While the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert is preparing to plead guilty in a deal that he initiated with federal investigators, most of the media will call attention to the crimes that the FBI characterized in ‘indictment. While qu’Hastert was indicted in May, the opinion was shocked to learn that the former university instructor control spending lots of money to try to hide the sexual abuse charges against him. But one of the whistle-blowers in order did not hesitate to bring charges on the harm that Hastert was guilty for years – and the effects they may have on the federal safety.

Those who read The American Conservative has long been familiar with the saga of Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds is an FBI translator who revealed the widespread corruption throughout the government, and has received multiple orders for silence motivated by the State Secrets Act [Act status Secrets]. She still persevered even exposed to prosecution, even threatened with imprisonment. In a feature article, TAC had interviewed in 2009 and I reviewed myself the more calls she launched, particularly when the release of his book Classified Woman [A Woman Secret Classified Defence, ndt] in 2012.

Many assertions Edmonds had been brought against Turkish and Israeli front groups seeking to influence US foreign policy and indulging in illegal activities. In the list of identified illegal acts of corruption included the official high-level government and members of Congress in order to obtain licenses to export to embargoed countries, and to be made aware of information secret. Edmonds had been questioned by a congressional committee, several members of Congress and by permanent staff, and by the Inspector General of the FBI; the information she had given had been found “credible”, “serious”, and had to make “a thorough and careful check.” She also gave interviews to “60 Minutes” and Vanity Fair magazine, both able to confirm the key elements of his story.

Some critics say amounted to Edmonds exaggerated or misinterpreted what it claimed to know, but there was no reason to doubt his claims to the extent that she was quoting the documents and files that it were entrusted personally when she was in office. No one questioned his statements during investigations that had been conducted at the time. The Ministry of Justice has imposed to silence precisely because the information she revealed annoyed certain political interests or deemed to affect national security.

During one of his appearances in the media, Edmonds provides important information on Congressman Hastert, who was the subject of an FBI investigation when he was House speaker, a position to which he acceded in 1999 and remained for eight years. In his interview with TAC, Edmonds reported that in early 1997 because of information obtained by the FBI on the Turkish diplomatic community, the Ministry of Justice had already opened investigations into several Republican representatives. The first members of Congress known for its relations with the Turkish community, for the information he provided him and the favors he lavished him was Bob Livingston. Next on the list was Dan Burton, who later took the first position until Hastert became president of the House. The Attorney General Bill Clinton, Janet Reno, was made aware of these investigations, and as they were Republicans, she ordered the pursuit … In 1999, FBI agents in the Chicago section began purely and just listens on members of Congress.

In a statement in August 2009, Edmonds Hastert identified as “one of the first people in the US involved in operations and illegal actions, not in the interest of the United States but in that foreign governments and organizations foreigners “. She described in detail what she thought was the shady actions of Hastert: “This information was held in public. Business, once again, were made in various fields. The receipt by corruption, are important, issue cash or currency of money laundering, money laundering, for its election campaigns and also for personal use, with the appearance of legality, allow it distribute various favors and prepare others – preparing certain actions, make some things happen for the benefit of foreign entities and foreign governments for the benefit of the Turkish government and in the interests of certain business circles Turkish “.

When in the course of the deposition, he was asked the question “Did you have any reason to believe that Mr. Hastert, for example, killed one of the resolutions of the Armenian Genocide in exchange for money received from organizations Turkey “, she replied,” Yes, and … Okay … not only receive money, but there have been other acts, too, including reportedly being blackmailed for various reasons ” . At the time of the deposition, Hastert had left the Congress and was used for Dickstein Shapiro lobbying firm as an official lobbyist for Turkey, gaining from what we know millions of dollars in commissions.

Edmonds made a job description consisting of Turkish transcribe conversations on Hastert covering the period 1996-2003, to search for a possible blackmail operation. She recalled qu’Hastert “was using the town hall of Chicago where he was not a resident, to organize activities that morality does not accept a lot. I do not know if this could be used to blackmail, but the fact that foreign entities [Turkey and Israel] were aware, in fact, they sometimes participated in some of these activities as morally reprehensible in the City Hall, an administrative building, not a house, a private residence at certain times, on certain days, certain nights of the weekend. I do not know, therefore, if it did or not subject to blackmail, but they were involved in some of these activities. This was known “.

Under oath before the staff of the House and commissions, Edmonds reported hearing a tape recording of the conversation was monitored Turks touting their secret relations with a “Hastert.” They said giving him tens of thousands of dollars in illegal payments in exchange for political favors and information. Many transcripts involved a suspect of the Turkish consulate in the city, as well as several members of the American-Turkish Council and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations, business organizations, some FBI agents thought they served as a cover for an opportunity for organized crime. Some calls seemed to involve drug shipments and other possible crimes.

An important contact that often referred Turks in their calls was to nickname “Denny Boy”, later identified as Hastert. The listening tapes revealed that tens of thousands of dollars were paid to Hastert campaign background in small checks, because there is no obligation to register the gifts with a value below 200 dollars on public lists.

Vanity Fair has done enough to publicize the statements of Edmonds, and David Rose magazine wrote:

Hastert himself was never heard in the recordings, Edmonds told investigators, and it is possible that the payments are not covered as hollow assertions. Nevertheless, a review of federal reports Hastert reveals that the level of unreferenced payments received for his campaigns for many years is relatively high. Between April 1996 and December 2002, unreferenced personal donations to the Hastert for Congress Commiittee [Hastert committee in Congress] amounted to 483 thousand dollars.

Edmonds noted that listening to tapes contained repeated references to Hastert of volte face in the fall of 2000, during the campaign to designate the massacres of Armenians in Turkey between 1915 and 1923 under the term genocide. In August 2000, President Hastert said he would support the resolution and the whole House would pass for it to be passed. The resolution, to which the Turks are vehemently opposed, was adopted without a blow by the International Relations Committee by a large majority. Then, on October 19, shortly before the vote by the full House, Hastert withdrew.

Hastert said he decided his turnaround after reportedly received a letter from President Clinton, saying that the resolution, if passed, would be contrary to US interests. It is unclear whether a payment has not been done, but according to Edmonds, a senior official of the Turkish consulate reported in a recorded conversation that the price to convince Hastert to withdraw the resolution on the genocide amounted at least 500 000.

Hastert’s case, about to be closed these days, focuses on relatively minor federal laws on banking and pass on other facts found by the FBI on Hastert during the 20 years. One may ask, “why Hastert and why now? “But it does not seem to be a simple answer. This evokes more than just the frustration of FBI investigators demanding that something be done.

Edmonds, meanwhile, described how the case Hastert was ignored by the media and predicted that it would eventually retracted by the government. The prosecution on the charges originally were delayed, referral after referral, and recently they have gone astray in the preparation of a transaction that will allow the former member of Congress to plead guilty for acts of lesser importance, burying forever the details for blackmail.

Hastert and his lawyers have understood that they are in a position to threaten government prosecutors, knowing Hastert where many bodies were buried, to use a metaphor. In asking that the investigation reports about him – that could contain rendered accounts of illegal activities by a number of former officials – are published as defense elements, it can force the government to abandon or moderate charges against him. This is a similar method to that used in 2009 by Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, the alleged spies AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], which forced the resignation of President Judges of the formation responsible for the case.

Glenn Greenwald wrote: “those who have reserve policies and financial schemes are allowed to break the law without being punished. Often they do not even have to resort to brilliant lawyers because they do not even have to know what a court looks inside – even if they are stopped for the most egregious crimes. “ There is a particular irony here: the high-level criminals to avoid punishment by challenging their peers engaged in more or less the same practices, exercising at the bottom blackmail the government.

This is what seems to be the whole story of Dennis Hastert.

By Philip Giraldi

October 20, 2015

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA employee, is executive director of the Council for the National Interest [Council for the National Interest].

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-a-plea-deal-for-hastert-may-hide-the-truth/

Translation Gilbert Béguian