Irony: WP ONLINE story about US Corporate Media ignoring Sibel Edmonds

[jackstraw45]

The ultimate barf-inducing irony of the day:

Thw Washington Post has a story on the front page of their WEBSITE ringing the alarm that the US media has ignored the Sibel Edmonds story.

Yet that same Washington Post doesn't RUN THE STORY IN THE PAPER.

How f'ing typical.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60651-2004Apr8.html

Sept. 11 Allegations Lost in Translation

By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Thursday, April 8, 2004; 9:51 AM

The sensational story of Sibel Edmonds illuminates the world of difference between the international online media and the U.S. press.

(cut)

Edmonds's story has been almost uniformly ignored in the U.S. daily press. Her allegations have been detailed in the online magazine Salon and several liberal sites are playing them up. The Independent's story was mentioned briefly on Monday in Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing blog on washingtonpost.com. Tim Russert briefly quizzed the Republican and Democratic heads of the 9/11 commission about Edmonds during Sunday's "Meet the Press" program on NBC. Former Clinton White House aide Paul Begala mentioned it last week on CNN's "Crossfire." But the only U.S. newspaper to give Edmonds any extended coverage was the Washington Times. In January, a page-one New York Observer article on Edmonds's complaints about lax security in the FBI's translation office did not include the allegations that first appeared in the Independent.

Clearly, what we have here are two different standards of journalism: one American, one nearly global. The question is where does this difference come from?

[libbygurl]

1. Gotta have it both ways. Same thing with "Wizard of Oz" article on MSNBC.

n/t

[struggle4progress]

2. For those who (like me) somehow missed the background ...

here are some links:

Former FBI translator says Rice lied about government knowledge of terrorist threats
Sibel Edmonds, a 33-year-old Turkish-American who is fluent in Turkish, Farsi (Persian) and Azerbaijani, was hired on September 13, 2001, by the FBI to translate documents and transcribe wiretapped conversations. She had access to information “circulating within the FBI in the spring and summer of 2001 suggesting that an attack using aircraft was just months away and the terrorists were in place,” according to the Independent report.
The newspaper quoted Edmonds saying: “I gave details of specific investigation files, the specific dates, specific target information, specific managers in charge of the investigation. I gave them everything so that they could go back and follow up. This is not hearsay. These are things that are documented. These things can be established very easily.” Edmonds called the statement by Rice that there was no such information “an outrageous lie.”
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/tran-a06.shtml

Leahy urges probe of FBI
<snip>
Sibel Edmonds, the whistleblower whose revelations about the translation unit are already the subject of inquiries by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department, also has given evidence to the September 11 commission. Miss Edmonds started work in the translation unit a few days after September 11. "The way that unit was run was just terrible," she said. "Some of the people they'd hired couldn't even speak English, and a lot of material was being mistranslated — or not translated at all, just marked 'not relevant' and ignored. I couldn't believe it."
<snip>
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040405-110856-6597r.htm

A quest for truth
<snip>
I want Ms. Rice to tell us whether and how this nation's foreign policy, military, technological and political collateral could have been better deployed to prevent 9/11.
<snip>
FBI translator Sibel Edmonds reported that al-Qaida was planning to use aircraft to attack America. Were you aware of this, and when?
<snip>
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.hearing08apr08,0,361305.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

Yo, Condi, we need some answers
<snip>
Can Rice respond to the closed-door testimony of a former FBI translator who says the U.S. had information about a terrorist plot in spring 2001?
Background:Sibel Edmonds was quoted recently that "there was specific information on the use of airplanes. There were people issuing orders and information on people already in place in this country months before Sept. 11." She said documents and other agents can back her up.
<snip>
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/8384245.htm?1c

[Mandate My Ass]

3. Rowley, Edmonds and Robert Wright

should be giving public sworn testimony before this commission.

Why aren't they?

[NewJeffCT]

4. hopefully, they can be called back

Clarke & Rice both testified privately and then publically.

But, I am not an expert at this stuff, so I have no clue.

[Mandate My Ass]

5. True, but it seems Rice

was called because the press finally acquiesced and started reporting what the commissioners, 9/11 widows and public had been demanding for a long time prior to her appearance. AS the above article notes, Sibel Edmonds is being glaringly ignored in the press and most people outside of DU and other liberal sites have no idea who she is and how inculpatory her testimony would be.