Material Given to Congress in
2002 Is Now Classified
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published:
May 20, 2004
WASHINGTON, May 19 - The Justice Department has taken the unusual step of retroactively classifying information it gave to Congress nearly two years ago regarding a former F.B.I. translator who charged that the bureau had missed critical terrorist warnings, officials said Wednesday.
Law enforcement officials say the secrecy surrounding the translator, Sibel Edmonds, is essential to protecting information that could reveal intelligence-gathering operations. But some members of Congress and Congressional aides said they were troubled by the move, which comes as critics have accused the Bush administration of excessive secrecy.
"What the F.B.I. is up to here is ludicrous," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said in an interview. "To classify something that's already been out in the public domain, what do you accomplish? It does harm to transparency in government, and it looks like an attempt to cover up the F.B.I.'s problems in translating intelligence."
Ms. Edmonds testified in a closed session this year before the Sept. 11 commission, and she has made increasingly vehement charges about the F.B.I.'s intelligence failures, saying the United States had advance warnings about the attacks.
Families of the Sept. 11 victims - who are suing numerous corporate and Saudi interests whom they accuse of having links to the attacks - have sought to depose her as a witness, but the Justice Department has blocked the move by saying her testimony would violate "the state secret privilege.'' Her lawyer could not be reached for comment on Wednesday
Read it all:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/20/politics/20classify.html
Some of your felloe "debunkers" were very rude and uncivil to her, and one in particular was quite nasty to here, thought the rules refrain me from naming names, or "calling out". She had her own reporter here, too. He is the one who broke the news that Ms. Edmonds was indeed posting here, and that she was going to "out" herself. I remember BOTH of their names here... do YOU?? We even had a suppoort group here for her.
Yes, Sibel Edmonds Was known as "The MOST GAGGED woman in the U.S.
Hmmm.. Who to believe?? The woman who was actually *there*,
working in the "INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT", or some "debunker" who was NEVER there, and was probably never even within a few hundred to more than 1000 miles away, but thinks he knows more than the person who WAS there?? I think I'll go with the one who was actally there. No hard feelings though, ok?
Peace,
Ghost
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