Long-gagged FBI whistleblower’s full under-oath testimony from Ohio election case, details Congressional blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, more…

Just over two weeks ago, FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of what the Bush Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly on the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice’s invocation of the so-called “State Secrets Privilege,” Edmonds has been attempting to tell her story, about the crimes she became aware of while working for the FBI, for years.

Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio’s 2nd District Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress, high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the first time, in her under-oath deposition. Both the complete video tape and transcript of the deposition follow below.

Though there was much concern, prior to her testimony, that the Obama Dept. of Justice might re-invoke the “State Secrets Privilege” to keep her from speaking, they did not do so. Nor did they choose to be present at the Washington D.C. deposition.

The BRAD BLOG covered details of some of Edmonds’ startling disclosures made during the deposition, as it happened, in our live blog coverage from August 8th. The deposition included criminal allegations against specifically named members of Congress. Among those named by Edmonds as part of a broad criminal conspiracy: Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Stephen Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), as well as an unnamed, still-serving Congresswoman (D) said to have been secretly videotaped, for blackmail purposes, during a lesbian affair.

High-ranking officials from the Bush Administration named in her testimony, as part of the criminal conspiracy on behalf of agents of the Government of Turkey, include Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Marc Grossman, and others.

During the deposition — which we are still going through ourselves — Edmonds discusses covert “activities” by Turkish entities “that would involve trying to obtain very sensitive, classified, highly classified U.S. intelligence information, weapons technology information, classified Congressional records…recruiting key U.S. individuals with access to highly sensitive information, blackmailing, bribery.”

Speaking about current members of Congress during a break in the testimony,Krikorian told The BRAD BLOG that “for people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don’t take action against it, in my opinion, it’s negligence.” (More video statements from Krikorian, Edmonds and attorneys from all parties, taped before, during, and after the 8/8/09 testimony, areavailable here.)

Edmonds’ on-the-record disclosures also include bombshell details concerning outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s front company, Brewster Jennings. Edmonds alleges the front company had actually been shut down in August of 2001 — three years prior to Bob Novak’s public disclosure of the covert operative’s identity — following a tip-off to a wire-tap target about the true nature of the CIA front company. The cover was blown, Edmonds alleges, by Marc Grossman, who was, at the time, the third highest-ranking official in the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, Grossman served as ambassador to Turkey. He now works “for a Turkish company called Ihals Holding,” according to Edmonds’ testimony.

An unclassified FBI Inspector General’s report, released on her case in 2005, declared Edmonds’ classified allegations to be “credible,” “serious,” and “warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI.” In 2002, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), then the senior members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, co-wrote letters on Edmonds’ behalf to Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and DoJ Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, calling on all of them to take action in respect to her allegations. And in a 2002 60 Minutesreport on Edmonds’ case, Grassley noted: “Absolutely, she’s credible…And the reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.”

The 8/8/09 deposition was brought by Krikorian as part of his defense in a case filed against him before the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The 2nd district Congresswoman has accused Krikorian, an Armenian-American who ran against her as an independent in 2008, of “false statements” during the campaign last year alleging that she had accepted “blood money” from Turkish interests. Krikorian says that Schmidt, co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Committee, accepted more money from Turkish interests during last year’s campaign than any other member of Congress, despite few, if any, ethnic Turks among her local constituency. He has suggested she may have been instrumental in helping to hold off a Congressional vote on a long-proposed, much-disputed resolution declaring the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as a “genocide” by the Turks.

Edmonds herself happens to be a Turkish-American, though she was recently attacked by the Turkish Lobby, following her long-sought, long-blocked testimony.

The complete transcript of Sibel Edmonds’ under-oath testimony, may now bedownloaded here [PDF]. The complete video-taped testimony follows, in five parts.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374

Sibel Edmonds Deposition, 8/8/09: PART 1 of 5 from Velvet Revolution on Vimeo.

TOP US OFFICIALS REPORTEDLY INVOLVED IN GANGSTERISM – REVELATIONS OF SIBEL EDMONDS

She was concerned that one of her fellow translators, Can Dickerson, was a member of the American-Turkish Council, a Turkish group being investigated for:
A. Bribing top government officials and members of Congress
B. Drug trafficking
C. Illegal weapons sales
D. Money laundering
E. Nuclear proliferation.
Sibel was sacked from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised her concerns.

In an interview with AM 1280 on Saturday, Rep. Michele Bachmann announced that she will have Rep. Ron Paul as her guest for a September town hall forum in St. Cloud.

“I’ll be doing another town hall up in the St. Cloud area in September and we’ll do that on monetary policy. Ron Paul is going to come in and we are going to host something on monetary policy,” Bachmann said.

Bachmann is a convert to the Ron Paul movement, sometimes attending the congressman’s weekly lunches.

“I especially want to speak to the 19-20 year olds so they can know what there future will be under this level of debt accumulation and spending,” she added about the forum. “They need to know their future. And so I’m bringing him in so we can have a discussion on monetary policy.”

http://minnesotaindependent.com/42610/bachmann-to-host-town-hall-with-rep-ron-paul

I’m not usually one to go around bashing big government. I’m a bit too left-leaning for that.

I have to protest some recent government intervention, though: Once again, the U.S. government is attempting to mandate healthy habits, this time by banning flavored and clove cigarettes.

As of September 22, it won’t be illegal to possess flavored cigarettes, but it will be illegal to sell them. As a result, clove cigarettes, which have been imported from Indonesia and sold in the U.S. since 1968, and cigarettes flavors like cherry and chocolate mocha are about to become a controlled substance.

Ostensibly, this portion of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on June 22, will prevent yummy-sounding cigarette flavors like cherry and chocolate mocha from tempting young people into smoking.

In fact, this law—which passed handily in both houses of congress—will have little impact on teen smoking and a great deal of impact on adults’ freedom of choice (or perhaps I should say freedom of vice.)

Pay no attention to the cigarette company behind the curtain

The act, which was sponsored by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and championed by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA)), benefited from an unusual ally.

Philip-Morris—the tobacco giant who controls fully half of the U.S. cigarette market share—had its tarry hands all over the passage of this legislation.

At first blush, it seems strange that the company would join forces with the likes of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids )—which champions itself as an organization “working to expose Big Tobacco’s lies”—to achieve what Obama calls “a victory for health care reform.”

A closer look, however, reveals that Philip-Morris has nothing to lose with this legislation and everything to gain.

http://www.examiner.com/x-10873-LA-Health-and-Beauty-Examiner~y2009m8d23-Flavor-cigarette-ban-curbs-freedom-helps-big-tobacco-keep-selling

As Iran was grappling with the post-election unrest, Israel was reportedly preparing to strike the country’s nuclear facilities, a US diplomatic source says.

According to the US diplomat who is based in Jerusalem (al Quds), Israel asked the US administration for a green light to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and its other vital structures in the aftermath of the country’s post-election turmoil.

The call for the military strike came after the official announcement of the poll result in Iran prompted widespread protests across the country as opposition supporters took to the streets to protest “fraud” in the June 12 election.

Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida cited the diplomatic source as saying that the request was put forward by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, bearing President Shimon Peres’s signature as well.

The administration of President Barack Obama, however, did not take any notice of the Israeli request and consequently the operation was called off.

Tel Aviv put forward the request as it accuses Tehran — a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) — of pursuing a nuclear program with military objectives and argues that the use of military force is a legitimate option in halting Iran’s nuclear progress.

Iran denies the Israeli claim, insisting that its nuclear enrichment program is solely directed at the civilian applications of the technology.

The US intelligence community, which issued a new assessment on Iran’s nuclear activities on Friday, believes that a political decision is yet to be made in Iran for building a nuclear bomb.

The review by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research also contends that despite Iran’s progress toward producing enriched uranium, Tehran will not be technically capable of producing weapons-grade material before 2013.

http://waronyou.com/topics/israel-planned-iran-strike-during-unrest-report/

New surveys by CNN and Quinnipiac University show that American satisfaction with President Barack Obama’s performance has decreased.

Fifty percent of Quinnipiac voters said they approved of Obama, while the president’s approval rating came out to be 56 percent in the CNN poll.

The ratings have dropped from 57 percent approval in Quinnipiac’s late June survey and five points since CNN’s June poll.

According to assistant director of Quinnipiac’s polling institute Peter Brown, Americans are concerned about rising unemployment and new healthcare plans.

Taken from July 27 to August 3, the Quinnipiac survey showed that only 49 percent of voters approved of Obama’s handling of the economy and 52 percent expressed their satisfaction with the president’s efforts to improve the country’s healthcare system.

The CNN poll showed that Obama’s rating among white men has dropped 14 points since April.

“A majority of white men supported him at the 100-day mark, but now most white men disapprove of how he is handling his job,” CNN polling director Keating Holland said.

“Obama has also slipped among non-whites, but he still gets support from over 70 percent of that group,” Holland added.

Forty-four percent of CNN voters said that Obama’s economy polices have worked well so far, Daily News reported.

“But another 11 percent say that Obama’s policies will eventually improve the economy,” said Holland, “which adds up to a majority who say his policies have helped or will help the economy.”

Source: Press TV

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s Sugarcane Technology Center and Germany’s BASF said on Tuesday they will jointly develop a genetically modified sugarcane with yields up to 25 percent higher than those currently available.

The cane, expected to hit the market within 10 years, will be able to handle drought better than current strains, said Luiz Louzano, biotechnology manager at BASF’s local unit.

“Our aim is to develop a cane which can survive in more hostile environments, areas with water limitations. Those characteristics could raise the average cane yield (in Brazil) to 100 tons per hectare, from 80 currently,” Louzano said.

This is BASF’s first step into the development of cane varieties.

The world’s largest chemical maker, which invested 1 billion euros in the past 10 years to set up a gene development program, signed a deal earlier this year with Monsanto to create the world’s first drought-resistant biotech corn.

It now expects to introduce some of these genes in conventional cane varieties developed by CTC, which was created in 2004 from Brazil’s Copersucar and has been a world leader in cane research.

“Our role is to research and validate new genes and look for partnerships with the best seed makers,” Louzano said.

The variety is expected to benefit mainly new cane frontiers such as the west of Sao Paulo, Triangulo Mineiro, in Minas Gerais state, and Brazil’s center-west states.

Cane planting has been expanding rapidly in these regions, which are usually drier and have poorer land than traditional cane-producing areas like Ribeirao Preto and Piracicaba, in the state of Sao Paulo, where yields are the world’s highest.

“It’s also a permanent goal for us to develop varieties that use less water due to its scarcity. It’s an effort in place in other parts of the world too,” Louzano said.

In Brazil, BASF signed an agreement with state-run agricultural research company Embrapa in 2007 to develop a herbicide-tolerant soy variety. The product was submitted for approval by Brazilian authorities in December 2008 and is expected to be cleared by 2011/12.

So far, no GMO cane variety has been approved in Brazil or in any other country.

The German company expects to submit the new variety for governmental approval within the next seven years.

In response to a letter published on July 28, concerning the overall well-working universal health care system in Canada since 1965, Rick Doyon said that he “continues to be amused by the ongoing debate over health care in the U.S., and how Republican politicians have, for decades, used (fear) to protect their friends in the private health insurance industry.” I would add to what he said by saying that it looks as though Democratic politicians are protective of their friends in the insurance industry as well. How so? Our Democratic administration appear to be squirming in their chamber seats as to how to reform health care and appease their health care contributors at the same time. The real question is: Are they working for what is in the best interest of the American people, who are their constituents, or do they work for the corporations, who are their personal contributors?

It used to be said, “So goes the big three, so goes the country.” That was, concerning the United Auto Workers Union in the heydays before corporate America began sending American jobs and wealth to offshore locations.

Did you know that the UAW members asked Washington to implement a single-payer health care system in their efforts to keep Detroit in the game? We even had one 2008 presidential candidate who went to the New Hampshire kickoff — Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio. He couldn’t get enough corporate-owned media coverage to cover a postage stamp. But he was one, and maybe the only one, who supported and campaigned for true universal health care. “One of the greatest hoaxes of this campaign, everyone’s for universal health care,” Kucinich said. “It’s like a mantra, but when you get into the details, you find out that other candidates are talking about maintaining the existing for-profit system.”

watertowndailytimes.com