The story of Sibel Edmonds is a sadly typical example of corruption run amok in the Bush Administration and the revolving doors of power in our nation's capitol. Ms. Edmonds' story began when she was hired as a contract translator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shortly after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks. Her story continues today as Bush administration officials protect themselves and other Republican party cronies by gagging her with the "state secrets privilege."
Why would the Bush Department of Justice (DOJ) make Sibel Edmonds the most gagged citizen in the history of our country? Why would they retroactively classify her public testimony to Congress? What are they trying to hide, keep secret, or cover-up?
Some of the very basic facts are:
1. Sibel Edmonds monitored certain FBI wiretaps and translated them. 2. She also re-checked previously translated documents for accuracy. 3. She alleged that her co-worker, Dickerson, committed various crimes. 4. She alleged that her supervisor, Feghali, ignored these crimes. 5. She alleged the FBI fired her because she was a whistleblower. 6. She sued the FBI and took her case all the way to the Supreme Court. 7. The Bush Administration has hid behind "state secrets privilege." 8. She testified to the 9/11 Commission but was ignored. 9. She tried to work within the system but the system failed all of us.
The cast of characters:
Sibel Edmonds - The whistleblower Melek Can Dickerson - Edmonds' co-worker Mike Feghali - Edmonds' supervisor Robert Mueller - Bush-appointed FBI director John Ashcroft - Bush-appointed U.S. Attorney General Thomas Kean - Bush-appointed Chairman of the 9/11 Commission
The raw story:
The best independent reporting of the Sibel Edmonds' story was done by David Rose. His article is the source for many of the points along the timeline below. He published "An Inconvenient Patriot" in Vanity Fair magazine in September 2005:
Love of country led Sibel Edmonds to become a translator for the F.B.I. following 9/11. But everything changed when she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals. Fired after sounding the alarm, she's now fighting for the ideals that made her an American, and threatening some very powerful people.
In Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, December 2, 2001 was fine but cool, the start of the slide into winter after a spell of unseasonable warmth. At 10 o'clock that morning, Sibel and Matthew Edmonds were still in their pajamas, sipping coffee in the kitchen of their waterfront town house in Alexandria, Virginia, and looking forward to a well-deserved lazy Sunday.
Since mid-September, nine days after the 9/11 attacks, Sibel had been exploiting her fluency in Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani as a translator at the F.B.I. It was arduous, demanding work, and Edmonds—who had two bachelor's degrees, was about to begin studying for her master's, and had plans for a doctorate—could have been considered overqualified. But as a naturalized Turkish-American, she saw the job as her patriotic duty. (read the rest of the article)
The Timeline
For people who are completely unfamiliar with ongoing saga of Sibel Edmonds, a timeline of events is helpful to view the events of the narrative in some chronological order. This timeline is compiled from and linked to cooperativeresearch.org. Clicking the headline below will take you to the synopsis of that event in this timeline with citations of original source links for further research.
Now that the Democrats are in charge, where are the Congressional hearings about this national security matter?
Contact Chairman of the Government Oversight Committee, Henry Waxman.
Contact the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Tell them you want them to hold a hearing on this important matter of national security. While the Sibel Edmonds story may only be one of many Bushworld cover-ups, they seem to fear what she has to say enough to gag her testimony in order to keep the lid on their Pandora's box of lies.
jude August 3, 2007 12:17 PM PDT okay...i haven't read this yet, but i'm thinking this is one of those entries where immediately after stabbing that 'publish' button, your head rotated a full 360 degrees...right?
wait here...gotta go get more coffee before i tackle this puppy...
Deirdre August 3, 2007 12:51 PM PDT Goodness. I live such an oblivious life. This is scary.
J f Z August 3, 2007 07:22 PM PDT Yeah. I know it's an extremely long blog entry ... but I wanted to bring back my "Conspiracy Theory" topic here. It's been a while.
I hope the average person will at least click play on the embedded videos. Then, if those peak their interest or concern, they might go back and read the entry. Heh.
Lukery August 3, 2007 10:41 PM PDT Thanks for posting this. For more about the actual issues about why Sibel has been gagged, see <a href="http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-heck-is-sibel-edmonds-case-about.html">What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about?</a>
Lukery August 4, 2007 03:10 AM PDT OK - that link didn't work great!
the URL is wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2007/03/what-heck-is-sibel-edmonds-case-about.html
More Sibel Edmonds' Info August 4, 2007 03:47 AM PDT Click "More Sibel Edmonds' Info" above to go Luke Ryland's blog.
(JfZ)
this post might also be of particular interest:
"Who wants to gag Sibel Edmonds? And why? (with answers!)"
wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2007/05/who-wants-to-gag-sibel-edmonds-and-why.html
btw - i've switched to a new blog that is pretty much exclusively about sibel - and i'm churning out a few posts a week there
lukery.blogspot.com
