Update [2005-4-20 16:16:19 by BooMan]:The Washington Post, The New York Times, Daily News, CNN, Reuters America, Bloomberg News, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and several other media organizations also filed an emergency motion appealing the court’s decision. They noted that, “the public has a strong interest in observing this oral argument, as it involves numerous issues of high public importance.”
April 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC — The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals this afternoon ordered the courtroom closed to the public during oral arguments tomorrow in Sibel Edmonds’ hearing. The American Civil Liberties Union is filing an emergency motion to open the hearing on the grounds that the move violates the First Amendment.
Although the court has not issued a written order, it did orally instruct the clerk that the hearing would be open only to the attorneys involved in the case and Edmonds. The hearing is listed as closed on the court’s calendar.
The ACLU said the decision does not appear to be based on state secrets concerns as it allows those without security clearance to be present for the arguments. Furthermore, the briefs being argued have been public since they were first filed in early 2005.
:::Read More:::
Edmonds challenged her retaliatory dismissal by filing a lawsuit in federal court, but her case was dismissed last July after Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the so-called “state secrets privilege,” and retroactively classified briefings to Congress related to her case.
The government has argued that every aspect of Edmonds’ case involves state secrets — including where she was born and what languages she speaks. Edmonds is appealing to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reinstate her case. Several 9/11 family member advocacy groups filed a friend-of-the-court brief in her support. Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU National Office, will argue on behalf of Edmonds.
Immediately following the hearing tomorrow, Beeson and Edmonds, along with 9/11 family members and other national security whistleblowers, will make public comments on the steps at E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at 333 Constitution Avenue, NW.
There is a good reason that the Justice Dept. is continuing to muzzle former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds.
Sibel Edmonds: Yes. Certain elected officials will stand trial and go to prison
Edmonds has made several damaging accusations. She has questioned many facets of the Translations Department operation at the FBI. She has questioned the hiring practices, the qualifications of employees, the accountability procedures and much more. She also claims that the FBI had a lot of advance warning that 9/11 was coming and should have issued major FAA warnings no later than spring of 2001.
Of course, now we now that 52 separate FAA warnings were issued, to no effect.
You can read one of my more tin-foilish conjectures on just what Sibel might have stumbled across here.
The more the justice department attempts to stifle Sibel Edmonds, the more credible her claims of high level corruption become. It is truly the first duty of the American citizenry to hold the government accountable. It you are in DC, and you have the time, make sure to be at E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse at 333 Constitution Avenue, NW tomorrow afternoon. All Americans need to support Sibel Edmonds, and we all need to hear her story.
Here are several important Sibel Edmonds’ links.
http://baltimorechronicle.com/050704SibelEdmonds.shtml
http://www.antiwar.com/deliso/?articleid=2917
http://www.prisonplanet.com/Pages/230904_edmonds.html
http://www.antiwar.com/edmonds/
If you are interested in more information:
CONTACT: Paul Silva, ACLU Nat’l, 917-406-4688 or 212-549-2666; media@aclu.org
Tracy Zimmerman or Crystal Streuber, 202-518-8047; tracy@PublicInterestPR.com
How can the court close the proceedings to the public if it allows those without security clearance to be in the courtroom?
I hope you’ll keep us posted on this fascinating case.
I’d be interested in hearing about the judge, and whether he got the case by lottery or assignment.
Bug Bomb Tom?
This is the story that first brought your diaries at Kos to my attention. You did 2 or 3 diaries on Edmonds and her experiences back in November or December.
Are you optimistic that we’ll have a fair hearing? We’re not exactly off to a good start if the hearings will be behind closed doors.
for the very reasons she states. Very powerful ‘elected’ people will go to jail if she speaks, particularly in public.
I recall that exact quote from your Kos-diaries and wonder what her testimony will bring. Unless she has recordings on ‘deviant’ sexual behavior, or something to that effect, it is difficult to imagine what kind of statements would send anyone from this administration to jail.
Rice – lies and incompetence: Promoted
‘Quaint” Gonzales – you know what: Promoted
Rumsfelt – grossly incompetent: Still there
Bolton – liar and control freak: They may fail in the nomination, but he ain’t going to jail.
Why would this be different?
My theory is that she discovered a cartel of heroin smugglers, who double as arms smugglers. This ring is probably based in Baku, but could be Turkish.
In their role as arms smugglers they deal with various intelligence agencies (including ours). But arms sales are sporadic, and drug sales must fill up the downtime.
IMO, this dual operation has been running since the Bay of Pigs operation was set up, and it really got going in Laos, under Ted Shackley and Richard Armitage. It later morphed into a huge program (largely legitimate) that handled the arms sales to the Shah.
And when the Shah was swept out, and Bush became VP, it entered the White House, where it became known as the Enterprise. Richard Secord is the most famous member of the Enterprise (after Ollie North) of course.
In 1991-2, Bush Sr. sent Secord to Azerbaijan where he smuggled Afghan mujahideen into the country to fight Armenians, and later (probably) Chechens.
Armitage became the head of the US-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce, working with luminiaries like Kissinger, Baker, Lloyd Bentsen, Brezezinski, Brownback and others.
Meanwhile, the man who ties it all together is Farhad Azima, who has run cargo airlines for the CIA for 40 years.
I suspect that Sibel has a little too much information on who is getting kickbacks to look the other way on heroin distribution.
Thanks Booman,
For the concise summary.
Got to run – off-line for the rest of the night.
http://www.justacitizen.com/
Exercise your Constitutional rights by signing the petiton to require the immediate release of the entire report completed by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-IG) of its investigation into confirmed reports by FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds on the cover-up of information and leads pre and post 9/11…
Here you will find a petition to sign, this is official web site for Sibel Edmonds .
The judge has also excluded the press? On what grounds?
BooMan,
I was just reading this thread at dKos, “More rebuttal from Melody Townsel re Bolton,” and in particular this comment, which talks about the John Perkins book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, and a second comment by the same writer, and suddenly realized why they are so frightened of her.
Melody and Sibel, between them, could pull back the curtain on all the clanking, illegal machinery. I do hope they have bodyguards around them.