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Today's
Stories
January 29,
2008
Franklin C.
Spinney
Bush's
New War Budget: the $70 Billion Hand-Off
R. F. Blader
A
World Without Abortion: USA v. Romania
Allan Nairn
Bush's
SOTU: Entitlement, Justice and the War of All Against All
Ahmad Faruqui
Musharraf's Post-Electoral Prospect
Patrick Cockburn
"The Americans Bring Us Only Destruction"
January 28,
2008
Patrick Cockburn
Return
to Fallujah
Paul Craig
Roberts
The End of American Liberty
Allan Nairn
The Breaking of the Gaza Wall
Eyad al-Sarraj
/ Sara Roy
Ending the Stranglehold on Gaza
Martha Rosenberg
Obit for the "Front Page" City
Corporate Crime
Reporter
How They Rip Us Off
David Michael Green
Kristolizing Iraq: What a Great Freakin' War
Jennifer Van
Bergen
What's Left?
Nancy Oden
Survival Tips for Hard Times
Divya Karnad
Saving India's Sea Turtles
James L. Secor
Pissed About Pistorious: Why the Olympics Needs a Gimp
Website of
the Day
Yellow Journalism?
January 26
/ 27, 2008
Uri Avnery
Worse
Than a Crime
JoAnn Wypijewski
How the Clintons Lost It, Whatever the Outcome in S. Carolina
Ralph Nader
Ambition, Power and the Clintons
Paul Craig
Roberts
How Bush Destroyed the Dollar
Paul Watson
I'm Proud to be a Pirate!
John Ross
Murder and Cover-Up in Mexico
Fred Gardner
Ross v. Raging Wire: Employer's Right to Fire Workers Held Sacred
by California Supreme Court
Allan Nairn
Little Hands with Fever: Some Consequences of Poverty Death
Joshua Frank
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey
Binoy Kampmark
Société Générale and the Economic
Meltdown
James T. Phillips
America's Sick Comedy: Bringing the War Home
Stan Cox
The Depressing Truth About Anti-Depressants
Eamonn McCann
Hillary's Lie: "I Brought Peace to Northern Ireland"
Ron Jacobs
The Horizons of History: What's at Stake in Bolivia
Seth Sandronsky
California's Health Care Crisis
Ben Terrall
The Future is Unwritten
Poets' Basement
Tripp, Gardner, Gibbons and Davies
Website of
the Weekend
City of Immigrants
January 25,
2008
Douglas Valentine
Operation
Two-Fold: How the CIA Infiltrated the DEA
Patrick Cockburn
US Troops Will Be In Iraq for 10 More Years: an Interview with
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari
JoAnn Wypijewski
Down to the Wire in South Carolina
Heather Gray
Are We Seeing a Racial Shift in the South? Conversations with
South Carolina Voters
Marjorie Cohn
Senate Democrats Poised to Fold to Cheney on FISA
Erica Rosenberg
Environmentalists Out on a Limb: the Perils of Collaboration
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush Goes Nuclear
Robert Weissman
Reclaiming Economic Freedom
Laura Carlsen
Wild Cards: Mining the Hispanic Vote in Nevada
Stephen Lendman
Israeli Repression in the Hebron
Website of the Day
The FIX is In
January 24,
2008
JoAnn Wypijewski
Obama
as Anthologist of Uplift
Paul Craig
Roberts
President Hillary
Alexander Cockburn
Hillary Wants to Talk About Dirty Legal Dealings? Remember Her
Nursing Home Scam?
Kathleen Christison
One and Two State Solutions and the Myth of International Consensus
Jeff Halper
Power to the (Palestinian) People!
Stanley Heller
The Siege of Gaza is Broken
George Wuerthner
The Moronic Sport: ORVs on the Public Lands
Patrick Cockburn
Desperate Iraqi Farmers Turn to Opium
Jeff Sher
Just How "Good" is Your Health Insurance?
Patrick Irelan
Musharraf, the Steadfast Ally?
Charles Modiano
Restoring the Anti-War King
Website of
the Day
An Illustrated History of Trepanation
January 23,
2008
David Rosen
The
Great Disappearing Act: the Presidential Candidates and the Politics
of Sex
David Isenberg
Is
It Really So Hard to Believe That Iran Stopped Its Nuclear Weapons
Program?
Farzana Versey
Hillary's
Harem
Paul Craig
Roberts
The Empire That Must Be Obeyed
Alan Farago
Where Did All the Good Times Go?
Allan Nairn
Indonesian Intelligence Service Threatens to Kill Human Rights
Activist
Kenneth Couesbouc
Another Turn of the Screw
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
How the West was Re-Sold
Michael Donnelly
Obama Strikes Back
Norman Solomon
The Power of Love
Website of the Day
Rafah Today
January 22,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Farewell
to Old Economic Nostrums
JoAnn Wypijewski
King Day in Columbia, South Carolina
Al Giordano
Divide and Conquer Politics: How the Clinton Campaign Armed a
Black-Latino Time Bomb in Nevada
Felice Pace
Power Politics in the Klamath: Water, Dams and Salmon
Paul Wolf
Bolívar's Sword
Robert Weissman
Deregulation and the Financial Crisis
Dave Lindorff
The Bush Dollar Trap
Marjorie Cohn
Cheney Impeachment Gains Traction
Richard Neville
Keeping Shakespeare in a Box
Don Fitz /
Zaki Baruti
St. Louis Mayor Booed Off MLK Platform
Ben Terrall
Cindy Sheehan and the Virtues of Divisiveness
Sam Husseini
Stoning Martin Luther King, Jr.
Website of
the Day
Defend the Mapuche!
January 21,
2008
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Playing
the Race Card
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Deferring Dreams, Delusions of Democracy
Pam Martens
How Wall Street Blew Itself Up
David Macaray
Labor's Grim Dilemma: Do We Need a Labor Party?
Uri Avnery
Look Who's Talking
Omar Barghouti
Europe's Collusion in Israel's Slow Genocide
Joe DeRaymond
Protest and Trial in D.C.
B.R. Gowani
Why Islam Should Tolerate Images
Shepherd Bliss
The False U.S. Economy
Jean-Guy Allard
Philip Agee Versus the CIA
Dan Bacher
Leaping Steelhead!
Website of
the Day
Destroyed
By a Rising Flood
January 19
/ 20, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
The
Campaign in Black and White
Saul Landau
Good Time Charlie's War
China Hand
Endgame for Pakistan?
Conn Hallinan
Desert Mirage: What Was the Bombing of Syria Really About?
Ron Jacobs
No Retreat
Dave Lindorff
A Tax Rebate Won't Fix This Mess
Andy Worthington
Canada's Humiliating Double Standard on Torture
Paul Armentano
What's the Going Price for a Joint? More Than You Might Think
Seth Sandronsky
High Crimes and Economics
Michael Donnelly
Dodging Ecocide
Patrick Irelan
The Ordeal of Dr. Safdar Sarki
Martha Rosenberg
The Drug Industry Takes Another Hit
Sherwood Ross
Making the World Safe for Despots: Bush's Global Arms Trade
David Michael
Green
So You Want to be My President, Eh?
James Rothenberg
Unimpeachable: Under House Protection
Daniel Gross
Starbucks Shortchanges Dr. King
Peter N. Carroll
In Memory of Milton Wolff
Susie Day
Croakin' on Hudson
Paul Krassner
Woody Allen Meets Tongue Fu
Poets' Basement
Wolff, Buknatski and Orloski
Website of the Day
Rocky Mountain
Blues
January 18,
2008
Allan Nairn
Killing
Civilians, Carefully
Ralph Nader
When
the Big Boys Get in Trouble, Who Pays the Ultimate Bill?
Joanne Mariner
Terrorism and Preventative Detention
Alan Farago
The Stimulus and the Meltdown
P. Sainath
Pity the Brahmins
R.F. Blader
Beyond Steinem's Feminism
Andy Worthington
A Letter from Guantánamo
John Jonik
Private Insurance is Bad for Your Health
Brian McKenna
Where Even Sharing is Prohibited: Notes from Inside a Michigan
Women's Prison
Daoud Kuttab
This Time Next Year?
Website of the Day
Those South Carolina Voting Machines
January 17,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Leader
and Vassal
Christopher
Brauchli
The FBI's Bills Come Due
Robert Fantina
Leadership, Bush and the New York Times
Patrick Irelan
Eternal War
Paul A. Moore
When the Rich Pay No Taxes
Stephen Lendman
Institutionalized Spying on Americans
Beena Sarwar
Bhutto and the "State Within a State"
Walter Brasch
Buzzwords in the Echo Chamber: Change and the Establishment
Brenda Norrell
Bush Legacy in Texas Sours
Adam Federman
End of the Left?
Website of the Day
Democrats for Romney
January 16,
2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Return
of the Native
Franklin Lamb
The Bombing at Qarantina
Julian Sanchez
David Weigel
Who Wrote Ron Paul's Newsletters?
Sharon Smith
Ron Paul and the Left: a Slippery Slope?
Allan Nairn
Economic Indicator: No Free Lunch, No Free Market
Ayesha Ijaz
Khan
How the American Media Enables Bush's Iran Fixation
Andy Worthington
A Strategic Call to Close Guantánamo
Richard Behan
Nancy Pelosi, You Must Impeach!
Website of the Day
Obama the New JFK? He's Not That Bad!
January 15,
2008
Andrea Peacock
Breach
of Trust in America's Most Toxic Town: How the EPA is Rubbing
Poison Into Libby's Wounds
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Seymour Hersh on Iraq, Bush Foreign Policy
and the Prospects of War with Iran
Joe Bageant
Getting Out the Bling Vote
Ralph Nader
The Candidate Taboos
John Ross
Zero Hour: NAFTA and Mexico's Agrarian Apocalypse
Elaine Cassel
Jose Padilla vs. John Yoo: Can a National Disgrace be Rectified?
Peter Morici
The Fed Needs More Than a New Communications Strategy
Beena Sarwar
Pakistan's Dirty Tricks Brigade
Robert Weissman
Big Business is Even More Unpopular Than You Thought
Binoy Kampmark
Going Tata in India
Dave Zirin
Dennis Brutus Smacks Down the Hall of Fame
Website of
the Day
David Lynch on the iPhone
January 14,
2008
Ishmael Reed
Ma
and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man
Roger Morris
Burials in the Sind
Uri Avnery
The
Hands of Esau
Mike Whitney
Bush's Voodoo Stimulus Package
Allan Nairn
General Suharto of Indonesia: One Small Man Leaves a Million
Corpses
William Blum
Oh, By the Way, the Iraqis Don't Really Want Us
Alan Farago
A Subprime Wake Up Call
David Macaray
Are Labor Unions Ready for Prime Time?
Eva Liddell
Getting Drunk with Obama
Zoe Blunt
Road Kill: New Highway Blocked by Protesting Raccoons
Website of the Day
Doug and Andrea Peacock on Grizzlies
January 12
/ 13, 2008
Andrew Cockburn
How
the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian
Deaths
Saul Landau
60
Years of Empire
Corey D. B. Walker
Barack Obama and the Crisis of the White Intellectual
Col. Dan Smith
Bush, Iran and the Magician of the Tarot
Eric Toussaint
The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global
Ron Jacobs
Television, Murder and Vietnam
Fred Gardner
The People vs. Christopher James Chakos
Stan Cox
Don't Take That Pill!
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Warfare State
Ramzy Baroud
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Joseph Grosso
The Anglosphere: a Special Relationship of Elites
David Díaz-Arias
Imagining An/Other Latin American Left
Stacey Warde
Before We Move On ...
Dan Bacher
Pumped to Extinction: the Decline of the Delta Smelt
Michael Dickinson
Georgie in Jesusland
Website of
Weekend
CounterPunchers Protest Outside NYT Offices
January 11,
2008
Dave Lindorff
Did
Hillary Really Win New Hampshire? More Questions About Diebold
Voting Machines
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Escape from War and Unemployment
Andy Worthington
Six Years of Guantánamo
Kenneth Couesbouc
Banking on Thin Ice
Jeff Ballinger
Inside the Vienna Consensus
Christopher
Brauchli
Lethal Injection, the Supremes and China
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Paying No Attention to the Presidential Campaigns
Andrew Silverstein
Bush's Weepy Visit to Jerasulem
Marwan Bishara
Bush in the Middle East
Robert Weissman
The First Amendment Gone Wild
Patrick Irelan
Damn the Small Boats!
Website of
the Day
Hillary and the Superdelegates: Or Why She Wins Even When She
Loses
January 10,
2008
Alexander Cockburn
Now
Nader Claims He Didn't Endorse Edwards
Bob Wing
Marqueece Harris-Dawson
Race Within the Race: Obama, the NH Vote and the Specter of Tom
Bradley
Michael Donnelly
White Women Gone Wild?
David Macaray
Three Big Reasons for the Decline of Labor Unions
China Hand
Bush's Delusional Policy Pushes Pakistan to Brink of Catastrophe
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan: Brotherly, Friendly Countries?
Rannie Amiri
Obama, Man of Kansas or Kenya?
Website of the Day
Iranian Video of the Hormuz Incident
January 9,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Empire Strikes Back
Dave Lindorff
The Bad News from New Hampshire: Death By Triangulation
John Chuckman
Pardon My Laughter: Watching the US Primaries from Canada
James Bovard
Stomping Freedom: Inside the Martial Law Act of 2006
Alan Farago
As Florida Sinks: the View from the Titanic
Russell Mokhiber
Why Picket the New York Times in DC on Friday?
William S. Lind
Kicking the Can Down the Road in Iraq
Peter Morici
Beyond the Sophistry: Why the Trade Deficit Matters
Josh Reubner
Sudan vs. Israel: Double Standard on Divestment
Mike Roselle
The Pursuit of Happiness
Website of the Day
Bottles of Tears on the Wall: Steve Perry on NH
January 8,
2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
No
Jobs for the New Economy (or the Old)
Russell Mokhiber
The Black Hillary: Obama is Just Another Political Sedative
Robert Fantina
The Gulf of Tonkin and the Strait of Hormuz
Dave Zirin
Butts on Parade
Shamako Nobel
I Am an Emcee: the Politics of Hip Hop
John Ross
Zapatista Women Encounter Themselves
Brenda Norrell
Apaches Defend Homeland from Homeland Security
Laura Carlsen
Why Bolivia Matters
Patrick Irelan
Remember the Maine!
Evelyn J. Pringle
The Holes in Bush's FDA
Jonathan M.
Feldman
After Iowa and New Hampshire: a Strategy for Rebuilding the Peace
Movement
Michael Dickinson
Playing Soldier
Website of
the Day
Sean Hannity on the Run!
January 7,
2008
Chris Floyd
There
Will Be Blood: But No Justice for Iraq Atrocities
John Blair
Remove That Man! Creeping Fascism in Indiana
Uri Avnery
The Case of the White Bird
Andy Worthington
Who Are the Gitmo Saudis?
Binoy Kampmark
Needling the Convict: Lethal Injection and the Supreme Court
David Macaray
Women on Strike
Ralph Nader
Obamarama: the Politics of the Smooth Mood
Michael Donnelly
It's the War Vote(s), Stupid!
Ron Jacobs
Ron Paul's Run: Is Being Against the War Enough?
Gideon Levy
The Hostile President
Dave Lindorff
A Real 9/11 Cover-Up? Sibel Edmonds, Turkey and the Bomb
Website of
the Day
Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea
January 5 /
6, 2008
Douglas Valentine
Good
Guys in Black Hoods
Kevin Young
The
US Occupation and Popular Opinion in Iraq
Richard Rhames
Saddam
Who?
Saul Landau
Bush Snatches Defeat from Victory
Marc Lynch
Why Bush's Iran Strategy is Failing
Robert Fantina
Iowa, Democrats and the Iraq War
Donna Volatile
Antiwar Soldier: an Interview with Jonathan Hutto, Sr.
Jelle Bruinsma
Norman Finkelstein in The Netherlands
Bob Sutcliffe
Remembering Andrew Glyn, Rebel Economist
Harvey Wasserman
Anti-Nuclear Renaissance
Missy Beattie
Why Obama Can't Save Us
David Swanson
Remembering the Separation of Powers
Jacob Hornberger
The Importance of the Padilla Case
Shepherd Bliss
Survival Tools from Kokopelli Farms
Ron Jacobs
Bleeding Kansas
Poets' Basement
Patti Smith, B.R. Gowani and Peter Buknatski
Website of the Weekend
Jimmy Dean Sausage Call Complaint
January 4,
2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Good Night in Iowa
Jonathan Cook
War Crimes Airbrushed from History
Paul Craig Roberts
Thinking for Yourself is Now a Crime
Stan Goff
Ron Paul's Monkeywrench
Dave Lindorff
Clinton's Iowa Flop Exposes DLC Myths as Frauds
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
To Pindi Station
Allan Nairn
U.S. Elections Over Before They Began
Joshua Frank
The Failures of Sectarianism
Peter Morici
Economy on the Skids
Mary McInnis
Iowa Cocky-Us: How to be a Caucus Tease
Website of the Day
The Return of Obama Girl
January 3,
2008
Fatima Bhutto
Farewell
to Wadi Bua
Pam Martens
The
Free Market Myth Dissolves into Chaos
Joanne Mariner
The Presidential Candidates and Torture
Zoltan Grossman
Remember the '80s: Social Movements Between Woodstock and the
Web
David Domke
The Echoing Press and Huckabee
Norman Solomon
Edwards Reconsidered
Nikolas Kozloff
Return of the Faux Liberal
Jacob G. Hornberger
The Padilla Case and the Future of Habeas Corpus
Martha Rosenberg
Quit Picking on Huckabee's Son, Michael Vick
Russell Means
This Property is Condemned: a Notice to Those Occupying Lakotah
Lands
Website of the Day
WolfQuest
|
January
29, 2008
A Sibel Edmonds
Timeline
"We
Can't Afford to Let Them Spill the Beans"
By GARY LEUPP
I am not one to easily embrace conspiracy
theories, and in particular have found the idea that 9-11 was
somehow an inside job too incredible for serious consideration.
On the other hand, there are some very fishy aspects to some
officials' behavior pertaining to the attacks. Justin Raimondo
has made a very good case for the fact that Mossad agents posing
as "Israeli art students" were tracking al-Qaeda operatives
in the U.S. before 9/11. Over 120 Israelis were detained after
9/11, some failing polygraph tests when asked about their involvement
in intelligence gathering. But they were not held or charged
with any illegal activity but rather deported. As former FBI
translator and whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds has revealed, there
was a curious failure of the government before 9/11 to act upon
intelligence pertaining to an al-Qaeda attack. Most importantly
Edmonds, defying the gag order that former Attorney General Ashcroft
imposed on her in 2002, is implicating Marc Grossman, formerly
the number three man in the State Department, in efforts to provide
U.S. nuclear secrets to Pakistan and Israel. She suggests this
was done through Turkish contacts and Pakistani contacts, including
the former head of Pakistan's ISI who funneled funds to Mohamed
Atta! Now there's a conspiracy for you.
Edmonds claims that during
her time at the FBI (September 20, 2001 to March 22, 2002) she
discovered that intelligence material had been deliberately allowed
to accumulate without translation; that inept translators were
retained and promoted; and that evidence for traffic in nuclear
materials was ignored. More shockingly, she charges that Grossman
arranged for Turkish and Israeli Ph.D. students to acquire security
clearances to Los Alamos and other nuclear facilities; and that
nuclear secrets they acquired were transmitted to Pakistan and
to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the "father of the Islamic bomb,"
who in turn was selling nuclear technology to Libya and other
nations. She links Grossman to the former Pakistani military
intelligence chief Mahmoud Ahmad, a patron of the Taliban who
reportedly arranged for a payment of $ 100,000 to 9/11 ringleader
Atta via Pakistani terrorist Saeed Sheikh before the attacks.
She suggests that he warned Pakistani and Turkish contacts against
dealings with the Brewster Jennings Corp., the CIA front company
that Valerie Plame was involved in as part of an effort to infiltrate
a nuclear smuggling ring. All very heady stuff, published this
month in the Times of London (and largely ignored by the
U.S. media).
She does not identify Grossman
by name in the Times article, but
she has in the past, and former CIA officer Philip
Giraldi does so in an extremely interesting article in the American
Conservative. From that and many other sources, I come
up with the timeline that appears below. But first, some background
on Grossman. A graduate of UC-Santa Barbara and the London School
of Economics, he was a career Foreign Service officer from 1976
when he began to serve at the U.S. embassy in Pakistan. He continued
in that post to 1983, when he became the Deputy Director of the
Private Office of Lord Carrington, the Secretary General of NATO.
From 1989 to 1992 he was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S.
Embassy in Turkey, and from 1994 to 1997, U.S. Ambassador to
Turkey. As ambassador he strongly supported massive arms deals
between the U.S. and Ankara.
Thereafter he was Assistant
Secretary of State for European Affairs, responsible for over
4,000 State Department employees posted in 50 sites abroad with
a program budget of $1.2 billion to 2000. In 1999 he played a
leading role in orchestrating NATO's 50th anniversary Summit
in Washington, and helped direct U.S. participation in NATO's
military campaign in Kosovo that same year. As Under Secretary
of State for Political Affairs from the beginning of George W.
Bush's administration to January 2005, he played a bit role in
the Plame Affair, informing "Scooter" Libby of Plame's
CIA affiliation.
Grossman is close to the American
Turkish Council (ATC) founded in 1994 as a sister organization
to the American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC). Its
founders include neoconservatives involved in the Israel-Turkey
relationship, including Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, as well
as Henry Kissinger, Brent Snowcroft and former congressman Stephen
Solarz. (Perle and Feith had earlier been registered lobbyists
for Turkey through Feith's company, International Advisors Inc.
Parle was at one point making $ 600,000 per year from such activity).
Edmonds says this is "an association in name and in charter
only, the reality is that it and other affiliated associations
are the U.S. government, lobbyists, foreign agents, and Military
Industrial Complex." (M. Christine Vick of Grossman's Cohen
Group serves on the Board
of Advisors.) Grossman is also close to the American Turkish
Association (ATA), and regularly speaks at its events.
The both ATA and ATC have been
targets of FBI investigations because of their suspected ties
with drug smuggling, but Edmonds claims she heard wiretaps connecting
ATC with other illegal activities, some related to 9/11. The
CIA has investigated it in connection with the smuggling of nuclear
secrets and material. Valerie Plame and the CIA front group Brewster
Jennings were monitoring it when Bush administration officials
leaked her identity in July 2003. Edmonds, Giraldi, and researchers
Christopher Deliso and Luke Ryland accuse him of suspiciously
enriching himself while in government service. Nevertheless he
was awarded the Foreign Service's highest rank when President
Bush appointed him to the rank of Career Ambassador in 2004,
and received Secretary of State's Distinguished Service Award
the following year.
A dual Israeli-American national,
Grossman has promoted the neocon agenda of forcing "regime
change" in the Middle East. "[T]he time has come now,"
he declared on the eve of the Iraq invasion, "to make a
stand against this kind of connection between weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. And we think Iraq is a place to make
that stand first the great threat today is the nexus between
weapons of mass destruction and terrorism." But he has not
been as conspicuous a war advocate Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Libby,
Bolton, and some others. (Perle and Feith, one should note, were
also deeply involved in lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey
as well as Israel in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Edelman
was ambassador to Turkey 2003-05 where, chagrined by the Turkish
failure to enthusiastically support the U.S. occupation of Iraq,
he deeply offended his hosts.) Grossman seems less an ideologue
driven to make the world safer for Israel than a corrupt, amoral,
self-aggrandizing opportunist. Anyway, here is an incomplete
chronology of his alleged wrongdoing, along with other relevant
details.
2001
As newly appointed Under Secretary
of State for Political Affairs, Grossman assists Turkish, Israeli
and other moles---mainly Ph.D. students---godfathering visa and
arranging for security clearances to work in sensitive research
facilities, including the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New
Mexico. FBI taps his phone 2001-2, finds he is receiving bribes
(one for $15,000). Edmonds states: "I heard at least three
transactions like this over a period of 212 years. There are
almost certainly more."
Between Aug. and Sept: Grossman
warns his Turkish associates seeking to acquire nuclear secrets
that Brewster Jennings (for whom CIA agent Valerie Plame works)
is a CIA front.
Sept. 4: Gen. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmoud_Ahmad>Mahmoud
Ahmad, the chief of Pakistan's intelligence service (ISI) arrives
in U.S., meets with Grossman and other U.S. officials.
Sept. 10: Report by Amir Mateen
in Pakistani newspaper Dawn (Karachi): "[Ahmad] also
held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House
and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Mark
Grossman, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs.
US sources would not furnish any details beyond saying that the
two discussed 'matters of mutual interests.'"
Sept. 11: Gen. Ahmad is having
breakfast in Washington with Congressman Porter Goss (R-Fla.)
and Senator Bob Graham (D) when attacks occur.
(Goss had had10 years in clandestine
operations in CIA and later-Sept. 22, 2003-May 5, 2006---heads
the organization. Graham and Goss later are the co-chairs of
the joint House-Senate investigation that proclaimed there was
"no smoking gun" as far as President George W. Bush
having any advance knowledge of September 11.)
Immediately after the 9/11
attacks, FBI arrests people suspected of being involved with
the attacks--including four Turkish and Pakistani associates
of key targets of FBI's counterintelligence operations. Sibel
heard the targets tell Grossman: "We need to get them out
of the U.S. because we can't afford for them to spill the beans."
Grossman facilitates their release from jail and suspects immediately
leave U.S. without further investigation or interrogation.
Sept. 12-13: Meetings between
Ahmad and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Armitage
threatens to bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age"
unless it cooperates in U.S. attack on Afghanistan. Ahmad also
meets Secretary of State Colin Powell. Agreement on Pakistan's
collaboration is secured.
Sept. 20: Sibel Edmonds, a
32-year-old Turkish-American, hired as a translator by the FBI.
According to Edmonds, she overheard
an agent on a 2000 wiretap discussing with Saudi businessmen
in Detroit "nuclear information that had been stolen from
an air force base in Alabama," and stating: "We have
a package and we're going to sell it for $250,000." She
also claims she listened to recordings of a high official (Grossman)
receiving bribes from Turkish officials.
Early October: Indian intelligence
reports that Gen. Ahmad had in summer of 2001 ordered Saeed Sheikh
(convicted of the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal
reporter Daniel Pearl) to wire US$100,000 from Dubai to one of
hijacker Mohamed Atta's two bank accounts in Florida. FBI confirms
story, reported on ABC news.
Oct. 7: U.S.-led Coalition
begins air strikes against Taliban.
Oct. 8: Gen. Ahmad, Taliban
supporter and an opponent of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan,
forced to retire from his post as director-general of ISI.
Late Oct.: Pakistani government
arrests three Pakistani nuclear scientists, all with close ties
to Khan, for their suspected connections with the Taliban.
2002
Early March: Edmonds sends
faxes to Sens. Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy on the Judiciary
Committee, is called in for polygraph test; Department of Justice
inspector general's report states "she was not deceptive
in her answers."
March: Grossman keynote speaker
at ATC conference.
March 22: Edmunds fired, allegedly
for shoddy work, security breaches.
Oct. 27: Edmonds appears on
CBS' "60 Minutes" program.
Dec: Grossman visits Turkey,
approves $3 billion U.S. aid to Turkey for the Iraq Cooperation
deal.
2003
March 3: In interview for Dutch
television, Grossman says, ""[T]he time has come now
to make a stand against this kind of connection between weapons
of mass destruction and terrorism. And we think Iraq is a place
to make that stand first the great threat today is the nexus
between weapons of mass destruction and terrorism."
May 29: Vice President Cheney's
chief of staff "Scooter" Libby asks Grossman for information
about news report about the secret envoy sent by the CIA to Africa
in 2002. Grossman requests a classified memo from Carl Ford,
the director of the State Department's intelligence bureau, and
later orally briefs Libby on its contents.
Mid-June: Powell and his deputy
secretary Richard Armitage may have received a copy of the Grossman
memo.
June 10: Grossman asks the
Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) for a briefing on the
Niger uranium issue, and specifically the State Department's
opposition to the continuing White House view that Iraq had tried
to buy yellow cake. The resulting memo is dated the same day,
and drawn from notes on the February 19 meeting at the CIA on
the Wilson mission and other sources. Memo is classified "Top
Secret," and contains in one paragraph, separately marked
'(S/NF)" for "Secret/No dissemination to foreign governments
or intelligence agencies, " two sentences describing in
passing Valerie "Wilson's" identity as a CIA operative
and her role in the inception of the Wilson trip to Niger. This
June 10 memo reportedly does not use her maiden name Plame.
June 17-July 9: Senate Judiciary
Committee holds unclassified hearings on Edmunds' allegations.
June 19: letter from Senior
Republican Senator, Charles Grassley, and Senior Democrat Senator,
Patrick Leahy to Inspector General Glenn A. Fine concerning
Edmonds' allegations.
July 14: Robert Novak reveals
Plame's CIA identity.
July 22: Edmonds files suit
against the Department of Justice, the FBI, and several high-level
officials, alleging that she was wrongfully terminated from the
FBI in retaliation for reporting criminal activities committed
by government employees.
Aug. 13: letter from two senators
to Attorney General Ashcroft concerning Sibel Edmonds' allegations.
Aug. 15: 600 victims of the
9/11 attacks file suit (Burnett v. Al Baraka Investment &
Dev. Corp.), request from Edmonds deposition providing evidence
for U.S. government foreknowledge of 9-11 attacks.
Sept. 22: Goss made CIA Director
(resigns May 5, 2006).
Oct. 18, 2002: Attorney General
John Ashcroft invokes the State Secrets Privilege (requested
not by Justice Department but by State department) in order to
prevent disclosure of the nature of Edmonds' work on the grounds
that it would endanger national security, and asked that her
wrongful termination suit be dismissed. In effect places Edmonds
under a gag order.
Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Ca.)
expresses outrage at gag order, promises that a Democratic majority
in Congress would conduct hearings. (This has not been done.)
Oct. 28: Letter from two senators
to FBI Director Robert Mueller concerning Sibel Edmonds' allegations.
Dec. 11, Attorney General Ashcroft
again invoking the State Secrets Privilege, files a motion calling
for Edmonds' deposition in Burnett v. Al Baraka case be
suppressed and for the entire case to be dismissed. The judge,
seeking more information, orders government to produce any unclassified
material relating to the case. In response, Ashcroft submits
further statements to justify the use of the State Secrets Privilege.
Dec: Gross back in Turkey to
approve Turkey's eligibility to participate in tenders for Iraq's
reconstruction.
2004
Grossman achieves Foreign Service's
highest rank when President Bush appoints him to rank of Career
Ambassador.
Patrick Leahy calls for investigation;
Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican Chairman of the Senate, blocks it.
May 13: Ashcroft retroactively
classifies all material that had been provided to Senate Judiciary
Committee in 2000 relating to Edmond's lawsuit, as well as the
senators' letters that had already been posted on line by the
Project on Government Oversight (POGO).
June 23: POGO files lawsuit
against Justice Department for classifying material it had published;
Justice Department fails to get the case dismissed.
July 6: Edmonds suit dismissed
on state secrets grounds.
July : Edmonds files appeal.
On same day, Inspector General releases unclassified summary
of a highly classified report on an investigation that had concluded
"that many of her allegations were supported, that the FBI
did not take them seriously enough, and that her allegations
were, in fact, the most significant factor in the FBI's decision
to terminate her services. Rather than investigate Edmonds' allegations
vigorously and thoroughly, the FBI concluded that she was a disruption
and terminated her contract."
August: Edmonds founds the
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) to address
U.S. security weaknesses.
December: Grossman the key
speaker at an ATC Conference held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
2005
Grossman receives Secretary
of State's Distinguished Service Award.
January: Grossman quits his
government job. Eric Edelman, another former ambassador to Turkey,
takes job of Under Secretary of Defence for Policy.
January: Pakistani nuclear
engineer A. Q. Khan confesses to having been involved in a clandestine
international network of nuclear weapons technology proliferation
from Pakistan to Libya, Iran and North Korea.
Feb. 5: Pakistani President
General Pervez Musharraf announces he has pardoned Khan. U.S.
response is mild.
March: Grossman made vice-chairman
of Cohen Group.
Feb. 18: Justice Department
under new attorney general backs away from claim that documents
posted by POGO were classified.
April 21: In the hours before
the hearing of her appeal, three judges issued a ruling that
barred all reporters and the public from the courtroom. During
the proceedings, Edmonds was not allowed into the courtroom for
the hearing.
May 6: Edmonds' case dismissed,
no reason provided, no opinion cited.
May 14: In open letter, Edmonds
states the governments wants to silence here to "protect
certain diplomatic relations" and to "protect certain
U.S. foreign business relations." Says the "foreign
relations" mentioned in the gag order "are not in the
interest of, or of benefit to, the majority of Americans, but
instead serve and protect a small minority."
June 20: Edmonds writes: "(In)
April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset who had been providing
the bureau with information since 1990, provided two FBI agents
and a translator with specific information regarding a terrorist
attack being planned by Osama Bin Laden. For almost four years
since September 11, officials refused to admit to having specific
information regarding the terrorists' plans to attack the United
States. The Phoenix Memo, received months prior to the 9/11 attacks,
specifically warned FBI HQ of pilot training and their possible
link to terrorist activities against the US. Four months prior
to the terrorist attacks the Iranian asset provided the FBI with
specific information regarding the 'use of airplanes', 'major
US cities as targets', and 'Osama Bin Laden issuing the order.'
Coleen Rowley likewise reported that specific information had
been provided to FBI HQ."
July 20: Unidentified as a
"retired state department official" Grossman tells
AP that a classified State Department memo disputed the legitimacy
of administration claims that Iraq sought to acquire uranium
from Niger, also contained a few lines about Plame Wilson's CIA
employment, marked as secret.
August 5: The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) petitioned for the Supreme Court of the
United States to review the lower courts' application of the
State Secret Privilege in both lawsuits. The ACLU claims that
the courts conflated the State Secrets Privilege and the Totten
rule.
Sept. 28: Washington Post
cites unnamed former administration source (Grossman) as stating
that the outing of Plame was "Clearly..meant purely and
simply for revenge.
Oct. 28: In Patrick Fitzgerald's
indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Grossman is
the Under Secretary of State mentioned as giving information
about Plame to Libby.
Nov.: Grossman attends lavish
Turkish Ottoman Dinner Gala, receives award from Turkish lobby
group, the Assembly of American Turkish Association (ATAA) in
Chicago.
Nov. 28: the Supreme Court
declined to review the decisions made in the Edmonds case.
2006
March: Grossman the key speaker
at the ATC annual conference.
June: Grossman key speaker
at MERIA Conference, discussing Turkey's importance to U.S. and
Israel.
Sept. 2006: a documentary about
Sibel Edmonds' case called Kill The Messenger ("Une
Femme à Abattre") premiers in France
2007
January 24: Grossman first
to testify in Libby trial. Says he informed Libby of Plame's
involvement "in about 30 seconds of conversation"
in June 2003.
Nov: Grossman subpoenaed by
defense in AIPAC trial.
Nov. 26: Grossman, now Vice
Chairman of the consulting firm the Cohen Group, attends a major
Security Conference in Riga, Latvia.
2008
January: Edmonds posts, without
comment, photos of current and former officials and Turkish associates
on website: Richard Perle, Eric Edelman, Marc Grossman, Brent
Snowcroft, Larry Franklin, Ex-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Roy
Blunt (R-Mo), Dan Burton (R-Ind.), Tom Lantos (D-Ca.), Bob Livingston
(ex-House Speaker, R-La.), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Graham Fulle
(RAND), David Makovsky (WINEP), Martin Markovsky (WINEP), Yusuf
Turani (president in exile of Turkmenistan), Prof. Sabri Sayari
(Columbia University, WINEP), Mehmet Eymur (former head of Turkish
counter-terrorism).
Jan. 6: Times of London carries
story, "For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets." States
that a high official "was aiding foreign operatives against
US interests by passing them highly classified information, not
only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in
exchange for money, position and political objectives."
Claims that the FBI was also gathering evidence against senior
Pentagon officials--including household names--who were aiding
foreign agents.
"If you made public all
the information that the FBI have on this case, you will see
very high-level people going through criminal trials."
Jan. 22: White House issues
statement declaring its intention to approve sale of nuclear
secrets to Turkey; Joshua Franks writes, "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'." Frank
identifies Grossman as one of these officials.
* *
* * *
Edmonds is tirelessly and fearlessly
campaigning for Congressman Waxman, now chair of the House Oversight
and Government Reform Committee, to hold hearings. She says that
FBI agents and even former Turkish intelligence officials are
willing and able to validate her charges. But the congressman
hesitates, perhaps fearing the storm of indignation that explosive
evidence will produce in a country sick of its politicians, the
lying neocons, and the war. Should they discover that, while
disseminating disinformation about foreign nukes in order to
fearmonger and build support for aggressive war, some of these
officials were actually peddling nuclear secrets-committing treason
while receiving honors for their patriotic service---the response
could be explosive.
The Office of Special Plans
under Abram Shulsky and Douglas Feith cherry-picked the intelligence
vetted through the New York Times to terrify people into
supporting an attack on Iraq. Democratic leaders have in the
past urged an investigation of that spooky office, but furnished
the opportunity since November 2006, they have declined to hold
hearings. The Italian parliament conducted a study of the Niger
uranium hoax, fingering neocon Michael Ledeen as a key suspect
in forging documents designed to provide a casus belli
before the Iran attack. Congress does nothing to follow up.
In effect they are saying that the administration has a right
to lie to the people. The presidential pardon granted Libby is
a clear statement that it's okay to punish whistle-blowers like
Joseph Wilson. The Supreme Court refuses to hear Edmonds' appeal.
It seems that all three branches of government compete to coddle
the most unscrupulous and lawless officials, while marginalizing
or punishing honest citizens who expose the rot.
The publication of the National
Intelligence Estimate undercutting the administration's case
for attacking Iran indicates that there are in the U.S. intelligence
community persons alarmed by the administration's lies and efforts
to justify more aggression based on lies. It enrages the neocons,
who with Norman Podhoretz in the lead have been praying for Bush
to bomb Iran. The arrest and conviction of Feith subordinate
Larry Franklin shows that within the FBI there are forces disturbed
at the close connections between the neocons, Israeli intelligence,
and the Israel lobby and willing to take action against lawbreaking.
But Feith and Perle have both been investigated before, Perle
for discussing classified information with Israeli Embassy staff
in an FBI-monitored phone call in Washington in 1970. But the
cases dropped for apparent political reasons. Perhaps the Grossman
story will gain some traction. Maybe it will prove egregious
enough that the tide will turn. Maybe Bush's last year of office
will see the neocons' thorough exposure, humiliation and defeat.
Or maybe Waxman, Rep. Conyers
and others in positions to honestly confront this most mendacious
of administrations will continue to dither, feeding the assumption
of the most vicious, cynical and corrupt that they are indeed
above the law. And earning the contempt of those naïve enough
to expect serious congressional oversight of a rogue regime.
Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University,
and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author
of Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan;
Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan;
and Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900.
He is also a contributor to CounterPunch's merciless chronicle
of the wars on Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, Imperial
Crusades.
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
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