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FBI Burying Doc Showing US Officials Stole Nuclear Secrets?

BoingBoing is reporting that the FBI may be burying the existence of a document that proves US officials stole nuclear secrets for eventual sale to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. "One of the documents relating to the case was marked 203A-WF-210023. Last week, however, the FBI responded to a freedom of information request for a file of exactly the same number by claiming that it did not exist. But The Sunday Times has obtained a document signed by an FBI official showing the existence of the file. Edmonds believes the crucial file is being deliberately covered up by the FBI because its contents are explosive. She accuses the agency of an 'outright lie.'"

6 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. *Shudders with fear* by naturalog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you think this is scary, try to imagine all the things that we don't know about.

  2. Art of War Chapter 13 by techpawn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    7. Hence the use of spies, of whom there are five classes: (1) Local spies; (2) inward spies; (3) converted spies; (4) doomed spies; (5) surviving spies.
    8. When these five kinds of spy are all at work, none can discover the secret system. This is called "divine manipulation of the threads." It is the sovereign's most precious faculty.
    9. Having local spies means employing the services of the inhabitants of a district.
    10. Having inward spies, making use of officials of the enemy.
    11. Having converted spies, getting hold of the enemy's spies and using them for our own purposes.
    12. Having doomed spies, doing certain things openly for purposes of deception, and allowing our spies to know of them and report them to the enemy.
    13. Surviving spies, finally, are those who bring back news from the enemy's camp.
    14. Hence it is that which none in the whole army are more intimate relations to be maintained than with spies. None should be more liberally rewarded. In no other business should greater secrecy be preserved.

    Oh yeah, we're so stupid that we're going to let some reporter just find this filing we're trying to hide... NOTHING TO SEE HERE!
    The Art of war has been around since 5 BC, misinformation has been around longer than that...

    --
    Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
  3. US media will *not* touch this, probably ever by Eternal+Vigilance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it's up to the foreign press, in this case the Times Online. (Makes my head hurt that a Murdoch-owned outlet counts as the best source of investigative, or at least reportive, journalism.)

    "The FBI has been accused of covering up a file detailing government dealings with a network stealing nuclear secrets" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3216737.ece

    Which was itself a follow-up to

    "For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece

    Basically, the story was that Sibel Edmonds, an FBI translator listening to comm intercepts looking for Middle Eastern "terrorists," discovered evidence of a network of US, Israeli, Turkish and Pakistani nuclear weapons secrets trading. She's told the FBI - they fired her. She told Congress - they placed her under a gag order and threatened to jail her if she talked about it. She's even agreed to tell the story to any American media outlet (which means she's willing to go to jail so people can know), as long as the outlet agrees to tell the whole story, and not edit it to hide the truth. So far, all American sources have refused to cover the story.

    Interesting tidbit - the CIA front company, "Brester Jennings," for which Valerie Plame worked before she was outed by Cheney and company, had as its mission tracking nuclear weapons activity in the ME. Outing Plame meant the Brewster Jennings cover was completely blown, like a wiretap being discovered. Which means that Plame's outing, with its supposed rationale as payback for exposing Bush's lies about Iraq and uranium, may have been nothing more than a convenient two-fer with a great cover story, when the real goal was to take out CIA assets who were getting too close to something far more important.

    Sibel Edmonds' web site is http://www.justacitizen.com/>here.

    "I'd say what she has is far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers." - Daniel Ellsberg

  4. Re:Double standards... by azrider · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The words "matter of national security" should carry a bit of weight.
    This would be the case if the phrase (and it's cousin - Executive Privilege) were not used so frequently and so obviously to hide illegal/unethical actions on the part of members of the current (and former) administrations.
    --
    And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
    John 8:32(King James Version)
  5. Which party will be embarrassed if it comes out? by dpbsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Won't someone at least hint at who those officials were, so that I can start making my ideological prejudgments on the credibility of the allegations?

  6. Re:Gee... by ushering05401 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fact that it is not a surprise is what makes it so heinous.

    The initial reaction of outrage that a populace has after finding out something rotten about their gov is one of the strongest tools of a citizenry to police their representatives. See, if there is this sudden burst of emotional outcry politicians have to get all hands on deck to control the situation... not knowing how far or deep the populace is willing to pursue the issue they must fear the worst. Knowing the populace is acting on emotions causes those who want to keep their power to make wide sweeping and highly visible adjustments to the system to calm the emotional response.

    Once that initial outrage is gone, the citizenry are reduced to working through channels controlled by the very people who are acting against their best interests.

    Just a thought.