Did Hillary investigate whistleblower’s charges against new AfPak Envoy Marc Grossman?

Council for the National Interest, Philip Giraldi - Hillary Clinton plans to name retired diplomat Marc Grossman as the new U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Some might well recall the Grossman saga as related by FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds in 2009. According to Edmonds, a former FBI translator, Marc Grossman, who had been U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, was involved in suspected illegal activity connected to the Turkish and Israeli governments and was under investigation by the FBI.

Below is an excerpt from my 2009 interview with Edmonds:

GIRALDI: …Basically, you map out a corruption scheme involving U.S. government employees and members of Congress and agents of foreign governments. These agents were able to obtain information that was either used directly by those foreign governments or sold to third parties, with the proceeds often used as bribes to breed further corruption. Let’s start with the first government official you identified, Marc Grossman, then the third highest-ranking official at the State Department.

EDMONDS:
Grossman became a person of interest early on in the investigative file while he was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey [1994-97], when he became personally involved with operatives both from the Turkish government and from suspected criminal groups. He also had suspicious contact with a number of official and non-official Israelis. Grossman was removed from Turkey short of tour during a scandal referred to as “Susurluk” by the media. It involved a number of high-level criminals as well as senior army and intelligence officers with whom he had been in contact…

GIRALDI:
So Grossman at this point comes back to the United States. He’s rewarded with the third-highest position at the State Department, and he allegedly uses this position to do favors for “Turkish interests”—both for the Turkish government and for possible criminal interests. Sometimes, the two converge. The FBI is aware of his activities and is listening to his phone calls. When someone who is Turkish calls Grossman, the FBI monitors that individual’s phone calls, and when the Turk calls a friend who is a Pakistani or an Egyptian or a Saudi, they monitor all those contacts, widening the net.

EDMONDS:
Correct.

GIRALDI:
And Grossman received money as a result. In one case, you said that a State Department colleague went to pick up a bag of money…

EDMONDS:
$14,000

GIRALDI:
What kind of information was Grossman giving to foreign countries? Did he give assistance to foreign individuals penetrating U.S. government labs and defense installations as has been reported? It’s also been reported that he was the conduit to a group of congressmen who become, in a sense, the targets to be recruited as “agents of influence.”

EDMONDS:
Yes, that’s correct. Grossman assisted his Turkish and Israeli contacts directly, and he also facilitated access to members of Congress who might be inclined to help for reasons of their own or could be bribed into cooperation. The top person obtaining classified information was Congressman Tom Lantos. A Lantos associate, Alan Makovsky worked very closely with Dr. Sabri Sayari in Georgetown University, who is widely believed to be a Turkish spy. Lantos would give Makovsky highly classified policy-related documents obtained during defense briefings for passage to Israel because Makovsky was also working for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Grossman has denied involvement in any illegal activity, but the charges made by Edmonds have never actually been refuted. Presumably there is an FBI file on the Grossman case.

So the question becomes, did Hillary Clinton check out Grossman to determine if the charges made by Sibel Edmonds have any validity or not? If she did not, she is guilty of gross dereliction of duty and might be responsible for placing a possibly corrupt individual in a position that is critical to the conduct of US foreign policy.

So what is it Hillary? What did you do?
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