07 February 2008

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Apart from changing policy, the Air Force has also enacted disciplinary consequences for the incident. The four colonels responsible for not recognizing the ...
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  • Perspectives
    • NATO Nuclear First Use Option by David Krieger
    • Toward a Nuclear-Free World by G. Shultz, W. Perry, H. Kissinger and S. Nunn
    • The Case for US Leadership for a Nuclear Weapons-Free World by David Krieger
  • Nuclear Proliferation
    • Top Brazilian General Pushes for the Development of Nuclear Weapons
    • Colombia Ratifies Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
  • Nuclear Insanity
    • Due to Air Force's Nuclear Mishap, Arms Handling Rules Change
  • Nuclear Energy and Waste
    • Union of Concerned Scientists Analyzes Nuclear Power in a Warming World
    • Drought Could Force Closing of Nuclear Plants
  • Resources
    • Super Tuesday Primaries: Candidates and US Nuclear Weapons Policy
    • Mayors for Peace Update
    • Hiroshima Peace Media Center
  • Foundation Activities
    • Peace Educator Colman McCarthy to Speak at 7th Annual Frank K. Kelly Lecture
    • Foundation President David Krieger to Speak in Mexico City
    • Join H.H. the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Signing the NAPF Appeal
    • Foundation Sponsors Public Hearing in Madison, Wisonsin
  • Quotes


04 February 2008

Bioweapons/du update . ready to be a glow worm??

From Leuren Moret:

LISTEN NOW:

This is a HISTORIC two hour interview I did this morning with Dr. Winn Parker on his radio program called "Parker Pathways" with an audience of 2.5 million. Parker is a PHD Medical science researcher who reviewed biomedical grants and patents for the US Govt/Pentagon/WHO/NIH. This interview ties together and exposes the integration of DU/nanoparticle toxicity/depopulation/chemtrails/fluoride/chloramine/nanoparticle
antennas/HAARP/Google "23andMe" programs....

Folks - it is much much much worse than we ever imagined the applications could be. Listen to this interview carefully... it is beyond demonic. There is an urgent need for a Rockefeller-specific bioweapon that is a more efficient exterminator than what theyare ALREADY using on us.

hour 1:

http://arc.republicbroadcasting.org/Parker/08/02/Parker_020308_100000...

hour 2:

http://arc.republicbroadcasting.org/Parker/08/02/Parker_020308_110000...


23andMe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

23andMe is a privately held biotechnology company based in Mountain View, California[1] that is developing new ways to help people make sense of their own genetic information. In December 2007 several companies, including 23andMe and deCODE, announced the availability of $999 tests for select single nucleotide polymorphisms. Google has invested $3.9M in 23andMe, whose co-founder Anne Wojcicki is married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin. [1] Genentech is also reported to have invested in 23andMe.[2]

Thomas Söderqvist wrote:

There has not been much news about the company yet (see Blaine Bettinger’s blog The Genetic Genealogist and Attila Csordas’ Pimm), but my guess is that we will hear more about it in the near future. Whatever its future prospects, however, it’s already a good example of how converging technologies ... are emerging at the start-up company level.

The marriage between Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki is thus not just a romantic Silicon Valley story; it’s also today’s counterpart to traditional politically motivated marital alliances and gives a new meaning to the concept of converging technologies.[3]

Kevin Kelleher in GigaOM writes: " A case could be made that there is a good reason for Google to make this deal. And although I realize I may end up regretting it, I am going to make that case.... an investment in 23andMe lets Google chart yet another collision coarse [sic] with Microsoft’s ambitions. ... If Google wants to really organize the world information, it needs to consider DNA, the most personal of data. And what 23andMe is purporting to sell is the ultimate in navel gazing."[2]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links



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23andMe genetic analysis launches in Europe

By Mike Nagle

GET THE LATEST MARKET REPORTS

24/01/2008 - Google funded start up, 23andme, has now launched its gene tests and web-based analysis in Canada and Europe.

Having officially launched in the US last November, this is the first time the company's tools have been available outside of that market.

23andMe generate a genetic profile of each customer, which can then be accessed by the individual on the web. As well as explore their ancestry, see what genetic research means for them (for example lactose intolerance, athletic ability, and food preferences) and compare themselves to friends and family members, 23andMe believes the approach could advance the overall understanding of the human genome.

"We believe 2008 will be a year in which our understanding of the human genome will increase significantly through international research efforts, and we are eager to continue connecting individuals to this growing knowledge base of genetic information," said Linda Avey, co-founder of 23andMe.

"We believe in empowering individuals by helping them understand their genetic make-up and actively engaging them in the development of new ways to accelerate research," said Anne Wojcicki, the other co-founder of the firm.

When users sign up to the $1000 (€683) service, they receive a saliva kit, which is then sent away to a contracted lab. Their DNA is then extracted and exposed to a customised SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) microarray device made by Illumina. Over half a million points in the individual's genome are then read to generate the genetic profile.

"We are receiving overwhelming interest in our services outside the US and are pleased to now offer them in Canada and Europe. Our web-based service model has made the European and Canadian offering possible, and we hope to continue to expand our global footprint to additional locations in the future," Avey added.

The firm first came to the world's attention when Google invested $3.9m in it. Biotech giant Genentech was also an early investor. 23andMe's name refers to the 23 chromosomes that make up the human genome.

This innovative approach led to 23andMe being lauded as a 'Technology Pioneer' by the World Economic Forum (WEF) at the end of last year. The title is given to those companies who have, in the eyes of the WEF, developed a life-changing technology innovation that has the potential for long-term impact on both business and society.

Only the most visionary innovators are awareded the coveted status with previous winners including household names such as Google, Mozilla Corporation and Napster. Among this cream of the crop were twelve biotech or health companies.

The 39 winners can participate in World Economic Forum activities, including its annual conferences, for two years. That is exactly where 23andMe are this week - the conference is being held between 23 and 28 January in Davos, Switzerland.

See also: http://www.labtechnologist.com/marketreport/results.asp?bquery=Genentech&title=&publisher=&published=&priceInf=1&priceSup=
&region=all&n=1&searchType=advanced&o=DateDesc

Genentech Executive Committee Executive Committee
From left to right: Ian T. Clark; David A. Ebersman; Arthur D. Levinson; Patrick Y. Yang; Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann; Stephen G. Juelsgaard; Richard H. Scheller

Solid Growth Company

A profitable growth company, Genentech has a strong and diverse pipeline with more than 100 projects in development. Our total operating revenues for 2007 were approximately $11.7 billion, an increase of 26 percent from 2006, with total U.S. product sales of approximately $8.5 billion, a 19 percent increase from 2006.


2009 US Budget and nuclear proliferation

This is from the American Progress Action Fund ..

Truly time for military keynesianISM to go or more nuclear proliferation is in the offing. This links should amply show how the addiction to nukes affects the common person.

Veeger

ADMINISTRATION

Bush's Cruel Budget

President Bush will unveil his budget for fiscal year 2009 today. During last week's State of the Union address, Bush declared that he would put the nation on track to a balanced budget in 2012, claiming, "American families have to balance their budgets, and so should their Government." But under Bush's proposal, "the budget deficit would jump sharply, from $163 billion in 2007 to about $400 billion in 2008 and 2009. ... Such deficits would rival the record deficit of $412 billion of 2004." Bush's tax cuts have been the single largest contributor to the reemergence of substantial budget deficits in recent years. Though the budget includes needed increases in funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program and the Food and Drug Administration, it also slashes over 100 domestic programs. Bush took office in 2001 facing a projected $5.6 trillion surplus over the next ten years, but his enormous deficits "will absolutely bedevil the next administration," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND).

HEALTH CARE SLASHED: Bush's budget will include $170 billion in cuts to Medicare over the next five years and will also cut $1.2 billion from Medicaid next year "and nearly $14 billion over five years." Most of the Medicare savings in the budget would be achieved "by reducing the annual update in federal payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, ambulances and home care agencies." The largest savings "by far" come from cutting funding to hospitals, even as hospitals are closing across the country. (Three hundred fewer public hospitals exist today than 15 years ago.) William Dombi, vice president of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, said that under Bush's budget, "75 percent to 80 percent of home health agencies would be doomed. They would not be able to meet payroll. They would not be able to operate." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "The President's cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are feeling economically insecure."

CRUEL DOMESTIC CUTS: To maintain his tax cuts for the wealthy, Bush's budget slashes 151 domestic programs. Poison control centers face a 62 percent cut, rural health programs are decimated 87 percent, and the Community Services Block Grant, "a $654 million program that provides housing, nutrition, education and job services to low-income people," is completely eliminated. A new health program for 9/11 rescue workers is slashed by 77 percent, "even though the administration has said that many workers were exposed to 'unprecedented levels of risk' for lung disease and other illnesses." The budget slices 22 percent from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. "The White House wants to eliminate spending for more than a dozen education programs, including Even Start, which promotes family literacy; grants to the states for classroom technology; Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, for needy undergraduates; and a scholarship program named for the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia." "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would lose more than $430 million, including...$28 million from chronic disease prevention and health promotion. A $301 million program that trains 4,700 pediatricians and pediatric specialists at children's teaching hospitals also would be eliminated, at a time when pediatric specialties, such as rheumatology and pulmonology, face critical shortages." The Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program loses $194 million, a cut of 64 percent, and "states and cities would see cuts of $1.5 billion from the $3.75 billion in grants for security, law enforcement, firefighters and emergency medical teams approved by Congress for this year."

UNPRECEDENTED MILITARY SPENDING: With the Pentagon's 2009 budget increased to $515.4 billion, "annual military spending, when adjusted for inflation, will have reached its highest level since World War II." The budget gives the Pentagon a $35 billion increase over last year, "about 7 percent, with war costs additional." This enormous budget includes a $70 billion "bridge fund" to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year. "Since coming to office, the administration has increased baseline military spending by 30 percent over all," including "$600 billion already approved in supplemental budgets to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for counterterrorism operations." Separate from the $515.4 billion, Bush's budget also calls for $21 billion for nuclear weapons programs. Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb writes that the United States could "safely trim $60 billion" from Bush's Pentagon budget, including saving $13 billion by reducing the nuclear arsenal.

03 February 2008

A Sibel Edmonds Timeline: Gary Leupp

A SIBEL EDMONDS TIMELINE: WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LET THEM SPILL THE BEANS PDF
Tuesday, 29 January 2008

By Gary Leupp

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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. 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 This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 January 2008 )