The FBI's Fired Whistleblower

Jewish World Review ^ | July 28, 2004 | Nat Henthoff

[ninenot]

Were it not for the determination of Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), Attorney General John Ashcroft would still be preventing the public from knowing the allegations of an FBI whistleblower that that agency has been covering up its own incompetence that is dangerous to national security.

[ninenot]

Hmmmm. Much as I like Ashcroft and despise Leahy, if what Henthoff says is true, John Ashcroft has a lot of BIG problems with the FBI.

[blackdog]

The FBI is a bad secret. It needs to be disbanded along with every other federal LEA and let each employee reapply for their job after going thru thorough background checks conducted by non LEA's.

Government has become the place to get a job when you would be screened out of private industry.

[secretagent]

Edmonds sued to get her job and her reputation back. But, so intent was the Justice Department to deep-six her case that, in May of this year (as reported by the grassroots government-oversight group organization 9/11 Citizens Watch) "the FBI retroactively classified information about Edmonds' claims provided to congressional staff more than two years ago." Accordingly, senators involved in her case had "to remove previously public material from their Web sites." Any of their staff who spoke about this information that had formerly been on those Web sites could have been prosecuted for violating national security.

Deep embarrassment: a national security issue.

What with retroactive classification, I wonder if FR will have to pull information from its archives.

[hobbes1]

Hmmmm. Much as I like Ashcroft and despise Leahy, if what Henthoff says is true, John Ashcroft has a lot of BIG problems with the FBI.

Actually to be fair, that sentence should read....Hmmmm. Much as I like Ashcroft and despise Leahy, if what Henthoff says is true, John Ashcroft has INHERITED a lot of BIG problems with the FBI.

And really that seems to be the crux of the issue. Edmonds has something fishy about her (and she is missing from the 9/11 report, so How much relevant info does she really posess????), but once again, we get back to the 8 years/8 months debate.

[secretagent]

Classification is to keep secret information that is sensitive. It is not to suppress debate over (previously) widely public information. Yet that is exactly what Ashcroft is doing."

If true, then fire Ashcroft and every other supporter of this coverup.

[secretagent]

As the Boston Globe recently reported on July 5: "Sifting through old classified materials in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, (Edmonds) said, she made an alarming discovery: Intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated into English."

This seems relevant to me. The FBI didn't have enough translators, and/or had Muslim translators who deliberately mistranslated intercepts.

Perhaps with the classification coverup, Ashcroft hopes to conceal the fact that the FBI doesn't have any more competent and loyal translators than it did on Sept 11, 2001.

A plausible hope, since Democrats cannot say anything negative about Muslim translators. For example, Kerry won't attack Bush on this, since he wants the Muslim vote.

[hobbes1]

Perhaps with the classification coverup, Ashcroft hopes to conceal the fact that the FBI doesn't have any more competent and loyal translators than it did on Sept 11, 2001.

He cant cover that up.That is pure budgetary information, not covered by Intelligence Secrecy.

[TruthNtegrity]

I'm not the only one with the opinion that the FBI needs to be disbanded and the entire LEA rethought.

The reason that the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA and other 3-letter agencies are "afraid" of a Czar is the loss of monetary and information control.

That's a good reason to argue for a Czar - especially if it replace the totally incompetent Mueller and Ridge with someone who has vision, leadership skills and knows what the heck intelligence is all about. There are a few people qualified for this position but even if I named them, you would not recognize them. They are known mostly to the Naval Intelligence Professionals, as men of high integrity, leadership, vision and analytical ability most at the CIA wish they had.

TNT

[secretagent]

He cant cover that up.That is pure budgetary information, not covered by Intelligence Secrecy.

How does budget info reveal if the Muslims doing the translating the FBI will do their job right, or cover for their fellow Muslims?

[happygrl]

This case was covered extensivley on FR.

Ms Edmonds is of Turkish ancestry, but was appalled to witness many expressions of glee by her fellow translators on 9-11, many of whomo were of Arab ancestry.

Also reported in conjunction with this story is that the FBI refused to hire Arabic -speaking Jews to do the translating.

Something is terribly wrong at the FBI.

[MississippiMan]

Actually to be fair, that sentence should read....Hmmmm. Much as I like Ashcroft and despise Leahy, if what Henthoff says is true, John Ashcroft has INHERITED a lot of BIG problems with the FBI.

And assuming his problems are all inherited, how is it that this justifies the ridiculous position of retroactive classification? It of course does not. Inheriting one problem has nothing to do with insituting a cover-up.

I like Ashcroft, have for a long time. I think he's a good man. But good men find themselves in binds and make horrible decisions. This is one of them. I have no stomach for cover-up, no matter what letter a particular person carries in the parentheses after their name. The principles of a free and open society are infinitely more important than the image of Ashcroft.

MM

[secretagent]

Something is terribly wrong at the FBI.

Yes. Muslim translators might still cover for terrorists there.