Guest Column: Espionage at FBI

Lon Lemek

Three female whistle-blowers (two from the corporate world of Enron and Worldcom and one from the FBI) were the most recent recipients of Time magazines Person of the Year Award. Another whistle-blower not receiving such recognition was Sibel Edmonds, a wiretap translator working in the FBIs Washington, D.C., field office. According to an article in the June 19, 2002, Washington Post, Edmonds blew the whistle on a co-worker who, along with her husband, a U.S. military officer, had tried to recruit Edmonds into an organization under FBI surveillance.

Edmonds complained that investigations were being compromised and incorrect, and misleading translations were being sent to agents in the field. She said translations were being blocked and circumvented. Cryptic language was used throughout the report so as not to identify the targeted organization, but the Post dropped a hint when it revealed that both Edmonds and her alleged spy co-worker were U.S. citizens whose ethnicity was traced to the same Middle Eastern countrythat is also home to the targeted group. The Post claimed the cryptic language was needed for national security reasons. That is a phony excuse. Do they really believe that those in the Israeli embassy reading the article couldnt figure out who was being talked about?

Lon Lemek is a resident of Loves Park.