Friday, April 10, 2009

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.

9 comments:

Hizbullah hareketi said...

ATFC is completely against AKP/Gulen.
http://www.theatfc.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=57

But it's maybe different from:
http://www.americanturkishcouncil.org/

Anonymous said...

More on Turkey's involvement in drug trade:
"In a report published on 28 January 1997, the Turkish government’s chief inspector described how, in the juridical no-man’s land of Kurdish south-eastern Turkey, the army’s "special war" units were not just killing with impunity, but had also become involved in protection rackets, blackmail, rape and drug trafficking (1). The report also describes how the Turkish government handed over the security of a huge area - around the towns of Siverek and Hilvan - to the private army of tribal chief Sedat Bucak, a member of parliament close to the former prime minister, Tansu Çiller, who thus acquired the power of life and death over the area’s inhabitants."
Full text's at
http://mondediplo.com/1998/07/05turkey

Zerkes

Anonymous said...

"Turkey's Drug-Terrorism Connection" by Martin A. Lee

"In broad daylight on May 2, 1997, 50 armed men set upon a television station in Istanbul with gunfire. The attackers unleashed a fusillade of bullets and shouted slogans supporting Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Tansu Ciller."
...
"Across the Atlantic in Washington, the U.S. government has yet to acknowledge any responsibility for the Turkish Frankenstein that U.S. Cold War strategy helped to create.

When asked about the Susurluk affair, a State Department spokesperson said it was "an internal Turkish matter." He declined further comment."

You can read the full story at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/012408a.html

Zerkes

Anonymous said...

Special Report by John Stanton

"Nowhere is the pain of Turkey's role in the heroin trade felt more horribly than in the United Kingdom. According to London's Letter written by a Member of Parliament, "The war against drugs and drug trafficking in Britain is huge. Turkish heroin in particular is a top priority for the MI6 and the Foreign Ministry. During his visit to the British Embassy in Ankara, the head of the Foreign Office's Turkey Department was clear about this. He reassured an English journalist that the heroin trade was more important than billions of pounds worth off trade capacity and weapons selling. When the journalist in question told me about this, I was reminded of my teacher's words at university in Ankara ten years ago. He was also working for the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The topic of a lecture discussion was about Turkey's Economy and I still remember his words today, '50 billion dollars worth of foreign debt is nothing, it is two lorry loads of heroin . . . '" "

Full text at http://www.onlinejournal.org/Special_Reports/062904Stanton/062904stanton.html

Zerkes

Miguel said...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/hastert-contracted-to-lobby-for-turkey-2009-04-10.html

Mizgîn said...

HH, they are all nationalists when it comes to Kurds and to protecting their collective interests internationally, including in the US. All of these so-called "cultural" groups should be wiretapped.

Zerkes, thanks for the links. The Le Monde Diplomatique article is the one by Kendal Nezan, and I believe that's the one referenced in the radio interview. Martin Lee has also done a great job on Gladio, Gray Wolves, Susurluk, etc. He also has a book on fascism that's pretty good. I wish he'd do one on Gladio. Stanton is an old standby when it comes to the subjects that touch on the Sibel Edmonds case. You may also want to look at the first major article that came out on the case, Vanity Fair. All of Luke Ryland's stuff on Sibel's case is brilliant. Check Let Sibel Edmonds Speak, Kill The Messenger, and Wot Is It Good 4.

Miguel, long time, no see. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for the link and see the post for 11 April.

Anonymous said...

It would've been all too easy for PKK to join in the drug trade -- like so many insurgency groups out there -- to fund its activities. The PKK deserves credit for resisting involvement with the drug trade for more than 25 years...

~nistiman

Anonymous said...

Nistiman,
when I see the good will of PKK, I'm ever more disappointed of the rule of this world. The "Powerful ones" (USA, Europeans, Turkey,...)talk always about democracy but in reality they only think of their material interests and they only believe in force not in values.
A terrorist and drug-smuggler state like Turkey is always praised and supported in its ill-treatment of Kurdish people while the organization defending honorably the legitimate Kurdish peole rights, PKK, is labelled as terrorist in the same category than Al-Qaida (see Obama's speech)and drug-smuggler.
It's just disgusting.

Elîshêr

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