Sibel Edmonds Has Named Names. Why Isn't The Media Reporting the Story?

[Subdivisions]

Brad Friedman
for HUSTLER MAGAZINE – March 2010

SIBEL EDMONDS, a former FBI translator, claims that the following government officials have committed what amount to acts of treason. They are lawmakers Dennis Hastert, Bob Livingston, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Stephen Solarz and Tom Lantos, as well as at least three members of George W. Bush’s inner circle: Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Marc Grossman. But is Sibel Edmonds credible?

“Absolutely, she’s credible,” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told CBS’s 60 Minutes when he was asked about her in 2002. “The reason I feel she’s very credible is because people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story.” Edmonds’s remarkable allegations of bribery, blackmail, infiltration of the U.S. government and the theft of nuclear secrets by foreign allies and enemies alike rocked the Bush Administration. In fact, Bush and company actually prevented Edmonds from telling the American people what she knew—up until now.

John M. Cole, an 18-year veteran of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Counterespionage departments, revealed the panic of upper-echelon officials when Edmonds originally started talking back in 2002. “Well, the Bureau is gonna have to try to work something out with Sibel,” Cole said an FBI executive assistant told him at the time, “because they don’t want this to go out and become public.”

But they couldn’t “work something out with Sibel” because, it seems, she wasn’t looking to make a deal. Edmonds says she was looking to expose what she believed to be the ugly truth about the infiltration of the U.S. government by foreign spies. They were enabled, Edmonds claimed, by high-ranking U.S. officials and insider moles planted at nuclear weapons facilities around the nation.

...snip...

http://larryflynt.com/?p=693

[wildbilln864]

1. k&r! nt

[Subdivisions]

2. Hey Wild Bill! Good to see you up here getting some fresh air! n/t

[wildbilln864]

73. Hey Sub...

Thanks. Keep up the good work sir. :hi:

[Greyhound]

3. K&R.

[pleah]

4. K&R

[Aaria]

74. Sibel Edmonds can be found here, fighting the good fight.

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/

[pleah]

83. Thanks for the link! We have

18 friends in common on facebook. Maybe she will friend me. :)

[Aaria]

105. Could be it's a very large community out there.

[20score]

5. K&R

[Last_Stand]

6. K&R

[TomClash]

7. Spies for Turkey and Israel

She's right about Grossman, Feith and Wolfkowitz and the rest of the lot. These traitors were clearly paid agents of Israel and Turkey. They disgust me beyond belief.

[troubledamerican]

14. Bigger than Turkey & Israel. An international right-wing network.

[leveymg]

24. Correct. The money center is in Saudi Arabia. Most of the agents of influence are connected to

the Israeli Right-wing.

The Saudi Slush fund is called "al-Yamamah," about $80 billion, and that money was skimmed off the top of sales of British arms in exchange for oil deal set up by Margaret Thatcher and the Saudi Royals. The origins of Saudi slush funds with the west goes back to the "Safari Club" agreement of early 1976 set up by then CIA Director George Bush with the head of Saudi GID Intel Prince Turki al-Faisal. The Saudis then began to fund global covert black operations banned by Congress and the incoming Carter Administration after the Church Committee revelations led to a partial curtailment of official USG funding. The original Safari Club also involved Right-wing elements of the intelligence services of France, Egypt, Morocco and Iran. The Safari Club morphed into BCCI, Iran-Contra, and funded much of the anti-Soviet Jihadist war in Afghanistan, including groups we now know as al-Qaeda.

Most of the domestic payoff money has been going to key GOP political figures and lawmakers, many on the Appropriations Committee and connected with the Bush Administrations - these are the guys on Sibel's list. Politically connected defense contractors in the US and UK have been acting as middle-men and beneficiaries of this game of round-robin political payoffs. This network has been creating wars and other destabilizing events for profit for decades, many of which coincide with the agenda of the Israeli Right-wing and their Neoconservative allies.

That's right - the big secret the FBI and CIA have been trying to cover-up all these years is that the US Right-wing works with the Israeli Right-wing using political payoff money spread around by the Saudi Royals and a bunch of Right-wing drug kingpins in Turkey and South America. It's not just the Bushes and Blair who have been in their pocket. It's a lot of people in Washington and London. See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/280

[Dr.Phool]

33. You mean the guys who own a big chunk of Faux News?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

48. Yes, 'Fox of Arabia'

[NoSheep]

39. Saudi Arabia! You mean the country most of the 911 hijackers came from? Surely, no!

:think:

[Mithreal]

84. Bush isn't there to do irony anymore, someone had to pick up the mantle.

[Selena Harris]

54. Wasn't Blackwater involved in arms smuggling,relating to Turkey?

Turkey, United States, Iraq
Turkey Traces Gun Crime to Flood of Glock Pistols Supplied by US to Iraq
Today's Zaman (Istanbul)
24 August 2009

ANKARA -- A recent report by the Security General Directorate's anti-smuggling and organized crime unit has revealed that 514 of 522 Glock pistols used in crimes in Turkey were originally ordered by the US for its troops in Iraq and that the weapons were used in 25 separate murders, including the 2006 Council of State shooting. The Security General Directorate's anti-smuggling and organized crime unit has prepared a report on the... ( gunpolicy.org )

Read More: Today's Zaman (Istanbul)----------------------

I remember reading about Turkey ,in 2007,demanding an investigation into Blackwater's smuggling of arms into Iraq, weapons which then wound up in the hands of the PKK, a Kurdish group deemed terrorists by Turkey.

Whatever happened to that case? Supposedy there was a court case in North Carolina to adjudicate this. I have not seen another word. I may be incorrect, but isn't this the case involving Blackwater using bags of dog food to conceal the weapons, or is that a different smuggling incident?

[Babel_17]

8. Always a K&R for this ongoing story (nt)

[conservdem]

9. k + r

[Moochy]

10. K&R

http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/ Sibel's site

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. We live in a vacuum. If it's bad for business...

it shall be ignored by its propaganda arms -- otherwise known as the "media".

[Delphinus]

23. Unfortunately,

you are correct.

[Peace Patriot]

12. K&R! Thanks for posting! nt

[BeFree]

13. K&R

[slay]

15. K&R - I wonder the same thing

It's like it never happened. I e-mailed Rachel Maddow show 3 times about it - no reply. :(

[Happy Friend]

91. Yep

We live in the United States of 1984. There is no "liberal" media. The media establishment goes from centrist (MSNBC) to crypto-fascist (FOX). If the media had an explosive story that showed criminal behavior up to the highest positions in government, they would sit on it. Er, wait, why am I saying "if" ? There the story sits.

Why do you think Marc Grossman and Hastert aren't isn't suing Sibel for libel?

Sibel has the details of a massive criminal conspiracy involving the government and no one is doing anything about it. Every person who makes it their mission to sit around naysaying conspiracy theorists on the internet should look at this story.

Let's not forget that back in the 80's the CIA under Reagan was illegaly selling arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages, then taking the proceeds of the illegal sales and illegally giving the money to a South American Terrorist goon squad (the Contras). And while this was going, we later found out, the CIA/DEA were turning a blind eye to Contra drug dealing which fueled the crack epidemic of the late 80's and early 90's.

Did anyone get punished for that? Did HW Bush get arrested for obstruction of justice when he pardoned Abrams and Weinberger while a prosecutor was preparing to force them to testify against HW's knowledge of Iran-Contra shenanigans?

Nope. It went into the memory hole.

I heard David Talbot say, "Not everything is a conspiracy, but sometimes there are conspiracies."

Personally I think the evidence for conspiracy with Sibel is obvious. Ditto for the political assassinations of the 60's.

And what about this:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/01/camp-no.html

It seems clear that the CIA tortured INNOCENT people to death and covered it up. Doctors even altered the bodies during autopsies to disguise the evidence.

[wildbilln864]

92. welcome to DU!

:hi:

[robertpaulsen]

16. This was one of the biggest stories of 2009

Almost everyone missed it. But we didn't. Thanks for keeping the spotlight shined on it, Subdivisions.

UNDER THE RUG: What Project Censored Missed and MSM Didn't Want You to Know in 2009
http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2009/12/under-rug-what-project-censored-missed.html

[Subdivisions]

19. You're very welcome, robertpaulsen. I think it's important

to keep this story alive if for nothing other than to maintain a digital record of it as it develops, absent any real-world action by our mainstream media and our Justice Department to expose this story to daylight.

[blm]

26. KandR, boys....Kandfockin'R.

.

[leftstreet]

17. Because the idea of a corrupt Congressperson isn't shocking

If they had committed these acts NAKED, maybe...

[jotsy]

18. Fallout.

Apparently there are limits to pursuing the mighty who fall. As unequal as the enforcement and application of justice which now is not expected to reside in the vicinity of truth.

A kick for the OP.

Yo B2, nice byline! Hope you made a pretty penny as I have yet to forward that 5 spot. I'm betting you haven't kicked your feet up either, so I guess we're at something of an impasse. I have messages for your correspondent from the clock in the big apple, will try to forward soon on a more appropriate thread.

Ms. Edmonds, every morning I look in the mirror and try not to see a citizen from a country that brings terror to children in another part of the world. I hope what you see is a hero. Someone who would see through to the end, a bright and public light to the darkest of unjust truths at a time when the world would rather gobble pretty lies. I can not convey the depth of my gratitude without cooking for you so do get in touch if you find yourself with a spare moment when in River City.

[Subdivisions]

20. Thanks for the kick, jotsy. And for the rather otherwise intriguing post. =). n/t

[Toots]

21. Found in Hustler Magazine ONLY

All reputable News Sources have been warned off this subject..Our Administration knows about this just as they know about torture but they will take the same "action" on it as they have on torture. NONE..NOTHING is too terrible for this Administration to prosecute over. NOTHING..

[Subdivisions]

22. What has this Admin prosecuted? I can't think of a sing major story

coming out of the AG's office.

[wildbilln864]

75. Sadly...

I know you're correct! :banghead:

[unc70]

25. Another chapter in the Operation Gladio, etc. story

A reminder for anyone new to this story, it is another branch of the Operation Gladio story. Lots of research here and elsewhere.

[newtothegame]

27. I'm still waiting on the hundreds of people that Seymour Hersh said were coming forward on 1-20-09.

Paging Seymour Hersh. Seymour Hersh? Seymour? Seymour? (crickets chirping).

[fascisthunter]

28. same reason CHeney and Yoo are off the Hook

the government is being run by a lot of criminal minds.

[librechik]

29. it drives me crazy but it's the only logical explanation.

Now if we can just get up the guts to throw the bad sheriffs out of town...

[Mithreal]

44. criminally unprincipled triangulating "centrists"

Sounds like you want President Obama to be prosecuted for his role in illegal wars and breaking Geneva Conventions when the next President is in office. He's just looking out for you. Don't you have his back. He would have yours if you were in his place. Come on, be reasonable.

[spanone]

30. why is america afraid of the truth? why are we protecting possible criminal activity?

[Echo In Light]

32. Because the ENTIRE system is corrupt and failing, so people seek to avoid unpleasant truth

[Echo In Light]

31. K&R

[mod mom]

34. House Judiciary has evidence on '04 election-why didn't they go after those who stole the election?

Money Party

[RedCloud]

35. As Ellsberg has pointed out, watch what Obama does, not what he says.

He wants those same powers.

[Greyhound]

36. Hey! I said that long before Obama even got the nomination!

And my Great-Grandmother said it about Wilson...
:hi:
:kick: & R

[Mithreal]

41. +1

[Mithreal]

37. Not looking back, thank you, F@#*ing Dem "leaders" and Obama especially

The big problems will go away on their own.

[lib2DaBone]

38. What about the recent Dubai Murder by Israeli agents?

..Barely a peep on MSM.. like it never happened! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4x1ztwISCQ



What about the two Israel Secret Service agents who were busted just after 911, while trying to blow up the Mexican Congress?

"Israelis arrested with guns and explosives inside the Mexican Congress" http://www.aztlan.net/blowup.htm

Not a peep from MSM.

If they can attack you as a "Conspiracy Nut" or Anti-Semitic", they will. But I think a lot of people are beginning to see that these events DID HAPPEN. This is not woo-woo or conspiracy.. it is treason, war and spying all happening in our government at this very moment.

[NoSheep]

40. I believe I just read the WSJ is doing a story on that in their weekend edition-should be amusing.

[cascadiance]

53. Or the crackdown on a rumored coup plot in Turkey just this week!

http://www.euronews.net/2010/02/26/more-military-arrests-as-turkey-coup-plot-thickens-/

More military arrests as Turkey coup plot thickens

There is no sign of a let-up in Turkey’s crackdown on alleged coup plotters, with reports that at least 18 more military officers have been arrested.

The round-up comes as other suspects were taken to court in connection with claims the secular armed forces tried to bring down the government.

Tensions between the military and the ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party have risen since dozens of members of the military were detained on Monday.

Declaring that “no one is above the law”, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that conspirators would face justice.

...

And there is another Armenian genocide bill going through congress in early March which has both Armenian as well as Turkish lobbyists heavily active now...

Should be fuel for more congressional corruption. Hope Sibel and others here are keeping their ears wide open.

http://www.turkishcoalition.org/action.html

ACTION ALERT

Call Your Congressman Not to Co-Sponsor and to Vote AGAINST H.Res. 252

The so-called "Armenian Genocide Resolution," H.Res. 252, has been scheduled for a vote at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, 2010.

We urge Turkish Americans and friends of Turkey to contact your member of Congress NOW and urge him/her NOT to co-sponsor and VOTE AGAINST this resolution.

TCA also urges all Turkish Americans to contact their community organizations and take the lead to activate the Turkish American grassroots by visiting members of Congress and their staff in their district offices and raise their concerns and objections on the issue. Factual information, such as articles by historians and other documents on the subject can be found here.

...

http://www.historyoftruth.com/news/latest/5767-why-house-resolution-252-should-be-strenuously-opposed

http://www.armtown.com/news/en/pan/20100224/43316/http://www.asbarez.com/77734/ayf-to-launch-“teachathon-252″-campaign-to-rally-support-for-genocide-resolution/

I wonder what Hastert will be doing during this session!

[Slit Skirt]

42. I am surprised that this didn't end up in the basement.

[Subdivisions]

58. Instead,

it ended up at the top of the Greatest Page and is currently featured on DU's homepage. I guess some of us aren't ready to write Sibel Edmonds off as a crackpot or dismiss her claims.

Thank you to all who made that possible as this is an important story that in other, more journalistic, times would have been a major scandal, splattered across the front pages of newspapers nation wide and the lead story on the evening news.

[Slit Skirt]

90. when she was talking 9/11 and transcribing

at the FBI during that time....she always ended up in the basement. Why can't we get her on the front pages and these basterds arrested

[quickesst]

64. "I am surprised that this didn't end up in the basement."

Me too, but if you listen closely, you can hear the howling at the prospect. Thanks.
quickesst

[glinda]

43. K&R n/t

[go west young man]

45. The media isn't covering it because they have been condoning it for years.

It's called US foreign policy and the media is totally complicit.

[mmonk]

46. Recommended.

[samsingh]

47. big big kick for that wonderful lady and Patriot

and a big recommend

[Subdivisions]

50. Calling StateSecrets...I invite you to comment on these developments. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

49. Kicked and recommended, Brad Friedman asks an excellent question.

"Sibel Edmonds Has Named Names. Why Isn't The Media Reporting the Story?"

Thanks for the thread, Subdivisions.:thumbsup:

[Subdivisions]

51. You're very welcome, Uncle Joe. =) n/t

[WeDidIt]

52. Might have something to do with...

Sibel Edmonds being a crackpot.

:shrug:

[Selena Harris]

55. Speaking of which, Bob Livingston who is named in

the sworn deposition, was replaced by none other than Louisiana's David (Diapers) Vitter.

Now there's a REALLY cracked pot.

[Subdivisions]

56. Oh, but, you know...it's not like there's ever been a legit whistleblower

complaint in our nation's history. Or a whistleblower that didn't turn out to be a crackpot.

I really like how someone can claim that Edmonds is a crackpot without providing some form of substantiation of that claim.

[Mithreal]

57. -1

[G_j]

60. yea right

cause you said it, it must true!

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:
:sarcasm:

[Gabi Hayes]

65. what? what do you mean? who are you going to believe:

wedidit (inourpants) or daniel ellsberg?

what has ellsberg ever done?

[cascadiance]

66. I can now confirm why I have wedidit on ignore...

I know that many of us would like to support Schakowsky, because she does publicly stand for many things that we all agree with here, but many of us would also like to support her without feeling that there's a cloud over her credibility. I do fault the system more than her, but we need strong leaders that will fight to correct the system, not just use it and allow it build its infection even moreso, and dismiss others that are trying to fix it. I really had hoped that she would have come forward to fight the right battle there.

I still am thankful that we have determined individuals like Sibel that fight to correct those messed up systems, and those behind perpetuating them on us.

[sattahipdeep]

69. Schakowsky’s husband

The most overtly salacious of the allegations involved Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Illinois), who is “married with…grown children, but she is bisexual,” according to Edmonds. The FBI whistleblower described how Schakowsky was “hooked” by Turkish agents into having a lesbian “sexual relationship with one of their spies,” and “the entire episodes of their sexual conduct was being filmed because the entire house…was bugged…to be used for certain things that they wanted to request.”

:wow:

Edmonds noted, however, that she didn’t “know if she did anything illegal afterwards” since Edmonds was fired by the FBI before learning what came of that particular setup. The Turks, she said, intended to get at Schakowsky’s husband, lobbyist Robert Creamer, who in April 2006 began serving five months in prison (and 11 months of house arrest) for check-kiting and failing to collect withholding tax.

Schakowsky’s office has vehemently denied the allegations. As head of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation, Schakowsky might be expected to hold hearings on any of the former FBI employee’s revelations but she has not. She has also refused Edmonds’s challenge to take a polygraph test and has not yet sued her for libel, as the whistleblower has challenged her to do.

:shrug:

http://larryflynt.com/?p=693

....
WASHINGTON, February 23 - Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today introduced legislation that would phase out private security contractors in war zones.
:applause:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2010/02/schakowsky_sanders_push_to_ban.html

[Gabi Hayes]

72. yeah...pretty sad. I had hoped at one point (before all this came out) that she

would take Obama's senate seat

[G_j]

89. somebody, somewhere

on the internet told me.


Pentagon papers aside, but really..

[Slit Skirt]

95. easy to call names...but no evidence to the crackpot claim

no evidence what so ever....

I thought this name calling bullshit was a right wing thing

[wildbilln864]

97. and I thought it was against the rules since...

she's a fellow member here on DU. :shrug:

[Happy Friend]

124. Well then...

Why doesn't someone sue her for perjury or libel?

Why did Hastert end up taking a job that pays $500,000 a year just like Sibel predicted?

[sam sarrha]

59. she was made a "Non-Person", technically she doesn't exist, probably why

[santamargarita]

61. K&R

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Prism]

134. This is the most anti-semitic post I've ever read here

"The Jews control the media" is the kind of sentiment that is usually warmly welcomed in the John Birch society. Surprised to not only see it spoken here on DU, but that I'm actually the first person going "Wait, back. the. fuck. up."

"Jewish sympathizer"

I know we, on the Left, have our own version of the fever swamps, as the Sibel stuff always illustrates, but that wasn't a giant Green Light to get your Protocols on, you know?

You're still in public with folk who don't think everything is a Jewish conspiracy. Did you get lost on your way here?

[ThisThreadIsSatire]

63. Nobody's listening because...

Sibel has a lot to say about 9/11 too...

[JuniperLea]

67. Brad strikes again!

Damn fine job!

Hold your ground, Sibel... and watch your back.

[Vinnie From Indy]

68. Sibel Edmonds Isn't credible

And, her story is highly suspect. Brad has been trying to ride this horse to national fame for years. He pimps Sibel's incredible claim that she, as a CONTRACT employee, was able to discover a vast network of American traitors while working at the FBI for a FEW WEEKS.

Also, before someone posts the quotes from Grassley and the rest that have called Edmonds "credible", they shoulod actually check out EXACTLY what Grassley was referring to when he made that statement. It WAS NOT the espionage claims!!!!!!

Flame on!

[Mithreal]

70. People can make up their own minds. Kill the Messenger.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6063340745569143497&ei=Fm-IS7uCM5SYqQOX5YWjBw&q=kill+the+messenger&client=firefox-a#

[The Doctor.]

71. Well then, everyone she named can just step on this by showing perjury and defamation...

Yet somehow they're just whistling tunelessly while sidling away.

If someone asked me whether Sibel Edmonds or an anonymous internet blogger were credible, I'm sure you'll be very disappointed to find it's not the latter.

In fact, unless you have something amazingly compelling, you just shot your credibility straight through your spleen and both legs on the way to your foot.

[Vinnie From Indy]

79. Well, I am willing to debate the issue of Sibel Edmonds based on what has been presented so far

The fact is that she is not credible in my opinion. In addition, Brad has continually used a quote by Sen. Grassley in a deceptive way in regard to Edmonds when posting his breathless adverts here on DU. He knows damn good and well that Sen. Grassley's comment that Edmonds was "credible" was in reference to the very first complaints made by Edmonds about fellow FBI employees. Grassley NEVER described Edmonds claims about this vast, and ever-growing, network of traitors as being "credible".

The fact is that Edmonds was a temporary, contract employee at the FBI that worked there less than a year. Edmonds claims that in that very brief amount of time she became privy to all manner of investigations into members of Congress, foreign leaders and other extremely sensitive, high level operations being carried out by the FBI. That the FBI would allow a NEWLY hired translator access to the highest levels of information concerning the highest level investigations is highly unlikely. In addition, even if Edmonds was given intercepts/wiretaps etc. concerning high level investigations it is beyond the realm of possibility, in my opinion, that the FBI would give her access to the ALL the information. My point is that it is a routine course of action to "compartmentalize" when engaged in intelligence work. That is standard practice in many instances. For Edmonds to to have such a vast understanding of the breadth and scope of these investigations, as she claims, is simply not credible.

Further, Edmonds list of "traitors" has grown since she first began to get publicity. A CLASSIC sign of lying in the law enforcement realm.

Edmonds has not provided any concrete EVIDENCE that ANY of her claims about Americans being traitors are true. Until she does that or something changes, her stories are highly suspect.

Lastly, I believe that none of the people tagged as "traitors" by Edmonds have sued her is exactly because she has so little credibility and no evidence. As far as they are concerned, she is just another crazy person babbling on about nothing. I guess if Brad can continue to deceptively pimp this story and somehow get it some traction, the lawsuits will come. Who knows, maybe the Hustler piece is enough.

I laid out my case and now it is your turn. What exactly do you find about Edmonds claims to be so credible? What evidence has she presented that has swayed you so?

Cheers!

[Mithreal]

81. Here are some of the kind of facts that don't depend upon your opinion, oh truthy one.

Nothing credible about any of the stories? Debunk away Vinnie.
For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece?Submitted=true

"Guess we won’t expect any coverage of this scandal from the New York Times, “the paper of record,” any time soon."
http://larryflynt.com/?tag=dennis-hastert

Folks like to whine about the source so I threw in the Flynt for fun.

[Vinnie From Indy]

85. Did you even read the story?

There is absolutely NOTHING in that story that could be considered proof that Edmonds long list of allegations are, in fact, true.

Here are some snippets:

"A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims"

Note the word "claims".


"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."

Note the words "she approached The Sunday Times".

"Among the hours of covert tape recordings, she says she heard evidence that one well-known senior official in the US State Department was being paid by Turkish agents in Washington who were selling the information on to black market buyers, including Pakistan.

The name of the official – who has held a series of top government posts – is known to The Sunday Times. He strongly denies the claims"

Note how the paper declines to name the man Edmonds claims is guilty of treason. They did that for a reason - no proof!

"One of Edmonds’s main roles in the FBI was to translate thousands of hours of conversations by Turkish diplomatic and political targets that had been covertly recorded by the agency."

This statement is factually incorrect. The fact is that Edmonds worked at the FBI for 6 months almost to the day. Calculating a five day work week at ten hours a day for six months and one is left with a TOTAL of 1200 hours that Edmonds COULD have worked at the FBI. It should be noted that 1200 hours is ALL of the hours she was actually at work on the job. That does not account for lunch, breaks or bathroom visits. It would be physically IMPOSSIBLE for her to have listened to THOUSANDS of hours of wiretaps and intercepts. Even if she did nothing other than listen to wiretaps for ten hours a day, five days a week, she would have only heard approx. 1200 hours of wiretaps and intercepts. Depicting her as having listened to multiple thousands of hours of tapes is probably not true.


I would also offer that when examining Edmonds claims it is very important to look at WHEN she made her claims. As I have seen the public evidence, it seems obvious that she has incorporated some elements into her story that were already PUBLIC knowledge and had nothing to do with her. This is another CLASSIC tactic of liars.

Please feel free to pull out the parts of the article that have so convinced you that she is telling the truth. Please help me understand why you think her claims are so credible.

[Mithreal]

87. Dangit, I have done that before. Was responding to the excerpt and discussion

and missed the source. I have done that at least 3 times now in my DU history, very embarrassing. That's what I get for doing more than one thing at a time.

Edit to add, idiot me, ugh.

[Slit Skirt]

98. she didn't lay out her evidence because she couldn't

however, Grassley and Leahy both said she was credible, 60 minutes reported on her, but she could never give details because she feared for her life and or arrest. Then all conversations between her and any elected officials became classified. Even the letters that were on the internet in full public view, became "classified"

Her list of criminals didn't just "grow". It is that she was couldn't give details. She wasn't even allowed to talk about what languages she was translating

The time at the FBI was a critical time in our history. You don't need to work there for years to come across pertinent information.

and you don't believe it, because like you say...it is your opinion...not fact

so I would say you are the one who lacks credibility

[Vinnie From Indy]

100. Not true!

Grassley and Leahy's comments were in regard to Edmonds INITIAL claims against the FBI which did NOT include the allegations of treason by many American govt. officials.

Edmonds list of treasonous Americans has, in fact, grown since she first started making allegations.

You nor Edmonds has provided one single bit of hard evidence that her claims are ture. Not one!

[Slit Skirt]

103. oh..I guess you got hold of the transcripts

you should of said that in the beginning.:sarcasm:

her initial claims...if you go back to the initials statements....indicated high govt officials...she just couldn't talk about it

does your agenda include discrediting this whistleblower????

[BradBlog]

126. Your record is intact (and I presume you'll have mods delete this note too)

As you continue to shill for the Bush Admin, as you have here for years, I'll just reply quickly to your three points above:

"Grassley and Leahy's comments were in regard to Edmonds INITIAL claims against the FBI which did NOT include the allegations of treason by many American govt. officials."

Given that she was twice-gagged by the Bush Administration under the rarely used "State Secrets Privilege" (just for fun I guess) neither she nor Grassley/Leahy were able to speak about those aspects publicly at the time of their quotes to 60 Minutes when they covered her story (also, just for fun I guess).

So what is your evidence that she "did NOT include the allegations of treason by many American govt. officials" when she spoke to various members of Congress in their secure SCIF?

"Edmonds list of treasonous Americans has, in fact, grown since she first started making allegations."

Really? Your evidence for that? I've been following the story for years, and the same list of perps and/or believed perps has always been provided to me and to the public, for years (though she didn't name them by name until she was legally able to do so, she had always referred to the same ones, to my knowledge.) I'll look forward to your evidence demonstrating otherwise.

"You nor Edmonds has provided one single bit of hard evidence that her claims are ture. Not one!"

Well, it's true, she didn't walk out from her top-secret government security clearance job with transcripts of FBI counter-intelligence wiretaps and release them to the public. What proof are you looking for exactly? And the fact that at least one top-level, years-long FBI executive vet has also corroborated several the key elements of her story (as well as others directly to both Congress and the DOJ IG), and those she'd accused long ago (Hastert, Grossman, etc.) of being in cahoots with Turkey have all now publicly gone to WORK for Turkey, doesn't constitute evidence either, I suppose, in your world.

Odd, in any case, that the Bush Administration would go to such great lengths to gag someone who wasn't credible, for so many years, under the State Secrets claim, eh? Those crazy Bush Administration guys were just having some fun, I guess.

[Vinnie From Indy]

133. No, I am pleased that you called me a Bush Shill - It demonstrates AGAIN your lack of honesty

If any MOD reads this - PLEASE do not delete Brad's post above.

I was actually contemplating leaving this alone and letting you continue to practice your Matt Drudge-Lite journalism, but calling me out as Bush shill is not only false, it is demonstrably false. Any DU'er can easily review my posts here on DU and see that I am not a Bush shill. Why would you so nakedly make an ass of yourself and provide one additional bit of evidence that you are less than truthful?

Maybe you should get back to trolling OTHER news sites for information that you can claim to be BradBlog "exclusives" and quit making demonstrably false allegations against other DU'ers.

[The Doctor.]

112. Your 'opinion' does not comprise 'amazingly compelling' evidence.

You hang your 'opinion' on the assumption that the FBI wouldn't allow her access to high level intelligence.

Ummmm... there's a little bitty hole in that assumption;

She worked to TRANSLATE RAW INTELLIGENCE while at the FBI.


Your assumption is fatally flawed.


As for her 'credibility'; they didn't necessarily say her claims were credible, although they certainly did at one point, they said, and I quote; "Absolutely, she's credible".

Not "What she says is credible", but "SHE is credible".

Now, I'm sure that we can argue whether it was a character assessment all day, but it is far more of a stretch to have to piece together chronology in order to deliberately dismiss her claims.


As for suing her? Your logic is utterly broken. Letting her claims remain out there has great potential for harm. A lawsuit that would destroy her credibility once and for all (which you would be in favor of if you were being genuine) would completely remove that potential. People in the positions we're talking about cannot afford such claims to carry weight. The ONLY reason she is not being sued is because they don't want to bring attention to claims they can't disprove.

Pure Logic.

Now, explain why, if her claims were frivolous, she was slapped with a gag order?

[Vinnie From Indy]

114. Thank you!

I appreciate your willingness to actually begin a debate about her claims! So far you are the only one defending her that has even remotely tried to rationally examine her claims. Cheers to you!!!

You write,
"You hang your 'opinion' on the assumption that the FBI wouldn't allow her access to high level intelligence."

You are correct that I am making an assumption on this point. I believe that my assumption is valid because it is well known that intelligence agencies routinely compartmentalize the gathering, interpreting and sharing of information. That is especially true concerning investigations into members of Congress, national security issues and intelligence gathering. It defies logic to believe that a NEWLY hired translator would be able to have ascertained so much about so many in such a brief amount of time. If you take a moment to actually reflect on the amount of people she claims are/were engaged in TREASON against the United States, her claims become even more unbelieveable based on the amount of time she spent at the FBI. In fact, she spent almost six months to the day at the FBI working before she was fired. Working five days a week for ten hours a day, Edmonds would only have been able to listen to 1200 hours of wiretaps/intercepts. And, that is calculated without accounting for orientation, lunch breaks, bathroom breaks or holidays. It also calculated ignoring the fact that Edmonds would have had to have spent time transcribing her work and turning in other assorted paperwork as a routine part of her job. Based on the facts that are known now, Edmonds probably listend to only a few hundred hours of tapes/wiretaps while an FBI translator. She and others have consistently presented the falsehood that she listened to THOUSANDS of hours wiretaps and intercepts when it is clear that that would have been physically impossible to do in the amount of time available to her as an FBI employee. To repeat - Edmonds has been presented as having listened to THOUSANDS of hours of tapes when that is clearly not possible.

You write,
"She worked to TRANSLATE RAW INTELLIGENCE while at the FBI."

I will assume that your statement about Edmonds job is true. If true, then her claims become even less credible when matched against her claims of vast conspiracy. As discussed above, Edmonds actual exposure to wiretaps/intercepts at the FBI was probably in the low hundreds of hours total. If the information were RAW data, it is logical to assume that a very large percentage of the wiretaps/intercepts were consumed with salutations, meaningless conversation, coughing, dead air etc. etc. That means that that actual amount of time that she would have had to formulate her grand conspiracy would have been reduced even further. Maybe we are talking about 200 to 300 hours of possible exposure to relevant information. It is imporatnt to remember that Edmonds was not a trained analyst nor was she a field agent. For her to claim that by listening to a few hundred hours of raw data she was able to uncover treason in Congress, the White House, The State Department and the Pentagon simply strains all credulity. That is especially true without any hard evidence. She has provided none!

You write,
As for her 'credibility'; they didn't necessarily say her claims were credible, although they certainly did at one point, they said, and I quote; "Absolutely, she's credible". Not "What she says is credible", but "SHE is credible".


Again, the comments by Sen. Grassely and Sen. Leahy were in regard to Edmonds initial claims of malfeasance in her department. Their comments WERE NOT IN ANY WAY IN REGARD TO HER LATER CLAIMS OF TREASON!!!! I hope all readers note the dishonesty with which this meme has been pushed about Edmond's credibility. It simply is not true. It is the "WMD" of this saga and Brad Friedman is the Judith Miller reporting it.

You write,
"As for suing her? Your logic is utterly broken. Letting her claims remain out there has great potential for harm. A lawsuit that would destroy her credibility once and for all (which you would be in favor of if you were being genuine) would completely remove that potential. People in the positions we're talking about cannot afford such claims to carry weight. The ONLY reason she is not being sued is because they don't want to bring attention to claims they can't disprove.

This is hardly true. The fact is that Edmond's claims are so unbelievable and so unsupported by evidence why would anyone bother? If what you say is true, why didn't Bill Clinton sue Dr. James Dobson and Pat Robertson for putting out video tapes claiming he killed Vince Foster? Why didn't Obama sue the birthers or John Kerry the Swiftboaters? Why is Ann Coulter not being dragged into court for her attacks against others? The fact is that until Edmonds provides the world with something other than allegations, she isn't important enough to bother with. Not being sued is hardly proof that her claims are true.

You write,
"Now, explain why, if her claims were frivolous, she was slapped with a gag order?"

Imagine if the FBI, CIA and NSA were unable to keep the data they collect secret. How effective could they possibly be at performing their function if every newly hired translator was free to discuss, without restriction, their work in public forums? She was slapped with a gag order because these agencies would be worthless without some way to protect their work. The fact is that Edmonds could have been privy to sensitive information in her work that has NOTHING TO DO with her current allegations. It just makes sense that the FBI would not want her to reveal the information or the means by which it was obtained. A gag order on Edmonds is not strange nor does it in any way prove that her allegations are true.

Cheers!

[BradBlog]

127. Only time for now to disabuse you of your key (inaccurate) claim...

Vinnie from Indiana wrote:

"Edmonds claims that in that very brief amount of time she became privy to all manner of investigations into members of Congress, foreign leaders and other extremely sensitive, high level operations being carried out by the FBI. That the FBI would allow a NEWLY hired translator access to the highest levels of information concerning the highest level investigations is highly unlikely."

But from my coverage of the comments of veteran FBI executive John M. Cole, an 18-year Counterintelligence and Counterterrorism Manager in regard to Edmonds allegations, he has called for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the claims. During an interview with him, he said (my full article is here: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7449):

"I am fully aware of the FBI's decade-long investigation of" Marc Grossman, he said in response to the AmCon article/interview. Grossman had served as the third-highest ranking official in the Bush State Department and was alleged by Edmonds in the interview, and in a sworn, video-taped deposition a month earlier, to have been the U.S. ringleader for a massive Turkish espionage scandal reaching through the halls of power and into top-secret nuclear facilities around the country to the benefit of allies and enemies alike. Cole said that the FBI's counterintelligence probe "ultimately was buried and covered up," and that he believes it is "long past time" for an investigation of the case to "bring about accountability."

In his subsequent interview with Collins last week (audio and text excerpts posted below) Cole elaborated on those comments in much greater detail, noting that Edmonds has been "one hundred percent right on the money, on the mark" and confirming the existence of an "ongoing and detailed effort by Turkey to develop influence in the United States" through various illegal activities.

"Yes, I can confirm that," Cole told Collins, "That's true."
...
He also offered information which directly counters one of the criticisms of Edmonds' allegations as frequently offered by skeptics. Namely, that as a short time FBI contract translator --- even though she was tasked to review some seven years of counterintelligence wiretaps made from 1996 to 2002 --- she couldn't have had enough understanding of the full scope of the investigations to understand what was really going on.

"The thing is," Cole explained to Collins, "the position that Sibel was in, she had access to extremely sensitive information. The translators have access to some of the most sensitive information that we receive."

He detailed how first-hand information goes first from the translators to the investigators who then act on it, as some of the most important information collected by FBI language specialists could have "implications that may affect even the White House, or policy."

"So what I'm saying is, I know she had access to some very sensitive stuff, and I could see why the Bureau would squirm over her coming out and speaking about some of the things that were going on."

Other than that, yes, I'll go with your word over the top-secret security cleared FBI veterans.

Keep up the bad work, Vinnie.

[Vinnie From Indy]

129. I'll be your huckleberry Brad!

After reading the entire Schmidt deposition, especially the cross by attorney Fein, I believe that a very compelling case that Edmonds is lying can be made. When her claims are compared against a timeline of information already in the public domain and her direct testimony, it appears to me that Edmonds only valid, supported claims are of misconduct by other FBI employees. The rest of her highly suspect claims appear to be merely the foundation for a new cottage industry for herself (and you).

After reading Edmonds deposition from beginning to end, it is quite clear that she would have had, at most, exposure to FBI wiretaps in the range of a few hundred hours over the six months she worked there. In addition, some of her claims about her activities while empoyed at the FBI are so outrageous, so unlikely that it seriously calls into question her credibility.

The timeline of her claims against what was already in the public domain will lay out a pretty clear picture that Edmonds has simply grabbed information about guys like Grossman and others from public sources and grafted them onto her story to make her claims seem more valid.

In addition, while most folks here at DU simply eat what you serve them without any scrutiny whatsoever, you and I both know that you have presented this story in a very deceptive manner. You continually use a quote from Sen. Grassley that Edmonds is "credible" knowing full well that his comment was in regard to Edmonds INITIAL claims of misconduct in her department NOT her allegations of a vast conspiracy of treasonous Americans. What does that say about your style of "journalism"?

I am still debating whether I want to give you and Edmonds a public ass-whooping by laying out a comprehensive rebuttal to her claims using the information available. Stitching it all together if you will. I hesitate because I am a supporter of liberal media and exposing you and Edmonds does not help that agenda.

[Bullet1987]

117. She was the most gagged person in US History up until

a few months ago. That alone says there's something to her story. The list hasn't "grown," it's just that now she can say what she's wanted to say for years but wasn't allowed to.

[Vinnie From Indy]

121. Yes, the list has grown since her initial claims against her co-workers

That is a matter of fact!

Also, just because the FBI doesn't want translators running around discussing their work in public is not a reason to believe Edmonds. Can you imagine if every employee at the FBI were free to discuss the intimate details of their work in public with no restrictions? Edmonds being gagged is not surprising at all and proves NOTHING!

[Aaria]

76. Are you going to actually get paid for that little stinker.

[Vinnie From Indy]

80. I wish!

If you know where I can sell my honest opinion, send me a private message.

Seriously though, I spelled out some of my reasoning in another post. Let me know why you think Edmonds is telling the truth and I will happily debate this with you!

I should also add that I have no proof that Edmonds is lying. She MIGHT be telling the truth. My point is that what has been presented so far is not credible and until Edmonds coughs up something besides allegations, I will continue to believe that she is not credible. It takes more for me than Brad's deceptive posts about Edmonds to believe that her allegations are true.

Cheers!

[Mithreal]

82. Would you like her to steal you some evidence?

[Vinnie From Indy]

86. Well maybe I am a bit old fashioned and like to actually be presented with evidence

before agreeing that fellow citizens are guilty of treason against the United States. One would think that allegations without proof should not be blindly accepted as truth.

[Mithreal]

88. I agree that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

I'll be back.

[wildbilln864]

77. thanks for your unfounded opinion!

:eyes:

[Vinnie From Indy]

108. I would offer that my opinion is no more unfounded than Edmonds allegations

The only difference is that I do not have Brad pimping my story for his own ends.

[Slit Skirt]

93. ........uhh excuse me.......

Sibel Edmonds is extremely credible, and you do not know what
you are talking about. This is not about Brad Friedman

Sibel has been the subject of many, many interviews...long before Brad Friedman started "riding this horse"

"her story is highly suspect" oh really..what do you base this on?....I guess that's why they slapped a states secret on her....she was not credible. The truth is they were scared shitless that someone would pay attention to what she was saying. That's why there is a media blackout........

has it not occurred to you that there are certain things that the media will not report?
and she worked more than a few weeks...they also hired her back and asked her to ALTER some of the original translations that were made...do you understand that?...alter translations... She said that during a CNN interview...but Kelly Wallace neglected to report that, even though she was right there in front of her, holding the microphone, cameras rolling.

Don't trash someone's reputation unless you know what you are talking about

[Vinnie From Indy]

96. Well...

Credible how? What do you base that statement on? Is it based on ANY evidence at all? Please help me understand why she is credible.

You write,
"her story is highly suspect" oh really..what do you base this on?....I guess that's why they slapped a states secret on her....she was not credible. The truth is they were scared shitless that someone would pay attention to what she was saying. That's why there is a media blackout........"

Read my above posts and I list exactly why I do not think she is credible. Please read and tell me which of my concerns is not valid. Also, there is nothing odd at all about Edmonds having a gag order slapped on her. The FBI and other agencies could not function if the wiretaps and intercepts that they take in are in danger of being released to the general public at the whim of a newly hired translator.


You write,
"has it not occurred to you that there are certain things that the media will not report?"

Sure! But, that belief has very little to do with Edmonds credibility. The burden is on Edmonds to offer something, anything that supports her allegations other than her word that what she is offering is true.

You write,
"and she worked more than a few weeks"

She worked almost six months to the day at the FBI.

You write,
"they also hired her back and asked her to ALTER some of the original translations that were made...do you understand that?...alter translations... She said that during a CNN interview..."

Again, there is no proof that this is true. It is merely an allegation.

You write,
"Don't trash someone's reputation unless you know what you are talking about"

Well I guess I would ask you again to point to ANY evidence beyond Edmond's word that her allegations are true. As I read your response, I can find nothing in it that is based on anything other than Edmond's word.

Cheers!

Nice handle! :)

[Slit Skirt]

99. not credible...? are you talking about yourself?

I don't have to prove a thing to you....I am defending her because you are attacking her...
someone posts something about Sibel and you come out of the woodwork and say she is a crackpot and not credible...

but YOU are the one who has no facts...your previous posts are all opinion..by your own admission...opinion. you lack credibility..

you just trash people cause you don't have a handle on the facts,...oh, but she's a crackpot right?...are you also a legend in your own mind?

believe me...this is NO allegation....I know for a fact that the story on the retranslation is fact. That Kelly Wallace refused to report that explosive statement. And Sibel trying to prove her story is what she is trying to do. But, there are people like you who trash her, for no reason...do you have a hidden agenda?

The media black out should speak volumes. What she came across, and what she exposed goes all the way back to 9/11...do you hear the media talking about 9/11?

you write:
Read my above posts and I list exactly why I do not think she is credible. Please read and tell me which of my concerns is not valid. Also, there is nothing odd at all about Edmonds having a gag order slapped on her. The FBI and other agencies could not function if the wiretaps and intercepts that they take in are in danger of being released to the general public at the whim of a newly hired translator.

yes...your above posts are all admittedly YOUR OPINION ..non factual
and for the rest...
You just can't be that naive..can you?

[Vinnie From Indy]

101. Again, you offer ZERO evidence that her claims are true.

You write,
"I know for a fact that the story on the retranslation is fact."

Please share! How do you know for a fact she re-translated documents after she was fired. I await your substantive reply!

Cheers!

[Slit Skirt]

102. you are so disingenuous, ...

you are the one making the charges here...and you can't prove it...just your opinion...admit it!

Again.. I am not obligated to you in any way to prove anything. I can't share with you what I know....you on the other hand know nothing and want to share it with the world.

what makes her a crackpot? your OPINION? grow up

you sound just like a rethug

good bye

[Vinnie From Indy]

106. No, you have no obligation to prove anything to me

Frankly, I doubt you are even able to mount a rational, coherent response after reading your mildly amusing posts. In short, you are bringing a knife to a gunfight. Ranting, raving, waving your hands in the air and stomping your feet in righteous anger rarely wins a debate among thinking people.

I would also offer that after reading your replies to my posts on this thread that it is you that has much more in common with your run of the mill Rush Limbaugh dittohead than I. You simply want things to be true and facts are irrelevant if something fits your world view. Good luck with that!

I will continue to call out Edmonds and Brad because they deserve it. Edmonds deserves it because she has yet to provide ANY evidence that what she claims is true. Brad deserves it because he does not respect his readers, his profession or himself when he KNOWINGLY presents Edmonds story in a deceptive manner. He is using quotes by Sen. Grassley and Sen. Leahy in regard to Edmond's credibility KNOWING that these comments were in regard to Edmonds INITIAL claims against the FBI which DID NOT INCLUDE anything about a vast army of American traitors inhabiting the Pentagon, State Department, FBI and Justice Department.

[Slit Skirt]

111. ....blah, blah, blah.

you just keep attacking...and attacking...and attacking
closeminded fool..you waste my time

[Happy Friend]

128. No Benign Explanation for the Silence or the Gag Order or...

Vinny, can you offer a good explanation as to why:

1) Sibel would fabricate accusations of criminal conspiracy?

2) Why she was gagged by the State Secrets Act ?

3) Why the media has not reported on the story, if only to say that a former FBI translator has been peddling an implausible story of corruption and conspiracy involving some of our highest officials ?

4) Why she hasn't been sued for libel/slander ?

5) Why she hasn't been prosecuted for perjury ?

[Vinnie From Indy]

132. Sure!

1) Sibel would fabricate accusations of criminal conspiracy?

Sibel has used her wild, unsupported claims to create a nice little cottage industry for herself. She gets to write books, get awards and establish a foundation. History is chock full of people that have lied for fame and money.

2) Why she was gagged by the State Secrets Act ?

It is hardly surprising that the FBI does not want contract employees to have complete freedom to discuss the work they do at the FBI in public domains. I am shocked that anyone would be shocked that the FBI would try and keep the information they obtain from wiretaps/intercepts and the methods/means of their operations from being revealed in public at the whim of a newly hired, contract employee. How do you think these organizatuons could function if every temporary employee was free to discuss in public their work at the agency?

3) Why the media has not reported on the story, if only to say that a former FBI translator has been peddling an implausible story of corruption and conspiracy involving some of our highest officials ?

I would guess that until Edmonds provides something, anything that could be considered hard evidence or direct corroboration of her claims, she is not considered credible enough for reporting her story.

4) Why she hasn't been sued for libel/slander ?

Why bother? So far, she is merely a woman making outrageous allegations with no proof. Why didn't Bill Clinton sue Pat Roberston for distributing video tapes claiming Clinton murdered Vince Foster? Why didn't John Kerry sue the Swiftboaters or Obama the Birthers? Why is Ann Coulter not being dragged into court repeatedly? The reason is that she just is not worth trouble/expense at the moment.

5) Why she hasn't been prosecuted for perjury ?

I am only aware of her being exposed to a charge of perjury in her deposition in the Jean Schmidt case. After reading the deposition from beginning to end, I think there is ample evidence that her story is highly suspect, but again, why would the parties involved even bother with time and expense of challenging Edmonds testimony. As I read the deposition, her information was irrelevant and meaningless from a legal standpoint in regard to what was being litigated. Or, at least it was not useful enough to bother with.

I guess she could be exposed to a charge of perjury in her testimony in Congress and for the 9/11 Commission.

[Subdivisions]

104. How about this...

YOU are not credible. Nothing you say matters to anyone. Nothing you say can be depended on to be the truth or worth listening to.

[Vinnie From Indy]

107. You wear your closed mind like a badge of honor!

I find it amusing that I have yet to find one, single Edmonds defender willing to discuss the facts of her allegations. It seems the only real ammunition these people have in regard to joining in a rational debate is name calling, foot stomping and hysterical ranting.

I invite you to please review my posts on this thread and point out specifically where you believe I am in error in regard to my analysis. Or, you could just call me names and feel good about your very public demonstration of a lack of intellect. Cheers!

[Subdivisions]

110. You sound just like those guys in the 9/11 dungeon. I guess your

gig is Sibel Edmonds.

You're no more credible than she is. In fact, you're just a poster on an internet forum and she was in the trenches as a translator. Until I have good reason not to, I'll take her at her word. Yours, not so much.

[Vinnie From Indy]

113. Well, you and I agree about one thing!!!!

I guess you count yourself among those defending Edmonds without being burdened by having to debate her claims based on comon sense and logic.

I will again remind all fair minded readers of this exchange about Sibel Edmonds on this thread that not a single person attacking me has provided a single, factual bit of evidence or substantive rebuttal to a single claim I have made. It would seem that if Edmonds claims were so clearly true that rebutting my concerns would be easy. Alas, the only defense that has been offered thus far has been name calling.

I eagerly await a true champion for Sibel Edmonds to emerge willing to debate the actual facts as they are known to be in her bizarre tale. Surely to God with 190+ recs there is someone here at DU willing to debate her claims with me beyond calling me names.

[Uncle Joe]

116. 1. She worked for six months, not a just few weeks. 2. It wasn't just any six month period of time;

it was immediately after 9/11, it seems logical to me translators would have been working overtime with intelligence flow at an all time high. 3. You stated down thread she was fired but this came after her complaints. 4. It also seems an internal FBI investigation found her to be credible and having been fired after making valid complaints.

As for her knowledge of and credibility re: U.S. political leaders, it seems (R) Jean Schmidt changed her tune immediately after Edmond's deposition dropping four charges.

This reflects a pattern of credibility on Edmonds part.

Perhaps you don't like it because some of her complaints are against Democrats, and this is why you find difficult to find her to be credible?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibel_Edmonds

Sibel Deniz Edmonds (born 1970)<1> is a Turkish-American<2><3><4> former FBI translator and founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC). Edmonds 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 that time, court proceedings on her whistleblower claims have been blocked by the assertion of State Secrets Privilege. On March 29, 2006, she was awarded the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award in recognition of her defense of free speech as it applies to the written word.<5>

FBI career


Between December 2001 and March 2002, Edmonds reported to FBI managers various incidents of misconduct and incompetence, involving her supervisor Mike Feghali and others, that she says she observed while employed as a translator. She escalated her complaints to the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General. In response, she claims that managers retaliated<8> against her. She was fired on March 22, 2002.

In June of that year, anonymous government sources asserted, in Associated Press and Washington Post reports, that Edmonds had been disruptive, breached security, and performed poorly at her job.<9> An internal FBI investigation, however, has concluded that she was fired after making "valid complaints".<10>

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7359

Claiming that Ohio's Republican U.S. House Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-2nd) is "conced that she does deny the Armenian Genocide," the campaign of her Democratic challenger David Krikorian has just issued a press release (posted in full below), stating that Schmidt has dropped four of her "false statements" complaints against him in her Ohio Election Commission (OEC) case, while petitioning the court to add a new claim in the bargain.

The news comes on the heels of last Saturday's deposition by the FBI's former Turkish-American translator Sibel Edmonds who had been subpoenaed last week to testify in the case. The whistleblower had been previous-gagged by two different assertions of the "state secrets" privilege during the Bush Administration. She was finally able to testify on Saturday, under oath, about alleged infiltration, bribery, and blackmail by Turkish agents, of current and former members of the U.S. Congress and other high ranking officials in the Departments of State and Defense. The BRAD BLOG covered the stunning deposition as it happened last Saturday.

Schmidt had challenged Krikorian's claim, during his 2008 independent campaign against her, that she accepted "blood money" from Turkish agents in exchange for helping to block a Congressional resolution recognizing the 1915 killing of some 1.5 million ethnic Armenians as a genocide....

In today's statement, Krikorian says: "Jean and her friends at the Turkish Legal Defense Fund are on a fishing expedition ... First she brought the charges, then she realized that she could not win her case and petitioned the court to drop the charges, now she is adding a new one. Typical Jean Schmidt behavior, it's a shame she is not putting forward this kind of effort on the health care debate."
The campaign said that "the statements Schmidt claimed were false are in relation to her denial of the Armenian Genocide," adding that "In dropping the charges, Schmidt essentially conceded that she does deny the Armenian Genocide."

"Being #1 on the Turkish Lobby scoreboard has financial advantages for Jean, but what does it do for our district?" Krikorian asked in the release. He has alleged that the 2nd Congressional district in Ohio has very few, if any, ethnic Turk's among the voting population. Yet, he notes, "Jean Schmidt took more money from the Turkish Lobby during the 2008 election cycle than any other member of Congress."

[Vinnie From Indy]

120. I guess you did not read my posts on this thread

If you had, you would know that I discussed Edmond's employemnet at the FBI in great detail. You are correct, she did only work there for six months. Please read my post breaking down the actual time she would have had to translate documents. It isn't a very long time.

You write,
"3. You stated down thread she was fired but this came after her complaints. 4. It also seems an internal FBI investigation found her to be credible and having been fired after making valid complaints."

The FBI nor Sen. Grassely nor Sen. Leahy EVER offered that Edmond's was "credible" in regard to her later, much more serious and far-flung allegations against many, many people in regard to treasonous activity being committed not just at the FBI, but at the Pentagon, The State Department, in Congress and the White House.

I guess it should be repeated in every post that Edmonds initial allegations were deemed credible in regard to the conduct of some of her fellow co-workers ONLY. These statements and findings of credibility ARE NOT in regard to her later allegations.

You write,
"Perhaps you don't like it because some of her complaints are against Democrats, and this is why you find difficult to find her to be credible?"

No, I find her not credible because her story is unsupported by any solid evidence AT ALL. It is, and always has been, Edmonds word that these things are true.

As for your BradBlog post about Jean Schmidt, I did not understand any of it. What does the word "conced" mean? What were the charges Schmidt brought against her opponent and what exactly did Edmonds say in a deposition that directly related to charges being dropped? Is this deposition transcript available to be reviewed?

[Uncle Joe]

122. "Is conceding" are the words. Just click on the link.

Your posts seem to recognize Edmonds had credibility regarding her job with the FBI and that she was fired unfairly for whistle-blowing.

I find it ironic that you don't understand the implications of what she was whistle-blowing about, basically a probable double agent had been hired by the FBI as a translator, representing a covert part of the Turkish Lobby, and the higher up the ladder Edmond's warnings went, the angrier they became.

Furthermore with her background and job as a top secret FBI translator; why wouldn't she know where some of the skeletons were buried?

One of the primary goals of this Turkish Lobby was the denial of the Armenian Genocide, and this is what Schmidt backed down from.

Here is a link to the transcript if you want to read it.

http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/SibelEdmondsDeposition_Transcript_080809.pdf

<snip>

16 Q Okay. Now, let me jump ahead to
17 April 2002, and you said your contract was
18 terminated by the FBI. Can you tell us why
19 that happened?

20 A After I was hired by the FBI in
21 September 2001, about a month or so later, FBI
22 hired another language specialist for Turkish

Page 23

1 Division in the FBI's Washington field office,
2 and a few weeks after this person, Melek Can
3 Dickerson -- M-e-l-e-k, middle name C-a-n,
4 last name Dickerson, D-i-c-k-e-r-s-o-n -- and
5 she also had top security clearance.
6 My main primary agent for Turkish
7 counterintelligence and I, we through various
8 evidence and incidence became aware that she
9 had worked for certain Turkish organizations
10 and entities that were directly the targets of
11 FBI counterintelligence investigations, and
12 that she had lied in her application, and that
13 for unknown reasons to us -- I don't know why
14 -- the FBI security background check had not
15 caught that important information despite even
16 her tax filing records.
17 And not only that; Melek Can
18 Dickerson and her husband, at the time he was
19 a major with the Defense Intelligence Agency,
20 Major Douglas Dickerson, and he was working
21 for Douglas Feith's office and was a
22 coordinator with the State Department on the

Page 24

1 Turkey Republics in Central Asia; both husband
2 and wife, Melek Can Dickerson and her husband,
3 they were still associating and had working
4 relationships with these Turkish entities,
5 individuals and organizations that were the
6 targets of FBI investigations.
7 As we started reporting this to
8 our superiors, initially there was a panic in
9 the department, but as it went up further to
10 the headquarters -- this is the FBI
11 Headquarter -- they started -- the FBI
12 Headquarter started retaliating against me and
13 eventually they terminated my contractor.
14 And there is an Inspector
15 General's report available publicly that came
16 out, I believe, in 2005 that confirmed all my
17 allegations and the fact that FBI fired me
18 simply due to my activities in whistleblowing
19 in making this known to the FBI and later to
20 the Congress, and that the evidence on the
21 translator in question was supported by other
22 witnesses from the FBI and documents.

<snip>

4 Q I mean just what comes to mind
5 when you -- again, I came into this a couple
6 of days ago. I've seen the term "Turkish
7 lobby." I've seen people referring to it. If
8 someone uses that term, can you tell us either
9 generally or specifically what it means to
10 you?

11 A Correct. It means two sets of
12 things. One set is the overt Turkish lobby
13 that is classic lobbying for its interests,
14 governmental relationship interests, commerce,
15 et cetera, and the other category is the
16 covert activities and operations by the lobby
17 that many of which may not be legal.

<snip>

7 Q Okay. So when you talk about the
8 covert Turkish lobby, what are you referring
9 to there?

10 A Activities that would involve
11 trying to obtain very sensitive, classified,
12 highly classified U.S. intelligence
13 information, weapons technology information,
14 classified congressional records, recruiting
15 -- recruiting key U.S. individuals with access
16 to highly sensitive information, blackmailing,
17 bribery. These are some of the ones that just
18 perhaps -- and there are many others that I'm
19 unable to think of.

[Vinnie From Indy]

123. Thanks for the link!

This was the first time I had an opportunity to read the whole thing. After reading Edmonds testimony, I am even more conviced that she is not credible. The cross by the attorney Fein was devastating. I plan on posting a review of Edmonds story and her deposition testimony later this week on DU.

One thing I found fascinating was that Edmonds actually claims that as a NEWLY HIRED contract employee working LESS than forty hours a week at the FBI she was asked by field agents to interrogate shackled prisoners. She claims that she was asked to do this as a NEWLY hired, contract employee with ZERO training in interrogation, intelligence, law enforcement or law. She also makes the wild claim that she was asked to do this because the trained FBI field agents did not know where Turkey was located on the globe. Does that make sense to anyone? It is almost impossible that an FBI agent tasked with interrogating a Turkish speaking prisoner would have a contract interpreter devise and ask questions of the prisoner because the agent was not even able to point out Turkey on a map.

I urge all DU'ers to take a gander at the link to Edmonds deposition and read it for yourself. It is quite revealing!

[sce56]

78. K&R Err Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

Too busy at work!

[Slit Skirt]

94. a kick for Sibel and truth

:kick:

[Uncle Joe]

109. I do find it ironic, that the corporate media would swamp the public with manipulated coverage of

a two bit punk dressed in a 70s pimp outfit to discredit an entire national organization by "stinging" a few select offices that serve the poor and minority community and yet the coverage of Edmonds a translator for the FBI; whistle-blowing corruption at the top is for all practical purposes disappeared down the rabbit hole.

For the posters here questioning Edmonds integrity, does the ridiculous double standard of coverage not raise any red flags?

[wildbilln864]

115. and kick. nt

[upi402]

118. History will report the media traitors

I hope their complicitous acts in the betrayal of American democracy shames their families for generations. I hate these subhumans and they should have their ill-gotten gains confiscated when this is over.


Sibel:patriot:

[upi402]

119. From HUSTLER magazine... what's that say?

:kick:
Is this really happening, or has Salvador Dali taken control of reality?

"Dennis Hastert, Bob Livingston, Dan Burton, Roy Blunt, Stephen Solarz and Tom Lantos, ... Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and Marc Grossman"

Is the DOJ ignoring this still under Obama?

[peggygirl]

131. Hustler is more credible than the NY Times. nt

[conservdem]

125. kick

[peggygirl]

130. It looks like an AIPAC-neocon private club. That's why no reporting. nt