Lukery: Sibel Edmonds Case - New (And Old) Revelations Of Spying At The FBI

http://lukery.blogspot.com/2007/11/sibel-edmonds-case-new-and-old.html

Friday, November 16, 2007
Sibel Edmonds Case: New (and old) revelations of spying at the FBI

News outlets are abuzz with the news of the guilty plea of Nada Nadim Prouty.

Despite fraudulently acquiring her citizenship and having close familial ties to Hezbollah, Prouty was able to pass background checks for both the CIA and the FBI.

Prouty pled guilty to improperly accessing the internal computer systems, apparently to get a status-check on investigations into Hezbollah, as well as herself and her family members.

The agencies appear to be playing down the incident with anonymous sources saying that there aren't any counter-terrorism or counter-intelligence implications - although many observers are less sanguine.

Perhaps the media will take the opportunity to revisit the case of former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds.

Perhaps the media will be equally outraged that some of the spies in Sibel's case are still working in senior positions at the FBI, and other spies were allowed to walk away without an investigation.

Perhaps not. I won't hold my breath.

*****
Dodgy Background Checks?
The UK's Independent reports:

"As a tale of incompetence by the intelligence services, the tale of Nada Nadim Prouty is hard to beat."

What if the issue isn't a matter of 'incompetence' though? As we saw in Sibel's case, sometimes there really are 'bad guys' inside the agencies. It's certainly not inconceivable that 'bad guys' in the agencies would recruit and promote similarly-minded folks. To the extent that might be true, it wouldn't take very long for the bad guys to come to dominate the senior positions at the FBI.

If that sounds far-fetched, consider what Special Agent John Roberts said on the 60 Minutes show about Sibel's case. John Roberts was head of the FBI's Internal Affairs Department - so his words should carry some weight:


- snip -

As I documented in Sibel Edmonds' Corrupt Boss is STILL the key to National Security, Sibel's boss, Mike Feghali, engaged in all manner of espionage, including recruiting spies into the translation bureau and making sure that agents in the field didn't receive translations that were directly relevant to ongoing investigations - including the 9/11 investigation. This has all been confirmed by the Inspector General's report into Sibel's case. Nonetheless, Feghali has been promoted and is now, currently, in charge of the entire Arabic translation desk, in charge of 300 translators, many of whom are his family and friends, and some "were openly celebrating the terrorist attacks on September 11."

Who promoted Feghali, and why? Who are his 'juice men'?

Why is Congress, and the media, silent on this matter?

Feghali also hired Melek Can Dickerson. Prior to joining the FBI, Dickerson worked for three different organizations - all of which were targets of FBI investigations, and she had ongoing relationships with people who were targets of FBI counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism operations.

How did the FBI miss this in their background checks?

- snip -

Of course, Sibel isn't the only person to make claims about dodgy background investigations. Take the case of John Cole, manager for counterintelligence operations covering Pakistan, Afghanistan and India at FBI HQ. He reported that:

Several translators from (Pakistan, Afghanistan and India ), who had ties/relationship with targets of FBI investigations and were found to be significant security risks, were hired by the FBI and placed in charge of translating intelligence in languages from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India. In one case, the translator's father was among the members of a FBI target organization, and in another case, the FBI discovered that one translator had been providing FBI top secret information to a foreign intelligence service.

Cole was forced out of the FBI after 18 years for raising these questions. Apparently he didn't have the requisite Juice Men on his side.

Back to Prouty

Returning to the recent case of Nada Nadim Prouty, according to The Independent, in 1999, Prouty was "talent spotted" at the restaurant where she'd worked since 1990. Who recruited her? Who pushed her through the recruitment process? Who were her 'Juice-Men'? Have they been promoted? Who facilitated Prouty's 2003 move to the CIA and then to the "CIA’s most sensitive post" where she "participated in the debriefings of high-ranking al-Qaida detainees"?

The Prouty timeline, and her penalty, is also suspicious.

According to Michael Isikoff in Newsweek, buried in the penultimate paragraph of a 3 page article:
"(The FBI) discover(ed) Prouty's connections to Hizbullah (in) December 2005... Eventually the bureau alerted the agency and the CIA later reassigned her to a less sensitive position... about a year ago, after she first came under suspicion."

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