Fintan Dunne
Ashcroft may face prison over 9/11 cover-up
Wed Jun 16, 2004 15:02
64.140.158.215

Ashcroft may face prison over 9/11 cover-up,
says Daniel Ellsberg

by Fintan Dunne, Editor
http://www.BreakForNews.com/Sibel-Edmonds1.htm
15th June, 2004

Two whistleblowers stood side by side before a courthouse in Washington, D.C. on Monday. Veteran of the Pentagon Papers scandal, Daniel Ellsberg was backing a protest by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, against a court gag order which has silenced her revelations about the September 11th, 2001 attacks.



The whistleblower pair were protesting yet another delay by Judge Reggie Walton of the District Court of Columbia in determining whether Edmonds' closed session testimony to Congressional inquiries can be declared state secrets by U.S. Attorney General, John Ashcroft.

In a statement, Edmonds called Ashcroft's legal moves anti-freedom of speech and anti-due process.

Ellsberg's common cause with Edmonds is founded on his own battle to make public a top secret study of US decision-making in Vietnam, known as the Pentagon Papers.

In an exclusive interview with BreakForNews.com he said that Ashcroft's legal actions against Edmonds were: "clearly intended to keep her from bringing out in public information that could lead.... to criminal indictments and possible convictions of major political figures."

Ellsberg says that if Edmonds' allegations are confirmed, the current Attorney General could be judged obstructive and share the fate of A.G. John Mitchell --who in Ellsberg v. Mitchell famously tried to squelch Ellsberg's 1971 revelations, and served prison time over the affair.

"John Ashcroft may well sleep eventually in the same cell as John Mitchell," Ellsberg said.

"Certain investigations were being quashed, let's say per State Department's request, because it would have affected certain foreign relations [or] affected certain business relations with foreign organizations," she said. (Interview - 4:00 min.)

Edmonds also indicated that the FBI's intelligence translation service had been penetrated by a criminal, semi-legitimate intelligence group --not linked to any government. Her measured words hinted at politically explosive connections between non-terrorist criminal networks and the 9/11 attacks.

Since October, 2002 Edmonds has been bound by provisional gag orders while awaiting an opportunity for a full hearing and a definitive ruling. The recent moves in the case arose from a government bid to exclude her testimony from a class action lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims.

Judge Walton had scheduled Monday as the first ever hearing at which Edmonds was to be allowed counter the state secret privilege assertion by Ashcroft. But after an in camera presentation last week by the government side, he called off the hearing. Unofficial reports say a new date may be set for early July.

Talk of US government interference in 9/11 investigations, and the considerable volume of online analysis discounting the official conspiracy theory, resonate with Ellsberg.

"I'm not an expert on all this," he admits. "But I am increasingly open to the explanation that people in the administration did see this coming... and may have indeed reduced some obstacles.., or opened the door, in effect. I haven't been absolutely convinced on that, but it does seem to me to be an open question that deserves investigation."

"Now beyond that... it seems to me quite plausible that --plausible, that's all I'd say-- that Pakistan was quite involved in this, and that many Saudis were well informed on this," says Ellsberg.

"And to say that. To say Pakistan-- is to me, to say C.I.A. Because I think the relations between the Pakistan I.S.I. [intelligence service] and CIA were very close from the beginning. And it's hard to say that the I.S.I knew something that the CIA had no knowledge of."

"So if you say, do I accept confidently, and do I rely on the official interpretation? Certainly not. But, I wouldn't say that I have been yet been thoroughly convinced by any alternative."

"I can add one thing though -from my own experience, that's relevant."

"Is it possible... that an American president could have... welcomed an attack on America that he would interpret [as] justifying an invasion of another country?"

"Well, that's more than possible, that happened --under a president that I served. Lyndon Johnson did put American destroyers in harms way, deliberately provoking an attack.. in the Tonkin Gulf. Not only in August of '64, but in February of '65. ...There was an attack on August 2nd, and that was not unwelcome to the United States at that point."

Sibel Edmonds has already become somewhat of a flag-bearer for the diverse 9/11 truth movement, which ranges across advocacy groups, families of victims, individual investigators and a host of online web sites --all disputing the official 'Al-Qaida conspiracy' theory.

But an article today by Scott Loughrey on the Baltimore Chronicle online, alleges that Edmonds is offering a limited hangout version of events, and accuses her of "repeating the propaganda of the state."

Loughrey writes that Edmonds blames intelligence failures, rather than more sinister explanations, for the failure to prevent the attacks.

That's misleading and unfair. Yes, the superficial reports of her claims in the mainstream media focus mainly on intelligence failures. Yes, Edmonds was coy in her early public statements --out of defenence to the sensitivity of her information and the gung-ho public sentiment at the time, no doubt.

But in closed session testimony to Congressional inquiries, Edmonds has given a much fuller account of her concerns. So dangerous an account that Ashcroft seeks to retrospectively cloak that testimony with state secret privilege

And as a disillusioned Edmonds has seen her evidence disappear unremarked into the black hole of those inquiries, she has blown the whistle publicly --as unreservedly as the gag order allows:

She says the pre-9/11 US intelligence system had been penetrated by a drug-linked, semi-legitimate criminal intelligence network, operating with seeming impunity inside the FBI.

The post-9/11 intelligence 'failures' included the willful quashing by the government, of investigations tracing those criminal networks.

The 9/11 terror plot itself, intersected with the activities of a drug trafficking network of international scope, in ways that form a "crystal clear" picture of what was going on --to quote Edmonds.

If that's a limited hangout, God help us. The truth must be awful.

If it's true, as Edmonds asserts, the official line is a shallow sham.

Fintan Dunne, Editor
BreakForNews.com Contact Me
http://www.BreakForNews.com/

State Dept. Quashed 9/11 Links To Global Drug Trade
-FBI Whistleblower


LATEST> Sibel Deniz Edmonds was awaiting a June 14 court hearing to
determine if she could publicly tell the full story of intelligence failures
over the 9/11 attacks. The U.S. government wants her knowledge to
remain a state secret. Judge Reggie Walton has now called off the
hearing --no reason cited, and no future date scheduled. The fourth
time he's done this in past two years. Sibel Edmonds will held a
press conference with Daniel Ellsberg at 3rd & Const. Ave. on
Monday, June 14, at 9:30 AM in front of the Court.

Even as a judge prepares to permanently silence her, a former FBI translator of intelligence has implicated the US State Department in quashing investigations which had linked the 9/11 terrorist network to a global drug trafficking ring.

Sibel Edmonds, whose closed-door revelations to Congressional inquiries have been declared state secrets, says that as a result, FBI investigations were ordered terminated.

"There are certain points..., where you have your drug related activities combined with money laundering and information laundering, converging with your terrorist activities," Ms. Edmonds told BreakForNews.com.
(Interview - 7:00 min.)

"Certain investigations were being quashed, let's say per State Department's request, because it would have affected certain foreign relations [or] affected certain business relations with foreign organizations," she said in an exclusive interview. (Interview - 4:00 min.)

"And, as it has been asserted within the state secret privilege... That was something the State Department did not want to have." (Interview - 15:30 min.)

Edmonds also indicated that the FBI's translation service had been penetrated by an intelligence group not linked to any government.

"Intelligence is also gathered by certain semi-legitimate organizations --to be used for their activities," said Edmonds. "It really does not boil down to countries anymore...[ ] When you have activities involving a lot of money, you have people from different nations involved.... It can be categorized under organized crime, but in a very large scale."


Because of a provisional gag order issued by Judge Reggie B. Walton which prohibits revealing specific details, Edmonds can only paint a picture in the broadest of brush strokes.

But her measured words hint at politically explosive connections between criminal drug/intelligence networks, and the 9/11 attacks.

"You have [a] network of people who obtain certain information and they take it out and sell it to... whomever would be the highest bidder. Then you have people who would be bringing into the country narcotics from the East, and their connections. [It] is only then that you really see the big picture."

"And you see certain semi-legitimate organizations that may very well have a legit front, but with very criminal illegitimate activities --who start coming at you from these investigations."

"And the picture becomes, actually, very clear. Crystal clear."


In December, 2001, a fellow translator with top security clearance tried to recruit Edmonds to a semi-legitimate intelligence network --part of an organization which was itself already a target of FBI investigations.

When Edmonds reported the recruitment approach to her superiors she was fobbed off.

The translator was working on FBI material related to those investigations. Because of that translator's activities, two top targets of FBI investigations left the United States.

That is the type of critical failure undermining any serious investigation of the 9/11 attacks which has emboldened Edmonds to continue to highlight the issues.

Edmonds has testified in closed sessions before the September 11th Commission and both the Judiciary Committee and Select Intelligence Committee of the U.S. Senate. Some lawmakers have huffed and puffed over her revelations, but their rhetoric has proved to be just hot air.

No action has been taken by any of those bodies to substantially address her concerns. Meanwhile the Department of Justice process is stalled by the usual "awaiting a report" tactic.


Despite the disinterest of the FBI or its oversight mechanisms, and the retrospective classification of her testimony to Congressional inquiries as state secrets, Edmonds is resolute --and well past the point of no return in her battle for the truth.

"Over two years have passed," she says. "I'm hoping there will be at least one.. just one Congressman, one Senator, who will be willing to take a stand, and come forward, and put out this information.... And I'm still looking for that one courageous person."

Such a representative will be the exception to the current rule. By way of illustration, Edmonds quotes a recent communication from an unnamed representative:

"Sibel Edmonds will not make any friends in the Congress, if she continues pressuring us and if she continues demanding action. That's not how she will not make friends here -she will make only enemies."

With friends like that --who needs enemies.

"If they don't want to be pressured, then they should not run for office," says Edmonds.

Unsurprisingly, Edmonds' evidence has languished in Congress.


Since October, 2002 the judge in her dismissal suit against the FBI has allowed the government's state secret application to bind her --without ever making his final determination on the issue.

However, as soon as the Motley Rice legal firm subpoenaed her for it's legal suit on behalf of 9/11 victims' families, the government went hotfoot to Bush-appointed Judge Reggie B. Walton, to seek to bar her testimony from the case.

That was a panic move spurred by the prospect of her evidence becoming public, says Edmonds.

Late last week, Judge Walton ordered the Department of Justice to state why "sensitive information cannot be disentangled from nonsensitive information," and why Edmonds cannot proceed with her suit.

If the FBI argues well, Edmond's case could be sunk. On 9th June, the judge will hold an in camera session with government lawyers. He is to announce a final decision on 14th June.

In his latest order, Judge Walton admitted that denying Edmonds her day in court would be "draconian."

Conversely, he also indicated his sympathy with the government's refusal to allow disclosure of any intelligence, by citing a legal precedent:

"...Seemingly innocuous information can be... fitted into place to reveal with starting clarity how the unseen whole must operate."

Perhaps Judge Walton reads the NY Times.

Last month, when an FBI official defended the agency's actions to the NY Times, the terms used were strikingly similar to the words of the judge, last week in his order.

"The problem is that while these pieces of information may look innocuous on their own," the FBI official told the NY Times. "You put them all together and it reveals a picture of sensitive intelligence collection...."

Maybe that coincidence arose because the judge and the FBI read the same newspaper. Perhaps it's that they read the same legal books.

Or sing from the same hymn sheet.

And you thought the various 9/11 inquiries were after the truth?

http://www.breakfornews.com/Sibel-Edmonds1.htm

This Made Ashcroft Gag
Translator keeps blowing 9-11 whistle on FBI;
US Keeps shutting her up
by James Ridgeway
Village Voice May 25th, 2004

Details of a Florida drug case may well shed light on the claims of an FBI translator who says the agency covered up evidence warning of the 9-11 attack. Sibel Edmonds, the translator, said in an interview Monday with the Voice that the Florida case illustrates the issues and evidence she has been trying to make public for two years.

Edmonds claimed to have translated testimony in criminal and counter-intelligence cases involving different FBI field offices, going back into the late 1990s. Much of this involved tracking money, she said. More
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0421/mondo1.php

DOJ Asked FBI Translator
To Change Pre 9-11 Intercepts
by Tom Flocco
Washington, DC March 24, 2004

FBI translator Sibel Edmonds was offered a substantial raise and a full time job to encourage her not to go public that she had been asked by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to retranslate and adjust the translations of [terrorist] subject intercepts that had been received before September 11, 2001 by the FBI and CIA.

The former FBI translator said "My translations of the pre 9-11 intercepts included [terrorist] money laundering, detailed and date specific information enough to alert the American people, and other issues dating back to 1999 which I won't go into right now."

Incredibly, Edmonds said "The Senate Judiciary Committee and the 911 Commission have heard me testify for lengthy periods of time time (3 hours) about very specific plots, dates, airplanes used as weapons, and specific individuals and activities."

This explosive information has been kept under wraps by the White House, CIA, FBI, and DOJ since Edmonds' 60 Minutes interview segment.

The former FBI translator told tomf