Sibel Edmonds

Last updated

Sibel Edmonds
Sibel edmonds on RT.png
Edmonds in 2012
Born1970 (age 53–54)
NationalityTurkish-American, Iranian-American
Known forWhistleblower

Sibel Edmonds is a former contract translator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the founder and editor-in-chief of the independent news website NewsBud.

Contents

The FBI hired her as a translator shortly after 9/11 but fired her after less than seven months. She identified herself as a whistleblower and challenged her termination; however, the courts dismissed her lawsuit for wrongful termination because the FBI would need to disclose privileged information. She accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals, alleged serious security breaches and cover-ups and that intelligence had been deliberately suppressed, endangering national security. [1] [2] [3] Following her accusations, the US attorney-general imposed a state secrets privilege order on her, which prevents her from revealing more information about the FBI. [4] The PEN American Center awarded her the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in 2006 for her claims. [5] She published a memoir in March 2012, titled Classified Woman – The Sibel Edmonds Story. [6]

In 2004, Sibel Edmonds founded and published the Boiling Frogs Post, an online media site that claims to offer nonpartisan investigative journalism. [7] In 2016 as editor-in-chief Sibel expanded and founded NewsBud independent news media with associates, partnered with BFP. [8]

Early life, family and education

The daughter of an Iranian Azerbaijani father and Turkish mother, [9] Edmonds lived in Iran and then Turkey before coming to the United States as a student [10] in 1988. Fluent in Azerbaijani, Turkish, Persian and English, [10] [11] [12] Edmonds earned her bachelor's degree in criminal justice and psychology from George Washington University [10] and her master's in public policy and international commerce from George Mason University. [11]

In 1992, at age 22, she married Matthew Edmonds, a retail-technology consultant from Virginia. [10]

FBI employment

Edmonds worked for the FBI for six months from late September 2001 until March 2002. Edmonds was hired, as a contractor, to work as an interpreter in the translations unit of the FBI in Washington on [13] September 13, September 15, or September 20, 2001. Among her main roles was to translate covertly recorded conversations by Turkish diplomatic and political targets. [1]

Edmonds filed complaints with the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. In response, she claims that managers retaliated [14] against her, and she was fired on March 22, 2002. In June 2002, the Associated Press and Washington Post reported that the FBI claimed Edmonds was dismissed because her actions were disruptive and breached security and that she performed poorly at her job. [15] A 2005 internal investigation by the FBI Office of the Inspector General found that many of Edmonds's allegations of misconduct "had some basis in fact" and that "her allegations were at least a contributing factor in the FBI's decision to terminate her services," but were unable to substantiate all of her allegations, nor did they make a statement regarding her dismissal being improper. [16]

Edmonds's allegations of impropriety at the FBI later came to the attention of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held unclassified hearings on the matter on June 17, 2002, and July 9, 2002. During the hearings, the FBI provided various unclassified documents and statements relating to the case, which led to Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley sending letters, dated June 19, 2002, August 13, 2002, and October 28, 2002 – to Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, Attorney General Ashcroft, and FBI Director Robert Mueller, respectively – asking for explanations and calling for an independent audit of the FBI's translation unit. These documents were published on the Senators' web sites. [17] [18] [19]

Post-FBI

In April 2004, Edmonds claimed she had provided information to the panel investigating the September 11 attacks in February that year. Although she started work shortly after 9/11 and worked for just over six months, she claimed knowledge of information circulating within the FBI during spring and summer of 2001. The session was closed and over three hours long, she said. Reportedly, she told the commission that the FBI knew of a planned attack months away and the terrorists were in place. She stated, "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used but not specifically about how they would be used and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities with skyscrapers." [13] On the 26th, a deposition of Edmonds was quashed under the state secrets privilege. [20]

On May 13, 2004, Ashcroft submitted statements to justify the use of the state secrets privilege against the planned deposition by Edmonds, [21] and the same day, the FBI retroactively classified as Top Secret all of the material and statements that had been provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2002 relating to Edmonds's own lawsuit, as well as the letters that had been sent by the Senators and republished by the Project on Government Oversight. [22]

On June 23, 2004, the retroactive reclassification was challenged in a suit filed by the Project on Government Oversight, citing fear that the group might be retroactively punished for having published the letters on its website. The Justice Department tried to get the suit dismissed, and the Justice Department explicitly approved their release to the Project on Government Oversight. [23] The reclassification did, however, keep Edmonds from testifying in the class action suit as well as her own whistleblower suit. [24] [25] The latter decision was appealed, and Inspector General Glenn A. Fine released a summary of the audit report, claiming "that many of her allegations were supported, that the FBI did not take them seriously enough, and that her allegations were, in fact, the most significant factor in the FBI's decision to terminate her services. Rather than investigate Edmonds's allegations vigorously and thoroughly, the FBI concluded that she was a disruption and terminated her contract." [26]

In August 2004, Edmonds founded the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), which exists to assist national security whistleblowers through advocacy and reform. [27] [28] [29]

In September 2005, Edmonds claimed in Vanity Fair that a price was set for Dennis Hastert to withdraw support for the Armenian genocide resolution. That the "... Turkish Consulate ... claimed in one recording that the price for Hastert to withdraw the resolution would have been at least $500,000." [30] [31]

In September 2006, a documentary about Edmonds's case called Kill the Messenger (Une Femme à Abattre) premiered in France. [32] The film discusses the Edmonds case and offers interviews with various involved individuals.

Edmonds gave testimony in August 2009 and gave information that had twice previously been gagged under state secrets privilege. [33] [34]

On February 1, 2011, Edmonds published a story on her own website, adding details of events she described as taking place in April 2001. The account is of another translator's description of meetings with an Iranian informant months before 9/11, and FBI agents' reaction to it:

Bin Laden's group is planning a massive terrorist attack in the United States. The order has been issued. They are targeting major cities, big metropolitan cities; they think four or five cities; New York City, Chicago, Washington DC, and San Francisco; possibly Los Angeles or Las Vegas. They will use airplanes to carry out the attacks. They said that some of the individuals involved in carrying this out are already in the United States. They are here in the U.S., living among us, and I believe some in US government already know about all of this.

Edmonds said that two agents with whom this other translator had worked reported this information to a "Special Agent in Charge (SAC)" months before the attack. After the attack, one of them told their translator that the SAC "called us into his office and gave us an order; an absolute order [that] we never got any warnings. Those conversations never existed; it never happened; period. He said this is very sensitive…and that no one should ever mention a word about this case; period.'" [35]

Classified Woman

In 2012, she published an autobiography called Classified Woman – The Sibel Edmonds Story: A Memoir. Reviewing the book for The American Conservative, Philip Giraldi said that some details of the book could be challenged due to passage of time. However, he felt the central thesis of government incompetence and corruption was correct. [36]

NewsBud

Sibel Edmonds, along with others, formed NewsBud, [37] supported by Kickstarter donations. Sibel Edmonds's primarily solo Boiling Frogs Post featuring articles and videos is being merged and absorbed into NewsBud – so BFP content is becoming NewsBud content and NewsBud content occasionally appears as a BFP heading or website. [7]

Bibliography

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ashcroft</span> American lawyer and politician (born 1942)

John David Ashcroft is an American lawyer, lobbyist, and former politician who served as the 79th United States attorney general under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. A Republican from Missouri, Ashcroft represented the state in the United States Senate from 1995 to 2001, and held statewide office as the 29th auditor (1973–1975), 38th attorney general (1976–1985), and 50th governor of Missouri (1985–1993). He later founded The Ashcroft Group, a Washington D.C. lobbying firm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">9/11 Commission</span> 2002–2004 U.S. commission to investigate the September 11 attacks

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, commonly known as the 9/11 Commission, was set up on November 27, 2002, to investigate all aspects of the September 11 attacks, the deadliest terrorist attack in world history. It was created by Congressional legislation, which charged it with preparing "a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11 attacks", including preparedness by the U.S. federal government for the attacks, the response following the attacks, and steps that can be taken to guard against a future terrorist attack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesselyn Radack</span> American attorney

Jesselyn Radack is an American national security and human rights attorney known for her defense of whistleblowers, journalists, and hacktivists. She defended CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou and NSA whistleblowers Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, and Daniel Hale, all of whom were charged under the Espionage Act of 1917.

The Phoenix Memo is a letter sent to FBI headquarters on July 10, 2001, by FBI Special Agent Kenneth Williams, recommending the assembling of a worldwide listing of civil aviation schools. Williams, then stationed in Phoenix, Arizona, was investigating students at some of these schools for possible terrorist links.

Robert G. Wright Jr. is an FBI agent who has criticized the FBI's counterterrorist activities in the 1990s, when he worked in the Chicago division on terrorists with links to the Middle East, especially on the issue of money laundering. Specifically, he worked on project Vulgar Betrayal, which allegedly implicated Yasin al-Qadi. He wrote a detailed book which the FBI prevented him from publishing with threats of criminal prosecution. He complained that "FBI management intentionally and repeatedly thwarted and obstructed my attempts to launch a more comprehensive investigation to identify and neutralize terrorists."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Project On Government Oversight</span> American nonpartisan government watchdog

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan nonprofit government watchdog group based in Washington, D.C..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coleen Rowley</span> American FBI agent and whistleblower (born 1954)

Coleen Rowley is an American former FBI special agent and whistleblower. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two-year investigation by the Department of Justice.

The state secrets privilege is an evidentiary rule created by United States legal precedent. Application of the privilege results in exclusion of evidence from a legal case based solely on affidavits submitted by the government stating that court proceedings might disclose sensitive information which might endanger national security. United States v. Reynolds, which involved alleged military secrets, was the first case that saw formal recognition of the privilege.

The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in 2004 by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds in league with over 50 former and current United States government officials from more than a dozen agencies, is an independent, nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address weaknesses of US security agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto</span> American law firm in Washington, D.C.

Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto is a Washington, D.C.-based international whistleblower rights law firm specializing in anti-corruption and whistleblower law, representing whistleblowers who seek rewards, or who are facing employer retaliation, for reporting violations of the False Claims Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, Sarbanes-Oxley Acts, Commodity and Security Exchange Acts and the IRS Whistleblower law.

Kill The Messenger is a 2006 French documentary film about Sibel Edmonds. An English version was produced in 2007 by SBS Australia.

Various conspiracy theories allege that certain institutions or individuals had foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001. Some of the primary debates include whether the Bush administration or the United States Armed Forces had awareness of the planned attack methods, the precise volume of intelligence that American agencies had regarding al-Qaeda activities inside the United States, whether the put options placed on United Airlines and American Airlines and other trades indicated foreknowledge, and why the identities of the traders have never been made public.

The 9/11 Commission, which investigated the terrorist September 11 attacks on the United States, was subject to a variety of criticisms by politicians, government officers, and private groups and citizens. The commission was created on November 27, 2002 by a bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sam Adams Award</span> American annual award for intelligence professionals

The Sam Adams Award is given annually since 2002 to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The award is granted by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas A. Drake</span> Former NSA senior executive, military veteran, and whistleblower (born 1957)

Thomas Andrews Drake is a former senior executive of the National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, and a whistleblower. In 2010, the government alleged that Drake mishandled documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling. Drake and his attorney, Jesselyn Radack, are the co-recipients of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Defense Whistleblower Program</span>

The Department of Defense Whistleblower Program in the United States is a whistleblower protection program within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), whereby, DoD personnel are trained on whistleblower rights. The Inspector General's commitment fulfills, in part, the federal mandate to protect whistleblowers. It also administers the Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Program (DICWP), as a sub-mission for the intelligence community. The Inspector General's Defense Criminal Investigative Service also conducts criminal investigations which rely, in part, on Qui Tam relators.

Alfreda Frances Bikowsky is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer who has headed the Bin Laden Issue Station and the Global Jihad unit. Bikowsky's identity is not publicly acknowledged by the CIA, but was deduced by independent investigative journalists in 2011. In January 2014, the Washington Post named her and tied her to a pre-9/11 intelligence failure and the extraordinary rendition of Khalid El-Masri. The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture, released in December 2014, showed that Bikowsky was not only a key part of the torture program but also one of its chief apologists, resulting in the media's giving her the moniker "The Unidentified Queen of Torture."

The 28 pages refers to the final section of the December 2002 report of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, conducted by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. This section is titled "Part IV: Finding, Discussion and Narrative Regarding Certain Sensitive National Security Matters," and summarizes investigative leads describing financial, logistical and other support provided to the hijackers and their associates by Saudi Arabian officials and others suspected of being Saudi agents. It was declassified on July 15, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Murphy (intelligence official)</span> American law enforcement and intelligence officer

Brian Murphy was the acting United States Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Intelligence and Analysis from March 2018 until August 2, 2020.

References

  1. 1 2 Calvert, Jonathan; Lauria, Joe (January 6, 2008). "For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  2. ↑ "FBI denies file exposing nuclear secrets theft". The Sunday Times. January 20, 2008. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  3. ↑ Calvert, Jonathan; Lauria, Joe (January 27, 2008). "Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe". The Sunday Times. Archived from the original on August 2, 2016.
  4. ↑ "For sale: West's deadly nuclear secrets – Times Online". March 18, 2008. Archived from the original on March 18, 2008. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  5. ↑ Larry Siems (March 29, 2006). "2006 PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award". PEN American Center. Archived from the original on December 18, 2013. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  6. ↑ "The Sibel Edmonds Story | A Memoir". Classified Woman. Archived from the original on June 6, 2016. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  7. 1 2 About Boiling Frogs Post. URL accessed April 20, 2010.
  8. ↑ Edmonds, Sibel (October 18, 2009). "About NewsBud". NewsBud. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Sibel Edmonds". KKC.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Rose, David (August 15, 2005). "An Inconvenient Patriot". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on May 3, 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2016. "But as a naturalized Turkish-American, she saw the job as her patriotic duty."
  11. 1 2 "National Security Whistleblowers Coalition – About Us" . Retrieved October 15, 2008.
  12. ↑ Kill The Messenger (2006) documentary, CANAL+ / Zadig Productions, 2006, from 4m47s to 4m55s
  13. 1 2 BUNCOMBE, ANDREW (April 2004). "'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes'". Independent. Retrieved May 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ US Court of Appeals Reply Brief of the Plaintiff-Appellant, SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
    "provides direct support for Ms. Edmonds allegation that the FBI fired her for disclosing serious security breaches within the agency"
  15. ↑ "FBI Told to Give Papers to Whistleblower". highbeam.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2011.
  16. ↑ "A Review of the FBI's Actions in Connection With Allegations Raised By Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds". U.S. Department of Justice – Office of the Inspector General.
  17. ↑ "Government is Abusing "States Secrets Privilege" to Cover Up National Security Blunders, ACLU Says". ACLU. January 12, 2005. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  18. ↑ "Grassley Seeks Overhaul of FBI's Translation Unit". October 28, 2002. Archived from the original on October 15, 2006. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  19. ↑ "August 13, 2002 letter from Senators Leahy & Grassley to Attorney General John Ashcroft". August 13, 2002. Archived from the original on November 20, 2002. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  20. ↑ Strohm, Chris (April 30, 2004). "Quashed Testimony". Government Executive. Archived from the original on August 3, 2004.
  21. ↑ "Statement of John Ashcroft filed in Burnett v. Al Baraka Investment & Dev. Corp" (PDF). May 13, 2004. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  22. ↑ "POGO v. John Ashcroft". June 23, 2004.
  23. ↑ Smith, R. Jeffrey (February 23, 2005). "Access to Memos Is Affirmed". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  24. ↑ "FBI translator suit dismissed over security issues". CNN. July 6, 2004. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  25. ↑ "FBI Whistleblower Suit Thrown Out". FOX News. July 6, 2004. Retrieved August 16, 2009.
  26. ↑ "A Review of the FBI's Actions in Connection With Allegations Raised By Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds, Special Report, January 2005 (Unclassified Summary)" (PDF). Office of the Inspector General, Office of Oversight and Review. July 2004. pp. 10–11, 31. Retrieved June 19, 2007. We found that many of Edmonds's core allegations relating to the co-worker were supported by either documentary evidence or witnesses other than Edmonds. … With respect to an allegation that focused on the co-worker's performance, which Edmonds believed to be an indication of a security problem, the evidence clearly corroborated Edmonds's allegations. … With regard to some of Edmonds's allegations, the OIG did not find evidence to support her allegation or the inferences that she drew from certain facts. However, Edmonds's assertions regarding the co-worker, when viewed as a whole, raised substantial questions and were supported by various pieces of evidence. … Rather than investigate Edmonds's allegations vigorously and thoroughly, the FBI concluded that she was a disruption and terminated her contract. We concluded that the FBI could not show, by clear and convincing evidence, that it would have terminated Edmonds's services absent her disclosures. … We believe that many of her allegations were supported, that the FBI did not take them seriously enough, and that her allegations were, in fact, the most significant factor in the FBI's decision to terminate her services. HTML version also available.
  27. ↑ National Security Whistleblowers Coalition purpose message. URL accessed April 20, 2010.
  28. ↑ Edmonds, Sibel (December 2016). "Newsbud's Warning on the Fake News Bucket List – Watch out for the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing". NewsBud. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  29. ↑ Edmonds, Sibel. "Newsbud's Warning on the Fake News Bucket List – Watch out for the Wolves in Sheep's Clothing". YouTube. NewsBud. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  30. ↑ "An Inconvenient Patriot". Vanity Fair. October 2005. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Hastert Should also be Investigated On Turkish Bribery Accusations". The Californian Courier. June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  32. ↑ "Kill The Messenger Une Femme à Abattre". justacitizen.com. Retrieved September 5, 2006.
  33. ↑ "BEFORE THE OHIO ELECTIONS COMMISSION DEPOSITION" (PDF). bradblog.com. Retrieved June 12, 2015.  HTML version.
  34. ↑ "Formerly-'Gagged' FBI Whistleblower Details Congressional Blackmail, Bribery, Espionage, Corruption in Remarkable Videotaped Deposition". Huffington Post. September 27, 2009. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  35. ↑ "The FBI "Kamikaze Pilots" Case". Newsbud. February 1, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2020. This "absolute order" that "we never got any warnings" is consistent with the comment by Senator Bob Graham, a member of the Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001 that, "the F.B.I. [went] beyond just covering up ... into ... aggressive deception." It is also consistent with the information in "The 28 pages" redacted from the December 2002 report of that Joint Inquiry, which documented FBI awareness of multiple incidents from at least as early as 1999 indicating preparations for attack(s) something like what actually happened in the September 11 attacks. These 28 pages were declassified July 15, 2016. See also, Carl Hulse (April 13, 2015). "Florida Ex-Senator Pursues Claims of Saudi Ties to Sept. 11 Attacks". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Wikidata   Q65002265..
  36. ↑ "Sibel Edmonds's Secrets". American Conservative. November 23, 2012. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
  37. ↑ "NewsBud – Where Media Integrity Matters". NewsBud. October 18, 2009. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.