Lawmakers to question FBI about translator - Sibel Edmonds

[NNN0LHI]

http://newsobserver.com/24hour/politics/story/2195769p-10305933c.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - A woman fired by the FBI after alleging security lapses in its translator program has gained support from two members of Congress who said Wednesday they will question the Justice Department about her accusations.

After listening to former translator Sibel Edmonds complain about her treatment at the hands of the Justice Department and the FBI, Reps. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said their staffs would debrief Edmonds and confront Justice Department officials with the information.

Edmonds alleges she was fired after complaining to FBI managers about shoddy wiretap translations and telling them an interpreter with a relative at a foreign embassy might have compromised national security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by passing information from an FBI wiretap to the target of an investigation.

Edmonds commented on the issue while testifying at a House Government Reform subcommittee hearing on the government's designation of information as classified. She told lawmakers the people she accused were still working at the FBI.

more

[clydefrand]

1. This sounds encouraging since there is a republican on board.

[cascadiance]

13. There's actually TWO Republicans on board.

Shays appears to have joined the fray now, but Charles Grassley has been helping Sibel get heard for some time now. I just wish there were more Republicans like that out there, that no matter how much I might disagree with them on some policy issues, that I can respect that they are being truthful and genuinely working for the welfare of the American citizens they are supposed to be working for, instead of other nebulous entities that keep corrupting the rest of the Rethugs and that they have no shame doing so!

[Zhade]

14. Wasn't Shays the guy who led the mini rebellion against DeLay?

I think Talking Points Memo covered it (called the group the Shays' Handful, I suggested Shays' Rebellion instead).

[librechik]

2. I hope they put F**K YOU F**ING A**HOLES! in the title

Just to make sure it gets investigated

[seemslikeadream]

3. "Give us the names of those people you are accusing,"

"Give us the names of those people you are accusing," Shays said. He and Maloney - who worked together successfully help push Congress to pass the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission - plan to then go to the FBI and ask the agency for an accounting.

The Justice Department's inspector general said last month that the FBI never adequately investigated Edmonds' complaints, even though evidence and witnesses supported her. The FBI said it still was investigating Edmonds' claims.

Edmonds filed a lawsuit seeking to keep her job, but last summer a judge threw out her case after Attorney General John Ashcroft said her claims might harm national security by exposing government secrets.

Edmonds said court hearings on her appeal will start April 23.

"Just let me know when you're going into court, and I'll see how many women leaders I can get to come stand with you," Maloney said. She plans to introduce a bill named after Edmonds that would challenge unnecessary security classifications by the federal government.
more
http://newsobserver.com/24hour/politics/story/2195769p-10305933c.html

[bobthedrummer]

4. Sibel is not alone-there are many honest people being suppressed

by this administration--this is encouraging news.

[seemslikeadream]

5. Emerging Threats: Overclassification and Pseudo-classification

Statement by Sibel Edmond

http://www.aclu.org/Files/OpenFile.cfm?id=17605

[Supersedeas]

12. but Prof. Condi did not have flights numbers and seat assignments

[gratuitous]

6. An encouraging development

But try as I might, after reading the story through a couple of times, I couldn't quite find out when Ms. Edmonds was fired. Was it last month? A year ago? Longer than that? That seems a rather pertinent piece of information that would go a long way toward establishing some context for the story.

And yes, I do know that Edmonds was fired quite some time ago, and that's the point: That it's taken this long for Congress to take official notice of this affair, and figure out that its handling may not have been in the best interests of the greatest number. Which is a polite way of saying that this whole mess has been a grand game of cover your ass, and the corrupt Bush administration has been let off the hook once again for its incompetence.

[wiggs]

7. Again....questions not asked are more important

I'm glad Sibel is getting to speak without threat of a trip to gitmo. However, I hope investigators, congress, and the public don't forget to ask about ALL the information Sibel has.

She wasn't gagged because she knows about shoddy FBI practices or about a translator with ties to groups being investigated. She was gagged because of the content of the material she was translating. In her own statements, she has hinted at 9/11 money trails, 9/11 warnings, money laundering, organized crime, and other countries. THIS IS THE INFORMATION THAT WE NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT.

[seemslikeadream]

8. Whistlerblower Coming in Cold From The FBI

Whistlerblower Coming in Cold From The FBI


MUST read..there is so much information in this article

...the article mentions a woman named Melek Can Dickerson, a Turkish woman married to a major in the U.S. Air Force. The woman told Edmonds that she couldn't believe America was monitoring people who were their chief "persons of interest" because Dickerson and her husband had done favors for them...shopping...

"Ms. Edmonds has told the Judiciary Committee that soon after, Ms. Dickerson tried to establish social ties with her, suggesting they meet in Alexandria and introduce their husbands to each other.

When Sibel invited the visitors in for tea, she said, Major Dickerson began asking Matthew Edmonds if the couple had many friends from Turkey here in the U.S. Mr. Edmonds said he didn't speak Turkish, so they didn't associate with many Turkish people. The Air Force officer then began talking up a Turkish organization in Washington that he described, according to the Edmondses, as "a great place to make connections and it could be very profitable."

Sibel was sickened. This organization was the very one she and Jan Dickerson were monitoring in a 9/11 investigation. Since Sibel had adhered to the rule that an F.B.I. employee does not discuss bureau matters with one's mate, her husband innocently continued the conversation. Ms. Dickerson and her husband offered to introduce the Edmondses to people connected to the Turkish embassy in Washington who belonged to this organization. ..."My husband keeps thinking he's talking about promoting business deals," Ms. Edmonds later said of the encounter. "He has no idea the man is talking about criminal activities with some semi-legitimate front."

These are classic "pitch activities" to get somebody to spy for you, according to a Judiciary Committee staffer who investigated Ms. Edmonds' claims. ...The targets of that F.B.I. investigation left the country abruptly in 2002. Later, Ms. Edmonds discovered that Ms. Dickerson had managed to get hold of translations meant for Ms. Edmonds, forge her signature, and render the communications useless."

more
http://www.gailsheehy.com/9_11/9_11_art1_21.html

[seemslikeadream]

9. Take a visit via the Net to the world of associations.

the reality is that it and other affiliated associations are the US government.

...

It is in and through such associations that US political, economic and military policy is made and the American public subsequently "educated" to support policies that are not, and could not, be debated in public because of their illegality, audacity, complexity and, arguably, necessity.

...

America Gives Birth to New EuroAsia

Now, before you yell, "Conspiracy," you might want to think Necessity and Stability, particularly in light of the opening to Central Asia, the Caucasus and the new Europe provided by 9-11. Pull up Net maps of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Europe. Once you've done that, consider what political, economic and military activities (defined as US national interests) the United States has underway in those regions. It is no less than the development of a US-dominated New EuroAsia that includes the "Stans," Ukraine, Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Czech, Croatia, and Poland. Crazy? Hardly, it is a brilliant gamble. There are many compelling reasons to create a New EuroAsia with the US with a controlling interest.

...

ACPC was founded in 1999 and is chaired by former National Security Advisor Zibigniew Brezinski, former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig, Jr., and former Congressman Stephen J. Solarz. ACPC, according to its website, is composed of more than one hundred distinguished Americans representing both major political parties and nearly every walk of life.

And who are those 100 Americans? Well, to name a few, there's Geraldine Ferraro, former Democratic candidate for vice president; Frank Gaffney, CEO of the Center for Security Policy whose board members include Doug Feith, Gordon Sullivan, CEO of the Army Association of the USA, and Bob Livingston of the Livingston Group; Elliot Abrams and Mike Leeden. And who would have guessed that Richard Gere and PJ O'Rourke would be members of the ACPC?

And the story gets routine and boring as it moves on. The honorary chair of the American Georgia Business Council (AGBC) is James Baker III. Its members include ExxonMobil, Northrop Grumman and Ernst &Young. President of the AGBC is S. Enders Wimbush, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and Booz Allen Hamilton employee. A trustee of note on the Hudson Institute is Al Haig. The same connections, whether through individuals or organizations, can be found for Ukraine and Belarus, as well as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Six Degrees of Zibigniew Brezinski

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/021805Stanton/021805stanton.html

[JerseygirlCT]

10. I almost feel sorry for Chris Shays

he's probably in deep doo-doo with the rest of his party. But 9-11 is just way too important an issue to his constituents. I'm glad to see him on board.

[Just Me]

11. I sincerely do hope that she leads the way for all the other,...

,...whistle-blowers who have been buried by the right-wing.

Sibel, I wish you the very best!!! You are one tough lady!!! :bounce:

[struggle4progress]

15. kick