Posted on 08/08/2009 9:38:13 PM PDT by GoreNoMore
8:40am PT (11:40am ET): During a break, Edmonds and the attorneys stepped outside.
DoJ still a no-show, so the questioning has proceeded, and Edmonds has been able to say "everything that she hasn't been able to say so far, implicating many members of Congress in a criminal conspiracy," according to interviews with Fein and others.
Edmonds' attorney, Michael Kohn said: "The Justice Department decided not to show. Therefore, the deposition has gone much more smoothly than we had anticipated."
There are apparently a handful of mostly independent and foreign media outlets present outside the NWC. No corporate MSM, from the reports I've gotten. Independent TV/media, an Armenian English language weekly, and press attache representatives of some foreign governments are among those present.
(Excerpt) Read more at bradblog.com ...
in the link
9:41am PT (12:41pm ET): Another break...Edmonds still being questioned under direct. Fein believes his cross-examination will last two hours or so once he begins. They are now breaking for lunch. DoJ/FBI still did not show up.
The deposition is being videotaped and Edmonds hopes that it can be released as soon as possible after the deposition, though there has been some objections about releasing the video tape...
Who is Sibel Edmonds ?
WOW!!
Uh-h-h...what exactly is this about? Care to enlighten us who wouldn’t know Sibel Edmonds from a lightpost?
Krikorian went on to say that he expects to release the video of the deposition, which, along with the transcript, is the property of his legal team. says “There will be...This could be a 10 part YouTube video segment, that we’ll put out there.”
“Care to enlighten us who wouldn’t know Sibel Edmonds from a lightpost?”
Yes, please. I’ve never heard of her either.
Thanks for posting. BTTT!
She was a translator for CIA or FBI back in 2001 and she turned whisleblower and lost her job with the agency. Since then DOJ has claimed her testimony as national security and stopped her from testifing. As I understand it.
This has been a long battle for her, many years.
I have been reading about this for years and I’m amazed that no DOJ appeared at this grand jury.
Never mind. I read the article at your link.
She’s screwing George W. Bush and other Republicans in Congress for dealing with Turkey, our anit-commie ally, under the table.
No wonder the commies in the Obama’s administrtion aren’t showing up. Edmonds probably works for them.
If you choose to see it that way, I see it as an individual that is as fed up with corruption as I am. This has been going for a very long time and it is coming to a head.
I spent thousands of dollars to elect Bush and now I’m disillusioned with all of them.
See my post at #10.
I know she probably believes she is doing something moral. But at that time we NEEDED Turkey, dammit! We needed their help very badly right after the Al Qaida attacks.
I bet she’s a Democrat.
Maybe not guilty unless it’s a guy.
When one deals with nations in the Middle East, you can’t be too choosey about ethics. There is no ethics there exept that of discretion.
I tend to agree
here is what the article said about her
For those not fully up on Edmonds story, her job at the FBI was to listen to wiretaps in the counter-intel department, to translate foreign targets caught on those taps. Presumably, that’s where her details on the destruction of Brewster Jennings comes from. She was hired by the agency shortly after 9/11.
Bombshell enough for ya? Let’s see if anyone in the corporate media bothers to agree, and/or pick up on this -— now that it’s officially “on the record” and, as Edmonds took pains to point out: under oath!
Right. Turkey was vital in the runup to Iraq.
She claims Bush knew about 9/11 months in advance.
” know she probably believes she is doing something moral. But at that time we NEEDED Turkey, dammit! We needed their help very badly right after the Al Qaida attacks.”
Do you remember when Nancy Pelosi Submited the bill condemning Turkey ? I can’t recall but GWB was asking something and she did this to foil him knowing this would anger Turkey.
There is a war going on and the American people are the booty. They are all pirates, we really do not matter as long as we keep our nose away from their topics.
It doesn’t matter if it’s phone tapping, wars, healthcare, or bailouts. Just step aside and get out of their way.
This mentality I am tired of, it ensures corruption and that is all I have been seeing for years. It is time for it to unravel whether it’s democrat or republican. They both are corrupt and it is time for it to stop.
She worked as a contractor for the FBI for 6 months. She claims knowledge of Presidential level intelligence. Can’t say I believe any of that.
Yeah. I just clicked over there to watch them gloat for a minute. Got to the comment about someone “hanging from a rope” and clicked off it.
Yeah, a bombshell. Turkey will now turn to Iran and Syria as allies.
Interesting link in Sibel’s “State Secrets Gallery” comments section by poster “NoneToEffect” posted June 8, 2008 4:49PM.
I knew about 911 years in advance. It was threatened by Saudi Arabia back in the 1970s, while most here on FR were not yet born and kicking poop out between the slats of their cribs.
911 was no surprise to me. I’d been expecting it for years.
Most of this is total BS. She wasn’t there on 9/11. She could not possibly have had as much access to high level intelligence as she claims. She was a low grade translator. She is of Armenian descent and has a bone to pick. I can’t even believe anyone is taking this seriously except for the hardcore leftists.
If any administration could be charged with dereliction for 9/11, it is the clinton administration.
It had been speculated by many.
Clinton should have taken out OBL years before. Multiple attacks and declaration of War by OBL should have been ample reason. Her claims of all these high level secret classified conspiracies are ridiculous. She wasn’t even an intelligence agency employee. She was a contractor, and she was only there for six months.
WOW
“First, I asked if she specified whether the sitting bi-sexual, married Congresswoman who had been taped sleeping with a woman, without knowing, and then bribed by Turkish interests with the tape, to vote against the Armenian Genocide resolution had been a Democrat or a Republican. She said she is a Democrat, and that she testified to that during her deposition. (See Krikorian’s long statement above for more details on that woman.)”
I wonder who this is?
Wading through the stinky links to Bradblog there is speculation it is Jane Harmon.
A LOT of very good people were burnt by the clinton administration with regards to this, among other things. And the ba$tard parades himself around like an American hero. It makes me sick to my stomach...and has for a long time.
People also seem to forget that Bush was stymied in setting up his administration for months because of clinton and his criminal aides.
He barely got the keys to his offices before 9/11 happened.
save
Bush knew about 9/11 for months, and Cinton knew about it for 8 years
Most of the terrorists were in the country and dispersed into society before Bush even took office. It was planned and executed over a period of years not months. Kind of hard to stop something like that so late and with so little prior proper action and intelligence IMO.
You are forgetting Jamie Gorelic’s “wall.” You are also forgetting that the head of the CIA was clinton’s man who tried to pull a coup on Bush. The State department has been islamicized for years and years. The FBI had been virtually silenced under gorelic’s stewardship. The DIA could not pass info to the FBI OR the CIA and vice versa.
It was chaos. Many of the briefings Bush got were woefully incomplete. Some were amateurish speculation in the exact opposite direction.
And the perps the FBI had supposedly been tracking somehow mysteriously “disappeared.”
You just can NOT blame Bush for this one.
Another point to consider is that the head of the DOJ was Attorney General Ashcroft. I’m not buying “corruption,” there.
That would be an understatement. He was probably one of the few rare birds who couldn’t commit a knowingly corrupt act if his life depended on it. It’s one of the reasons he was pretty much ineffective there. He was just too nice of a guy.
Edmonds is associated with the folks who undermined the Vietnam War and with Ellsberg, the fellow who stole and leaked the Pentagon Papers [and who is associated with lefty Morton Halperin, who we know from his friendship with the treasonous Philip Agee] ; he helped to encourage Hanoi to reject a peace agreement 13 days after the Times published the leaked docs and instead hold out, expecting the US position to weaken. As a side note somehow these classified docs apparently made it into Soviet hands even before they were passed to US newspapers.
Edmonds and Ellsberg are also involved with VIPS, a more recent crop of nuts who attempted to undermine the war in Iraq, among them Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson , etc. VIPS is a front for the leftist "Counterpunch" newsletter [known for comparing Bush to Hitler] and website run by Alexander Cockburn, a writer for the radical leftwing rag "The Nation." Cockburn's a bud of former congressman James Abourezk. Ray McGovern coordinates with Dennis Kucinich. One of his VIPS members is William Christison, who is a backer of Urgent Call along with Noam Chomsky, an old Pol Pot apologist.
Vince Cannistraro is also involved with VIPS; he is cited often and appears on all sides of any issue. But there's a blotch in his past- including testimony on behalf of a terrorist and also his aid in helping a news agency arrange an interview with bin Laden himself. That particular trip just happened to be used as cover by an individual who went along with the newsies -who apparently were clueless- to deliver batteries for Bin Laden's satellite phone, a phone later used by the 1998 US Embassy bombers in Africa.
Edmonds has joined with the infamous Ellsberg and others in a group to encourage the breaking of US law and the theft of classified information, and to assist, along with far left legal aid groups, in supporting those who break the law and the trust of their fellow citizens. this network includes Ellbergs' so-called "Truth-Telling Project" and Ray McGovern's group Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity aka VIPS, which supported the kooky Francophile former Ambassador to Gabon, Joe Wilson of the Plame Leak affair. Edmonds is buds with the Jersey Girls and Leaky Leahy, and was fired from her position in wiretap translating. Note that those she ran to for help oppose the wiretapping of calls to and from overseas terrorists. Edmonds has a sister in Istanbul whom the Turks arrested.
The group is made up of 10 former employees of the Defense, Labor and State departments, the FBI and the CIA. It includes Daniel Ellsberg, a former Marine who leaked the Pentagon Papers about the Vietnam War to the media in 1971; Sibel Edmonds, who reported security breaches and cover-ups of intelligence within the FBI while working as a contract linguist; Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA analyst who founded an organization opposed to the invasion of Iraq; and Mary Ann Wright, a career foreign service officer who resigned the day the Iraq war began.... The memo notes that whistleblowers have little legal protection and often end up losing their jobs. Ellsberg said a new support network for whistleblowers is being established. The network includes pro bono legal counsel from the American Civil Liberties Union and advice from the Project on Government Oversight. The network also includes Ellsberg's Truth Telling Project and McGovern's group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
"Needless to say, any unauthorized disclosure that exposes your superiors to embarrassment entails personal risk," the memo states. "Should you be identified as the source, the price could be considerable, including loss of career and possibly even prosecution." ...
------- govexec.com, daily briefing, september 9, 2004 : "Whistleblowers urge workers to disclose classified information," By Chris Strohm, cstrohm@govexec.com,
And then this group:
SEPTEMBER 9, 2004 : ("TRUTH TELLING COALITION" ANYTHING BUT --- SEE VIPS, ELLSBERG, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC)) "For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, were ordered by their countries' leaders to "fix facts" to "justify" an unprovoked war on Iraq." "Those of us who care about unprovoked wars owe the patriot who gave this latest British government document to The Sunday Times a debt of gratitude. Unauthorized disclosures are gathering steam. They need to increase quickly on this side of the Atlantic as well—the more so, inasmuch as Congress-controlled by the president's party-cannot be counted on to discharge its constitutional prerogative for oversight. In its formal appeal of Sept. 9, 2004 to current U.S. government officials, the Truth-Telling Coalition said this: We know how misplaced loyalty to bosses, agencies, and careers can obscure the higher allegiance all government officials owe the Constitution, the sovereign public, and the young men and women put in harm's way. We urge you to act on those higher loyalties...Truth-telling is a patriotic and effective way to serve the nation. The time for speaking out is now. If persons with access to wrongly concealed facts and analyses bring them to light, the chances become less that a president could launch another unprovoked war—against, say, Iran." --------http://www.oldright.com/modules.php?name=News&new_topic=14 From a post on that page titled "Proof Bush Fixed The Facts by Ray McGovern":493 posted on 07/26/2005 9:09:19 PM PDT by Wendy44
High-sounding garbage...but their objective is there at the end.
Mary McCarthy the person who leaked info on prisons in Europe is also tied into the bunch, if I recall correctly. I don't think they like to bring her up too much because she was one bad seed.
check my post.
pong...Sibel Edmonds and the Daniel Ellsberg leaking project comes back to life again
National Whistleblower Center. These groups change names often so as to not carry too much of the "history" with which they are associated.
Wow...thanks for those posts.
The devil is indeed in the details.
fascinating..
EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: DoJ Pressures Ohio Election Commission to Block Edmonds Testimony Long-gagged FBI whistleblower re-ite
Posted By: watcher51445 Date: Sunday, 9-Aug-2009 09:00:48 By Brad Friedman on 8/7/2009 8:06PM Originating Source: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7346
EXCLUSIVE UPDATE: DoJ Pressures Ohio Election Commission to Block Edmonds Testimony Long-gagged FBI whistleblower re-iterates request for citizen media in D.C. to show up at Saturday morning deposition...
The DoJ is now jumping into action, at least on behalf of covering the FBI's rear, if not yet to issue any "states secrets" claims to stop the scheduled testimony of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds in D.C. tomorrow morning in the Ohio Election Commission (OEC) case of Schmidt v. Krikorian.
For background, first see Wednesday night's report:
FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Subpoenaed, Set to 'Break' Gag Order Unless DoJ Intercedes
Former agency translator called to testify in Ohio election case this Saturday on Turkish infiltration of U.S. government...
...and then today's update:
EXCLUSIVE: FBI Attempts to Block Edmonds Testimony in OH Election Case; Attorneys Say Effort Insufficient to Stop Her
Whistleblower org says FBI/DoJ attempting 'censorship,' trying to 'silence whistleblower' answering 'lawful subpoena'
Tonight Arthur Goldberg of the DoJ's civil division sent a letter to the OEC's Executive Director Philip C. Richter, and Richter has replied. Both letters are downloadable below, and the text is posted there as well.
In short, the DoJ has informed the OEC that Edmonds has "not complied with the procedures for obtaining authorization from the FBI, her former employer, prior to making any disclosure relating to information that she acquired in the course of her work for the FBI. Therefore, she is not authorized to testify at the deposition."
Edmonds and her attorneys argued earlier today in their letter to the FBI (see today's earlier story and documents) that her employment agreements do not preclude her from answering a lawful subpoena, which they consider this to be, nor further do those agreements require approval from the FBI for oral, versus written, testimony. She was subpoenaed earlier this week on behalf of candidate David Krikorian, who is defending himself in an OEC "false statements" claim by U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH-2nd).
The DoJ further claims in its letter that the OEC's subpoena is not enforceable, because the deposition is to take place outside of Ohio.
In response, the OEC has said it will not enforce the subpoena, but it has not withdrawn it, either. Thus, it seems, Krikorian is still within his rights to carry out the deposition at this time, and Edmonds tells The BRAD BLOG she plans on being there in the morning to answer it.
As we reported earlier today, the National Whistleblowers Legal Defense & Education Fund, representing Edmonds, issued a statement [PDF] today blasting the FBI and DoJ's attempts to block Edmonds' testimony as "censorship" and trying to "silence [a] whistleblower." The Bush Administration's DoJ had twice invoked the "state secrets" privilege in order to gag Edmonds, to keep her from testifying on matters they argued were of national security. So far, however, the Obama Administration's DoJ has failed to re-invoke that privilege, though it's possible it still could do so prior to tomorrow's testimony.
In a brief conversation with Edmonds moments ago, she re-iterated her belief that the "MSM will be a no-show tomorrow," and therefore says "citizen journalists are needed" to cover what may happen at the deposition. Both she and Krikorian, as well as attorneys from all sides, will be available to answer questions from media --- both corporate and citizen --- before and after the scheduled deposition tomorrow. It is slated to begin at 10:30am Saturday morning (8/8/09) at the National Whistleblowers Center, 3238 P St. NW, in Washington D.C.. * * *
Tonight's letter from the DoJ's Arthur Goldberg to the OEC's Philip C. Richter may be downloaded here [PDF]. Richter's reply to Goldberg may be downloaded here [PDF].
The text of both letters now follow below in full...
Aug 7 2009
BY FAX
Philip C. Richter Executive Director Ohio Elections Commission 21 West Broad Street, Suit 600 Columbus, Ohio 43215
Re: Schmidt v. Krikorian --- testimony of Sibel Edmonds
Dear Mr. Richter:
Thank you for taking the time to speak with my colleagues and me this afternoon about the above-captioned matter.
As stated in our letters of August 6, 2009, to the parties in the matter, Ms. Edmonds has not complied with the procedures for obtaining authorization from the FBI, her former employer, prior to making any disclosure relating to information that she acquired in the course of her work for the FBI. Therefore, she is not authorized to testify at the deposition now scheduled for Saturday, August 8, 2009, here in Washington, D.C. Nor has Mr. Krikorian, whom we understand requested you to issue the subpoena from the Ohio Elections Commision, complied with the Department of Justice regulations, 28 C.F.R. §§ 16.21 - 16.29, governing the provision of information by current and former employees of the Department.
In our telephone conversation, you acknlowedged that the subpoena you issued to Ms. Edmonds' attorneys was not enforceable because the Commision's jurisdiction does not extend beyond the boundaries of the State of Ohio, and that it was only entitled to whatever weight the parties to this dispute decided to give it.
In light of these circumstances, the Department of Justice requests that on behalf of the Ohio Election Commission you withdraw the subpoena in question and promptly notify the parties of this action.
Alternatively, we request that a copy of this letter be placed in the appropriate file or record related to this proceeding to note that the Department of Justice has a standing objection to any testimony provided at any deposition by Ms. Edmonds that relates to information she obtaine3d in the course of her employment with the FBI.
Thank you for your kind consideration of this request.
Sincerely //signature// Arthur R. Goldberg Assistant Director Federal Programs Branch Civil Division
cc: Mark Geragos (via email) Josh Bollinger (via email) Donald C. Brey (via email) Stephen Kohn (via email) August 7, 2009
Arthur Goldberg, Esq. Counsel United States Department of Justice Civil Division Federal Programs Branch Room 7316 20 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20001
Re: Ohio Elections Commission Case No. 2009E-003
Dear Mr. Goldberg:
For your information, on Tuesday August 4, 2009 at 4:04 p.m., the Commission received a Request to Issue Subpoena for the Deposition of Sibel Edmonds for the deponent to appear on Saturday August 8, 2009 at 10:30 a.m. Pursuant to Ohio Revised Code §3517.153(B), the Commission has the authority to issue subpoenas in matters pending before it. The applicable sentence in this section reads as follows
The commission or a member of the commission may administer oaths, and the commission may issue subpoenas to any person in the state compelling the attendance of witnesses and the production of relevant papers, books, accounts, and reports.
Even though the deponent and the location of the deposition in this situation are not "in the state" of Ohio, it is standard operating procedure for Commission Staff to issue a subpoena when the parties submit a request to the Commission, unless the staff attorney to the Commission makes a determination that such issuance would be "overly burdensome or requested solely for the purpose of harassment or delay". This is true even if the party to whom the subpoena is issued is outside of the state. This is done as an accommodation to the parties or a witness with the understanding that an issuance to a party outside of the State of Ohio is otherwise unenforceable by the Commission, an administrative agency in the state of Ohio.
In this situation, the Commission has no desire to involve itself in any controversy that attempts to extend the authority of a Commission subpoena beyond the statutory allowance granted the Commission under the terms of R.C. §3517.153(B). On behalf of the Commission, I was both unadvised and unaware of any limitations to which the deponent is subject. While in the past I have taken vigorous action to enforce a Commission subpoena, and should a situation arise am prepared to do so in the future, I acknowledge that the Commission's ability to take action to enforce one of its subpoena [sic] and any authority to compel the appearance of or testimony by a person receiving a Commission subpoena can only occur within the boundaries of the state of Ohio. In light of your letter and these circumstances, I am not prepared to take any action available to the Commission under R.C. §3517.153(B) to compel the enforcement of the http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7346
Commission's subpoena to Sibel Edmonds on behalf of the Commission.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Philip C. Richter Executive Director
cc: Vesper Mei, Esq., Senior Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice Christopher P. Finney, Esq. & Joshua B. Bollinger, Esq., Counsel for Respondent, David Krikorian Donald C. Brey, Esq., Counsel for Complainant, Jeanne Schmidt Steven Kohn, Esq., Counsel for Deponent, Sibel Edmunds [sic]
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Thanks, The only name I see missing here is Ramsey Clark. This looks like it would be right up his alley.
Superb post. Thank you.
This lady lacks credibility. Short tenure, outsider, contractor, got fired, embittered, says she thinks she heard something. Can’t perjury her for thinking she heard something.
Hate to say it, but Holder’s DOJ probably made the right choice not to legitimize this deposition by showing up. It’s a show of confidence that it’ll go nowhere.
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