Turkish government blackmailed sitting member of House of Representatives
FROM THE WAYNE MADSEN REPORT – SPECIAL REPORT
The Seminal Blog
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Ohio Election Commission officials and lawyers representing Ohio
Democratic House of Representatives candidate David Krikorian and
incumbent Ohio Republican Representative Jean Schmidt heard testimony
Saturday morning and afternoon from former FBI Turkish and Farsi
translator Sibel Edmonds in a case brought against Krikorian by
incumbent Republican Representative Jean Schmidt. Schmidt alleges in
her complaint to the commission that Krikorian made "false statements"
in his 2008 independent race against Schmidt. The commission
subpoenaed Edmonds in the case, Schmidt v. Krikorian and the
deposition was held at the offices of the National Whistleblowers
Legal Defense and Education Fund in Georgetown, Washington, DC.
According to sources attending the deposition, Edmonds testified that
while she was working as a translator for the FBI she was aware of
bribes being made by the Turkish government to elected and former
members of Congress, as well as senior officials of the executive
branch, including the Department of State.
The Eric Holder Justice Department attempted to block Edmonds’s
testimony and said it considered the subpoenaed testimony by the Ohio
Election Commission to be void since it was conducted in the District
of Columbia and not Ohio. However, no Justice Department or FBI
representatives attended the deposition by Edmonds as had been
previously expected. Edmonds has been blocked from revealing the
nature of the Turkish espionage and bribery ring by a State Secret gag
order that was imposed by Attorney General John Ashcroft. There is
uncertainty as to whether the Holder Justice Department will block
release of Edmonds’s testimony transcript and video.
After Edmonds was fired from her FBI job after she complained to her
superiors about Turkish intelligence infiltration of the translation
branch of the bureau, she was exonerated in a report by the FBI’s
Inspector General. Her allegations were also supported by senior
members of the U.S. Senate.
Edmonds’s testimony under oath revealed that the American Turkish
Council (ATC), which has been cited by a number of informed observers
as a sister organization of the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (AIPAC), paid bribes to a number of members of the House of
Representatives in return for opposing the Armenian genocide
resolution as well as providing other legislative assistance to
Turkish special interests. Other Turkish organization in the United
States named in the bribery scandal is the Assembly of Turkish
American Assoiactions (ATAA).
WMR has learned that attorneys for Schmidt objected to most of
Edmonds’s statements.
Named as recipients of Turkish government bribes are, in addition to
Schmidt, former House Speakers Dennis Hastert (R-IL), Dick Gephardt
(D-MO), and brief House Speaker Robert Livingston (R-LA), as well as
Representative Dan Burton (R-IN) and former Representative Stephen
Solarz (D-NY). Also named are Brent Scowcroft, former National
Security Adviser under George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford and former
George W. Bush State Department Political Undersecretary Marc
Grossman.
Edmonds’s testimony also dealt with the involvement of the Rand
Corporation with the Turkish espionage and bribery operations in the
United States.
Edmonds’s testimony also dealt with Turkish and Israeli joint
operations to engage in smuggling nuclear technology from the United
States. In particular, the Turkish espionage and influence-peddling
ring was heavily involved in the Bush White House "outing" the covert
identities of CIA counterproliferation officer Valerie Plame Wilson
and her Brewster Jennings & Associates non-official CIA cover
firm. WMR has learned from another informed source that the nuclear
smuggling operations also involved Israel PhD students at American
universities and research firms.
The Turkish operations also involved the U.S. corporate media, which
was pressured by the ations not to cover the Armenian genocide issue.
Krikorian, in a statement during a break in the deposition, said that
based on what he heard, such criminality "should not be tolerated in
the land of the free and home of the brave," adding that what he heard
constitutes "high crimes against the U.S. government."
Perhaps the most explosive part of the deposition involved the Turkish
government being engaged in a sexual blackmail operation against a
sitting member of the House of Representative. In what the FBI termed
a "hooking process," an ATC female operative enticed a female member
of the House into a lesbian sexual encounter at a Washington, DC
townhouse.. A Turkish intelligence surveillance team had placed
surveillance bugs throughout the townhouse, including the bedroom and
captured the lesbian tryst on tape, according to Edmonds’s
testimony. To ensure the surveillance team successfully completed its
technical surveillance operation, another Turkish operational team was
present outside the townhouse to make sure the surveillance team
carried out its task.
After the surveillance recordings were made known to the House member,
she changed her support for the Armenian genocide resolution and
announced her opposition to it.
The identity of the House member in question was not revealed during
the deposition by Edmonds. However, WMR has learned from another
informed source that it is Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a
strong supporter of AIPAC and Israel and a close political ally of
President Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
The first sexual encounter between Schakowsky and the Turkish lesbian
prostitute reportedly occurred at a vulnerable time for Schakowsky,
just after her mother’s death. The first sexual encounter was followed
by numerous others, according to U.S. law enforcement sources.
To her credit, Schakowsky has been a vocal opponent of private
military contractors and the lack of government oversight of their
activities, especially in Latin America and Iraq.
Informed Ohio police report that Schmidt’s complaint against Krikorian
has resulted in unforeseen "blow-back" with the Edmonds testimony and
that Schmidt is under significant pressure to drop her complaint
against Krikorian lest more damaging information is revealed about
members of both the Republican and Democratic parties.
Schakowsky is a Chief Democratic Deputy Whip in the House and a member
of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. She is
married with grown children and was mentioned as a possible
replacement to fill Obama’s Illinois Senate seat. She has also been
mentioned as a possible Senate candidate in 2010 to replace tainted
Senator Roland Burris.
The revelations about Schakowsky will not come as good news to
Democrats in Illinois, already buffeted by scandals involving indicted
and impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich and ethics issues involving
Burris, Obama’s replacement in the Senate. However, the Turkish
bribery scandal is bipartisan with Hastert also implicated in bribe
taking.
ry/7055