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SIbel Edmonds case: Documents Shed Light on CIA Illegal Ops in Central Asia Using Islam & Madrassas

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lukery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 01:07 PM
Original message
SIbel Edmonds case: Documents Shed Light on CIA Illegal Ops in Central Asia Using Islam & Madrassas
Edited on Fri Jul-11-08 01:30 PM by lukery
Court Documents Shed Light on CIA Illegal Operations in Central Asia Using Islam & Madrassas

- Sibel Edmonds State Secrets Gallery Connects Pipeline Politics, Madrassas & the Turkish Proxies

-------------

In a recent immigration court case involving Turkish Islamic Leader, Fetullah Gulen, US prosecutors exposed an illegal, covert, CIA operation involving the intentional Islamization of Central Asia. This operation has been ongoing since the fall of the Soviet Union in an ongoing Cold War to control the vast energy resources of the region - Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - estimated to be worth $3 trillion.

Court Case
The scene for these dramatic disclosures was an application for a Green Card in the Eastern District Court in Philadelphia by "controversial Islamic scholar" Fetullah Gulen. Gulen, who has been living in the United States since 1998, argued that he qualified for the Green Card as "an extraordinarily talented academic."

The court case was covered extensively by the Turkish press. Leading Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported:
"Gülen's financial resources were detailed in the public prosecutor's arguments, which claimed that Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Turkish government, and the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, were behind the Gülen movement. It stated that some businessmen in Ankara donated 10 to 70 percent of their annual income to the movement and that it corresponded to $20,000 to $300,000 per year per person. It added that one businessman in Istanbul donated $4-5 million each year and that young people graduating from Gülen's schools donated between $2,000 and $5,000 each year."
Another leading Turkish newspaper reported (translated by Rastibini)
Among the reasons given by the US State Department's attorneys as to why Gülen's permanent residence application was refused, is the suspicion of CIA financing of his movement.
< . . . >
"There is even CIA suspicion"

"Because of the large amount of money that Gülen's movement uses to finance his projects, there are claims that he has secret agreements with Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkic governments. There are suspicions that the CIA is a co-payer in financing these projects," claimed the attorneys.
< . . . >
Among the documents that the state attorneys presented, there are claims about the Gülen movement's financial structure and it was emphasized that the movement's economic power reached $25 billion. "Schools, newspapers, universities, unions, television channels . . . The relationship among these are being debated. There is no transparency in their work," claimed the attorneys."

Who is Gulen?
Fetullah Gulen is "a 67-year-old Turkish Sufi cleric, author and theoretician," according to a recent profile in the UK's Prospect magazine. Prospect ran a public poll last month to find the world's greatest living intellectual. Gulen 'won' the poll after his newspapers alerted readers to the poll's existence. Gulen is also the leader of the so-called 'Gulen Movement' which claims to have seven million followers worldwide. The Gulen Movement has extensive business interests, including "publishing activities (books, newspapers, and magazines), construction, healthcare, and education."

Gulen and the CIA
The fact that the prosecutors in the court cite documents that claim that Gulen has been financed in part by the CIA is remarkable for a number of reasons, even though there have been strong suspicions about the CIA's involvement in the Gulen Movement for years. The Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, has repeatedly taken action against the Gulen movement for acting as a front organization for the CIA. In December 2002, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported:
"Russian secret service claims: Turkish religious brotherhood works for CIA

The FSB, the Russian intelligence organization formerly called the KGB, has claimed that the 'Nurcus' religious brotherhood in Turkey has engaged in espionage on behalf of the CIA through the companies and foundations it has founded. FSB head Nikolay Patrushev has mentioned the names of these companies and foundations, saying, 'The brotherhood engages in anti-Russian activities via two companies, Serhad and Eflak, as well as foundations such as Toros, Tolerans and Ufuk.' Patrushev has accused the brotherhood of conducting pan-Turkish propaganda, of trying to convert Russian youths to Islam by sowing the seeds of enmity, and of engaging in certain lobbying activities. These companies and foundations have turned up in the internet site of Fethullah Gulen ""
Russia has banned all of Gulen's madrassas, and in April of this year, bannedthe Nurcu Movement completely.

Gulen's Madrassas
The Gulen Movement foundedmadrassas all over the world in the 1990's, most of them in the newly independent Turkic republics of Central Asia - Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan - and Russia.

These madrassas appear to be used as a front for enabling CIA and State Department officials to operate undercover in the region, with many of the teachers operatingunder diplomatic passports.

Why Central Asia?
Central Asia, with its vast energy wealth, is of major interest to US oil and gas companies. The region is also of key strategic interest in the 'Great Game' as Russia, China and the US compete for dwindling energy supplies. The US government has been using Turkey as a proxy to gain control over Central Asia via Pan-Turkic nationalism and religion.

Sibel Edmonds Case
Twenty six people wrote reference letters supporting Gulen's application for a Green Card - most notably ex-CIA agent George Fidas, former Turkish ambassador Morton Abramowitz, and former CIA Deputy Director Graham Fuller who appears in Sibel Edmonds' State Secrets Privilege Gallery.

I called Sibel Edmonds to comment on the latest revelations. She said:
You've got to look at the big picture. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the super powers began to fight over control of Central Asia, particularly the oil and gas wealth, as well as the strategic value of the region.

Given the history, and the distrust of the West, the US realized that it couldn't get direct control, and therefore would need to use a proxy to gain control quickly and effectively. Turkey was the perfect proxy; a NATO ally and a puppet regime. Turkey shares the same heritage/race as the entire population of Central Asia, the same language (Turkic), the same religion (Sunni Islam), and of course, the strategic location and proximity.

This started more than a decade-long illegal, covert operation in Central Asia by a small group in the US intent on furthering the oil industry and the Military Industrial Complex, using Turkish operatives, Saudi partners and Pakistani allies, furthering this objective in the name of Islam.

This is why I have been saying repeatedly that these illegal covert operations by the Turks and certain US persons dates back to 1996, and involves terrorist activities, narcotics, weapons smuggling and money laundering, converging around the same operations and involving the same actors.

And I want to emphasize that this is "illegal" because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities.

And one last thing, take a look at the people in theState Secrets Privilege Gallery on my website and you will see how these individuals can be traced to the following; Turkey, Central Asia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - and the activities involving these countries.
Many of the people in Sibel's State Secrets Privilege Gallery are closely connected to Gulen, and each other, as well as the operations that Sibel mentions. Many of them have actively advocated for using Muslims to further their own needs - from Turkistan to Albania and Central Asia.

Marc Grossman, former State Department #3 and former Turkish ambassador, and one of the key named individuals in Sibel's case, is currently receiving $1.2 million per annum from Ihlas Holding, a Gulen-linked Turkish conglomerate. Sibel has previously referred to Ihlas as 'semi-legitimate' and 'alleged shady' - and emphasized that Grossman's current payoff is a result of services performed while he was in office.

Grossman's predecessor as ambassador in Turkey was Morton Abramowitz - in fact, Grossman actually worked under Abramowitz in Ankara for a number of years. During that period, the US opened an espionage investigation into activities at the embassy involving Major Douglas Dickerson, a weapons procurement specialist for Central Asia. Dickerson and his wife, an FBI translator, later became famous when they tried to recruit Sibel to spy for this criminal network.

Abramowitz, who is not listed in Sibel's State Secrets Privilege Gallery, wrote a letter in support of Gulen for his immigration case. He has long advocated the use of Islamic fighters in furtherance of US interests, including the Afghan mujaheddin against the Soviets and the Kosovo Liberation Army during the war in the Balkans, acting as an advisor to the Kosovar Albanians.

Another player from Sibel's Gallery is Enver Yusuf Turani - Prime Minister of East Turkistan, a 'country' recognized by only one country, the United States. East Turkistan, aka Xinjiang, is officially a part of China, and home to the Uyghur people and the "Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement," a UN-nominated terrorist organization "funded mainly by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network and received training, support and personnel from both the al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan." In fact, the Uyghurs constitute a significant percentage of detainees - at least 22 - at Guantanamo Bay since 2001. Five of those have been set free, and were eventually sent to Albania, amid much controversy.

According to TurkPulse:
"One of the main tools Washington is using in this affair in order to get Turkey involved in the Xinjiang affair is some Turkish Americans, primarily the Fetullah Gulen team who are prosecuted in absentia in Turkey for trying to found a theocratic State order in this country because he runs his activities from the United States, his protégé. Another Turk used in this affair is Enver Yusuf Turani, who is the self styled Foreign and Prime Minister of the East Turkistan Government in exile. He has been an American citizen since 1998. Enver Yusuf is in close cooperation with Fetullah Gulen... Their activities for the government in exile are based on a report entitled “the Xinjiang Project” drafted by Graham Fuller in 1998 for the Rand Corporation and revised in 2003 under the title “the Xinjiang Problem.” It emphasises the importance of the Xinjiang Autonomous region in encircling China and provides a strategy for it."
In fact, Abramowitz and Fuller were key players in the establishment of 'East Turkistan,'
"proclaiming the government in exile within 4-5 months, starting in May (2004) and completing the proclamation in mid- September. The ceremony was held at Capitol Hill under American flags in Washington."
Two others from Sibel's gallery, Sabri Sayari and Alan Makovsky, have been similarly involved with Gulen, Fuller, and Abramowitz - co-authoring booksand articles, making joint appearances, dinners etc.


Illegal Operations
Earlier I quoted Sibel saying
"And I want to emphasize that this is "illegal" because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities."
Where does this funding come from? Narcotics trafficking, nuclear black market, weapons smuggling, and terrorist activities. As Sibel makes clear in her The Highjacking of a Nation article, the management of the heroin industry from the farms in Afghanistan to the streets of London and elsewhere "requires highly sophisticated networks," from the protection of the convoys from Afghanistan through Central Asia to their final destination, to the laundering of the billions of dollars in proceeds in Central Asian casinos and financial institutions in Dubai and Cyprus. "So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?" Sibel asks. The heroin trade finances al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but they aren't the real lords of the poppy fields. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia " and other similar books about these issues recently noted on Democracy Now that a "cartel" controls Afghanistan's heroin, which supplies 93% of global heroin supply.

Sibel has been trying to tell us about these operations for years, but has been gagged by the State Secrets Privilege which was invoked citing certain 'sensitive foreign diplomatic and business relationships.' These 'sensitive relationships' have now been exposed to a degree, thanks to the immigration case against Mr Gulen - one of the Turkish operatives who have been fronting for the CIA in the Islamization of Central Asia, incorporating drug trafficking, money laundering, and the nuclear black market, and the convergence with terrorism.

One Last Question
At the end of our interview, Sibel asked me to leave you with this question:
"After 911, the US Government engaged in mock investigations and shut down many small Islamic charities and organizations, giving the appearance of action in the so-called 'War on Terror.' Why did they harbor, support and resource Fethullah Gulen's $25 billion madrassa-and-mosque-establishment efforts throughout the Central Asian region and the Balkans?"
------------
Cross-posted at Let Sibel Edmonds Speak

(Email me if you want to be added to my Sibel email list. Subject: 'Sibel email list')


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lukery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
1. Digg it
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StateSecrets Donating Member (394 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Great Job
Beats the grand coverage by our good old MSM;-)
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robertpaulsen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
3. "So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?" Great question!
Even the U.S. State Department (www.state.gov/www/regions/sa/facts_taliban_drugs.html) acknowledges that in July 2000, Mullah Omar of the Taliban ordered a ban on poppy cultivation in all Taliban controlled regions of Afghanistan. That State Department Fact Sheet, published after Jan 1, 2000, however, expresses U.S. disbelief in the ban's effectiveness. This position is, however, flatly contradicted by some very credible sources, including Secretary of State Colin Powell. He gave the Taliban $43 million this May to replace the income lost to Afghani farmers as a result of the ban. Their wheat crops had failed due to the drought and they had no money from opium harvests to buy food. The middlemen who had stockpiled the opium had income. But the farmers, who had harvested in the summer of 2000, had already been paid.

Now, based upon new evidence, we know that in 1999 Afghanistan produced a bumper crop of 4,600 metric tons of opium and that this has been verified by a number of sources including the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP) as well as in a multitude of press stories. The 2000 harvest was close to 3,300 metric tons. The result, as Colombia expanded poppy cultivation in the late 1990s, and as the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia showed only a minor drop in output, was a glut. Therefore the Taliban's ban on production would have had the impact of creating a price support by reducing supplies. How successful was the ban and destruction of crops? Well, aside from the above reports, which all indicated that inspections confirming the ban had taken place, consider the following:

- On January 3, 2001 an ABC News story, posted on their web site stated, "Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Inam ul-Haq's claim to have eliminated all opium plantations in Taliban controlled territories - reported by Agence France-Presse -- seems to have been confirmed by a UN survey.

"This development could have several important ramifications for both the geopolitical situation in the region and the world drug trade...

"The center of world drug production will shift from Afghanistan, which accounted for 75 percent of world opium production last year, to Colombia and the Golden Triangle on the border between Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand.

A February 16, 2001 AP story by Kathy Gannon was headlined, "Taliban virtually wipes out opium production in Afghanistan." It opened with these lines:

"U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has virtually wiped out opium production in Afghanistan - once the world's largest producer - since banning poppy cultivation in July.

"A 12-member team from the U.N. Drug Control Program spent two weeks searching most of the nation's largest opium-producing areas and found so few poppies that they do not expect any opium to come out of Afghanistan this year.

"'We are not just guessing. We have seen the proof in the fields,' said Bernard Frahi, regional director for the U.N. program in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He laid out photographs of vast tracts of land cultivated with wheat alongside pictures of the same fields taken a year earlier - a sea of blood red poppies.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/10_10_01_heroin.html

If the heroin trade finances the Taliban, it's not because of their attempts to control the supply, it's in spite of it.
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AntiFascist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:43 PM
Response to Reply #3
12. This is probably one of the biggest deceptions in the War on Terror...

the Russian mafiya likely benefits from this much more than the Taliban, and neoconservatives and right-wing Likudniks are likely tied into this in the most secretive ways. Corruption rules and corrupt leaders benefit.
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Spurt Donating Member (352 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 02:11 PM
Response to Original message
4. kick
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StateSecrets Donating Member (394 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 02:13 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. K& R Needed
...and thank you for that.
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:46 PM
Response to Reply #5
13. (*_*)
Edited on Fri Jul-11-08 03:58 PM by seemslikeadream
:hi:

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Torn_Scorned_Ignored Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 02:35 PM
Response to Original message
6. quite a puzzle..

:kick:
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lukery Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 02:48 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. yet so clear... n/t
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Torn_Scorned_Ignored Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:30 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. kick.
:kick:
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AntiFascist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:34 PM
Response to Original message
9. Big K&RRRR !
Now we are getting at the meat of the issue:


"And I want to emphasize that this is "illegal" because most, if not all, of the funding for these operations is not congressionally approved funding, but it comes from illegal activities."

Where does this funding come from? Narcotics trafficking, nuclear black market, weapons smuggling, and terrorist activities.
As Sibel makes clear in her The Highjacking of a Nation article, the management of the heroin industry from the farms in Afghanistan to the streets of London and elsewhere "requires highly sophisticated networks," from the protection of the convoys from Afghanistan through Central Asia to their final destination, to the laundering of the billions of dollars in proceeds in Central Asian casinos and financial institutions in Dubai and Cyprus. "So, who are the real lords of Afghanistan’s poppy fields?" Sibel asks. The heroin trade finances al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but they aren't the real lords of the poppy fields. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, author of "Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia " and other similar books about these issues recently noted on Democracy Now that a "cartel" controls Afghanistan's heroin, which supplies 93% of global heroin supply.

Sibel has been trying to tell us about these operations for years, but has been gagged by the State Secrets Privilege which was invoked citing certain 'sensitive foreign diplomatic and business relationships.' These 'sensitive relationships' have now been exposed to a degree, thanks to the immigration case against Mr Gulen - one of the Turkish operatives who have been fronting for the CIA in the Islamization of Central Asia, incorporating drug trafficking, money laundering, and the nuclear black market, and the convergence with terrorism.


We have Poppy Bush to thank for starting this when he decided to work behind Congress' backs when supporting Osama bin Laden against the Soviets.

This is precisely one of the primary things the NSA needs to keep tabs on in their spying operations. The illegal heroin industry may be poisoning people all across Europe, Asia the US, and elsewhere, but it is also the primary means for CIA and foreign intelligence operations to allow the oil aristocracy to keep control of its resources.
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bluesmail Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:41 PM
Response to Original message
10. Clear as mud. The deception is so tangled . Here's hoping
'*' f**ks up Big Time. His arrogance alone will do that on it's own, but I'm hoping for a mountain of unintended consequences. And I'm hoping to be alive to dance on their graves.:evilgrin:
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spanone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:42 PM
Response to Original message
11. the clock is running out...the crimes will go unpunished
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:47 PM
Response to Original message
14. Sibel Edmonds and other Whistleblowers Group
Edited on Fri Jul-11-08 03:59 PM by seemslikeadream
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MasonJar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 03:50 PM
Response to Original message
15. I am totally amazed that Sibel is still alive. She is a very brave and patriotic lady.
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judasdisney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 04:50 PM
Response to Original message
16. Video: Henry Waxman refuses Sibel, says STEROIDS more important
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMy3xylXS9k

Watch it quick before Skinner deletes this message
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sicksicksick_N_tired Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
17. PNAC makes even more sense,...from a global corporacrat/profiteering perspective.
They've been playing with whomever will play THEE game WITHOUT RULES,...the game of economic oppression.

In the process, these fuckers have committed acts of treason.

Incredible.
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ajeffersonian Donating Member (100 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jul-11-08 08:45 PM
Response to Original message
18. Great reporting piece Lukery
Would that the MSM would dig into a story like this. You have put together a lot of the pieces of the puzzle that is the Sibel Edmonds case. I came to the posting a little late in the day, and am a little disappointed that there hasn't been more activity. This is an important piece folks.
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mmonk Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Jul-14-08 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
19. Great job. Turkey, CIA, Central Asia......
Fits the patterns.
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