Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: demnomo
And notice the Senate is not investigating this one. Apparently the whistle blower sent a report to the Senate Judiciary Committee:

"Edmonds, a Turkish-American who is not a practicing Muslim, made the allegations last month in a 9-page letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee."

The FBI not only didn't discipline, but PROMOTED the offender, who should be called a saboteur -- he actually deleted people's work to slow them down. From the Sperry article (see link in my post 1):

"Despite the backlog, Feghali told Edmonds and other translators to just let the work pile higher, according to Edmonds. Why? Money. She says Feghali, who has recruited family and friends to work with him at the high-paying language unit, argued that Congress would approve an even bigger budget for it if they could continue to show big backlogs.

"We were told to take long breaks, to slow down translations, and to simply say 'no' to those field agents calling us to beg for speedy translations so that they could go on with their investigations and interrogations of those they had detained," said Edmonds, who was fired without specified cause by the FBI after she reported breaches in security, mistranslations and potential espionage by Middle Eastern colleagues.

She claims Feghali actually tampered with her work to slow her down.

"My supervisor went as far as getting into my work computer and deleting almost completed work so that I had to go back and start all over again," she said.

Edmonds, a Turkish-American who is not a practicing Muslim, made the allegations last month in a 9-page letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

She also claims that Feghali threatened to sue the bureau for racial discrimination, but dropped the suit once the bureau promoted him, says Edmonds and other sources. The FBI, which like the army suffers from a severe shortage of Arabic translators, instated a bureau-wide Muslim-sensitivity training program after 9-11."

16 posted on 02/16/2004 6:54:25 PM PST by FairOpinion (If you are not voting for Bush, you are voting for the terrorists.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]


To: FairOpinion
Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2002
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
AG
(202) 616-2777
TDD (202) 514-1888

STATEMENT OF BARBARA COMSTOCK, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, REGARDING TODAY’S FILING IN SIBEL EDMONDS V. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE:

“To prevent disclosure of certain classified and sensitive national security information, Attorney General Ashcroft today asserted the state secrets privilege in Sibel Edmonds v. Department of Justice. This assertion was made at the request of FBI Director Robert Mueller in papers filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Department of Justice also filed a motion to dismiss the case, because the litigation creates substantial risks of disclosing classified and sensitive national security information that could cause serious damage to our country’s security.

“The state secrets privilege is well-established in federal law. It has been recognized by U.S. courts as far back as the 19th century, and allows the Executive Branch to safeguard vital information regarding the nation’s security or diplomatic relations. In the past, this privilege has been applied many times to protect our nation’s secrets from disclosure, and to require dismissal of cases when other litigation mechanisms would be inadequate. It is an absolute privilege that renders the information unavailable in litigation.”

###

02-605

30 posted on 02/16/2004 7:04:18 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]

To: FairOpinion

Skip to main content

U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

CONTACT: Office of Senator Leahy, 202-224-4242

VERMONT


August 13, 2002

 

The Honorable John Ashcroft
Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.  20530

Dear Attorney General Ashcroft:

We are writing jointly in order that you might allay our concern about the status of the investigation into allegations made by Sibel Edmonds, a former contract linguist in the Washington Field Office of the FBI.  Although we understand that the matter is currently under investigation by the Inspector General, we are troubled that the Department of Justice, including the FBI, may not be acting quickly enough to address the issues raised by Ms. Edmonds= complaints or cooperating fully with the Inspector General=s office.  We are sending a similar letter to Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine.

By way of background, Ms. Edmonds first raised concerns about security problems and the integrity of important translations earlier this year.  Unfortunately, nearly every person at the FBI who was notified of the situation reacted by questioning why Ms. Edmonds was Acausing trouble.@  Indeed, the FBI=s first internal security action in this case focused on Ms. Edmonds, instead of the allegations she raised in good faith as a whistleblower which bore on national security and the war against terrorism.

Ms. Edmonds has made a number of serious allegations, some of which the FBI verified were not unfounded during an unclassified briefing for Judiciary Committee staff on June 17.  First, Ms. Edmonds has alleged that a contract monitor in her unit (Amonitor@) chose not to translate important, intelligence-related information, instead limiting her translation to unimportant and innocuous information.  The FBI has verified that this monitor indeed failed to translate certain material properly, but has attributed the failure to a lack of training as opposed to a malicious act. 

That conclusion is directly related to Ms. Edmund=s second allegation.  Ms. Edmonds alleged that the same contract monitor once worked for an organization associated with a counter-intelligence investigation and that the monitor had contacts with a foreign national who was a member of the target institution.  Additionally, Ms. Edmonds states that some of the mistranslated recordings on which the monitor actually worked contained conversations by this same person with whom the monitor had such contacts and concerned matters pertinent to the investigation.

Even after verifying some of these allegations, the FBI downplayed the importance of this matter and seemed to imply that it had ceased looking into the complaints as a security matter until after the Inspector General finished their investigation.  Anyone who remembers the long-time treachery of former FBI Supervisor Robert Hanssen, would be concerned at this reaction.  For years, Hanssen=s bizarre actions were also written off as minor security breaches and unworthy of serious consideration.  If even routine diligence had been exercised earlier, Hanssen could have been stopped from doing untold damage.  The FBI needs to learn from its mistakes.

In addition to general concerns raised by this case, we have two specific concerns we wish to raise for your review.  First, we have learned that a person central to the investigation will soon be leaving the country  B perhaps before the investigation is resolved.   If you or your staff would like to know the identity of this person, please contact Inspector General Fine=s office, with whom Senator Grassley=s staff has been in touch.  This person may hold dual citizenship with the United States and a foreign country and may possess a valid passport issued by that foreign country.  Thus, there will be little or no assurance that the person will return or cooperate with an investigation in the future.  Based on these facts, we would like your assurance that you are satisfied that there has been and will be no delay that will prejudice, in any way, the outcome of this investigation. 

Furthermore, we would like your assurance that the Department of Justice, including the FBI, will fully cooperate in all aspects of the inquiry.  For instance, we draw your attention to the fact that the FBI currently opposes depositions of the monitor and her husband as part of the investigation into this case, even though the monitor=s husband never worked at the FBI and even though the military agency at which the monitor=s husband does work is not opposing a deposition.  Moreover, we understand that the monitor and her husband have signed a letter stating they will make themselves available for depositions.  It is unclear, then, why the FBI is taking this position in the wake of such important allegations bearing on national security.  We hope that you will ensure that the FBI is fully compliant with the Inspector General=s inquiry as it proceeds. 

Second, we are concerned about the most crucial evidence in the case B the raw material that was allegedly improperly translated.  We seek your assurance that the recordings will be properly maintained and promptly translated by a competent and independent authority.  That way the validity of the complaint can be quickly judged. 

We know that you share our concern that the FBI address issues bearing on national security in a prompt manner, regardless of whether or not they cast the FBI in a positive light.  Only by honest evaluation can the FBI learn from its past mistakes.  We thank you in advance for your cooperation in this matter.  We request a reply in writing at your earliest possible convenience. 

Sincerely,

            __________________                                    __________________

PATRICK J. LEAHY                                     CHARLES E. GRASSLEY

Chairman                                                         Ranking Member

Committee on the Judiciary                               Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs  

 


39 posted on 02/16/2004 7:13:45 PM PST by FreedomCalls (It's the "Statue of Liberty," not the "Statue of Security.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson