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Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:18 PM
Edmonds Set to Speak at House Hearing on Excessive Classification

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 1, 2005

WASHINGTON - Sibel Edmonds, who was fired after exposing national security concerns at the FBI, will testify before Congress for the first time Wednesday.

Edmonds, a former Middle Eastern language specialist for the FBI, will share her story with members of the House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations. The hearing will focus on the emerging threats of over-classification and pseudo-classification. Edmonds will testify about the government's excessive use of classification to cover up its own misconduct in her case. The hearing will be at 1 p.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building, in room 2154. The hearing comes on the heels of a Justice Department decision last week to make public information about Edmonds' case that it had previously retroactively classified. The information has gone through a series of classification flip-flops that started in May 2004, when the department retroactively classified information about Edmonds' case that the FBI had provided to Congress in public briefings.

Edmonds, hired by the FBI shortly after 9/11, was fired after reporting shoddy translation work and national security breaches within the agency. She challenged her retaliatory dismissal by filing a law suit in federal court, but her case was dismissed last July after Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the so-called "state secrets privilege." The Justice Department apparently decided to retroactively classify the Congressional briefings not to protect national security but to bolster its "state secrets" claim. The ACLU is representing Edmonds in her appeal.

An executive summary of the Justice Department's Inspector General report into her termination concluded that Edmonds was fired for reporting the misconduct, and that such treatment would discourage federal employees from speaking up about potential security risks.

The ACLU said that the Edmonds case is part of a larger pattern by the government to silence employees who expose national security blunders. Coleen Rowley, Manny Johnson, Robert Woo, Ray McGovern, Mel Goodman, Bogdan Dzakovic, and Mike German are just a few of the other national security whistleblowers who were vilified and retaliated against.

Henry Waxman, a California Democrat and the ranking minority member on the House Committee on Government Reform, asked Edmonds to testify at the hearing Wednesday. A witness list for the hearing is attached.

For a web feature on the Sibel Edmonds case and more information on national security whistleblowers, go to http://www.aclu.org/whistleblower.

Details on the hearing:

WHAT: A House Committee on Government Reform subcommittee hearing on over-classification and pseudo-classification

WHO: FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds will testify at the hearing

WHEN: Wednesday, March 2, 2005, 1 p.m.

WHERE: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2154

### Let's hope it's not all about 'process' and 'policy' but instead about the facts and evidence ignored by the Commission and the implication of that...ie. the need for major hearings on a range of material omitted or distorted by the 9/11 Commission and ignored by a Congress eager to implement recommendations while ignoring the flawed and deficient 'findings of facts and circumstances' of the 9/11 Report.

See Cover-up by Peter Lance and The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions by David Ray Griffin (http://www.interlinkbooks.com)

somebigguy
03-02-2005, 10:36 PM
Here's a quote:

Edmonds alleges she was fired after complaining to FBI managers about shoddy wiretap translations and telling them an interpreter with a relative at a foreign embassy might have compromised national security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by passing information from an FBI wiretap to the target of an investigation.

From this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-02-fbi-translator_x.htm

You'd think the public would rise up and support this person since she was fired trying to expose a leak in the FBI.

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:41 PM
Here's a quote:

Edmonds alleges she was fired after complaining to FBI managers about shoddy wiretap translations and telling them an interpreter with a relative at a foreign embassy might have compromised national security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by passing information from an FBI wiretap to the target of an investigation.

From this article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-02-fbi-translator_x.htm

You'd think the public would rise up and support this person since she was fired trying to expose a leak in the FBI.

The name of the interpretor who might have compromised National Security is Melek Dickerson.

somebigguy
03-02-2005, 10:42 PM
The name of the interpretor who might have compromised National Security is Melek Dickerson.
Was he fired or promoted?

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:43 PM
Was he fired or promoted?

Promoted I believe.

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:47 PM
This is an excerpt from an open letter to Thomas Kean, Chairman Of The 9/11 Commission from FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

August 1, 2004

"Melek Can Dickerson, a Turkish Translator, was hired by the FBI after September 11, and was placed in charge of translating the most sensitive information related to terrorists and criminals under the Bureau's investigation. Melek Can Dickerson was granted Top Secret Clearance, which can be granted only after conducting a thorough background investigation. Melek Can Dickerson used to work for a semi-legit organizations that were the FBI's targets of investigation. Melek Can Dickerson had on going relationships with two individuals who were FBI's targets of investigation. For months Melek Can Dickerson blocked all-important information related to these semi-legit organizations and the individuals she and her husband associated with. She stamped hundreds, if not thousands, of documents related to these targets as 'Not Pertinent.' Melek Can Dickerson attempted to prevent others from translating these documents important to the FBI's investigations and our fight against terrorism.

Melek Can Dickerson, with the assistance of her direct supervisor, Mike Feghali, took hundreds of pages of top-secret sensitive intelligence documents outside the FBI to unknown recipients. Melek Can Dickerson, with the assistance of her direct supervisor, forged signatures on top-secret documents related to certain 9/11 detainees. After all these incidents were confirmed and reported to FBI management, Melek Can Dickerson was allowed to remain in her position, to continue the translation of sensitive intelligence received by the FBI, and to maintain her Top Secret clearance.

Apparently bureaucratic mid-level FBI management and administrators decided that it would not look good for the Bureau if this security breach and espionage case was investigated and made public, especially after going through Robert Hanssen's case (FBI spy scandal). This case (Melek Can Dickerson) was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee (Please refer to Senator Leahy and Grassley's letters dated June 19 and August 13, 2002, and Senator Grassley's statement on CBS-60 Minutes in October 2002, provided to your investigators in January-February 2004).

This Dickerson incident received major coverage by the press (Please refer to media background provided to your investigators in January-February 2004). According to Director Mueller, the Inspector General criticized the FBI for failing to adequately pursue this espionage report regarding Melek Can Dickerson (Please refer to DOJ-IG report Re: Sibel Edmonds and FBI Translation, provided to you prior to the completion of your report). I provided your investigators with a detailed and specific account of this issue, the names of other witnesses willing to corroborate this, and additional documents. (Please refer to tape-recorded 3.5 hours testimony by Sibel Edmonds, provided to your investigators on February 11, 2004).

Today, more than two years since the Dickerson incident was reported to the FBI, and more than two years since this information was confirmed by the United States Congress and reported by the press, these administrators in charge of FBI personnel security and language departments in the FBI remain in their positions and in charge of translation quality and translation departments' security. Melek Can Dickerson and several FBI targets of investigation hastily left the United States in 2002, and the case still remains uninvestigated criminally. Not only does the supervisor facilitating these criminal conducts remain in a supervisory position, he has been promoted to supervising Arabic language units of the FBI's Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence investigations."

somebigguy
03-02-2005, 10:47 PM
From what I'm reading, Melek is female.

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:48 PM
From what I'm reading, Melek is female.

Yeah, I just got that to...

somebigguy
03-02-2005, 10:50 PM
"Melek Can Dickerson and several FBI targets of investigation hastily left the United States in 2002, and the case still remains uninvestigated criminally. Not only does the supervisor facilitating these criminal conducts remain in a supervisory position, he has been promoted to supervising Arabic language units of the FBI's Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence investigations."

So Melek left the country and her boss has been promoted. Good job.

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 10:50 PM
I stand corrected... Melek left the country, but the other people involved still work at the FBI.

somebigguy
03-02-2005, 10:56 PM
I stand corrected... Melek left the country, but the other people involved still work at the FBI.
Still work there and promoted. The war on terrorism is well in hand.

Gold9472
03-02-2005, 11:18 PM
Still work there and promoted. The war on terrorism is well in hand.

They say the "War On Terrorism" is being fought overseas... It's being fought here as well.