Guest Blogged by Sibel Edmonds & William Weaver

ED. NOTE: FBI whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds’ story has been partially told over the last several years in several different media outlets, including a lead story on CBS’ 60 Minutes and more recently, a detailed feature in Vanity Fair. The information she has been able to reveal publicly about her experience during her time translating for the FBI has so far been limited given the arcane “States Secrets” privilege that the Dept. of Justice and the Bush Administration has invoked to effectively place a “gag order” on the information she has shared with internal FBI investigators as well as the Dept. of Justice’s Inspector General who found her allegations “credible” and “serious” and “warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI.” Edmonds was fired by the FBI after voicing allegations including those about possible espionage inside the bureau. She has also testified to the 9/11 Commission, U.S. Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Leahy (D-VT) and many other officials on both the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Her case recently made its way to the Supreme Court who refused to hear it on November 28, 2005, thus ending her legal options to have her case heard publicly. More info on her and her co-writer William Weaver follows her editorial below.

Without whistleblowers the public would never know of the many abuses of constitutional rights by the government. Whistleblowers, Truth Tellers, are responsible for the disclosure that President George W. Bush ordered unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens. These constitutional lifeguards take their patriotic oaths to heart and soul: Rather than complying with classification and secrecy orders designed to protect officials engaging in criminal conduct, whistleblowers chose to risk their livelihoods and the wrath of their agencies to get the truth out. But will they be listened to by those who are charged with accountability?

The Whistleblowers Law of Congressional Hearings holds that the higher ranking the official who testifies the less the likelihood that the truth will be revealed. With this in mind, it is impossible to proceed to the viscera of what happened to whom and when without asking those who are charged with putting policy decisions into the actual stream of practice. High officials have perverse incentives to hide what is done in their orders by the employees below them. It is indispensable that Congress reach deep inside the National Security Agency and other agencies, seeking out employees at the operational level to determine how the President’s illegal order was carried into action. To assure that this occurs, we need for people with information from the agencies involved to come forward and ask to be interviewed by Congress. The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition calls on people with knowledge of unconstitutional surveillance of American citizens to contact NSWBC and let us know that they are willing to provide congress with information and testimony. Anonymity, if desired, will be scrupulously honored. NSWBC will provide contact information to Congress and investigative authorities, and will follow up to ensure that these witnesses were in fact interviewed in good faith by congressional staff and committees and allowed to participate in the hearing process. NSWBC will be the conduit between agents and Congress for those like Russ Tice, a former intelligence agent at the National Security Agency, who announced his willingness to disclose to Congress illegal acts by officials at his former employer. At NSWBC we know what we are asking people to do: Our organization is made up exclusively of veteran intelligence and law enforcement officers, agents and analysts.

Now is the time to come forward, not to reveal legitimately classified information, but to make yourselves available as witnesses and to serve the true supervisor of us all: the Constitution. Ordinarily one would expect the congress to be the guardian of our freedom by living up to its storied role as a check and balance to the President and the Executive Branch. But for four years, members of our Congress in supposed oversight committees were aware of illegal spying on American citizens. Co-opted by an unscrupulous commitment to secrecy and the state, intelligence oversight committees in Congress must step out of the way for a People’s hearing on the matter of presidentially ordered illegal surveillance. Congress must engage in a broad, public hearing of these matters.

Accountability, in the end, always comes down to the public’s right to know, the right to have the most basic knowledge about what its servants are doing with its money and its authority. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor, when asked what he thought about the public’s right to know of what the government is doing on its behalf, infamously responded the he did not “believe in that as a general rule.” Fortunately, that is not a general rule that comports with our system of government. Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts. Public servants should not be forced to choose between career and conscience, between commitment to oath and commitment to colleagues, and if we live by our words, laws, and principles they will not have to. Protecting all employees of the People are that:

Contact: Sibel Edmonds-Director, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, sedmonds@nswbc.org

Sibel Edmonds, NSWBC Founder & President, sedmonds@nswbc.org
Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI language specialist, was terminated from the bureau after reporting security breaches, cover-up, and blocking of intelligence with national security implications. Since that time, court proceedings in her whistleblower case have been blocked by the imposition of “State Secret Privilege,” and Congress has been prevented from discussion of her case through retroactive reclassification by the Department of Justice. Edmonds, fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani; holds an MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University.

Professor William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor, wweaver@nswbc.org
Bill Weaver served in U.S. Army signals intelligence for eight years in Berlin and Augsburg, Germany, in the late 1970s and 1980s. He holds a law degree and Ph.D. in politics from the University of Virginia. He currently is an associate professor and associate director of faculty for the Institute for Policy and Economic Development and an Associate in the Center for Law and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. He specializes in executive branch secrecy policy, governmental abuse, and law and bureaucracy.

About National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org

52 Responses

  1. I’m glad to see Sibel Edmonds is stepping to the fore on this important issue.

    It says a lot about our government that an independant organization has to be formed to try and protect potential whistle blowers, when they should already be protected by the laws of this land.

    That Congress has failed to act is doubly shameful.

  2. If we’re lucky — if the U.S. can find enough brave, honorable people like her to help topple the Bush/corporate regime — someday there’ll be a big, bronze plaque with Sibel’s name and face on it in the lobby of the (renamed) J. Edgar Hoover Building.

  3. Mrs. Edmonds;

    My sincerest grattitude to you for bringing this alarming and pressing issue to our attention!!!!

    If it wasn’t for you I never would have started down the path of questioning, research, and deliberate skeptical inquiry regarding the 911 attacks and the conspiracy behind them.

    I believe I have finally uncovered what the "NATIONAL SECURITY STATE SECRETS ACT" doesn’t want you to tell the world……

    "Here is an interesting document on the Judge, Reggie Walton who dismissed your case. He has tentative ties to Russia, Ukraine"

    Mr. Walton has a file in which the official "financial contributors" are REDACTED as in blacked out… http://www.judicialwatch.org/judges/2004/rwalton.pdf">Walton's non-disclosure "form"

    Also you may note that Judge Reggie Walton is the same one who has constantly been assigned to both your case, and the CIA case of Lewis Libby as well as others who blew Brewster Jennings cover….

    Part of this has to do with Michael Chertoff…

    After the 9-11 attacks many different Mossad agents including ones with video footage of the sears tower were deported…this information was blacked out in media

    Michael Chertoff was in charge of the Justice Department at the exact same time ‘five dancing israelis’ were seen & hundreds of ‘art students’ were caught casing the national security offices without any explanation…

    AIPAC has alot to do with this also, too…

    A network of international smugglers, led by AQ Khan, Ariel Sharon & other elite patriarchs has been smuggling money through Jack Abramoff and other illuminati stooges for years…this is known as "Russian Ukraine Israeli Mafia

    More fascinating still is the fact that our media has said virtually little to nothing about this…..Please tell me what you see about these events, and whether with our current agendas and degree of persuasion we can finally expose the true story of 9-11 to the whole nation…..

    Doug E.

  4. Thank you Ms Edmonds and Mr. Weaver! It’s patriots like you that keep our hope alive that we WILL be able to save our country by honoring, preserving and defending our Constitution!

    The more light that is directed towards the darkness hovering in and around the WH, the less that darkness will be able to survive and thrive as it has for the past several years.

    We’re here, willing and able to support and stand beside you. Let us know if we can do anything!

  5. Also I wanted to know and I wondered if you are aware of the history of John Bolton, since you said so unapologetically that the State Department was the most corrupt in the United States…

    John Bolton is a dual-citizen, Zionist loyalist who is working to forward only one cause

    John Bolton has repeatedly denied ever spying using NSA intercepts or trying to remove Secretary Rice, from reaching a "peace settlement" between Palestine, and the Middle-East to the Turkey sea board…

    John Bolton caught with his pants down spying on UN Delegation members, and summit negotiaters at the official UN-Turkey peace conference..

    RUIM blessed weapons trafficking, going on with emissiaries of the Ukraine, Islamabad, Israel without anyone’s permission

    Quite a revealing situation, is it true that Bolton works to further only the cause of Zionist Israel government? One look at his history might tell you so…….

    http://www.nogw.com/warforisrael.html

    Doug E.

  6. Doug E

    Holy cow – you’ve given me something to later – read all those links!

    Thanks – looks interesting!

    I can’t even look at Bolton without thinking "slimeball scuzbucket"

    The wierd part is he looks just like a guy who took up with one of my best friends. Asked her to marry him and then turned out to be married and engaged to someone else as well. He took my friend for about $10,000 by activating old credit cards he found from her ex-husband as well as staging burglaries at her house. She managed to get some of that stuff back from the pawn shops he had sold it to, but it cost her a bunch.

  7. Thanks Sibel. It may be that whistleblowers are our only hope. The last line of defense.

    We need a similar group for the Stolen Election issue. There are people out there who have crucial information who HAVE to come forward (and I know that that has to be one of the hardest things to do). For example, there have to be journalists out there, like the one who talked to Peter Coyote, who know how the Stolen Election story has been suppressed in the media, who have emails and such to prove it.

  8. The only way you’ll get that is by setting up a NATIONAL STOLEN ELECTIONS WHISTLEBLOWER COALITION and there should be such a thing starting now especially with Dieb-throught speaking out…….

    And that’s just another mandatory thing in conjunction with removing the voting machines completely and getting verified paper ballots.

    Doug E.

  9. Thank you for blogging at this site because we are AMERICANS AND WE WANT THE TRUTH as opposed to what the BUSHIT ADMINISTRATION SERVES UP.

    2 STOLEN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.

    THE INSIDE JOB CALLED 9/11 USED AS A TOOL OF FEAR,ANGER, AND CONFUSION TO TAKE RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS AWAY FROM AMERICANS AND CREATE A REASON FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL AND WATCH AMERICANS IN A POLICE STATE.

    A WAR BASED ON THE LIES AND TIES TO 9/11 RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATHS AND CASULTIES OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQI CIVILIANS AND AMERICAN SERVICEMEN.

    BUSH CHANGING THE RULES OF FORESTRY LAST DECEMBER AND THE DICK CHENEY – CORPORATE ELITE closed door PLANS TO RAPE THE FORMERLY PROTECTED WESTERN WILDLANDS AND IRAQ.

    PLANS TO DELIST THE BROWN BEAR IN 2 MONTHS BASED ON more LIES SO THE REMAINING POPULATIONS IN THE LOWER 48 CAN BE HUNTED DOWN. THEN SELL OFF THE WILDLANDS TO THEIR CORPORATE ELITE OIL, GAS, AND TIMBER CRONIES DIRT CHEAP. Americans don’t know the half of it.

    I find it unacceptable as an AMERICAN that you cannot tell the truth because of some Bushit $ecracy order, in addition to your LEGAL case being dropped.

    I want to paint the WHITE HOUSE pillars RED and temporarily rename it the LYING MURDERER’S HOUSE until Bush and Cheney are impeached and brought to trial. Then Schwartznegger can give them the thumbs up to their lethal injection and do Californians a favor by moving out of this country.

    I am not Democrat or Republican. With a few exceptions, these parties have let me down because they are really one party self serving to the corporate elite INSTEAD OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. We the working class people must take our country back before it’s to late.

    THE ARCTIC IS MELTING!!! OUR GOVERNMENT’S ANSWER: TURN THE HEAT ON HIGH AND PREY TO THEIR GOD.

    NEW ORLEANS IS THE USA.

  10. I think part of the secret that Sibel cannot divulge is the information about the drug smuggling and the many politicians involved. Many think we went into Afghanistan to get a cave man, some say it was oil. It was all about opium. The Taliban had shut down the opium production by 90%. The drug lords in the states and other countires were furious. As you well know, opium production is now at the highest level in decades. There is much more money in drugs than there is oil. The reason there are not any whistleblowers about 9/11 is because all involved were payed big bucks with the 2.5 trillion dollars the pentagon so conveniently announced it couldn’t account for on September 10, 2001. A look at 9/11

  11. Dog Temple #16

    Your comment should be deleted and you should go back under the bridge troll.

    Everyone else

    Republican John Dean (past White House Lawyer) has pointed out that the spying criminal president, like Nixon, is spying on whistle blowers (link here).

    Whistle blowers must be very careful, as should leakers of documents that show us Bush Administration crimes.

  12. Sibel Edmonds, you’re hurting America, you’re unpatriotic, we should all put our trust in the president. Do you question parents who know what’s best for their kids? This is unAmerican!

    signed,
    a stupid, retarded rightwinger

  13. Hi Sibel: I lost my job for whistle-blowing in 2001, but my own circumstances are a pittance compared to what you’ve been through.

    Welcome to a place where you have hundreds of friends, maybe thousands. We won’t turn our backs on you, or treat you as a pariah. We’ll understand if you can’t reveal everything we want to know. We might not know your whole story, but from other evidence, we do know the kinds of people you’ve been dealing with…and we don’t like them at all.

  14. Sibel, I know you’re under a gag order. Can you explain a gag order in layman’s terms?

    Here’s what a gag order appears to be to me: Our government overstepping their bounds in silencing an American citizen, infringing on their freedom of speech. And, what this means to me also, is that our government is corrupt to gag certain people.

    Also, what would happen, if someone under a gag order speaks? Our corrupt government puts them in jail? Isn’t there enought good people in this country to help you if this happens?

    Also again, I read in American Free Press, that the NYC firefighters and police are all under gag order not to talk about 9/11, and they all know it was an inside job, they speak freely among themselves about it "off the record." Isn’t that AGAIN our government being corrupt, placing a gag order to save the asses of those in power who are corrupt and breaking the law? Doesn’t this make our courts corrupt, too, because they are the ones knowingly gagging people with important whistleblowing information?

    Aren’t gag orders for silencing patriotic whistleblowers??????????

    Where is a case, where there’s a gag order, and it’s not protecting corruption?????

  15. For Big Dan: Your post got me to thinking. If Sibel was fired for whistle-blowing, but she’s still under a gag order, then what did she blow the whistle over?

    If the continuing gag order only pertains to classified information, then she must have been fired for revealing only non-classified information. But if it’s non-classified, why is it still a secret? Quite bizarre.

  16. Sibel will go down in history as a true American patriot
    that is for sure.

    (as far as #16 goes, I was thinking the same thing but not for print, maybe Brad thinks so too, thats why it hasn’t been deleted yet, He-He)

    I’m an old consruction worker, you’ll have to excuse me

  17. Sibel should hang in there because there will come a day when the Bush gang won’t be able to silence her and then she can scream at the top of her lungs for the world to hear what a mess the Bush people made of the government, America and the world.

  18. I think there should be no such thing as a gag order. They are ridiculous, and don’t make sense. It’s simply silencing someone. Isn’t that infringement on free speech???

  19. If there is spying on anyone allowed in this country, we American citizens should have 24-hour a-day cameras surveiling the activities of the Bush administration and members of Congress to monitor possible bribery, extortion, blackmailing, and blackmailable activities which they seem to be very prone to engage in.

  20. You got that right, fight fire with fire. And no there is no reason for the gag order. She should just speak up what she knows no matter what because most likely it has to do with Israel, and we are running out of time….

    Doug E.

  21. I know Sibel has been through a lot of shit. What if she just makes a conscious decision to break the gag order and go "underground" or even to another country for protection – take on a new identity until this crap all gets uncovered and the necessary parties are either in jail or executed for treason. I mean, it’s got to end there, doesn’t it? If whatever she is being forced to conceal could bring down the entire administration, and quickly, would it be worth risking more to do so – and if brought down corrupt Democrats, and we had a big ol’ house cleaning that would be just dandy.

  22. I tell you this, one thing she’s concealing is whatever deal Henry Kissinger made with certain congressman including Rahm Emanuel…..

    Kissinger knew from day one, over a decade ago, that 9-11 would happen…..and it was going to be by "arab terrorists" apparently…

    Doug

  23. I hope Sibel has "reduced to writting" all the information she has from her time at the FBI and has made many copies that are spread far and wide. Just to be sure the information can never be lost.
    She should be protected 24/7 ,she will become a national asset when the fog clears.

  24. Google news Sibel’s name today only gives a mere 146 hits. Elton John returned 4700. I call that a news blackout. What can be done about this? Why won’t the MSM cover this woman’s story??

  25. #35 Maybe you misspelled her name; I got 206,000 hits.

    Also, there’s a curious tie to Joe and Valerie Wilson and the American Turkish Council, which is probably just a coincidence. I remember the first time I read Ms. Edmonds’s story where she referred to the American Turkish Council. I knew I had seen that name somewhere before, in "The Politics of Truth". I checked the index, and there were several entries. Pages 240-241 recount how Joe Wilson first met Valerie Plame at the residence of the Turkish ambassador when he and a general were there to receive an award from the American Turkish Council on behalf of American troops of the European Command. Later, Joe Wilson served on the Defense subcommittee of the board of the American Turkish Council (see page 283).

  26. CambridgeKnitter:

    That’s more than a odd coincidence….It sounds like Plame may have been a double agent, and worked for the Turkish Guard which has alot to do with this conspiracy. She then likely stopped working "for" them after meeting and marrying Joe, but I bet she learned a whole lot of dirty stuff over there…..and I bet she wouldn’t tell Joe that she kept some of her contacts…

    That’s CIA always on the move..

    Doug

  27. #36:

    I meant a Google News search, not a Web search…we’d like to get a sampling of how many of the 4500 news organizations tracked by Google are covering this woman’s story and the answer is practically none of them..try for yourself!

  28. HB Sac:

    Are you saying her story is only carried on the blogs? No one else? Must be really damaging is all I can think of…

    Doug E.

  29. I’m just saying that it is more than likely not in the best interest of the news corporations’ bottom line(i.e. their stock traded on Wall Street) that her story gets out…prime example, GE, the owner of NBC, and massive govt. military contractor.

  30. Whistleblowing is contrasted with wrongful leaking in the statement of one senator:

    "There are differences between felons and whistleblowers, and we ought to wait ’til the investigation occurs to decide what happened" (link here).

    So a leak of information is not wrong if it exposes illegal government actions, it is valid whisleblowing.

    That is the constrast between the Plame leak and the NSA spy on america project. Sibel is a whistleblower like the NSA spy story leaker.

  31. While reading the comments posted here I started linking to some sites mentioned in this thread (Doug, Dan, MMIIXX). I kept going and going and going and finally arrived at a site talking about a book I had on my shelf. I always find that when a book falls off the shelf (at a bookstore) it seems important to read, oftentimes I don’t know why. This particular book was purchased by me in 1998, written in 1994. I had not read it, I have many that are waiting my attention. I most always mark the books I read, fill them with my own notes, etc. This book seemed to have not been opened…yet.

    The book "Defrauding America" by Rodney Stitch, a whistleblower, begins with the corruption of United Airlines in the 50’s to 60’s and their control of the FAA. I find that in reading just the first few pages, that UA has been involved with coverups and deceit for 40 years or better, gee, strange they should be involved with 911, or ‘coincidence’…lol.

    I can only imagine what I will find out when I get into this large volume….more history to make my mind do somesaults….M4

  32. M4 LOL (Nervously)
    I think half the problem with getting people to pay attention to what bush and his cronies are to ,is that you get "overloaded" with examples as you try to explain whats really behind things.the curtis flows into the feeney that flows into the lemme that flows into jeb and the fdot that flows into 2000 vote fraud that flows into katheen harris butterfly that flows into lack of msm that flow into the male prostitute in the white house that flows into the plame that flows into rove ………………so much information to absorb …………unbelievable in the extreme …………..but here we are 2006 …………these guys make hells angels look honest

  33. MMIIXX…what is amazing to me, as I read this book, I can look back at my own life during the periods of time covered and strange things that have ‘indirectly’ touched my life. I won’t go into any specific details but I certainly now can see how events were arranged to effect certain changes that now have an explanation. I can even connect a dot to an event that ‘happened’ to me in 2000…go figure. Had I read this book in ’98, I would have totally overlooked this one small sentence, that now has so much meaning to me. When I see this kind of information being given and can relate to what is being said on a personal level, then I have no alternative but to believe there is some Truth to what is being written. Overloaded, indeed! M4

  34. MMIIXX, I often wonder how ‘my’ people in Aus. and NZ see what is happening here. I am a bit embarrassed to even bring the topic up to them or discuss this in emails. I am so glad we have so many from other countries following what is happening here and reporting to us what they (you) see and care enough to keep us in the U.S. informed about what is going on in our Country. The book you mentioned isn’t in my library, but I have no doubt there are many that follow the same story line πŸ™‚ M4

  35. I’m australian (living in new zealand) and I’m reading Paul Begala book β€œIt’s the Economy, Stupid.” at the moment , you guy’s are being "used" by your un-elected leaders .we can see better from here ,maybe ,you know you carn’t see the forrest for the trees…
    regards mick

  36. What did Kennedy say "before this decade is out ,we will send a man to the moon and safely return him to earth" and your country did ,now look at HAVA ,half a decade and still your vote is not safe .It’s not a lack of talent it’s a lack of motivation for honesty in elections.

  37. mick, I know….only in 2000 did a few of us come to understand how elections were being stolen. I have read this has been going on for years but never gave it much thought until 2000. I remember the "October Surprise" (reagan/bush 41), just makes me cringe when I see what is happening here and the sheeple that will live their lives as if they were free because they have swallowed the whole whale. I am at the point where I believe that this can only be turned around by Divine Intervention, but then I also believe my God works through people and believe we can change this if enough sheep will leave the flock. M4

  38. Lemmings it is then, mick, probably actually a more appropiate term as they are certainly following der leader over the cliff. You are right, man certainly did make this horror and only man can solve it. I am not an atheist as you know, but I would never judge anyone on their beliefs. My only problem is when someone trys to convert me, as bush’s base seems hell bent for election to do. I do not adher to their born again bs and I pity them, thus my term ‘sheeple’. They can have their beliefs, but leave me to mine. I only wish more of them would wake up to see what part they are playing in this cosmic drama. You are more tuned into the game that any of them and your information is very valuable to me. M4

  39. yes sad when someone like Sibel puts its all on the line and what is she , first or second generation American ?
    I would only try to convert someone to think for themselves and not to repeat the "Talking points" be it politics or religion .

  40. I agree, everyone needs to do their homework and quit parroting the party line. I seek information from numerous sources and reach my own conclusions, rather than being spoon fed from the likes of those on msm etc. To be an independent thinker is a threat to those controlling our nations policies. We are those labeled and chastised. I care not. I know where my allegiance lies and it is certainly not with those that have turned my country into a police state. My view of reality may change as more is revealed to me, but in the end, all roads seems to lead to the same place…Fascism in America. M4