FBI: Lost in translation? (More Sibel Edmonds)

[Whoa_Nelly]

WASHINGTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Angry lawmakers are calling for hearings on the FBI's translation unit, which they say has still not addressed problems of mismanagement and lax internal security more than two years after they were revealed by a bureau whistleblower.

In letters to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the committee's ranking Democrat, says that questions he began raising in the spring of 2002 "remain unanswered."

<snip>
Neither commission staff nor Edmonds would comment on the content of the briefing, which took place in a special secure "bug-proof" facility used by the commission in Washington. But in previous unclassified briefings for Judiciary Committee staff, Edmonds made a series of shocking allegations about the unit where she worked as a contract linguist for six months immediately following Sept. 11 -- several of which have been acknowledged as true by the FBI.

<snip>
Meanwhile, Sibel Edmonds waits, without much hope, for the outcome of the many and various investigations into the allegations she said got her fired in March 2002. "I sat back and waited for one and a half years," she told UPI. "We can't afford to wait. If there are warnings about the next attack, they will probably have to be translated, and if the job is left to the people who were doing it when I was there ... well, let's just say we can't let that happen."

more...
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040331-035731-2120r

[leftchick]

1. These poor Sept. 11 families...

They are the only reason any investigating gets done..

<snip>Inspector general spokesman Paul Martin declined to give a date for the completion of the report, saying only that, "we are working on it as hard as we can." Sept. 11 victims' families, who are closely following the case, say they will ask commissioners to raise the issue when FBI Director Robert Mueller gives evidence to the panel in April.

[robertpaulsen]

2. Criminal Negligence

I've read the articles about Sibel Edmonds with the more damning charges (Ashcroft trying to bribe her) but this shows the disgusting bureaucratic incompetence that contributed to the fiasco.

[Blue_Roses]

3. do you have the

links to those articles?

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Read here for earlier DU thread and articles

Many other articles in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x442067

[robertpaulsen]

7. Here are a couple.

This one, I believe, deals with the implication of bribery against John Ashcroft.

http://www.axcessnews.com/national_032804a.shtml

This one is about the US knowing Al Qaeda would attack major cities with planes.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=507514

[JohnOneillsMemory]

4. Here's the obligatory caution: "Sibel, stay off small planes." n/t

[papau]

5. UPI carries - but not AP or Reuters?

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=507514

'I saw papers that show US knew al-Qa'ida would attack cities with aeroplanes'A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened. She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was "an outrageous lie".

Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place. The Bush administration, meanwhile, has sought to silence her and has obtained a gagging order from a court by citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege".

She told The Independent yesterday: "I gave details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily."

She added: "There was general information about the time-frame, about methods to be used - but not specifically about how they would be used - and about people being in place and who was ordering these sorts of terror attacks. There were other cities that were mentioned. Major cities - with skyscrapers."

[oasis]

8. The Bush adminstration sought to silence her with a gag order.

"state secrets privilige". Sounds like something custom made for Cheney.