Blumner: 'National security' too often government's cover for malfeasance

[cascadiance]

Here's an editorial that gives us a very concise summary of Sibel Edmonds' story. For folks that want to get a "quick read" introduction, I think this one does a good job. Obviously there's many more lengthy and comprehensive pieces out there that those wanting to get details should read beyond this, but hopefully this editorial will do well to get more people informed on her situation in Salt Lake City in that red state of Utah. This editorial is well-crafted to hopefully start getting her more attention there.

From: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2981982

Blumner: 'National security' too often government's cover for malfeasance
By Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media Services

The very word ''secrecy'' is repugnant in a free and open society.
- John F. Kennedy

It is axiomatic that secrecy is the handmaiden of mischief, especially by government. When we are facing a foreign threat, the government tends to toss around terms like ''national security'' as a justification for increased secrecy. But often, such an invocation is not as much about making our nation safe as protecting the government from embarrassment or challenge by critics.
That is what makes the case of Sibel Edmonds so dangerous.
You've probably heard of Edmonds. The naturalized Turkish-American was featured in a 2002 ''60 Minutes'' interview after she was fired for complaining about incompetence and misfeasance within the FBI's language division.
Edmonds is fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani and joined the translation team after 9/11 as an expression of patriotism toward her adopted country. Her job was to translate documents and intercept phone conversations to assist counterterrorism and counterespionage operations. Edmonds was on the front lines of the war on terrorism.
But what she witnessed shocked and disillusioned her. Edmonds says her supervisors told her to let the documents accumulate so the department could appear overworked as a way to justify a bigger budget. She says translations were sloppy and some of the translators were not fluent enough to do the job. And even more seriously, Edmonds says that when she brought up suspicions that another Turkish translator was possibly protecting a corrupt enterprise by not translating a friend's wiretapped conversations fully or accurately, she was essentially ignored.
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