The Sunday Times of London Details Nuclear Espionageby Turks in U.S.

The Sunday Times of London Details
Nuclear Espionage by Turks in U.S.

by Stella Jatras

The London, UK, Sunday Times published an article on Sunday, January 6, 2008 [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece], detailing Turkish nuclear espionage activities in the U.S. The "Sunday Times" article is based on information from Ms. Sibel Edmonds, a former translator who worked for the FBI in 2001-2002. Ms. Edmonds, fluent in Turkish and Farsi, had been dismissed from her position because she had protested certain irregularities in her section that compromised FBI counter-intelligence investigations. Although Ms. Edmonds' allegations had been supported by other FBI personnel, she was not reinstated in her position. In 2005-2006 (Vanity Fair magazine), Ms. Edmonds disclosed that the FBI was watching and eavesdropping on communications of Turkish diplomatic and intelligence personnel with U.S. government officials who were also accepting bribes from the Turkish government. At that time, the press accounts had focused only on Turkish "influence peddling" in Washington, DC. The new details revealed in the London Sunday Times article paint a more disturbing picture of Turkish intelligence gathering activities in the U.S. Some of the main points in the article are the following:

1. Ms. Edmonds is basing her information on communications intercepts gathered by the FBI since 1997.

2. The FBI had kept watch on contacts between Turkish, Pakistani, and Israeli government officials with officials of the U.S. DOS and DOD. These contacts had as a purpose the acquisition of conventional and nuclear weapons technologies by the respective governments of these officials.

3. According to Ms. Edmonds, Turkey had managed to "plant" PhD-level agents in U.S. institutions and laboratories involved in nuclear weapons research, e.g., Los Alamos in New Mexico. These individuals had obtained the necessary security clearances thanks to the "good offices" of a U.S. DOS official who was "on the payroll" of the Turkish government.

4. Ms. Edmonds alleges that Turkish diplomats (read also MIT - the Turkish intelligence service equivalent to the CIA), acted as "conduits" of nuclear technology intelligence gathering in the U.S. for the notorious Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI - our Pakistani "buddies" who have supported and may continue to support the Taliban and may be behind the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto). Essentially, the Turks were "fronting" for the Pakistanis (recall that Pakistan and India "formally" tested their nuclear weapons in 1998).

5. The FBI was keeping close tabs on the contacts between the Turkish Embassy personnel in Washington, DC, and the Pakistani ISI section of Pakistan's Embassy. The "Sunday Times" references that whatever nuclear information the Turks gathered in the U.S. and passed on to the Pakistanis, it ended up with our "friend" Dr. A. Q. Khan, the "father" of the Pakistani nuclear bomb, and "international purveyor" of controlled nuclear technology, i.e., uranium enrichment centrifuges, nuclear weapons designs, etc., to "customers" such as Iran and Libya.

6. One of Ms. Edmonds' fellow translators at the FBI was the daughter of a Pakistani government diplomat of the Pakistani Embassy. This diplomat was part of the Pakistani ISI contingent!!

7. According to the "Sunday Times," Ms. Edmonds' allegations have been validated through an internal investigation of the FBI's Inspector General's Office.

Assuming that this is valid information - and I have my doubts about certain London "Sunday Times" reporting - this creates some interesting implications not limited to the following:

See other articles
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by Stella Jatras

The Turkish military command structure and "deep state" with the knowledge of the Turkish civilian elected governments (the Turkish MIT intelligence agency is a civilian institution), maintains good contacts with the Pakistani ISI "deep state" on matters of nuclear weapons technology. If the Turks went as far as "front" for the Pakistanis in order to obtain nuclear technology intelligence in the U.S., it means that the Turkish military command structure has its "own agenda" on the issues of development - acquisition - deployment of nuclear weapons. This "agenda" is not consistent with U.S. national security interests in the Middle East. In a new book on the Pakistani nuclear weapons program ("Deception"), a Turkish company is named as the provider of metallurgical and power unit components for the Pakistani uranium enrichment centrifuges.
It is incomprehensible that the U.S. government is turning a "blind eye" on the unlawful nuclear espionage activities of a NATO ally within the U.S on a behalf of the Pakistani government. During the first six months of 2007, the U.S. government gave at least $10 million to the Pakistanis so that they could better safeguard their nuclear arsenal. There are also U.S. contingency plans to "neutralize" this arsenal in a "worst case scenario" (naturally, the Pakistanis are not "cooperating" in these contingency plans by not disclosing where they keep their nuclear warheads).

(Posting date 07 January 2008)

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