SIBEL EDMONDS’ DEPOSITION: VIDEO AND TRANSCRIPT RELEASED
Brad Blog
Aug 25 2009
Long-gagged FBI whistleblower’s full under-oath testimony from Ohio
election case, details Congressional blackmail, bribery, espionage,
infiltration, more…
[Ed Note: PART 1 of video now fixed. Earlier version wasn’t playing
correctly. Apologies.]
Just over two weeks ago, FBI translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel
Edmonds was finally allowed to speak about much of what the Bush
Administration spent years trying to keep her from discussing publicly
on the record. Twice gagged by the Bush Dept. of Justice’s invocation
of the so-called "State Secrets Privilege," Edmonds has been attempting
to tell her story, about the crimes she became aware of while working
for the FBI, for years.
Thanks to a subpoena issued by the campaign of Ohio’s 2nd District
Democratic U.S. Congressional candidate David Krikorian, her remarkable
allegations of blackmail, bribery, espionage, infiltration, and
criminal conspiracy by current and former members of the U.S. Congress,
high-ranking State and Defense Department officials, and agents of
the government of Turkey are seen and heard here, in full, for the
first time, in her under-oath deposition. Both the complete video
tape and transcript of the deposition follow below.
Though there was much concern, prior to her testimony, that the
Obama Dept. of Justice might re-invoke the "State Secrets Privilege"
to keep her from speaking, they did not do so. Nor did they choose
to be present at the Washington D.C. deposition.
The BRAD BLOG covered details of some of Edmonds’ startling disclosures
made during the deposition, as it happened, in our live blog coverage
from August 8th. The deposition included criminal allegations against
specifically named members of Congress. Among those named by Edmonds
as part of a broad criminal conspiracy: Reps. Dennis Hastert (R-IL),
Dan Burton (R-IN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Bob Livingston (R-LA), Stephen
Solarz (D-NY), Tom Lantos (D-CA), as well as an unnamed, still-serving
Congresswoman (D) said to have been secretly videotaped, for blackmail
purposes, during a lesbian affair.
High-ranking officials from the Bush Administration named in her
testimony, as part of the criminal conspiracy on behalf of agents
of the Government of Turkey, include Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz,
Marc Grossman, and others.
During the deposition — which we are still going through ourselves
— Edmonds discusses covert "activities" by Turkish entities
"that would involve trying to obtain very sensitive, classified,
highly classified U.S. intelligence information, weapons technology
information, classified Congressional records…recruiting key
U.S. individuals with access to highly sensitive information,
blackmailing, bribery."
Speaking about current members of Congress during a break in
the testimony, Krikorian told The BRAD BLOG that "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." (More video statements from Krikorian, Edmonds and
attorneys from all parties, taped before, during, and after the 8/8/09
testimony, are available here.)
Edmonds’ on-the-record disclosures also include bombshell details
concerning outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s front
company, Brewster Jennings. Edmonds alleges the front company had
actually been shut down in August of 2001 — three years prior to
Bob Novak’s public disclosure of the covert operative’s identity —
following a tip-off to a wire-tap target about the true nature of
the CIA front company. The cover was blown, Edmonds alleges, by Marc
Grossman, who was, at the time, the third highest-ranking official in
the U.S. State Department. Prior to that, Grossman served as ambassador
to Turkey. He now works "for a Turkish company called Ihals Holding,"
according to Edmonds’ testimony.
An unclassified FBI Inspector General’s report, released on her case
in 2005, declared Edmonds’ classified allegations to be "credible,"
"serious," and "warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the
FBI." In 2002, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-NE) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
then the senior members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee,
co-wrote letters on Edmonds’ behalf to Attorney General John
Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and DoJ Inspector General
Glenn A. Fine, calling on all of them to take action in respect to
her allegations. And in a 2002 60 Minutes report on Edmonds’ case,
Grassley noted: "Absolutely, she’s credible…And the reason I feel
she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated
a lot of her story."
The 8/8/09 deposition was brought by Krikorian as part of his defense
in a case filed against him before the Ohio Election Commission
(OEC) by Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH). The 2nd district Congresswoman
has accused Krikorian, an Armenian-American who ran against her as
an independent in 2008, of "false statements" during the campaign
last year alleging that she had accepted "blood money" from Turkish
interests. Krikorian says that Schmidt, co-chair of the Congressional
Turkish Committee, accepted more money from Turkish interests during
last year’s campaign than any other member of Congress, despite few,
if any, ethnic Turks among her local constituency. He has suggested
she may have been instrumental in helping to hold off a Congressional
vote on a long-proposed, much-disputed resolution declaring the deaths
of 1.5 million Armenians during WWI as a "genocide" by the Turks.
Edmonds herself happens to be a Turkish-American, though she was
recently attacked by the Turkish Lobby, following her long-sought,
long-blocked testimony.
The complete transcript of Sibel Edmonds’ under-oath testimony, may now
be downloaded here [PDF]. The complete video-taped testimony follows,
in five parts, below…
videos at
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7374