Covering Up the Coverage - The American Media’s Complicit Failure to Investigate and Report on the Sibel Edmonds Case
For the second time in two weeks, the entire U.S. press has let itself be scooped by Rupert Murdoch’s London Sunday Times on a dynamite story of criminal activities by corrupt U.S. officials promoting nuclear proliferation. But there is a worse journalistic sin than being scooped, and that is participating in a cover-up of information that demands urgent attention from the public, the U.S. Congress and the courts.For the last two weeks — one could say, for years — the major American media have been guilty of ignoring entirely the allegations of the courageous and highly credible source Sibel Edmonds, quoted in the London Times on January 6, 2008 in a front-page story that was front-page news in much of the rest of the world but was not reported in a single American newspaper or network. It is up to readers to demand that this culpable silent treatment end.
Just as important, there must be pressure by the public on Congressional committee chairpersons, in particular Representative Henry Waxman and Senator Patrick Leahy. Both have been sitting for years on classified, sworn testimony by Edmonds — as she revealed in the Times’ new story on Sunday — along with documentation, in their possession, confirming parts of her account. Pressure must be brought for them to hold public hearings to investigate her accusations of widespread criminal activities, over several administrations, that endanger national security. They should call for open testimony under oath by Edmonds — as she has urged for five years — and by other FBI officials she has named to them, as cited anonymously in the first Times’ story.
And this is the time for those who have so far creditably leaked to the Times of London to come forward, accepting personal risks, to offer their testimony — and new documents — both to the Congress and to the American press. I would say to them: Don’t do what I did and waste months of precious time trying to get Congressional committees to act as they should in the absence of journalistic pressure. Do your best to inform the American public directly, first, through the major American media.
But perhaps today the alternative media and the international press are a necessary precursor even to that. It shouldn’t be true, but if it is, it’s a measure of how far the New York Times and Washington Post have fallen from their responsibilities to the public, to their profession and to American democracy, since I gave them the Pentagon Papers in 1971. They printed them then. Would they today?
It’s impossible to believe that they — or Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal — could not have acquired documents and testimony that Murdoch’s London paper reports on today. Now the challenge to them is to end their silence on that reporting and do their job.
Otherwise, like the now-Democratic-controlled committees, they are complicit in cover-up. That’s not what these institutions should be doing. It’s not that “the cover-up is always worse than the crime”: that favorite media mantra is itself a cover story. The criminal cover-up by the FBI revealed by Edmonds and the Times’ documents is, as often the case, to conceal extremely serious crimes endangering our security, and to protect the official perpetrators. But if “freedom of the press is mainly for the people who own presses,” it is time for those owners to stop using that freedom to help conceal official wrongdoing. And the people who own computers should be using them to light a fire under the owners of presses and television networks.
In support of the official cover-up, various American journalists in the last weeks have reportedly received calls from “intelligence sources” hinting that “what Sibel Edmonds stumbled onto” is not a rogue operation by American officials and Congressmen working to their own advantage — as believed by Edmonds and some other former or active FBI officials — but a sensitive covert operation authorized at high levels. If there is any truth to that, we clearly have another prize candidate — giving us, as blowback, the Pakistani Bomb and nuclear sales — in the category of “worst covert operation in U.S. history,” rivaling such contenders as the Bay of Pigs, Iran-Contra, and the secret CIA torture camps abroad.
In the first two of those, the American press gullibly responded to official warnings of “sensitivity” and sat on information they should have reported (as did the New York Times, for a year, on the illegal NSA surveillance program). If the Washington Post had heeded such warnings and demands with respect to the covert torture camps, they would have missed a well-earned Pulitzer Prize and the camps would still be torturing.
Many, if not most, covert operations deserve to be disclosed by a free press. They are often covert not only because they are illegal but because they are wildly ill-conceived and reckless. “Sensitive” and “covert” are often synonyms for “half-assed” or “idiotic,” as well as for “criminal,” as the pattern of activities revealed by Edmonds would appear to be if it were truly presidentially authorized. These activities persist, covertly, to the point of national disaster because the press neglects what our First Amendment was precisely intended to protect and encourage it to do: expose wrongdoing by officials.
Daniel Ellsberg is a former American military analyst who sparked a national uproar in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of government decision-making during the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers.
More crapola about the lies and coverups, but nothing of the truth here. The story isn’t that they are liars and cover-uppers; the story is the truth, and Ellsberg apparently doesn’t want us to know that unless his publishers let him speak.
Does Edmonds know something important, or is her tale just another “they lied us into a war over wmds that didn’t exist?” The story of Iraq isn’t the wmds that didn’t exist, but the oil that DID.
I agree with Ellsberg’s point that the coverup isn’t the “important” story; that the TRUTH is the important story. The betrayed wife divorces the husband because he lied about being in the library? No, she divorces him for being where he was and doing what he was doing which made him lie to her.
So stop covering up, Ellsberg; tell us what Edmonds is supposed to know that is so devastating.
Thank you Daniel!!! Again.
Lurkey over at DKOS has been following the Sibel story for several years. If you want to become educated about the implications of what Sibel knows and her efforts to get that information into the public domain, follow the link below. Sibel is the “Deep Throat” of our era.
Somehow this thing has to get into the MSM.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/21/02022/8011/0/440355
P.S. Edmonds has been legally gagged and cannot tell you what she knows. She is going to be very lucky to come out of this alive. Ellsberg isn’t covering up anything. He is trying to get Congress to let Edmonds testify.
This whole disturbing episode shames almost everyone involved with it: the press, the participants, and the supposed overseers, Congress. I can see why the corporate press and Congress do not want to touch this: if the details are only half true, the revulsion towards US Governmental institutions and its’ people would make the reaction to Watergate look like a mild tantrum. The knowing and willing betrayal of American nuclear secrets for personal gain on a pervasive institutional level that crosses the partisan divide and covers political and career bureaucrats is concrete confirmation of a popular attitude, “They are all crooks!”
Go to http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5518 and scroll down to a YouTube prez featuring Edmonds for a 10 minute sketch of what she’s into.
I haven’t checked the links yet, just the article above, which says nothing much, and a link to the Times article of January 6.
This is a severe, widespread international scandal that puts Iran-Contra in the shade. This could end up putting a nuke in al-Qaeda hands at any moment, using information we sold to them. Wasn’t it Karl Marx who said that a capitalist would sell you the rope with which you could hang him?
Speculation on the mysterious US official that profited from selling nuclear secrets: was it Rummy? If you want to get the MSM’s attention, you gotta name names. Let the chips fall where they may; this is too urgent a matter for everyone to be coy. Obviously, the secrets are out. Only the names of the traitors are unrevealed.
Okay, it appears the mystery US official is Marc Grossman(not the Bears QB), who is not “well-known” in my understanding of that term. Still, why not name names; that’s what it takes to open up the journalistic sluices.
Oswald shot JFK.
Sirhan Sirhan shot RFK.
Mai Lai did not happen.
Bush was elected.
Iraq has WMDs.
The US does not torture.
And the Siebel Edmonds story is not worth covering.
How many more lies are you going to belive?
It’s easy for the large companies that own the newspaper chains to create a truth free zone in the US. Most Americans are too lazy or xenophobic to listen to outside voices. Years after Judith Miller and her “tales of the 1001 arabian WMDs”, the downing street memos still elicit blank stares in the US. Even (alleged) progressives here on this site often let their choices be narrowed by corporate media. They won’t vote for someone (Kucinich or Nader or your friendly local Green Party candidate perhaps) because they are “unelectable” or don’t have a chance to “win”. Why? Because corporate media says so, that’s why.
Bu$sh cronies are traitors and sell nuclear secrets to other countries. There is no bottom to these crooks.
R. Nicholas Burns, a high ranking State Department official resigned a few days ago. I wonder if there is any connection with this mess.
Sibel Edmonds translated tapes about Turkey operatives funnelling illegal cash to “Denny Boy” w/ $200,000 donations is
$200-400 parcels….
ie Dennis Hastert, Rep, IL
and how suddenly of out nowhere the manner of assigning audio-tapes randomly was STOPPED. so that SAME TRANSLATOR ( ie; a corrupt NEWLY hired TRANSLATOR) covered A SINGLE case/ subject. AND THAT’S WHEN DENNY BOY’s crime(s) where SILENCED.
pretty simple…..
pretty basic
I wondered the same about the Burns resignation.
If this story is as huge as it appears to be it may be just the single bit of information that could cause the world financial markets to tank really bigtime. They’ve just been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and though this one isn’t economic news, it is a real bombshell. I suspect that is what is going to happen when, as is inevitable, this story finally hits the MSM. They can’t avoid it forever, especially now that the two articles have appeared in the London Times.
Well, the NYT sat on the illegal wiretap story because it could have influenced the election. Basically they were preventing the electorate from making an informed decision.
If you follow the links in the story, you can only conclude the Democratic members of Congress are being silent because they are being blackmailed. For that reason alone, every member not doing their job needs to be thrown out of office because they are compromised. Waxman, Pelosi, Schumer, Rockefeller, for a start. Now I’m wondering why Peter DeFazio of Oregon isn’t returning my calls? I’m beginning to distrust the whole lot of them except for Kucinich. He’s already proven he will give up his career out of integrity. Would anyone else do that?
What’s the point of having progressives in Congress if the corporatocracy has them by the short hairs?
Galen, it’s not just the lies. It’s clear that the corporatocracy will destroy any threat to it’s control over this country by any means necessary. And those running scared know that. If Kucinich represented a serious threat to the corporatocracy he would be dead now.
My father refused to believe Earl Warren would have sold out on the JFK investigation. I remember thinking, if his children’s lives were threatened, he might. Rightly or wrongly, I would for my children. Would you? What this country needs is an uprising, and the only safe way to do it is a refuse to work strike. Break the corporate back. But we would need to do it before the dollar has so devalued that the corporations have already abandoned it.
kathyodat
Sibel Edmonds…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHnIyGWEz_Y
Everybody knows about the details of Sibel Edmonds’ case. Except the public.
Call Waxman, demand hearings. (202) 225-3976
http://www.letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com

“The only way they got away with it was because of the mainstream media. They are the biggest culprit for the state of our country. Whether it’s Iraq, or torture or the NSA wiretapping — which the New York Times sat on for over a year! — these people are the real culprit.”– Sibel Edmonds

http://www.911blacklist.org/
In the six years since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, the mainstream media in America has largely been a mouthpiece of the Bush administration. All of the major networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and others had until recently, been silently complicit in the cover-up of the events …

BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 11/19/2007 4:46AM
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5260
You can check out the “Timeline of Secrecy” on the Sibel Edmonds case at the American Civil Liberties Union link below:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18828res20050126.html
I guess we will be releasing a “shock and awe” on this country if this story makes it to the MSM. It is painfully obvious that everything is at stake here, and no surprise that the Congress and MSM are sitting on this. This story really needs to be aired nationwide and the criminals exposed.
On another note, I am sure you are aware that world markets are showing signs of tanking. The market in Germany hit a one-day low rivaling the previous one seven years ago, and one of the markets (I think Thailand, but could be wrong) hit its worst ever one-day low. Clearly we are in a recession, and the question is how bad will it get?
The Sibel Edmonds Story
Considering the political atmosphere of the past decade, I am amazed at the lack of DEMANDS for the truth. Which as we all know…sooner or later will out! Let’s hang these perps out to dry before they go off with their rewards and leave us in slavery.
Speaking of Rogue elements, I always questioned the response of Bush on 9/11 in the classroom. If he was told, “the nation is under attack,” then why did he not immediately stand up and bustle -or be bustled by the Secret Service- out of the room, as the man of action he portrays himself to be? But if he was whispered something like, “It’s done… Plan Cheney executed,” then ALL his subsequent actions make sense.
It only takes “rogue” elements to execute a 9/11. As the CIA is divided into operational cells, it has been and would be easy to harbor such a rogue operation within its confines.
Look at CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR. A mere handful of people in the US knew about it. Not most of the CIA. Not the Congress. And certainly not the American Public or the MSM. It was in fact Charlie Wilson’s own secret little war. Against Russia! Against the standing government of Afghanistan! Against American law! It was a miracle it did not go Hot. Cooler heads in Russia prevailed (Gorby, at the time, who also earlier convinced Andropov not to launch all ten thousand Russian nukes at America after the unthinking joke-announcement by Reagan that the bombing of Russia “will begin in ten minutes”!).
So, if a Billion-dollar international war with Russia can be waged, unknown to the American people and the full American Congress, by a few rogue operators, then hell yeah, a small secret still-functioning rogue team of just a few dozen well-placed operators can pull off a 9/11 to con Americans into getting with the program. A secret act of war against America by the NeoCons! And the action has the desired end-result and Overt cover of blame-shifting to Al-Quaeda and that CIA/Charlie-Wilson-War Operator Osama bin-Laden. With Full Deniability for the CIA and the President. It is possible.
Will we ever know the whole truth? Not likely.
I read the London Times Edmonds articles, and I can see that the American media are quaking in their boots. Its the sort of story that is outside the framework of allowable truth. It is not todays party mantra. It puts a pall on the whole US of I versus the ‘axis of evil’ world view. So US of I government officials play sticky and tricky with nuclear secrets. Some government officials like to sell them to third parties. Then the great US intelligence services know that certain countries have been acquiring nuclear capabilities because they have been watching the nuclear secrets trickle out to them. Next thing you know is that Iran has to be invaded because its going to acquire a nuclear bomb some time in the future, because you know that it knows the secrets, because they all came from you. To bad that kind of knowledge cannot be fully exterminated from peoples minds and records by trillions of dollars worth of bombs dropped on to the poorest of the poor of the world. Still, the knowledge is of the tawdry kind, that spy agencies of other countries can always ferret out by many ways and means what the US government will let them. Since most of the US of I engineering expertise now resides overseas with non US of I citizens, its just as well. Knowledge needs peoples brains to live in order to survive. The US of I can still kill every human being alive on earth with a nuclear holocaust. That should silence the critics.
I am sure the upper military brass is aware of this, but are the troops? If this story circulates among the troops, will it result in mutiny, or will they casually ignore it? Could this be the opportunity to sever one or many of the hydra’s heads (Military-Media-Industrial-Complex)?
BeForKids: I think you may be on to something when you hypothesize that our representatives may be being blackmailed by FBI or intelligence services, esp. NSA which has the technical capabilities to monitor all communications within the country. They are either being blackmailed or they are hopeless, lily-livered cowards and should be booted unceremoniously out of office. I’m contemplating running as an independent against my congressman here in Massachusetts. He is a so-called liberal but he voted for Jane Harmon’s despicable bill regarding domestic terrorism which would lay the ground for anyone accusing anyone else of being a terrorism supporter and losing all of their constitutional rights.
Never mind investigating the compromise of state nuclear secrets, time & money are better spent investigating wether a bunch of athelete/entertainers used perfromance inhancing drugs!
FVHorn: Re: 9/11. Look at the lawn at the Pentagon on 9/11. Now look at the turf from the BA belly lands from last week.
Notice anything? Like the gouges make by the engine pods? Where are they at the Pentagon?
Still think 9/11 was committed by ‘Islamic terrorists’?
Also, take into account the fact that NO steel framed building, before or since 9/11 has collapsed due to fire. Not even the apartment block in Tehran, Iran that was hit by a fully loaded and fueled C-130 Hercules transport about four years ago.
Another point. What happened to the gold that was held in the depository at the Twin Towers? $950 million in gold was there the day before. Only $200 million was recovered, found in an armoured car that had been crushed in a tunnel during the collapse.
Last point. How did a short lived jet fuel fire keep the steel molton under the collapse site for six weeks?
One thing about the Whitewater investigation, the Special Prosecutor diodn’t bother himself with limited boundaries. I do not understand why Fitzgerald isn’t looking into this matter. I know the guy, and his reticence surprises me. Even if Sybil Edwards lacks sufficient credibility, we do have this massive credibility gap in the U.S. these days, it would seem that the London Times would and that investigating the confirmation letter it claims would be a fairly simple matter.
KathyOdat. I agree with the general strike idea. It’s about as traditionally American as anything can be. Does anyone recall the Stamp Act, etc? The problem lies in something trivial — credit card debt. The advantage of a general strike is that we don’t have to agree on anything more than that the operational government is broken. It would at least light a fire under the faint hearted who prefer buying safety with liberty. It would probably take no more than a few days to get the message across, if that long.
Am I the only person to whom it has occurred that perhaps what Sibel Edmonds was listening in on was actually part of a covert counterintelligence war that is being waged to identify and when possible shut down interested buyers of “nuclear secrets” be they states, terrorists, or would-be middlemen merchants? Valerie Plame was apparently part of one such type of operation. Given what is at stake (Washington, New York, Tel Aviv, etc.) don’t you think it’s likely that there are more?
Given compartmentalization and the sensitivity of such operations, it is possible that the FBI did not know what or exactly what it was they were looking at when they asked Edmonds to translate these materials. It is also possible that some of what she was hearing was criminal activity and some of it was government sting activity, and that in either case the government does not want details revealed which would compromise further operations.
All this may seem a bit fantastic, but it seems more likely to me than a huge conspiracy to suppress all evidence and media coverage of a huge criminal conspiracy of bureaucrats running a nuclear secrets flea market for home-improvement money.
Nate W. The line you refer to was crossed long ago by Cheney, et al. It’s why we are in Iraq. Who are the war profiteers? Who will CONTROL Iraq’s oil — it need not be owned to be controlled. Anyone wanna bet on how long it will be before they uttterly end the sham of good faith Constitutional government? I think they have to do it before candidates are nominated.
Wouldn’t Valerie Plame have information which is at least tangential to the Sibil Edmond matter? Wouldn’t she have the motivation and the guts to provide the background information required to give sufficiant credence such that the MSM would no longer be able to bury or ignore the story? Any idea why she isn’t talking or what might interest her in talking?
Sibel Edmonds and anyone else who knows about these fuck-ups and do not spill the beans is a coward. If she truly felt she had important information she would name names, etc. She is a free person, as far as I know. Gag orders are not physical gags. The only power they have are over cowards who refuse to speak.
Either she (and others with this knowledge) feels strongly enough about it or she should just shut up.
SamSnedegar January 21st, 2008 12:57 pm…No one is covering up the story..just read the links and all these posts.
bakunin January 21st, 2008 4:21 pm
“I’m contemplating running as an independent against my congressman here in Massachusetts. He is a so-called liberal but he voted for Jane Harmon’s despicable bill regarding domestic terrorism which would lay the ground for anyone accusing anyone else of being a terrorism supporter and losing all of their constitutional rights.”
bakunin,
Which congressman voted for Jane Harman’s bill? I want to make sure he doesn’t get my vote in the future.
re: seedeevee January 21st, 2008 5:33 pm
Sibel Edmonds and anyone else who knows about these fuck-ups and do not spill the beans is a coward. If she truly felt she had important information she would name names, etc. She is a free person, as far as I know. Gag orders are not physical gags. The only power they have are over cowards who refuse to speak.
Either she (and others with this knowledge) feels strongly enough about it or she should just shut up.
—————————————————-
Are you completely clueless?
GO TO HER WEBSITE: http://www.justacitizen.com/
Sibel Edmonds is one of the BRAVEST most patriotic americans alive and is anything but a coward, and how dare you even suggest it!
She has already testified before congress, the 9-11 commission, the FBI, and has had her life threatened, and will be sent to jail if she names names.
But she is still talking!
It is easy for you to talk behind the keyboard about her being a free woman and not physically gagged (duh she won’t be free if she violates her gag order!), but I would be my last bottom dollar if you were in her place with that same non-physical but very legal gag order, you would not have done a FRACTION of what she has done, yet alone have a website or do interviews!
But DENSE people like yourself are not listening, because you would have read between the lines at what she has said to figure out the names yourself.
Did you even bother to click on and read the article links?
OBVIOUSLY NOT, or you would not have posted such non-sense!
For every day that this story is ignored by the MSM, whether print or electronic, it gets worse for everyone. This is a very nasty dose of medicine neither the media nor the Congress want to swallow.
I noticed Crooksandliars just covered it with many interesting comments added and very informative links (like here). I do not believe Huffington or Salon have done articles?? Please correct me if I’m wrong.
And to Gail:
What I refer to as, “The Stifling of Dissent on the Internet Act of 2008″ that was passed in the House late last year is HB 1955. The Senate Committee on Homeland Security chaired by Lieberman will be taking up the Senate version of the bill, SB 1959 in a few weeks. Obama sits on this committee and I feel he should go back there for the hearings, but I doubt he will. McCain, Obama and Clinton should all be questioned about their support for this un-American legislation. It will be discussions like the one we are having on this thread now about the Sibel Edmunds case, particularly as it relates to terrorism and 9/11, that would make all of us subject to investigation and potentially to arrest and yes, maybe even to torture and death.
Just Google HB 1955 for the vote results.
BTW, two other interesting facts on 9/11. One, during the House Intelligence hearings Harman had on the “Homegrown Terrorism Act”, Mark Weitzman from the Simon Wiesenthal Center referred to “Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth” as a potential terrorist organization and a national security threat because they are convincing millions of Americans to “question the official story of 9/11.” (Check out their website and the documentary there with architect Richard Gage, and the exchange of correspondence that occurred between Gage and Weitzman).
And also, the fact that the free-fall speed collapse of WTC “7″ at 5:20 p.m. on 9/11 was covered by the BBC. On the video as the reporter is describing the collapse of WTC “7″, you can clearly see WTC “7″ standing behind her in the shot. Seems she jumped the gun on her script and announced the collapse BEFORE IT HAPPENED. This can be seen in either “Loose Change: Final Cut” or “9/11 Press for Truth” (the documentary about the Jersey Girls and the “Terror Timeline”). AND WTC “7″ is never mentioned in The 9/11 Commission Report, nor is the wire transfer of $100,000 to Mohammed Atta from the Pakistani ISI. When questioned about these things, Keane said, “We didn’t think it was important to include.”
Gail: The congressman was Markey, but the real disgrace is that ALL…EVERY ONE of those so called liberals or at least democrats voted for that despicable bill. Also it passed by a huge majority with only a few congresspeople of either party not voting for it. We are in deep, deep trouble when legislation like this can be passed here. Clearly the establishment is fearful of what is stirring now among the people.
bobpomeroy,
If I had to guess, the reason Valerie Plame isn’t talking is because she has two small children and does not want to risk their safety.
bakunin January 21st, 2008 8:24 pm
“We are in deep, deep trouble when legislation like this can be passed here. Clearly the establishment is fearful of what is stirring now among the people.”
bakunin,
Thanks. I’m not in Markey’s district but I am going to check on my congressman to see how he voted.
You are ablsolutely right about the establishment becoming fearful of the people; and they will do eveything they can with the unconstitutional powers they have granted unto themselves to prevent citizens from “exercising” their Constitutional rights to question their government and its actions.
Greater numbers of people are beginning to wake up and realize that our government representatives and institutions (for decades) have not and are not working to accomodate the needs of the larger population.
By looking in the other direction while corporate malfeasance was growing at warp-speed, our representatives have created a country of indentured serfs who will be forever in debt to the legal loan-sharks on Wall Street, many of which should be in jail for selling fraudulent investment packages and creating the downfall of this economy and country.
They know the anger in this country is gradually building. Once we hit a deep recession or possibly depression, the proverbial s$it is going to hit the fan.
I am reading Molly Ivins’ new book “The Bill of Wrongs”. Would highly recommend this book - get it at your local library.
The sad thing is we have been exposed to so many MSM lies and coverups that it almost becomes routine, and it takes more and more to get ticked off.
It is not only events of today that has been distorted by ommission and distortion, if not downright lies, but pretty much the entire history of the last 150 years. Thats why we needed socialized education, to control what our youth are taught, and those who teach them, not to mention those who write the history books. Those who control the history of the past and the news of today, can control the future. And so it is.
For those who deny there is such a thing as conspiracy, ask yourself who has conditioned you to believe this. And if a lightbulb goes off when you answer this, you are doomed to search out the truth and find that what you have accepted as truth for so long is mainly a lie. If you are lucky, the light does not go on, and you can continue the rest of your life in ignorance. Ignorance is bliss after all.
abbywood on 1/21 @ 8:22 PM re; H R 1955, S 1959
What do you mean, dear? H R 1955 was passed on 10/23/07, sent to Senate, ergo S 1959, read twice, referred to Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on 10/24/07.
This bill H R 1955, S 1959 are the same bill, it is entitled “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act of 2007″, it is in Committee.
H R 1955 is the House, they passed it 402 - 6 20 NV, with suspension of rules and no voice count. 5 minutes. now it sits in Senate Committee, not Senate. Use thomas, not google, they are not referred to as HB, H R or H RES. and so on.
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.
Daniel Ellsberg is one of a very few living Americans who were as brave and risked as much as MLK. It is fitting that he is featured on Martin Luther King Day and that he highlights the efforts of yet another brave American.
‘In support of the official cover-up, various American journalists in the last weeks have reportedly received calls from “intelligence sources” hinting that “what Sibel Edmonds stumbled onto” is not a rogue operation by American officials and Congressmen working to their own advantage, but a sensitive covert operation authorized at high levels.’–D. Ellsberg
This is similar to what Mark Abram @ 5:15 pm was suggesting. Problem with this possible explanation, however: Sibel Edmonds would never have been fired if she had stumbled on a highly sensitive covert operation. Instead, she would have been handled like Robert Redford was in “3 Days of the Condor” (One of the all time great movies, by the way.)
Thanks, WmC for pointing out Ellsberg’s comment, which I had missed.
To me, this is the most likely explanation. We are all terrified of the possibility of nuclear weapons, materials and information being traded in a global black market. What can be done to prevent this? Security is important, but security always leaks.
So you need counterintelligence operations, “sting” operations in which you pose as a buyer or as a seller of nuke stuff, trying to find out who is selling and who is buying, which may lead you to covert nuclear weapons programs or criminal or terrorist rings.
I expect there is quite a bit of this going on. The only way to effectively shut down a shadowy black market is to flood it with government agents operating in various modes under various covers, posing as businesspeople, corrupt bureaucrats, criminals, terrorists, arms merchants, etc.
Nobody at the field level in the FBI or any other agency would know everything that was going on, and oftentimes the government agents would end up busting each other. That’s the only way it could work.
If there isn’t a lot of this going on, there damn well should be. I think Ellsberg’s comment
> we clearly have another prize candidate — giving us, as blowback, the Pakistani Bomb and nuclear sales — in the category of “worst covert operation in U.S. history,”
is incredibly stupid and plain wrong. Photocopies of random “secret” reports from Los Alamos are hardly what you need if you want to build nuclear weapons starting from uranium ore. No way does this have anything to do with creating the Pakistani bomb and AQ Khan’s nuclear sales. On the contrary, this is exactly how Khan was outed- the US got Muammar Qaddafi to sting him in exchange for the Colonel’s “rehabilitation.”
Galen,
Here you go again with the same old disinformation
The demolition Theory is nonsense and a smoke screen for the real cover-up for the funding of the hijackers coming from US allies and from these new revelations every day.
Yes the inside job story involves Saudi and Pakistan money to Atta who was right here in Florida and tried to buy a used car from a dear friend of mine in Venice.
Lucky for her she knew something was up.
Please quit pushing the old distractions from the facts,
I you want the facts about the towers and building seven, study the facts at http://www.debunking911.com/
and before you keep pushing the “Peak Oil” crap, Google “newly discovered Oil”.
criticalthinker,
If it is so easy, name the names, coward.
But, Mark Abram, if Edmonds had stumbled upon a counter-intelligence sting operation, she wouldn’t have been fired. She would have been brought into the loop, put in solitary confinement, or assassinated. No way would they fire her and simply hope she would maintain her silence.
It is hard to let go a belief, just as it is hard to prove one! May I suggest to those who want perspective that they look into the controversy around Churchill, ultra, and the German bombing of Coventry Nov. 14, 15, 1940.
Denny Boy
Denny Boy
Denny Boy
Turkish illegal Payoff’s to the Illinois House of Representative Denny Hastert.
that is what Sibel Edmonds uncovered.
Denny Boy
Denny Boy
Denny Boy
Denny Boy
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Denny Boy
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Denny Boy
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To O Roe:
I understand the House already passed 1955 by a whopping margin.
I also very clearly understand that the same bill is in the Senate Homeland Security Committee now being “changed” (or so I’ve been told by Lieberman’s staffer). They are getting quite a bit of public feedback on the legislation. Maybe I’m nuts, but I actually thought the committee had to vote on the legislation and pass it in order to move it out for a full vote in the Senate. Correct me if I’m wrong. Thanks.
There will be public hearings on Senate Bill 1959 probably within a few weeks. I am sarcastically referring to the legislation as “The Stifling of Dissent on the Internet Act of 2008″ in order to, hopefully, get people interested in trying to stop it, although I doubt that is possible now.
I believe our best hope is to lobby Obama since he sits on the committee. Since his primary occupation appears to be running for POTUS instead of acting as a Senator from Illinois, I doubt he’ll find the time to fight for the Constitution.
Oh, well.
re: seedeevee
I am not your “librarian” so I don’t have to tell you jack!
You must be one “scared” person afraid to look at the link I posted, where Sibel Edmonds posted the pictures of the people whose names she cannot say!
http://www.justacitizen.com/images/Gallery%20Draft2%20for%20Web.htm
If you do not follow politics and cannot recognize any of those faces, what good will the names do?
Maybe you should start watching Hardball, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and so on?
But if you REALLY want to know, all you have to post those pictures to any one of the many answer websites like about.com, slate.com/explainer, allexperts.com, and many others, but methinks that you do not REALLY want to know!
I think they fired her because she was troublesome. No, that doesn’t get you locked in solitary confinement (absent a charge) or assassinated, other than in the movies. In real life, you get fired. And then it turns out you’re REALLY troublesome. No doubt some people would like her dead. But that’s not how things work in real life, at least not in the US at the present time.
abbybwood January 22nd, 2008 6:05 pm
It seems that H.R.1955/S.1959 was referred to the “Committee on Homeland Security”. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, here’s what happened with this bill: “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007
Bill Number: House H.R. 1955/Senate S. 1959
Status: House: Introduced on April 19, 2007. Referred to the Homeland Security Committee. Passed out of committee October 16, 2007. Passed by a vote of 404-6 on October 23, 2007. Roll Call Number 993 - Senate: Introduced on August 2, 2007. Referred to Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Received House version October 16, 2007. According to CQ Politics, the bill “died a quiet death” in the Senate in early December 2007.
Sponsor: House: Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA-36th), Senate: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)
http://bordc.org/threats/legislation/index.php#intelligence
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bd5FgU:@@@X|/bss/d110query.html|
criticalthinker, my little librarian,
A little free reference assistance for you . . . .
http://www.answers.com/topic/coward
or
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/coward
Please pay particular attention to the “a timid or easily intimidated person” explanation.
Remember books? You could open one of those, too. A dictionary, I believe it used to be called.
“Maybe you should start watching Hardball, Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and so on?” - So now we see where your problems have been developing!
So much fun!
~MARK ABRAMS~ “That’s not how things work in real life, at least not in the US at the present time.”
Unfortunantly, JFK and a few other departed government employees didn’t know that. Sometimes ‘movies’, such as “The Pelican Brief” are all to real. And what has happened to several of the airmen who were involved in the missing B-52 nukes incident?