Sibel Edmonds calls out the FBI

Where the hell is the American foreign policy press beat? (That's a rhetorical question. I know where they are - the useless idiots are wagging their cocktail weenies at Washington gatherings and hob-nobbing with the jackals they are supposed to be keeping in check...)

It is detestable that they have totally abdicated their responsibilities and completely ignored the allegations leveled by former FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. I am not one to go rushing off in a big hurry to be one of the first to leap to a conclusion. I like independent corroboration. The thing is, Sibel Edmonds has it. An Inspector General even found that she was fired for being outspoken about, you know, how it's wrong for the State Department to trade in nuclear secrets with other countries - especially when they are less than concerned with US interests.

The woman is simply not playing the game the way our useless media prefers. She is not making it easy to dismiss her as a crackpot. God help 'em - there seems to be some "there" there, if you know what I mean. And the chattering classes are struck dumb.

[Keep Reading...]

Fortunately, there is the foreign press, and we have the internet...

One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file. (emphasis added)

Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an “outright lie”.

“I can tell you that that file and the operations it refers to did exist from 1996 to February 2002. The file refers to the counterintelligence programme that the Department of Justice has declared to be a state secret to protect sensitive diplomatic relations,” she said.

The freedom of information request had not been initiated by Edmonds. It was made quite separately by an American human rights group called the Liberty Coalition, acting on a tip-off it received from an anonymous correspondent.

The letter says: “You may wish to request pertinent audio tapes and documents under FOIA from the Department of Justice, FBI-HQ and the FBI Washington field office.”

It then makes a series of allegations about the contents of the file – many of which corroborate the information that Edmonds later made public.

Edmonds had told this newspaper that members of the Turkish political and diplomatic community in the US had been actively acquiring nuclear secrets. They often acted as a conduit, she said, for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan’s spy agency, because they attracted less suspicion.

She claimed corrupt government officials helped the network, and venues such as the American-Turkish Council (ATC) in Washington were used as drop-off points.

The anonymous letter in the possession of the Sunday Times provides the name of a high-level government official who is alleged to have been secretly recorded speaking to a high Turkish official at the Turkish embassy in the last half of 2001. The letter maintains that the government official warned a Turkish member of the network that they should refuse dealings with a company called Brewster Jennings because it was a CIA front, working in counter proliferation. Remember Brewster Jennings? That was Valerie Plame's cover company. Where she battled to keep nukes out of the wrong hands, and put her life on the line to do so, until she was treasonously outed for political reasons. (And if we had a functioning press corps, that little tidbit right there, all by itself, would set them off like a pack of baying bloodhounds. But we have a bunch of complacent, utterly worthless lap-dogs instead. Sickening. Absolutely sickening...)

Edmonds, meantime is not giving up, in spite of being encumbered by numerous state secret gag-orders to prevent her from talking further about the investigations she provided translative services for, is not giving up. So she is beating the drum and repeating whats on the record and helping to connect the various and disparate dots as best she can within the confines of the strictures placed upon her. “I cannot discuss the details considering the gag orders,” she said, “but I reported all these activities to the US Congress, the inspector general of the justice department and the 9/11 commission. I told them all about what was contained in this case file number, which the FBI is now denying exists. This gag was invoked not to protect sensitive diplomatic relations but criminal activities involving US officials who were endangering US national security.” (emphasis mine)

I dunno about you, but I would rather see the press concentrate on this story than the hour-by-hour progress reports on Britney's most recent downward spiral.

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Valerie Plame Wilson Watch

What could ex-CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson -- who was outed as a spy by the traitorous Bush-Cheney cabal -- have to say on the eve of her book release, "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House"?

Maybe details about how she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon and the classified mission, Operation Merlin?

Nah, as an honorable, stalwart defender of America's national security and former CIA NOC, she can't say all that much. Too bad the Bush WH doesn't measure up to her standards.

But some of what Valerie would say is this:

PLAME: I can tell you all the intelligence services in the world were running my name through their databases to see did anyone by this name come in the country? When? Do we know anything about it? Where did she stay? Who did she see?

COURIC: And what would be the ramifications of that?

PLAME: Well, it was very serious. It puts in danger, if not shuts down, the operations that I had worked on.

You can hear and watch more tonight when CBS 60 Minutes will air an interview with Valerie (Check your local listings). Preview here. I've already set my timer as I count the days until the arrival of her book pre-ordered at Amazon.

Monday night, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson will appear on CNN's Larry King's show.

Also of special note on Monday, Sidney Blumenthal will host Valerie at FireDogLake for a special FDL Book Salon... at 10:30am -12:30pm PT/ 1:30-3:30pm ET.

And, of extra, extra special note, a trip down memory lane...

Remember when the Left Blogosphere cried out for the public release of the Libby letters that were written by Scooter's supporters (for example, GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson) appealing to the judge to go easy on sentencing the Cheney aide? Didn't we want to see who defended the convicted felon for his part in the CIA leak case and what they could possibly write about Libby?

Only a couple of liberal bloggers had the guts to go to the mattresses. Hat tip to Blue Girl and...(with emphasis added)

...Bill Moore, a lawyer who contributes to the blog Watching Those We Chose (proctoringcongress.blogspot.com)...

The principle was more important, said Mr. Moore, who personally wrote a brief to the court asking that the letters be made public. “If the powerful in our government are asking for someone to be spared, we ought to know,” he said. “The purpose of the letters is to influence the judge on sentencing, and if there is influence that ought to be transparent.”

Applause, applause!

UPDATE: In acknowledging Blue Girl and bmaz for going to "the mattresses," for taking a stand, writing the legal brief, and coordinating the footwork to get the Libby letters released to the public, I failed to recognize Pale Rider. He delivered the brief to Judge Walton's chambers. Thanks to one and all.

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Sure would be nice to have Valerie Plame on the job about now

MOSCOW - Russia test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, the Russian Space Forces said.

The missile, called the RS-24, had not yet reached its designated target, a space forces spokesman said, declining to give further information.

Russian news reports said the missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces.

Yes – You read that right. This morning the Russians tested a new MRV. For the uninitiated a MRV is a Multiple Reentry Vehicle. In layman's terms, one missile goes up, and multiple guided warheads fall back to earth. MRV’s are prominent players in my cold-war-steeped nightmares. Remember this bit about MRV's: some warheads can be set to “air burst” and kill a lot of people, and others can be set to “ground burst” for the purpose of destroying infrastructure. With a MRV, you don’t have to choose! Do both!

So much for that view of Pooty-Poot’s soul that the Useless Tool™ famously took a gander at.

Seriously – this is really bad, people. Bad to the point that my husband, upon hearing the news, poured a shot of whiskey in his coffee this morning, and he doesn’t drink. The country that could actually represent a clear and present danger to the American way of life is now in the catbirds seat, and we are suckin’ hind tit.

We are buried under a mountain of Chinese debt, accrued to finance a vanity war that was launched on lies. And a real threat looms, reemerging from the nooks and crannies of the Kremlin, and brings with it more danger than we need have faced.

In a week, Scooter Libby will be sentenced.

Scooter Libby committed a treason against this nation when he “outed” Valerie Plame Wilson, our number one intelligence asset on the issue of nuclear proliferation.

I do hope that at his sentencing, this action on the part of the Russians is taken into consideration by the judge, because the actions of Libby damaged irreparably the intelligence program that confronted issues like the advent of entire new Russian MRV IBCM systems.

[Cross-posted from Blue Girl, Red State]

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Spychodrama

Valerie Plame testified before Representative Waxman's Oversight Committee today.

Wow. What a woman. I'm glad she was out there working for me for those two decades, and pissed that her career was cut short. That kind of asset is not found by running an advert in the Sunday paper.

After a life in the shadows, she spoke out and spoke up publicly today, in a voice that was strong and clear.

She is angry, and justifiably so.

"I know I am here under oath, and I am here to say that I was covert," she said

I served the United States loyally and to the best of my ability as a covert operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

I worked on behalf of the national security of our country, on behalf of the people of the United States until my name and true affiliation were exposed in the national media on July 14, 2003, after a leak by administration officials.

Today, I can tell this committee even more. In the run-up to the war with Iraq I worked in the counter proliferation division of the CIA -- still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified.

....While I helped to manage and run secret worldwide operations against this WMD target from CIA headquarters in Washington, I also traveled to foreign countries on secret missions to find vital intelligence.

That a vital security asset was compromised for political reasons is tantamount to treason. I want satisfaction here.

No one approached her before her name was made public. Knowing a little something about how covert operations work, it is extremely fortunate that her outing did not cost an asset on foreign soil his or her life. No one involved in this sorry spectacle though that was worthy of consideration.

According to her testimony, when she saw her name in print in the Novak column, she felt like she had been “hit in the gut.”

When asked how she felt about Rove telling Chris Matthews that she was “fair game” she did not personalize the insult – she said she would feel awful about hearing of the outing of any CIA agent.

No one involved in risking her life and the lives of her team has apologized or expressed any misgivings. But it is obvious what happened - she was expendable because her husband had the audacity to report the truth about what he didn't find in Africa.

The Vice President went Wrath-of-Khan, scorched-earth insane with rage. All that mattered was punishing that bastard Joe Wilson. The welfare of the nation be damned. And that is an impeachable offense. Will the Democrats in Congress get on with it already?

[cross-posted from Blue Girl, Red State]

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