Ex-FBI translator takes case to Supreme Court
By Chris Strohm
cstrohm@govexec.com

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A former FBI translator who was fired after alleging security breaches and possible espionage within the bureau's Washington field office has taken her case to the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for Sibel Edmonds filed a petition last week asking the Supreme Court to review her case. Edmonds was hired by the FBI as a contract linguist immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to translate backlogged material, such as electronic wiretaps.

But she was fired in March 2002 after alleging security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage. She sued the Justice Department, but Attorney General John Aschroft invoked the state secrets privilege in the case, which has prevented her from publicly discussing the matter.

Edmonds' lawsuit was dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in May, prompting a petition to the Supreme Court. Her lawyers include the American Civil Liberties Union and Mark Zaid of Krieger and Zaid, PLLC.

The petition asks the Supreme Court "to provide guidance to the lower courts about the proper scope and application of the state secrets privilege, and to prevent further misuse of the privilege to dismiss lawsuits at the pleading stage."

"The outcome in Edmonds' case could significantly impact the government's ability to rely on secrecy to avoid accountability in future cases," ACLU officials said.

The petition also asks the court to clarify that the press and public may not be excluded from court proceedings in civil cases without just cause. The appeals court closed the May proceedings to the public, despite motions to open the courtroom filed by several news organizations.

Edmonds said a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court would allow her to resume her case in federal court and depose witnesses.

"If they say the government was wrong in invoking [state secrets privilege] and it was not appropriate, then we can go back to the lower court and start the case again," she said. "We have never had our day in court."

According to the petition, Edmonds alleges that numerous communications in the FBI's translation unit had been intentionally left untranslated or mistranslated, jeopardizing intelligence and law enforcement investigations related to the 9/11 attacks and other cases.

"Ms. Edmonds also reported concerns of potential espionage within the translation unit," the petition states. "Specifically, she reported that a fellow employee who had been granted a security clearance had past and ongoing associations with one or more targets of an ongoing FBI investigation and was apparently leaking information to those targets; that the same employee had improperly instructed Ms. Edmonds and another employee not to listen to or translate certain FBI wiretaps concerning those targets; and that the employee in question had threatened the lives and safety of Ms. Edmonds and a member of her family who resided in a foreign country. Finally, Ms. Edmonds reported that FBI managers had failed to take corrective action in response to her concerns, but had instead retaliated against her."

The Justice Department's inspector general issued a summary report in January concluding that the FBI failed to properly investigate charges made by Edmonds. The report also concluded that the FBI fired Edmonds mainly for bringing forth the accusations. Edmonds has said that information in her case would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.

A story in the September 2005 issue of Vanity Fair magazine details parts of Edmonds' case.

The FBI declined to comment because the matter involves pending litigation.

Edmonds said she expects several briefs to be filed in the next month in support of her case. She said those briefs will come from groups of family members of 9/11 victims, public interest organizations and media outlets.

Edmonds has also formed the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, comprised of former and current government officials. She said the group is incorporating as a 501c4 organization, a designation that allows it to lobby and participate in electoral politics.

The group also is raising money to run advertisements listing the names, positions and salaries of government officials accused of wrongdoing. Edmonds said the ads likely will begin to run in October.

Ex-FBI translator plans appeal to Supreme Court
By Chris Strohm
cstrohm@govexec.com

An FBI contract employee who was fired after alleging national security breaches within the bureau's translation service plans to appeal to the Supreme Court to lift a gag order that she has been under for almost three years.

Sibel Edmonds lost her latest court battle on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a lower court's ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the Justice Department. Edmonds alleges there were security breaches, mismanagement and possible espionage within the FBI's translation service in late 2001 and early 2002. She says the information she knows would lead to criminal prosecutions if aggressively pursued.

"We are going to the Supreme Court, that's for sure," Edmonds said Monday.

Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, sued the Justice Department after being fired in 2002. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed her lawsuit last summer after former Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to withhold information to safeguard national security.

District Judge Reggie Walton said information about Edmonds' case would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States if publicly disclosed.

The Justice Department's inspector general issued a summary report in January concluding that the FBI failed to properly investigate charges made by Edmonds. The report also concluded that the FBI fired Edmonds mainly for bringing forth the accusations.

The appeals court heard Edmonds' case last month, but closed its proceedings to the public, despite motions to open the courtroom filed by several news media organizations.

Edmonds said her lawyers were questioned for only 10 minutes before being instructed by the judge to leave the courtroom. Lawyers for the government remained inside the room. About 20 minutes later, Edmonds said she and her lawyers were informed that the hearing was over. Edmonds and her legal team are seeking a transcript of the proceedings.

"We don't know what the government argued," Edmonds said.

During the hearing, Chief Judge Douglas Ginsberg asked if Edmonds' complaint could be resolved through an administrative hearing within the FBI. The next day, government lawyers told the court that the state secrets privilege did not give Edmonds the ability to pursue an administrative hearing, arguing that the case cannot be litigated without reference to privileged information.

The appeals court did not provide any comment with its ruling last week. Instead, the court said it sided with reasons given by the lower court.

Although Edmonds is running out of legal options, she is still pursuing her case by other means. She said she has a petition signed by more than 10,000 people asking Congress to hold public hearings on her situation. She plans to submit the petition next month.

Additionally, Edmonds has spearheaded the formation of a national security whistleblower's coalition that will seek legislation to enable national security whistleblowers to sue government managers who retaliate against them or block investigations.

If Congress does not take action, Edmonds said, the coalition will run newspaper ads publicizing the names of individual managers who are alleged to have committed wrongdoing, along with their positions and salaries.

In related news, the Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed a hearing scheduled for this Wednesday on the FBI's translation program. A committee spokesman said the hearing was postponed due to a business meeting on asbestos issues.

National Security Whistleblower's Coalition

The Federal Employee Protection of Disclosures Act (S. 2628)

Investigating the Investigators, Whistleblower Complaint

Whistleblower office to be subject of workers' complaint
By Paul Singer, CongressDaily

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The federal office charged with investigating whistleblower complaints by government employees is the target of a complaint expected to be filed today by its own staff.
The complaint, to be filed by unnamed career employees and three independent whistleblower protection groups, alleges that U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch has, among other things, retaliated against employees who complained about office policies and ultimately forced senior career staff to relocate from Washington to a new regional office in Detroit, according to a source close to the groups.

The employees contend Bloch has issued illegal gag orders to prevent them from talking to the media or members of Congress, and has discriminated against gay employees.

Bloch's tenure at the Office of Special Counsel has been rocky.

Appointed by President Bush last year from the Office of Faith-Based Programs at the White House, he immediately fueled controversy by removing documents from the office Web site dealing with discrimination based on sexual orientation, and initiated a review of his authority to address such complaints.

Bloch's office is responsible for reviewing whistleblower complaints about improper government actions and retaliation against government employees.

But as he is the subject of the complaint scheduled to be filed this morning, the document requests Bloch recuse himself and elevate the complaint to the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency.

Bloch had not seen the complaint Wednesday night, but he previously has defended the reorganization that created the Detroit office, saying he is trying to "power-down" the Washington office and distribute personnel around the country. There are two regional OSC offices in Dallas and San Francisco.

In a letter last month to House Government Reform ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., Bloch denied similar allegations of retaliation, saying, "There is no evidence of any wrongdoing or failure to follow all applicable laws and regulations."

US Office of Special Counsel

OSC Protects Whistleblowers As They Shine The Light of Truth
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