TWO UPDATES

Here's an update on a couple of items . . .

First, Ken Silverstein, along with Sebastian Sosman, has an article on the conflict of interest associated with Lockheed Martin's "PKK coordinator" to handle the PKK for Turkey. That would be none other than Joseph Ralston, naturally. You can read the article at Harper's. Here's a teaser:

Did Special Envoy Joe Ralston broker a special deal between Turkey and Lockheed Martin?

Three months ago, the Bush Administration appointed retired Air Force General Joseph Ralston to be U.S. “Special Envoy for Countering the PKK,” or Kurdistan Workers Party. Ralston's job, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, was to work with the governments in Ankara and Baghdad “to eliminate the terrorist threat of the PKK and other terrorist groups operating in northern Iraq and across the Turkey-Iraq border.” But it appears that Ralston is representing the interests of the shareholders of Lockheed Martin rather than the interests of the American people.

[ . . . ]

Did Special Envoy Ralston lobby on behalf of Lockheed Martin during his encounters with Turkish officials? It seems likely. Ralston sits on the Board of Directors of Lockheed Martin and serves as vice chairman of The Cohen Group, a lobbying firm that has represented Lockheed since 2004. On August 11 of this year, seventeen days before he was named Special Envoy, Ralston was appointed to The Cohen Group team that lobbies for Lockheed.

[ . . . ]

It’s hard to understand how the Bush Administration could appoint a special envoy with so many conflicts of interest, but Lockheed’s corporate slogan says it all: “We never forget who we’re working for.” Neither, it seems, does General Ralston.

Yeah, it's hard to understand, isn't it?


Secondly, Sibel Edmonds has published her second article in a series on the Deep State in America and, WOW! Talk about a journalistic version of a JDAM! She discusses Turkey's tight connections with, and control of, a big chunk of the world's heroin market; Turkey's shady dealings with the transfer of nuclear technology and materials to Pakistan and others; and the role of that powerful Deep State front in the US, the American Turkish Council.

She focuses in particular on the American members of the Deep State, with a big section devoted to everyone's favorite--The Cohen Group. Here's a teaser from Sibel:

The Cohen Group is an excellent case, illustrating the futility of FARA [Note: Foreign Agents Registration Act], since the firm does not have to be registered. They can claim that Turkey is not their ‘direct’ client; they can argue that they are not getting paid ‘directly’ by the government of Turkey or any other foreign entity or government. They certainly can; no matter that Grossman receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from a dubious Turkish company [Note: Ihlas Holding--an Islamist company]. Does Cohen discount Grossman’s Vice Chairmanship salary accordingly? No matter that half a million dollars per year from their client Lockheed Martin is mainly for services provided to Turkey, and having the group’s second chairman serve on Lockheed’s board is another way to get around all restrictions. The incestuous relationship twists and turns: The Cohen Group on the board of ATC, The Cohen Group a paying member client of ATC, The Cohen Group as Lockheed’s lobbyist, Cohen’s men on the board of Lockheed, Lockheed on the board of ATC, Lockheed also a paying client of ATC…How is your head; spinning yet?

Read it! If you're not angry yet, believe me, you will be.