Former FBI contract linguist-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and investigative reporter James Bamford discuss the Department of Justice’s abuse of the “State’s Secrets Privilege” to keep Edmonds from telling all she knows about high-level corruption in the Turkish Lobby, the State and Defense Departments and the Congress, a new petition by over 30 organizations demanding hearings into her case and a new FBI whistle-blower, who’s letter the the Department of Justice’s Inspector General [.pdf] reveals that all those wiretaps Edmonds was transcribing were illegal – begun on warrants under the much easier to satisfy-Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in cases of public corruption.
MP3 here. (30:44)
For background, listen to my February 28, 2007 interview with Sibel Edmonds expert Luke Ryland here.
Sibel Edmonds began working for the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Until the spring of 2002 she worked in the FBI’s Washington field office translating top-secret documents pertaining to suspected terrorists. She first gained wide public attention in October of that year when she appeared on ’60 Minutes’ on CBS and charged that the FBI, State Department, and Pentagon had been infiltrated by agents of a Turkish intelligence officer suspected of ties to terrorism. She also accused members of the FBI’s translation services of sabotage, intimidation, corruption and incompetence. On October 18, 2002, at the request of FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General Ashcroft imposed a gag order on Ms. Edmonds, citing possible damage to diplomatic relations or national security.
James Bamford is the author of The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America’s Most Secret Agency. Published in 1982, it was the first book ever written about the National Security Agency and it became an immediate bestseller. He spent nearly a decade as the Washington Investigative Producer for ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings where he won a number of journalism awards for his coverage national security issues. In 1997, as the media profession began turning away from international news coverage and focusing almost exclusively on Monica Lewinsky and other domestic political scandals, Bamford left ABC to work on Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. Initially published in April 2001 to rave reviews, it also became a national bestseller. His book A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies remains one of the best resources on how the Cheney/Neocon cabal lied this country to war in Iraq. Bamford’s articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including cover stories for the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine.