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October 20, 2005

Is this why they are so afraid?

Captain Ed asks:

If the DIA really has resorted to these tactics, then it only demonstrates even more that they fear Shaffer and the rest of the Able Danger revelations. What has them so afraid?

Maybe we should ask the 9/11 Commission. They'll be in DC tomorrow:

The 9/11 Commission Report: The Unfinished Agenda: An ongoing series of public events assessing the progress of reform since the 9/11 Commission Report.

Next event: Second Report on 9/11 Commission Recommendations: Reforming the Institutions of Government
Thursday, October 20, 2005 • 10:30 a.m. • Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC • Oceanic Room

I'm starting to think people are silencing Able Danger not because they are embarassed about what did or did not happen with the program itself, but rather because of what Able Danger might have uncovered.

I almost hesitated to post this because it sounds so ridiculous, and even if it is true, there is no way any proof will get out in public without the approval of the new Roberts-Miers court - not very likely given their desire not to rock the boat. The main reason I am posting it anyway, even if it makes me look silly, is that the Department of Justice would not be claiming the "State Secrets" privilege against Sibel Edmonds if she was just making stuff up. They would not be falsely accusing Tony Shaffer of having an affair if they could prove him wrong. They would not be keeping Gary Berntsen's book from seeing the light of day if they were not worried about what he has to say. It also strikes me as something more than a coincidence that all three happen to be represented, in part, by Roy Krieger and Mark Zaid.

I would be very happy to be proven wrong, because what Sibel Edmonds is saying has the potential to even further erode our trust in government and also shows that we are still in danger - from the international smugglers and criminal organizations she describes. Until someone can prove these whistleblowers wrong, instead of trying to shut them up, I'm going to trust them - not the Penagon.

Here is what Sibel Edmonds said on August 15th:

I am talking about countries, not a single country here. Because despite however it may appear, this is not just a simple matter of state espionage. If Fitzgerald and his team keep pulling, really pulling, they are going to reel in much more than just a few guys spying for Israel....

Essentially, there is only one investigation – a very big one, an
all-inclusive one. Completely by chance, I, a lowly translator,
stumbled over one piece of it.

But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved, a lot of
ranking officials, and a lot of illegal activities that include
multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling operations, black-market nuclear
sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes, you name it. And of course a lot of people from abroad are involved. It's massive. So to do this investigation, to really do it, they will have to look into everything.

Here is what she said on August 22nd:

If you go to my CBS 60 Minutes transcript of October 2002 – even though they chose to broadcast mostly the administrative problems and issues – I had one statement there that said that this involved people, officials, well-recognized names in the Department of State, Department of Defense, and certain elected officials. So I believe the source is also quoted somewhere else talking about the fact that in the late '90s they were going to have a special prosecutor to uncover these criminal activities and corruption, including the politicians – this is in the article. But later, after the administration changed, they decided to cool it and not do anything with it, so they stopped the investigation and they went against the initial decision of having a special prosecutor trying and indicting these criminals in the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the Congress....

And these activities overlap. It's not like okay, you have certain
criminal entities that are involved in nuclear black market, and then
you have certain entities bringing narcotics from the East. You have
the same players when you look into these activities at high-levels
you come across the same players, they are the same people.

Here's another interesting part of that transcript:

SE: No, but as I said, the reason I went to the Congress and to the 9/11 Commission had to do with criminal activities and the criminal activities I provided information on had a lot to do with 9/11. And it's very interesting for example this latest development with the 9/11 Commission and this information from the Department of Defense that had to do with Atta, right?

SH: Able Danger.

SE: And the main media is treating it as if "here's one piece of information the 9/11 Commission didn't include." I had this press conference last summer and together with 25 national security experts. These sort of people from NSA, CIA, FBI. And we provided the public during this press conference with a list of witnesses that had provided direct information, direct information. Some had to do with finance of al-Qaeda. These are people from NSA, CIA, and FBI to the 9/11 Commission, and the 9/11 Commission omitted all of this information, even though some of this information had been established as fact. One of them had to do with certain informants in April 2001. This informant provided very specific information about the attacks. The other had to do with certain information the FBI had in July and August 2001, where blueprints and building composites of certain skyscrapers were being sent to certain Middle Eastern countries, and many more information was just omitted. With my case they just said, "Refer to the inspector general's report," even though I had provided the commissioners with the documents and names of witnesses. So now today you're seeing the press talk about "Oh, one piece of information," which right now the Commission is denying: "We don't recall seeing that information." Well, I can put out 20 other cases. These are agents who worked for agencies such as FBI, CIA, some of them for 20 years, some for 18 years. I have their list, I have their affidavits that provided documents, and they were all omitted. But the media is treating it as if "oh, look, this one piece of information was omitted" from the 9/11 Commission report.

Now from the Vanity Fair article on Edmonds in September:

Vanity Fair has established that around the time the Dickersons visited the Edmondses, in 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 investigation 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. But "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 Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations.

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. According to some of the wiretaps, the F.B.I.'s targets had arranged for tens of thousands of dollars to be paid to Hastert's campaign funds in small checks. Under Federal Election Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are not required to be itemized in public filings.

From the Washington Post:

"Fitzgerald's office said on Monday it had decided to announce any decisions in the Plame case in Washington, rather than Chicago, where the special prosecutor is based.

From the Campaign for a Cleaner Congress:

Campaign for a Cleaner Congress today called on the number three leader in the U.S. House, Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), to address questions about his past and current chiefs of staffs and his special assistant's involvement with junkets sponsored by a lobbying organization, the American Turkish Council (A.T.C.).

The Council is the subject of a report in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine, which hit newsstands in New York on Wednesday, that reveals wiretapped conversations, translated by a then-FBI employee Sibel Edmonds, recorded Turkish nationals describing efforts to bribe U.S. politicians, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL). According to the wiretaps, thousands of dollars were to be paid to Hastert's campaign funds in small checks, which under Federal Election Commission rules do not have to be itemized in public filings if they are under $200.

Officials of large corporations with economic interests in Turkey, such as Philip Morris with whom Rep. Blunt's wife is employed as a lobbyist, sit on the Council's board.

A Campaign for a Cleaner Congress review of Congressional travel records shows that Gregg Hartley, then chief of staff to Congressman Roy Blunt (R-MO), took a junket sponsored by the A.T.C. Blunt's current Chief of Staff, Amy Field, also attended the same junket, and Jared Craighead, who was a special assistant to Rep. Blunt and now works as a senior policy advisor to Governor Matt Blunt, attended a separate A.T.C.- sponsored junket. Nov. 13-19,1999.

Now that Delay has stepped down, Blunt is the new Majority Leader. If what Edmonds has said is true, a lot of people should indeed be afraid. Not just members of the Bush administration.

Posted by Mike at October 20, 2005 02:42 AM

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» Able Danger 10/20 from Voice of the Taciturn
Much to do today, so nothing major to post at this point. Michelle, Captain Ed, AJ, TopDog08, etc. provide as good a round-up of the Weldon-o-rama as can be found. Will be adding additional input throughout the day. [Read More]

Tracked on October 20, 2005 08:48 AM

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