Citizen Journalists Needed

[Bradley in DC]

HT Sibel Edmonds

Citizen Journalists Needed 10:00 a.m. Saturday, August 8; 3238 P. St. NW, Washington, DC.

Please disseminate.

MSM will be 'NO SHOW' tomorrow..

[0zzy]

what is this?

[Bradley in DC]

what is this?

Oops, sorry. I was referring to this:

http://123realchange.blogspot.com/2009/08/breaking-news.html

Tuesday, August 4, 2009
BREAKING NEWS

Testimony Subpoenaed in Turkish Lobby & Congressional Campaign Case

Last week I received a request to provide my sworn deposition and affidavit testimony in a case pending before the Ohio Elections Commission; Schmidt v. Krikorian.

Here are a few excerpts by politico on the case:

“Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio), a two-term congresswoman, has filed a formal complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission contending that David Krikorian, who ran against her in 2008 as an independent but is challenging her again in 2010 as a Democrat, slandered her in the closing weeks of last year’s campaign. At issue is a hard-hitting flier Krikorian distributed, accusing Schmidt of taking campaign cash — “blood money,” as he declared in the leaflet — from Turkish interests in exchange for her opposition to recognizing the World War I-era deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman government in Turkey.”

”Schmidt, for her part, has become something of a hero to the Turkish-American community. The co-chairwoman of the Congressional Turkish Caucus, Schmidt has taken more than $10,000 from the Turkish Coalition USA Political Action Committee over the past several years — making it one of her top campaign contributors. The Turkish Coalition of America, an organization that opposes genocide recognition, sponsored a Schmidt trip to Turkey over the Memorial Day recess which cost more than $10,000, according to LegiStorm, a congressional watchdog website.”

”Krikorian — who has regularly blasted Schmidt on a host of other issues — argues that with that stream of funding, Schmidt has become beholden to a Turkish lobby that now views Schmidt as one of its top champions in Congress. “It looks like Turkish interests have focused in on a particular representative,” said Krikorian. “They’ve found a taker in Rep. Schmidt.””

On Monday, August 3, I submitted my sealed unsigned declaration to the Attorney General’s Office at the Department of Justice. The government was given until the end of the day to respond, however, we received no response. My attorneys then gave the government another chance to respond, requesting their response in writing by noon today. Again, we received no official response. Later, DOJ attorneys asserted that the Attorney General’s Office at the Justice Department had either lost or could not locate the confidential sealed affidavit and the accompanying letter!!!

After the second deadline expired I provided my signed declaration to the attorneys for Mr. Krikorian. They are also subpoenaing my deposition, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday, August 8, at 10:30 a.m., in Washington DC.

My sworn declaration includes information in the following areas:

How certain Turkish entities had illegally infiltrated and influenced various U.S. government agencies and officials, including but not limited to the Department of State, the Department of Defense and individual members of the United States Congress.

How certain Turkish American cultural and business lobby groups conduct their illegal operations with direct and indirect support from the foreign governments.


Here is the press release by my attorneys’, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 4, 20094:08 PM
CONTACT: National Whistleblowers Center [1]Stephen M. Kohn (202) 342-6980Lindsey M. Williams (202) 342-1903

Sibel Edmonds Requests Attorney General Review the Invocation of State Secrets Privilege

Edmonds to Testify in Ohio Case Unless Attorney General Re-Invokes the Privilege

WASHINGTON - August 4 - Attorneys for FBI whistleblower Sibel D. Edmonds have requested that Attorney General Holder review the state secrets privilege invoked in her case and reverse the decision made under former President Bush. A copy of the letter can be found here
[2].
Ms. Edmonds was illegally fired from the FBI due to her protected disclosures. An independent investigation by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General confirmed the serious misconduct committed by the FBI and the illegality of her termination. On or about October 18, 2002 the previous administration invoked the state secrets privilege in order to have Ms. Edmonds's whistleblower/First Amendment claims dismissed and to protect the government from embarrassment.

Ms. Edmonds has now been requested to provide sworn deposition and affidavit testimony in a case pending before the Ohio Elections Commission in the Schmidt v. Krikorian [3] case. This case raises nationally significant issues of electoral fraud and violation of law. The state secrets privilege has stifled Ms. Edmonds for the past seven years, and this deposition will be the first time that she will put her knowledge on the record.

Given the pendency of this case and the request for her testimony, the National Whistleblowers Legal Defense and Education Fund requested that the Attorney General immediately and independently review the basis upon which that privilege was initially invoked, and formally and in writing withdraw that privilege. At the time of this release, two separate deadlines for the Department of Justice to respond to the attorney's letter had passed, and consequently the deposition has been scheduled for Saturday. Although a request was hand delivered to the Department of Justice, the Attorney General's office informed counsel that they were having difficulty locating it. According to Stephen M. Kohn, the Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center and one of Ms. Edmonds's attorneys, "The Obama administration must take a fresh look at how the state secrets privilege was improperly used to hide government misconduct from the public view. The Edmonds case was the first case the 'privilege' was invoked, and it must be the first case the 'privilege' is revoked. The government's misguided attempt to cover up wrongdoing by abusing the state secrets privilege to bully a whistleblower must end. Ms. Edmonds has been requested to provide testimony in court. She will do so unless the government again invokes the privilege to quash her First Amendment rights."

Ms. Edmonds's deposition is scheduled for Saturday, August 8, 2009, at 10:30am. It will be held at the National Whistleblowers Center at 3238 P. St. NW, Washington, DC. The event is open to the press.

[PaulaGem]

10:09am PT (1:09pm ET): Wow... just had lengthy conversation with Krikorian about Edmonds' testimony. Just wow... coming momentarily...
...
Spoke to Edmonds, who says she's "tired, gotta put some sugar into her system", but that she's satisfied with what's being put on the record so far. "Things we have never discussed outside before".

A lengthy conversation then, with Krikorian, may give you some idea of what she's referring to.

Here's Krikorian, directly quoted. Hang on to your seats...


"From my opinion, if I'm some of the current members of Congress, I'd be very very worried about the information that's going to come out of this. There are current members of Congress that she has implicated in bribery, espionage. It's not good. It's crazy, it's absolutely crazy. 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.

[Which current members have been implicated?]

[Dan] Burton (R-IN), described as basically accepting bribes and involved in espionage for the Turkish government...she could not discuss the extremely illegal activities that Mr. Burton committed against U.S. interests, as she put it.

Also, a current female Democratic [ed note: I misheard, he later said he didn't know if she was Dem or Rep] member of Congress who has been blackmailed by the Turkish Government...called a 'hooking exercise'...she's apparently bi-sexual and they bugged her apartment, she's married with children, and they set up a relationship with another female who went in and had sexual relationships with her. And they had all the episodes bugged within this current Representatives home and they blackmailed her. ... She wouldn't give her name, but her photograph [is the one with the question mark on it in the "Sibel Edmonds Rogue Gallery" ] .

The context of the discussion was that this particular Representative was amenable to passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution. And then based on this 'hooking' operation, changed her position. She was reluctant to put this person's name on record.

[Other people implicated included] Livingston (R-TX), Hastert (R-IL), Dick Gephardt (D-MO), other non-Congressional members, people like Brent Scowcroft, other appointed members of the U.S. government.

One of the reasons we sought her testimony is especially for these reasons. I can tell you that counsel for Schmidt has been objecting to much of the testimony. I stopped counting the number of objections that were raised. But, she's an extremely credible witness, she knows a lot about what happened. She's implicated Turkish organizations operating in the U.S. with both overt and covert operations.

[Q: Which ones?]

ATC, ATAA, TACA...She talked about how she was recruited to join these operations, she talked about the fact that the Inspector General's report exonerated her, she talked about the circumstances around her dismissal, she talked about the fact that these the fact that these Turkish American operations were, she said in her words 'all receiving support from the Turkish government'.

She talks about one of the main lobby issues is suppressing U.S. media coverage of the Armenian Genocide and preventing the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress from passing. She said very very strongly that is one of their major issues.

She also attested there is no credible opposition to the historical facts of the Armenian genocide, that it's only coming from Turkey.

[Ed note: Edmonds was raised in Turkey, though is a U.S. citizen. Krikorian is of Armenian dissent. Schmidt is neither, but she is co-chair of the Congressional Turkish Caucus.]

Did not have very flattering things to say about former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. ... Actually, I stopped taking notes because I was o fascinated by what she was saying. ... She talked about the Rand Corp., Brewster-Jennings, nuclear secrets...

Frankly it's disappointing that things like this are happening in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Is it a huge surprise? No. Should it be tolerated? Absolutely not. I can't imagine George Washington and Thomas Jefferson allowing this sort of thing to go on in the Republic that they created. I cannot imagine it.

We're talking about High Crimes against the United States government. If the Government is aware of these High Crimes and doesn't prosecute them, I'm not sure what can be said about this.

...

[Q: Do you predict problems with Democrats whose support you will need when running against Schmidt as a Dem in 2010?]

Problem with Democrats...?

Well, Mr. Gephardt and Mr. Solarz are no longer Representatives of the U.S. House of Representatives. I think it would be extremely naive and the height of folly for the Democratic leadership to suggest for a moment that Democrats aren't also corrupt. I don't mean as an entirety, but that there aren't corrupt members of the Democrat caucus. I think there was a recent Democrat down south somewhere who was found with thirty thousand dollars cash in his freezer, or whatever.

If Democratic National Committee or the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Comm.] came out and said, 'hey, we're entirely clean and there's no fault on us', I think the American public would laugh at them. So, this is not an indictment of one party or the other. This is about standing up for what's right for the country, and what is right for the citizens of our country.

Again, I ran as an independent last time [in 2008]. I'm running as a Democrat [in 2010] because I think right now they're probably the better of the two parties. But nevertheless, I don't necessarily buy into the fact that they're without blood on their hands...

[Q: Did she implicate any sitting Democrats?]

She did not indicate any names of any currently serving Democrats that I'm aware. [Though he wasn't certain if the unnamed female Representative was either Democratic or Republican].

Krikorian went on to say that he expects to release the video of the deposition, which, along with the transcript, is the property of his legal team. says "There will be...This could be a 10 part YouTube video segment, that we'll put out there."

He doesn't yet know when a transcript will be available.

The cross-testimony of Edmonds, by Schmidt's attorney Fein is still in progress...




http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7347

[Bradley in DC]

I was there for a while this morning/afternoon. We had thought it would be more open, but in the end we had to stay outside and watch. They took breaks and would come out to give us updates when going for coffee/lunch, etc.

There were only maybe a dozen of us, friends of hers, colleagues and a crew from an Armenian station based in California.

The transcripts well, of course, take a lot longer to get out. (they need to be transcribed, etc.) The video will almost certainly be out first.

[InterestedParticipant]

I was there for a while this morning/afternoon. We had thought it would be more open, but in the end we had to stay outside and watch. They took breaks and would come out to give us updates when going for coffee/lunch, etc.

There were only maybe a dozen of us, friends of hers, colleagues and a crew from an Armenian station based in California.

The transcripts well, of course, take a lot longer to get out. (they need to be transcribed, etc.) The video will almost certainly be out first.
I don't believe a single word out of Edmunds' or Brad Friedman's mouths.

It's OP city all around. So why are you pushing this crapatola here?

The people that develop these time wasters need to go back to the drawing board and develop some new material ..... these repeat OPs are an insult to our intelligence. What, you think everyone that pays attention is a brain dead publicly school trained bot? You know who I am talking to.

[PaulaGem]

I don't believe a single word out of Edmunds' or Brad Friedman's mouths.

It's OP city all around. So why are you pushing this crapatola here?

The people that develop these time wasters need to go back to the drawing board and develop some new material ..... these repeat OPs are an insult to our intelligence. What, you think everyone that pays attention is a brain dead publicly school trained bot? You know who I am talking to.

Everything that I know of the intelligence community from first hand observation and from reading trusted sources tells me that Edmonds is on the level, and I believe if this country survives she will be this generation's Thomas Paine.

[InterestedParticipant]

Everything that I know of the intelligence community from first hand observation and from reading trusted sources tells me that Edmonds is on the level, and I believe if this country survives she will be this generation's Thomas Paine.
There are NO trusted sources in the Intelligence community.

If they were trusted, then they would not be there. Anyone with a soul eventually leaves, as it is not a community designed or intended for the benefit of the American experiment. It is, and always was, an elitist tool.

This chick will never ever come out with anything of value with supporting evidence. This entire play is an OP. And those pumping the story are either dupes, who are of no value, or other insiders who are part of the scam.

If I'm proven wrong, I'll come back here and take my whoopin'.

[PaulaGem]

There are NO trusted sources in the Intelligence community.

If they were trusted, then they would not be there. Anyone with a soul eventually leaves, as it is not a community designed or intended for the benefit of the American experiment. It is, and always was, an elitist tool.

This chick will never ever come out with anything of value with supporting evidence. This entire play is an OP. And those pumping the story are either dupes, who are of no value, or other insiders who are part of the scam.

If I'm proven wrong, I'll come back here and take my whoopin'.

I trust what I know first hand, and I judge other sources from that first hand knowledge. I did not say my "trusted sources" were currently in the intelligence community, did I?

I still say Ms. Edmonds is a great patriot.

[InterestedParticipant]

I trust what I know first hand, and I judge other sources from that first hand knowledge. I did not say my "trusted sources" were currently in the intelligence community, did I?

I still say Ms. Edmonds is a great patriot.
If Edmonds actually ever brings anything to the table other than noise, I'll reconsider my view. But so far, I'll I've seen are highly promoted empty promises funneled through controlled channels.

[Bradley in DC]

http://www.whistleblowers.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=919&Itemid=102

[Bradley in DC]

I don't believe a single word out of Edmunds' mouth.

Background:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm

Also the IG cleared her and substantiated her claims of the agency's retaliation against her. ;)

[InterestedParticipant]

Background:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm

Also the IG cleared her and substantiated her claims of the agency's retaliation against her. ;)
Please don't play word games with me.

Substantiating "retaliation against her" is an entirely different animal than substantiating her original claims, which we are still waiting to hear.

Do people in DC really buy into this stuff? Or, are they bought into BNW (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=204758) and just pushing as much IO on to the public as possible? Are you even in a position to know the answer to this question?

[Bradley in DC]

Please don't play word games with me.

Substantiating "retaliation against her" is an entirely different animal than substantiating her original claims, which we are still waiting to hear.

Do people in DC really buy into this stuff? Or, are they bought into BNW (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=204758) and just pushing as much IO on to the public as possible? Are you even in a position to know the answer to this question?

No word games. As you say, we only know what has been declassified.


"For more than years after Edmonds was fired, the Office of the Inspector General’s inquiry ground on. At last, in July 2004, its report was completed – and promptly labeled classified at the behest of the F.B.I. It took months of further pressure before a redacted, unclassified version was finally issued, in January 2005. It seemed to provide stunning vindication of Edmond’s credibility.

“Many of Edmonds’ core allegations relating to the co-worker [Melek Can Dickerson] were supported by either documentary evidence or witnesses,” the report said. “We believe that the F.B.I. should have investigated the allegations more thoroughly.”

Though I find it telling that Sibel wants her story publicly and the FBI/DoJ try to keep it classified.