U.S. On "Intimate" Terms With Extremists In Central Asia

US on 'intimate' terms with extremists in central Asia

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id...tionid=3510203

(Gold9472: Aside from Rawstory, where is the American media on this?)

Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:53:05 GMT

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. A former FBI translator says the US would use the militants to promote its Central Asian interests.

A former FBI translator has claimed that the US was on 'intimate' terms with the Taliban and al-Qaeda using the militants to further certain goals in central Asia.

"With those groups, we had operations in Central Asia," said former Turkish language translator Sibel Edmonds on Friday speaking on the radio program, the Mike Malloy Show.

Washington used the gunmen 'as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict'; she added referring to the US military support for Afghan fighters against Russia during the 1979-89 Russian invasion.

Luke Ryland, a prolific investigator into the claims, says the tumultuous situation resulting from extremist operations would boost American arms sales in the region while forcing 'oil and gas concessions.'

Edmonds worked for the FBI until 2002 when she was fired on the charge of revealing sensitive information.

The US government has twice barred Edmonds' testimony on some controversial issues.

"These are the confirmed cases," she added stating that her claims were based on 'first-hand' information 'based on what I obtained.' "There are a lot of things that our government doesn't want us to know."

"It's not very difficult to put two and two together on this," she said.