Sibel Edmonds: Turkey, drugs and 9/11

[Minstrel Boy]

Interesting analysis by John Stanton of the link of international drug trafficking to the 9/11 conspiracy, which pays attention to the Turkish link alluded to by Sibel Edmonds. (Remember, while an FBI translator, she was courted by a Turkish spy ring which appears to have operated with the agency's sanction.)

Here's a memorable quote: "50 billion dollars worth of foreign debt is nothing, it is two lorry loads of heroin."

Turkey, Drugs, Faustian Alliances & Sibel Edmonds
by John Stanton
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 29, 2004


Taking Turkey as the focal point and with a start date of 1998, it is easy to speculate why Sibel Edmonds indicated that there was a convergence of US and foreign counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and US national security and economic interests all of which were too preoccupied to surface critical information warning Americans of the attacks of September 11, 2001. After all, who would have believed drug runners operating in Central Asia? And besides, President Clinton was promoting Turkey, one of the world’s top drug transit points, as a model for Muslim-Western cooperation and a country necessary to reshape the Middle East.

The FBI’s Office of International Operations, in conjunction with the CIA and the US State Department counter-narcotics section, the United Kingdom’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad, Pakistan’s ISI, the US DEA, Turkey’s MIT, and the governments and intelligence agencies of dozens of nations, were in one way or another involved in the illicit drug trade either trying to stop it or benefit from it. What can be surmised from the public record is that from 1998 to September 10, 2001, the War on Drugs kept bumping into the nascent War on Terror and new directions in US foreign policy.

...

In 1998, the US Department of State (DOS) was finally forced to admit that Turkey was a major refining and transit point for the flow of heroin from Southwest Asia to Western Europe, with small quantities of the stuff finding its way to the streets of the USA. In that same year, Kendal Nezan, writing for Le Monde Diplomatique, reported that MIT, and the Turkish National Police force were actively supporting the trade in illicit drugs not only for fun and profit, but out of desperation.

"After the Gulf War in 1991, Turkey found itself deprived of the all-important Iraqi market and, since it lacked significant oil reserves of its own, it decided to make up for the loss by turning more massively to drugs. The trafficking increased in intensity with the arrival of the hawks in power, after the death in suspicious circumstances of President Turgut Özal in April 1993. According to the minister of interior, the war in Kurdistan had cost the Turkish exchequer upwards of $12.5 billion. According to the daily Hürriyet, Turkey’s heroin trafficking brought in $25 billion in 1995 and $37.5 billion in 1996...Only criminal networks working in close cooperation with the police and the army could possibly organize trafficking on such a scale. Drug barons have stated publicly, on Turkish television and in the West, that they have been working under the protection of the Turkish government and to its financial benefit. The traffickers themselves travel on diplomatic passports... the drugs are even transported by military helicopter from the Iranian border."
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June04/Stanton0629.htm

Some other threads on Edmonds and the 9/11 drug connection:

Heroin, Al Qaeda and the Florida Flight School
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1294206

DOJ Asked FBI Translator To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=442067&mesg_id=442067

Explosive new Sibel Edmonds interview
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1555133&mesg_id=1555133

State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=610235&mesg_id=610235

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Turkey, drugs and bin Laden.

Many links here detailing how Turkey's state apparatus, including the security service MIT, profits by the drug trade and has protected bin Laden and his network:

http://www.members.tripod.com/discover_turkey0/Drugs.htm

For instance:

Gangster worked for Turk intelligence, court told

ISTANBUL, July 22 1997 (Reuter)- A former Turkish intelligence officer told a court on Tuesday that a gangster wanted for murder and drug smuggling had taken part in the state's intelligence activities, Anatolian news agency said. ``Abdullah Catli worked for both the police and (the National Intelligence Organisation) MIT,'' the agency quoted Korkut Eken as telling Istanbul state security court.

Catli is central to a security scandal that erupted in November when he died in traffic accident in a car also carrying a senior policeman and an MP from Tansu Ciller's True Path Party, then ruling the country in coalition with Islamists.

Eken, also a former high-ranking interior ministry advisor and military officer, is on trial with ten other suspects for their alleged role in the scandal. He said far-right activist Catli had given the security establishment information on unnamed guerrilla groups. ``He helped in some intelligence activities and provided information about outlawed organisations,'' Eken said. Catli had been on the run since the 1970s after being charged with a role in the execution-style murder of seven leftists. A false passport and bogus police documents in his name were found in the wreckage of the car after last November's crash.

Eken told a parliamentary commission probing the scandal last year that Catli had carried out missions abroad for years for Turkey's intelligence service. The Turkish media has reported that leading state officials were closely linked to underworld figures in the past and that their links might still exist. The parliamentary commission issued a report on the scandal accusing two MPs from the True Path of involvement in the scandal, but it stopped short of calling for the lifting of the MPs' immunities from prosecution. The True Path's ruling alliance with the pro-Islamist Welfare Party collapsed and was replaced last month by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz's secularist government which has vowed to highlight the scandal.
http://www.members.tripod.com/discover_turkey0/crime/Link.htm

and

Bin-Ladin went to Turkey in 1996, 1998. He did not face difficulties

...

According to the records, once again Bin-Ladin landed at Adana first and then in Istanbul. That was on 17 February 1998. According to the passenger manifesto of the HAVAS company that serviced Bin-Ladin's plane, the only two passengers were Bin-Ladin who was registered as Muhammad Usamah and another person called Al-Savaf. This visit took place during the Motherland Party, Democratic Left Party, and Democratic Turkey Party coalition government.

It is reported that Bin-Ladin, who is being sought by the Interpol with the red bulletin ever since 1994, was not faced with any difficulties during either of his visits.

...

There are interesting elements in Bin-Ladin's visits; one of them is the State Airports Administration document, which shows that the private plane arrived in Turkey. A copy of these documents that must be drawn up each time a private plane lands in Turkey must be sent to the Ankara State Airports Administration Directorate General. The document on Bin-Ladin's first visit was not sent to Ankara but to the Secret Documents and Circulars File in Istanbul.

Another interesting point concerns the receipt for the fee charged in return for the ground services given to the private plane. The form's number was left vacant. Furthermore, it was not processed through the computer but was filled by hand. In this way, Ankara could not see it in the on-line system.
http://www.members.tripod.com/discover_turkey0/BinLadin.htm

[seemslikeadream]

2. Sounds like LBN to me

[Minstrel Boy]

3. "state-sponsored growth of mafia activities related to the drugs trade"

IN THE SHADOW OF GENERALS, HIRED KILLERS AND DRUG TRAFFICKERS
Turkey’s pivotal role in the international drug trade

Le Monde, July 1998
Kendal Nezan

In August 1998 General Ismail Hakki Karadayi comes to the end of his term as chief of staff of Turkey’s armed forces. His five years in this post have been marked by the increasing role played by military officers in all aspects of Turkey’s political life, from the Kurdish question to relations with Greece and the ongoing struggle against the Islamists. There has also been a state-sponsored growth of mafia activities related to the drugs trade and many murders of opposition politicians and civil rights campaigners.

The attempted murder on 12 May this year of Akin Birdal, president of the Turkish Human Rights Association, has reopened the debate on the activities of the criminal networks which have flourished under the protection of the Turkish authorities. The attempt took place in Ankara a few weeks after a speech he made before a hearing of the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), of which he is vice-president, drawing wide public attention to what is going on in Turkey. Mr Birdal had protested that "In Spain, the 28 murders committed by the GAL have become a matter of concern at the highest government level, whereas in Turkey, which likes to present itself as a law-abiding state and which is seeking admission to the European Union, not one single perpetrator of more than 4,500 unsolved murders carried out since 1991 - the so-called ’faili mesul cinayetleri’- has thus far been arrested. In my country, the murderers are on the streets and the intellectuals are behind bars."

...

For the people of Turkey, Susurluk has become synonymous with the Turkish state’s slide into mafia activities. It has prompted repeated calls for a "clean-up" in the upper echelons of the state. The public outcry has not been satisfied by the setting up of a parliamentary commission, nor by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz’s long TV appearance on 23 January 1997, in which he commented on the report which had just been submitted to him. These are seen just as attempts to cover up the extent of the gangrene eating at the very heart of the state - particularly because the political and police figures under suspicion are still very much at large, and are claiming that they acted on orders from high-up in the state apparatus (3).

The government’s chief inspector accuses a man by name of Yesil, known as "the Terminator", of having been responsible for at least nineteen killings, including that of a member of parliament, Mehmet Sincar. He also accuses him of having kidnapped - from the entrance to the State Security Court in Diyarbakir - two young women, Sükran Mizgin and Zeynep Baka, whom he raped and savagely tortured before killing them.

The report states that the Terminator "acting in the full knowledge of the MIT (National Intelligence Organisation), one of whose chiefs he called ‘baba’ (father), was able to run a bank account in Ankara, through which passed huge sums of money deriving from protection rackets and drug trafficking". Carrying papers supplied by the prime minister’s intelligence office, this criminal left Turkey on 23 October 1996 and headed for Beirut, in the company of two MIT agents travelling on diplomatic passports - and, in the process, was received in the VIP lounge at Istanbul airport normally reserved for the prime minister. In such a situation, it is not possible just to talk of "events beyond our control" or "policy errors".
http://mondediplo.com/1998/07/05turkey

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Balkans, drugs, bin Laden and friends

Funny eh, how US military policy seems bent on protecting the drug routes as much as those of oil. And funny how often the two are the same.

The overnight rise of heroin trafficking through Kosovo -- now the most important Balkan route between Southeast Asia and Europe after Turkey -- helped also to fund terrorist activity directly associated with al Qaeda and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Opium poppies, which barely existed in the Balkans before 1995, have become the No. 1 drug cultivated in the Balkans after marijuana. Operatives of two al Qaeda-sponsored Islamist cells who were arrested in Bosnia on Oct. 23 were linked to the heroin trade, underscoring the narco-jihad culture of today´s post-war Balkans.
http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/nov01/hed4304.shtml

From "Osamagate" by Michel Chossudovsky:

According to Frank Ciluffo of the Globalized Organised Crime Program, in a testimony presented to the House of Representatives Judicial Committee:

"What was largely hidden from public view was the fact that the KLA raise part of their funds from the sale of narcotics. Albania and Kosovo lie at the heart of the 'Balkan Route' that links the 'Golden Crescent' of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the drug markets of Europe. This route is worth an estimated $400 billion a year and handles 80 percent of heroin destined for Europe."

...

Another link to bin Laden is the fact that the brother of a leader in an Egyptian Jihad organization and also a military commander of Osama bin Laden, was leading an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict.

...

While the various Congressional reports confirmed that the US government had been working hand in glove with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, this did not prevent the Clinton and later the Bush Administration from arming and equipping the KLA. The Congressional documents also confirm that members of the Senate and the House knew the relationship of the Administration to international terrorism. To quote the statement of Rep. John Kasich of the House Armed Services Committee: "We connected ourselves with the KLA, which was the staging point for bin Laden...."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO110A.html

Meanwhile, back in Turkey:

Huseyin Basbasin, arrested in 1995 in Holland for smuggling drugs on board of the Lucky-S, claims he smuggled drugs together with Yunus Agar and Yalcin Akcadag (Mehmet Agar's uncle) under the cover of the oil business. Baybasin stated they were transporting oil from Libya, took drugs on board on route, shipping it to Holland. Baybasin further said: "Nobody was allowed near the ship by the police. The police president Suleyman Basgol was there as well. Nobody can claim to have seen nothing. It was all controlled by the Istanbul police." According to Baybasin, Mehmet Agar makes $500.000 a month and he demands that Agar should give an explanation where all his wealth came from.
http://eagle.westnet.gr/~cgian/triangle.htm

[NecessaryOnslaught]

5. Kick for smack

:kick:

[seemslikeadream]

6. Back by popular demand, our 3 box specials:

Back by popular demand, our 3 box specials:

Buy 3 boxes of our Tasmanian Mediums and get1 free!
Buy 3 boxes of our Turkish special and get 1 box free.
Offer valid until June 30, 2004
http://www.poppiesinternational.com

Minstrel Boy

such an odd, beautiful plant
Reminds me of the one in the old Star Trek episode that makes Spock trip out:



Peter Dale Scott, one of the great minds unravelling the secret history of the National Security State:

Poppy Paradox: US War in Afghanistan Boosts Terror Funds

It is true, as President Bush has insisted, that global terrorism is financed by the flow of illicit drugs. Yet by installing and rewarding a coalition of drug-financed warlords in Kabul, the United States has itself helped restore the flow of Afghan heroin to terrorist groups, from the Balkans and Chechnya to Tajikistan, Pakistan and Kashmir.

Thanks to the U.S. intervention, Afghanistan will again supply up to 70 percent of the world's heroin this year, 90 percent of the heroin reaching Europe and even a part of the heroin reaching the United States.

...

U.S. actions probably reflect its complex relations with Pakistan, which regards both Gul Agha and Hazrat Ali as allies. For 20 years, the complex of heroin-terror networks in Central Asia has been fostered by Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI.

Since backing drug-trafficking mujahideen against the Soviet Union, the ISI has had a vision of using the drug traffic to project its influence beyond Afghanistan into Central Asia. Afghan opium and heroin from the mujahideen during the 1980s corrupted not just the ISI itself, but the whole of Pakistani society. Pakistan's opium-heroin economy reached at least half the size of its official one, and in terms of exports may have surpassed it.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles/Scott_PoppyParadox.htm


al bupp

Everything We Were Taught About Poppies is Wrong
The seed of the "Opium Poppy" is the same as what's sold in garden stores nationwide for use as ornamental flowers. Read Jim Hogshire's "Opium for the Masses" to find out more. The history of opiate use from poppies, and various laws enacted to regulate this is also succinctly outlined in article he contributed to "You Are Being Lied To", entitled "Poppycock: Truth and Lies about Poppies, Opium, and Painkilling Drugs" (http://www.disinfo.com/site/displayarticle8.html ).
This website also appears to have a lot information about poppies:
http://www.poppiesinternational.com/index.html


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=610235

[al bupp]

8. Thank you for posting this

I almost want to avoid your posts, MB, because they inevitably involve so many links I want to follow... how am I supposed to get any work done?!

Please stop documenting them so well (just kidding). ;-)

[G_j]

7. interesting

I posted this last night, but it died.

I'm gald you gave it another chance. :-)

dissidentvoice has some good stuff

[Minstrel Boy]

9. sorry I missed your post, G_j

Would have bumped it rather than reposting. I think it's important stuff, and Stanton's a pretty sharp guy. His compilation, co-authored with Wayne Madsen, America's Nightmare, is pretty good. Awfully overpriced, though, for a slim trade paperback. Fortunately I was able to grab a used copy.

[G_j]

11. you might be able to help me

I've been trying to find any link to transcripts or tapes of the "Contragate" radio show from WBAI(NYC)in the eighties. I used to listen to it every day.
There were many witnesses interviewed on this show concerning the BFEE and CIA cocaine trafficking etc. It seems they don't exist. The show was hosted by Robert Knight. I suppose I should write him as I believe he still works at WBAI.

and thanks for continuing to post some very interesting, compelling and well linked posts!

[Minstrel Boy]

12. sorry, don't know where to find those.

They would be a good resource.

[tinanator]

18. try http://www.flashpoints.net/

http://www.flashpoints.net/
I believe that you will find both Robert Knight and Dennis Bernstein worked together on that program.

[robertpaulsen]

10. Kicked and bookmarked!

Great work as usual, Minstrel Boy. Any news on that 60 Minutes with Sibel Edmonds that was postponed because of Reagan's death?

[al bupp]

13. Time to...

give this another :kick:

[Minstrel Boy]

14. kick it for the supper crowd n/t

[seemslikeadream]

15. so who's washin' the dishes

[Minstrel Boy]

16. Dishes? We don't need no stinkin' dishes!

[seemslikeadream]

17. Heroin - The sedative for coughs

This picture came from Southern Illinois University, where I kinda went to school, on and off, for awhile.

[al bupp]

19. Another Sibel Edmonds Interview

This time w/ Antiwar.com's Christopher Deliso (http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=2917):

CD: In a fascinating recent interview with Breakfornews.com, you say that with the synoptic view you acquired at the FBI, the "picture" of non-state organized crime linked with state institutions becomes "crystal clear." For the benefit of our readers, let me just re-quote one of your statements:

"[Y]ou have [a] network of people who obtain certain information and they take it out and sell it to … whomever would be the highest bidder. Then you have people who would be bringing into the country narcotics from the East, and their connections. [It] is only then that you really see the big picture."

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.

<snip>

CD: From your previous testimony and the examples I want to bring up next, it would seem that organized crime with terrorist links is really holding the reins inside powerful governments, even the American one. No?

SE: That may be, but I don't know. I didn't get high enough up on the ladder to find out. With all of this suspicious and unprecedented "state secrets" obstructionism from Ashcroft, it might seem that way, but I don't have any direct information.

CD: But what do think, within departments such as the Pentagon and the State Department. Do you suspect certain high officials may be profiting from terrorist-linked organized crime?

SE: I can't say anything specific with regards to these departments, because I didn't work for them. But as for the politicians, what I can say is that when you start talking about huge amounts of money, certain elected officials become automatically involved. And there are different kinds of campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared.

CD: Could this apparent toleration of dangerous criminal groups in the midst possibly be interpreted to mean that American policy is driven by the "ends justify the means" philosophy?

SE: But how are the ends possibly met by such activities? To this day, I just can't see how. What is happening does not benefit 99.9 percent of Americans – just a very small elite.

I'm no expert, but from what I have personally seen I can say that our national security is being compromised every day, because important investigations are being stopped, and potentially important clues are being overlooked. It's absolutely incredible that even after 9/11, certain individuals, foreign businessmen and others, among others, are still escaping scrutiny.

Okay, perhaps talking about the pre-9/11 world they could get away with saying "we didn't know," but to continue doing so – I mean, what if we are attacked by nuclear or chemical weapons, what will be their next excuse? That "we didn't know" it could happen? Come on! I can prove they are lying, because they know.

Lots more in there about an incompetent Turkish translator who's protected, and then promoted by the agency to cover-up their failings.

Go Sibel!