Russia: It’s No Longer Just About Ukraine

Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, after discussions in Antalya with the Turkish and Ukrainian foreign ministers,  March 10, 2022:

We have realised that the point at issue is not Ukraine at all. It is an aggression against all things Russian – interests, religion, culture, language, security, etc. The West’s furious reaction to our actions demonstrates that this is a life and death struggle, a struggle for Russia’s right to be on the political map of the world with full respect for its legitimate interests.

Turkey To Turn Hagia Sophia Into Mosque

From OrthoChristian:

“Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has instructed his aides to conduct a comprehensive study of the possibility of converting the status of the famous Agia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum back into a mosque, the Turkish paper Hurriyet reported today.”

The celebrated Orthodox cathedral was built by the Byzantine emperor St. Justinian the Great in what was then the imperial capital, Constantinople. It remains for Orthodoxy the ultimate symbol of the Ottoman rule over Christians that began with the overthrow of the Byzantine Empire in 1453.

The church has been secularized since 1931 and started use as a museum four years later.

This latest move is sure to inflame Orthodox passions, especially in Greece.

 

Israel: Future Turkish Defense Of Aid Ships Will Be Act Of War

Antiwar’s Jason Dietz writes:

“Israeli Army commander and top Likud member Uzi Dayan today warned on Israeli Army Radio that Israel would consider any attempt by the Turkish military to protect future aid ships from attack an “act of war.” With Israeli protesters already condemning Erdogan, is war on the table? Continue reading

Sibel Edmonds On Traitors In High Places

“Sibel Edmonds: The Traitors Among Us,”

by Brad Friedman, Hustler Magazine, March 2010

“Edmonds’s most disturbing allegations, however, may be against high-ranking appointed officials in the Bush Administration. Elaborating on testimony she laid out in her sworn deposition, Edmonds told American Conservative magazine’s Phil Giraldi—a 17-year CIA counterterrorism officer—very specific details of alleged traitorous schemes perpetrated by top State and Defense Department officials. As already noted, these included Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and, perhaps most notably, former Deputy Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, the third-highest-ranking official in the Bush State Department.

Edmonds said that Feith and Wolfowitz were involved in plans to break Iraq into U.S. and British protectorates months prior to 9/11. She also claimed that the duo shared information with Grossman on how to blackmail various officials and that Grossman had accepted cash to help procure and sell nuclear weapons technology to Israel and Turkey—and, from there, on to the foreign black market. There the technology would be purchased by the highest bidder, such as Pakistan, Iran, Libya, North Korea or possibly even al-Qaeda.

Additionally, Edmonds claimed that Grossman, the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey before taking his State Department post, had tipped off Turkish diplomats to the true identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson’s front company, Brewster Jennings & Associates, a full three years prior to their being publicly outed by columnist Robert Novak. That in itself, according to George H.W. Bush, would be an act of treason carried out by “the most insidious of traitors.”

Former CIA counterterrorism officer Giraldi summed up Edmonds’s disclosures to me in blunt terms: “This was a massive coordinated espionage effort directed against United States nuclear secrets engineered by foreign agents who successfully corrupted senior government officials and legislators in our Congress. It’s that simple.”

According to a declassified version of a 2005 Department of Justice Inspector General’s report, Sibel Edmonds’s allegations are “credible,” “serious” and “warrant a thorough and careful review by the FBI.”
Perhaps more damningly, the FBI’s John Cole recently confirmed a key element of Edmonds’s claims when he revealed the existence of “the FBI’s decade-long investigation” of the State Department’s Grossman. Edmonds claimed that Grossman was perhaps the top U.S. ringleader for the entire foreign espionage scheme. The probe, Cole added, “ultimately was buried and covered up.”

More at Antiwar by Philip Giraldi, on Edmond’s credibility.

Here is an op-ed written by Sibel Edmonds about the role of foreign agents in “hijacking” the country.

I should note that Edmonds herself has been seen by some as playing a sophisticated role of disinformation by overemphasizing Arab involvement in 9-11.

Frankly, I don’t know enough about her to argue if that’s plausible or not. In any case, even if her revelations serve an ulterior purpose, they are bad enough as they stand….