Just How Close Are the GOP Leadership and the American Turkish Council?

Raw Story reports that the upcoming September issue of Vanity Fair will have explosive allegations regarding the American Turkish Council and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

These allegations surfaced as part of a lawsuit by a former FBI translator who was fired by the agency.

Edmonds was fired from the FBI after trying to persuade her bosses to investigate a Turkish family, the Dickersons, she said was trying to trade on her status as an FBI operative. She suspected that the American Turkish Council, which the family tried to persuade her to join, was a front group for criminal activity.

On top of the usual prohibition against disclosing classified information, the Bush administration has smothered her case beneath the all-encompassing blanket of the "state-secrets privilege"-a Draconian and rarely used legal weapon that allows the government, merely by asserting a risk to national security, to prevent the lawsuits Edmonds has filed contesting her treatment from being heard in court at all. According to the Department of Justice, to allow Edmonds her day in court, even at a closed hearing attended only by personnel with full security clearance, "could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the foreign policy and national security of the United States."

While the substance of the allegations against Hastert obviously bear further investigation, one thing is immediately clear.  The top GOP leadership in the House and the American Turkish Council have very close ties.

In 2002, Majority Whip Roy Blunt's then top aide, Gregg Hartley, went to Turkey from May 25-June 2, 2002.  The trip was paid for and sponsored by the American Turkish Council, along with Phillip Morris, who Blunt's then-girlfriend lobbied for.  The total cost was just over $4,500. Click here for a pdf version of Hartley's Employee Travel Disclosure Form.

Blunt signed off on the trip.  Hartley's disclosure characterizes the trip as a "fact-finding trip."  Questions, oh so many questions.