As you might remember my post from January, Sibel Edmonds, the Turkish-born former FBI interpreter dubbed national security whistleblower, was fired after reporting concerns about discovery of top-secret coverups and incompetence regarding 9/11 terror attacks. Among her other allegations, she also claimed that Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, was bribed in exchange for the withdrawal of a House resolution condemning Turkey for the 'Armenian Genocide.'
Subsequent to her firing, a gag order was imposed which she appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost earlier this year, due to possible compromise of 'state secrets.'
Last month, Porter Goss, Director of the CIA, wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times claiming that national security whistleblowers are harming U.S. intelligence interests. In response to the op-ed piece, Sibel fired back with a letter of her own and some harsh words:
" . . . Mr. Goss, I cannot attribute this misleading op-ed to your ignorance, since you were a member of Congress until recently and are surely aware of the lack of meaningful protection for national security whistleblowers; so I won't. I will not attribute it to your stupidity, since obviously our Congress confirmed your position and I do not intend to insult their wisdom and intelligence. Thus, it must be your arrogance, nurtured and fed by your boss on your purported inherent and limitless authority and power, leading you to treat us, the American Public, as stupid. . . "
To read the complete letter, click here.
She is the Founder and President of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. Possibly due to some of her and other whistleblowers' voices, a comprehensive bill to provide protections to government and private sector employees who are retaliated against for reporting flaws in national or homeland security, public health and safety, or waste, fraud and mismanagement of public funds was introduced on Thursday. The protections offered in the legislation are modeled upon those provided by Congress in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to employees of companies who report accounting fraud.
Let's hope it passes and gets approved by the White House. Wishful thinking?
Technorati Tags: sibel edmonds, fbi, cia, whistleblower, new york times
