Senators ask DOJ to declassify Sept. 11 investigation results re: Edmonds

[G_j]

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=28961&dcn=todaysnews


Senators ask Justice Department to declassify Sept. 11 investigation results

By Chris Strohm
[e-mail]

Senior members of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the Justice Department on Friday to declassify three reports concerning the FBI's translation program and information obtained by federal law enforcement agencies prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The Justice Department's inspector general has finished two of the investigations while the third is nearing completion, said Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. All of the reports, however, have been classified, the senators wrote in a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Inspector General Glenn Fine.


"While the needs of national security must be weighed seriously, we fear that the designation of information as classified in some cases serves to protect the executive branch against embarrassing revelations and full accountability. We hope that is not the case here," the senators wrote.

<snip>
Two of the reports investigate problems within the FBI's translations program, with a particular emphasis on accusations made by former FBI contract linguist Sibel Edmonds.



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[G_j]

1. will Ashcroft tell Patrick Leahy

to Cheney himself?