Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- Begin Message ---
-Caveat Lector- http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=66
Sibel Edmonds sues Ashcroft again for actions tied to 9-11 evidence
FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds sues Ashcroft and DOJ again, asserting that
re-classification of her 9-11 allegations was illegal and unconstitutional
by Tom Flocco
http://tomflocco.com/images/stories/pogoedmondsdoj/edmonds062304.jpg
Sibel Edmonds was fired for reporting information she uncovered in the FBI's
translation unit in Washington. Attorney General Ashcroft said the national
interests of the United States "would be seriously impaired" if Edmonds'
findings were to be made available to the public; so he made the decision to
classify public information still available on the Internet.
WASHINGTON -- June 24, 2004 2:45 pm -- Tom Flocco.com -- On behalf of former
FBI contract linguist Sibel Edmonds, The Project On Government Oversight
(POGO) sued Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Department of Justice
(DOJ) today, seeking judicial reclassification of information that alleges
corruption, incompetence and cover-ups in an FBI investigation unit.
POGO, a politically independent non-profit government watchdog, is
challenging Ashcroft's information reclassification and concomitant
invocation of State Secret Privilege in the withholding of certain
information that is widely available to the public.
The information is related to Sibel Edmonds' allegations reported to her
superiors concerning numerous instances of wrongdoing in the FBI translation
unit--much of it closely linked to the World Trade Center attacks on
September 11, 2001.
Georgetown University Law Center professor David Vladeck and Public Citizen
are representing POGO in the civil action.
Edmonds was fired for her assertions, but the information--unclassified at
the time, was presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee and referenced in
letters which were posted on the websites of U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy
(D-VT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA).
Subsequently, the letters were removed by the senators after Ashcroft
reclassified the information via his State Secret Privilege invocation.
http://www.images/stories/pogoedmondsdoj/pogo_edmonds_suit.pdf
The group said in a complaint filed today in U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia that "the reclassification of the information at issue
was unlawful because defendants failed to comply with the requirements of
Executive Order 12958, as amended by Executive Order 13292, and
unconstitutional because it is a prior restraint that violated the First
Amendment."
Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director, said "We believe the Department
of Justice reclassified the information to stifle congressional oversight of
the department and shield it from legitimate public inquiry," adding, "it is
absurd to reclassify information that has been in the public domain for so
long. This is an entirely inappropriate use of the classification system."
Brian's organization also said in a press release today that "the suit
contends that the information is not reasonably recoverable [captured back
from public knowledge] because it was posted on the Web and remains
available on numerous Web sites. Further, the DOJ's reclassification of the
information was not reported promptly to the Director of the Information
Security Oversight Office."
On March 24, TomFlocco.com broke the original story of Sibel Edmonds' first
public press conference online within 45 minutes after she appeared,
summarizing her FBI wrongdoing allegations in front of some 40 reporters and
12 television cameras outside the Senate Hart Office Building hearing room
just after the 9/11 Commission had heard the testimony of Director of
Central Intelligence George Tenet.
The former FBI translator told TomFlocco.com that "translators before me had
ongoing personal relationships with the subjects or targets of the FBI and
DOJ pre 9-11 investigations--linked to intercepts and other intelligence--in
June - July - August, just prior to the attacks."
Edmonds told us "The Senate Judiciary Committee and the 911 Commission have
heard me testify for lengthy periods of time (3 hours) about very specific
plots, dates, airplanes used as weapons, and specific individuals and
activities."
At the press conference Edmonds also revealed that she was offered a raise
and a full time job to encourage her not to go public that she had been
asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the
translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before
September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA.
Later in another story--after an April 26 9-11 Commission hearing, we asked
Edmonds about previously reported evidence she uncovered implicating
espionage in the FBI and State Department, to which she replied, "As you
know, I cannot say much about that; but why do you think Attorney General
Ashcroft asserted State Secret Privilege in my case when I decided to go
public with what I had found in the translations?"
We also asked Edmonds if she thought spies in the FBI and State Department
contacted al Qaeda operatives--confirmed to be living in the United
States--about ongoing plans for President Bush's new government policy
directive [signed on September 4, 2001] which would authorize tightened
American security just prior to the attacks.
Edmonds told us, "You'll have to ask the Attorney General about that," but
she added somewhat cryptically, "I can say that Senator Charles Grassley
(R-IA) has said that the information I have is 'very credible.' "
The original letters regarding unclassified briefings on June 17 and July 9,
2002 between the Senate Judiciary Committee and the FBI containing
information posted on Grassley and Leahy's websites have come under
political and legal scrutiny of late.
Curiously, on May 13, after the March 24 and April 26 stories on
TomFlocco.com and a number of other media outlets--particularly in the
United Kingdom--were in full circulation, an email was sent to the staff of
the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to information contained in the
POGO/Edmonds complaint.
Within about ten days after our initial March 24 story was posted, Meet the
Press host Tim Russert held up a Sibel Edmonds story from a UK media outlet
and discussed the Sibel Edmonds case--apparently not wishing to credit
independent and alternative media with bringing the issue to the public's
attention on the day of Sibel Edmonds' first public press conference.
The POGO complaint revealed that the Senate Judiciary Committee email said
"the FBI considers some of the information from the two Judiciary Committee
hearings to be classified, and warned staffers not to disseminate further
the information."
It remains to be seen whether the email could have been interpreted as a
legal threat to Grassley and Leahy's staffers, but also whether allegations
related to al Qaeda espionage in the FBI and State Department will reach
widespread public awareness.
The complaint said that "in the wake of [Attorney General Ashcroft's]
decision to reclassify the information from the briefings, two letters from
Senators Leahy and Grassley were removed from their websites, although they
remain available from other Internet sources."
POGO also asserted that the DOJ has violated the group's First Amendment
Rights: "The reclassification of the documents has stifled public discussion
regarding the adequacy of the FBI's translation capabilities and Ms. Edmonds
' reports of problems in the translation unit."
"The reclassification of information that is so widely available to the
public is a new step in John Ashcroft's push for secrecy," said Michael
Kirkpatrick, the Public Citizen attorney handling the case:
"We have been doing national security litigation for more that 30 years, and
in our view, this is the most egregious misuse of the classification
authority we've seen. Classification is to keep secret information that is
sensitive. It is not to suppress debate over widely public information. Yet
that is exactly what Ashcroft is doing."
Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller declined to comment on the
lawsuit.
Allan Duncan contributed additional research for this story.
Copyright C 2002, 2003, 2004 under the DMCA,
[TomFlocco.com].
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org
OM
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Yahoo! Groups Links
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
--- End Message ---
