Denver Post: Translator Caught In Web (Sibel Edmonds)

[cascadiance]

Good to see some coverage in some of the more mainstream publications out there now. Nice article that looks to have been written from Sibel's and her lawyer's speeches to the ACLU on CSPAN the other day.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_3073261

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Article Launched: 10/02/2005 01:00:00 AM

john aloysius farrell
Translator caught in web
the nation

Washington

When Sibel Edmonds was a young girl, her father, a physician in Iran, was asked to falsify an autopsy finding. Angrily, he refused, daring the authorities to retaliate.

At home, he told his family: "Things like this do not happen in truly democratic civil societies - like America."

Sibel still clings to her father's words, but her Kafka-esque encounter with the U.S. government is challenging her faith.

She wanders a wonderland of classified documents and covert hearings, waiting to see if the Supreme Court will take her case and lift the curtain of secrecy that the Bush administration has self-protectively wrapped around it.

...

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Why isn't there more activity on this thread?

Anything that Sibel says needs to be amplified.

[Callalily]

2. "States secret privilege" rule?

Yes, our government truly is abusing this rule and I am appalled, I am outraged! And then Ms. Edmonds and her lawyer are barred from the courtroom so the government attorneys could talk with the judge? Is justice being practiced here? I think not. And amazing and I'm giving much admiration to Ms. Edmonds, that after all she's been through she still hasn't lost her faith in the United States. I don't know if I can say the same for me.

[hlthe2b]

3. Sibel is a true heroine... but, while I read each post on her

with intent... The whole situation makes me feel so very helpless.:shrug:

I have to keep my trust in her tenacity, I guess.

[cascadiance]

4. I know your feeling, but the way we can help is raise awareness...

Call your congresspeople, especially if they are more than a noop like mine is (Cunningham).

Tell others who you know about her and direct them to places to find out more about her. There are of course many Republican types that won't want to look at anything that contradicts Herr Bush's view of the world, but there are a *lot* of people that think like you or I who haven't heard of her, and would call their congress people or tell their friends as well if they were to find out from you who she is.

There's still time to put on pressure, and the more we put on congress over the next two weeks or so, the more we can raise the barometer that the Supreme Court will be judged on how they rule on this. If the congress people feel responsibility for who sits on this court and feel that enough people are upset if she's not heard or ruled upon fairly, they might at least try to work harder for us on the next nomination, if not helping building awareness on Capitol Hill the importance that we as citizens attach to her being heard.

She mentions that both Republicans and Democrats are involved in this conspiracy. If the honest politicians on the hill see this effort on our part to call them as not partisan assault on one party but a quest for the truth and cleaning up politics in general, I'm guessing that more will follow the lead of both Patrick Leahy (D) and Charles Grassley (R), in trying to help her be heard. I think the honest ones want to feel that they will be valued for their honesty and integrity and that that will be what wins for them in 2006, not necessarily just whether they are Democrat or Republican. They're helping out with this issue will separate them from the Tom Delays and the other cancers that are infecting Washington right now.

[WhiteTara]

5. kicking for the lunch crowd

:kick: GO Sibel :yourock: