Un-Gagged: FBI Whistleblower Testifies In Ohio Election Complaint Case »
By Thomas C. Nash
Mirror-Spectator Staff
WASHINGTON – A high profile Ohio election fraud case revolving around
the Armenian Genocide now includes the testimony of an ex-FBI
translator who claims the US government maintained a relationship with
Osama Bin Laden until September 11, 2001.
Sibel Edmonds, who was recruited by the FBI as a Turkish, Farsi and
Azerbaijani translator immediately after the September 11 attacks, was
fired in 2002 after raising questions about the Turkish government’s
influence on US officials and illegal activities involving drug and
arms smuggling, money laundering and the sale of nuclear secrets.
The election complaint, stemming from accusations that an Ohio
Republican House member took `blood money’ from the Turkish government
in exchange for denying the Armenian Genocide, has given Edmonds a
chance to outline her knowledge of what she says are treasonous acts
committed by Congressional, Defense and State Department officials to
aid Turkish government.
Edmonds has been fighting a `state secrets’ gag order imposed in 2002
by former Attorney General John Ashcroft to stymie her efforts to make
the information public. The Ohio case has provided Edmonds a chance to
defy that gag order after being given permission to testify by the
Ohio Elections Commission.
Edmonds gave a six-hour deposition at the National Whistleblowers
Center (NWC) on August 8.
`Every time I have attempted to [use the Freedom of Information Act],
it’s ended up in court,’ Edmonds said before the testimony. `I’ve been
trying to put this information forth to the American people. This
deposition may achieve this goal to a certain degree.’
`Blood Money’
Edmond’s deposition was sought by Democratic Ohio Congressional
candidate David Krikorian, who has been charged with making false
statements during a 2008 campaign for Ohio’s 2nd district seat against
Republican incumbent Jean Schmidt.
Schmidt took issue with the then-independent Krikorian campaign’s
distribution of a flyer stating she had taken $30,000 in `blood money’
to `deny the genocide of Christian Armenians by Muslim Turks’ as
co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Caucus.
While Schmidt, a four-year incumbent, won the election by a wide
margin, Krikorian contends she filed a `false claims’ complaint with
the Ohio Elections Commission in April after learning that he was
seeking the Democratic nomination as her opponent in 2010.
Krikorian, who two days before the 2008 election demanded Schmidt
withdraw from the race and recommend she `seek the help of
professional counseling,’ said Edmonds’ testimony will prove Schmidt
is unduly influenced by the Turkish government.
`There are no Turkish interests in this district,’ Krikorian said
after the deposition. `Who’s pulling her strings and why is she
allowing it to happen? She lives in the greater Cincinnati area. Why
was she the single largest recipient of Turkish PAC money in the 2008
campaign?’
After hearing Edmonds’ accusations, Krikorian said he now wonders
whether Schmidt may have been forced to file the complaint by the
Turkish government.
`Based on some of the stuff that we heard in Edmonds testimony, it’s
clear that the Turkish government does, or did at least anyway,
actively blackmail members of the US Congress.’
Schmidt’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Edmonds said she was happy to contribute to Krikorian’s defense, but
that her information reaches far beyond the Turks’ disruption of the
Armenian Genocide recognition legislation, which is awaiting review by
the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
`The Armenian Genocide issue is part of the information [for which]
the US government has invoked the state secrets privilege,’ she said.
`In my case it includes other issues, but the Armenian Genocide is
part of it. The request for [the state secrets privilege] to be
invoked came from the State Department because of Turkish lobbying.’
The Link to 9/11
Much has been made of a recent radio interview in which Edmonds said
Osama Bin Laden and the US government collaborated in operations in
central Asia until the September 11 attacks. Edmonds said some
operations were ongoing at the point of her termination in 2002.
Given the timing of her deposition and what some have deemed a
`bombshell,’ Edmonds stressed that the information is nothing new.
`I have been talking about that for seven years,’ she said. `There’s
nothing explosive about it. I don’t have any control over how certain
groups use the information.’
Among the information that remains under the state secrets label is
her knowledge to events preceding September 11. Edmonds volunteered
her testimony to the 9/11 Commission, but was ignored until the 9/11
Families Steering Committee, appointed to monitor the Commission,
insisted she be included. The contents of her testimony were left out
of the 9/11 Commission Report and remain sealed.
Since the gag order on Edmonds’ information has not been lifted, her
ability to testify was in doubt up until and during the August 8
deposition.
In letters posted online by the NWC, General Counsel of the FBI
Valerie Caproni and Senior Counsel with the Department of Justice
Vesper Mei responded to a request by Edmond’s legal team to review the
gag order by saying Krikorian’s subpoena to testify was not valid.
The Justice Department stated Edmonds is under `no compulsion’ to
testify and the FBI insisted that she, `does not have approval for any
disclosure of any information.’
The deposition, however, went on as scheduled.
`I think people were pretty surprised that the [Department of Justice]
did not show,’ Krikorian said.
Although the Ohio Elections Commission instructed the NWC to ban the
media, the NWC said it hopes to release a video and full transcript of
the testimony.
Objections
Krikorian was on hand at the deposition alongside his attorney, former
Michael Jackson lawyer Mark Geragos. Standing outside the NWC
headquarters, Krikorian gave the assembled media his recollection of
Edmonds’ testimony.
Among the highlights, Krikorian said, was Edmonds’ claim that a
married female member of Congress was enticed into a sexual
relationship with a woman paid by the Turkish government to videotape
the affair.
`Ms. Edmonds said these types of `hooking’ exercises to uncover
somebody’s weaknesses was standard operating procedure,’ Krikorian
said, adding Edmonds did not identify the blackmailed Representative.
Other lawmakers mentioned in Edmonds’ testimony, according to
Krikorian, included Dan Burton (R-IN), who Edmonds alleges took bribes
and `engaged in espionage’ for the Turkish government, former Rep.
Dick Gephardt (D-MO), former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert
(R-IL) and Stephen Solarz (D-NY).
Congressional newspaper The Hill reported in April that Hastert had
signed a $35,000-a-month contract to lobby against the Armenian
Genocide resolution. Gephardt, a former proponent of the resolution,
began lobbying against it in 2007.
Bruce Fein, an influential Washington attorney and resident scholar at
the Turkish Coalition of America (TCA), is representing Schmidt and
attended the deposition to object to the testimony.
`There are two grounds for the objection,’ Fein said afterwards. `The
first was the attorney questioning her was not admitted as an attorney
in the case. The second was (the testimony) was totally irrelevant.
(Edmonds) hadn’t even read the complaint and admitted to not knowing
anything about the case.’
Fein declined further comment.
Fein is also representing historian Guenter Lewy in a lawsuit against
the Southern Poverty Law Center alleging they defamed him by reporting
the Turkish government paid Lewy to deny the Armenian Genocide.
An outspoken critic of the Armenian Genocide recognition movement,
Fein recently published an article in the Huffington Post titled,
`Recommendations for the Armenian Diaspora,’ in which he asks the
diaspora to re-align its genocide recognition efforts toward, among
other areas, `exposing the futility of political lobbying.’
`This Is What I’ve Been Fighting for’
The Ohio election complaint is scheduled to be heard by the Elections
Commission review board on September 3. Before then, Krikorian said
his legal team expects depositions from Schmidt and TCA President G.
Lincoln McCurdy.
Krikorian added that Edmonds’ testimony will remain sealed from the
public until September 3 in order to avoid further provoking the
Justice Department before he is able to use it.
`Our intention right now is on winning the case,’ Krikorian said. `We
sought the deposition not as a public spectacle but for my defense.
We’ll focus on winning this frivolous lawsuit … What happens after
that we’ll have to wait and see.’
Krikorian added he was unsure as to whether the Justice Department
could block the testimony from being used.
`Based on Ms. Edmonds testimony, I think just about anything our
government wants to do, they can do,’ he said.
For Edmonds, it may finally be her chance to bring to light the
information she has been fighting to disclose for seven years. She
expressed doubt, however, in how much traction her story will gain
from the deposition.
`The mainstream media date has completely ignored the facts confirmed
by Congress, and the extremity of these gag orders have completely
blacked it out,’ Edmonds said. `The American people have a right to
know. They have the right to know about these incumbents and they have
to be informed. In my case, forget about the foreign entities – it
involves elected officials involved in criminal actions.’
Edmonds has often said she would make her knowledge public to any
major media outlet that would present her complete, unedited story.
None have taken her up on the offer.
`This is what I was fighting for for all these years,’ she told
journalists after the six hours of testimony. `At least now a good
chunk of it is out.’