Translator Claims Work Scam at FBI

by Brian Blomquist
The New York Post

October 26, 2002

WASHINGTON - An FBI language translator, hired after Sept. 11, claims she was told by her supervisor to let her work pile up so the bureau could show it needs more money, a CBS report says.

"Let the documents pile up so we can show it and say we need more translators and expand the department," FBI translator Sibel Edmonds said a supervisor told her, according to a "60 Minutes" report that airs tomorrow.

Edmonds has filed a whistleblower lawsuit claiming she was fired for bringing the matter to light. She claims she refused to slow down her work, but her supervisor started deleting it.

"The next day, I would come to work and the translation would be gone," she said.

She said she confronted the supervisor, who brushed her off.

"He said, 'Consider it a lesson and don't talk about it to anybody else and don't mention it,' " Edmonds said.

She said FBI agents needed the translation for their investigations.

"The first two months after the Sept. 11 event . . . [these agents] were working around the clock . . . I would receive calls from these people saying, 'Would you please prioritize this and translate it?' " she said.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), an FBI critic, called her "very credible" because he says people in the FBI corroborated parts of her story.

Copyright 2002 NYP Holdings, Inc.

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