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Sibel Edmonds case: New Docs Confirm Major Criminal Investigations of Turkish Operatives in Chicago

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lukery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 02:53 PM
Original message
Sibel Edmonds case: New Docs Confirm Major Criminal Investigations of Turkish Operatives in Chicago
Edited on Wed Mar-17-10 02:57 PM by lukery
I have a new article over at Sibel Edmonds' place, Boiling Frogs Post, discussing a new FBI FOIA release regarding one of the Chicago-based Turkish organizations that Sibel has been talking about for years.

The sub-title is "Newly Released FBI Documents Support Explosive Claims by Former FBI Translator Sibel Edmonds."

The article begins thusly:

Recently released FBI documents prove the existence of highly sensitive National Security and criminal investigations of "Turkish Activities" in Chicago prior to September 11, 2001. These documents add further support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has been claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms. Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of when she was a translator at the FBI.

The documents released under FOIA are almost completely redacted, but they do support many of Edmonds’ claims, including:

1. There was a number of very serious FBI investigations into "Turkish activity in Chicago" involving a number of targets, including TACA
2. These investigations were related to "National Security" among other things.
3. These investigations were regarded as so sensitive that no files were to be uploaded to FBI's computer system.
4. Congressional corruption was involved.
5. The FBI repeatedly conducted actual "physical surveillance" against Turkish and American targets.
6. Some of these investigations were shut down in 2001.


I asked Ms Edmonds for a response to these new documents. She replied:
"Finally! I've been saying this for years, and now we finally have documented proof from the FBI of this Turkish criminal activity based in Chicago.

This is fantastic, but even this is only the tip of the iceberg. The main question is this: Why has the White House and the State Dept been so determined to shut these investigations down? They shut down these investigations at the FBI, they shut me down with the State Secrets Privilege.

What are they hiding? Chicago was the center of it all, Chicago was the center of the foreign espionage activity, and the center for money laundering, and also a major heroin distribution center. Celebi was a key player, but Dennis Hastert, Mayor Daley, Robert Creamer and other US officials also helped facilitate these activities. When will we see some accountability?"


This is great news for all of us who have been following Sibel's case through the years.

See the full article at Boiling Frogs Post


(Completely independent of the above news, Boiling Frogs Post is currently in fund-raising mode. Boiling Frogs Post is a fantastic site, and the objective is: "To establish a venue for investigative articles, editorials, analyses, discussions, and interviews on issues largely censored and blacked out by the media." I strongly suggest that you frequent Boiling Frogs Post, and contribute to the fund-raiser if you can.)
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StateSecrets Donating Member (394 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 03:07 PM
Response to Original message
1. A Major K & R...
...and many thanks to you, Luke Ryland.

Sibel Edmonds
http://boilingfrogspost.com
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lukery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Thank you
Hopefully this will shake things up a bit!
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blm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
3. THANK YOU Luke...KandR
,
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Uncle Joe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 03:49 PM
Response to Original message
4. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread, lukery.:thumbsup:
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Nothing Without Hope Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 04:33 PM
Response to Original message
5. When will we see accountability, or even widespread awareness? The coverup continues. n/t
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pberq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 05:19 PM
Response to Original message
6. Thanks to Luke and Sibel nt
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cascadiance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 06:33 PM
Response to Original message
7. And the administration now seems to be staying away from the new Armenian genocide bill...
Edited on Wed Mar-17-10 06:37 PM by cascadiance
... that is sneaking through congress now as we speak.

I wonder if this is related to this finding and they don't want to "stir the pot" more if there is influence peddling going on now, or being attempted. Perhaps someone should be monitoring Denny Hastert's movements now.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5infX83Qg20idVFtW3FcluMFJNncgD9EGKVT00

I think there is heavy lobbying going on now from both Armenian and Turkish diaspora here in this country now on this issue.

There's also a genocide bill going through Swedish parliament too, which is producing a lot of tension with the Turkish government now.

And with these efforts going on in different places, the Turkish government is now threatening to expel 100,000 undocumented Armenians working in Turkey too.

More topical articles on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704059004575128083028873948.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=sensitive-period-in-foreign-politics-2010-03-17

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=44298

http://www.panorama.am/en/region/2010/03/17/r-erdoghan/

http://www.historyoftruth.com/news/latest/6112-ozyurek-will-we-impose-more-efficient-sanctions-against-united-states
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FourScore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-17-10 11:05 PM
Response to Original message
8. K&R
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leveymg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 06:33 AM
Response to Original message
9. KNR - Here's more on Mehmet Celebi and the bribery of U.S. elected officials
Edited on Thu Mar-18-10 06:41 AM by leveymg
Bottom-line: U.S. foreign policy is bought and paid for with foreign oil and drug money. One part of that, which Sibel helped the FBI monitor, is the Turkish Mafia that works with AIPAC, the NeoCons and PNAC. Heroin profits contribute to funding this Right-wing network of illegal agents of influence which for decades has been bribing and influencing key U.S. Congressmen and executive department officials.

See, http://rastibini.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-on-elebi-clinton-connection.html

"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."
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blm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 08:46 AM
Response to Reply #9
10. Bottom line: Poppy Bush's 60 years as arms and drug trade kingpin.
Edited on Thu Mar-18-10 08:47 AM by blm
He has had his global network in place for decades and the coverups have been an integral part of this nation's military policy and foreign policy.
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leveymg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 08:53 AM
Response to Reply #10
11. Sure. The BFEE is the enterprising U.S. unit of this rogue intelligence-drugs-banking empire
Sibel's work needs to be in conjunction with Russ Baker's "Family of Secrets" and the classic, "Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia." Joe Trento's books also provide insight into the criminalized intelligence syndicates.
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Oilwellian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 09:06 AM
Response to Original message
12. Drip, drip, drip
K&R
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mmonk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
13. Thanks
Good work and glad to see this post.
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nashville_brook Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-18-10 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
14. big k and r
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