Who's afraid of Sibel Edmonds?

By Richard Van Slyke
01/29/2008

As usual, the most important stories are sometimes the ones ignored by the major media. And the Sibel Edmonds story is typical.
Why is it an important story?
Because it shows that within our government there are people who are working for exactly the opposite of what this administration is faking to stand for.
And why is it not covered?
Because digging into it could lead to a domino effect reaching people in high positions.

This is definitely not a conspiracy theory; there are enough facts to back-up all allegations, including congressional investigations that confirm them. And moreover, as is typical in these cases, a congressional investigation that was stopped in its tracks.

So, who is Sibel Edmonds?
Sibel Edmonds is a former translator for the FBI who specialized in Middle Eastern languages, mainly Turkish. Hired shortly after 9/11, she had access to highly sensitive documents; but she soon discovered a pattern of incompetence within the agency. For a starter, she was asked to let her work pile-up to justify asking for more translators. Then she found-out that the translator who was the only Turkish translator before she was hired was not proficient in Turkish and could barely speak English, leading to inaccurate translations of important security-related documents.
The story gets better as she discovers that another newly hired translator has ties with Turkish agents under investigation by the FBI and tries to be the sole translator for documents involving them.
Now we all know that in government as well as in private business, mishaps occur. But when it happens in the FBI, you would expect swift action to be taken, incompetent people to be fired, and unpatriotic activities to be investigated.
This is exactly where it all goes wrong. Instead of being rewarded for her diligence, Sibel Edmonds was fired. Not only was she fired, but after congressional hearings vindicated her on her claims, the FBI classified documents that were previously public and stopped the congressional investigation. Does that feel like déjà vu?

It could be argued that the reason why this story went mostly under the radar with the mainstream media (with a few exceptions) is because it involved only Turkey. Who cares about Turkey? The last event about that country that made a big splash on the American psyche was a 1970’s movie.
However, a recent article on the British newspaper The Sunday Times might lead us to rethink that attitude. Turkey has in fact a much higher geopolitical importance than most of us are aware of.
We all know about the Valerie Plame story and think of it as a political scandal involving the war in Iraq. What the Sunday Times reveals is that a U.S. State Department official had previously obstructed an investigation by Valerie Plame of Turkish agents trying to acquire Western nuclear technology. That part actually feels like a script right from a Peter Sellers comedy, where Turkish agents using a front company supposedly dealing with alternative energies contacted Valerie Plame’s company that supposedly was an energy consultant but was in fact a front for the CIA. It must be a constant in spy world.
This was no minor outing, as the news probably reverberated throughout the whole nuclear arms black market underworld.

The other interesting fact is that the major players involved in this underworld (and planting moles in our government) are agents from our closest allies on the “war on terror”: Turkey, Israel, and Pakistan. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the nuclear arms black market is not limited to our “allies”. Lybia, Iran and North Korea acquired their technology from the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. And the threat of nuclear proliferation is now used as a pretext for deploying anti-missile bases in Eastern Europe, thus creating serious frictions with Russia and a potential new cold war. We are going full circle!

In both the Valerie Plame and the Sibel Edmonds cases, the work of individuals trying their best for the safety of our country was impeded by our own government officials.
The Valerie Plame case was hard to ignore and made headline news.
The Sibel Edmonds case, for a purely journalistic point of view, could make a great story.
So this raises the question: why is it being ignored?
Another way to put the question is: who’s afraid of the fallout. Could anyone in high position be affected?
When that has the potential to happen, we have witnessed over the last few years a recurring pattern:
- All relevant information is classified to block access to it.
- Activities that were originally illegal are legalized so guilty parties cannot be prosecuted.

Let's follow this case closely. How this government reacts will give us a good indication of how high-up it has the potential to reach.

Oh, by the way…
The Bush administration now wants to legalize the nuclear trade with turkey.

The Sunday Times (England) 1/27/08
Tip-off thwarted nuclear spy ring probe
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article32577...

The Sibel Edmonds web site:
www.justacitizen.com

Lost In Translation (CBS 60 Minutes)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/25/60minutes/main526954.shtml

The Bradblog stories on Sibel Edmonds.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5612

Cannonfire.
The Big Fix: Bushists Seek to Legalize the Nuke Black Market
http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2008/01/big-fix-bushists-seek-to-legalize...

Vanity Fair story 08/15/05:
An Inconvenient Patriot.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9774.htm

New York Times 5/20/2004
Material Given to Congress In 2002 Is Now Classified
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04EFDD103FF933A15756C0A...

Scott Horton’s blog:
Sibel Edmonds: ‘Buckle up, there’s much more coming.’
http://thestressblog.com/2008/01/28/sibel-edmonds-buckle-up-theres-much-...

Dissident voice:
Why Bush Wants to Legalize the Nuke Trade with Turkey
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/01/why-bush-wants-to-legalize-the-nuk...