For more than two years, Sibel Edmonds (doesn’t she look like Madonna?), a former FBI translator of Turkish and Turkic languages, has been warning the country of major security problems that remain unaddressed at the FBI HQ in Washington. Mrs. Edmonds has been responsible for making public a number of alarming revelations of FBI malfeasance and cover-up in matters concerning our most sensitive areas of national security and counter-terrorism.

Edmonds broke the story of the case of Melek Can Dickerson, the Turkish translator who was hired by the FBI after 9/11, despite her and her husband’s records of associations with individuals and organizations that were targets of FBI investigations. Melek Can Dickerson was given a top-secret clearance and given access to numerous documents concerning terrorism investigations. Dickerson blocked investigations into suspect organizations she was involved with and, with her supervisor’s approval, took hundreds of pages of top-secret documents outside the FBI to unknown recipients.

In 2002, Malek Can Dickerson and several FBI targets of investigations fled the United States. No criminal investigation has been opened into the Dickerson case, and Dickerson’s supervisor, who faciliated her criminal conduct, has been promoted to supervising Arabic language units of the FBI’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations.

Sibel Edmonds testified before the 911 Commission, but the Commission’s report does not include her explosive information, and only mentions her name in a single footnote. In an August 2, 2004 open letter to the 911 Commission, Mrs. Edmonds recounted the Dickerson case as well as several other important incidents illustrating the depth and breadth of the crisis at the FBI. Her letter stated:

“Your report omits these significant incidents, and your recommendations do not address this serious security breach and likely espionage issue. This issue needs to be investigated and prosecuted. The translation of our intelligence is being entrusted to individuals with loyalties to our enemies. Important “chit-chats” and “chatters” are being intentionally blocked from translation. Why does your report exclude this information and these serious issues despite the guidance and briefings you received? How can budget increases address and resolve this misconduct by midlevel bureaucratic management? How can the addition of an “intelligence czar” solve this problem?”

Earlier this year, Edmonds was subpoenaed by attorneys for a group of 911 families in their lawsuit against the federal government. They were seeking to have her testify concerning information she reportedly saw at FBI HQ proving senior officials knew of Al-Qaeda plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strike. However, in April, the Bush administration obtained a court gag order preventing her from testifying.

On Monday, September 13, Sibel Edmonds held a whistleblowers press conference in Washington, D.C. bringing together various agents, analysts and other experts from various government agencies involved in national security.

She was joined at the press conference by four other former federal civil servants: Diane Kleiman, former Special Agent, U.S. Customs, John M. Cole, former Veteran Intelligence Operations Specialist, FBI, Bogdan Dzakovic, former Special Agent & Red Team Leader, FAA, and Melvin A. Goodman, former Senior Analyst/Division Manager, CIA.

In her opening comments, Sibel Edmonds called upon Congress to “refrain from narrow political considerations and to apply brakes to the race to implement the 911 Commission recommendations.” This “unique opportunity to introduce salturary reform,” she noted, “must not be squandered by poltically driven haste.”

Edmonds further stated:

Omission is one of the major flaws in the Commission’s report. We are aware of significant issues and cases that were duly reported to the Commission by those of us with direct knowledge, but somewhere escaped attention. Serious problems and shortcomings within government agencies likewise were reported to the Commission but were not included in the report. The report simply does not get at the key problems within the intelligence, aviation security, and law enforcement communities. The ommissin of such serious and applicable issues and information by itself renders the report flawed, and casts doubt on the validity of many of its recommendations.

More detail to follow.

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