FBI translator Sibel Edmonds testified for 3.5 hours before the 911 Commission. She writes: "It is highly curious that the report mentions nothing regarding the intentionally blocked translations by certain Middle Eastern Translators, who also breached FBI security, as confirmed by the Senate Judiciary; nothing regarding adamant resistance to investigations of certain terrorist and criminal activities; refusing to transfer them to Counterterrorism from existing counterintelligence investigations, solely based on the vague notion of protecting certain foreign relations; nothing regarding continued efforts to cover up certain highly specific information received prior to September 11, even now, years after 9/11; or nothing regarding knowingly allowing certain individuals, directly or indirectly related to terrorist activities, to leave the United States months after 9/11, without any interrogation, and per the State Department's request."

Speaking on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman, Ray McGovern, a 27-year career analyst with the CIA, faults the report for not holding the "crazies" accountable - Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, and the rest of the evil neocon cabal. Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator whose whistleblowing disclosures have been suppressed by Bush, says the report protects foreign governments and businesses, notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said he was satisfied with claims by Attorney General John Ashcroft and a senior FBI official that the civil lawsuit by Sibel Edmonds could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations with foreign governments. The judge said he couldn't explain further because his explanation itself would expose sensitive secrets. Edmonds, a former contract linguist for the FBI, said she will appeal the ruling. She alleged in her lawsuit that she was fired in March 2002 after she complained to FBI managers about shoddy wiretap translations and told them an interpreter with a relative at a foreign embassy might have compromised national security. Edmonds said the judge dismissed her lawsuit without hearing evidence from her lawyers, although the government's lawyers met with Walton at least twice privately. She noted that Walton, the judge, was appointed by President Bush."

911 whistleblower Sibel Edmonds writes, "John Ashcroft has been relentlessly engaged in covering up my reports and investigations into my allegations. He has asserted the rarely invoked State Secret Privilege in my court proceedings, and has used it to quash a subpoena request for my deposition from attorneys representing 9/11 family members on information regarding 9/11. Ashcroft is not protecting 'national security' or 'state secrets' of the US. On the contrary, he is endangering our national security by covering up facts and information related to criminal and terrorist activities against this country and it's citizens. Ashcroft is fully aware that making this information public will bring about the question of accountability, will expose serious criminal activities, and his complicity in covering up. On Monday, June 14, 2004, at 10:00 AM, Judge Reggie Walton is expected to issue his ruling on the state secret privilege assertion by AG Ashcroft, which is intended to gag me."

From the Baltimore Chronicle: "Sibel Edmonds and Behrooz Sarshar, beginning in December of 2001, began filing reports to their superiors at the FBI. These reports could lead to the collapse of a corrupt power structure that has a stranglehold on the very institutions that are obligated to control it. We cannot excuse these institutions, for while they fiddle, they pass death sentences on their own troops, and on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq. On April 30th, Sibel Edmonds was my guest for 50 minutes on WGDR radio. What follows is an edited transcript of the interview. The editing is for the sake of a more readable piece." So writes Jim Hogue.

UK Independent: "Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving there was considerable evidence before September 2001 that al-Qa'ida was planning to strike the US with aircraft. The lawyers made their demand after reading comments Mrs Edmonds had made to The Independent. But the US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege'. Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence 'would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.'"

UK Independent: "A former translator for the FBI with top-secret security clearance says she has provided information to the panel investigating the 11 September attacks which proves senior officials knew of al-Qa'ida's plans to attack the US with aircraft months before the strikes happened. She said the claim by the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, that there was no such information was 'an outrageous lie'. Sibel Edmonds said she spent more than three hours in a closed session with the commission's investigators providing information that was circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place."

FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not 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.

"FBI translator, Sibel Edmonds, was offered a substantial raise and a full time job in order to not 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. Edmonds, a ten year U.S. citizen who has passed a polygraph examination, speaks fluent Farsi and Turkish and had been working part time with the FBI for six months-- commencing in December, 2001. In a 50 reporter frenzy in front of some 12 news cameras, Edmonds said 'Attorney General John Ashcroft told me 'he was invoking State Secret Privilege and National Security' when I told the FBI I wanted to go public with what I had translated from the pre 9-11 intercepts.' 'I appeared once on CBS 60 Minutes but I have been silenced by Mr. Ashcroft, the FBI follows me, and I was threatened with jail in 2002 if I went public,' Edmonds told tomflocco.com."

"The U.S. intelligence community received a flood of threat warnings in the summer of 2001 that 'spectacular' terrorist attacks were likely... In the summer of 2001, two veteran officers of the CIA's counterterrorist center who were deeply involved in issues dealing with bin Laden were so worried about an impending disaster that they considered resigning and going public with their concerns, the staff reported... A former FBI translator said Wednesday that the bureau had 'real, specific' information relating to the Sept. 11 attacks before they happened. Sibel Edmonds worked for the agency working from Sept. 20, 2001 to March 2002... Edmonds has testified before the Sept. 11 commission, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Select Intelligence Committee."

Condi "Rice has agreed to be interviewed by the bipartisan 9/11 commission on Feb. 7. [But Bob Kerrey] said that Ms. Rice's interview will not be held under oath, and the results of the interview are not to be made public... Mr. Kerrey, the commission's unlikely new spitfire, told The Observer he would lobby the commission to request sworn, public testimony from Bush's embittered national security advisor... The commissioners are divided on whether or not to press the point - and to use a subpoena if she refuses. 'We're not there yet,' said former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, the committee's chairman.... House Speaker Dennis Hastert has insisted that the commission 'live within the current deadline,' which is the end of May. But significant numbers of Senate Republicans, Mr. Kerrey believes, 'have figured out that the best delay for them is a six-month delay, to get our report beyond the election.'" Impeach Bush Now!

"A federal judge has ordered the FBI to expedite the release of information sought by a whistleblower who was fired after she raised allegations of security lapses in the FBI's translator program. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle ordered the FBI to appear in court Friday and disclose when it will provide the sensitive documents sought by Sibel Edmonds, a former contract linguist with the agency." Now let's just hope the case makes it past any Bush toady judges who may be involved in challenging the case.