Real Failure and Big News
October 8th, 2006Congressman Mark Foley isn’t just a pervert: he’s a stalker, too, drunkly lurking by the Congressional Page’ dormitory in the middle of the night in hopes of gaining entrance (in more ways than one). Congressman, notably the House’ Speaker Dennis Hastert, have been bumbling all over of late, and that, coupled with the War, George Bush and Mark Foley will, I think, tip the scales in favor of Democrats this November. But, as Jonathan Chait rightly points out, we shouldn’t allow this to distract us from the other, Realer failures of the GOP.
Which I don’t think this does, though. I think that this brings the Republican Party full-circle in failure. They can’t protect Afghanistan or our mission in Iraq; they can’t protect surpluses or the environment; now they can’t protect teenage boys in their own Congressional offices. That, more than the technical aspects of public policy, is something that all Americans can understand.
That’s enough, for today, on the sexual aspect of 2006 Politics. Let’s talk about this, one of the odder blog entries I’ve read anywhere of late.
The Vanity Fair magazine published last year an investigative article alleging that the American Turkish Council (ATC) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) had conspired, among other things, to make illegal campaign contributions to the Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, in return for blocking a congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide.
The article also mentioned that Turkish agents had infiltrated the highest echelons of the U.S. government.
The main source for some of the Vanity Fair revelations was Sibel Edmonds who had worked as a Turkish translator for the FBI. Unfortunately, she could not disclose most of what she knew on this sensitive subject, as she is legally prohibited from making public the confidential FBI documents that she had translated in the course of her work. All attempts by U.S. courts or Members of Congress to get out the full facts have been quashed by the Bush Administration, using the cover of protecting national security.
There have been several disclosures in recent months, mostly from anonymous sources, which shed further light on this matter. A few days ago, investigative journalist Wayne Madsen posted a special report (WMR) on his website which included alarming allegations about the extent of illegal activities by Turkish groups in the United States. As the report is based on confidential intelligence sources, there is no way of independently verifying its content.
The article goes on to excerpt reports, and the reports say that Turks are infiltrating the government and American society to find nuclear weapons and the technology to build them. Worse, though, is the news that the Bush Administration is covertly helping them. It’s a very weird story — what would the Turks want nuclear weapons for? “Leverage with Greece” just doesn’t fit right to me — and we’ll see what, if anything, comes of it. I just don’t understand the situation, at all. This is a whacky White House, deadset on proliferating weapons in India and, apparently, Turkey, but shocked when Iran and North Korea do what they do. (Not that I’m justifying those two nations — I’m a sharp critic of both those nations and their leaders — but I do think that these men are trying to destroy the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, at the rate they’re going.)