Illegal Wiretapping and Sibel Edmonds Claims supported by 2 FBI Whistleblowers

Two FBI Whistleblowers Confirm Illegal Wiretapping of Government Officials and Misuse of FISA

State Secrets Privilege Was Used to Cover Up Corruption and Silence Whistleblowers

The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) has obtained a copy of an official complaint filed by a veteran FBI Special Agent, Gilbert Graham, with the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG). SA Graham’s protected disclosures report the violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in conducting electronic surveillance of high-profile U.S. public officials.

Before his retirement in 2002, SA Gilbert Graham worked for the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO) Squad NS-24. One of the main areas of Mr. Graham’s counterintelligence investigations involved espionage activities by Turkish officials and agents in the United States. On April 2, 2002, Graham filed with the DOJ-OIG a classified protected disclosure, which provided a detailed account of FISA violations involving misuse of FISA warrants to engage in domestic surveillance. In his unclassified report SA Graham states: “It is the complainant’s reasonable belief that the request for ELSUR [electronic surveillance] coverage was a subterfuge to collect evidentiary information concerning public corruption matters.” Graham blew the whistle on this illegal behavior, but the actions were covered up by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General’s office.

Click here to read the unclassified version of SA Graham’s Official Report.

The report filed by SA Graham bolsters another FBI whistleblower’s case that became public several months after Graham’s official filing with the Justice Department in 2002. Sibel Edmonds, former FBI Language Specialist, also worked for the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO), and her assignments included the translations of Turkish Counterintelligence documents and audiotapes, some of which were part of espionage investigations led by SA Graham. After she filed her complaint with the DOJ-OIG and Congress, she was retaliated against by the FBI and ultimately fired in March 2002. Court proceedings in Edmonds’ case were blocked by the assertion of the State Secrets Privilege by then Attorney General John Ashcroft, and the Congress gagged and prevented from investigating her case through retroactive re-classification of documents by DOJ. To read the timeline on Edmonds’ case Click here.

Edmonds’ complaint included allegations of illegal activities by Turkish organizations and their agents in the United States, and the involvement of certain elected and appointed U.S. officials in the Department of State, Pentagon, and the U.S. Congress in these activities. In its September 2005 issue, Vanity Fair ran a comprehensive piece on Edmonds’ case by reporter David Rose, in which several former and current congressional and Justice Department officials identified former House Speaker Dennis Hastert as being involved in illegal activities with the Turkish organizations and personnel targeted in FBI investigations. In addition, Rose reported: “…much of what Edmonds reportedly heard seemed to concern not state espionage but criminal activity. There was talk, she told investigators, of laundering the profits of large-scale drug deals and of selling classified military technologies to the highest bidder.” In January 2005, DOJ-OIG released an unclassified summary of its investigation into Edmonds' termination. The report concluded that Edmonds was fired for reporting serious security breaches and misconduct in the agency's translation program, and that many of her allegations were supported by convincing evidence.

Another Former Veteran FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Specialist at FBI Headquarters in Washington DC also filed similar reports with DOJ-OIG and several congressional offices regarding violations of FISA implementation and the covering up of several espionage cases involving FBI Language Specialists and public corruption cases by the Bureau. The cases reported by this whistleblower corroborate those reported by SA Graham and Sibel Edmonds. In an interview with NSWBC investigators the former FBI Specialist, who wished to remain anonymous, stated: “…you are looking at covering up massive public corruption and espionage cases; to top that off you have major violations of FISA by the FBI Washington Field Office and HQ targeting these cases. Everyone involved has motive to cover up these reports and prevent investigation and public disclosure. No wonder they invoked the state secrets privilege in Edmonds’ case.”

William Weaver, NSWBC Senior Advisor noted that,”These abuses of power are precisely why we must pay attention to whistleblowers. Preservation of the balance of powers between the branches of government increasingly relies on information provided by whistleblowers, especially in the face of aggressive and expanding executive power. Through illegal surveillance members of Congress and other officials may be controlled by the executive branch, thereby dissolving the matrix of our democracy. The abuse of two powers of secrecy, FISA and the state secrets privilege, are working hand in hand to subvert the Constitution. In an abominably perverse arrangement, the abuse of FISA is being covered up by abuse of the state secrets privilege. Only whistleblowers and the congressional and judicial oversight their revelations spawn can bring our system back into balance.”

Several civil liberties and whistleblowers organizations have joined Edmonds and NSWBC in urging congress to hold public hearing on Edmonds’ case, including the supporting cases of SA Graham and other FBI witnesses, and the erroneous use of state secrets privilege by the executive branch to cover up its own illegal conduct. The petition endorsed by these groups is expected to be released to public in the next few days.

About National Security Whistleblowers Coalition

National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity, provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org

© Copyright 2007, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Information in this release may be freely distributed and published provided that all such distributions make appropriate attribution to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.

Mrs. EdmOnds...

Sent this to me personally. :P


"So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies."

Richard Cheney - Chief Executive Of Halliburton

Complex-i-fying, or lucid?

Lukery, running http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/ seems to have the freshest content of Sibel focused material.

Both DU and KOS have a bit of traffic on this too, even though we here may find their dialogue... weak... shallow... or just simply unimpressive for its notable exclusion of a more complete 911 calculus. Non-the-less... they might be getting their eyebrows singed for getting closer to... something.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/5/131830/1367

Myself, I've been alternating hot and cold on this whole nut, even after spending so much personal energy on the subject. I still find it very hard to locate the indispensable threads needed for blowing open the general overarching con of 911.

The libby/Plame context IS however timely and connected, if one can see a large part of 911 as excellent hand-waving cover for drug/money, GWOT and a nuke black-market which all must rely on high placed ("deep government") shenanigans.

Thoughts?

I also

sit on the fence with Ms. Edmonds. its pretty clear that the government silenced her. so - as with all things 911 related i advocate 100% transparency and demand a full uncensored accounting of exactly what she knows.

but - playing the devils advocate - many of the things she has said seem extremely provacative and raise many questions regarding HOW she could even know these things.

but - again - there is something extremely wrong with the fact that the 911 Commission omiting her - and Able Danger - from their investigation.

Here's the hitch as I see it...

... in no small part:

On one hand, Sibel has presented the OV-skeptical class (people like most of us here in 9blogger) with one of the most stunning narratives speaking to the advanced corruption and rot in government we've all come to assume exists. Respective the risks of assumptions, we CAN still reasonably 'assume' this based upon mountains of circumstantial evidence, scattered concrete proofs, and the occasional Scooter convictions... all reinforcing a healthy inductive mind which simply would not have survived the millennia had we not developed some kind of sixth sense for sniffing out criminals, thugs and murderers in our midst.

Sibel reinforces by orders of magnitude, our sense of justness in pursuing such cunning murders who undoubtedly employ clever and sophisticated means of disguise, obfuscation, distracting hand-waving and advanced psychology to keep their tracks largely hidden from general public view. Her story and person combined, represent a smacking wallop to the powers-the-be... "if only more people would listen and get behind her story to sue for justice." Near perfect, thus Sibelology was born.

On the other hand.... enter the at-times overactive ricochet skepticism of our 9blogger class... where we can tend towards seeing her story as "too perfect", and begin the vicious speculations all over again. Thus either saving ourselves from yet another pile of red herrings at the dead end of a blind ally canard... or shooting ourselves in the foot by taking such a pass on Sibel's solid story. Take your pick... flip a coin... how the fuck can we extricate ourselves from this cycle?

We'll... I thought I had devised a test... and have attempted to administer several versions of it to a fair number of persons closely surrounding and championing Sibel's story... and even Sibel herself.

Inconclusive null results, would be the nicest way to describe my current impressions if we were only talking about inanimate cinderblocks on a test bench... but we're not... we're talking about living breathing people with a multiplicity of wants and desires clouding the manifestations of their complex motives.

However, because we ARE talking about living breathing people, people who are clearly in possession of highly active gray matter... a stronger conclusion CAN be drawn... maybe even MUST be drawn. Because repeatedly NOT responding to salient, cogent, and very topical points... as if unimportant... is still an answer of sorts, especially if it has been presented as the "hitch" holding back stronger support and trust itself. Whom in their right mind, would not put at least some words to such?

I have posed to the investigative journalists who crafted KTM, many characters featured within the film itself, bloggers who've spent heavy time advancing the Sibel subjects, and as I said... even personally to Sibel herself; "What can you say about the concerns people have that your tasty looking carrot (testimony of witnessing firsthand the deep and dangerous corruption within governance), doesn't actually come with a nasty stick? Even giving you, Sibel, complete benefit of the doubt of an innocent, well-intentioned motive, could you at least acknowledge for example that the information you are trying to reveal through whistle-blowing might itself contain unhealthy bits of disinformation to muddy the water and further bog down movements towards truth and justice?"

To me, 'course I could be wrong, the questions seems innocent enough, and rather proper for someone like Sibel to simply give a nod to the potential and problematic nature of mis and disinformation. Yet we hear nothing from her camp on this subject. In fact, I find the complete absence of any address on this subject, unsettling. At a minimum, I want to hear someone simply acknowledge with a kind of humility, that "even I could have been duped by mis and/or disinformation... and I am doing everything I can within reason to never forget that aspect of our joint effort towards truth and justice."

I can trust someone much more, someone who can simply put a few words to such a thing. Never talking about it, and never responding to this when asked several times? ....ugh.

If you're reading this dear Sibel... as I imagine you might be... please put just a few words to this quandary. I am not alone in my reservations, and many people feel that justice and genuine accountability hang in the balance as we the people are tasked with wading through a very confused and convoluted minefield of twisted information.

Love you still,

Erin S. Myers

"that is what the military does when there is nothing else to do." -911truthiness

I am unsure if anyone is going to read this

since this blog is now buried

but...

Very well put together essay Erin.

I guess my question is this:

At what point does the national good and national security trump personal safety and personal sacrifice?

we all understand the stakes here. a massively corrupt government potentially wishes to push the button on Iran. who knows what that means? how many people could die?

at what point should we EXPECT Sibel Edmunds to ignore her gag order and spill her guts?

people are dying. many americans have already died protecting our constitution. is asking Sibel to speak any MORE than we have asked of myriad freedom fighters before her who stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima?

Ms. Edmonds. Please stand up NOW. You will have millions of Americans standing behind you. Please speak NOW before it is too late.

she's trying to get the word out

we started a new campaign today to call for public open hearings into her case by waxman.

if you'd really like to hear what she has to say, you can support her by calling waxman.

Details at the new blog
http://letsibeledmondsspeak.blogspot.com

Don't forget - she has said basically all that she knows - if we can get hearings, they'll come with subpoena power - and that's the only way she can prove it.

My interview with Scott Horton last week pretty much lays out most of what she knows.
http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com/2007/03/transcript-sibel-edmonds-interv...

http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com

Truth Dog needs a bath!

(please also visit the posting by Jon Gold http://911blogger.com/node/6731 There is much more interaction under that blog, whereas this one might be misconstrued as simply personal)

Hello Lukery:

As I told you, I frequent 911blogger and many other 911 inquiry sites and gatherings... because I can not accept the popular narrative about "swarthy freedom haters acting alone using tin darts and lamp oil to level three NY buildings in one day therefor Dick-N-The-Bush need to bomb The East and police-state The West." Simple, that story is Capital City Bullshit!

Yet, the search for truth, accountability, justice and renaissance continues five and a half bloody fucking years later with NO END IN SIGHT. It seems to me, UNDENIABLE, that liars to the left and jokers to the right leave us we here stuck in the middle again trying to untangle an intentionally tangled and constantly pulled-tight knot of counter-wisdom from hell.

Now shortly after my simple conclusion, that an organic fog of misunderstanding is quite natural and quite forgivable... the unforgivable line is crossed when a person deliberately traffics bad information intending to aggravate and sustain an otherwise forgivable and naturally dissipating fog of innocent confusion.

The intentional purveyors of the lies which represent the life-blood of deadly war making, would seem to be enemy number one. Do you agree? That is important question number one, and consider it your litmus test to earning ANY further interaction with me.

For all that hot ass, super sexy lilt, and titillatingly succulent truth carrots offered by the angelic Ms. Edmonds... might you also agree that she CAN inversely represent a perfect candidate for Siren Song She Devil to marshal a truth marching-band down a hole to Nowhere? That is question number two. This IS NOT an indictment against Sibel, for whom I've personally sacrificed much by trusting that her heart is in the right place. The question is important in that we do not leave such a potentially hideous trap... unspoken and unprepared for. Litmus test number two, for you.

It might seem rather shitty of me to be picking such a bad time to try and pin you (and even Sibel) down on this matter, but I have been quietly and patiently asking this very question for more that a year just trying to defuse any possibility that Leader Of The Band Sibel, isn't transformed (with or without her personal intention) into Super Cunt Psyop-Sibel. Do you get my drift? That's question number three.

Mathieu and Jean: maybe you two are reading along as well... I've got the email history to establish that this basic series of questions was posed to you in the most polite and loving way, and that your film would be wise to make some effort, in advance, at foiling any such accusation or questions of intent like this. This is not news to you. I've got my list of complaints, and I simply wish to see them dispelled so that we all can move on. I'm holding your feet to the fire, because I love you and wish you the best rewards for your efforts... that's genuine loyalty and friendship, may I point out.

What baffles me, is that I am forced to ask this question repeatedly, and now publicly, because your collective silence (blank stare, uncharacteristically impersonal form-letter reply emails) on this issue is busting my ear-drums. I am forced to report this to the only grouping of people I can really trust... to those who rest properly on two basic tenets; We've been lied to already, and the truth must out no matter the ensuing tribulation if we wish to enjoy planet Earth. 911 'truthers', as a whole, is that group. "Sibelology", is not, but comes in a close second. Follow? Question number four.

Yesterday, I was noticing a bit of egg on my face...

... I can only guess it's for asking such dumb questions. All I get is dead air, dead air... and more dead air. (that's six more form-letter emails, basically equating to pure silence after a heartfelt essay.)

Unfortunately, this may come across as selfish... but at least I know the real score by my own contributions and therefor think I have a valid position to argue.

I invested no small potatoes into KTM, landed a Washington première, suggested a Q+A panel to be recorded and posted ASAP (recorded more than a month ago), offered to print DVDs and ship direct in leu of "possible" cable deal... clearly and repeatedly extolled the power of the internet for raising mass awareness quickly while simultaneously, wonder of wonders... driving sales for capitalistic gain. I guess it was all just too silly? Question number five.

My only remaining advice to you Sibel... is "stop putzing around... people are fucking dying while Dick-N-The-Bush hover twitchy fingers over the Blowup Iran Button." I'm at a complete loss to explain away, why this shit wasn't out six months ago. WTF? Number six. Was I supposed to leak it? Lucky question number seven.

Maybe I've finally been taken in by the paranoia that a good conspiracy theory can deliver... suspicions of calculated machinations working against a better world by just sitting it on a warehouse shelf. I noticed you too can get a bit hyperkinetic at times, Sibel. That's hardly an indictable offense coming from a frenetic guy like myself. But after this many f'n years, I'm feeling a bit foolish still begging alongside you for these bastards in DC to address this material. Damn, woman.

My dog needs a bath.

Erin

answers

1. sure
2. if you're asking 'is it possible?' - sure.
3. "Do you get my drift? " No
4. "Follow?" No.

6. WTF? the directors aren't in charge of distribution. that's a corporate decision. you can't blame the directors, and you CERTAINLY can't blame sibel. That's like blaming osama because TEnet's book is late.

meanwhile, i'm off to watch it for the seventh time :-)

http://wotisitgood4.blogspot.com

I really thank you for responding...

1. Great, we've got a new base line and can remind each other if need be.

2. Of course it's possible... and is the oft repeated suspicion that still comes up, which is exactly why people need to hear it spoken to. Thanks, at least we can move on to taking simple precautions. Again, it's NOT any kind of accusation against Ms. Edmonds personally, but in light of the inferno her testimony can spark... wouldn't counter intelligence, expectedly working to counter such revelations, attempt to stuff and overload the material? Set a few trap doors? Blah blah... no need to go on and on. Saying it out loud, kills the counter effectiveness by an order of magnitude... just like that. Now possible and probable are of course two different things, but we're moving along.

3. Why has this conversation been ignored for more than a year? If someone doesn't understand a question, normally they say so... it's a bit abnormal to ignore it and simply return a blank stare... or worse... change the subject. Yes, no? What kind of crazy ideas might one imagine... if this becomes a repeating pattern? Now do you get my drift? (Don't take this personal Lukery, it's not out of the realm of possibilities that I'm simply getting into my own burnout. I'm going to back off in just a minute.)

4. Hierarchy vs. Cart before the horse pushing a rope. Is it your contention, that the general public might be motivated to correct the ills of a massively wayward ship of state based upon the implications of say for example, the as yet unknown extent of the complete NSWBC block... vs. say, the revelation of Civil Servant complicity in the 911 attacks to spring board bombs in the East and police-state in the West?

I'll be the first to admit, there are plenty of good reasons to lead with the whistle-blowers and establish a careful proceeding... nail-biting is better than bloodshed. Alternatively, "911 truth" represents something a bit more club-like and messy, but sure as hell smacks warmongers down through the center of their putrid skulls... a bloodshed they may in fact deserve, but a little more unsettling for the kids. This is a very honest and genuine question... no tricks. I think we should talk about this... I wish this conversation had been flushed out a year ago. As it is, we need to work up our plan in shorter order.

5. I think you've got 5, 6 and 7 a bit mixed up. I'll drop this, and continue to sit on my hands knowing that distribution of information AND sales for profit have been delayed for reasons unthinkable by me. What... timing? Suspense? Boosted demand? Corporate profit CAN NOT be the reason. It simply can not. So is it PR timing, or a bum vid press company? Then that starts to look too much like a game. I must be missing something... so I'll drop it.

There's a bit more I'm going to have to leave unsaid... yet I did not impugn Sibel as if 'Osama delaying Tenent' (but stranger things have happened).

Not to worry fellow bloggers... I guess 2 for 7 is better than nothing, and the latter ones can always be graded on a sliding scale adjusted for the discombobulated state of the questioner. you know how it is when you've got a few nagging questions ya just can't get out of your head.

more answers

2. yes, it comes up all the time. (actually, she's more likely to be ignored than tarnished - at least in the US) Daniel Ellsberg:

Sibel is an 'enemy of Turkey'.... Her picture was on the front-page of every Turkish newspaper - denouncing her as a 'whore,' as a 'traitor' and a turncoat of various kinds and she's had many threatening letters, including death threats. So it's a very serious situation for her, and the contrast between the news in Turkey, and the silence in America about allegations about Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, is quite a contrast.

 she's been called an agent of just about everyone. I can tell you that the senate investigated whether the Dickersons were counter-espionage - and they weren't.

 3. i don't know why some people didnt respond to your question. maybe they were busy. perhaps yuo didnt explain it very well. i didnt understand it in your first comment, and said as much, and you didnt add anything in your reply other than people dont answer your question.

 4. i think that you're asking whether sibel's documented claims are more compelling than the idea that cheney et al orcehestrated 911. i don't know of any documented proof that cheney et al orchestrated 911. so for the time being, we're trying to get open hearings into sibel's case.

 5,6,7 - as i understand their strategy, they're trying to get kudos in the festival market so that they can leverage that to get exposure in cinemas. nearly every film takes the same path.

 i didn't say that you impugned sibel re tenet/osama - i only noted that sibel is merely 'content' for the film, much as osama is content for tenet's book. neither sibel nor osama have any control over the distribution/release of the final product.

All in all:

I see we've both spent a healthy bit of time on this, with diminishing returns in visibility... I'm going to try and sum up a position and direction, as this week looks like it will be one of the busiest yet.

You've added a lot of perspective here, and I again really thank you for putting words to this even if only for the powerful effect of being able to reference this blog when people might otherwise hold up progress for unfounded concerns.

Sibelology, is 100 times more complex than proving that three WTC buildings DID NOT fall from tin darts and lamp oil. That Cheney and his kind of shitty buds had their hands up the ass of this con, is just plausible speculation based on the research of thousands of people around the world and right here in America. However if people (particularly the millions of TeeVee zombified Americans) still have a hurdle considering the ramifications of 911 alone, Sibelology only holds relative ground because its namesake is damn smart AND sexy, NOT because the average American knows shit-all about the middle east, nor 911 likewise.

Drugmoney, bribemoney, fiatbanksters and nukeidiology ARE all contributing factors towards comprehending the motives behind the mind-fuck manifested as the 911 con. Sibel and crew, testify to that overarching sociology that holds humanity once again on the brink of global conflagration. These are not competing stories when looked at through such a lens. We are much better served, by synthesizing our material for the life saving and humanity advanced by doing so.

I suppose that is what I've been trying to say all along. Please forgive my clumsiness struggling to get it out. A task yet focused upon, is defining a hierarchy of narrative, more persuasive argumentation... and the case for winning back the minds of people from the scum who've cast such a hypnotic spell (fuck the courts, congress and cops... they've failed completely whether they know it yet or not).

What bugs me about Matt, Jean and Bruno... is that they have been stuck like so many... spinning their wheels in the old paradigm as well. I tried my best to get them to consider placing such a potentially important film into the new media. Damn the old pedigree ribbons... real accolades still await... along with better profit returns... along with spreading the word further and faster. Ugh, I tried. I do so hope that the pursuit of a cute blue ribbon to pin on the lapel, hasn't slowed this down beyond repair.

Best wishes to all of as,

Erin