Sibel Edmonds on radio tonight.

[SophieZ]

If you missed her, listen on archive.

It's your world. Understand it!
January 23, 2005: Sunday Monitor


KPFT - Pacifica Radio
listen online at www.kpft.org
or, in Houston, 90.1 FM

6 pm Central
7 pm Eastern
4 pm Pacific


ARCHIVES
If you miss a show, you can find it at ARCHIVES at
http://www.kpftx.org/archives/kpftsignal/index.php

Just look for SUNDAY MONITOR and the date of the show.


<> 6 pm HEADLINES

<> {around 6:15 pm} SPECIAL GUEST PIECE

"Some in black tie; others, body bags"
written by Susan Lenfestey; read by Ann Reed

Minneapolis Star Tribune
January 20, 2005
www.commondreams.org/views05/0120-23.htm


<> {around 6:20 pm} GUEST 1: SIBEL EDMONDS



Sibel Edmonds returns to Sunday Monitor to give us an update on her case. She is a former Middle Eastern language specialist hired by the FBI shortly after 9/11. She was fired in 2002 after reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency's translation program. She has alleged not only FBI incompetence, but that high crimes are being covered up.

She challenged her retaliatory dismissal by filing suit. Last July, the district court dismissed her case when Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the so-called state secrets privilege.

On January 13, the American Civil Liberties Union urged the D.C. Court of Appeals to reinstate her case, saying that the government is abusing the "state secrets privilege" to silence employees who expose national security blunders.

"The government should be applauding, not punishing, employees who risk their jobs to expose threats to our nation's security," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson. "If the lower court ruling stands, many thousands of government employees will be unprotected from retaliatory dismissal, with no recourse in the courts, and others will be even less willing to risk exposing misconduct or corruption."

Some notable other whistleblowers support Edmonds' case, as do several senators, the families of 9/11 victims, the Project On Government Oversight and many others. Many of them will be joining a friend-of-the-court brief to be filed later this month.

The government is engaged in a cover-up in the Edmonds case to hide its own negligence, the ACLU has said. In 2002, at the request of Senate Judiciary Committee members Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the FBI provided several unclassified briefings to Members of Congress in which it confirmed many of Edmonds' allegations.


<> GUEST 2 {around 6:40 pm}: BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT



Betsy Leondar-Wright is an economic justice activist. She is the Communications Director at United for a Fair Economy, which is a national, nonpartisan, non-profit group based in Boston. United for a Fair Economy (http://www.faireconomy.org) raises awareness that concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart. It works to build social movements for greater equality.

Betsy co-authored a book in 1999: Shifting Fortunes: The Perils of the Growing American Wealth Gap.

Her new book to be published in Spring 2005 is called Class Matters: Cross-Class Alliance Building for Middle-Class Activists. Its goal is to help activists collaborate better across class lines to build stronger movements for social change.


TIPS or COMMENTS
Write to [email protected]

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. She's very good and convincing.

Hope everyone gets a chance to hear her.

She's right, Ashcroft had no legal authority to claim national security privilege.

[Robbien]

2. She made the rounds this weekend. Yay for alternative radio.

Yesterday she was on ThisIsHell in the morning and on RBNLive in the afternoon.

She is a good interviewee.

The second part of Kpft's show with Betsy Leondar-Wright on class warfare also sounds interesting

[seemslikeadream]

3. FBI Employee Blows Whistle on Suspicious Activities by Coworker

FBI Employee Blows Whistle on Suspicious Activities by Coworker

Background | Press release from attorneys | Press release from whistleblower | Letter from Senators to Ashcroft | Civil complaint


http://www.thememoryhole.org/spy/edmonds.htm

Thanks SophieZ :hi:

[SophieZ]

4. Any time, seems!

Thanks for the Memory Hole link -- that's handy!

:hi: