Did FBI Director Mueller Backup Sibel Edmonds' Espionage Allegations?

One of my readers, Miguel, submitted the following for publishing at my blog:
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Did FBI Director Robert Mueller Backup Sibel's Espionage Allegations in his Testimony Before Congress?

Once in a while, a fairly innocuous sounding statement by a public official slips out in the public sphere, its significance unfathomable to all but the few. Such a moment occurred to me last night. While playing with my young daughter, I left my T.V. tuned on the CSpan2 channel. Suddenly, the droning monotone of FBI Director Robert Mueller resounded, reading his preplanned statement from a sheet of paper. My ears perked up, but only slightly. For someone who has spent a lot of time researching and studying the Sibel Edmonds case, there is always the hope that Mueller will give a tidbit that will give backing, clues or insights to Sibel's allegations.

Last night, I do not believe I was disappointed.

Buried deep within Mr. Mueller's discussion of foreign espionage and FBI counterintelligence measures on Thursday, Mr. Mueller dropped this bombshell, which undoubtedly flew over the heads of most of the Congressmen at the hearing, and certainly was not noticed by the overwhelming majority of C-Span viewers:


Bingo!

For 5 years now, Sibel has been alleging in the public arena that high-level U.S. officials have been leaking sensitive classified information to Turkey and Israel (and perhaps Pakistan), purportedly for cash, and that some of these secrets may have been in turn passed on by our "allies" to other countries and or groups not-so-allied with the United States. Sibel has also insisted that any investigation of these officials has been blocked by the 'state secrets privilege'.

We know from various sources, including Sibel herself, the names of these officials: Marc Grossman, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Dennis Hastert, chief among them.

Of course, it's possible that Mueller is lumping Sibel's allegations with other "trusted insiders" that have passed on secret info to other U.S. "allies. But I firmly believe that Mueller has gone as far as he ever will in confirming key parts of Sibel's story.

But notice the FBI director's careful choice of words:

"trusted insiders" is substituted as a phrase for "high-level elected and unelected U.S. officials"

"compromising " is used instead of "leaking"

Furthermore, Mueller gives no indication of the following:

1) What the FBI is doing, or plans to do, to stop these "trusted insiders" from further compromising national security and

2) Whether these "trusted insiders" may be profiting financially from leaked info (which of course, would show the 'insiders' are hardly pure of motivation)

So based on my critique, let's translate what Mueller is really, in all likelihood, trying to tell the Congress and American people:


If Mr. Mueller's candor would have been matched by bluntness, I think his statement to Congress would have perked a bit more interest in the C-Span viewing public.
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how about that?


update:
ps: sibel's NSWBC is fundraising at the moment http://nswbc.org/donation.htm
i wrote about why you should support the NSWBC here

Very interesting admission, and a great catch.

miguel is an expert in these matters - and has helped me more than i can express.

Good digging, Miguel.

Now, someone in Congress needs to ask Mueller to elaborate on that comment. How come they can't think of these things themselves?

more and more i get the sense that congress simply doesn't want to know what the hell is going on. ignorance is bliss - and the congresscritters love their bliss.

Unfortunately you are right; again.

Thanks for the great post.

Thanks Luke!

unlikely. these guys just seem to be able to get away with anything. again and again.

sigh.

Mainly because of the complacent media, Congress and uninformed public. But things are going to be different now.

fingers crossed.

From the http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/08just.htm">Kerry Committee report:


LOL, it's telling about Sibel Edmonds's case that even the DOJ's BCCI investigation/cover-up was aggressive in comparison. A watered down drug money laundering charge seems pretty good when compared to a gag order, retroactive reclassification, State Secrets Privileges, and unexplained case dismissals! :bounce:

hmmm - i'd forgotten that mueller was there for bcci. thnx.

and you're right - at this point we'd probably be happy to settle for a dodgy, fraudulent investigation of sibel's case. that'd be a start.

i saw a report about that - that's kinda weird.

i saw a report about that - that's kinda weird.

again

Thanks for picking this up and informing us. You're right on its importance and that it wouldn't be picked up by most.

This is probably the best that we can expect from Mueller - there is no way he is going to be more specific. But at least he is acknowledging that it has happened (and presumably is still happening). But what, if anything, is the FBI doing about it? One would think that he wouldn't report it unless he is prepared for followup - and/or unless he is setting the stage for an announcement - maybe just wishful thinking. At any rate its just further confirmation of what Sibel has been saying all along - not that we need any - but there are some folks out there that do.

thanks ajeffersonian. interesting point about whether Mueller was prepared for followup. On one hand, as miguel notes, it was quite an oblique reference, otoh, he certainly *chose* to include it in his testimony.

I'd love to see the drafts of the speech to see how they eventually got to: "Other FBI investigations revealed trusted insiders compromising classified or sensitive information to a wide range of U.S. allies."

The sentence reads as though it was carefully written. and re-written.