FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SIBEL EDMONDS SUBPOENAED, SET TO ‘BREAK’ GAG ORDER UNLESS DOJ INTERCEDES
By Brad Friedman
Brad Blog
Aug 5 2009
Former agency translator called to testify in Ohio election case this
Saturday on Turkish infiltration of U.S. government…
Unless the Dept. of Justice re-invokes their twice-invoked "state
secrets privilege" claim in order to once again gag former FBI
translator-turned-whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, her attorneys have
notified the department by hand-delivered, sworn letter of declaration
[PDF] this week, that she intends to give a deposition, open to the
media [Updated: see bottom of article for details], in response to
a subpoena this Saturday in Washington D.C..
Edmonds has confirmed her intentions to answer any questions
asked of her during the sworn proceedings, fully and publicly,
during conversations with The BRAD BLOG this week. She notes that
her agreement with her former employer, the FBI — who fired her
illegally after she filed whistleblower allegations about corruption
and foreign infiltration in the linguistics department — includes
certain non-disclosure requirements. However, those requirements do
not preclude her answering to a legally issued court subpoena.
The subpoena and request for sworn deposition is part of a case
now pending before the Ohio Elections Commission in which Ohio’s
Republican U.S. Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R-2nd District) has filed
a complaint against her 2008 independent challenger, David Krikorian
who Schmidt has charged distributed false statements about her during
last year’s campaign.
The resulting testimony, if it indeed occurs this weekend, could
be far more explosive than either Schmidt or Krikorian might have
ever guessed…
‘Blood Money’
Schmidt has alleged that Krikorian — who has announced plans to
run against Schmidt again, as a Democrat, in 2010 — libeled her
when he alleged in campaign materials that she had taken "blood
money" as campaign donations from Turkish interest groups. Schmidt
is co-chairwoman of the Congressional Turkish Caucus, according to
Politico’s coverage of the case, and has received more than $10,000
from the Turkish Coalition USA PAC, "making it one of her top campaign
contributors", since taking office in 2005. She recently took a trip
to Turkey sponsored by the Turkish Coalition of America, valued at
more than $10,000.
At immediate issue in the initial Schmidt v. Krikorian tussle, is
the century-long debate over whether the extermination of some 1.5
million ethnic Armenians during WWI will be declared a "genocide" by
the American government. The issue is a highly contentious one that
has cut across party lines in Congress, and has ensnared dozens of
U.S. Congressmembers and highly-ranked officials in a lobbyist-funded,
politically-charged battle.
The same Turkish lobby has also, according to information gleaned
from Edmonds and others, based on her first-hand knowledge as an
FBI case translator, helped to ensnare many of those same officials
in a broad infiltration scheme of the U.S. Government and sensitive
military facilities, by operatives from the U.S., Turkey, Pakistan
and elsewhere, including alleged bribery of then Speaker of the House
Dennis Hastert. Some of the charges against Hastert were detailed in a
remarkable 2005 Vanity Fair expose. Additional allegations, concerning
the the proliferation of nuclear secrets to the black-market in Turkey,
Israel, Pakistan, Libya, Iran and beyond, as detailed in an explosive
front-page series by London’s Sunday Times last year.
These are among the issues which Edmonds — whose classified
allegations were found to have been "credible", "serious" and
"warrant[ing] a thorough and careful review by the FBI," according to
their Inspector General in 2002 — will be asked about on Saturday
if the deposition moves forward without being quashed by the DoJ.
Krikorian’s campaign has released a statement [PDF], detailing several
of the potentially explosive points about which they intend to ask
Edmonds to testify in an "open to the media deposition"…
Ms. Edmonds is prepared to testify this Saturday in an open to the
media deposition in Washington DC that during the time she was employed
by the FBI she obtained evidence that:
1. The Government of Turkey had illegally infiltrated and influenced
various U.S. government institutions and officials, including the
Department of State, the Department of Defense and individual members
of the United States Congress
2. The Government of Turkey had engaged in practices and policies
that were inimical to American interests and had in fact resulted in
both the direct and indirect loss of American lives
3. Turkish American cultural and business groups conduct operations
with direct and indirect support from the Government of Turkey
"Jean Schmidt and the Turkish Legal Defense Fund have been attempting
to squash my right to political free speech by abusing the OEC (Ohio
Election Commission) process by filing frivolous complaints against
me for their own political gain," Krikorian alleges in his statement.
He also notes that "Schmidt has previously been convicted by the
OEC for having a reckless disregard for truth." During her run for
Congress, the OEC found, in a 7 to 0 vote, that Schmidt had lied
about having a received an undergraduate degree from the University
of Cincinnati and she was issued a letter of reprimand for the
"false statements".
The Backstory…
Edmonds agreement, via affidavit, to give testimony on the points
mentioned by Krikorian above, under oath, and in public, would be a
first. Much of her previous sworn testimony, to Congress and to the
9/11 Commission, has been entirely classified, leaving those of us in
the media with an interest in her case to piece together the puzzle of
what has made her, in the words of the ACLU, "the most gagged person
in the history of the United States of America".
On Tuesday, Congressional Quarterly’s intelligence reporter Jeff
Stein filed a report on Edmonds’ upcoming "test" of the Department of
Justice in the Schmidt v. Krikorian case. However, it’s fallen largely
to the independent media in the U.S. and the foreign mainstream media
to dig into the details of Edmonds’ allegations, described by one
former CIA analyst early last year as "treason at the highest levels
of the United State government."
In October of 2007 — after she had exhausted all other options,
having been shut down by both Congress and the Supreme Court due to
the Bush Administration’s twice-imposed gag order — The BRAD BLOG
broke the exclusive news of her promise to break the gag in order
to relate the entire story to any U.S. mainstream broadcast media
outlet willing to allow her to do so. Despite that story itself having
made news in papers across the globe, nobody in the U.S. mainstream
broadcast media took her up on her offer.
In November that year, legendary "Pentagon Papers" whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg guest blogged at The BRAD BLOG, describing Edmonds’
case as "far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers". Still, the
U.S. media ignored her.
Even CBS’ 60 Minutes — who ran a story on her in 2002 (which
re-ran twice therafter), when she couldn’t speak at all about her
case — chose not to tell her story once she had promised to tell
all. That, even though Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), when asked
about her credibility in their original piece said, "Absolutely,
she’s credible…And the reason I feel she’s very credible is because
people within the FBI have corroborated a lot of her story."
2005’s detailed expose in Vanity Fair by investigative British
investigative journalist David Rose, detailed extraordinary allegations
that then Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was receiving
hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations and bribes
from Turkish interests tied into the drug-trade. Edmonds was said to
have been the translator for FBI wiretaps in that case. Few in the
media bothered to advance the story at all, even years later when,
as Edmonds had years earlier predicted, the retired Hastert became
a highly-paid lobbyist for Turkey.
And, as recently as last month, during our own recent interview
with Edmonds while we were guest hosting the Mike Malloy Show (audio
here, partial transcript here), she dropped details described as a
"bombshell", about the U.S. having retained "intimate relations"
with Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda through Turkish proxies right up
until September 11, 2001. That interview has made news across the
globe over the last several days (e.g. the Times of India coverage
is here), yet it made nary a peep in the U.S. corporate mainstream.
Many other top U.S. officials are indicated to have been involved in
the dark and sordid influence peddling, infiltration and treason as
highlighted by a "Rogues Gallery" of photographs posted by Edmonds
in 2007 without comment. Among the photos posted, in addition to
Hastert’s: current and former Congressmembers Roy Blunt (R-MO), Dan
Burton (R-IN), Tom Lantos (D-CA), Bob Livingston (R-LA) and Stephen
Solarz (D-NY); current and former State and Defense Dept. officials
including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Eric Edelman, Marc Grossman
(specifically targeted by the landmark Sunday Times expose), Brent
Scowcroft and Larry Franklin; and photographs of a host of registered
and non-registered Turkish lobbyists and agents.
Edmonds told The BRAD BLOG this afternoon that, though the DoJ has
yet to timely answer her hand-delivered request for the revocation of
the prior-issued "states secrets" privilege orders, she expects they
may still intercede to quash her testimony before Saturday morning,
when she’s currently scheduled to give her deposition at 10:30am in
Washington D.C..
More details are available from Edmonds herself, on her planned
deposition in Schmidt v. Krikorian at her blog, 123 Real Change…
UPDATE 8/6/09: Just heard from Edmonds who, in turn, has just heard
from attorneys working on the case that they have been informed
that Ohio Election Commission (OEC) regulations disallow media from
attending depositions. So, despite Krikorian’s press release yesterday
stating that her testimony would be "open to the media" (presuming
it’s not blocked by the DoJ) it will not in fact be open to them now.
However, Edmonds tells us that Krikorian’s team will have their
own videographer there to record it, and that tape is allowed to be
released immediately after the proceeding. As well, court transcript
should be available within 24 to 48 hours after the deposition.
Moreover, immediately following the deposition, attorneys from both
sides will be able to speak to the media and answer any questions about
it outside of the deposition room. If any media bother to cover it,
that is.
(National Whistleblower Center’s update on this matter is now posted
here.)
Edmonds still believes it’s likely that a last minute intervention by
the DoJ, to block all or part of her testimony, will occur. As founder
of the National Security Whistleblower’s Coalition (NSWBC) she relates
that she’s seen a number of cases in which official whistleblower
testimony is blocked at the last minute by DoJ attorneys who arrive
with court orders just minutes beforehand, leaving no time for the
opposition to challenge the ruling.
Though we’d planned to be on the road this Saturday, we’ll do our
best to stay in touch as things move forward if at all possible.