January 6, 2008
*UPDATED and re-written @ 4:43pm 1/7/08. Additional updates at bottom of post.Background** Realizing the original version of this blog was sort of "inside baseball" and not making a great deal of sense to the majority of readers, I'm introducing this overview and re-writing the rest of the blog to do my best to summarize the story a bit more so you'll have an idea of what you're tackling if you decide to read up on the latest addition. Before going on though, I will be the first to admit that much of this is still new to me and I am probably not the person to go to if you have questions about the story, however I would ask that you post any questions you have in the comments. But the answers are out there, ready to be looked up if you do find this interesting. And I think the more people look into this, the more answers will continue to rise, so that is why I draw your attention to it. Sibel Edmonds (Sibel, I believe, is pronounced like "Sib ell") is a former FBI translator and whistleblower that is, as the ACLU once described her, "the most gagged American in the history of the United States." According to [Wikipedia][1] she was "fired from her position as a language specialist at the FBI's Washington Field Office in March, 2002, after she accused a colleague of covering up illicit activity involving foreign nationals, alleging serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence which, she contended, presented a danger to the United States' security."Since her firing, she has been gagged by the rarely used [States Secrets Privelege][2] which forbids her from speaking about the matters she says she uncovered while working for the FBI. For the past five years since her firing, she has been trying to get Congress and the media to give her allegations the attention she feels they deserve. Independent media outlets and bloggers have risen to her cause, and the fruits of those interviews and stories are widespread online at places such as YouTube, which hosts many informative and interesting interviews and speeches, including several in which she describes her case and the way numerous investigations into her allegations have been shut down by the Pentagon and State Department, such as this one posted below: Other online outlets that have a great deal of information corralled regarding Edmonds' case are [LetSibelEdmondsSpeak.blogspot.com][3], the now defunct, but still archived [WotIsItGoodFor.blogspot.com][4], and the BradBlog.com (find Edmonds-related stories [here][5]) and her story has also caught the attention of mainstream media outlets, including a piece by 60 Minutes which is posted via YouTube below and Vanity Fair which can now be read [here.][6]New Developments On Sunday, [The Sunday Times Online][7] published a story about Edmonds, in which she releases some of the very secrets she has been forbidden by the US Government from telling.*This move comes after her announcement in late October to Brad Friedman at BradBlog.com that she was willing to [ "tell all"][8] to any mainstream media outlet that would publish her story without censorship. Disappointingly, though not surprisingly, no mainstream US media outlet took her up on the offer. While the Times' piece is not the complete 'tell all' that an uncencored 60 Minutes piece may have been, it is still shocking and worth your time. From the piece in The Times:"Sibel Edmonds, a 37-year-old former Turkish language translator for the FBI, listened into hundreds of sensitive intercepted conversations while based at the agency's Washington field office. She approached The Sunday Times last month after reading about an Al-Qaeda terrorist who had revealed his role in training some of the 9/11 hijackers while he was in Turkey. Edmonds described how foreign intelligence agents had enlisted the support of US officials to acquire a network of moles in sensitive military and nuclear institutions."Those unfamiliar with Edmonds should know that, as The Times report, she has "given evidence to closed sessions of Congress and the 9/11 commission, but many of the key points of her testimony have remained secret."The Times note that, "Before she left the FBI in 2002 she heard evidence that pointed to money laundering, drug imports and attempts to acquire nuclear and conventional weapons technology."And that, "She has now decided to divulge some of that information after becoming disillusioned with the US authorities' failure to act."What this means is that Edmonds, frustrated by the lack of Congressional and Media attention given to what can only be summarized as explosive allegations about nuclear secrets, espionage, money laundering, drug running and bribery involving some of the top "household names" in DC, has decided she is willing to risk her freedom and potentially her life by breaking the States Secrets gag order and releasing the information she has. While I am not 100 percent certain what parts of the recent piece from The Times is new information and what is previously unreleased secrets, I do know that this move to speak despite the States Secrets gag is a new one for her and means that this story should be gaining more attention in the coming weeks. ![][9]Dropping Clues? In addition to the piece in the Times, on Sunday, on her site [ Edmonds posted the photographs of 21 people.][10] The photos were not labeled or named, but were split into three separate groups. "Lukery" (who may the most-informed media person re: Edmonds' case) from the LetSibelEdmondsSpeak blog noted the vague addition by Edmonds by [writing,][11] "Sibel doesn't say anything about the photos - or the people in the photos - but we can reasonably presume that they are the 21 guilty people in her case."Larisa Alexandrovna writes on her personal blog, [AtLargely that:][12]"I have decided that after years of not getting anyone to publish what I have found out about the Edmonds case, I am simply going to give you folks some names. I won't explain what the allegations are, or how these people might fit together or even if they fit together. I also don't claim to have all the names or know the full story by any means. But I am certain, that brilliant bloggers, researchers, and journalists will finally figure it out:"Larisa goes on to post the names that correspond with the photos from Edmonds, as well as some phrases she suggests her readers use to dig further into the story. I am still not certain what to make of the photo and name drop. But from my vantage point -- which is just that of perhaps an only slightly more informed outsider trying to keep up with the depths of this case (and I really mean it when I write 'slightly', i'm more confused by this stuff every time i read it) -- I can just tell you that what you are seeing is the end result of years of frustration and a lack of attention from mainstream media. Edmonds doesn't wish to break her States Secrets gag unless it can be to an audience large enough to ensure the story gains momentum and leads to criminal investigations of the people involved. And this makes sense when you consider that her 'telling all' will almost certainly result in her being jailed. And she would be jailed for breaking the gag whether she was telling Dateline NBC or the Tonganoxie Mirror. For her sake, it is not wise to tell all to a media outlet that will not generate a great deal of attention. It is why, I believe, she did not tell everything to The Times. However, I know from reading other interviews and the opinions of bloggers and writers she speaks with that she is feeling like if she doesn't get the story out now, it may never get out. Though, I should clarify that that is just my speculation. I have never met or talked to her, so I can't know for sure why she is doing this all now.Larisa, I imagine, has also been frustrated, knowing that there is this incredible story going untold and perhaps after seeing that Sibel has posted a few clues, she has decided to do so, as well. Though, again, that is just my speculation. I haven't communicated with Larisa about this.I should clarify that Larisa's blog is written with the understanding that much of her audience are professional journalists and other bloggers, so I believe she is simply giving them clues to areas that additional research could be fruitful without saying more which may be a violation of her agreements with certain sources. Again, just speculation and will remain so until I get clarification from her directly.It will be interesting to see how all this develops. [Youtube][13] also has a number of speeches and interviews which I would recommend.Here are a few:Here is the 60 Minutes piece on Edmonds, broken into 3 parts: *Additional coverage including sites that provide more links to additional coverage and deeper background can be found at the following sites. Here is [Larisa Alexandrovna's coverage][14] of the latest. Also available on her Huffington Post blog [here.][15][You should also see Brad Friedman's coverage which includes deep background here.][16](Full Disclosure: I have guest blogged for The Brad Blog and Alexandrovna is a colleague of mine at [The Raw Story][17], for which I sell advertising, and she acts as Managing Editor). [Joe Cannon's coverage here][18] is also interesting. I am less familiar w/ Cannon, but have recently found his blogging to be very interesting and informed.UPDATE 2: I cannot express how strongly I urge you to check out Brad Friedman's post on this story. It is already linked in this piece, but he is updating his post with additional commentary as it comes in from other bloggers and analysts, many of which are must-reads. See it [here. The updates are at the bottom.][19]UPDATE 3: Lukery gathers some links to some additional coverage of the story from The Times [here.][20]*UPDATE 4: I changed the original placement of the "discussion" video between Edmonds and Daniel Ellsberg because I realized I had posted the wrong version, which was only a short collection of clips from that talk and was not as informative as the version I thought I was posting. You can find the version I posted [here.][21] I'm still looking for the longer version I intended to include and will update the post if I find it. Thanks to commenter DOTDOT for bringing that error to my attention.UPDATE 5: On Sunday, Jan. 20th, The Sunday Times of London published another story on this case, this time detailing an alleged FBI cover-up of documents involving the investigation of the illegal sale of nuclear secrets. More [here.][22] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secrets_Privilege [3]: http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/ [4]: http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/ [5]: http://www.bradblog.com/?cat=58 [6]: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm [7]: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece [8]: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5197 [9]: http://www.bradblog.com/Images/SibelEdmondsStatesSecretsPrivilegeGallery_010708.jpg [10]: http://www.justacitizen.com/images/Gallery%20Draft2%20for%20Web.htm [11]: http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/2008/01/sibel-names-names-in-pictures.html [12]: http://www.atlargely.com/2008/01/sibel-speaks-pa.html [13]: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Sibel+Edmonds&search=Search [14]: http://www.atlargely.com/2008/01/sibel-speaks.html [15]: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larisa-alexandrovna/sibel-edmonds-speaks_b_80077.html [16]: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5518 [17]: http://rawstory.com/ [18]: http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2008/01/bombshell-sibel-edmonds-speaks.html [19]: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5518#more-5518 [20]: http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/2008/01/some-links.html [21]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aSbmRHqKL4 [22]: http://www.lawrence.com/blogs/makes_sense_me/2008/jan/20/edmondscoverup/
Comments
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OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) says...
btw: i finally got a logo!
January 6, 2008 at 6:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gavon (Gavon Laessig) says...
Terrifying...it's like the movie "Breach," but with Chris Cooper's mature sex appeal replaced with Richard Perle's rotting corpse perfidy.
I really hope that Perle, Feith and all of the other PNAC douchebags get caught up in this thing. May they rot in a special circle of hell designated for neo-cons and Linkin Park/Plain White Ts/30 Seconds to Mars style bands.
Thank you, Chris, for bringing this to our attention.
January 7, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
Thanks, Chris. I want heads to roll, be they Democrat or Republican.
January 7, 2008 at 11:04 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
btw: The logo that I sent that you neither acknowledged or thanked me for was much better. You owe me 45 minutes.
I suppose yours makes more sense over all, except if your the poor bastard running the tractor around those things. Or a bird.
January 7, 2008 at 11:10 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
The "discussion" with Ellsberg was a bit creepy, no? The guy couldn't get a word in edgewise. Me stops to ponder the ego and lack of respect. I say "hmmmmmm."
January 7, 2008 at 11:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) says...
hi dotdot,
thanks re: the Ellsberg video (not that it was an ego or lack of respect issue, as you may note that that clip is actually a collection of her quotes from what was certainly a longer conversation. see edits around :15
:35, :58, 1:39, 1:59) but I thought i had posted a longer version of that discussion i had seen before, so i appreciate you bringing that to my attention. but now i'm not finding the other version on YouTube. will repost if i do.
and i DO owe you an apology for not mentioning the suggested logo. i'll have to go dig that out of my email and recall why i didn't use it! :) but i did appreciate the gesture and will gladly try to repay you for the effort! forgive me for the silence on that.
and i'm glad you like the new one. it isn't supposed to mean much, just a nice juxtaposition of (somewhat) old tech and new, i suppose. or maybe just a reference to my green-leanings. it was actually a poster i'd designed for a band i once managed, but after re-discovering it in the depths of my hard-drive, i re-purposed it for this. :)
January 8, 2008 at 12:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
Ah. I watched the Ellsberg video last, and it played a bit jerky on my machine. I didn't notice the edits. I will look for the full interview. Glad to hear it. I was starting to worship this woman.
Anyway, thanks for bringing this out. The FBI has been needing a spring cleaning for decades, and the more attention she gets at this point the safer she'll be. I hope.
January 8, 2008 at 6:12 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
DOTDOT (anonymous) says...
btw: No worries about not using the logo. It was brilliant, but obvious and a bit rude in a simplistic way. Like me. Don't waste the 45 minutes you owe me trying to figure it all out.
January 8, 2008 at 6:17 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
OnShakedown (Chris Tackett) says...
Was speaking with my Dad about all this and he was shocked to learn that it hadn't been picked up by a single US media outlet. But then when we read the piece from The Times together he said he wasn't surprised, after all. He said it was just too big to wrap your head around and the average person doesn't care or have the time to even try.
I tend to agree. But what is the solution?
January 9, 2008 at 3:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )