Judge Tosses Suit by Fired FBI Translator

[peterh]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-4283577,00.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge threw out a lawsuit Tuesday by a whistle-blower who alleged security lapses in the FBI's translator program, ruling that her claims might expose government secrets that could damage national security.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he was satisfied with claims by Attorney General John Ashcroft and a senior FBI official that the civil lawsuit by Sibel Edmonds could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments.

The judge said he couldn't explain further because his explanation itself would expose sensitive secrets.

Edmonds, a former contract linguist for the FBI, said she will appeal the ruling. She alleged in her lawsuit that she was fired in March 2002 after she complained to FBI managers about shoddy wiretap translations and told them an interpreter with a relative at a foreign embassy might have compromised national security.




Walton, the judge, was appointed by President Bush…..kinda sums that up in a nutshell….x(

[PaDUer]

1. Why are we NOT surprised?! n/t

[keithyboy]

48. The rest of the country should know this: Rush, Hannity, FOX news is the

only way they will ever hear it so start those phone line ringing!

[JohnyCanuck]

2. Well I for one am shocked!!! Shocked I tell you. n/t

n/t

[number6]

3. way to hide your screw-ups

"could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments....:(

[robertpaulsen]

4. Edmonds is going to have to pull an Ellsburg.

That's what the Bush misadministration is forcing her to do. I don't see any other way that the truth will see the light of day in this country.

[bhunt70]

6. please explain "an ellsburg"

[patdem]

10. Daniel Ellsburg outted the 'Pentagon Papers'

and was hauled before courts...but the opposition was so outrageous in its attempt to make him a liar/dispicable/insane person...they forgot to follow the law!!! HAHAHA!!!

[Judi Lynn]

9. If anyone asks about Ellsberg, send him to Ellsberg.net!!!

Daniel Ellsberg Bio

Daniel Ellsberg was born in Detroit in 1931. After graduating from Harvard in 1952 with a B.A. Summa cum Laude in Economics, he studied for a year at King's College, Cambridge University, on a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

Between 1954 and 1957, Ellsberg spent three years in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving as rifle platoon leader, operations officer, and rifle company commander.

From 1957-59 he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows, Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard in 1962 with his thesis, Risk, Ambiguity and Decision.

In 1959, he became a strategic analyst at the RAND Corporation, and consultant to the Department of Defense and the White House, specializing in problems of the command and control of nuclear weapons, nuclear war plans, and crisis decision-making.

He joined the Defense Department in 1964 as Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs) John McNaughton, working on Vietnam. He transferred to the State Department in 1965 to serve two years at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, evaluating pacification on the front lines.

On return to the RAND Corporation in 1967, he worked on the Top Secret McNamara study of U.S. Decision-making in Vietnam, 1945-68, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969, he photocopied the 7,000 page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, Washington Post and 17 other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct against him, which led to the convictions of several White House aides and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.




http://www.ellsberg.net/

[tom_paine]

45. This is not the 60s. She would "commit suicide"

Perhaps she would take a "walk in the woods" like Dr. Kelly.

Or perhaps her plane would go down.

Her name is still known by less than 1 million people, I would guess.

She is fair game for these monsters.

[Minstrel Boy]

49. Ellsberg: Ashcroft may face prison over 9/11 cover-up

Ashcroft may face prison over 9/11 cover-up, says Daniel Ellsberg

Two whistleblowers stood side by side before a courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Veteran of the Pentagon Papers scandal, Daniel Ellsberg was backing a protest by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, against a court gag order which has silenced her revelations about the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

...

In an exclusive interview with BreakForNews.com he said that Ashcroft's legal actions against Edmonds were: "clearly intended to keep her from bringing out in public information that could lead.... to criminal indictments and possible convictions of major political figures."

Ellsberg says that if Edmonds' allegations are confirmed, the current Attorney General could be judged obstructive and share the fate of A.G. John Mitchell --who in Ellsberg v. Mitchell famously tried to squelch Ellsberg's 1971 revelations, and served prison time over the affair.

...

"I'm not an expert on all this," he admits. "But I am increasingly open to the explanation that people in the administration did see this coming... and may have indeed reduced some obstacles.., or opened the door, in effect. I haven't been absolutely convinced on that, but it does seem to me to be an open question that deserves investigation."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=626504

[Judi Lynn]

56. Thanks for the link. Curious post questioning her nationality.

Mebbe she's one o' them furriner agents, y'think?

It's just tremendous seeing Ellsberg in the same photo. What a concept!

[senseandsensibility]

60. I saw Edmunds on Democracy Now

with Daniel Ellsgurg a couple of months ago. He told her at that time that she would probably be forced to do what he did, and she didn't seem afraid to do so. She wanted to try the courts first.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Well, well, well! THIS worked out well.

Judge Reggie B. Walton


Judge Reggie B. Walton assumed his position as a United States District Judge for the District of Columbia on October 29, 2001, after being nominated to the position by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. Judge Walton previously served as an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1981 to 1989 and 1991 to 2001, having been appointed to that position by Presidents Ronald Reagan in 1981 and George H. W. Bush in 1991. While serving on the Superior Court, Judge Walton was the court's Presiding Judge of the Family Division, Presiding Judge of the Domestic Violence Unit and Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division. Between 1989 and 1991, Judge Walton served as President George H. W. Bush's Associate Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Executive Office of the President and as President Bush's Senior White House Advisor for Crime.
(snip/...)

http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/walton-bio.html

I'd like to stay to chat, but I really feel like I've got to run off to do a little bowl yodeling!

[struggle4progress]

18. Another judicial partisan. eom

[Tight_rope]

30. WTF! The Judge was hand picked by Bush!......MUTHERFUCKERS!

[Tyler Durden]

61. Not a judge...A PIG.

Only a true swine commits this level of judicial treason.

I will enjoy watching Bush and his cronies do the "Perp Walk."

And if they don't...ANARCHY. The country will not stand for it, and the militias will rise.

Bush must go or the experiment fails.

[Dhalgren]

7. This is 100% total bullshit!

The rule of law means nothing to these traitor bastards! I say Sybil should go to Norway, ask for asylum (sp.) and then spill her guts! Fuck this bunch a toady, lickspital sons of bitches! AnD yes, I kiss my kids with this mouth!

[laylah]

29. Is there any way

to contact this stooge...this unpatriotic, American hating, A$$hole?:mad:

Jenn

[seemslikeadream]

8. A Fantastic Tale Turkey, Drugs, Faustian Alliances & Sibel Edmonds

Turkey, Drugs, Faustian Alliances & Sibel Edmonds
by John Stanton
www.dissidentvoice.org
June 29, 2004


Taking Turkey as the focal point and with a start date of 1998, it is easy to speculate why Sibel Edmonds indicated that there was a convergence of US and foreign counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism and US national security and economic interests all of which were too preoccupied to surface critical information warning Americans of the attacks of September 11, 2001. After all, who would have believed drug runners operating in Central Asia? And besides, President Clinton was promoting Turkey, one of the world’s top drug transit points, as a model for Muslim-Western cooperation and a country necessary to reshape the Middle East.

The FBI’s Office of International Operations, in conjunction with the CIA and the US State Department counter-narcotics section, the United Kingdom’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad, Pakistan’s ISI, the US DEA, Turkey’s MIT, and the governments and intelligence agencies of dozens of nations, were in one way or another involved in the illicit drug trade either trying to stop it or benefit from it. What can be surmised from the public record is that from 1998 to September 10, 2001, the War on Drugs kept bumping into the nascent War on Terror and new directions in US foreign policy.

...

In 1998, the US Department of State (DOS) was finally forced to admit that Turkey was a major refining and transit point for the flow of heroin from Southwest Asia to Western Europe, with small quantities of the stuff finding its way to the streets of the USA. In that same year, Kendal Nezan, writing for Le Monde Diplomatique, reported that MIT, and the Turkish National Police force were actively supporting the trade in illicit drugs not only for fun and profit, but out of desperation.

"After the Gulf War in 1991, Turkey found itself deprived of the all-important Iraqi market and, since it lacked significant oil reserves of its own, it decided to make up for the loss by turning more massively to drugs. The trafficking increased in intensity with the arrival of the hawks in power, after the death in suspicious circumstances of President Turgut Özal in April 1993. According to the minister of interior, the war in Kurdistan had cost the Turkish exchequer upwards of $12.5 billion. According to the daily Hürriyet, Turkey’s heroin trafficking brought in $25 billion in 1995 and $37.5 billion in 1996...Only criminal networks working in close cooperation with the police and the army could possibly organize trafficking on such a scale. Drug barons have stated publicly, on Turkish television and in the West, that they have been working under the protection of the Turkish government and to its financial benefit. The traffickers themselves travel on diplomatic passports... the drugs are even transported by military helicopter from the Iranian border."
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/...

Thanks Minstrel Boy

[BattyDem]

11. The first thing President Kerry must do ...

Investigate the 2000 election and prove that the Bush brothers stole it ... which means Dubya didn't win and therefore he had a no right to appoint judges to the bench. Then toss out all the judges he appointed. :evilgrin:

[indepat]

12. That would be a start, albeit a good start!

[mom cat]

26. That would be great! He probably won't do it for the same reason

that Gore backed down...to avoid tearing this country apart. The repukes don't have such scruples.

[wackywill]

44. It's time

to "tear" it apart. This huge country could easily be 2, 3 or even 4 separate countries.

[mom cat]

58. Hi! Wackywill, and a big DU welcome!

If it were not for Molly Ivans, Jim Hightower and a few others, I would nominate Texas for cessesion.

[mctrotter5]

13. Bushies just keep managing to keep bad stuff under the

rug until the election is over. So frustrating!

[bos1]

37. under the rug like Watergate (and 9/11)

The Watergate scandal was also starting up before Nixon's reelection, and began to explode after. But there are so many potentially impeachable offenses going on with Bush...

Along with Edmonds, there is also David Schippers story:

Schippers was the US House Judiciary Committee Head Prosecutor and was head prosecutor of Clinton's impeachment (and so above any charges of partisanship).

Schippers had FBI sources warning of a terrorist attack in Manhattan 6 weeks before Sept.11 and no one wanted to hear it -- congressmen, Ashcroft. Here is a snippet from an interview with him:

Schippers: I have information indicating there was going to be a massive attack in lower Manhattan. I couldn't get anybody to listen to me.
Q: When was that?
Schippers: About a month-and-a-half before Sept. 11.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25008

Schippers is now legally representing the FBI agent in a complaint against the Justice Dept. and FBI for interfering and mishandling investigations of Osama Bin Laden and retaliated against the agent for trying to push the investigations forward.

[Pastiche423]

14. "...her claims might expose

government secrets that could damage national security."

?????

This is legal? How can it be? Can someone explain the ruling to me? Anyone?

[Edmond Dantes]

15. Sounds like a balancing test.

The court decided that the complainant's right to personal redress is outweighed by national security concerns.

It's legal but, in this case, disingenuous.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. Shouldn't that just mean the case should be heard 'in camera'?

ie no public or press allowed to hear the case? I know that in that case, the court can then be biased against her and it's almost impossible for her to prove it, but shouldn't the court at least make an effort to appear to do justice?

[jimshoes]

16. Just sad,

I am so saddened by what has become of the United States of America. It is not the country I grew up in. It is a tragic parody of its former self. What was beautiful has been stolen and hidden away, what was comforting is now the stuff of nightmares, its luster is tarnished and a real blackness of soul has emerged. I constantly talk to people I do business with about the election in November. Many feel the same way I do. I know these conversations lead to other conversations and in turn they lead to other conversations. The more people we talk to the better our chances are to rid our country of * & co. I will talk to people every day to get them to vote for Kerry/Edwards from now till Nov. We cannot lose, we must not lose, this judge's action proves this beyond a shadow of a doubt.

[seemslikeadream]

17. Translator in eye of storm on retroactive classification

Boston Globe - Boston,MA,USA

Translator in eye of storm on retroactive classification

By Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff | July 5, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Sifting through old classified materials in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, FBI translator Sibel Edmonds said, she made an alarming discovery: Intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated into English.

Edmonds, 34, who is fluent in Turkish and Farsi, said she quickly reported the mistake to an FBI superior. Five months later, after flagging what she said were several other security lapses in her division, she was fired. Now, after more than two years of investigations and congressional inquiries, Edmonds is at the center of an extraordinary storm over US classification rules that sheds new light on the secrecy imperative supported by members of the Bush administration.

In a rare maneuver, Attorney General John Ashcroft has ordered that information about the Edmonds case be retroactively classified, even basic facts that have been posted on websites and discussed openly in meetings with members of Congress for two years. The Department of Justice also invoked the seldom-used ''state secrets" privilege to silence Edmonds in court. She has been blocked from testifying in a lawsuit brought by victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and was allowed to speak to the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks only behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, the FBI has yet to release its internal investigation into her charges. And the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the bureau, has been stymied in its attempt to get to the bottom of her allegations. Now that the case has been retroactively classified, lawmakers are wary of discussing the details, for fear of overstepping legal bounds.

..more..
<http://www.boston.com/news/nat ... >



http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/...

An Interview with Sibel Edmonds
FBI Whistleblower Talks to Antiwar.com
by Christopher Deliso
balkanalysis.com

Sibel Edmonds began working for the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, translating top-secret documents pertaining to suspected terrorists. She was fired in the spring of 2002 after reporting her concerns about sabotage, intimidation, corruption and incompetence to superiors. She first gained wide public attention in October of that year when she appeared on 60 Minutes on CBS and charged that the FBI, State Department, and Pentagon had been infiltrated by Turkish individuals suspected of ties to terrorism. On October 18, 2002, at the request of FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General Ashcroft imposed a gag order on Ms. Edmonds, citing possible damage to diplomatic relations or national security. Edmonds is a key witness in a pending class-action suit filed by 9/11 families against the government. The following interview, conducted this past weekend for almost three hours by telephone, reveals sordid new details about U.S. intelligence practices.

<snip>

CD: What are they so afraid of?

SE: They're afraid of information, of the truth coming out, and accountability – the whole accountability issue that will arise. But it's not as complicated as it might seem. If they were to allow the whole picture to emerge, it would just boil down to a whole lot of money and illegal activities.

CD: Hmm, well I know you can't name names, but can you tell me if any specific officials will suffer if your testimony comes out?

SE: Yes. Certain elected officials will stand trial and go to prison.

[Kool Kitty]

34. And there it is.

The last two sentences tell it all, in my opinion. I'm guessing those elected officials MUST be republicans, because you know damn well if they were democrats, this would be all over the news and on the front pages of every paper in the country. Fuck these bastards, each and every one of them. (Is that a picture of Sibel Edmonds? She is stunning.)

[bos1]

39. Repubs

I don't think partisanism is the issue here. The officials could be Repubs, Democrats, anything. If you look into her story you see it is about the infiltration of international arms- and drug-running operations into the FBI and US Government. The twist to her story is how much Ashcroft and Company are overtly complicit (instead of just going along as with most of our other elected officials).

Please check my other post about a David Schippers, a high-ranking Republican official who is trying to expose the fact that many FBI agents knew the 9/11 attacks were coming and no one (like Ashcroft) would even return his calls.

[Kool Kitty]

57. I read the link in your other post.

I wouldn't say that Schippers is non-partisan, not by any stretch of the imagination. Why don't they talk to McNicholls (sp?) about the supposed Arab connection to the Oklahoma City bombing? (Too bad they can't talk to McVeigh.) I thought all this stuff was debunked?
There was a bit in the People mag after September 11, that had an office worker saying that they must have known something was up because they had evacuation drills in both towers at the WTC for the entire summer. Something was in the wind. Too bad no one did anything about it. Too bad Ashcroft told them he didn't want to hear any more about terrorism. And I still believe the "high-ranking officials" about which Ms. Edmonds speaks are largely republicans. If they were mostly democrats, they would be hanging from the nearest lamp posts.

[Hobarticus]

19. This is one of them there 'activist judges' we hear so much about

Unless of course, they're in lock-step with the regime.

[cthrumatrix]

20. Ashcroft gagged this informnation with all his might...becuase it's so

damaging to govt officials...this is criminal

[goforit]

59. And now this Judge is an ACCOMPLICE!!!

Remember these names.

[Submariner]

21. She should blow the whistle a week before elections

and all the charges Asscrust brings up against her can be conveniently dropped January 21st the day after President Kerry's inauguration.

[Chicago Democrat]

22. This will come out someday

it must be part of Bush's eventual war crimes trials.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

23. TRAITORS! Every one of them...

Taking a page from the Repuke/Freeper refrain, we should consistently ask and demand of these traitors -- "WHY DO YOU HATE OUR COUNTRY??"

Sibel Edmonds is a true HERO. WE WILL NOT FORGET.

JB

[Sliverofhope]

24. kick

Sad, but important.

[jimshoes]

25. Newsguy on AAR said the judge issued

his ruling without ever meeting with Edmonds lawyers, yet met with govt. lawyers at least twice. Also said the judge said he made the ruling with great consternation. WTF? Something smells with this ruling.

[bos1]

40. What smells is massive govt. infiltration

by international drug and arms-running operations, which is what Sibel Edmonds story is all about.

[Generator]

27. One day history will judge them for what they are-traitors to America

I hope to live so long

[nolabels]

35. We will

We don't need faith, we have our truth, which is much more powerful

"A mind once stretched by new thoughts can never regain its original shape. -Einstein"

http://www.miniluv.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=471

[Tight_rope]

28. "disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments." WTF

The Bush administration "disrupted" diplomacy with foreign governments when the outted Plame's name! Cheney that judge. He's corrupted just like the rest of them.

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

31. Code words for either ISRAEL or SAUDI ARABIA

Make no mistake about it. The foreign national that Asscrack is allowing to leave the country in Sept. is from Israel or Saudi Arabia...either way, if the information got out it would be apparent that 9/11 was aided with LIHOP neglect from a "friendly" country.

JB

[bigbillhaywood]

32. When will people on DU get the fact that the whole fucking system is

broken? This is not a question of repairing a lemon with ducttape (Kerry and the Dems). It's a question of taking the beater to the junkyard and building a new model. How many times does your Gremlin have to breakdown before you buy a new car? The Big Lie is that our Ford Pinto system is the best we can get. Forget about the Mercedes system-- that's for utopian Commies. Just like the idea of smashing feudalism was unbelievable in the 12th century and the idea of eliminating slavery was in the 16th century. How long until we throw "representative democracy" of the ruling class and wage-slavery into the trash can of history? Keep huffing the ether people.

[dbt]

43. Ding! Ding! Ding! No more calls, please. We HAVE a winner!

Dead ON it, bigbillhaywood. WELL said!

:toast:
dbt

[maggrwaggr]

33. When the hell is 60 minutes gonna show the piece on her?

she was preempted by Ronald "my brain has shrunk" Reagan's death and subsequent week-long necrophiliac fellating frenzy

[cthrumatrix]

42. I'm waiting as well.... this is bullshit....people are pissed..and they

know the evil of this cabal....

[Pachamama]

36. CodePink awarded her the Badge of Courage...see article & her picture

http://www.codepinkalert.org/National_Actions_Badge_of_Courage.shtml

She has been on 60 minutes awhile back...maybe they will go back to this story where they left off....

[Algomas]

38. I hope she defies the...

gag order and spills those hot beans right in their laps. I already think she deserves a Nobel Prize for her courage so far. I can only imagine the pressure she feels. There is probably a little army of Asshat's agents of darkness lurking in the shadows of her life.

[bos1]

41. she is in good company with Ritter, Schippers, Plame

and others, so if Asshat's agents are around, potentially she has friends in powerful positions too. I mean Bush has really pissed off the CIA and a lot of the military hierarchy, and when you see Ritter in action you know he has some powerful people on his side. So let's hope Edmonds has the same edge.

[Judi Lynn]

66. You've given us something to think about

I've never really been able to hope anything but sheer luck was keeping Scott Ritter alive to this point. I pray there are good people who are looking after these people with a sense of social responsibility.

Welcome to DU! :hi: :hi:

[bos1]

67. good people

It seems a factional kind of thing. Ritter, as a hard charging gungho Republican Marine who has decided that his conservative values have nothing in common with semi-fascist/oligarchic Bush regime, has plenty of powerful friends, I believe. If they are "good people" is hard to say!

Do you know about Gen. Smedley Butler? He was the early 20th century Marine Corps hero who came out and said that he had basically been working as a thug for dirty business concerns. If conservatives were like Butler or Ritter it would be great to have them run the country.

[Judi Lynn]

68. Imagine! Clean conservatives! What could be rarer?

I've read enough to know he was a real hero, because he dared to speak against the tyrants of the world. A man or character.

[tom_paine]

46. The Amerikan Empire is a Lawless, Cronyist, Rogue Nation

A disgrace to the Old Republic which came before it.

Once the Judiciary falls and ALL JUDGES are Corrupt Federalist Busheviks...we are doomed.

[cthrumatrix]

50. how do we toss the judge? overturn this BS

[Minstrel Boy]

51. State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade - Edmonds

Even as a judge prepares to permanently silence her, a former FBI translator of intelligence has implicated the US State Department in quashing investigations which had linked the 9/11 terrorist network to a global drug trafficking ring.

Sibel Edmonds, whose closed-door revelations to Congressional inquiries have been declared state secrets, says that as a result, FBI investigations were ordered terminated.

"There are certain points..., where you have your drug related activities combined with money laundering and information laundering, converging with your terrorist activities," Ms. Edmonds told BreakForNews.com.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=610235&mesg_id=610235

[Kelvin Mace]

52. Edmonds should seek political sanctuary in

New Zealand or Ireland and start giving interviews.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org
Distrusting the Government Since 1984

[enough]

53. We can't ask people to commit suicide for us.

The only way for this to be righted is for masses of Americans to stand up and say loud and clear that we care about the dismantling of our judicial system, and not stop saying it.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

54. Every where we turn they have a wall ready to pop up

The deceit is staggering

[leQ]

55. where is grassley on this?

hasn't he generally stood up for whistleblowers? maybe he's going to have to decide between partyline loyalty and doing the right, er correct, thing. but to have this swept under so brazenly, is scary.

[DeepModem Mom]

62. kick

[psychopomp]

63. kick

God bless the brave who fight to get the truth out on the corruption and greed rampant in our government...no more so than in the executive branch itself!

[psychopomp]

64. kick

[nolabels]

65. The Reason the Judge tossed it out is really B.S.

Even worse than than then all other things the scandals with the banking, drugs, money laundering etc. This very foundation of the international banking system has been compromised badly. What she got to view and find out about others have probably died over. We must be getting pretty close now. If we weren't there wouldn't be all these draconian laws foisted on us with B.S. invasions. The P.C. is a powerful tool, with a Internet it has been multiplied many times.

This banking thing is where its at, but things fastened to it is what makes it very criminal and the people doing it have gone to great lengths to keep it secret. At least from my take on it. Here is an old story of guy that probably got iced, Had there been such things as P.C.s in his day, it wouldn't of went down with him. (a lot of people know this stuff I am sure, but be diplomatic, some people know little of it)

http://www.cjr.org/archives.asp?url=/91/6/octopus.asp
THE OCTOPUS FILE

by Phil Linsalata
Linsalata is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Joseph Daniel Casolaro's family and friends buried him on August 16. Less than a week later, feeling a little like a vulture, I joined a handful of reporters at Nightline's Washington headquarters to pick over the notes and files left behind by the forty-four-year- old Washington free-lancer known to his friends as Danny.

His brother Anthony, a doctor in suburban Washington, had gathered the materials and given them to Nightline after staff members there offered to keep the documents safe. Dr. Casolaro also agreed to allow some of the reporters who had been working the same ground as Danny to go through the files.

As he spoke with each reporter, the doctor encourage continued investigation. he raised the possibility that his brother had been murdered in his hotel room in Martinsburg, West Virginia, challenging the statement by Dr. James Frost, West Virginia deputy chief medical examiner, that the physical evidence held "nothing inconsistent with suicide." Somehow, authorities had failed to notify family members until almost two days after the death. In the meantime, a preliminary ruling of suicide had been issued, clearing the way for a thorough cleanup of the scene and the embalming of the body, which would make a later autopsy more difficult.
(snip)

The Secret I just learned about was these unpublished accounts (a bank without a real adress of sorts) there are tens of thousands of them, Enrons, Shells and other big multinationals have them (that way they can keep that offshore stuff, and not have to worry about anybody finding out it's hidden from a lot of things, regulations, taxes, litgation etc)

Edmonds just got to encounter people and ways it all gets hidden by this group of people in the state dept, this is very big (IMHO)

Here is another link to how it works

http://www.spitfirelist.com/f387.html

FTR#387