Tuesday, June 15, 2004
Sibel Edmonds speaks, and you should listen!
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Gagged by Ashcroft: Sibel Edmond's story still untold
Sibel Edmonds, the FBI translator who was fired in 2002 after complaining about bureau incompetence, stood with Vietnam-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg outside the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., Monday morning to denounce government secrecy.
The impetus for the gathering was supposed to have been a hearing before U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton on whether Edmonds would be allowed to testify in a lawsuit filed by families of 9/11 victims who accused members of the Saudi royal family of financing the attacks. Attorney General John Ashcroft has sought to block Edmonds' testimony as a danger to national security. The judge canceled the hearing without explanation, but Edmonds and Ellsberg went ahead with their news conference.
Age has softened Ellsberg's voice, but he is still angry. The former Defense Department official who leaked the Pentagon Papers recounted his history with Richard Nixon's attorney general, the late John Mitchell, who authorized the "dirty tricks" campaign that, among other excesses, resulted in a break-in of the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to look for dirt on the war critic.
Ellsberg said he could not trust Attorney General John Ashcroft to expose the flaws of federal law enforcement. "So I rely on her judgment," he said, gesturing to Edmonds, a petite Turkish-American woman in a black suit with her dark brown hair swept up in a loose bun.
Edmonds told the gathered reporters and activists that Ashcroft is "worried about the truth, because truth will bring about accountability." Fluent in Farsi, Arabic and Turkish, she became an American citizen ten years ago. "I took a citizenship oath … to defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic," Edmonds said to applause.
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