February 19, 2008

Sibelgate: US officials visiting Turkey NOW

Here we have a series of high-level visits betwen Turkish and US military forces before us this week. Very hard to detect just reading the mainstream news.

You and I (wink. wink) know what Sibel has warned us all about - look out! they're giving Turkey more nuclear technology!

And yesterday we are told that the mucketys are in Ankara in very quiet ways. Some interesting names crop up and this despite the fact that the Sibel Edmonds story has at long last arrived in the mainstream press, to wit, the Dallas Morning News.

People are left to speculate about the real reason for this highly unusual "social call' - and based on current MSM reading, the reader just might infer that it's about Kurdistan and Turkey's war on the Kurds OR (for the highly informed reader) it's about who poor little ole Turkey is being upset by Kurds' insurgency OR it could be the Major Players in the Imperium think its time to lay down some law about who can part take in the the new Iran oil bourse which will smash US dollar hegemony. Dick Cheney met with the FM of Saudia Arabia about it last week.

Me, I think that the Big Gunz in the Corporatocracy are out to insure that they keep up their uranium/nuclear connections. Hey! That's been known to happen.

Here's some past interesting history - the Mukasey appointment was approved just as the Turkish forces were discovered in Irak and George go on TV and made his (lieing) announcment:

World and National News: Mukasey Vote, Rice in Turkey, Writers on Strike, Hurricane Noel

Bloomberg-Clip • Nov. 02, 2007. 08:54 AM EST
Bush Defends Mukasey Over Waterboard Comment; Rice in Turket For Kurdish Talks; Hollywood Writers May Strike, Threatening TV Shows; Hurricane Noel Kills 108 People, Dominican Republic and Haiti Worst Hit

a series of high-level visits between Turkish


Maybe you remember that fumbling effort; I do.

With US "intelligence-sharing" with Turkey presumably over the PKK "terrorists", Turkey just sharing a border with Iran and Cheney's constantly meddling in Turkey and our knowledge shared freedly by Sibel, one can only deduce something is up.

Given Cheney's track record, we can only surmiss the very worst .. while to some this looks like good, sound democratic cooperation - but to those of us who've come to use the "f" word for the United States - FASCISM - no country cooperating with the United States can look like a democracy promoting state ..


Mukasey warns Turkey on recent expansion of Al Qaeda presence

By Zeynep Gurcanli

News about upcoming Cheney visit to Ankara was revealed during the latest high level visit by an American official, US Attorney General Michael Mukasey. Meeting with top level Turkish officials, Mukasey delivered a warning from Washington with regards to Al Qaeda presence in Turkey.

"We are watching Al Qaeda closely. And we have seen in the recent period that they have increased their activities in Turkey" he told Turkish Justice Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin and Interior Minister Besir Atalay, according to sources close to the matter.

In addition, the US head of the Justice Department warned Turkish officials that it "appeared as though Al Qaeda may have chosen Turkey as a base". Mukasey is the first American head of Justice to have made an official visit to Turkey.

Mukasey's meetings in Ankara also focused on the presence of PKK terror in Northern Iraq, and according to sources in Ankara, Turkish officials expressed gratitude for the recent changes in American attitude towards the struggle against PKK terror.

The same officials did however warn Mukasey that the PKK may be trying to sustain its movement in the US "under a different name". Within this framework, Turkish officials told Mukasey that the PKK was trying to organize and operate in the US as a "civil society organization," noting that groups such as the "American Kurdish Information network," the "Washington Kurdish Institute," and the "North American Kurdish National Congress" were all examples of such efforts.

High Level Visits to Turkey Go Unreported

By Courtney Doggart
MIA 2009

Turkeymap
All the news that's fit to print doesn't seem to include recent and planned visits to Turkey by top U.S. administration and military officials. That's a bit odd, don't you think? The laundry list of visits includes General James Cartwright, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the 2nd highest ranking military office in the U.S. Armed Forces); Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense; Vice President Dick Cheney; US Attorney General Michael Mukasey; and Frank Urbancic, responsible for managing and overseeing all aspects of counterterrorism for the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism.

Though the only visits that have taken place as of yet are those between General Cartwright and Turkish General Ergin Saygun, the fact that Cartwright has made two such visits to Ankara in the past four months and that Saygun has come to Washington once indicates that something must be going on. While one might attribute it to the U.S. intelligence sharing with Turkey so that the Turkish military can bomb PKK camps in Northern Iraq, one should wonder whether the posse's planned visits means something more--either for Iraq or Iran.

Cheney's planned visit in March would be his first since 2002, when he was exploring the possibility of using Turkey for a northern access route to Iraq. Though it may seem that Bush's presidency is already over, let us remember that Bush and Cheney still have more than 11 months left in their administration. While the presidency is still up for grabs, what is clear is that the Bush-Cheney administration will have drastically reduced influence beginning in 2009, meaning that their clock is ticking and if there's something to get done, it's going to be done now. Perhaps the New York Times and other U.S. papers should pay less attention to the possible president-to-be and more time on the president-that-is. Read more here and here. And just for kicks, read about Cheney's last visit to Turkey in 2002 here.


Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey

by Joshua Frank Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com



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According 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 http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12166">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.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org

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.


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