15 March 2003: Edmonds case and the mideast drug-money re-org

I can't stop coming up with reasons to wonder about the Sibel Edmonds case. The latest have to do with this recent article by John Stanton:

Sibel Edmonds' spring 2005 offensive -- FBI shields Pakistan/Turkey nuclear weapons development, drug trade, Cheney, Rumsfeld
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/030905Stanton/030905stanton.html

My previous entries will give an idea of where I'm coming from generally (go to the 5 March entry for previous links).

In this case, the first possible red flag is that the bad guy of the story is, as usual, the CIA. Not that I doubt that the CIA old boys are up to their ears in a history of "stay-behind operations" in Turkey and elsewhere in the region, but at the same time, the CIA is still the loser in the intel re-org of the US govt., and thus from the start there's at least some reason to question whether we're hearing "old news" about the dirty laundry of the CIA old guard, being aired out to the benefit of competing factions.. But the bigger problem is the reliance of this article on allegations of a concerted effort between Turkey, Pakistan, and other nations to run a major, octopus-like black market nuclear weapons cabal. At least where other parts of the Pakistan nuclear smuggling stories are concerned, there is substantive reason to suspect exaggeration and propaganda. For example, see the section "The Pakistan Connection" in the following article:

US Subversion of Diplomacy and North Korea's Phantom Nukes, by Gregory Elich http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ELI502A.html (see the section, "The Pakistan Connection")

Thus, this adds to my questions about how the Edmonds case is playing out.

Add to this something I noticed in an EIR article about the current money-laundering investigations in Israel. This is attributed to a London finanial expert (but anonymously, so I guess it only qualifies as speculation at this point, but it is interesting if it's true):

"My view on what is happening in Israel and Lebanon is that it has not only a geopolitical dimension, but a financial one. The background to these developments is the fact that Greek Cyprus joined the European Union in May 2004. What has followed is a phasing-out of Cyprus as a financial center for organized crime, drug traffickers, and money launderers, especially the Russian side of this business. Thus, alternative centers have to be found. In the region, Beirut and Tel Aviv become attractive alternatives, which could explain recent events in those two cities." http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2005/3211hapoalim.html

The Russian mafia operated on the Greek-controlled side. But there is similar activity on Turkish side, which also connects to Turkey itself: http://www.diaspora-net.org/Turkey/occupied-Cyprus-drugs.html

If there are factions wanting to move the region's drug money laundering centers to Beirut and Tel Aviv, would competing against Turkish influence in this line of business be expected? If so, then how could the disclosure of Sibel Edmonds' information affect this? And what can one make of the role of Daniel Ellsberg, whose contradictory and questionable background includes high-level covert drug ops? Is there a battle going on for control of the drug trade and related money-laundering channels, related to the bureaucratic infighting in the US over the power shifts in the intel establishment? Could it be that some important chunks of the CIA's traditional turf regarding the handling of drug-money support for the Wall Street / City of London financial system is being challenged? Are certain alleged 9/11 scandals serving as pawns in this game?

I hope that those with expertise in these specific areas (unlike myself) are taking a close, skeptical look at these developments.