Court Dismisses FBI Contractor's Suit Against U.S.

Associated Press
Saturday, May 7, 2005; A05

A federal appeals court rejected a fired FBI contractor's bid to revive her lawsuit against the government.

Sibel Edmonds said she was fired from her job as a wiretap translator because she told superiors she suspected that a co-worker was leaking information to targets of an ongoing FBI investigation. The FBI said it fired her because she committed security violations and disrupted the office.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit yesterday upheld a lower-court ruling that Edmonds's allegations might expose government secrets that could damage national security.

The Justice Department's inspector general said Edmonds's allegations about a co-worker "raised serious concerns that, if true, could potentially have extremely damaging consequences for the FBI."