By James Vicini – Reuters – Mon Nov 28, 3:19 PM ET
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday the dismissal of a lawsuit by a former FBI linguist who said she had been fired in 2002 for speaking out about possible security breaches, misconduct and incompetent translation work.
Without any comment, the justices rejected an appeal by Sibel Edmonds, who worked as a contract linguist at the FBI’s Washington field office from shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks until her dismissal the following March.
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By Tim Howells — Online Journal Contributing Writer
Nov 28, 2005, 13:55
The sponsorship of terrorism by western governments, targeting their own populations, has been a taboo subject. Although major scandals have received cursory coverage in the media, the subject has been allowed to immediately disappear without discussion or investigation. Therefore the appearance this year of two major studies of this subject is a welcome breakthrough, and provides essential reading for anyone struggling to understand the events of September 11, 2001 and the post September 11 world.
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[snip]
Freeh calls for the resumption of public hearings on the Able Danger program and its identification of terrorist cells by Congress as soon as possible. That probably means late January at the earliest if the Judiciary Committee takes the case as it promised earlier. We need to press Arlen Specter and Pat Leahy to fight the DIA and issue subpoenas if necessary. One man has already sacrificed his career for this effort, and that sacrifice should not pass unrewarded.
[snip]
Louis Freeh: Let’s Get Hearings On Able Danger
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/cat_911_commission.php
November 17, 2005
The former head of the FBI writes a recap of the Able Danger story that serves as a good entrée for those who may have missed all or part of the issue. Louis Freeh, who served as head of the agency for most of the Clinton administration, wants better explanations made public from the 9/11 Commission — a group that he correctly describes as bureaucrats somewhat besotted by their fanciful treatment by the media:
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By Jarrett Murphy | November 22, 2005
The private watchdog group formed by the former members of the 9-11 Commission is closing up shop. The announcement of its last media event—a December 5 briefing where the 9-11 Discourse Project “will issue its final assessment of progress on all 9/11 Commission recommendations”—came today. This is no surprise: The project (funded by entities like the Carnegie Corporation, the Drexel Family Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund) was intended to last for just a year after the commission expired in August 2004, its mission to “educate the public on the issue of terrorism and what can be done to make the country safer.” But even if this end was long planned, it doesn’t mean everyone thinks the job is finished.
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Excerpt from:
Feeling Insecure
There’s no defense for some of the government’s defense plans, even for D.C.
by James Ridgeway — Mondo Washington – Village Voice
November 15th, 2005 11:39 AM
[snip]
People from Able Danger actually briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff on what they had discovered in January 2001. Pentagon lawyers prevented them from telling the FBI what they knew, apparently on the theory that it didn’t want anyone to know military intelligence was operating illegally within the U.S. It also happens that the secret unit wanted to surface its findings during the Gore-Bush presidential campaign. The revelation of a secret military intelligence unit operating against the law within the U.S. probably wouldn’t have helped Gore.
[snip]
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[snip]
You don’t have to be a physicist to see that WTC 7’s graceful, 6.6-second demise deserves a perfect 10 in the controlled-demolition event. It’s also interesting to know that no steel-framed building in history ever totally collapsed from a fire until 9/11/2001, when three did in about eight hours.
[snip]
By Bill Steigerwald — TRIBUNE-REVIEW — Sunday, November 20, 2005
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_395972.html
You can drive yourself nuts with conspiracy theories.
Many of our fellow Americans already have. Just go to the nearest PC and start googling. The Oklahoma City bombing. TWA Flight 800. The 9/11 terror attacks.
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Magazine says administration refused to give key docs to Senate committee
MSNBC — Updated: 7:09 p.m. ET Nov. 22, 2005
Ten days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Bush was advised that U.S. intelligence found no credible connection linking the attacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein, or evidence suggesting linkage between Saddam and the al-Qaida terrorist network, according to a published report.
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If, as the Dep of Defense, the 9/11 Commissioners and the DIA have said is true and there is nothing to the Able Danger story, why then have LTC Shaffer, Capt. Scott Philpott and the four other witnesses been gagged? If there’s nothing to it, then there can’t be any sensitive security information which needs to be protected in the interests of national security. So then, why not allow these folks to testify openly in Congress?
The 9/11 Commissioners and DoD can’t have their cake and eat it too. Either there is something to the Able Danger story, which is significant and needs to be protected, or there is nothing to the story, in which case Shaffer and the others should be allowed to testify.
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http://curtweldon.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=37076
MORE THAN HALF OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WANTS OPEN HEARINGS ON ABLE DANGER
WASHINGTON, Nov 18 – U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), vice chairman of the House Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees, has sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld signed by over half of the House of Representatives requesting that he allow “former participants in the intelligence program known as ABLE DANGER to testify in an open hearing before the United States Congress.” The letter has 246 signatures (144 Republicans, 101 Democrats, and one Independent), including senior members and leadership on both sides of the isle. [See full list following text of letter]
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[snip]
… As hidden evidence spilled out and the Justice Department
abandoned the effort, federal investigators began to wonder whether
the true conspiracy in the case was perpetrated by the prosecution.
…information in public documents and testimony in U.S. District
Court in Detroit suggest an effort by federal prosecutors and
important witnesses to mislead defense lawyers and deceive the jury.
[snip]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952.html
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