THE DEEP STATE AND CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN

"It is puzzling to observe that in reporting this major artery (Turkey) of terrorists’ funding, the U.S. mainstream media and political machine do not dare to go beyond the poppy fields of Afghanistan and the fairly insignificant low level Afghan warlords overseeing the crops."
~ Sibel Edmonds.

Sibel Edmonds has a new interview at Electric Politics (Run time 1 hour, 16 mins.) in which she talks about Turkey's involvement in the drug industry. The interview ranges into other issues, too, including the Deep State in the US. A few notes that I picked up while listening:


1. At the end of the 1990s, 40% of Turkey's GDP was based on heroin.

2. First Merchant Bank has been involved in laundering heroin money for Turkey, among others. Süleyman Demirel's brother, Murat, was involved among the higher-ups at First Merchant. Everyone should remember that Süleyman Demirel was Turkey's president during the Susurluk days.

3. AIPAC set up the ATC and convicted spy for Israel Larry Franklin was very much involved in the ATC's early meetings.

4. The Turkish Deep State lobby in the US uses smaller organizations, like ATAA and TACA to spread its interests.

5. The president of one of those "cultural" associations donated $100,000 to Secretary of State Clinton's failed presidential campaign.

6. The FBI has tried to take action against the American criminals/spies/foreign agents involved in the Deep State but have been prevented from doing so by both the Pentagon and the State Department. Remember the neocons and other Israeli agents, like Grossman, Feith, Perle, Larry Franklin, etc., who used to be directing policy at both of those agencies.

7. Prior to the November 2006 midterm elections, Congressman Waxman and his office wanted a public investigation into Sibel's case and those of other whistleblowers but claimed the big, bad Republicans were tying their hands on the matter. After the Democrats took a congressional majority in November 2006, Waxman and his office blew off Sibel.

8. It's quite possible that Nancy Pelosi and the Israeli lobby (AIPAC) "persuaded" Waxman to not insist on a public hearing for Sibel.

9. The Democrats dumped Sibel after she spoke to them in a SCIF because, through her information, at least three Democratic politicians could be further investigated, leading to prosecutions, for Deep State criminal activity.

10. Certain members of the current US administration could be further investigated, leading to prosecutions, for Deep State criminal activity.

11. Sibel was asked if there would ever be a time when her story could be told fully. She answers that maybe when everyone involved in her story is dead, it might be possible to tell it. Mizgîn adds that she hopes this happens very soon.


In connection with Sibel's case, let me point out that the current administration, the Obama administration, is not only supporting the Bush administration's hyper-application of the bullshit state secrets privilege, but it's surpassing the Bush administration's hyper-application of the privilege that is used to protect those involved in Deep State criminal activity, espionage, and treason. Not only that, the Obama administration is going above and beyond the call of duty by introducing a new blanket of protection called "sovereign immunity". More from Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

But late Friday afternoon, the Obama DOJ filed the government's first response to EFF's lawsuit (.pdf), the first of its kind to seek damages against government officials under FISA, the Wiretap Act and other statutes, arising out of Bush's NSA program. But the Obama DOJ demanded dismissal of the entire lawsuit based on (1) its Bush-mimicking claim that the "state secrets" privilege bars any lawsuits against the Bush administration for illegal spying, and (2) a brand new "sovereign immunity" claim of breathtaking scope -- never before advanced even by the Bush administration -- that the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications.

In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned.

For more on the continuation of Deep State fascism, see the more recent posts by Greenwald, here and here.

Change you can believe in!

Not mentioned in the interview, but relevant, is the fact that in order to win Turkish support for Danish PM Rasmussen's appointment as Secretary General of NATO, NATO will appoint a special envoy for Afghanistan from the ranks of Turkish diplomats. This was one of the conditions Katil Erdoğan insisted on. How very, very convenient for the Turkish heroin industry. I'm sure this will help boost Turkey's economy, and continue to bail out the banker vermin, during the global economic crisis.

Let me also point out that neither Sibel nor her interviewer at Electric Politics, who had purposely searched for information on Turkey's heroin industry, mention the PKK once. And that's because there is nothing to mention, contrary to a long-standing and massive propaganda effort on the part of the Ankara regime.