Posts tagged “CIA”

Obama administration re-invokes “State Secrets” privilege

From page 23 of the EFF opposition brief in re Shubert, filed with the Hon. Vaughn R. Walker in the Northern District of California on July 20, 2007 (emphasis added by Glenn Greenwald; click to enlarge)

Full Document: Electronic Frontier Foundation (PDF)

From page 23 of the EFF opposition brief in re Shubert, filed with the Hon. Vaughn R. Walker in the Northern District of California on July 20, 2007
(emphasis added by Glenn Greenwald; click to enlarge)


When the Obama administration announced they were going to limit the use of the State Secrets privilege six weeks ago, I simply did not believe it (see reasons 1, 2). Then, the news broke last Friday in a White House “trash dump“, a maneuver used to hide important stories amid numerous bits of procedural dross, that

the Obama administration has, yet again, asserted the broadest and most radical version of the “state secrets” privilege — which previously caused so much controversy and turmoil among loyal Democrats (when used by Bush/Cheney) — to attempt to block courts from ruling on the legality of the government’s domestic surveillance activities.Glenn Greenwald

Rather than hem and haw again about how this is the fall of the Republic, which this very well could be, I will simply ask that you please take the time to go read Glenn Greenwald’s excellent piece on this matter of great consequence. It is as well-linked and well-written as anything I could have hoped for. Plus, he is an actual constitutional lawyer, instead of an armchair litigator like me. Go! Read it right now! Then come back here to discuss, tweet it, facebook it and tell all your friends this is happening.

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The biggest story you’ve never heard

First, a brief introduction:

Sibel Edmonds has a story to tell. She went to work as a Turkish and Farsi translator for the FBI five days after 9/11. Part of her job was to translate and transcribe recordings of conversations between suspected Turkish intelligence agents and their American contacts. She was fired from the FBI in April 2002 after she raised concerns that one of the translators in her section was a member of a Turkish organization that was under investigation for bribing senior government officials and members of Congress, drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, money laundering, and nuclear proliferation. She appealed her termination, but was more alarmed that no effort was being made to address the corruption that she had been monitoring.Sibel Edmonds and Philip Giraldi
The American Conservative

[Edit: 6:3410:21 PM CDT] Sibel posted her response to Rep. Jan Schakowsky’s attack on her character. Pretty good, in my opinion. I’ve integrated some of Sibel’s links into this post and details to the names on the list of members of Congress.

[audio:NicoleSandler_BradFriedman_092209.mp3]

Nicole Sandler Show - Brad Friedman talks about Sibel Edmonds - 09-22-09 (37:36)

Sibel (pronounced suh-bell) took her case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, who refused to hear the case. At each turn, she and her ACLU attorneys were barred from the courtroom while Justice Department officials discussed the matter with the judge(s) and decided her fate thanks to the “State Secrets Privilege“, a draconian executive order that is the extra-judicial legal equivalent of “no, because I said so.”

Sibel Edmonds primer
1) Read this
2) Listen to Brad Friedman (above)
3) Read this
4) Read these 1, 2, 3
5) Read this
6) Read this
7) Watch “Kill the Messenger” – The Sibel Edmonds documentary (below)

There was almost no mainstream media coverage in the United States (one 60 Minutes segment and a Vanity Fair article) and that was the way it was for Sibel Edmonds…until August 8, 2009. Finally, after years of having her right to free speech surreptitiously squashed, the Obama administration opted not to invoke the state secrets privilege and she was allowed to speak under oath in a deposition in Ohio (entire deposition video after jump).

Sibel has been trying to tell her story to the authorities and the media since 2001 and now that the gag has come off, she is telling it from the mountain top. Who can blame her? The American Conservative (Pat Buchanan’s magazine) ran an interview that she did with former CIA operative Philip Giraldi on their cover on Tuesday. Sibel finally named names.
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Quotable: George W. Bush

Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.George W. Bush
Christian Crusader; Ex-President

This quote comes from a 2003 phone conversation between Bush and former French President Jacques Chirac. Bush called to get Chirac’s support for the invasion of Iraq. Chirac declined and immediately sought the advice of a scholar to help understand the meaning of the insane reference.

Honestly, as more information emerges from the darkness of the Bush-Cheney years, I am amazed that the world was not re-terraformed at the hands of those zealots. This man had control of a nuclear arsenal tens of thousands of times stronger than that unleashed on Hiroshima 64 years ago. If there is a god, it surely saved us from the likes of George W. Bush.

Via Jon Taplin’s blog
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