Date: August 30, 2005 8:15:44 AM PDT
Subject: 9-11, Drug Trafficking and Arms Smuggling: Treason in High Places
Interview of Sibel Edmonds
"The Department of State is easily the most corrupted of the major government agencies."
"That's the beauty of it.
You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people. "
"But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved,
a lot of high 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. "
Full interview here:
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=6934
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April 25
Campaign coffers profit from 9-11, coke and courts
FBI linguist won?t deny intelligence intercepts tied 9-11,
drug money to [Republican] election campaigns
by Tom Flocco
Washington -- April 25, 2005 -- TomFlocco.com -- Former FBI contract translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and her attorneys were ordered removed from the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse so that a three-judge U.S. Court of Appeals panel could discuss her case in private with Bush administration lawyers.
In an exclusive interview on Saturday, we asked Edmonds if she would deny that laundered drug money linked to the 9-11 attacks found its way into recent House, Senate and Presidential campaign war-chests, according to what she heard in intelligence intercepts she was asked to translate.
"I will not deny that statement; but I cannot comment further on it," she told TomFlocco.com, in a non-denial denial.
Edmonds is appealing the Bush administration?s arcane use of "state secrets privilege," invoked last year to throw out her U.S. District Court lawsuit alleging retaliation for telling FBI superiors about shoddy wiretap translations and allegations that wiretap information was passed to the target of an FBI investigation. Given our multiple reports and numerous other interviews, Edmonds heard much more--but enough to warrant public suppression of criminal evidence by a wholly Republican appeals court panel?
Criminal evidence in Edmonds? explosive case is apparently getting too close to Washington officials, since the former contract linguist also told us she would not deny that "once this issue gets to be...investigated, you will be seeing certain [American] people that we know from this country standing trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally," revealing the content of the FBI intercepts she heard indicates that recognizable, very high-profile American citizens are linked to the 9-11 attacks.
Edmonds implied that lobbyists and even legislators were benefiting from laundered narcotics proceeds in an earlier interview with the Baltimore Sun, "...this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it?s getting into somebody?s political campaign, and somebody?s lobbying. And people don?t want to be traced back to this money."
So the Bush administration?s Department of Justice enlisted its taxpayer-funded lawyers to petition a Republican U.S. Appeals Court to suppress Sibel Edmonds? criminal evidence allegations--linked to a 3,000 death mass murder--in the name of "state secrets."
When we asked how many Americans were named in the intercepts, Edmonds said "There is direct evidence involving no more than ten American names that I recognized," further revealing that "some are heads of government agencies or politicians--but I don?t want to go any further than that," as we listened in stunned silence.
When asked in 2002 by CBS 60 Minutes co-host Ed Bradley, "did she seem credible to you? Did her story seem credible?" Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) said "Absolutely, she?s credible. And the reason I feel she?s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."
Plaintiff and attorneys asked to leave courtroom
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said "the court orally instructed the clerk that the hearing would be open only to the attorneys involved in the case and Edmonds."
During Thursday?s arguments, the volatility of Edmonds? charges and the high officials it may criminally implicate prompted what looked to be a one-sided hearing, reminiscent of a medieval kangaroo court where rights and precepts of justice are ignored and the outcome is usually known beforehand.
All three judges who removed Edmonds and her attorneys are Republicans: Douglas Ginsburg and David Sentelle, having been appointed by Ronald Reagan, and Karen LeCraft Henderson who was tapped in 1990 by President George W. Bush?s father, former President George H. W. Bush.
"Judge Ginsberg said ?I am asking the plaintiff and her attorneys to stand outside;? then they had government officers standing at the door to prevent anyone from listening. And after about 25 minutes, they came out and said ?we have finished questioning the government attorneys and we don?t need you anymore, so you are free to leave,? " said the crestfallen former translator.
"I cannot be present at my own hearing; and not a single paper was there Thursday to cover the story--even though all of my allegations were supported by the FBI Inspector General?s report and my case involves 9-11 and national security," said Edmonds.
Assistant Director Dale Watson: FBI's Mr. Fix-it?
Edmonds told another paper "I took [the allegations] to higher levels all the way up to [assistant FBI director] Dale Watson and Director [Robert] Mueller. And, again, I was asked not to take this any further and just let it be. And if I didn?t do that they would retaliate against me," according to the Baltimore Sun.
Despite the court?s unprecedented actions, the Inspector General said Edmonds? allegations to her superiors about a co-worker "raised serious concerns that, if true, could potentially have extremely damaging consequences for the FBI," having also concluded that the Bureau did not adequately investigate the allegations and that Edmonds was retaliated against for speaking out to protect the United States.
The former FBI translator had already linked laundered illegal narcotics money and terrorism to recent U.S. political campaigns in an earlier statement made to the Baltimore paper, "...you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one....they are citing ?foreign relations? which is not the case....we are not talking about only government levels. And I keep underlining semi-legit organizations and following the money."
When we pressed Edmonds as to whether she would deny that FBI Assistant Director Dale Watson had prior knowledge of the 911 attacks, she quickly said, "no comment," carefully adhering to her judicial gag order--and not revealing all she knows.
Watson came under scrutiny when we attended one of the 911 Commission Hearings when Richard Clarke, former Bush Administration National Coordinator for Counterterrorism for the National Security Council (NSC), was asked "Who gave the final approval for the bin Laden family to leave the country without being interviewed?"
Clarke answered that it could have been the "Inter-Agency Crisis Management Group, but most likely it was the White House Chief of Staff's office or the State Department." [according to this writer's notes / Commission transcripts for March 23 - 24, 2004 are available at
http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/index.htm]
When Commissioner Tim Roemer asked "why the Saudis were allowed to leave the country, who was on the planes, how many, and why the decision was made," Clarke said the government "feared for their lives...some of them were bin Laden family members, and the Saudi embassy requested their evacuation."
During testimony Clarke told Roemer "I refused to approve the [Saudi] request. I passed it on to [FBI Asst. Director] Dale Watson and the flight was approved....I don't think they were ever interviewed in this country." Only subpoenaed transcripts and/or video would negate Clarke's assertion.
Dale Watson, who Clarke intimated as the sponsor of the FBI-approved flights and the decision not to interview bin Laden family members and other Saudi royals or citizens, was the former FBI Executive Asst. Director for Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Intelligence.
Interestingly, Watson led controversial investigations of the first World Trade Center attack, Oklahoma City bombing, East Africa Embassy bombings, Khobar Towers bombings, USS Cole bombing, the September 11 attacks and the anthrax attacks, before retiring in 2002 to assume a position with Booz Allen Hamilton.
Democrats in Congress have been strangely silent regarding the actions of the Republican court toward Sibel Edmonds; and she won?t reveal which politicians and high government agency officials were named in the intercepts -- potentially linked to laundered 9-11 drug money which was likely used in U.S. political campaigns.
Uncomplicated drug money laundering
"It?s so simple," Edmonds told TomFlocco.com. "Nobody is looking at the Department of Defense aspect of the whole 9-11 cover-up. The FBI is citing two reasons for my gag order: to protect ?sensitive? diplomatic relations and to protect foreign U.S. business relationships."
TomFlocco.com broke the story of Sibel Edmonds' first public press conference on March 24, 2004, when over 50 reporters and 12 news cameras did not publish the story for days. This, despite Edmonds' allegations that she was offered a substantial raise and a full-time job to encourage her not to go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice to adjust translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA. Kristen Breitweiser, 911 family member and spokeswoman, arranged to have Ms. Edmonds address the media in a public press conference for the first time, right after Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet testified before the 911 Commission.
In attempting to let the American people how close the 911 cover-up comes to home, Edmonds told us, "I will say this: the FBI is only a mouthpiece for the State Department. The State Department is the main reason for the cover-up. It has to do with foreign business relationships and who they are...Pakistan, Turkey ... espionage in the State Department [is] preventing an investigation."
The former FBI translator has implicated everything "from drugs to money laundering to arms sales. And yes, there are certain convergences with all these activities and international terrorism," adding "they don?t deal with 1 or 5 million dollars, but with hundreds of millions."
In an interview with the website Antiwar, Edmonds cryptically pronounced "...as for the politicians, what I can say is that when you start talking about huge amounts of money, certain elected officials become automatically involved. And there are different kinds of campaign contributions -- legal and illegal, declared and undeclared."
Espionage and treason?
Edmonds has reported information about an FBI translator named Jan Dickerson whose husband, U.S. Air Force Major David Dickerson, belonged to a Turkish organization which was an investigative target of the FBI?s own counter-intelligence unit.
Edmonds said Major Dickerson told her husband that "all you have to do is tell them where your wife works and what she does, and they will let you in like that...They wanted to sell me for the information I could provide, basically."
Jan Dickerson insisted to Edmonds that she be the only one to translate the FBI?s wiretaps of a Turkish official, according to CBS 60 Minutes, which added that Edmonds revealed that Jan Dickerson told her, "Why would you want to place your life and your family?s lives in danger by translating these tapes?"
CBS host Ed Bradley said Edmonds found that "Dickerson had left out information crucial to the FBI?s investigation; information that Edmonds says would have revealed that the Turkish intelligence officer had spies working for him inside both the U.S. State Department and the Department of Defense at the Pentagon."
After reporting evidence of espionage in December, 2001 - -right after the 9-11 attacks, Edmonds told an FBI special agent who had also harbored suspicions about the Dickersons and they pursued the issue; but Bureau heads said they were never notified despite Edmonds? proof to the contrary.
She said the FBI permitted other targets of the investigation, key people...foreign nationals based in the U.S....to flee the country "right up through January and February, 2002 -- five months after the 9-11 attacks."
Edmonds has said in the past that "I reported some of the suspects? names higher up as I came across them in our investigation. And you know what? Within two weeks, they had all left the country. Just vanished."
Given the astonishing allegations, the strange actions of the appeals court and congressional silence on the current matter, questions can be raised as to who is on which team.
According to Edmonds, only two weeks after the Air Force convened a formal investigation, Jan and David Dickerson were permitted to leave the country on September 9, 2002 -- about a year after September 11.
Edmonds also said during the whole month the Dickersons were being subpoenaed, starting in June, 2002, Jan Dickerson continued to work in the FBI translations department -- with a top-secret security clearance; and even though the Bureau admitted to a congressional committee that Jan Dickerson worked for the suspect organization in the past and had maintained ongoing relationships with at least two individuals under investigation, according to her interview with Antiwar.
Protecting high government officials
Special agent John Roberts, a chief of the FBI?s Internal Affairs Department told CBS 60 Minutes that "I don?t know of another person in the FBI who has done the internal investigation that I have and has seen what I have and that knows what has occurred and what has been glossed over and what has, frankly, just disappeared, just vaporized, and no one disciplined for it."
When asked by Bradley whether he had found cases since 9-11 where people were involved in misconduct and were not, let alone reprimanded, but were even promoted, Roberts replied, "Oh, yes. Absolutely."
In October, 2002, former Attorney General John Ashcroft asked the court to dismiss Edmonds? case on grounds it would compromise national security; and the FBI declined to discuss the specifics of her case on grounds that it would harm national security.
Attorney General John Ashcroft testified that he flew on a private jet to Milwaukee on the morning of September 11. Earlier reports indicated that he changed from a commercial jet to a private one due to reported terrorism "threat assessments" which government officials refuse to make public simply by redacting the "sources and methods" used in obtaining the intelligence. Commission members failed to ask Ashcroft to explain the contents of the threat assessments and why they influenced his decision to use a private jet.
9-11 insider trading subject to "national security" restrictions?
We also wanted to know whether Edmonds thought the three Republican appeals court judges were taking drastic steps to clothe their private talks with Bush administration attorneys in secrecy for the purpose of conspiring to shield members of the President?s hierarchy from criminal prosecution and possible treason linked to the events of September 11.
So we ended the interview with a question dealing with the only area of 9-11 evidence not subject to the standard but evasive invocation of "national security," the secret "control list" of all stock trades --both puts and calls-- and the master list of those individuals and entities making insider stock market trades prior to the 9-11 attacks about which the same FBI said "we didn't find anything incriminating."
While only a subpoena, testimony and questioning by non-political, career prosecutors will properly answer the insider trading question, we asked Sibel Edmonds the big question anyway -- given the above FBI track record implicating espionage:
Do you deny that the FBI intercepts you translated indicated that financial arrangements were in place well before the 9-11 attacks to both fund and profit from the World Trade Center and Pentagon "terrorism" while also facilitating the laundering of drug money into recent congressional and presidential campaigns?
"I cannot comment on that, Tom. You know I?m under a gag order," she said.
That should tell the American people all they need to know.
More TomFlocco.com stories about Sibel Edmonds:
Edmonds sues Ashcroft again, asserts 911-related actions were illegal
Translator Alleges FBI / State Dept Espionage, Possible Treason
DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 intercepts
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As the result of a federal sting operation named Diamondback, between the fall of 1998 and June 2001, a group of Middle Eastern men including Dr. Magdy Elamir and his brother Mohamed Elamir were named as suspects seeking to arm Osama bin Laden by trying to buy millions of dollars of weapons including stinger missiles and components for nuclear bombs, nuclear bomb triggers and weapons grade plutonium.
Dateline NBC aired two documentaries on the Diamondback sting operation: ?On the trail of arms merchants? (August 2002) and ?Stinger missile sting operation? (March 2003).
One of the men in the arms deal sting, Raja Ghulam Abbas, a Pakistani ISI agent, was inexplicably allowed to return to Pakistan.
Two others named in the illegal arms deal were the US citizens Dr. Magdy Elamir and Dr. Elamir?s brother, Mohamed Elamir, an engineer and a US citizen. A federal agent
who was conducting the Diamondback sting was told at one point by federal authorities to not
pursue with Mohamed Elamir where the arms to be procured in the deal were going.
After Michael Chertoff took over the DOJ criminal division in June 2001, no DOJ charges were filed against Dr. Magdy Elamir or Mohamed Elamir for their role in trying to buy nuclear weapons for bin Laden in New Jersey. There also was no adequate effort made to apprehend the Pakistani ISI agent Raja Abbas. Because the Diamondback case was handled as a criminal case rather than a counter terrorism case, Chertoff was also in a position to control and limit prosecution and arrests in the Diamondback case so that Magdy Elamir and Mohamed Elamir would not be charged or go to trial.
Dr. Magdy Elamir has not been arrested by the FBI nor charged or prosecuted by the DOJ under Chertoff even though the intelligence documents provided by Congressmen Gilman show that Dr. Elamir funneled millions of dollars
from fraudulent HMO and MRI companies to fund terrorist activities for cleric Abdel Rahman in the
1993 bombing and also for bin Laden.
With no arrest, no charges filed against and no prosecution of Mohamed Elamir or of Dr. Magdy Elamir in the Diamondback case, Michael Chertoff was also able to avoid being publicly implicated in court as having known the details of Mohamed?s brother?s (Dr Magdy ElAmir) activities to skim HMO funds and transfer the funds to bin Laden AND to the Al Salaam mosque of Abdel Rahman used to carry out the 1993 WTC bombing during the FBI and Chertoff directed sting operation with provocateur Emad Salem, Ali Mohammed, Melvin Lattimore, the Siddiqys, and others.
It is ironic that Chertoff was a defense attorney for likely terrorist Dr. Elamir just as Lynne Stewart was a defense attorney for a terrorist advocate, Abdel Rahman, who was caught in a sting operation mounted by Chertoff and FBI provocateurs who were intentionally not stopped from carryi
ng out the WTC bombing. While Stewart has been indicted on disputed and thrown out charges using
highly questionable wiretaps known about and possibly authorized by Chertoff, Chertoff has yet to be asked to explain his improprieties, conflicts of interest and immorality for helping to promote the 1993 WTC bombing and for not having Chertoff?s client Dr. Elamir and his brother Mohammed Elamir adequately investigated and charged when Chertoff was head of the criminal division of DOJ.
Coptic Christian citizens of America should no longer trust the FBI and Michael Chertoff at Homeland Security for protection now that a Coptic Christian family in New Jersey connected to the Egyptian based Al Salaam mosque has been murdered in their own home by Muslim extremists. The Coptics from Egypt had been working to convert Muslims to Christianity at the Al Salaam mosque of Egyptian cleric Abdel Rahman, the same mosque that had been supported by the Egyptian bin Laden terror backer, Dr. Magd
y Elamir who was protected by Chertoff. Some of the Christian Coptics recruiting Muslims as
Christian converts at the Al Salaam mosque also likely had been informants to the FBI about terror activities at the mosque at the time Chertoff and the FBI were using Emad Salem and the mosque to carry out the 1993 WTC bombing.
A similar group of Coptic Christians from Egypt in OKC had been informants to the FBI concerning ME and Iraqi suspects. Some of these suspects turn out to actually have been FBI informants and provocateurs in the OKC bombing. But now that they have seen what has happened to their Coptic brothers in New Jersey, they now should know that they too could be murdered, especially since it is also now known that the FBI and Chertoff betrayed the Coptics? good efforts to help and try to provide information that could have been used to stop and prosecute many more of those involved the 1993 WTC and 1995 OKC bombings. But this information was not used because the F
BI and DOJ Attorneys like Chertoff did not want to publicly expose their knowledge of the use of
FBI provocateurs in both attacks.
9-11 Hijackers
9-11 hijacker Mohamed Atta was known to his friends and associates in Cairo and Hamburg by exactly the same name as Dr. Elamir?s brother, namely, Mohamed El Amir. Atta?s father, an attorney in Cairo, is also named Mohamed El Amir. Dateline NBC reported that Magdy?s brother, Mohamed El Amir was an engineer in Cairo, Egypt, the same place that Mohamed Atta also studied engineering.
Atta shares the same surname as Dr. Magdy Elamir and the exact same name as Magdy?s brother Mohamed Elamir.
The FBI stated in a September 27, 2001 press release that Mohamed Elamir was an alias of Atta?s.
The 9/11 Commission Report indicated that Mohamed Elamir Atta visited at least seven other 9-11 hijackers living in an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, the location of one of Dr. Magdy Elamir?s MRI centers publicly defended b
y Michael Chertoff:
?Within a few weeks, Hanjour, Hazmi, and several other operatives moved
to Paterson and rented a one-room apartment. When their landlord later paid a visit, he found six men living there-Nawaf al Hamzi, now joined by his younger brother Salem, Hanjour, Moqed, probably Ahmed al Ghamdi, and Abdul Aziz al Omari; Hazmi?s old friend Khalid al Mihdar would soon join them.?
9-11 Drugs, Arms Trafficking and Terror Funding
Attorney General Ashcroft put Chertoff in charge of the entire DOJ investigation of the 9-11 attacks. Chertoff may well have known of the connections of Mohamed Elamir Atta, Mohamed Elamir, and Dr. Magdy Elamir in New Jersey with each other and the 9-11 hijackers, possibly even before the 9-11 attacks.
The New Yorker described Chertoff?s role in the 9-11 investigation on November 5, 2001:
?Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, Chertoff?s office has become the funnel for what is probably the most important criminal
investigation in American history, as prosecutors and F.B.I. investigators pour in to seek the
boss?s approval. ?For day-to-day decisions, Chertoff has the last word??
Chertoff intentionally squelched and covered up Saudi financing and money laundering, drug and arms trafficking, and terror ties to 9-11 as identified by Ms. Indira Singh and by FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. As part of this ongoing cover-up, Chertoff would have known of and likely been involved in the decision by Attorney General Ashcroft to place a rare state secrets gag order on Sibel Edmonds.
Indira Singh was a business associate of a Saudi financed US company, the Ptech Corporation having terror ties to bin Laden and the 9-11 attacks. Indira Singh independently corroborated Sibel Edmonds? assertions of drug trafficking, money laundering and arms trafficking ties of US officials and business entities, Saudis and US Air Force officers to the 9-11 attacks. Singh identified that one of these entities
was the Ptech Corporation.
Indira Singh?s and Sibel Edmonds? evidence and allegations point
directly to DOJ criminal cover-up by Ashcroft and by Michael Chertoff when Chertoff was head of the DOJ criminal division. Although Ashcroft placed Edmonds under a DOJ gag order, Singh gave testimony to the 9/11 Citizens' Commission, Sept 9, 2004 in New York. Singh read an open letter from Edmonds, and added, "what I have uncovered in Ptech connects with some of the things that she has discovered. Sibel is not allowed to disclose content but she can ask me questions. I know some of the things that she mentioned there connect directly to what I discovered."
Despite Indira Singh?s and Sibel Edmond?s testimony, their testimony was intentionally left out of the commission?s final report as a result of the Bush administration.
Federal judge Reggie Walton is the judge used by Ashcroft and Bush to uphold the DOJ?s gag order on Edmonds and block Sibel Edmond?s testimony about corr
upt US officials involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, arms trafficking tied to the 911
attacks, Al Qaeda, and the Turkish American council. GW Bush and Ashcroft were also involved in having federal judge Reggie Walton block the lawsuit filed against Iraq by 20 OKC bombing victims. Evidence in the OKC bombing case exposed the FBI and DOJ?s foreknowledge and use of the same provocateurs and informants in the OKC bombing that had also worked with Chertoff during the 1993 WTC bombing Melvin Lattimore, Anas and Assad Siddiqy and Mohammed Chafti , the recruits of Emad Salem for Chertoff and the FBI.
Ptech was a Boston software firm financed by Saudi businessman Yassin Al-Qadi, a key financial backer of Osama bin Laden. Ptech's clients included many federal governmental agencies, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Naval Air Command, Congress, the Department of Energy, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, NATO, the Fede
ral Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even the White House.
Ptech was an
outside contractor with strong terrorist ties that was in a position to have infiltrated and sabotaged and taken advantage of information from government computer systems vital on 9-11. Ptech was in the FAA building for two years before 9/11. Ptech worked on interoperability of the FAA with NORAD and the Air Force during emergencies like 9-11. Ptech had the opportunity to know intimate procedures at FAA and NORAD, to add or change software, and to mine databases in a way that may have helped the 9-11 hijackers and planners. In October 2001 the chief financier of Ptech Corporation, Yassin Al-Qadi was formally designated as a terrorist financier under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Al-Qadi was also a key financial backer of Osama bin Laden. The Bush administration delayed investigating Ptech after October 2001. A government investigation did not start until August 2002 w
hen a Boston WBZ-TV investigation called attention to Ptech.
WBZ-TV started its
investigation based on reliable and accurate information given to WBZ-TV about Ptech?s terror connections by the Ptech business associate Indira Singh.
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