"Coincidence theory" cannot explain Sibel Edmonds

[Minstrel Boy]

Do you know this woman?



Coincidentalists sure cherry pick the threads to pile on. They love the "no plane hit the Pentagon" stuff. But give them conspiracy facts - things like BCCI, the CIA's drug trafficking, and Sibel Edmonds - and they're as scarce as a Senator's son in Iraq.

So, who is this Sibel Edmonds?

A 9/11 whistleblower from the FBI translation department. A translator of Turkish and Azerbaijani. She does not speak Arabic.

She is someone the Department of Justice doesn't want you to know. She is subject to an extraordinary "State Secrets Privilege" gag order, which prohibits her going public with her classified testimony. The DOJ even retroactively classified her public testimony.

The DOJ recently admitted the validity of her claims of espionage in the translation department, so we're not talking about a crazy woman here.

And yet, dear coincidentalist, her name does not get a single mention in the Kean Report. (Oh my - clutch it tighter to your breast.)

Though prohibited from speaking in detail, she's still been able to tell us much.

Some hints she gave Jim Hogue of The Boston Chronicle:

JH: I understand why you can't say anything about this, but there are several books out about the Bush ties to the Saudis and the bin Ladens in particular. And in David Griffin's book, The New Pearl Harbor, there is a very good synopsis of the ISI, which is the Pakistani intelligence service. He shows the direct connections between the CIA, the ISI, and Mohamed Atta. He makes a very convincing case that the Pakistani ISI had been helping to plan 9/11 for a long time.

I don't imagine that you are allowed to say much about that.

SE: You are correct. But I can tell you that the issue, on one side, boils down to money--a lot of money. And it boils down to people and their connections with this money, and that's the portion that, even with this book, has not been mentioned to this day. Because then it starts touching some people in high places.

JH: Can you explain more about what money you are talking about?

SE: The most significant information that we were receiving did not come from counter-terrorism investigations, and I want to emphasize this. It came from counter-intelligence, and certain criminal investigations, and issues that have to do with money laundering operations.

You get to a point where it gets very complex, where you have money laundering activities, drug related activities, and terrorist support activities converging at certain points and becoming one. In certain points - and they (the intelligence community) are separating those portions from just the terrorist activities. And, as I said, they are citing "foreign relations" which is not the case, because we are not talking about only governmental levels. And I keep underlining semi-legit organizations and following the money. When you do that the picture gets grim. It gets really ugly.... I can tell that once, and if, and when this issue gets to be, under real terms, investigated, you will be seeing certain people that we know from this country standing trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally.

Sounds crazy. Sounds like tinfoil stuff. And yet John Ashcroft justified her gag order by telling the courts what she knows could cause grievous harm to national security.

What she reminds people to do is to look behind administrations, to the confluence of state, business and criminal interests. Including oil and drugs.

From her interview with Christopher Deliso:

CD: At several points you state that such organized crime networks employ "semi-legitimate organizations" as their point of interface with governments and the "legit" world. Can you explain exactly what you mean?

SE: These are organizations that might have a legitimate front – say as a business, or a cultural center or something. And we've also heard a lot about Islamic charities as fronts for terrorist organizations, but the range is much broader and even, simpler.

CD: For example?

SE: You might have an organization supposed to be promoting the cultural affairs of a certain country within another country. Hypothetically, say, an Uzbek folklore society based in Germany. The stated purpose would be to hold folklore-related activities – and they might even do that – but the real activities taking place behind the scenes are criminal.

CD: Such as?

SE: Everything – from drugs to money laundering to arms sales. And yes, there are certain convergences with all these activities and international terrorism.

CD: So with these organizations we're talking about a lot of money –

SE: Huge, just massive. They don't deal with 1 million or 5 million dollars, but with hundreds of millions.

Fintan Dunne of BreakForNews has a good Sibel Edmonds data dump here.

Get to know her. Until you do, you don't know what you're talking about when you talk about 9/11.