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GOP Criminal Flip-Flop: Was Denny Hastert Bribed By Turkish Agents?

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  • GOP Criminal Flip-Flop: Was Denny Hastert Bribed By Turkish Agents?

    GOP Criminal Flip-Flop: Was Denny Hastert Bribed By Turkish Agents?

    Blogcritics.org
    Aug 4 2005

    Posted by Balletshooz on August 04, 2005 08:03 PM (See all posts by
    Balletshooz)

    Filed under: Politics - Scroll down to read comments on this story
    and/or add one of your own.

    Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years in Coaching and Politics
    Dennis Hastert
    Book from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
    Release date: August, 2004


    Why exactly did Denny Hastert flip-flop at the last moment, derailing
    a Congressional resolution designating as genocide the killings of
    Armenians between 1915 and 1923? He initially attributed it to a
    letter from Bill Clinton, but new FBI wiretaps show Turkish foreign
    agents mentioning Hastert's name in the context of a bribe, right
    before the resolution was scheduled to pass.

    Is Denny Hastert taking bribes from foreign officials and why is
    the Justice Department trying to squelch an investigation into the
    matter? What are they trying to hide? These new allegations, if allowed
    to surface, will make Tom Delay and Karl Rove look like Mother Teresa
    and Gandhi. Call it Genocide-Gate, Traitor-Gate, or Hastert-Gate,
    the American public and American law enforcement deserve to know and
    must take a close look at this unfolding scandal.

    For many years, attempts had been made to get the House to pass the
    genocide resolution, but they never got anywhere until August 2000,
    when Hastert, as Speaker of the House, announced that he would give
    it his backing and see that it received a full House vote. Thanks to
    Hastert, the resolution, vehemently opposed by the Turks, passed.

    Then on October 19, minutes before the full House vote, Hastert
    suddenly and without explanation withdrew it.

    Vanity Fair's September edition, which has yet to hit national
    newsstands, has an article about Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator who
    has been gagged by the Bush administration from revealing information
    about conversations she translated surrounding a seemingly major
    corruption scandal involving Turkish nationals and U.S. lawmakers.

    The following are some brief excerpts from RAW STORY surrounding the
    allegations Edmonds has made-some of which the FBI has confirmed-about
    the specifics surrounding her case:

    · According to those briefed on the case, Edmonds says she has heard
    classified wiretaps, which indicate Turkish nationals tried to bribe
    lawmakers in Chicago and Washington.

    · Edmonds was fired from the FBI after trying to persuade her bosses
    to investigate a Turkish family, the Dickersons, she said was trying
    to trade on her status as an FBI operative. She suspected that the
    American Turkish Council, which the family tried to persuade her to
    join, was a front group for criminal activity.

    · On top of the usual prohibition against disclosing classified
    information, the Bush administration has smothered her case beneath the
    all-encompassing blanket of the "state-secrets privilege"-a Draconian
    and rarely used legal weapon that allows the government, merely by
    asserting a risk to national security, to prevent the lawsuits

    Edmonds has filed contesting her treatment from being heard in court
    at all. According to the Department of Justice, to allow Edmonds her
    day in court, even at a closed hearing attended only by personnel
    with full security clearance, "could reasonably be expected to cause
    serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the
    United States."

    Edmonds' attorney, who works for the ACLU, says: "It also begs a
    question: Just what in the world is the government trying to hide?"
    One counterintelligence official familiar with Edmonds's case
    has told Vanity Fair that the FBI opened an investigation into
    covert activity by Turkish nations and found evidence, mainly via
    wiretaps, of attempts to corrupt senior American politicians. One
    name apparently stood out-a man the Turkish callers often referred
    to by the nickname "Denny boy." According to some of the wiretaps it
    was Denny Hastert. The FBI's targets had arranged for thousands of
    dollars to be paid to Hastert's campaign funds in small checks. Under
    Federal Election Commission rules, donations of less than $200 are
    not required to be itemized in public filings.

    An examination of Hastert's federal filings shows that the level
    of un-itemized payments his campaigns received over many years was
    very high. Between April 1996 and December 2002, un-itemized personal
    donations to the Hastert for Congress fund amounted to $483,000. In
    contrast, un-itemized contributions to the same period to the
    committee run on behalf of the House majority leader, Tom DeLay,
    Republican of Texas, were only $99,000. An analysis of the filings
    of four other senior Republicans shows that only one, Clay Shaw,
    of Florida declared a higher total of un-itemized donations than
    Hastert during the same period: $552,00.

    Edmonds reportedly added that the recordings contained repeated
    references to Hastert's flip-flop in the fall of 2000, "over an
    issue which remains of intense concern to the Turkish government-the
    continuing campaign to have Congress designate the killings of
    Armenians between 1915 and 1923 a genocide." Hastert's spokesman
    denied the allegations that he was bribed by a foreign agent, and
    said he knew nothing of the Turkish group.

    Hastert's defense is sounding a lot like some parallel Republican
    defenses to ongoing criminal investigations, namely Karl Rove, Tom
    DeLay, and Randy "Duke" Cunningham. They claim to have no involvement
    in the crime until it becomes obvious they are involved, and then
    they try to smear anyone willing to talk about it. This has become
    an ongoing pattern in the Republican administration and a danger to
    democracy. Only the justice system running its proper course can shed
    light on what crimes, if any, have been committed by Denny Hastert, and
    obstruction of the investigation should be roundly condemned by all.

    http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/04/200318.php

    --Boundary_(ID_mMHb8ShwhD8YfuuS9QrJ1w)--

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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