National
Security Whistleblowers Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
August 23, 2007
Contact: Sibel Edmonds, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, sedmonds@nswbc.org
GOVERNMENT REVEALS ITS OWN
ABUSE OF STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE
Department of Justice,
Which Claimed State Secrets Required Termination of Whistleblower Suit, Now
Relies on Same "Secrets" to Avoid Tort Liability
Department of Justice and FBI attorneys,
during recent depositions taken in FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds’ Federal
Tort Claims case, Civil Action NO. 1:05-CV-540 (RMC), questioned witnesses
regarding information previously designated "state secrets" by the
Attorney General.
In April 2004, the Justice Department
succeeded in preventing Edmonds from testifying in a lawsuit related to the
September 11 terrorist attacks. The law firm of Motley Rice, representing
September 11 family members, had subpoenaed Edmonds for a deposition, but the
government argued that information provided by Edmonds "would cause serious
damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United
States." By invoking the state secrets privilege and citing classification
concerns, the government quashed the subpoena, and even seemingly innocuous
questions regarding Edmonds’ birth place, her date of birth, her languages,
even her position as a translator with the FBI, were deemed covered by the
state secrets privilege. To view the information classified in the Motley Rice
subpoena Click Here
Other Court proceedings in Edmonds’ case were also blocked by the assertion of
the state secrets privilege, and the Congress was gagged and prevented from investigating
her case through retroactive re-classification of documents by DOJ. In May
2004, the Justice Department retroactively classified Edmonds' briefings to
Senators Grassley and Leahy in 2002, as well as FBI briefings regarding her
allegations. The congressional gag applied to all information related to
Edmonds’ case, including the interrogation and arrest warrant issued for her
sister in Turkey as a result of a leak regarding Edmonds’ monitoring of certain
foreign targets of the FBI. To read the timeline on Edmonds’ case Click Here.
During recent depositions conducted by
the Justice Department in a lawsuit filed by Edmonds under FTC, Department of
Justice and FBI attorneys, Dan Barish and Ernest Batenga, questioned witnesses
on and discussed information that was previously declared state secrets. This
information was communicated on the record in the presence of parties who did
not have security clearance. Information such as the nature of Ms. Edmonds’
work with the FBI, the specific FBI units where she performed translation, FBI
target countries, the arrest warrant issued by the Turkish government for Ms.
Edmonds’ sister, and congressional letters regarding the consequences of
Dickerson’s espionage case in Turkey and here in the U.S., all of which were
retroactively classified by the Justice Department, was discussed and put in
the court record.
Edmonds’ responded to this recent
development: “The Department of Justice has now confirmed what we knew
all along: it is abusing the state secrets privilege to avoid
accountability, not to protect national security. How can it be that the
very same information is a state secret when it would assist plaintiffs suing
the government, but not a state secret when it would assist the government in
defeating plaintiffs? It's long past time for Congress to put an end to
the government's misuse and abuse of the state secrets privilege."
Currently Edmonds, her attorneys, and civil
liberties group are reviewing this latest disturbing development and its
implications on other SSP and government secrecy cases. The law firm Motley
Rice has also been notified since their case is still active.
The following quotes are from legal
experts and government watchdog organizations:
“This latest revelation proves that
throwing Ms. Edmonds’ case out of court was a travesty and a ploy, because no
state secrets would have been revealed,” said David K. Colapinto, General
Counsel for the National Whistleblower Center. “If the courts won’t prevent the
government from using the State Secrets Privilege as a trump card to cover-up
agency wrongdoing and to defeat meritorious claims, like Ms. Edmonds’
whistleblower case, then Congress must act to stop this odious practice,”
Colapinto added.
"These
latest revelations are indicative of the arbitrary and self-serving and
excessive use of the state secrets privilege by the Executive Branch in order
to defeat specific cases of concern at the time," said Mark S. Zaid, a
Washington, D.C. attorney who served as counsel to Sibel Edmonds during her
state secrets litigation and who has handled several such cases. “This is just
another example of why either the Judiciary needs to aggressively challenge state
secret assertions by the Executive Branch or Congress needs to intervene
and legislatively limit the government's ability to utilize the privilege,”
added Zaid.
"This proves the point we have been
making all along,” said Michael D. Ostrolenk, National Director of the Liberty
Coalition. "The use of the state secrets privilege against Mrs. Edmonds is
not about protecting true national security. The government was not created to
protect itself and various political and financial interests but to secure
Americans rights.
Nancy Talanian, Director of Bill of Rights Defense Committee,
stated "The DOJ's opportunistic classifying and divulging information
raises suspicions about its motivation for using State Secrets to silence Ms.
Edmonds. Now that the classified information has been revealed, it is
time for Ms. Edmonds to have her long-awaited day in court."
About National Security Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in
August 2004, is an independent and nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who
have come forward to address our nation’s security weaknesses; to inform
authorities of security vulnerabilities in our intelligence agencies, at
nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in airports, and at our nation’s
borders and ports; to uncover government waste, fraud, abuse, and in some cases
criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security
whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental
and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity,
provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers
suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest
organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. For
more on NSWBC visit www.nswbc.org
© Copyright 2007, National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition. Information
in this release may be freely distributed and published provided that all such
distributions make appropriate attribution to the National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition.
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