Interesting series of posts over at Sic Semper Tyrannis, about the case of Sybil Edmonds, a former FBI translator Sybil Edmonds who claims that the Bureau is sitting on evidence that corrupt US officials are part of an international network trading nuclear secrets.
Col. Pat Lang picks up The Times‘ reports on the case:
There are a number of countries sponsoring espionage against the US
government. Espionage is a felonious crime in the US whether it is on
behalf of a "friendly" state or an enemy. Some people think that
unauthorized delivery of US classified information to a US national is
not espionage. They are mistaken. One could be charged with a lesser
crime, but that is at the option of the government. (Sybil Edmonds: an Unresolved Case?)
David Habbakkuk suggests that the network may have been penetrated by the US and allowed to run:
a key statement in the original Sunday Times story
is that the nuclear network Edmonds describes ‘has been monitored for
many years by a joint Anglo-American intelligence effort. But rather
than shut it down, investigations by law enforcement bodies such as the
FBI and Britain’s Revenue & Customs have been aborted to preserve
diplomatic relations.’ In addition to this, there is the ‘small team’
investigating the ‘same procurement’ network referred to in the third
story — to which Valerie Plame belonged, and for which Brewster
Jennings was a front company. One quite possible explanation for the
appearance of this story in the Sunday Times is that important elements
in this ‘joint Anglo-American intelligence effort’, either in London,
or in Washington, or in both, decided they wanted this network shut
down, and saw the disclosures by Edmonds as a means of securing this
end. (Sybil Edmonds 2 by David Habbakkuk)
This kind of penetration operation sounds very similar to the one Richard Tomlinson claimed he was involved in, infilitrating the Nahum Manbar network for MI6.
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