WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 31: (L-R) FBI Director Robert Mueller, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and CIA Director David Petraeus appear before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Capitol Hill January 31, 2012 in Washington, DC. The committee met to hear testimony on the topic of ‘World Wide Threats.’
(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

By Avalon
Intellihub.com
May 20, 2013

Early in the morning hours on Tuesday, May 14th, 2013, Massachusetts State Police discovered 7 individuals trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts. The Quabbin Reservoir supplies 40% of Massachusetts fresh drinking water and encompasses 39 square miles in size.

According to WCVBTV Channel 5 Local CBS, as described in the article 7 Caught Trespassing At Quabbin Reservoir; Patrols Stepped Up Across State posted on May 14, 2013 9:55 PM

BELCHERTOWN (CBS) – Shortly after midnight Tuesday, seven people were caught trespassing at the Quabbin Reservoir. State Police say the five men and two women are from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore, and “cited their education and career interests” for being in the area. The men told police they were chemical engineers and recent college graduates.

The Quabbin, in Belchertown, is one of the country’s largest man-made public water supplies. Boston’s drinking water comes from the Quabbin and the Wachusett Reservoirs. State Police say there were no warrants or advisories on any of the individuals and “there was no evidence that the seven were committing any crime beyond the trespassing.”

All seven were allowed to leave and will be summonsed to court for trespassing. The FBI is investigating and routine checks of public water supplies have been increased following the incident. The seven individuals currently live in Amherst, Cambridge, Sunderland, Northampton and New York City. Police have not released their names because a court date has not been set.

Here are the videos, links and updates:

Reservoir trespassing case under investigation

Published on May 15, 2013 — 126 views 05-20-2013 @ 9:35am
Police across the state of Massachusetts are increasing the number of routine checks of the state’s water supply facilities after a case of trespassing at Quabbin Reservoir.

FBI, Mass. State Police investigate case of trespassing at Quabbin Reservoir

Published on May 16, 2013 — 130 views 05-20-2013 @ 10:00am
Police across the state of Massachusetts are increasing the number of routine checks of the state’s water supply facilities after a case of trespassing at Quabbin Reservoir.

Related: MWRA: Quabbin Reservoir Water Safe

Update: No Connection To Criminal Groups

http://boston.cbslocal.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8880547

Source — Research

7 Caught Trespassing At Quabbin Reservoir; Patrols Stepped Up Across State

Authorities: Quabbin reservoir tests normal after trespassing arrests

7 Cited For Trespassing At Quabbin Reservoir Not Connected To Criminal Groups

Quabbin Reservoir: Chemical engineers cleared of terrorism in midnight arrest

Authorities: Quabbin reservoir tests normal after trespassing arrests

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in Intellihub.com articles are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the Intellihub.com. Intellihub.com will not be held responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in Intellihub.com articles. Intellihub.com reserves the right to remove articles from the website.

*****

Avalon is an Investigative Journalist and Strategist working for Intellihub.com

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Michelle Obama with Accused Rapist Richard DeCoatsworth (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

By JG Vibes
Intellihub.com
May 20, 2013

Throughout his career as a professional bully, Richard DeCoatsworth has been accused of being unnecessarily angry and violent in many different circumstances.  It was even reported by some witnesses that he indiscriminately fired on innocent people while the streets were filled with children.  This sort of behavior is typical of most police officers today, so all of this was overlooked when he was given VIP treatment by the Obamas.  Now just a few years later he is being held in prison for the most serious of crimes.

NBC reported that:

A former Philadelphia police officer, once hailed as a hero and given a seat next to the first lady at a speech by President Obama, is being held on $60 million bail after he allegedly raped two women and assaulted another.  A source tells NBC10 former officer Richard DeCoatsworth, 27, met one of the women at a bar on North Front Street two weeks ago, then forced her into prostitution at a Days Inn hotel along Roosevelt Boulevard.  Between 2 a.m. Thursday and Friday evening, DeCoatsworth went to the woman’s home along North Howard Street in the Fishtown-Kensington area, according to the source.

Once he arrived, DeCoatsworth forced that woman and a second woman, both in their 20s, to use drugs and perform oral sex on him at gunpoint, according to the source. The alleged victims reported the assault Friday only after DeCoatsworth went home, according to police.

Police raided DeCoatsworth’s house on the 2700 block of Salmon Street in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He was charged with rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats and related offenses. Police also confiscated drugs and guns from the home, according to a source. No word yet on what kind of drugs were removed from the home.

According to court documents, bail was set at $25 million for each of the alleged victims. Another $10 million bail was set in a separate domestic violence case DeCoatsworth is now being charged with, according to investigators. Police say he assaulted his live-in girlfriend on May 9. The $60 million bail is reportedly one of the highest set in Philadelphia history. Decoatsworth faces more than 32 crimes in all three cases.

Once he arrived, DeCoatsworth forced that woman and a second woman, both in their 20s, to use drugs and perform oral sex on him at gunpoint, according to the source. The alleged victims reported the assault Friday only after DeCoatsworth went home, according to police.

Police raided DeCoatsworth’s house on the 2700 block of Salmon Street in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia around 6:30 a.m. on Saturday. He was charged with rape, sexual assault, terroristic threats and related offenses. Police also confiscated drugs and guns from the home, according to a source. No word yet on what kind of drugs were removed from the home.

According to court documents, bail was set at $25 million for each of the alleged victims. Another $10 million bail was set in a separate domestic violence case DeCoatsworth is now being charged with, according to investigators. Police say he assaulted his live-in girlfriend on May 9. The $60 million bail is reportedly one of the highest set in Philadelphia history. Decoatsworth faces more than 32 crimes in all three cases.

One of DeCoatsworth’s neighbors said she was relieved to hear about his arrest. “I am scared to be saying this now but I hope he stays where he is at, he has been a thorn in the side of this neighborhood for so long,” said the woman who did not want to be identified.

“I haven’t spoken to Richie, but a family member did contact me. I expect to hear from him,” said attorney Jimmy Binns, who represented DeCoatsworth last February, when the former cop was accused of harassing a couple in Port Richmond.

According to Philly.com:

Capt. John Gallagher, a former commander of East Detectives now assigned to the department’s Counter-Terrorism Operations, said the recommendation stemmed from allegations that DeCoatsworth, 27, had kidnapped, assaulted, and robbed a Port Richmond man who lived two blocks from him over an unpaid debt.

Detectives who investigated said they believed the debt was over drugs, said Gallagher, who led the investigation.

Gallagher gave the following account:

The Port Richmond man told investigators in January 2012 that DeCoatsworth had kidnapped him at gunpoint and driven him around the city, including to a barbershop, in an effort to collect on the debt. DeCoatsworth slammed the man’s head against a wall and yanked a gold chain from his neck before eventually letting him go, he told police.

“He took the chain, and said, ‘I’m going to hold on to this until I get my money,’ ” Gallagher said the man alleged.

Then DeCoatsworth, who had retired from the force in December 2011, reached into his alleged captive’s pocket and stole $218, the man told police.

“We believe the man didn’t try to run because he was fearful DeCoatsworth would shoot him,” Gallagher said.

Sadly, this kind of behavior is exhibited on a daily basis by the professional bullies who claim to protect the people who they oppress.  They spend their days lording over their neighbors, using violence indiscriminately, and many of them get off on the power that they feel in these situations of  dominance.

The mainstream media is blaming PTSD, due to his injuries on the job.  However, i would blame the systematic role of domination that gave him this kind of power, and encouraged this kind of mentality in the first place.

******

Follow my updates and join the discussion at www.facebook.com/jgvibes

Read more articles by this author HERE.

J.G. Vibes is the author of an 87 chapter counter-culture textbook called Alchemy of the Modern Renaissance, a staff writer, reporter for Intellihub.com and Executive Producer of the Bob Tuskin Radio Show. You can keep up with his work, which includes free podcasts, free e-books & free audiobooks at his website www.aotmr.com

The post Former Decorated “Hero” Cop Arrested for Multiple Rapes and Assaults appeared first on Intellihub.com.

FBI Agents

By Andrew Freeman
Intellihub.com
May 20, 2013

Two FBI agents were mysteriously killed during some sort of training exercise near Quantico military base in Virginia.  Unsurprisingly, the specific details of this drill, or how the deaths occurred has remained secret.

Press TV reported that:

FBI’s national press office issued a statement on Sunday, saying the two agents, who were members of Hostage Rescue Team, died in the accident which took place off the coast of Virginia Beach on Friday.

The two agents were identified as 41-year-old Christopher Lorek, and 40-year-old Stephen Shaw.  No further details of the accident were available immediately, but an FBI spokesman in Norfolk, Virginia said the deaths did not involve gunfire.

Other reports said the incident may have involved a helicopter. The Hostage Rescue Team, which is based at Quantico in northern Virginia, is part of the Critical Incident Response Group.

In a statement, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said, “We mourn the loss of two brave and courageous men. Like all who serve on the Hostage Rescue Team, they accept the highest risk each and every day, when training and on operational missions, to keep our nation safe. Our hearts are with their wives, children, and other loved ones who feel their loss most deeply. And they will always be part of the FBI Family.”

“Special Agent Lorek, age 41, joined the FBI in 1996. He is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 11 and 8. Special Agent Shaw, 40, joined the FBI in 2005 and is survived by his wife; a daughter, age 3; and a son, age 1,” the FBI said in a release

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Photo : Sao Paulo Military Police

RT
May 20, 2013

The 30 PackBot 510 units, which usually cost between $100,000 and $200,000 apiece, will arrive in Brazil as part of the $7.2 million deal the country signed with American iRobot advanced technology company. The contracts include services, spare parts and associated equipment.

“IRobot continues its international expansion, and Brazil represents an important market for the company’s unmanned ground vehicles,” Frank Wilson, iRobot’s senior vice president, said in a statement. “IRobot is excited to be providing the company’s state-of-the-art robotic technologies to Brazil as the country prepares for several high profile international events, including the 2014 FIFA World Cup.”

The first real test for the PackBots will be the visit of Pope Franics to Brazil this July, with the country also looking to use the robots during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

The PackBots are equipped with cameras and are operated remotely in order to detect and examine suspicious objects or explore dangerous environments, while keeping their operators safe from harm.

The devices weigh about 27 kilogram and rely on caterpillar treads to move around, using videogame-style hand controllers to make it more familiar to the users.

More than 2000 of those military robots are currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, with PackBots being the first to enter the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.   

Brazil is spending $900 million to bolster its security forces, including high-tech surveillance equipment and helicopters, as the country is hoping to make the 2014 World Cup “one of the most protected sports events in history.”

The country’s police will be equipped with facial-recognition camera glasses that can capture 400 facial images per second to store them in a central database of up to 13 million faces.

Brazil is also reported to have spent $25 million on four Israeli-made drones, which are expected to make their debut at the FIFA Confederations Cup in June.

There’ll also be plenty of manpower involved in the security operation as the World Cup organizers plan have 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers from the Brazilian Armed Forces at each of the 12 host cities during the event.

The post US Robots, Israeli Drones to Help Make 2014 World Cup in Brazil ‘One of Safest Sporting Events Ever’ appeared first on Intellihub.com.

A crane stands on the beach at dawn on the one-year anniversary of the BP oil spill on April 20, 2011 in Orange Beach, Alabama. Orange Beach on the Gulf Coast was impacted by oil in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion which killed eleven crew members. 206 million gallons of oil eventually spilled into the Gulf of Mexico until the BP well was finally sealed. April 20 marks the one-year anniversary of the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Aljazeera
May 20, 2013

Texas has joined the crowd of Gulf of Mexico states to file suit against BP Plc, Halliburton Co and others for their role in one of the worst oil spills in US history.

The complaint, filed on Friday in US District Court in Beaumont, Texas, alleges that the companies and others “engaged in wilful and wanton misconduct” for their role in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The state has accused the firms – as well as Transocean, Anadarko and BP America in its suit – of violating Texas’ environmental regulations. Texas is seeking money from “lost” tourism revenues due to the spill, as well as monies that would have been generated from state park entrance and concession fees by visitors to the coastal communities.

In addition, the state is seeking civil penalties for each day the oil spilled into the Gulf, and each barrel spilled into the water, as compensation for natural resources that were “injured, destroyed or lost.”

An estimated 4.9 million barrels were spilled, but BP has argued that 800,000 barrels that were recovered should be excluded from calculations for the purposes of any legal settlement.

Texas joins four other states that have sued BP and other companies in connection to the spill: Florida and Mississippi filed complaints last month, while Alabama and Louisiana did in 2010.

In April of 2010, a surge of methane gas known to rig hands as a “kick” sparked an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 people. The vessel sank two days later.

London-based BP was the majority owner and operator of the Macondo well and Swiss-based Transocean Ltd owned the rig, which was drilling the 1.6 km-deep well in the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana’s coast.

BP also is fighting a court battle in New Orleans over fines and other potential spill liabilities, but it struck a deal last year with a wide range of compensation claimants, including businesses.

The total amount was not set, and BP has set aside over $8bn to make the payments, but it now sees those business economic loss (BEL) payments escalating, and is challenging the way they are being calculated – calling some of the claims “fictitious” and “absurd.”

It has already lost one appeal to have the payments stopped and now plans to go to a higher court.

The post Texas to take BP and Halliburton to court appeared first on Intellihub.com.

Global Research
May 20, 2013

“Through this agreement, the Obama Administration is seeking to boost U.S. economic growth and support the creation and retention of high-quality American jobs by increasing exports in a region that includes some of the world’s most robust economies and that represents more than 40 percent of global trade.”[1] Statement from the Office of the United States Trade Representative

“I think we need to look at the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the neo-liberal arm of the US pivot at Asia. So we have all these countries in South East Asia that basically have more incentive to do business with China….Many policy papers state the importance of South-East Asia in …counterbalancing the influence of China in the region. So that is what I perceive the TPP to be.”  Nile Bowie

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Lost in the wake of headlines about controversies surrounding Canadian Senators’ housing and living expenses and allegations of a Toronto big city Mayor ailing from an apparent crack addiction, is the important negotiations on a major trade and investment deal taking place in Lima, Peru this past week.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) had its origins in the 2005 Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement or the P4 which involved the countries of Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, and Singapore, and was aimed at liberalizing trade in those countries. [2] This deal was expanded in 2008 to include the US in negotiations and by 2009, the TPP began its first round of talks. [3], [4].
There are currently twelve negotiating partners in this comprehensive pact. In addition to the P4, and the US there are Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and Malaysia, with Mexico and Canada having joined the negotiations last October and Japan jumping on board in March. [5], [6]

TPP is the latest in a string of numerous free trade agreements that proponents say will generate increased economic activity between and within countries thereby leading to greater prosperity for citizens. [7]

Critics of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and its numerous successors argue however that these agreements really are not about trade. They are mechanisms by which corporations with international reach can overcome barriers, regulations, and other restrictions on their profit-making activities. [8]

Three critics from three separate countries explain their concerns in this week’s instalment of the Global Research News Hour.

Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner for the Ottawa-based Council of Canadians provides his group’s analysis not only of the TPP, but also the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement and the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement (FIPA).

Kristen Beifus of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition dissects the impacts of free trade on Americans and the concerns specific to the TPP.

Kuala Lampur-based Nile Bowie provides his analysis of TPP in terms of its impacts on Malaysia where elections have recently been held. His commentaries on TPP appear on the globalresearch website.

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Length (59:46)

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The Global Research News Hour, hosted by Michael Welch, airs on CKUW 95.9FM in Winnipeg Thursdays at 10am CDT. The programme is now broadcast weekly (Monday, 5-6pm ET) by the Progressive Radio Network in the US, and is available for download on the Global Research website.

References

1. http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/fact-sheets/2011/november/united-states-trans-pacific-partnership
2. “Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement” 2005 http://www.mfat.govt.nz/downloads/trade-agreement/transpacific/main-agreement.pdf
3. Daniels, Chris (10 February 2008). “First step to wider free trade”. New Zealand Herald.
4. US TRADE Representative TPP Round Updates; http://www.ustr.gov/tpp
5. “Mexico: Unexplored opportunities”. TPP Talk. New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. 10 October 2012. http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Trade-and-Economic-Relations/2-Trade-Relationships-and-Agreements/Trans-Pacific/1-TPP-Talk/0-TPP-talk-10-Oct-2012.php
6. Canada Formally Joins Trans-Pacific Partnership” (Press release). Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. 9 October 2012; http://www.international.gc.ca/media_commerce/comm/news-communiques/2012/10/09a.aspx?view=d
7) Dr. Claudio Loser, May 6, 2013; Where Trade Is Free, Powerful Economic Growth Is The Norm; Forbes.com. http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/05/06/where-trade-is-free-powerful-economic-growth-is-the-norm/
8) Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, March 27, 2013, Truthout; http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15353-transpacific-partnership-will-undermine-democracy-empower-transnational-corporations

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Photo: Wikipedia Commons

by Tim Brown
Freedom Outpost
May 20, 2013

Pfeiffer appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and told Bob Schieffer that is was “largely irrelevant” who edited the talking points which the Obama administration pushed on the American people following the attacks in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.

Scheiffer asked, “That was just a PR plan, to send out somebody who didn’t know anything about what had happened. Why did you do that? Why didn’t the Secretary of State come and tell us what they knew, and if they knew nothing, say ‘We don’t know yet?’ …. Why are you here today? Why isn’t the White House Chief of Staff here to tell us what happened?”

Pfeiffer answered, “What we do is we want to go out and speak to the problems as they happen. And what’s important here is that when problems happen, the President takes responsibility for them and tries to fix them. That’s what we’re talking about in Benghazi. It’s an absolute tragedy what happened. The question isn’t, ‘Who edited what talking points?’ That’s largely irrelevant.”

He then showed up on Fox News Sunday where he was asked by Chris Wallace, “What did the President do the rest of that night to pursue Benghazi?”

“Look, the President was kept up to date on this as it was happening the entire night, from the moment it started until the very end,” he said. “I recognize that there’s a series of conspiracy theories Republicans have been spinning about it since the time it happened.”

“The question here is not what happened that night,” he added.

Wallace wasn’t going to let that stand. “With due respect, you didn’t answer my question: what did the president do that night?”

While Pfeiffer said that he was in touch with his national security team, Wallace pointed out that he only had one conversation with his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and that occurred after the attack was over. Wallace pointed out that Obama didn’t talk to any of the other important people in his administration, including his Defense Secretary or the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

When asked if Barack Obama was even in the Situation Room, Pfeiffer exclaimed, “I don’t remember what room the President was in on that night and that’s a largely irrelevant fact.”

Pfeiffer was an evader the entire time, never actually answering the questions that were posed to him.

Finally, Pfeiffer appeared on ABC News’ This Week with George Stephanopoulos where he told the host that the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups was “inexcusable.” However, he then went on to attempt to deal with the law without dealing with the law by saying it was “irrelevant.”

“I can’t speak to the law here,” he said. “The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.”

When Stephanopoulos asked him to clarify his statement, Pfeiffer said, “What I mean is, whether it’s legal or illegal is not important to the fact that the conduct doesn’t matter. The Department of Justice has said they’re looking into the legality of this. The president is not going to wait for that. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again, regardless of how that turns out.”

Wow! Just Wow! Whether or not the IRS’ actions are legal or illegal is not important? That’s just a statement from someone attempting to cover the Obama administration’s backside is what that is.

All I have to say is that Dan Pfeiffer is the new Susan Rice. He’s being trotted out to make these “irrelevant” statements about the criminal and very relevant scandals that have occurred in this administration.

The post White House Senior Official: Important Elements in Scandals Are “Irrelevant” appeared first on Intellihub.com.

Photo: Press TV

Press TV
May 20, 2013

The plan was divulged at a press conference at the university on May 8. Gary Maddux, the lead research director of Systems Management and Productions Center, said the aircraft could help stop a mass murder on campus.

He cited the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school as the catalyst pushing the research into overdrive.

On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were fatally shot by a gunman – who later killed himself – at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in the US state of Connecticut. Earlier in the day, the assailant had killed his mother in another location.

Maddux said the technology used in the remote-controlled surveillance devices is not as advanced as controversial military drones, and they fly at a lower altitude.

He added the UAVs would be capable of using small spotlights, or infrared cameras in addition to video cameras.

Maddux did not explain how the surveillance aircraft will prevent criminal activity or improve campus police response time.

Thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles could be buzzing US airspace by 2015 because of the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) Modernization and Reform Act passed last year. The law requires the FAA to fully integrate unmanned aircraft into the National Airspace System by September 2015.

Additionally, it allows law enforcement agencies, including local police forces, to buy and use unmanned aircraft for evidence gathering and surveillance.
The law has however raised safety and privacy concerns among some lawmakers and advocacy groups.

Moreover, Washington uses assassination drones in several countries, claiming that they target “terrorists.” According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.

US officials refuse to publicly discuss any details of the covert program and the death toll from drone strikes remains a mystery.

The post Alabama University to Use Spy Drones Over Campus appeared first on Intellihub.com.

Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
911 Blogger
May 19, 2013

The government has denied the allegations yet gone to extraordinary lengths to silence her. Her critics have derided her as a fabulist and fabricator. But now comes word that some of her most serious allegations were confirmed by a major European newspaper only to be squashed at the request of the U.S. government.

In a recent book Classified Woman, Sibel Edmonds, a former translator for the FBI, describes how the Pentagon, CIA and State Department maintained intimate ties to al-Qaeda militants as late as 2001. Her memoir, Classified Woman: The Sibel Edmonds Story, published last year, charged senior government officials with negligence, corruption and collaboration with al Qaeda in illegal arms smuggling and drugs trafficking in Central Asia.

In interviews with this author in early March, Edmonds claimed that Ayman al-Zawahiri, current head of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden’s deputy at the time, had innumerable, regular meetings at the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan, with U.S. military and intelligence officials between 1997 and 2001, as part of an operation known as ‘Gladio B’. Al-Zawahiri, she charged, as well as various members of the bin Laden family and other mujahideen, were transported on NATO planes to various parts of Central Asia and the Balkans to participate in Pentagon-backed destabilisation operations.

According to two Sunday Times journalists speaking on condition of anonymity, this and related revelations had been confirmed by senior Pentagon and MI6 officials as part of a four-part investigative series that were supposed to run in 2008. The Sunday Times journalists described how the story was inexplicably dropped under the pressure of undisclosed “interest groups”, which, they suggest, were associated with the U.S. State Department.

Shooting the Messenger
Described by the American Civil Liberties Union as the “most gagged person in the history of the United States of America,” Edmonds studied criminal justice, psychology and public policy at George Washington and George Mason universities. Two weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, her fluency in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani earned her an FBI contract at the Washington DC field office. She was tasked with translating highly classified intelligence from operations against terrorism suspects in and outside the U.S..

In the course of her work, Edmonds became privy to evidence that U.S. military and intelligence agencies were collaborating with Islamist militants affiliated with al-Qaeda, the very forces blamed for the 9/11 attacks – and that officials in the FBI were covering up the evidence. When Edmonds complained to her superiors, her family was threatened by one of the subjects of her complaint, and she was fired. Her accusations of espionage against her FBI colleagues were eventually investigated by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, which did not give details about the allegations as they remained classified.

Although no final conclusions about the espionage allegations were reached, the Justice Department concluded that many of Edmonds’ accusations “were supported, that the FBI did not take them seriously enough and that her allegations were, in fact, the most significant factor in the FBI’s decision to terminate her services.”

When she attempted to go public with her story in 2002, and again in 2004, the U.S. government silenced Edmonds by invoking a legal precedent known as “state secrets privilege” – a near limitless power to quash a lawsuit based solely on the government’s claim that evidence or testimony could divulge information that might undermine “national security.” Under this doctrine, the government sought to retroactively classify basic information concerning Edmonds’s case already in the public record, including, according to the New York Times, “what languages Ms. Edmonds translated, what types of cases she handled, and what employees she worked with, officials said. Even routine and widely disseminated information — like where she worked — is now classified.”

Although certainly not the first invocation of “state secrets privilege”, since the Edmonds case the precedent has been used repeatedly in the post-9/11 era under both the Bush and Obama administrations to shield the U.S. government from court scrutiny of rendition, torture, warrantless wiretapping, as well as the President’s claimed war powers.

Other intelligence experts agree that Edmonds had stumbled upon a criminal conspiracy at the heart of the American judicial system. In her memoirs, she recounts that FBI Special Agent Gilbert Graham, who also worked in the Washington field office on counter-intelligence operations, told her over a coffee how he “ran background checks on federal judges” in the “early nineties for the bureau… If we came up with shit – skeletons in their closets – the Justice Department kept it in their pantry to be used against them in the future or to get them to do what they want in certain cases – cases like yours.”A redacted version of Graham’s classified protected disclosure to the Justice Department regarding these allegations, released in 2007, refers to the FBI’s “abuse of authority” by conducting illegal wiretapping to obtain information on U.S. public officials.

Incubating Terror
Five years ago, Edmonds revealed to the Sunday Times that an unidentified senior U.S. State Department official was on the payroll of Turkish agents in Washington, passing on nuclear and military secrets. “He was aiding foreign operatives against U.S. interests by passing them highly classified information, not only from the State Department but also from the Pentagon, in exchange for money, position and political objectives”, Edmonds told the paper. She reported coming across this information when listening to suppressed phone calls recorded by FBI surveillance, marked by her colleague Melek Can Dickerson as “not pertinent”.

In the Sunday Times exposé, Edmonds described a parallel organization in Israel cooperating with the Turks on illegal weapons sales and technology transfers. Between them, Israel and Turkey operated a range of front companies incorporated in the U.S. with active “moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions”, supported by U.S. officials, in order to sell secrets to the highest bidder. One of the buyers was Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) – which often used its Turkish allies, according to the Times, “as a conduit… because they were less likely to attract suspicion.”

The Pakistani operation was, the paper reported, “led by General Mahmoud Ahmad, then the ISI chief” from 1999 to 2001, when the agency helped train, supply and coordinate the Afghan Taliban and gave sanctuary to their Arab allies brought together in the coalition named al-Qaeda. Ahmad, as the Times noted, “was accused [by the FBI] of sanctioning a $100,000 wire payment to Mohammed Atta, one of the 9/11 hijackers, immediately before the attacks.”

According to Indian intelligence officials, they had assisted the FBI in “tracing and establishing” the financial trail between the General and the chief hijacker. The discovery was, they allege, the real reason behind the General’s sudden retirement in October 2001. The Pakistani daily, The News, reported on 10th September 2001 that the ISI chief held several “mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council” that week, including with CIA director George Tenet.

In an interview with this author in March, Edmonds raised the question of whether U.S. officials’ liaisons with an espionage network overseen by Ahmad, and the FBI’s suppression of related intelligence, played a role in facilitating the attacks.

“Following 9/11, a number of the foreign operatives were taken in for questioning by the FBI on suspicion that they knew about or somehow aided the attacks”, reported the Sunday Times. The paper related that according to Edmonds, the senior State Department official received a call from a foreign agent under FBI surveillance asking for help to “get them out of the U.S. because we can’t afford for them to spill the beans.” The official promised “he would ‘take care of it’.”

Edmonds told this author that high-level corruption compromised the ability of the U.S. intelligence community to pursue ongoing investigations of those planning the 9/11 attacks. “It was precisely those militants that were incubated by some of America’s key allies”, she said. Corruption helped guarantee Congressional silence when that incubation strategy backfired in the form of 9/11. “Both Republican and Democratic representatives in the House and Senate came up in FBI counterintelligence investigations for taking bribes from foreign agents”, she said.

Al-Qaeda: Enemy or Asset?
In her interview, Edmonds insisted that after its initial exposé, the Times‘ investigation had gone beyond such previous revelations, and was preparing to disclose her most startling accusations. Among these, Edmonds described how the CIA and the Pentagon had been running a series of covert operations supporting Islamist militant networks linked to Osama bin Laden right up to 9/11, in Central Asia, the Balkans and the Caucasus.

While it is widely recognised that the CIA sponsored bin Laden’s networks in Afghanistan during the Cold War, U.S. government officials deny any such ties existed. Others claim these ties were real, but were severed after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989.

But according to Edmonds, this narrative is false. “Not just bin Laden, but several senior ‘bin Ladens’ were transported by U.S. intelligence back and forth to the region in the late 1990s through to 2001″, she told this author, “including Ayman al-Zawahiri” – Osama bin Laden’s right-hand-man who has taken over as al-Qaeda’s top leader.

“In the late 1990s, all the way up to 9/11, al-Zawahiri and other mujahideen operatives were meeting regularly with senior U.S. officials in the U.S. embassy in Baku to plan the Pentagon’s Balkan operations with the mujahideen,” said Edmonds. “We had support for these operations from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but the U.S. oversaw and directed them. They were being run from a secret section of the Pentagon with its own office”.

American-Conservative-Nov-2009-Sibel-Edmonds-Ceasefire-MagazineEdmonds clarified, “the FBI counterintelligence investigation which was tracking these targets, along with their links to U.S. officials, was known as ‘Gladio B’, and was kickstarted in 1997. It so happens that Major Douglas Dickerson” – the husband of her FBI co-worker Melek whom she accused of espionage – “specifically directed the Pentagon’s ‘Gladio’ operations in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan at this time.”

In testimony under oath, Edmonds has previously confirmed that Major Doug Dickerson worked for the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) under the weapons procurement logistics division on Turkey and Central Asia, and with the Office of Special Plans (OSP) overseeing policy in Central Asia.

Gladio B
Edmonds said that the Pentagon operations with Islamists were an “extension” of an original ‘Gladio’ programme uncovered in the 1970s in Italy, part of an EU-wide NATO covert operation that began as early as the 1940s. As Swiss historian Dr. Daniele Ganser records in his seminal book, NATO’s Secret Armies, an official Italian parliamentary inquiry confirmed that British MI6 and the CIA had established a network of secret “stay-behind” paramilitary armies, staffed by fascist and Nazi collaborators. The covert armies carried out terrorist attacks throughout Western Europe, officially blamed on Communists in what Italian military intelligence called the ‘strategy of tension’.

“You had to attack civilians, the people, women, children, innocent people, unknown people far removed from any political game” explained Gladio operative Vincenzo Vinciguerra during his trial in 1984. “The reason was quite simple. They were supposed to force these people… to turn to the State to ask for greater security.”

While the reality of Gladio’s existence in Europe is a matter of historical record, Edmonds contended the same strategy was adopted by the Pentagon in the 1990s in a new theatre of operations, namely, Asia. “Instead of using neo-Nazis, they used mujahideen working under various bin Ladens, as well as al-Zawahiri”, she said.

The last publicly known Gladio meeting occurred in NATO’s Allied Clandestine Committee (ACC) in Brussels in 1990. While Italy was a focal point for the older European operations, Edmonds said that Turkey and Azerbaijan served as the main conduits for a completely new, different set of operations in Asia using veterans of the anti-Soviet campaign in Afghanistan, the so-called “Afghan Arabs” that had been trained by al-Qaeda.

These new Pentagon-led operations were codenamed ‘Gladio B’ by FBI counterintelligence: “In 1997, NATO asked [Egyptian President] Hosni Mubarak to release from prison Islamist militants affiliated to Ayman al-Zawahiri [whose role in the assassination of Anwar Sadat led to Mubarak’s ascension]. They were flown under U.S. orders to Turkey for [training and use in] operations by the Pentagon”, she said.

Edmonds’ allegations find some independent corroboration in the public record. The Wall Street Journal refers to a nebulous agreement between Mubarak and “the operational wing of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was then headed by Ayman al-Zawahiri… Many of that group’s fighters embraced a cease-fire with the government of former President Hosni Mubarak in 1997.”

Youssef Bodansky, former Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare, cited U.S. intelligence sources in an article for Defense and Foreign Affairs: Strategic Policy, confirming “discussions between the Egyptian terrorist leader Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri and an Arab-American known to have been both an emissary of the CIA and the U.S. Government.” He referred to an “offer” made to al-Zawahiri in November 1997 on behalf of U.S. intelligence, granting his Islamists a free hand in Egypt as long as they lent support to U.S. forces in the Balkans. In 1998, Al Zawahiri’s brother, Muhammed, led an elite unit of the Kosovo Liberation Army against Serbs during the Kosovo conflict – he reportedly had direct contact with NATO leadership.

“This is why”, Edmonds continued in her interview, “even though the FBI routinely monitored the communications of the diplomatic arms of all countries, only four countries were exempt from this protocol – the UK, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Belgium – the seat of NATO. No other country – not even allies like Israel or Saudi Arabia, were exempt. This is because these four countries were integral to the Pentagon’s so-called Gladio B operations.”

Edmonds did not speculate on the objectives of the Pentagon’s ‘Gladio B’ operations, but highlighted the following possibilities: projecting U.S. power in the former Soviet sphere of influence to access previously untapped strategic energy and mineral reserves for U.S. and European companies; pushing back Russian and Chinese power; and expanding the scope of lucrative criminal activities, particularly illegal arms and drugs trafficking.

Terrorism finance expert Loretta Napoleoni estimates the total value of this criminal economy to be about $1.5 trillion annually, the bulk of which “flows into Western economies, where it gets recycled in the U.S. and in Europe” as a “vital element of the cash flow of these economies.”

It is no coincidence then that the opium trade, Edmonds told this author, has grown rapidly under the tutelage of NATO in Afghanistan: “I know for a fact that NATO planes routinely shipped heroin to Belgium, where they then made their way into Europe and to the UK. They also shipped heroin to distribution centres in Chicago and New Jersey. FBI counterintelligence and DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) operations had acquired evidence of this drug trafficking in its surveillance of a wide range of targets, including senior officials in the Pentagon, CIA and State Department. As part of this surveillance, the role of the Dickersons – with the support of these senior U.S. officials – in facilitating drug-trafficking, came up. It was clear from this evidence that the whole funnel of drugs, money and terror in Central Asia was directed by these officials.”

The evidence for this funnel, according to Edmonds, remains classified in the form of FBI counterintelligence surveillance records she was asked to translate. Although this alleged evidence has never made it to court due to the U.S. government’s exertion of ‘state secret privilege’, she was able to testify in detail concerning her allegations, including naming names, in 2009.

Censorship
In recent interviews, two Sunday Times journalists confirmed to this author that the newspaper’s investigation based on Sibel Edmonds’ revelations was to break much of the details into the open.

“We’d spoken to several current and active Pentagon officials confirming the existence of U.S. operations sponsoring mujahideen networks in Central Asia from the 1990s to 2001,” said one Sunday Times source. “Those mujahideen networks were intertwined with a whole range of criminal enterprises, including drugs and guns. The Pentagon officials corroborated Edmonds’ allegations against specific U.S. officials, and I’d also interviewed an MI6 officer who confirmed that the U.S. was running these operations sponsoring mujahideen in that period.”

But according to Edmonds, citing the investigative team at the paper, the last two articles in the series were spiked under U.S. State Department pressure. She recalled being told at the time by journalists leading the Sunday Times investigation that the newspaper’s editor had decided to squash the story after receiving calls from officials at the U.S. embassy in London.

A journalist with the Sunday Times‘ investigative unit told this author he had interviewed former Special Agent in Charge, Dennis Saccher, who had moved to the FBI’s Colorado office. Saccher reportedly confirmed the veracity of Edmonds’ allegations of espionage, telling him that Edmonds’ story “should have been front page news” because it was “a scandal bigger than Watergate.” The same journalist confirmed that after interviewing Saccher at his home, the newspaper was contacted by the U.S. State Department. “The U.S. embassy in London called the editor and tried to ward him off. We were told that we weren’t permitted to approach Saccher or any other active FBI agents directly, but could only go through the FBI’s press office – that if we tried to speak to Saccher or anyone else employed by the FBI directly, that would be illegal. Of course, it isn’t, but that’s what we were told. I think this was a veiled threat.”

Saccher’s comments to the journalist never made it to press.

A lead reporter on the series at the Sunday Times told this author that the investigation based on Edmonds’ information was supposed to have four parts, but was inexplicably dropped. “The story was pulled half-way, suddenly, without any warning”, the journalist said. “I wasn’t party to the editorial decision to drop the story, but there was a belief in the office amongst several journalists who were part of the Insight investigative unit that the decision was made under pressure from the U.S. State Department, because the story might cause a diplomatic incident.”

Although the journalist was unaware of where this belief came from – and was not informed of the U.S. embassy’s contact with the paper’s editor which the other journalist was privy to – he acknowledged that self-censorship influenced by unspecified “interest groups” was a possible explanation. “The way the story was dropped was unusual, but the belief amongst my colleagues this happened under political pressure is plausible.” He cryptically described an “editorial mechanism, linked to the paper but not formally part of it, which could however exert control on stories when necessary, linked to certain interests.” When asked which interests, the journalist said, “I can’t say. I can’t talk about that.”

Edmonds described how, due to the U.S. government’s efforts to silence her, she had no option left except to write her story down. The resultant book, Classified Woman, had to be submitted to an FBI panel for review. By law, the bureau was required to make a decision on what could be disclosed or redacted within 30 days.

Instead, about a year later, Edmonds’ lawyer received a letter from the FBI informing them that the agency was still reviewing the book, and prohibiting her from publishing it: “The matters Ms. Edmonds writes about involve many equities, some of which may implicate information that is classified… Approval of the manuscripts by the FBI will include incorporation of all changes required by the FBI. Until then, Ms. Edmonds does not have approval to publish her manuscripts which includes showing them to editors, literary agents, publishers, reviewers, or anyone else. At this point, Ms. Edmonds remains obligated not to disclose or publish the manuscript in any manner.”

The block was another example, Edmonds said, “of the abuse of ‘national security’ to conceal evidence of criminality.” She said that this forced her to release the book herself in March 2012, as no publisher would risk taking it on.

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European Union Politics

Press TV
May 19, 2013

According to the new ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph nearly half of Britons answered “no” to the question of “Do you think that the UK should remain a member of the EU”. The figure was the highest than in other recent surveys with only 30 percent saying they want Britain to remain in the union.

The recent poll, which is considered as a boost for the eurosceptic cause, showed that 44 percent of Britons want an “in/out” referendum immediately, while 29 percent said they are prepared to wait until 2017, Prime
Minister David Cameron’s preferred option.

Almost 31 percent picked David Cameron as the most trusted authority to enter talks with the EU on the UK’s behalf. Nigel Farage (UK Independence Party’s chief) was the second most trusted, marginally ahead of Ed Miliband the head of the opposition Labour Party, although both men are on 18 percent when numbers are rounded up. Nick Clegg, Liberal Democratic party chief came last on just four percent, the poll showed.

Meanwhile, Labour party’s popularity fell four points from last month to 32 percent, with the Conservatives down one on 29 percent and the Liberal Democrats also down one on 16 percent.

Voters believe UKIP will win 15 percent of the vote in the 2015 general election – a high figure which underlines the party’s recent good results in parliamentary by-elections and local council ballots.

ICM Research interviewed an online sample of 2,017 adults aged 18+ on 15-16th May 2013.

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