SIBEL EDMONDS AND THE VARIETIES OF TREASON

"Sometimes the things we have to do are objectionable in the eyes of others."
~ Richard Perle.

Luke Ryland adds to the discussion begun here in July, on the varieties of treason, looking at Richard Perle's involvement in a consortium of Kazakhistani and South Kurdistani oil. One interesting item to note is that the Prince of Darkness denied involvement in Doug Feith's lobbying company, International Advisors, Inc.(IAI). At the time, Feith was a registered foreign agent representing Turkey in matters having to do with "U.S.-Turkey defense industrial cooperation."

The time frame for IAI's existence coincided with the period leading up to the "Clean Break" strategy:

In 1996, a group of American neoconservatives participated in a study group organized by the Israel-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. The group produced a paper entitled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," which advocated an ambitious set of policies aimed at ensuring Israel's security. Although originally directed at Israel's then-incoming Likud government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, the ideas discussed in the paper parallel to a remarkable degree U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, which has resulted in disastrous consequences for American interests in and out of the region. It's time for the Bush administration to make a clean break with this flawed strategy and to implement a new policy that promotes peace and security in the Middle East.

Members of the "Clean Break" study group included Douglas Feith, Richard Perle, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, and several other like-minded ideologues, many of whom would later be given posts in the administration of President George W. Bush. Among the paper's more salient points was the argument that "Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq-an important objective in its own right-as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions." The authors also encouraged Israel to seize the initiative on its northern borders, "engaging Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon." If striking military targets in Lebanon proved insufficient, Israel should feel free to strike at "select targets in Syria proper." To justify the new policy, Israel was counseled to remind the world that "Syria repeatedly breaks its word" (emphasis in the original). Finally, the paper considered it "both natural and moral" for Israel to abandon the idea of a "comprehensive peace," move to contain Syria, draw attention to Syria's weapons programs, and reject "land for peace" deals on the Golan Heights.

Feith went on to become the number three civilian in the Department of Defense under Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. Perle served as an assistant secretary of defense from 1981 to 1987, during which time he made himself conspicuous by his willingness to accept bribes and involve himself in conflicts of interest. From 2001 to 2003, Perle served as the chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee. The Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee is supposed to:

. . . serve the public interest by providing the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy with independent, informed advice and opinion concerning major matters of defense policy. It will focus upon long-term, enduring issues central to strategic planning for the Department of Defense and will be responsible for research and analysis of topics, long or short range, addressed to it by the Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary and Under Secretary for Policy.

Conflict of interest appears to be Perle's middle name. No wonder that Perle distances himself from his business deals which, coincidentally--or not--benefit from the foreign policies that he's involved with pushing on the rest of the world. That is known as a conflict of interest.

Perle is consistent because, as with IAI, so now with Perle's business dealings in the Kazakhstani/South Kurdistani oil consortium. Perle denies any involvement with a business deal that sets him up to benefit from the very foreign policies he has been instrumental in implementing.

Now, I'll let Luke Ryland tell the rest of the story:

************

In 1989, the Wall Street Journal reported that Richard Perle and Douglas Feith had set up a lobbying company called International Advisors Inc [IAI] to lobby for "appropriation of U.S. military and economic assistance’ to Turkey."" When news of the $600,000 per annum contract got too hot to handle, Perle and Feith folded IAI and helped establish the American Turkish Council (ATC) to accomplish the same goals, but with a more respectable veneer.

Now, nineteen years later, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Richard Perle is "exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan" with a "consortium founded by Turkish company AK Group International... Potential backers include two Turkish companies as well as Kazakhstan."

Richard Perle issued a strange-sounding denial to the Wall Street Journal that he is involved with these latest oil projects, although he also issued a similarly "bizarre" denial to the 1989 WSJ article which reported on his consulting company IAI.

The WSJ continues:


"AK's chief executive is Aydan Kodaloglu, who, like Mr. Perle, has been involved with the American Turkish Council, an advocacy group in Washington."


In fact, according to her bio on the AK Group website, Kodaloglu "serves as a Board Member of the American Turkish Council." The ATC, established by Perle et al as a "sister organization" to AIPAC, was often caught on wiretaps heard by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. She described the ATC as a "front for criminal activity."

The ATC has been under surveillance by both the FBI and the CIA since at least 1996, in part because of suspected involvement in drug trafficking, public corruption and involvement in a nuclear black market procurement ring, but more importantly because of involvement in the 'great game' of the vast energy fields in Central Asia including Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Investigative journalist John Stanton has written extensively about the connections between Central Asia and many of the 'associations' in the US, including the ATC, and others such as the American Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (AACC) and the US Kazakhstan Business Association (UKBA). Stanton argues that:


"While the ATC is an Association in name and in charter, the reality is that it and other affiliated Associations are the US government." (emphasis in original)


Perle's partner in this enterprise, the AK Group is an "international consulting" group whose two other directors are Murat Akay who works "Turkish companies interested in establishing joint ventures with U.S. and Israeli enterprises" and Fehmi Sait Hurol who is "involved in various cultural activities and exchange programs between Turkey and the U.S."

Interestingly, Sibel Edmonds has previously referred to "organization(s) supposed to be promoting the cultural affairs of a certain country within another country" as front groups for organized crime networks. Given the connections here, it would not be surprising if Mr Hurol and the AK Group are one such front group.

In my recent article "The Central Asia Islamization Cocktail: Mosques, Madrassas, Heroin & Terrorism" I quoted former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds describing the use of Turkish operatives and front groups to gain "control of Central Asia, particularly the oil and gas wealth, as well as the strategic value of the region." Sibel said:


"This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.

"This is why I have been saying repeatedly that these illegal covert operations by the Turks and certain US persons dates back to 1996, and involves terrorist activities, narcotics, weapons smuggling and money laundering, converging around the same operations and involving the same actors.

"And I want to emphasize that this is "illegal" because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.

"And one last thing, take a look at the people in the State Secrets Privilege Gallery on my website and you will see how these individuals can be traced to the following; Turkey, Central Asia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - and the activities involving these countries."


Richard Perle is listed in Sibel's State Secrets Privilege Gallery, and now we see him attempting to profit from his ATC connections by entering into an oil deal in Kazakhstan and Iraq, two decades after the WSJ first reported on the early phases of this criminal enterprise.

Meanwhile, the US media is mostly silent on the key issues again. Despite even the most mainstream WSJ reporting on Perle's recent dealings, including the importance of Turkey and the American Turkish Council, the rest of the media is asleep at the wheel, completely ignoring, or whitewashing, these important elements of the story.

Perhaps investigative reporter Joe Lauria said it best last week.


"Centrism is the philosophy of the American media - and that essentially backs the status quo, when you're a centrist, and this game of objectivity that they play is really limited by parameters that you're allowed to ask questions and to investigate and in a sense then you're transmitting these assumptions, and reinforcing every day that the US is really a functioning democracy, not even a representative democracy. And as we know of course there are oligarchic interests that buy off Congress, that puts the person in the Whitehouse that they need..."

************

The original can be read at Luke's place, Let Sibel Edmonds Speak, and at DailyKos