The Twilight Zone, Part 1

Sitting down at my computer and contemplating what I have learned blogging this past year...

Somewhere in a lonely hotel room

I started out investigating militant Islam, and the threat it poses to the world.

The "Religion of Peace" is centered on texts that continually call for the waging of holy war against non-believers -- and there are too many fanatical followers who interpret those passages quite literally as what they must do to get to paradise...

But, there's something else...

There's a guy starting to realize

The devastating attacks on this country that occurred on September 11, 2001, leaving thousands dead and propelling America forward into a War on Terror...

That eternal fate

A war that would erode our civil rights and international law, as our civilian authorities overrode the advice of career military officers and sent our armed forces and those of our allies careening around the world to battle evil...

Has turned its back on him.

Those attacks were successful, literally against all odds...

They were too successful, miraculously getting past layers of defense, from intelligence officers on watch, to government agents investigating financial irregularities, slipping past state-of-the-art fighter interceptors of the best Air Force in the world, and bringing down skyscrapers that were not only designed but overengineered to survive exactly such a crisis....

It's two AM...

Any one layer of those defenses, if functioning as it should, would have disrupted the attack and caused it to fizzle, perhaps leaving dozens of people dead, but leaving thousands of the attack's would-be victims alive, and resulting in the round-up of dozens of terrorists and the freezing of many millions of dollars' worth of their assets...

It's two AM

And it seems obvious to me that these guys could not have pulled this off alone, but that they had to have had help -- the backing of someone's national intelligence services.

(Two AM)

Someone expert and professional, well-connected, well-financed...

We are told that Al Qaeda acted alone, but I know the most powerful nation ever to exist was not humbled by a bunch of jihadis with boxcutters, terrorizing on a budget.

The fear is gone

The greatest nation on earth, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, one nation under God with liberty and justice for all...

Is under attack...

But the attackers have help...

(the fear is gone)

Help from our nation's "allies"...

And help from our nation's own corrupt "public servants"...

"...that government of the People, by the People, for the People shall not perish from this earth."

And I must investigate, and I must write the truth.

I'm sitting here waiting

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is tied to Pakistan's Islamic religious schools, known as madrassas. Some of the madrassas receive funding from Saudi Arabia, and preach an extremist form of Deobandi Islam which is similar to the Wahhabi extremism that has been officially sanctioned by the Saudi royal family, according to an agreement reached between Saud and Wahhab centuries ago.

(sitting here waiting)

Some of these extremist madrassas indoctrinate their students with a love of violent jihad against the infidel, preparing them to become mujahideen -- Islamic holy warriors who will seek the defeat of the infidel on earth, and an eternity in Paradise through martyrdom. These madrassas then feed eager recruits to training camps with which they are associated, where the holy warriors learn how to fight.

The gun's still warm

After an agreement was reached granting Benazir Bhutto amnesty in the face of pending corruption charges, the way was cleared for Bhutto, who had previously been Pakistan's prime minister on two occasions, to return to Pakistan for upcoming elections that were expected in late 2007 or early 2008.

We are told that Pakistani forces can't get the Taliban out of Pakistani territory near the border, nor can they find bin Laden. We are told that neither can the US go in and get them without fear of destabilizing Musharraf, and driving Pakistan into the hands of the extremists.

What we are not told about is the role played by Musharraf and key elements in Pakistan's government in setting up and perpetuating the extremist problem.

(the gun's still warm)

But now Bhutto, who is pro-Western and very popular in Pakistan, says "I would hope that I would be able to take Osama bin Laden myself without depending on the Americans. But if I couldn't do it, of course we [Pakistan and US] are fighting this war together and [I] would seek their co-operation in eliminating him."

Of course, if this happens, the extremist-sympathizers who now run Pakistan will have their bluff called.

Bhutto finalizes her plans for the upcoming election campaign; monitoring this, others finalize their plans, as well.

Maybe my connection

In the aftermath of 9/11, Sibel Edmonds sought to do her patriotic duty for her new country, and looked into offering her services as a translator to the FBI. She had previously applied, but the application was not acted on. Now, with a sense of urgency, the FBI puts her to work reviewing a backlog of material that had been piling up for years. Much of the backlogged material is in Turkish, Sibel's native language; dealing with bribery, corruption, narcotics trafficking and other areas of FBI concern, some of it also pertains to the recent terrorist attacks that shocked the world and launched the War on Terror.

Is tired of taking chances

While reviewing these documents and working in a room full of other translators who, in turn, have access to materials that literally give a global perspective on the threat facing America, Sibel comes across information -- raw, unfiltered, without any spin, yet correlated to other information and related to investigations she is supporting -- that shows elements in the US government knew, prior to 9/11, that Al Qaeda was going to attack American cities with airplanes. Moreover, she also saw evidence that plans for US skyscrapers had gone to some place in the Middle East, also in the months leading up to 9/11's devastating attacks.

Most importantly, though, she saw something else...

Yeah, there's a storm on the loose

High-ranking US government officials, including elected members of Congress from both parties, and including appointed officials in the State and Defense Departments, were on the payroll of Turkish organized crime. These Turkish mobsters were trafficking heroin, arms, and other contraband -- including information from the US nuclear weapons program for the world's nuclear blackmarket. And, people in the Federal Bureau of Investigation -- people sitting just a short distance away from Sibel -- were involved, on the payroll of these Turkish mafiosos, derailing investigations and burying critical intelligence information -- preventing our hard-working, brave FBI agents in the field from protecting America.

Sirens in my head

The reality of this became glaringly apparent one weekend when a colleague of hers from the FBI brought her husband over to the Edmonds' residence. Melek Can Dickerson's husband, a US Air Force officer, tried to recruit Sibel to work for an organization that fronts for the Turkish mafia: the American Turkish Council. Nervous about the ramifications of what she was hearing, legally unable to explain it to her own husband at all, and certainly not in the presence of their visitors, Sibel tries to divert the conversation to other topics, as she anticipates her duty of reporting this incident at the FBI.

But her reports are rebuffed, her family back in Turkey is threatened -- and, finally, Sibel is fired, literally escorted out of the building, after having spent only a few months reviewing and translating information at the FBI's Washington Field office.

Wrapped up in silence

Sibel takes the matter through channels, to the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, to elected members of Congress, and finally to the media. Her story is examined by all; what is looked at is confirmed, and none of her accusations are disproven. But, despite this, the story dies.

Finally, the matter winds up in court, but representatives of the Bush Administration's Department of Justice appear in the courtroom, and Sibel Edmonds and her attorneys are asked to leave. When they are finally allowed back into the courtroom, it is to be told that the case is dead -- the government has imposed State Secrets Privilege, shutting the case down completely; technically, even Sibel Edmond's date and place of birth are considered sensitive information, the release of which would supposedly damage national security.

All circuits are dead

Meanwhile, not knowing where else to turn, both Sibel and those who know about and are following her case ponder what this could mean. But, Sibel knows -- it is not to protect national security, but rather to cover up their own criminal conduct that corrupt elements in the government have made her the most gagged person in US history.

I cannot decode

Afghanistan under the Taliban was a brutally oppressive place, especially for women, who were treated as sub-humans, devoid of the rights any person is entitled to. Afghanistan was also a nest of radical Islamic militants, who exported their holy war around the world as they sought to force submission on mankind, or achieve martyrdom and an eternity in paradise in the arms of virgins through their efforts.

But, the Taliban had been effective in reducing the production of opiates in Afghanistan, thus diminishing the supply of heroin on the world's market.

Now, however, in the wake of the 2001 American-led invasion to oust the Taliban, opium production has been reborn, and Afghanistan produces over 90% of the world's supply. On top of that, whereas Afghanistan once exported only raw opium, now heroin is refined within the country, and shipped to market along the old Silk Road...

My whole life spins into a frenzy

The Silk Road, so much of which is now protected by a new string of US military bases established since 9/11 in the War on Terror...

And I recall the connections Sibel Edmonds warned about -- that Turkish organized crime figures who are involved in the heroin trade are paying off US government officials, giving them money now and promises of a worry-free retirement later, if only...

Help, I'm stepping into the Twilight Zone

Suddenly, as the realization sinks in, it all makes sense...

The heroin moves through the Balkans on its way to market in Western Europe, and that explains why the US is siding with Islamic extremists, first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo -- the War on Terror is just a smokescreen for corruption in the highest circles of the US government.

The place is a madhouse

Islamic militants are a serious threat -- not just to America, but to the rest of the world, most especially to other Muslims; yet, in this War on Terror, we have been siding with the Islamic terrorists in the Balkans, because they are helping move the heroin.

Of course, oil and natural gas can be found in the Caspian Basin in great quantities, and they need to move to market in pipelines through these same areas, so that becomes another layer of the matter.

Feels like being cloned

The War on Terror is a charade: scratch it once, it comes up Big Oil; scratch it twice, it comes up Big Heroin.

Furthermore, there's profiteering going on -- big government contracts to provide various services -- feeding the troops, providing security guards for important facilities, rebuilding wartorn countries...

My beacon's been moved

Our troops are dying, battling an endless supply of jihadis, who themselves are being exploited; but our troops are not allowed to win, because the instability benefits the movement of heroin, and ongoing hostilities mean ongoing government contracts to the profiteers.

Under moon and star

How far does this go?

I investigate, and keep coming up with new names, new connections, new twists to the plot, but the basic answers don't change...

Heroin, the nuclear black market, arms trafficking, oil, corruption and terror...

Where am I to go

Congress has been compromised, the FBI has been infiltrated, and the Executive Branch is in bed with Big Oil and the war profiteers -- except for strategically placed officials who are on the payroll of heroin traffickers.

And the media is shamefully and conspicuously silent...

Now that I've gone too far?

(Continued in Part 2)