Ex-FBI translator Sibel Edmonds plans appeal to Supreme Court

[G_j]

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0505/050905c1.htm

Ex-FBI translator plans appeal to Supreme Court

By Chris Strohm
[email protected]

An FBI contract employee who was fired after alleging national security breaches within the bureau's translation service plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to lift a gag order that she has been under for almost three years.

Sibel Edmonds lost her latest court battle on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the Justice Department. Edmonds alleges there were security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002. She says the information she knows would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.

"We are going to the Supreme Court, that's for sure," Edmonds said Monday.

Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, sued the Justice Department after being fired in 2002. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed her lawsuit last summer after former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to withhold information to safeguard national security.

..more..

[G_j]

1. crickets chirping

as usual for the Sibel Edmonds case. :banghead:

[G_j]

2. State secrets privilege upheld in whistleblower case

http://www.rcfp.org/news/2005/0509-foi-states.html

State secrets privilege upheld in whistleblower case

Former government translator Sibel Edmonds cannot proceed with her whistleblower retaliation lawsuit because prosecuting it would reveal state secrets, a federal appellate court ruled last week.


May 9, 2005 · The need to protect state secrets justifies the refusal to hear a lawsuit brought by former government translator Sibel Edmonds who claims that she was dismissed in retaliation for criticizing her employer, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled Friday.

Edmonds filed the lawsuit after the FBI fired her in March 2002. She said the agency dismissed her for revealing sloppy work by fellow translators and lapses in security measures in its hiring. The Justice Department's inspector general later affirmed the substance of her complaints about the agency's work and that the FBI had retaliated against her.

Despite the apparent weight of evidence in her favor, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton dismissed Edmonds' case in July 2003 after the government invoked the so-called state secrets privilege. The case's continued prosecution would jeopardize national security, the government argued.

Walton considered some of the information at issue privately in his chambers, but refused to offer much explanation. "This Court is unable publicly to explain its conclusion in any more detail. It is one of the unfortunate features of this area of the law that open discussion of how the general principles apply to particular facts is impossible."

..more..

[yodermon]

3. kick!

:kick: :kick: :kick: KICK, Dammit!

[mtnester]

4. What happened to her threat to start naming names?

I am serious, I was so hoping it would come to that, that she started really dishing dirt if she was stalemated in the courts.

And I am not being sarcastic, I really want SOMETHING to blow this administration wide open...anything...please.

I guess I better not hold my breath, if even the Iraq memo won't even garner nothing more than a blurb in the MSM, if that.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. I know how you feel

Maybe she's looking at her options or something. I don't know. I wish she would name name's too.

[JackRiddler]

5. COMPLETE INFO AT PREVIOUS THREAD

Everyone should know the details of the Sibel Edmonds case...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=37842&mesg_id=37842

READ THAT THREAD

o the FBI received specific actionable foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks at least as early as April 2001

o links between drugs, money laundering, organized crime and terrorism involving major figures in Bush administration

o penetration of FBI translation office

o unprecedented action by Ashcroft to suppress "state secrets" - no allegations ever denied, "national security" invoked

o whistleblower fired for speaking out, as confirmed in unreleased Justice Dept. IG report

o complete cover-up by 9/11 commission, Edmonds relegated to one reference in a footnote without details

o probable link of monies funnelled into election activities

MUCH MORE AT

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=37842&mesg_id=37842

[JackRiddler]

7. kick and nominate

[Paul Dlugokencky]

10. Seconding that nomination

http://www.cafepress.com/kickindemocrats

[RBHam]

8. Whose side are the Dem leadership on?

Dear Democrats, do you REALLY want to impeach the Chimposter?

Get Ms. Edmonds to testify in open session before Congress...

It'll happen.

[gordianot]

11. I wonder if the deal has already been done but not in a smoke filled room.

[ariellyn]

9. You mean the Bush-stacked Supreme Court? Pfffft. Good luck. nt

[CantGetFooledAgain]

12. Kick n/t

[paineinthearse]

13. Best of luck, Edmonds!

:kick:

[DearAbby]

14. Kick

:kick:

[G_j]

15. Security Whistleblowers Demand End to Retaliation

http://www.antiwar.com/ips/fisher.php?articleid=5925

Security Whistleblowers Demand End to Retaliation

by William Fisher
Fifty current and former employees of U.S. national security agencies are demanding that Congress end government retaliation against those who expose national security blunders.

Leaders of the new group, known as the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), have stepped up their efforts to win protection since testifying late last month before congressional committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

<snip>

The group is led by Sibel Edmonds, who has been trying to sue the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for firing her in 2002 after she blew the whistle on agency employees. Edmonds said she was fired from her job as a wiretap translator because she told superiors she suspected a co-worker was leaking information to targets of an ongoing FBI probe. The FBI said it fired her because she committed security violations and disrupted the office.

<snip>
"The careers, marriages, lives, and physical and mental well-being of these conscientious patriots have been destroyed for doing the right thing, for fulfilling their first and foremost duty, protecting our nation," she said. "Agencies' retaliation tactics follow the same blueprint, as if there is a government agency manual for retaliation against whistleblowers, truth tellers. They yank our security clearances, they force us to take polygraphs, they engage in humiliation, demotion, threats, and the list goes on."

..more..

[JackRiddler]

16. keep kicking