what she knows, according to our government,
America’s national security would be severely impaired. Yet now she is
speaking out, and what she has to say is unsettling, to say the least.
Edmonds has named at least one of the officials: he is Marc Grossman,
a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, assistant secretary of state for
European affairs under the Clinton administration and undersecretary of
state for political affairs from 2001-2005. Grossman is now vice
chairman of The Cohen Group, a consulting firm founded by Bill Clinton’s defense secretary, William S. Cohen.
Edmonds contends
that an international nuclear smuggling ring, associated with the
intelligence agencies of Pakistan, Turkey, and Israel, has been
permitted to operate in the U.S. with impunity. Our government, she
claims, knew all about it yet, in order to placate the foreign
governments involved, allowed a vast criminal enterprise to carry out
its activities, including money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and
espionage involving efforts to steal U.S. nuclear technology.
As
a translator for the FBI, Edmonds had the task of translating many
hours of intercepted phone conversations between Turkish officials and
Pakistanis, Israelis, and Americans who were targets of the FBI’s
counterintelligence unit. Thousands of hours of intercepted calls
revealed a network of moles placed in various military installations and
academic venues dealing with nuclear technology. Edmonds gives us the
details, via the Times:
"Edmonds says there were
several transactions of nuclear material every month, with the
Pakistanis being among the eventual buyers. ‘The network appeared to be
obtaining information from every nuclear agency in the United States,’
she said.
"They were helped, she says, by the
high-ranking State Department official [Marc Grossman] who provided some
of their moles – mainly Ph.D. students – with security clearance to
work in sensitive nuclear research facilities. These included the Los
Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the
security of the U.S. nuclear deterrent."
And "while the FBI
was investigating," says Edmonds, "several arms of the government were
shielding what was going on." An entire wing of the national security
bureaucracy, associated with the neoconservatives, has long profited from representing Turkish interests in Washington: this group includes not only Grossman, but also Paul Wolfowitz, chief intellectual architect of the Iraq war and ex-World Bank president; former deputy defense secretary for policy Douglas J. Feith; Feith’s successor, Eric Edelman; and Richard Perle, the notorious uber-neocon whose unique ability to mix profiteering and warmongering forced him to resign his official capacity as a key administration adviser.
Edmonds
draws a picture of a three-sided alliance consisting of Turkish,
Pakistani, and Israeli agents who coordinated efforts to milk U.S.
nuclear secrets and technology, funneling the intelligence stream to the
black market nuclear network set up by the Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan. The multi-millionaire Pakistani nuclear scientist then turned around and sold his nuclear assets to North Korea, Libya, and Iran.
This was no "rogue" operation, but a covert action executed by Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad,
the chief of Pakistan’s intelligence service, the ISI, at the time. The
Turks were used as intermediaries because direct ISI intervention would
have roused immediate suspicion. Large amounts of cash were dropped off
at the offices of Turkish-American lobbying groups, such as the American Turkish Council in Washington, which was reportedly picked up by at least one top U.S. official.
This
Pakistani-Turkish-Israeli Axis of Espionage, operating through their
respective embassies, systematically combed Washington officialdom for
potential moles, compiling lists that, according to Edmonds and the Times,
“contained all their ‘hooking points,’ which could be financial or
sexual pressure points, their exact job in the Pentagon and what stuff
they had access to.” Nice work, there.
This sounds a lot like the setup the handlers of convicted spy Larry Franklin
worked with to glean information from the rabidly pro-Israel Franklin
and pass it off to Israeli embassy officials, including former Israeli
ambassador Danny Ayalon; Naor Gilon, the former political officer at the embassy; and Rafi Barak, the former deputy chief of mission. And there is indeed a connection to the Franklin case, according to the Times,
"One
of the Pentagon figures under investigation was Lawrence Franklin, a
former Pentagon analyst, who was jailed in 2006 for passing U.S. defense
information to lobbyists and sharing classified information with an
Israeli diplomat. ‘He was one of the top people providing information
and packages during 2000 and 2001,’ [Edmonds] said."
Franklin delivered his "packages" to AIPAC officials Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman
and their Israeli handlers for ideological reasons, but others, such as
Grossman – according to Edmonds – did it for money. Grossman angrily
denies the charge. In any case, apparently large cash transactions were
recorded on the tapes Edmonds translated, in which U.S. officials were
heard selling the nation’s nuclear secrets. As the Times relates:
"Well-known
U.S. officials were then bribed by foreign agents to steal U.S. nuclear
secrets. One such incident from 2000 involves an agent overheard on a
wiretap discussing ‘nuclear information that had been stolen from an air
force base in Alabama,’ in which the agent allegedly is heard saying:
‘We have a package and we’re going to sell it for $250,000.’"
A
vast criminal enterprise supported by at least three foreign
intelligence agencies acting in concert with top U.S. officials,
including some "household names" – if true, it’s the story of the
decade. Yet that isn’t all. The really scary aspect of this labyrinthine
network of foreign agents, and their American dupes and collaborators,
is its connections to terrorist organizations, specifically al-Qaeda.
To begin with, Gen. Ahmad is suspected
of having wired a large amount of money into Mohammed Atta’s Dubai bank
account shortly before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. More ominously, the Times
reports: "Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken
in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or
somehow aided the attacks."
Pakistani and/or Turkish operatives arrested or held for questioning in the wake of the 9/11 attacks? Well, that’s the first I’ve heard of it. However, the U.S. authorities did round up a large number of Israelis, including these guys, and held them for several months before extraditing them back to their home country.
Even more alarming is the reason Edmonds approached the Times
with the story, "after reading about an al-Qaeda terrorist who had
revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in
Turkey." That’s a reference to this Nov. 2 story in the Times, which details the career of a top al-Qaeda kingpin, one Louai al-Sakka,
who claims to have trained several of the 9/11 hijackers at a camp
situated outside Istanbul in the resort area of the Yalova mountains.
Now that‘s curious: a Muslim fundamentalist training camp in a country run by a fanatically secular military that would normally not tolerate such activities. As the Times
puts it: "Turkish intelligence were aware of unusual militant Islamic
activity in the Yalova mountains, where Sakka had set up his camps. But
they posed no threat to Turkey at the time."
Not a threat to
Turkey, eh? All too true: the terrorists’ target was the U.S. The
al-Qaeda recruits trained by Sakka were specifically chosen by the top
leadership of al-Qaeda – i.e., bin Laden
– to carry out the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. That
they were nurtured and steeled for their mission under the noses of our
NATO allies in Ankara seems bizarre – until one begins to take Sibel
Edmonds seriously. Then the whole horrifying picture starts to fall into
place.
The darkest secrets of 9/11 are buried at the end of the trail laid out in Edmonds’ testimony. As Luke Ryland, the world’s foremost expert on the Edmonds case, writes:
"The Times article then notes something that I reported
18 months ago. Immediately after 911, the FBI arrested a bunch of
people suspected of being involved with the attacks – including four
associates of key targets of FBI’s counterintelligence operations. Sibel
heard the targets tell Marc Grossman: ‘We need to get them out of the
U.S. because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans.’ Grossman duly
facilitated their release from jail and the suspects immediately left
the country without further investigation or interrogation.
"Let
me repeat that for emphasis: The #3 guy at the State Dept. facilitated
the immediate release of 911 suspects at the request of targets of the
FBI’s investigation."
Corruption and a massive cover-up
organized at the highest levels of government – America’s nuclear
secrets and technology looted on a massive scale, and sold to our
enemies via a network set up by our alleged foreign "friends," while the threat of nuclear terrorism hangs over our country like a thick fog of fear, and warmongering politicians
scare us into going along with the program – if even half of what
Edmonds alleges turns out to be true, then we are all in some very big
trouble.
In light of the Edmonds revelations, we have to
reconsider the implications of the question Charles Gibson opened with
during the ABC Democratic debate:
"The day after a nuclear
weapon goes off in an American city, what would we wish we had done to
prevent it and what will we actually do on the day after?"
Perhaps congressman Henry Waxman,
who solemnly pledged to launch a public investigation into the
allegations made by Edmonds, will wish he had kept his promise. Maybe
even the national news media, which has been offered this story repeatedly, by Ms. Edmonds and her supporters, will wish they had covered it.
Fortunately,
we don’t need the "mainstream" media to get the truth out to the
American people. With the new technology of the computer age, we can do
an end run around the media. This YouTube video is shocking:
As
Edmonds says, "we have the facts, we have the documents, we have the
witnesses. Put out the tapes, put out the documents, put out the
intercepts – put out the truth."
If a nuke ever goes off in an
American city, it will probably have been stolen from our own arsenal –
once the American people wake up to that scary fact, the rest will follow automatically.
Sibel Speaks Part II: Naming Names...
FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds 'names' Hastert, Bush officials in sale of nuclear secrets photo gallery
Times of London Blows Open Sibel Edmonds Case; Israeli nuclear 'moles' in U.S.
Report: FBI translator says Israel planted nuclear 'moles' in U.S.
Whistleblower 'names names' of US officials who sold nuclear secrets
UPDATED: US Officials Sold Nuke Secrets: Whistleblower
For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets case - Front page of the (UK) papers (finally)
9-11 Cover-Up, Treason and The Bomb
SIBEL EDMONDS SPEAKS TO UK SUNDAY TIMES: SAYS U.S. OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN RELEASE OF NUKE SECRETS TO TURKEY, PAKISTAN, IRAN, OTHERS, POSSIBLY EVEN AL-QAEDA
VOL DE SECRETS NUCLÉAIRES : LE LONDON TIMES CONFIRME LES AFFIRMATIONS DE SIBEL EDMONDS
US Justice Department report has boosted the credibility of Sibel Edmonds
Grossman named in the Sibel Edmonds nuclear secrets case as allegedly receiving bribes to testify in House
Exercise caution in this case. It is big and it is deadly. I have some reservations with Edmond's story. Murdoch brought the story to the international mainstream(US excluded) for a reason. To add BS to the story? To control the story? To protect Israel('s owners interests)? To...?
AIPAC vs. FBI
Naming Neocons
Dual citizenship: loyal to whom?
Defense Reveals Tactics in AIPAC Spy Case
Top Spies To Be Called in Aipac Trial
Will Friendly Judge's Rulings, Continued Delays Jeopardize AIPAC Trial?
Top prosecutor in AIPAC case quits: 02/28/2008
AIPAC Trial to Offer Look at World of Information Trading, March 3 2008
AIPAC Spy Trial to Offer Look at Back Channel Information Gathering by Israel from Top US Officials: 03/03/2008
AIPAC case: DC grapevine or espionage?
Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran?
Top classifiers testify for Rosen-Weissman, 03/15/2008
In Espionage Trial of Ex-Aipac Employees, Appeals Court Sets High Bar for Prosecution, 24/06/2008
A new trial date has been set in the classified information case against two former AIPAC staffers (2009)
The Washington Post is urging the Justice Department to drop its prosecution of two former AIPAC staffers.
Washington Post Columnist Gives Private AIPAC Talks
'Washington Post' urges dismissal of AIPAC espionage case, asks for counter-argument, and promptly rejects same
AJC, ADL urge AIPAC prosecution to reconsider trial
Wiretap scandal of leading Democrat 'who lobbied for Israeli spies'