Urs Tinner et al, Free at last

AP via NYT:

"The Swiss government on Wednesday ordered the quick destruction of about 100 pages of evidence linked to an investigation of three Swiss engineers suspected of smuggling nuclear weapons technology. The cabinet said the documents were “the most explosive” material in a file of more than 1,000 pages related to the case against the Tinner family, which is suspected of links to the smuggling network of Abdul Qadeer Khan, one of the creators of Pakistan’s atomic bomb. The documents are copies of files destroyed in 2007 under a previous order that had led to protests from lawmakers and legal experts, who said the government had undermined the prosecution in the smuggling case. Citing security concerns and its legal obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the cabinet said that about 100 pages dealing with atomic weapons designs would be shredded shortly to keep them out of “the wrong hands.”"

Larry Franklin, Free at Last

Giraldi:

"For those who missed it (because it is not being reported in the MSM) Larry Franklin, the Pentagon AIPAC spy who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to twelve years in prison, has had his sentence reduced to probation and ten months of community confinement, which is presumed to be some kind of halfway house or possibly freedom to stay at home with some kind of monitoring bracelet. The adjustment was made last night by the same judge who let Rosen and Weissman go free in the AIPAC trial that was recently terminated without a conviction. Franklin did zero prison time as he was allowed to stay out of jail because of his willingness to testify in the trial. According to Franklin’s lawyer, Plato Cacheris the poor man has been having a rough time lately as no one wants to hire him… Cacheris ain’t cheap. Wonder who paid the bill?"

Politico:

"(Larry Franklin) didn't know at the time that Rosen and Weissman worked for the pro-Israel lobbying group (AIPAC)."

Too funny for words.

More from Politico:

"(Franklin's lawyer) Cacheris's description of Franklin's cooperation also produced some intriguing news. 

"He's given them other cases involving people who cannot come into this country," the defense lawyer said cryptically. 

Cacheris also suggested that Franklin was the target of witness tampering in the Aipac case. "Someone came to approach Franklin to have him, in effect, disappear," the defense attorney said. He said Franklin immediately reported the incident to authorities. 

Cacheris did not elaborate on the episode, but it could help explain why the FBI sought to interview Jewish leaders several years ago about attempts to provide financial assistance or employment to Rosen and Weissman. 

[...]

In response to a question from Ellis Thursday, Franklin confirmed speculation that his rendezvous with Rosen and Weissman was arranged by Michael Makovsky, a former energy analyst for the Pentagon. Makovsky, who has left the government, was not charged in the case and was expected to be a witness at the trial of Rosen and Weissman."

Makovsky's brother and father are both in Sibel Edmonds' State Secrets Privilege Gallery.

On the road

I'm still traveling. Blogging will be light for a few weeks.

What was Douglas Franz looking for?

Further to my recent post where I asked why John Kerry's Senate Foreign Relations Committee wanted Doug Frantz to meet the lawyers of Urs Tinner in Switzerland regarding AQ Khan's nuclear black market...

CQ's Jeff Stein asks the right question: What Nuclear Secret Was Kerry Aide Looking for in Switzerland?

Unfortunately, he doesn't get close to an answer, and his article ends weakly - or at least curiously - in my opinion:

But what was Franz looking for?  

"I wonder what political ends Kerry is seeking by digging into this," the intelligence operative, who worked on the nuclear black market, said. "Taking down AQ Khan is one of the agency's few public successes in the last decade."

Let's hope Stein continues his reporting on this.

(h/t Kingfisher)

Project Expose MSM: Michael Isikoff

Sibel outs Newsweek's Michael Isikoff.

Isikoff's response:

"Sibel-
sorry. No comment.
Regards,
Mike"

I suspect he won't be the last.

Free Roxana

Sibel:

I can tell you one thing with certainty: (American Journalist Roxana Saberi) Saberi was/is indeed CIA asset.

Greenwald:

Saberi's imprisonment in January became a cause célèbre among American journalists, who -- along with the U.S. Government -- rallied to demand her release.

Sibel:

I think the best place to start would be the breakthrough article by Carl Bernstein, THE CIA AND THE MEDIA , on how America’s most powerful news media worked hand in glove with the CIA.. Bernstein revealed that over 400 US journalists, over a twenty-five year period, had been employed by the CIA, as both freelancers and actual under cover CIA officers. Almost every major US news organization had CIA agents on their payroll with the full knowledge and cooperation of top management.

So many reports that are still entirely classified

New York Times, Justice Dept. Backs Saudi Royal Family on 9/11 Lawsuit:

The Obama administration is supporting efforts by the Saudi royal family to defeat a long-running lawsuit seeking to hold it liable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
[...]
The government’s position comes less than a week before President Obama is scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia with King Abdullah as part of a trip to the Middle East and Europe intended to reach out to the Muslim world.
[....]
But family members of several Sept. 11 victims said they were deeply disappointed and questioned whether the decision was made to appease an important ally in the Middle East. The Saudis have aggressively lobbied both the Bush and Obama administrations to have the lawsuit dismissed, government officials say.

“I find this reprehensible,” said Kristen Breitweiser, a leader of the Sept. 11 families, whose husband was killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center. “One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world.”

Sibel Edmonds:

Well, again, I am just one part of a lot of different things as far as this whole issue of 9/11 goes, and my point has been, OK, we had this 911 Commission Report, we had this Joint Enquiry by the Senate & House, yet currently there are so many reports that are still entirely classified.

There is another report by the Department of Justice's Inspector General's Office titled "FBI and 911 Foreknowledge" which you can see on their website. That report was completed in July 2004, and it dealt with my case, Coleen Rowley's case, the Phoenix Memo, and even more, yet that report is entirely classified, OK.

There is another IG report on CIA, that report is entirely classified. Then there is that 28 pages that Senator Graham was referring to, that dealt with certain foreign countries and their roles, those 28 pages, even today, after all the campaigns by the 911 family members, remains classified.

If you have done the investigations, if you have told the truth, if you have a clean conscience, why don’t you come out and make this information public? What are you trying to cover up so hard? Going out of your way by gagging the congress, by stopping court procedures? They are going as far as just disregarding the constitution completely, total disregard for our system of checks and balances, the separation of powers has disappeared, why? Why are they trying to hard to hold back, and what are they holding back? Do they really come across as people with clean consciences? Honest people? I mean, the notion of the government of people, by the people, for the people, how many Americans actually believe in that notion today? They would laugh at you, you know why? Because when you look at it, it seems like a separate entity, with all this secrecy, and this power within power, totally removed from the American people.