OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS CONFIRM MAJOR CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS OF TURKISH OPERATIVES IN CHICAGO
Asbarez
BoilingFrogPosts.com
http://www.a sbarez.com/78559/official-documents-confirm-major- criminal-investigations-of-turkish-operatives-in-c hicago/
Mar 23rd, 2010
Newly Released FBI Documents Support Explosive Claims by Former FBI
Translator Sibel Edmonds
Recently released FBI documents prove the existence of highly sensitive
National Security and criminal investigations of "Turkish Activities"
in Chicago prior to September 11, 2001. These documents add further
support to many of the allegations that former FBI translator Sibel
Edmonds has claimed, in public and in Congress, since 2002. The
documents were released under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request into an organization called the Turkish American Cultural
Alliance (TACA), an organization repeatedly named by Ms.
Edmonds as being complicit in the crimes that she became aware of
when she was a translator at the FBI.
The documents released under FOIA are almost completely redacted,
but they do support many of Edmonds’ claims, including:
There were a number of very serious FBI investigations into "Turkish
activity in Chicago" involving a number of targets, including TACA
These investigations were related to "National Security" among
other things.
These investigations were regarded as so sensitive that no files were
to be uploaded to FBI’s computer system.
Congressional corruption was involved.
The FBI repeatedly conducted actual "physical surveillance" against
Turkish and American targets.
Some of these investigations were shut down in 2001.
The documents comprise primarily of internal FBI ECs (Electronic
Communications) between FBI offices. Most of the ECs are titled
"Turkish American Cultural Association" although one from Feb 2000 is
titled "Turkish Investigations in Chicago" which indicates that there
were at least seven different pending investigations into Turkish
activity in Chicago, and another later document from July 2001
indicates that there were at least ten investigations into TACA alone.
The earliest document is a November 1999 EC from the FBI’s National
Security Division (NS-2D) to FBI field offices in Chicago, Washington
DC, Los Angeles and New York (although there is a referenceto
a September 1999 EC from NSD.) The timing is significant. In an
article in The American Conservative by Phil Giraldi, Ms. Edmonds
notes that although there were investigations into Turkish activity
dating back to 1996, most of that activity was being monitored by
Counter-Intelligence based on FISA warrants because the main targets
were foreigners, however in 1999 investigations were opened into
‘US Persons’ and "they wiretapped the congressmen directly."
The FBI was obviously concerned about ‘campaign donations’ being
paid to Congressional Representatives by these groups. Ms. Edmonds
has repeatedly referred to certain groups making "different kinds of
campaign contributions – legal and illegal, declared and undeclared" to
various congressional members. Two days after an EC from the National
Security Division, Chicago reviewed the Federal Electoral Commission
(FEC) database which contains details of donations to congressional
campaigns. Chicago was apparently interested in donations made by
"three individuals who attended the meeting at TACA."
The FBI was also interested in the leadership of TACA. One EC notes
that TACA held elections in 2000 and provides a list of all the
newly elected officials. The EC states "Most pertinent to the above
investigations was the fact that REDACTED had been REDACTED." We know
that Mehmet Celebi was elected President of TACA at that meeting. Ms.
Edmonds has previously referred to Celebi as a key player in the
Turkish mafia in the US, noting that the Celebi family is involved
in arms and heroin trafficking. Celebi was also Vice-President of the
Assembly of Turkish-American Associations (ATAA), another organization
named by Ms. Edmonds and others as being involved in various criminal
activities.
In 2008, Celebi briefly received some attention when he was key
fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, and was nominated as one of Clinton’s
Chicago delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He was
eventually kicked out of the Clinton campaign because of the scrutiny.
At the time, Ms. Edmonds said:
"In 2005, Vanity Fair reported that Dennis Hastert had been bribed
by Turkish interests. If people want to investigate this further they
should FOIA the FBI’s Chicago Field Office for information regarding
Mehmet Celebi going back to 1997. If the FBI is honest, there will
be boxes and boxes of files responsive to these FOIA requests."
Famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg once said that "Sibel says that
suitcases of cash have been delivered to the Speaker of the House,
Dennis Hastert, at his home, near Chicago, from Turkish sources,
knowing that a lot of that is drug money."
The aforementioned Vanity Fair article, apparently trying to dodge
some potential legal liability, suggested that "the reported content
of the Chicago wiretaps may well have been sheer bravado, and there
is no evidence that any payment was ever made to Hastert," however
a July 2001 EC regarding the "Statistical Accomplishments" of the
TACA case notes that there were thirteen separate instances of actual
‘Physical Surveillance’ in the TACA case alone, suggesting that the
FBI may very well have first-hand evidence of some of these crimes.
One fascinating feature of many of these documents is that many of
them ominously warn about the sensitivity of the investigation. A
typical warning reads:
"Extreme caution must be exercised in the handling of sensitive
information contained within. No material pertaining to this
investigation is to be computer uploaded. Information concerning
this REDACTED investigation is not to be shared with CID (Criminal
Investigation Division) absent FBIHQ/DOJ concurrence."
Ms. Edmonds has often stated that these investigations into illegal
Turkish activity were shut down by the White House and State Department
in 2001 and 2002, but that the FBI Chicago Office fought to keep them
open. Two of the ten cases related to TACA were officially closed by
Chicago in July 2001, however even the documents relating to these
‘closed’ cases still warned that the information required ‘extreme
caution’ and were not to be uploaded or shared with CID.
Asked to comment on these new documents, Ms. Edmonds replied:
"Finally! I’ve been saying this for years, and now we finally have
documented proof from the FBI of this Turkish criminal activity based
in Chicago.
This is fantastic, but even this is only the tip of the iceberg. The
main question is this: Why has the White House and the State Dept
been so determined to shut these investigations down? They shut down
these investigations at the FBI, they shut me down with the State
Secrets Privilege.
What are they hiding? Chicago was the center of it all, Chicago was
the center of the foreign espionage activity, and the center for money
laundering, and also a major heroin distribution center. Celebi was a
key player, but Dennis Hastert, Mayor Daley, Robert Creamer and other
US officials also helped facilitate these activities. When will we
see some accountability?"
That is the ultimate question. We now have even more evidence of these
crimes – but there is still no sign of any accountability. What will
it take?