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Issue 9 - Fall 2004 / Winter 2005 page. 33 |
An Open Letter to the 9/11 Chairman by a former Translator Blows the Whistle on FBI Complicity
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- Former FBI Translator
August 1, 2004
To: Thomas Kean, Chairman National Committee on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US 301 7th Street S.W., Rm. 5125, Washington, D.C. 20407Dear Chairman Kean:
It has been almost three years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, during which time we, the people, have been placed under a constant threat of terror and asked to exercise vigilance in our daily lives. Your Commission, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, was created by law to investigate "facts and circumstances related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" and to "provide recommendations to safeguard against future acts of terrorism", and has now issued its 9/11 Commission Report. You are now asking us to pledge our support for this report, its recommendations, and implementation of these recommendations, with our trust and backing, our tax money, our security, and our lives. Unfortunately, I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed and which, as a witness to the Commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations.
Considering what is at stake – our national security – we are entitled to demand answers to unanswered questions, and to ask for clarification of issues that were ignored and/or omitted from the report. I, Sibel Edmonds, a concerned American citizen, a former FBI translator, a whistle-blower, a witness for a United States Congressional investigation, a witness and a plaintiff for the Department of Justice Inspector General’s investigation, and a witness for your own 9/11 Commission investigation, request your answers to, and your public acknowledgement of, the following questions and issues:
1. Why were FBI Translators told to Slow Down?
After the terrorist attacks of September 11 we, the translators at the FBI’s largest and most important translation unit, were told to slow down, even stop, translation of critical information related to terrorist activities so that the FBI could present the United States Congress with a record of "extensive backlog of untranslated documents", and justify its request for budget and staff increases. While FBI agents from various field offices were desperately seeking leads and suspects, and completely depending on FBI HQ and its language units to provide them with needed translated information, hundreds of translators were being told by their administrative supervisors not to translate and to let the work pile up. This issue has been confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. This confirmed report has been reported to be substantiated by the Department of Justice Inspector General Report. I provided your investigators with a detailed and specific account of this issue and the names of other witnesses willing to corroborate this.
Today, almost three years after 9/11, and more than two years since this information has been confirmed and made available to our government, the administrators in charge of language departments of the FBI remain in their positions and in charge of the information front lines of the FBI’s Counter-terrorism and Counter-intelligence efforts. Your report has omitted any reference to this most serious issue, has foregone any accountability whatsoever, and your recommendations have refrained from addressing this issue, which when left un-addressed will have even more serious consequences. This issue is systemic and departmental. Why did your report choose to exclude this information and this serious issue despite the evidence and briefings you received? How can budget increases address and resolve this misconduct by mid-level bureaucratic management? How can the addition of a new bureaucratic layer, ‘Intelligence Czar’, in its cocoon, removed from the action lines, address and resolve this problem?
2. Why did a New FBI Translator get away with
Blocking / Leaking All-Important Information?Melek Can Dickerson, a Turkish Translator, was hired by the FBI after September 11, and was placed in charge of translating the most sensitive information related to terrorists and criminals under the Bureau’s investigation. She was granted Top Secret clearance, which can be granted only after conducting a thorough background investigation. Dickerson used to work for semi-legit organizations that were the FBI’s targets of investigation. She had ongoing relationships with two individuals who were FBI targets of investigation. For months Dickerson blocked all-important information related to these semi-legit organizations and the individuals she and her husband associated with. She stamped hundreds, if not thousands, of documents related to these targets as ‘Not Pertinent’. She attempted to prevent others from translating these documents important to the FBI’s investigations and our fight against terrorism. Dickerson, with the assistance of her direct supervisor, Mike Feghali, took hundreds of pages of top-secret sensitive intelligence documents outside the FBI to unknown recipients. Dickerson, with the assistance of her direct supervisor, forged signatures on top-secret documents related to certain 9/11 detainees. After all these incidents were confirmed and reported to FBI management, Melek Can Dickerson was allowed to remain in her position, to continue the translation of sensitive intelligence received by the FBI, and to maintain her Top Secret clearance. Apparently bureaucratic mid-level FBI management and administrators decided that it would not look good for the Bureau if this security breach and espionage case was investigated and made public, especially after going through Robert Hanssen’s case (FBI spy scandal). This case (Melek Can Dickerson’s) was confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. This Dickerson incident received major coverage by the press.4 According to Director Mueller, the Inspector General criticized the FBI for failing to adequately pursue this espionage report regarding Melek Can Dickerson. I provided your investigators with a detailed and specific account of this issue, the names of other witnesses willing to corroborate this, and additional documents.
Today, more than two years since the Dickerson incident was reported to the FBI, and more than two years since this information was confirmed by the United States Congress and reported by the press, these administrators in charge of FBI personnel security and language departments in the FBI remain in their positions and in charge of translation quality and translation departments’ security. Melek Can Dickerson and several FBI targets of investigation hastily left the United States in 2002, and the case still remains uninvestigated criminally. Not only does the supervisor facilitating these criminal conducts remain in a supervisory position, he has been promoted to supervising Arabic language units of the FBI’s Counter-terrorism and Counter-intelligence investigations. Your report has omitted these significant incidents, has foregone any accountability whatsoever, and your recommendations have refrained from addressing this serious information security breach and highly likely espionage issue. This issue needs to be investigated and criminally prosecuted. The translation of our intelligence is being entrusted to individuals with loyalties to our enemies. Important ‘chit-chats’ and ‘chatters’ are being intentionally blocked. Why did your report choose to exclude this information and these serious issues despite the evidence and briefings you received? …
Sibel Edmonds began working for the FBI shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Until the Spring of 2002 she worked in the FBI's Washington Field Office translating top-secret documents pertaining to suspected terrorists. She first gained wide public attention in October of that year when she appeared on '60 Minutes' on CBS and charged that the FBI, State Department and Pentagon had infiltrated by agents of a Turkish intelligence officer suspected of ties to terrorism. She also accused members of the FBI's translation services of sabotage, intimidation, corruption and incompetence. On October 8, 2002, at the request of the FBI Director Robert Mueller, Attorney General Ashcroft imposed a gag order on Ms. Edmonds, citing possible damage to diplomatic relations or national security. All rights reserved. Copyright belongs to the author.
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