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TechnoratiAccording to FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, there is a vast black market for nukes, and certain U.S. officials have been supplying sensitive nuclear technology information to Turkish and Israeli interests through its conduits. It's a scathing allegation which was first published by the London Times two weeks ago, and Edmonds' charge seems to be on the verge of vindication.
In likely reaction to the London Times report, the Bush Administration quietly announced on January 22 that the president would like Congress to approve the sale of nuclear secrets to Turkey. As with most stories of this magnitude, the U.S. media has put on blinders, opting to not report either Edmonds' story or Bush's recent announcement.
The White House Press Release claims that President Clinton signed off on the Turkey deal way back in 2000:
"However, immediately after signature, U.S. agencies received information that called into question the conclusions that had been drawn in the required NPAS (Nuclear Proliferation Assessment Statement) and the original classified annex, specifically, information implicating Turkish private entities in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation. Consequently, the Agreement was not submitted to the Congress and the executive branch undertook a review of the NPAS evaluation ... My Administration has completed the NPAS review as well as an evaluation of actions taken by the Turkish government to address the proliferation activities of certain Turkish entities (once officials of the U.S. Government brought them to the Turkish government's attention)."
What "private entities" the press release refers to is not clear, but it could well include the American Turkish Council, the "entity" revealed in the Times article. The Bushites seem to be covering their own exposed backsides, for the timing of Bush's call to sell nuke secrets to Turkey is certainly suspicious, if not overtly conspicuous.
It appears the White House has been spooked by Edmonds and hopes to absolve the U.S. officials allegedly involved in the illegal sale of nuclear technology to private Turkish "entities". One of those officials is likely Marc Grossman, the former ambassador to Turkey during the Clinton Administration who also served in the State Department from 2001-2005. Grossman has been named by Edmonds who claims he was directly involved in the nuclear smuggling ring that she says has allowed the intelligence agencies of Pakistan, Israel and Turkey to operate in the U.S. with impunity. Totally complicit in the nuke trade, the U.S. government, according to Edmonds, has known of the vast criminal activities of these foreign nations' presence in the States, which has included all sorts of illegal activities like drug trafficking, espionage and money laundering.
Edmonds says "several arms of the government were shielding what was going on" which included an entire national security apparatus associated with the neoconservaties who have profited by representing Turkish interests in Washington. As Justin Raimondo recently reported in Antiwar.com:
"...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."
Is the Bush Administration seeking to exonerate these "officials" with its plea to allow Turkey to obtain U.S. nuclear secrets? Besides Grossman, who else was involved in Edmonds' grim tale of the nuke-for-profit underground? As the news that U.S. officials have allegedly been supplying Turkey with nuclear technology begins to creep in to the mainstream media, the Bush team appears to be moving to legalize the whole shady operation.
If Congress does not block or amend Bush's legislation to sell nukes to Turkey in less than 90 days, it will become law automatically, likely acting retroactively to clear the alleged crimes of Marc Grossman and his neocon, nuke-trading friends.
Joshua Frank is co-editor of Dissident Voice and author of Left Out! How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush (Common Courage Press, 2005), and along with Jeffrey St. Clair, the editor of the forthcoming Red State Rebels, to be published by AK Press in July 2008.
© 2008 Atlantic Free Press
16 Comments so far
Show AllEverytime a self righteos person from Europe or American tries to take Turkey to fault for supposedly persecuting it Kurdish community, I like to tell them that in Turkey Kurdish people were being elected as Prime Ministers and parliamentarians at a time when in parts of the American Deep South African Americans could get themselves lynched simply for trying to vote. A fifth of Turkey's parliamentarians are Kurds - compare that to France where they do not even have a SINGLE black or Arab person in the parliament, or to countries like the Czech Republic or Hungary where Roma people have been discriminated and excluded from public life for centuries. This is inspite of the fact that a tiny minority of Turkey's Kurds have involved themselves in two decades of ruthless terrorism. If France's Arabs or the Gypsies were to revolt en mass using terrorism in the same way as Turkey's infamous PKK, then I shudder to think what would happen to those severely discriminated communities.
Turkey has a right to use nuclear energy for the purpose of generating electricity. This is a right that it has as a sovereign country. There is no evidence at all that the Turks have a program to build nuclear weapons at all, which is more than what can be said about say, India, Pakistan, or Israel.
This is in response to the hateful defamatory comments by
wuptaki - Turkey is a functioning democracy with a popularly elected government. It has no desire to acquire nuclear weapons and has no ideological motive whatsoever to do so. Turkey does not abuse Kurds - millions of them are well integrated into Turkish society, with Istanbul being the biggest Kurdish city in the world, a fifth of Turkish parliamentarians being of Kurdish origin, and any number of Turkey's most powerful politicians, businesspeople and military generals being of Kurdish origin, as were at least two of their Presidents, and their first Prime Minister.
Honor killings have occurred in Turkey and the legal system makes such crimes totally illegal. Crimes happen everywhere but I challenge you to show me the hard evidence that the crime is more common in Turkey than anywhere else in the world.....Shame on people like you for using slander as a means of getting your message across...
Makes a lot of sense given today's land invasion of northern Iraq by the Turks......
The Clinton Administration can not be given a pass on this.
As usual, the Democrats and Republicans all "going along to get along".
A pox on both their houses.
Nader will be on "Meet the Press" Sunday morning.
You can bet your ass HE never would have gone along with all this criminality.
This makes perfectly insanesense, coming from the dip-shits of this Administration and its radical and reckless ideologues. NEVER LET FACTS ON THE GROUND GET IN THE WAY OF A LITTLE BUSINESS!
So the Bush wingnuts were providing nuclear weapons to India about the same time they were intent on arming Turkey. All of this after Pakstan, the Khan affair, and (of course, the unadmitted Israeli arsenal!
You've totta love the hypocrisy in BushWorld.
Yes, it's Armageddon or bankruptcy, take your choice!
The New American Century is only seven years old. My lower intestine is tied in an agonizing knot and my chest is tortured by dry heaves. Armageddon is coming to the world I live in.
Go look at the maps of oil pipelines in the area, and you'll see how many are going or planned to go through Turkey from the Caspian region. The Neo Cons want Turkey to have the threat of nukes for obvious reasons.
Why not give nukes to Turkey? After all didn't it turn out well in Pakistan?
Anyone who deals in nuclear weapons (illegal or not) should be tried for crimes against humanity as there really is no greater crime than nukes.
Another item to add to the case for Duyba, Cheney, & Co. as being the worst administration in US history. This treason takes first prize and because the actors involved are the Bush crime family's cronies, the idiot-in-chief is prepared to sign retroactive legislation to make it o.k. If this whole sick scenario was written into a soap opera, the story editor would reject out of hand to being too unbelievable.
American foreign and homeland policies aptly named by the Native American's 250 years ago called the words of the "white hairs" of Washington to be spoken with a "forked tongue"
Nothing has changed in 250 years of lies from Washington. Now it is OK for Turks to have nukes, and for us to sell them our nuke secrets. Today's so-called democratic Turkey will now become a nuclear power, a nation of devoted deniers of the their Genocide of 1.5 million Armenians,as well as the hostile abusers of its 20 million Kurdish minority, since 1928. Turkey as well a leader statistically in the Islamic world of nations in "honor killing" of their women.
Yet we as a nation are more then ready to nuke the Holocaust denier of Iran and nuke his nuclear infrastructure in a world spun on the "Axis of the Chosen"...Israel, USA, Turkey...we all will become victims eventually because of our cognitive dissonance in trying to decide a rationale for what peoples are truly worthy of inheriting the EARTH and whom are those that it is OK to rub are feet on!....bravo America
Selling the secrets. One thing is , they possibly are not that secret any more, since the whole world knows them by know, at least, anybody who has paid up in the dough chain. How much special hardware and manufacturing equipment is being made for same market? Its a high level black market scam all the way through, and no doubt involves criminal organizations along the chain. The attitudes of the US of I administration leave no doubt that the US is a top rated world power in terms of illegality, corruption, stupidity and near-sightedness.
Treason is far beyond mere illegality,
regardless of the greed and complicity of the powerful,
it directly threatens the security of this country - and has grievous reprehensions.
More of double-speak where security is NOT, good for Americans is NOT.
Be the light to shed upon these war-mongering and horrendous, Earth devastating, inhumane WMD criminals.
Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
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startreklivz has simply stated the simple truth of it. thank you, sir.
Congress can go ahead and make the sale illegal, and Bush might even sign the law.
And put a signing statement on it expressing his "interpretation" that as a unitary executive he can do whatever he wants, including sell the stuff anyway.
Until we get a Congress that takes it's Constitutional responsibilities seriously, we will continue in the neo-con monarchy we now endure.
As Pravda looks the other way, at least we have some titilation from McCain and possible lobbyist sweetie shennanigans. One new poll has Bush at 19%. Pravda thinks it's best to keep things simple: focus on sex and payoffs, but keep big issues under wraps unless unusual circumstances force the issue. I believe nearly everyone thinks it's time for a change and that means democrats. Isn't selling nuclear secrets really old news and just business and technical foreign policy stuff that we don't need to worry about anyway cause the big boys surely have their fingers in the dike?