The Wandering Wonderland of Sibel

Translator caught in web by John Aloysius Farrell. "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."

It happens in America. In America one may even have a brain lost somewhere between the autopsy and the Warren report. How civil is that? Dr. Coverup practices in all countries.

"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. Sibel's offense? She was a patriot who blew the whistle on incompetence, security breaches and alleged wrongdoing in the U.S. government's counter-terror operations."

Clings … father's words … Kaftka-esque … challenging faith … wanders wonderland … a patriot … lift the curtain of secrecy. (There's more cliches here than you can shake a court order at.) Sure wish you'd tell us anyway, damn the secrecy. Do the right thing and sing like a canary, hon.

"Sibel's offense? She was a patriot who blew the whistle on incompetence … For that, she was fired. When Sibel challenged her dismissal in court, she became one of several Americans to be penalized in recent months by the government's "very broad and radical use" of an old legal rule known as the "state secrets privilege,"…

Well, why didn't you tell everything instead of suing the government? Ya had to know they'd pull that "secret privilege" defense, it's not like you fell off the turnip wagon last week.

"This is not just legal theory. It affects real people's lives," says Beeson (attorney). "They have learned secrecy is powerful."

Laughter. "They" have "learned" as if "they" recently discovered this aspect of governing the people? Heaven help us, now "they" know that secrecy works to keep us in the dark!

"Sibel's family moved to Turkey when she was a girl … she attended college in the United States. She became a U.S. citizen and, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, went to work for the FBI … Sibel was over-qualified, but felt the call of duty, she says. "Remember where I came from: countries where you could be arrested for just dreaming about these rights."

Please. Stop the goose bumps and warm fuzzy tactic of Sibel this, Sibel that. Call of duty? She'd make a good politician with that one. We know how the whole world dreams about being US, that where others come from folks can be arrested for just dreaming (especially if those dreams involve overthrow, coup, takeover, etc. and guess what, many were arrested and worse dreaming of those rights right here).

"But at the FBI, Sibel got a disillusioning look at the management failures, case backlogs, turf battles and bureaucratic gold-bricking that have since been confirmed by several high-level government investigations of the government's counter-terror operations."

Disillusioning? Try being over-qualified and working at McDonald's, Sears, or the Rest Haven nursing home, or as a contract employee at the FBI … oh wait you did that last one already. It wasn't "management failure" that led to 9/11 and those 19 hijackers with boxcutters. It was good old ruling elite inventiveness when a war was needed.

"I thought it was enough to pay taxes, to vote, to be a good citizen," she says. Now she knows the real price of freedom: "Eternal vigilance."

John Aloysius Farrell gets paid to write this stuff ? To tell us how Sibel learned the price of freedom is exactly like mastuh diddler Thomas Jefferson said, eternal vigilance. Tom J. also suggested a rebellion might be necessary every twenty years. We're really overdue on that one ... yet hear so little about it.