BLACKMAIL Is Reason For NO Oversight By Congress: SIBEL EDMONDS: In Congress We Trust...Not

SIBEL EDMONDS: In Congress We Trust...Not

The former FBI translator and whistleblower suggests blackmail may be at the heart of Congressional refusal to bring accountability and oversight to its own members - such as both Hastert and Harman - in matters of espionage and national security

Exclusive to The BRAD BLOG...

Guest Editorial by Sibel Edmonds

......................

The recent stunning but not unexpected revelations regarding Jane Harman (D-CA) by the Congressional Quarterly provide us with a little glimpse into one of the main reasons behind the steady decline in the integrity of Congress. But the story is almost dead - ready to bite the dust, thanks to our mainstream media's insistence on burying 'real' issues or stories that delve deep into the causes of our nation's continuous downward slide. In this particular case, the 'thank you' should also be extended to certain blogosphere propagandists who, blinded by their partisanship, myopic in their assessments, and ignorant in their knowledge of the inner workings of our late Congress and intelligence agencies, helped in the post-burial cremation of this case.

...................

All for One, One for All?

How does it work? How do these people escape the consequences of accountability? Are we talking about the possible use of blackmail by the Executive Branch against Congressional representatives, as if the days of J. Edgar Hoover were never over? Cases such as NSA illegal eavesdropping come to mind, when Congressional members were briefed long before it became public, yet none took any action or even uttered a word; members of both parties. Or is it more likely to be a case of secondhand blackmail, where members of Congress watch out for each other? Or, is it a combination of the above? Regardless, we see this 'all for one, one for all' kind of solidarity in Congress when it comes to criminal conduct and scandals such as those of Hastert and Harman.

..............

But, let's not forget, the misuse of incriminating information, for the purpose of blackmail, does not turn the practitioner of the wrongful deed into a victim, nor does it make the wrongful criminal deed less wrong. Instead of spinning the story, taking away attention from the facts in hand, and making Harman a victim, we must focus on this case, on Harman, as an example of a very serious disease that has infected our Congress for far too long. Those who have been entrusted with the oversight and accountability of our government cannot do so if they are vulnerable to such blackmail from the very same people they are overseeing…Period.



much more at:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7117

nominated

What was it that Hersh said? Oh, yeah: assassinations were only overseas.

Then again, the PATRIOT Act gave them power to classify U.S. citizens as enemies of the state without trial.

:grr:

Wellstone died on October 25, 2002.

Paul Wellstone, Fighter by John Nichols.



In the week before his death, despite his vote against the Iraq War Resolution, Wellstone was comfortably ahead in the polls.

A major warning went out that Al Queda was saying it wanted to ahrmand murder Senators. then Wellstone's palne drops out of the sky, with one witnes reporting seeing a fire aboard, and the NTSB says it was not terrorist related - almost immediately they make that statement.

Some in the know also are aware that Cheney threatened Wellstone.

:kick: Rec & Bookmarked!

Go, Sibel! :woohoo:

speculated about it on his blog.

"Their specialty now is providing loans to people with poor credit histories. They also -- oddly enough -- sell furniture.

This is noteworthy. Readers will recall that MZM -- run by Wilkes' friend and former employee Mitchell Wade, another man with a CIA background -- reportedly supplied furniture to the West Wing of the White House, an odd task for a firm devoted to intelligence and defense. (According to this story, MZM provided furniture and computers to Cheney's offices.) I have speculated, in the past, that this "furniture" was bugged. "
link

:hi:

We know that MZM was part of the "Team B" group involved with Office of Special Plans (OSP) and CIA WINPAC in falsifying Iraq WMD evidence. MZM was on the receiving end of contracts obtained through Cunningham and the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) which ran a vast domestic surveillance operation. Loads of blackmail potential through that wiretapping. Sure.

Foggo was linked in with Wade-Wilkes, to which the Washington Madam was connected. No doubt, juicy blackmail potential also there.

But, why bug and blackmail Cheney?

Seems more likely these payments from Cheney's office were padded to cover payments to MZM for something else, like the Iran opposition group Wilkes was running. Who knows, maybe the computers were for other purpose, perhaps some sort of back-channels communications.

Lots of questions. Anyone have answers?

Thanks b :hi:

No Justice
No Accountability
No Freedom
No Peace
No Middle Class Bailout
No Lower Class Bailout

but we do get

Free No Bid contracts to lobbying corporations
Free Bailouts to Wall Street, The Banks, AIG etc
Free $700 Billion in defense spending each year as it grows
Free AIPAC Spy programs and free lobbyist influence over our countries policies
Free Taxpayer Bailouts to Usrael to kill Palestinians for more condos
Free Torture, murder and Illegal wars into Iraq
Free reign over the rewriting of the laws as they see fit.
Free Tax cuts to the elite rich pigs
Free dumb and we will never achieve Freedom if they have their way.

:cry:

We need an independent special prosecutor, to ensure the people doing the investigating aren't complicit.

remember how the rethuglicans had access to all the congressional Dems emails?

and there was barely a peep about it out of our Dems. Orin Hatch's aide was responsible for one instance. Yet we hear that Orin and Ted Kennedy are good buddies. :eyes: Remember when Kennedy passed out at inauguration party and Orin Hatch was his spokesperson that he knew Teddy would be ok because he gave him an "Irish Smile" as he was placed in the ambulance?

blaming it all on Porter Goss.

The story has died, as Sibel says.

K&R... A few of us still want the truth out.

I am sure I want to recommend this thread!

:kick:

you speak the truth, you defend your country, period. it's in the job description. no excuses.

Washngton would be empty save for low-level bureaucrats!

are you saying our country is devoid of patriots willing and capable of carrying out the tasks of government without being susceptible to blackmail and coercion? and people say i'm cynical.

And a LOT of congress critters who do nothing illegal would, nonetheless, be susceptible to blackmail if the compromises they made were known to their constituents, in that they would be subject to losing their seats in the next election. Additionally, there is the 'Six Degrees of Separation from Abramof' game which can always be played - maybe THEY did nothing, but they work closely with X who DID take Abramof money...

Blackmail and bribery. Remember, in "Mr Smith Goes to Washington", Smith did NOTHING wrong, but they made it look like he had to get him to do their will. Nothing has changed.

the players make the game. the game serves the rich. neither the players nor the rich care one bit about the country. they are not patriotic.

Re If those high ideals were enforced Washngton would be empty save for low-level bureaucrats!

With a few notable exceptions like Dennis Kucinich and Bernie Sanders, I can't think of anything that would do more for America than starting from scratch with REAL representatives who actually represent the people who elected them.

was to facilitate blackmail.

No surprise here

Nothing new under the sun. Why does it surprise?

In March 2007, I was contacted by one of Rep. Waxman's staff people who felt responsible and conscientious enough to at least let me know that there would never be a hearing into my case by their office, or for that matter, any Democratic office in the House. Based on his/her account, in February 2007 Waxman's office was preparing the necessary ingredients for their promised hearing, but in mid-March the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, called Waxman into a meeting on the case, and after Waxman came out of that twenty-minute meeting, he told his staff 'we are no longer involved in Edmonds' case.' And so they became 'uninvolved.'

:sarcasm:

Way to go Sibel. As usual hard-hitting and non-biased. We should all take a lesson. Just pay attention to the facts and leave ideology out of it - both sides have corruption.

This author's credibility just took a dive!

L. Coyote:
What are you reading? Is it speculation that Hastert is now lobbying for Turkey? That he profited from his position with his "land deal"? Is it speculation that Harman was captured on a wiretap? Is it speculation that the AIPAC case was dropped? Is it speculation that Harman supported the Iraq war, and the Patriot Act, and NSA wiretapping of Americans? Do you think Sibel is "speculating" about her SCIF sessions? How many facts do you need? It seems to me that it is your comment that is clearly "devoid of facts"

Welcome to DU!

Good to have comprehensive readers here. :hi:

Rep. Jane Harman into supporting the NSA’s warrantless spying program—

David Lindorff Baltimore Chronicle excerpt:



Thanks for posting kpete. :hi::fistbump:

Duress is a defense to a crime. Those who were blackmailed could be witnesses to the crimes of Bush and Cheney. This is merely a possibility. The Justice Department needs to investigate all the facts before going forward. They may be investigating as we write. We would and should not be told if an investigation is under way.

Anyone notice this big FEAR lie happened right after this Harman story was really coming out and the Demands for prosecution of torturers/war criminals were growing very loud?

I thought this part was interesting...

"But the story is almost dead - ready to bite the dust, thanks to our mainstream media's insistence on burying 'real' issues or stories that delve deep into the causes of our nation's continuous downward slide. In this particular case, the 'thank you' should also be extended to certain blogosphere propagandists who, blinded by their partisanship, myopic in their assessments, and ignorant in their knowledge of the inner workings of our late Congress and intelligence agencies, helped in the post-burial cremation of this case."

"Back to the enablers: How can we explain the continued blackout by the mainstream media, and/or, the logic-free defenses of the Harmans and Hasterts alike by the apologist spinners --- some of whom pass as the 'alternative' media?"

the CIA, the FBI, the two major parties, and even by individual fiefdoms including corporations, to gather every piece of information possible to use to coerce our representatives to do their bidding.

This is a game that was perfected millenia ago. Now it's even easier because of the high-tech spyware that's available even to the average Joe or Jane. Back in the good ole days a king or duke had to have someone follow his rival to find out if he was having a fling with the wife of another nobleman. Nowadays, you just tap into the cell phone or the computer and VOILA! instant evidence. Then you follow up with a few candid photos with time/date stamps and you've got everything you need to bring your patsy to heel.

Our government is not one big boogie man. It's thousands of them. Every agency head, especially of the "enforcement" arms is well equipped with human and technological resources to engage in this type of monitoring. If you don't think they're doing it, well, you are not a student of history. Every power player, or wannabe power player, is looking for an angle and an edge. Once they find it, they use it.

Of course, not all of our institutions are totally corrupt, but the ones that are have become the ones who wield the power.

How we overcome this insidious cancer I have no idea. Even men and women of good will and moral strength make mistakes that they do not want the "public" to know about.

I admire Sibel Edmonds for all of her work trying to expose this game. Unfortunately, I doubt it's going to do any good. Ultimately, the empire will collapse due to its rotten inner core, just as so many others before have done.

rather lenient easily implemented FISA law? FISA doesn't restrict spying on enemies in any way, shape, or form, so the only reason one would not go through FISA has to deal with spying on people who are not enemies of the United States.

It's amazing how many rec's your thread is getting, but also a confirmation as to how knee jerky so many here are.

don't you find it remotely curious why no one has been held accountable on anything? Only the whistleblowers get punished in some fashion. Now, how can this be explained away?

even AFTER they said they did - in Bush's cases, with regard to leaking Plame's name, in Obama's case, with regard to torture.

Of course Bush wouldn't be in favor of accountability. He's a criminal dozens of times over. But he isn't in power now, is he? Democrats are.

Want to try again?

Maybe if you actually read it you will discover the facts it contains. See my earlier response to L. Coyote.

And your reply to L coyote was dumb.

Not one of the things you mentioned in it supports the accusation in the OP.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

with hardly a whimper.

"The dropping of the charges will come as a relief to Aipac because the case threatened to overshadow its annual conference this weekend at which it parades support from American politicians. It was also an embarrassment which laid the lobby group open to charges of putting Israel's interests above those of the US."

oooh poor AIPAC:cry: we would want to ruin their little party

Between this, Sibel's gagging, the commuting of Scooter Libby's sentence and the fact that Three years after being sentenced to 12.5 years in jail, LARRY FRANKLIN IS STILL A FREE MAN! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5599574 I've come to the conclusion that justice is DEAD in this country. I don't blame Holder and Obama for looking the other way, they're just continuing a tradition that's been in place in our government since at least 11/22/63. Fuck it.

Let Sibel testify!

that elected officials can be sent to prison for things that were never a crime. that a case can be trumped up out of the ordinary doings of any politician in this country.

Don Seigleman prosecution? I don't understand - I don't even know what that is/was. Can you explain. TIA.

you would get an awful lot of hits. but- don seigleman was the democratic governor of alabama, and after his re-election was stolen, he was prosecuted for bribery and corruption. he was sent to prison because he reappointed a contributor to a state board. the guy was already serving, and had been appointed in the first place the a republican.
there was no evidence of a quid pro quo. this was a perfectly routine appointment. something that any politician has done. something that was never a crime.
but now it is. and the guy went to prison. the whole case smells to high heaven. imho, it was a warning. "we own the justice department. we own justice. we can make up a case out of whole cloth. we can do it to you."
so, you can threaten and intimidate people who have done nothing wrong.

He was profiled on 60 Minutes, too.

IMO, there may be some being blackmailed, but most are just going along with the corruption rather than make waves and risks their seats.

"When politics enter . . . government, nothing resulting there from in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible."

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."

Mark Twain

That's probably all they have to do.

Mr. Smith of the XYZ Corp. is a constituent and campaign supporter. The Congressperson is talking to Mr. Smith, and Mr. Smith draws to the congressperson's attention a bill that would harm or help the XYZ Corp. and asks the congressperson to vote aye or nay -- just like we do about bills that would further our interests. That is all it takes.

Hard to tell whether the vote was quid pro quo for the campaign contribution (or fundraising -- remember all those calls you made for your congressperson or your favorite candidate for president).

Of course, for the most part, our donations and calls don't count for much, and Mr. Smith's are probably larger and of more value. But, it is very hard to determine which favors are a part of constituent services and the normal political give and take and decisionmaking and which are payoffs. Very hard.

and that the daily come and go could be twisted into a crime. so, they all had reason to fear.

on their enemies once in office and use it against them for political gain?

Did the people who voted for these republican criminals really believe republicans would be honorable....it makes me sick to see such a lack of foresight and that people actually believing republicans would stay within the law instead of doing everything possible to excel their corporate & military ideology & agenda....You mean people can't look at these republicans, know what they are and have been about and just know what criminals will do once in power?

It's mind boggling to me what un-perceptive & unaware sheep people are....then they are surprised when things are exposed, what's wrong with people, do they actually believe what the media tells them, is that how they become so stupid?

As I linked in H2O Man's thread:

Six Dimensions of Scandal
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=5518578#5518973

Bipartisan Coverup: The US Deep State

GK: When was the last time that you had any contact with Waxman's office?

SE: That would be, having real conversation/contact was before the election in 2006, but in March 2007, I spoke with one of his staff people... and he said the congressman was very serious about having these hearings. But just as he was planning on scheduling a hearing for my case - this is the State Secrets Privilege and the whole FBI case - he was called into a hearing with Nancy Pelosi, they went into a meeting for about 30 minutes, Chairman Waxman came out and told his staff that they were not going to have these hearings, including my case.

And interestingly, this was during a time that they were putting together this junket, this trip, to several countries, the first one being Israel, and Chairman Waxman was not on that list. After this meeting, two or three days later, his name was added to the list. I don't know if that means anything or not, if it was a coincidence, I don’t know. That was the last time.

GK: Sibel, do you suppose that there are any currently serving members of congress who would be affected by an open hearing?

SE: Yes. Yes. This is the point that I wanted to bring up when you asked the question. When I went inside the SCIF, with Congressman Waxman's staff, all the people who attended had clearance, so I started going through the facts because I can disclose to the appropriate committee, people with clearance etc, and I can talk about details.

So, as I started talking about congressional members, or certain appointed officials under both administrations who were involved in certain activities that were targeted by the FBI at one point, the legal counsel with clearance for congressman Waxman stopped me and said "I need to stop you right here and ask you a question. How many Democrats are involved here in the House or the Senate?" and I answered the question, I said "Concretely to answer that, the ones that I know for sure would be three." And he looked at his watch, and said "OK I think we have enough, we don't want to hear any more. What we would like to do is we want to receive the classified version of the Inspector General's report, which we never got, and after that we will contact you and ask you to continue."

Basically they said they didn’t want to hear it because if they heard it they would be responsible. So the meeting ended there - this was the SCIF meeting, and again, this was witnessed because I got the report from the Capitol police that came and declared that the room was secured, the date... so the fact that I went inside the SCIF with them, who I met, everything has been recorded, but this is how it went.

GK: That's fascinating. Let me ask you a related question, Sibel. Do you think that there are any currently serving officials in the administration who would be affected by open hearings?

SE: Yes. Absolutely. Because a lot of these people are recycled as you know. I'm sure you're aware of it because, it's very easy, and this is one of the fallacies from the Left groups, and that is they like to boil down all the bad and evil into maybe three or four or five faces, whether it's Wolfowitz, ok, Cheney, ok, the big bad evil people, and limit it to these people and say 'OK. These are the evil-doers, and we want to see them gone.' Well, it's much deeper than that. You really need to look at those people who keep getting recycled.

GK: So what this begins to look like is the Deep State that Peter Dale Scott talks about...

SE: Absolutely

GK: ...having transferred from Turkey over here to the US.

SE: Correct, because they usually refer to that term in Turkey. It's a very known term - in fact, even if you go to Wikipedia if you look even a lot of even international perspective in Turkey, it is a Deep State, and that is, Deep State consists of the military and intelligence and their involvement in a lot of criminal activities - part of it is narcotics, the other ones have to do with certain money laundering activities.

But within the US we have a much bigger, much more important, much more influential Deep State. I mean, I'm just going to throw a name - look at people like Henry Kissinger. Name one administration that has not had Henry Kissinger as a White House advisor.

And another one, because this is public. Now, if you look at the Chairman of ATC, you will see Brent Scowcroft, OK. Well just recently, President Obama appointed him as a special - whatever - envoy and now he is actually working for the Obama administration. But he's still residing as chairman of ATC. I mean nobody is even talking about conflict of interest.

http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/2009/04/sibel-edmonds-interviewed-by-electric.html


The root problem is the Deep State. That's what we're up against.

reason.

Interesting mistake.

They have effectively, for now, taken Single-Payer Medical Treatment "off the table!" Just like Pelosi took impeachment "off the table." Who owns the table?

:popcorn:

CHRISTOPHER BOLKCOM - RIP

To the shock and bewilderment of those who knew him, Christopher Bolkcom, a distinguished analyst at the Congressional Research Service, died suddenly May 1 at age 46.

As noted by the Project on Government Oversight, he testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee just last Thursday, the day before he died.

Falls Church, Virginia 22046.
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

I would imagine the charges used aginst Scott Ritter would be possible. I wonder what others.

this government is so corrupted and infiltrated