http://www.thenewamerican.com/node/8507

Shooting the Messenger
By: William F. Jasper
July 7, 2008

For six years, Sibel Edmonds has been carrying out an heroic crusade to protect her adopted country from national security threats within the top levels of the American government. Hired as an FBI translator in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, Edmonds, a Turkish American, threw herself into the daunting task of translating thousands of hours of recordings of backlogged intercepts in Turkic, Farsi, and Azerbaijani.

What she heard on the tapes was alarming: Turkish agents in the United States bribing high-level U.S. officials and obtaining our military and intelligence secrets. What she witnessed at the FBI was even more appalling: translators who were intentionally filing false translations and passing information to foreign powers; and, what’s even worse, FBI superiors who did nothing about it when these serious breaches were brought to their attention.

Scott Horton Interviews Sibel Edmonds and Luke Ryland
June 15th, 2008

Sibel Edmonds and Luke Ryland discuss the London Times series on her case and the international nuclear black-market network surrounding A.Q. Kahn, the U.S. government’s total clamp-down by gag orders even against Congress, the American foreign policy hypocrisy of demonizing certain nuclear ambitions and supporting others, the military-industrial-congressional complex revolving door, the bipartisan lack of enthusiasm in pursuing whistleblower cases, the movie about Sibel’s case “Kill The Messenger,” and how it only takes one congressman to call her to testify to blow the case wide open.

MP3 here. (47:41)

http://dissentradio.com/radio/08_06_12_edmonds_ryland.mp3

Sibel Edmonds is the most gagged person in United States History and Luke Ryland is a blogger who has closely followed her case.

Who Is Sibel Edmonds? With Introduction By 9/11 Family Member Lorie Van Auken - Jon

Former House Majority Leader Will Now Work for DC Lobbying Firm

Source: abcnews.go.com

By JUSTIN ROOD
June 3, 2008

Former House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert settled in yesterday to new digs in the Washington, D.C. offices of Dickstein Shapiro, a law/lobby firm.

Hastert was said to have been the longest-serving Republican House Majority Leader in history, holding the post from January 1999 to November 2006, when Democrats wrested control of the House away from the GOP in the midterm elections.

Hastert's time as a leader on Capitol Hill was brushed by multiple scandals. Perhaps the most damaging came from Hastert's reported failure to act on knowledge of inappropriate contacts between then-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., and teenaged former House pages, as confirmed by the House ethics committee's report on the matter. Hastert disputed the report's conclusion.

Comments from Rob Kall at OpEdNews.com

Scott McClellan as Whistleblower-- NOT!

after putting down my dog Vanilla, on Friday, I wrote an article about it, and feeling in a forgiving mood, spoke kindly about Scott McClellan. I decided to write more about it today, especially after reading right winger Peggy Noonan, in yesterday's Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, who says,

"When I finished the book I came out not admiring Mr. McClellan or liking him but, in terms of the larger arguments, believing him. One hopes more people who work or worked within the Bush White House will address the book's themes and interpretations. What he says may be inconvenient, and it may be painful, but that's not what matters. What matters is if it's true. Let the debate on the issues commence.

What's needed now? More memoirs, more data, more information, more testimony. More serious books..."

And I got to thinking and wrote, on Friday that there was something good in what McClellan did. Some readers agreed with me. So today, after seeing him on Meet The Press, with Tim Russert, I thought I'd write a bit more about it. After a few paragraphs, in which I was moving toward calling McClellan a whistleblower-- not a clean one, but a stinky one who, nonetheless was doing some good, I decided to ask one of my whistleblowing heroes-- Sibel Edmonds. Fortunately, she straightened me out, making it clear that he made money and really didn't disclose anything new. We ended up having a half hour conversation.

Sibel told me she absolutely did NOT see him as a whistle blower, based on the entire community of whistle blowers she's involved with-- the National Security whistleblowers coalition. She told me,

"We call these people opportunists, because that's exactly what he is. "

Thank you Vancouver Sun, for doing so much to promote this film

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=9f510763-a3b6-4344-86b2-12340e3d727c

Yvonne Zacharias, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, May 31, 2008
There's still time to catch a flick or two at the Doxa Documentary Film Festival before it ends Sunday. Here are our picks.
- - -
Filmmakers from two European countries have turned the lens on U.S. malfeasance, shining a light on some its darker corners. Both films track a hero who struggles valiantly to bring a little justice to this world:

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The United States portrays itself as the land of freedom, but the film Kill The Messenger by Mathieu Verboud and Jean-Robert Viallet casts serious doubt on that notion. The film from France documents the cold, crass efforts by the powers-that-be in the U.S. to bring down Sibel Edmonds, an American of Iranian and Turkish origin who was hired by the FBI as a translator in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy. She spent months translating high-security clearance documents.

Short commentaries from Luke Ryland on the upcoming Sibel Edmonds film screening, clips from news coverage:

http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com/2008/05/sibel-edmonds-kill-messenger-at-doxa.html

Kill The Messenger, the documentary about FBI translator & whistleblower Sibel Edmonds, will be screened at the DOXA film festival in Vancouver on Saturday evening.

The Vancouver Sun lists Kill The Messenger as one of their 'Best Bets' for the festival.

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As some of you know, I've been traveling for the last few months and haven't posted anything on Sibel's case for a while - unfortunately not much has happened in the interim.

There are still tickets available for the screening of Kill The Messenger at the DOXA festival in Vancouver on Saturday night. You can get your tickets here.

You may have already seen some of my YouTubes about the film. The trailer is here. In this new 5 minute clip from Kill The Messenger, Sibel's ACLU lawyers discuss the case.

From the clip:

Ann Beeson: It’s really phenomenal to me that any court can look at her case and say: "No, it can’t go forward, proceed or win her claim."

Edmonds hasn't written a book yet, has she? Though what she's written already could fill one. Milbank also mentions these people who've made statements on or were witnesses to 9/11 related things, i'm not familiar with all the names in his list: George Tenet, Richard Clarke, Paul O'Neill, Christy Todd-Whitman, Karen Kwiatkowski, Coleen Rowley

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/05/23/DI2008052303436.html

Transcript: Washington Sketch
Dana Milbank, Washington Post Columnist
Thursday, May 29, 2008; 1:00 PM

"Post columnist Dana Milbank, who serves as the capital's foremost critic of political theater in his Washington Sketch columns and videos, was online Thursday, May 29 at 1 p.m. ET to take your questions and comments about the things politicians say -- and the absurd ways they find to say them."

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=48a07f63-708d-4ae3-b52f-e5f646cd4622
DOXA best bets
Yvonne Zacharais and Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Six films you don't want to miss at the 2008 DOXA Documentary Film Festival:

Kill the Messenger
This French film documents the cold, crass efforts by officials in the U.S. to bring down Sibel Edmonds, an American of Iranian and Turkish origin who was hired by the FBI as a translator after Sept. 11, 2001. Reporting the possible infiltration of Turkish spies turns her life upside down: she is interrogated, fired, and subjected to a relentless campaign of intimidation. Edmonds doesn't back down as she takes her fight to Congress, the 9/11 Commission, the media, and the Supreme Court. Saturday, May 31 at 9 p.m. at Pacific Cinémathèque.

Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Kill the Messenger
Saturday May 31 | 9:00 pm | Pacific Cinémathèque
Directors: Mathieu Verboud & Jean R. Viallet, 2006, France, 84 minutes
http://www.doxafestival.ca/festival/kill_messenger

This the full text/linked version of the outline i previously posted- visit the opednews link for the html links in the article body

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_better_w_080522_sibel_edmonds_vs__th.htm

This is a primer on Sibel Edmonds; her story will be of interest to anyone concerned about US national security and sovereignty; terrorism; 9/11 truth; and abuse of power by public officials. All claims of fact in this article can be sourced in the Sibel Edmonds:US Government Timeline and the Media Coverage Timeline at the bottom of the article. Her allegations listed in this article, and the documents/articles linked in the timelines are not exhaustive.

If Matt Taibbi had even one percent of Gore Vidal's intellectual grasp of American history, perhaps then it would make reading his presumed 'leftist' opinion about 9/11 a little easier to stomach. (I presume that Taibbi pitches from the left, because his screed is published at Alternet.org and AfterDowningStreet.org.) Fortunately, we don't need him. Gore Vidal is still among us, and it is his image and voice in the new Italian documentary 'Zero: an investigation into 9/11', that expresses a critical perspective of 9/11 that will ring true to the ears of those who will hear, and will help to free the prisoners currently living out the Allegory of the Cave, mesmerized by shadows of terror, cast upon the wall by the likes of yellow journalists like Taibbi.

By Jeff Stein, CQ National Security Editor
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=hsnews-000002721511&parm1=5&cpage=1

"Eight years later came 9/11, famously labeled a failure to “connect the dots.” Eyewash. The CIA, FBI and others had dots. They hoarded them like marbles."

So, was the "failure to prevent" an intentional act to further an agenda, as well as treason and mass murder by US policy makers- or more like manslaughter, only involving "incompetence", criminal negligence, dereliction of duty and horrendous administrative and policy decisions rooted in ignorance, territoriality, ego, partisanship, spite, suspicion- or just the inevitable, "blameless" result an institutionalized culture of secrecy that "supposedly" has been changed? Instead of pursuing these questions, he continues with secrecy issues, the subject of the film being reviewed (in CQ Politics). Article has a nice summary of the bin Laden satellite phone-1998 NSA leak publication-Bush propaganda. In reference to abuse of secrecy:

"Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? A government of men, as it were, not laws.

Kill the Messenger
Saturday May 31 | 9:00 pm | Pacific Cinémathèque
Directors: Mathieu Verboud & Jean R. Viallet, 2006, France, 84 minutes
http://www.doxafestival.ca/festival/kill_messenger

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Sibel Edmonds is approached by the FBI. As an American of Iranian and Turkish origin, Edmonds’ linguistic skill set makes her a valuable asset to the Language Services Unit, where she spends months translating high-security clearance documents. One day shortly after reporting the possible infiltration of her unit by Turkish spies to her supervisors and their supervisors, Edmonds’ world is turned upside-down.

Mukraker Report

April 28, 2008 -- Syria, a member of George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil”, is in the spotlight again as an alleged recipient of nuclear technology from North Korea and a potential producer of nuclear weapons.

We have heard it all before but even if it is true, and let us assume it is true, there is more to this accusation than what meets the eye. We need to revisit what the courageous whistleblower, Sibel Edmonds, testified to behind closed doors in the Senate.

Sibel Edmonds’ tenure as a translator for the FBI lasted only six months, but, because of the backlog of the material that needed translation, her effective tenure was about 3 years. The material spanned two very different administrations, that of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Is there a connection here to Sibel Edmonds' story? Read this article all the way to the end. Maybe someone else will see something in this. Alvin
________________

April 04, 2008

SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers who feared he was going to expose them, a former FBI agent claims.

Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.

"It's nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There's zero evidence in this autopsy report... to show such an accident happened. Instead, there's powerful proof he was assassinated.

...Investigator Bob Fletcher had also confessed he sent evidence of a 10-year study that linked top US government officials to arms and weapons dealers to Bono less than a month before his death, the Globe reported.

"(Bono) was going to make it his No.1 priority... There's no doubt in my mind Sonny was murdered by someone who needed him silenced," Mr Fletcher told the paper.

LINK TO ORIGINAL

This is the outline for a speech i recently delivered in my Communications class- 13 people including the teacher, no one had ever heard of her, 3 seemed uninterested/annoyed, the rest were interested, some deeply, some seemed a bit shaken up, at least 3 (including the teacher) took note of her website "justacitizen.org" when i mentioned that at the end. I'll be adapting this as a longer article with sources linked, but this outline format worked well for the speech- i practiced it about 5 times and basically just delivered the outline- 7"30'