Posts tagged “New York Times”

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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Tell me again, why are newspapers failing?

Video: The Daily Show

Evidently, The Times is unfamiliar with The Daily Show.

1) Seriously, Bill Keller, why would you agree to this interview? Did your kids want to see you on the funny news show?

2) Rick Berke: you really never considered that a newspaper contains “aged” news? Your web staff just threw up in their mouths.

3) Kristin Mason: for future reference, the coordination of communications involves the ability to deviate from script.

This was amateur hour with the senior staff of one of the biggest media companies in the world. They got their asses handed to them by the same actor who stole Ted’s fiance on How I Met Your Mother. Perhaps if Keller didn’t spend so much time at the Baghdad bureau, he could turn the news organization he runs into a 21st century operation. Goo.

Disclosure: This was written by someone who occasionally does his own reporting, but usually does get by poking holes in the shoddy work of others.

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The Coen Brothers take on my favorite oxymoron: clean coal

Coal is never, ever clean. Pass it on.

Ahh, take a deep breathe of reality!

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