The Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice saga continues as
the year 2005 draws to a close.
The only breaking news to come from the ongoing drama is the
implication, published in Vanity Fair, that Dennis Hastert, speaker of the US
House Representatives, was the recipient of campaign contributions and assorted
bribes from the Turkish-American community. That another US politician is on
the take comes as no surprise. But more on that later.
Sibel�s story might have quietly died from the suffocating
oppression of the US government had it not been for very recent revelations
that the US sanctions and operates interrogation/torture facilities in
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld�s and Vice President Dick Cheney�s New
Europe (Poland, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, etc.).
While the buzz is all around the
Plame-Wilson-Libby-Woodward-Rove- Hadley affair, and the lies that got the US
into Iraq, the real news is that military and non-military torture chambers
stretching from Mexico to Asia have become standard operating procedure for the
US. Further, the response of official Washington to the torture expose was not
disgust, but a call to prosecute the whistleblower that leaked the awful news.
Within the remarkable public revelation from the Washington
Post and Human Rights Watch, is the imprimatur of Rumsfeld and Cheney -- the
two crusty Nixon administration buddies -- and perhaps the most ruthless and
dangerous Americans ever to hold office in the corporate/government world. They
and their disciples share the view that �conduct unbecoming� does not exist. No
law, no boundary, no moral code, no amount of lives or outdated parchments, like
the US Constitution and Bill of Rights, will be a barrier as they push forward
their foreign and domestic agenda for some of the US population, Turkey and
Israel. They hide behind the veil of �the national security of the United
States of America� and label Top Secret/Special Compartmentalized Information
data that would implicate them, not save a US soldier in a Humvee, or they slap
a State�s Secret order on the likes of Sibel Edmonds mainly to protect balance
sheets and business deals.
Me Ne Frego!
There is a name for this kind of government-corporation and
the society it creates and it is fascism, pure and simple. There just isn�t any
other way to describe people like Rumsfeld or Cheney. To that we must add the
name Brent Scowcroft.
According to Wikipedia, fascism�s appearance
in Italy in the 1920s (rooted in the term fascio from the 1800�s) marked a new
political and economic system that combined corporatism and nationalism in a
state designed to bind all classes together under a capitalist system. Dissent
was discouraged, political discourse of the time was highly inflammatory, and
the society overly militaristic. Under Mussolini�s dictatorship, from
1922-1945, the effectiveness of its parliamentary system was virtually
abolished though its forms were publicly preserved. The opposition was ferried
to remote islands far from Italy proper where they would be tortured and
sometimes killed. Mussolini was an active proponent of preemption. In 1923, he bombed Corfu and later
established a puppet regime in Albania (according to the FBI in 2003, the
Albanian Mafia is the most feared).
Rumsfeld and Cheney have been able to push their fascist
doctrine into mainstream America and into every decision making element in the
US government. Their spokesman and head buffoon is George Bush II, who recently
stated on his trip to Asia that criticism of his war in Iraq was irresponsible
and unpatriotic, and is also on the record saying �we do not torture." One
sure sign of fascism is when the president speaks to his minions almost
entirely from the safe confines of a US military base. These strangely American
fascists have adopted the motto of Mussolini�s Black Shirts who were the
enforcement arm of his government, �Me Ne Frego," or "I do not give a
damn," they�d say as they went about brutalizing dissenters, union bosses,
journalists, et al. It�s the kind of attitude that produces �freedom is
messy," �bring �em on� and �people are fungible."
Italian Fascism was based on state control of
financial/commercial interests and public thought. American Fascism has done
the reverse, outsourcing its mandate of protecting and defending the US
Constitution and Bill of Rights to corporations and powerful ideological domestic
and foreign interests. These groups make the key decisions on US domestic and
foreign policy. The actors in the stage production called �the three branches
of US government," give the public audience a sense that they are somehow
involved in staging the production.
Fascists don�t see a distinction between legitimate and
semi-legitimate organizations. Front companies, informants, pundits, mafia,
consultants, retired generals, drug dealers and junkies, arms traders, spies,
assassins, associations, politicians, lobbyists, judges are all just tools to
advance the national and foreign interests.
It�s this kind of madness that Sibel Edmonds and those like
her are fighting against. They are trying to smash the mirrors and blow away
the smoke that clouds the minds of so many who refuse to acknowledge that the
US is rapidly becoming a reflection of Benito Mussolini�s Fascist Italy.
How Wars Are Conducted
A little known news piece by investigative reporter Bill Conroy
takes us to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. There we get a glimpse into how US officials
conduct themselves in the War on Drugs and, in all likelihood, the War
on Terror. According to Conroy, from 2003-2004 12 people were brutally
tortured and murdered in what came to be known as the House of Death case.
Agents from the US Department of Homeland
Security-Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) and the Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) were attempting to capture Heriberto Santillan Tabares,
apparently a top dog in Vincente Carrillo Fuente�s Juarez drug operation. The
US agents successfully dropped an informant into Tabares� operation. Problem
was that the informant ended up gleefully taking part in the torture and murder
of all 12 people. The bigger problem was that the then Attorney General of the
United States, John Ashcroft, the head of the DEA, and the US government
prosecutor wanted to maintain the informant�s undercover status and his fine
torture and murder credentials so that they could bag Tabares and, later, other
drug dealers. Former DEA agent Sandalio Gonzalez was appalled at this activity
and sent an internal letter to Department of Justice officials. Their immediate
response was to drum him out of the DEA, according to Conroy.
The head of the DEA said that Gonzalez�s action was
�inexcusable� and in testimony lets on that incompetence and inter-agency
squabbling was the real issue, not the fact that 12 apparently innocent people
were murdered with the approval of the US government. Tandy stated that �there
was a substantial issue between DEA and ICE over the use of the informant . . .
And the jeopardy that DEA agents and others had been placed in as a result of
ICE�s handling of an informant that the DEA had previously blackballed . . . It
was such a sensitive issue that . . . I went personally to brief the attorney
general . . ."
This bit of news leads us to Rumsfeld�s Death Star in
Arlington, Virginia -- the Pentagon -- and there into the Office of the
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Known simply as The Policy Organization,
it is the former home of the notorious neocon Douglas Feith. But that�s not the
interesting part. Under organizational titles like Policy, International
Security, Homeland Defense, and Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict,
exist operational elements like Counternarcotics, Detainees, Combating
Terrorism, Homeland Security Integration, Stability Operations and the Defense
Policy Board. Their leaderships boast Kissinger and Cheney prot�g�s, stridently
pro-Israel and Turkey supporters, and a former US Phoenix Project operative.
And this is where the guidelines for the Wars on
Terror, Drugs, and Weapons of Mass Destruction are developed and implemented in
the field, more than likely by former special operations operatives under
contract. The Policy Organization has no problem dealing with psychopathic
killers, buying and selling drugs, dropping white phosphorous on women and
children, using the global black market to help a �critical� country upgrade
its nuclear capability, or selling out the American people for the sake of
profit. The lives of 12 or 1.2 million human beings are inconsequential -- nothing
more than expendable extras in the big show. �Sensitive� matters must be
classified or not discussed at all.
Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman (Cheney�s pick) runs
The Policy Organization. Not surprisingly, he�s the former Ambassador to
Turkey.
Gobble, Gobble
�Turkey�s long-term commitment to the principles of
democracy and their commitment to undertaking the reforms Europe demanded
before even the first round of accession negotiations -- have produced economic
opportunity, stable political institutions, and the peaceful rule of law.
Turkey is proof that our strategy of spreading democracy in the Islamic world
can work," said Edelman. Lofty and duplicitous words that are not to be
believed. For the real story, listen to Brent Scowcroft. As head of the
American Turkish Council, he speaks on behalf of US corporations and the
Turkish government.
In September, Scowcroft sent a letter to Hastert that
stated, according to the Armenian National Committee of America, �even
discussion of the Armenian Genocide on the floor of the US House of
Representatives would be counter-productive to the interests of the United
States." Indeed, the letter states in no uncertain terms that Turkey is at
the �center of American�s current and long term interests . . . The genocide
resolutions encourage those who would pull Turkey away from the West. The
careless use of genocide language provides and [sic] excuse to do so,
delivering a direct blow to American interests in the region . . . I strongly
urge you to oppose floor deliberation . . . of this highly sensitive
issue."
It should be an eye-opener when former US general and presidential
advisor -- now the spokesman for US businesses and the Turkish government --
asks the �people�s house� to remain silent on a matter, thoroughly documented
in American and British newspapers of the day, that involved the systematic
slaughter of 1.2 million Armenians. If the issue is that important -- after
all, we�re not talking about a puny drug war -- then it is likely that
Scowcroft told his Turkish Council members to fill the campaign coffers of the
speaker, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and current Majority Leader Roy
Blount. And Scowcroft may have suggested to the Turkish government that it
contract with former US congressmen Stephen Solarz and Robert Livingston
(members of the ATC) to lobby on behalf of the Turkish government in the US
House and Senate.
The Turkish newspaper Sabah reported that Hastert was
pressured by AIPAC to defeat another House resolution recognizing the Armenian
Genocide back in the year 2000. Trade associations in Washington, DC,
frequently unite on issues and, so it seems, Scowcroft�s ATC and AIPAC worked
together to get rid of the Armenian matter.
Intrepid reporter Jason Vest writing in the Nation in 2002,
noted that Richard Perle and Douglas Feith worked as foreign registered
lobbyists for Turkey back in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. They �quietly
and deftly kept the {American] arms sluice to Turkey open,� said Vest. Feith
had hired former executive director of AIPAC, Morris Amitay, to assist in the
task. Solarz and Livingston, have picked up where the largely disgraced Perle
and Feith left off. One thing is for certain, though; during Feith�s reign over
The Policy Organization, the ATC and AIPAC had their operatives well placed
and, perhaps, under control.
Black Market Bingo
The ATC and the
Turkish Consulate in Chicago had been under the watchful eye of the FBI since
the late 1990s and one suspects it still is. But that�s about it since FBI
field agents were told/are told to follow but not arrest suspected Turkish
operatives.
The ATC was/is also
being monitored by the CIA. For example, Valerie Plame had attended a number of
functions at the ATC and took several trips to Turkey. The newspaper Hurriyet
confirmed that she was hunting for WMDs, more likely their components, in a
country well-known for its expertise in pushing products through the black
market. This brings us to some excerpts from the PBS program Frontline:
Oscilloscopes and oscillators manufactured by Tektronix (equipment used
to build missiles and nuclear weapons); and triggered spark gaps manufactured
by PerkinElmer (small cylindrical devices that can be used to spark nuclear
explosions). Asher Karni
[Israeli businessman in South Africa] writes Zeki Bilmen [Turkish businessman]
of Giza Technologies, a New Jersey-based company that, according to its Web
site, provides "procurement services for state of the art electronic,
electro-mechanical and mechanical components, systems, and other products
related to the Electronics Manufacturing Sector. Karni asks Bilmen for an
update on the EG&G order [triggered spark gaps]. Bilmen replies that the
Tektronix equipment has arrived in New Jersey, but that he will wait until
additional equipment arrives to ship them on, and that EG&G order has been
processed. Bilmen adds in a separate email: "One Good News regarding the
EG&G order [the triggered spark gaps]. NO EXPORT LICENSE REQUIRED to South
Africa. I thought you might want to know.
These excerpts are from transactional emails made between
Karni, Bilmen and Humayun Kahn, a Pakistan operative for the Pakistani
military. They are meant to illustrate the ease with which these products
traverse the globe and that, in all likelihood, are allowed to until a really
big fish can be caught. Turkey�s role in the illicit nuclear transactions and
selling of classified US military data to the highest bidder have been
frequently reported. As far back as 1981, the US quietly complained to the
Turkish ambassador about the sale of nuclear triggering devices to Pakistan.
They would ultimately be used to launch Pakistan�s nuclear weapons program. Of
course there is another country that operates the same way -- Israel.
Shining Beacon of Democracy?
Would it be a surprise that The Policy Organization, the
attorney general and assorted US government operatives tracking these
activities would turn a blind eye to Turkey and Israel�s trade in these types
of goods? No. Why? Again, if Turkey and Israel are so �damn� critical to the
USA�s interests, then they can operate around the globe with impunity,
protected by names like Rumsfeld, Cheney, Hastert, Scowcroft, Edelman, Bush
and, once upon a time, Doug Feith.
Meanwhile, back in Turkey, the Turkish Press reported in
August of 2005 that the military there continues its top officer purges of Islamists,
or those with questionable religious connections, from the Army and Navy. That
has been done with the approval of Recip Tayip Erdogan who back in 1997 was
banned from politics for being overly Islamist. Turkey�s atrocious treatment of
its Kurdish population and its threat to invade Kurdistan -- now located in
Northern Iraq, go unnoticed in the US. Turkey has purchased 30 �Cobra-type�
armored vehicles from Otokor, a unit of Koc Holdings, to bolster its fight
against a growing domestic Kurdish insurgency. And the Turkish military-industrial
complex has expanded by 30 percent since 2004.
John
Stanton is a Virginia-based writer specializing in political and national
security matters. He is the author of "America 2004: A Power But no
Super," and co-author of America�s "Nightmare: The Presidency of
George Bush II." Reach him at cioran123@yahoo.com.