GovernmentExecutive.com

Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a sweeping ruling this week upholding the Justice Department's request to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a former FBI contract linguist who alleged misconduct in efforts to translate documents related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Sibel Edmonds, who worked under contract in the FBI's Washington field office, said she will appeal the ruling.

Attorney General John Ashcroft asserted "state secrets privilege" over Edmonds, saying that information about her case would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States if publicly disclosed.

Walton ruled that Edmonds would be unable to pursue her claims against the government in court without disclosing privileged information.

The judge said he had no alternative but to dismiss the case "due not only to the nature of the information, but also because the imminent threat of terrorism will not be eliminated any time in the foreseeable future, but is an endeavor that will consume our nation's attention indefinitely."

Edmonds, who was born in Iran but became a U.S. citizen, filed her lawsuit more than two years ago. She was hired by the FBI after the attacks to retranslate material collected prior to Sept. 11 to determine if anything was missed in the translations relating to the plot.

In her lawsuit, Edmonds alleged that another contract linguist she worked with had an association and improper contacts with one or more targets of an ongoing FBI investigation, and was suspected of leaking information to one or more targets to which she was assigned to perform translation services.

Edmonds said her supervisor issued instructions that assisted the other employee in carrying out misconduct, and FBI managers failed to take corrective action in response to her reports about it.

"This court decision by itself would have been appalling and alarming enough, but in light of all other actions taken against my case for the past two years, it demonstrates a broken system--a system abused and corrupted by the current executive branch, a system badly in need of repair," Edmonds said at a press conference Thursday.

She noted that the court heard the government's evidence in private, never giving her the ability to respond.

Walton, who was appointed by Bush, said that denying Edmonds her day in court was "indeed draconian," and "a drastic remedy that has rarely been invoked."

"Mindful of the need for virtual unfettered access to the judicial process in a governmental system integrally linked to the rule of law, the court nonetheless concludes that the government has properly invoked the state secrets privilege, as the attorney general, after actual personal consideration, made a formal claim of the privilege in both an unclassified declaration and a classified declaration that contains the requisite specificity needed to properly invoke the privilege," Walton wrote.

A lawyer for Edmonds said her appeal should be filed by next week.

The Justice Department's inspector general also had launched an investigation into Edmonds' claims two years ago. An IG spokesman said Thursday the report was completed late last week and delivered to the Justice Department, the FBI and the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The spokesman said, however, that the FBI classified the entire report, adding that it does not seem likely that any part of it will be made public. "While we would like to do that, I don't think we would do that given the subject matter," he said.

He added that the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee could also request a copy of the report.

COMMENTS

• And why would the "state secret privelege" preclude hearing Ms. Edmonds side in the same venue given the government? Because the administration doesn't want it on the record!! Stephen Johnson Posted July 9, 2004 6:38 AM