BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge

Subject: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:26 PM

What next?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/042704A.shtml:

..."US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used "state secrets privilege". Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence "would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States".

    Mrs Edmonds, 33, a Turkish-American who had top secret security clearance, claimed this month that while working in the FBI's Washington headquarters, she saw information proving senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes. She has provided sworn testimony to the independent panel appointed by President George Bush to investigate the circumstances surrounding 11 September."

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:31 PM

White House Attempts

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Jim McCallan
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:44 PM

I've been trying to find something of that sworn testimony, from the 9/11 Commission's website, but it seems to be down, at the moment.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:54 PM

Jim,
I just clicked on your link and the site worked.

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:58 PM

Ms. Edmonds is evidently well known.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/25/60minutes/main526954.shtml:

"...foreign language documents that the FBI neglected to translate before and after the Sept.11 attacks because of problems in its language department - documents that detailed what the FBI heard on wiretaps and learned during interrogations of suspected terrorists.

"Sibel Edmonds, a translator who worked at the FBI's language division, says the documents weren't translated because the divison was riddled with incompetence and corruption.

Edmonds was fired last year after reporting her concerns to FBI officials. She told her story behind closed doors to investigators in Congress and to the Justice Department...."

And here's more:

http://www.thememoryhole.org/spy/edmonds.htm

"The allegations of one of the whistle-blowers have prompted two key senators -- Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) -- to pose critical questions about the FBI division working on the front line of gathering and analyzing wiretaps.

That whistle-blower, Sibel Edmonds, 32, a former wiretap translator in the Washington field office, raised suspicions about a co-worker's connections to a group under surveillance."

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Jim McCallan
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:00 PM

That's odd... I've tried a few times, and I just get the 'Cannot find Server' message. Probably a 'browser' thing, no doubt.
It would be interesting to know if there was a transcript of Mrs Edmonds' testimony available.

I'll keep trying that site, again, in the meantime.

Thanks, incidentally...

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:13 PM

Jim,

Just did a search of Ms. Edmonds and found no matches.

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Amos
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:37 PM

Try this search which seems to have many.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:42 PM

I think Jim was looking for testimony under oath from the closed 9/11 commission.

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Jim McCallan
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:01 PM

But it is like everything else, I suppose.
It will be forgotten that there was even a suggestion of it as the road to November splits into ever more little dirt tracks.

What the FBI and CIA independently knew, however, may not be the point, at all. What the President knew and understood to be the case in the lead up to 9/11, could be.

I think that for a long time, we have been encouraged to look at the problem from the angle that before George W. entered the White House, he was totally unaware of anything. Period! And that it took him up to 9/11 to get up to date on everything. That the man had grown up in a family which had its' ear closer to the ground than your 'average American's', seems to have passed some people by, in no more than an anecdotal sense.

If he knew, or could imagine the concept, irrespective of where he would pick up that kind of info, that planes could be used as weapons (although even hindsight didn't prevent the recent attacks on the oil platforms off Basra), then he is at fault, if he didn't upp the priority on looking into it. The $80bn he got from Congress to finance a war, would have gone a long way in increasing the Internal Security of The United States, in my opinion, had it been spent at the air and sea ports, and had he made an equally heart-felt plea for it.

I am starting to believe that the Bush White House knew quite well the danger Al Qaeda posed. They just thought they would never attempt it, that's all.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Jim McCallan
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:07 PM

Yes, I was just interested to see if this was substantiated in any way. I can be a bit wary of some 'counter-claims', no matter which side of the political divide they come, and I just wanted to read what she has said under oath
But I'll go off to look at those links.. 9/11 Commission one still doesn't work..., but thanks for having a look for me.

Jim

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:24 PM

Thanks, Ebbie. It just keeps piling up, doesn't it?

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Teribus
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 08:25 AM

What's the betting that when this "evidence" is reviewed it tells us no more than was already on the table - interest in civil aviation - interest in airports - evaluation, increased threat of potential hijacking in the US.

Oh yes katlaughing, it certainly does keep piling up and none of it amounts to a mole-hill of beans yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Gagging Expertise and Knowledge
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 03:19 PM

GUEST said:

Just did a search of Ms. Edmonds and found no matches.

Maybe that's because she doesn't smoke.

Dave Oesterreich