Last November, in When Terrorists Talk in Turkey, I reported on a 34-year-old Syrian named Louai Al-Sakka who, from his Turkish prison, claimed to haven been a top Al Qaeda operative. According to his lawyer, “He was the number one networker for Al-Qaeda in Europe, Iran, Turkey and Syria.” Before the Sunday Times of London ran the original story, Al-Sakka was virtually unknown. 

Former FBI translator and whistleblower Sibel Edmonds read the article as well; it compelled her to act. Sibel Edmonds has spent the past five years trying to tell her story — one where corrupt U.S. government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets — but wasn't able to because the Department of Justice has a gag order against her. When Edmonds brought her case to court, the DOJ again interfered, allowing only officials with top-secret security clearances to attend hearings.

After reading the aforementioned article in the Sunday Times (which is tangential to her story) Edmonds contacted the paper and broke her silence in an exclusive, frightening story, For Sale: West's Deadly Nuclear Secrets. 

Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions.

Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims.

Now, Philip Giraldi — a former CIA Officer and current international security consultancy — has written about Edmonds' story in the current issue of American Conservative. In Found in Translation, FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Spills her Secrets, Giraldi prints names.

Her allegations are not insignificant. Edmonds claims that Marc Grossman—ambassador to Turkey from 1994-97 and undersecretary of state for political affairs from 2001-05—was a person of interest to the FBI and had his phone tapped by the Bureau in 2001 and 2002. In the third-highest position at State, Grossman wielded considerable power personally and within the Washington bureaucracy.

He had access to classified information of the highest sensitivity from the CIA, NSA, and Pentagon, in addition to his own State Department. On one occasion, Grossman was reportedly recorded making arrangements to pick up a cash bribe of $15,000 from an ATC contact. The FBI also intercepted related phone conversations between the Turkish Embassy and the Pakistani Embassy that revealed sensitive U.S. government information was being sold to the highest bidder. Grossman, who emphatically denies Edmonds’s charges, is currently vice chairman of the Cohen Group, founded by Clinton defense secretary William Cohen, where he reportedly earns a seven-figure salary, much of it coming from representing Turkey.

Giraldi's piece ends with this: 

Sibel Edmonds makes a number of accusations about specific criminal behavior that appear to be extraordinary but are credible enough to warrant official investigation. Her allegations are documentable: an existing FBI file should determine whether they are accurate. It’s true that she probably knows only part of the story, but if that part is correct, Congress and the Justice Department should have no higher priority. Nothing deserves more attention than the possibility of ongoing national-security failures and the proliferation of nuclear weapons with the connivance of corrupt senior government officials.

Marc Grossman is testifying for Congress today on another matter for the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs. Edmonds is encouraging media to attend. The U.S. media has been largely remiss in covering the story since the Times ran it in its Sunday section two weeks ago. 

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