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Translator found pre911 warning docs { July 7 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/06/1089000152179.html?oneclick=truehttp://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/07/06/1089000152179.html?oneclick=true
Secrecy order stymies claims of 9/11 blunder
July 7, 2004
US authorities have gagged an interpreter who claims intercepts were badly translated before September 11, reports Anne Kornblut in Washington.
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds made an alarming discovery in the days after the September 11 attacks. She found intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated into English.
Ms Edmonds, who is fluent in Turkish and Farsi, the language of Iran, said she reported the mistake to an FBI superior. Five months later, after flagging what she said were several other security lapses, she was fired.
Now, after more than two years of investigations, she is at the centre of an extraordinary storm over US classification rules that sheds light on the secrecy directive supported by the Bush Administration.
In a rare move, Attorney-General John Ashcroft has ordered that information about the Edmonds case be retrospectively classified, even basic facts that have been posted on websites and discussed openly in meetings with members of Congress for two years.
The Justice Department invoked the seldom-used "state secrets" privilege to silence Ms Edmonds in court. She has been blocked from testifying in a lawsuit brought by victims of the September 11 attacks, and was allowed to speak to the panel investigating the attacks only behind closed doors.
The FBI is yet to release its internal investigation into her allegations, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the bureau, has been stymied in its attempt to get to the bottom of her allegations. Now that the case has been classified, lawmakers are wary of discussing the details for fear of overstepping legal bounds.
"I'm alarmed that the FBI is reaching back in time and classifying information it provided two years ago," Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican advocate for Ms Edmonds, said last Friday. "Frankly, it looks like an attempt to impede legitimate oversight of a serious problem at the FBI."
Ms Edmonds, 34, a naturalised US citizen who grew up in Turkey and Iran, said the ordeal had made her grow disillusioned with the "magical system of checks and balances and separation of powers" that had made her so drawn to the United States. "What I came to see is that it exists only in name," she said. "Where is the oversight? Who is there to stop him (Ashcroft)?"
Legal analysts say a disturbing pattern of retrospective classifications has emerged in recent years, all of them pertaining to - but not limited to - national security.
Democrat congressman John Tierney is locked in battle with the Defence Department over testing requirements for a national missile defence system that were made public in 2000 but have since been classified.
Bush Administration officials say the campaign against terrorism requires greater levels of confidentiality for law enforcement agencies.
Boston Globe
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