November 28, 2005
Court Turns Down Case of F.B.I. Translator
By
DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON,
Nov. 28 - The Supreme Court declined today to consider the case of a former
F.B.I. translator who contends she was fired after accusing the bureau of
ineptitude in the handling of intelligence related to terrorism.
The
justices refused without comment to take the case of Sibel Edmonds, who was a
contract linguist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for about six months,
translating material in Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani, before she was dismissed
on April 2, 2002.
Ms.
Edmonds had complained repeatedly that bureau linguists produced slipshod and
incomplete translations of important intelligence before and after the attacks
of Sept. 11, 2001. She also accused a Turkish linguist in the bureau's Washington
field office of blocking the translation of material involving acquaintances
who had come under F.B.I. suspicion. She said, too, that the bureau had allowed
diplomatic sensitivities to impede the translation of some intelligence.
The
F.B.I. said Ms. Edmonds's allegations were incorrect and that she was
disruptive.
Ms.
Edmonds's accusations had caused great discomfort within the bureau. Justice
Department officials had complained that allowing the suit to proceed could
expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations. Former
Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked a rarely used
power and declared that the case fell under the "state secret"
privilege.
Mr.
Ashcroft's declaration persuaded a federal district judge to dismiss Ms.
Edmonds's suit in July 2004. The dismissal was upheld by the United States
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last May, and today's
rejection by the Supreme Court is apparently the last legal word in the matter.
But
while it lasted, the episode was highly embarrassing to the bureau. A
classified investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general's office
concluded in 2004 that Ms. Edmonds's assertions "were at least a
contributing factor" in her dismissal.
In
addition to raising questions about the F.B.I.'s treatment of whistle-blowers,
the Edmonds episode focused yet more attention on the bureau's handling of
terrorism-related intelligence. The bureau had already been under fire for its
handling of intelligence before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.