U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

(FRIDAY, January 14) – The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Justice (DOJ) criticized the FBI for failing to thoroughly investigate the allegations of a whistleblower who complained of sloppy work and security lapses within the Bureau’s translation unit, according to an unclassified report released Friday at the request of Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).  

Leahy, the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over DOJ, and Grassley, a senior member of the panel, sought release of an unclassified version of the report in July 2004 when the inquiry into the allegations of Sibel Edmonds, a former contract linguist in the FBI translation program, were completed but the results were classified by the FBI.  Edmonds claimed she was fired from her job as a contract linguist in 2002 after making allegations against a coworker of shoddy work and security breaches in the unit.

“This report confirms that the FBI failed to treat this case as seriously as the situation demanded.  It is unacceptable, and it deeply concerns us, that in the wake of the Robert Hanssen spy case, and in the months following September 11th, the FBI failed to vigorously investigate these grave allegations.  This report does not determine whether the underlying claims would have ultimately been proven accurate, but the FBI’s flawed response gives me little confidence that the bureau or its leaders have learned from decades of repeated mistakes,” said Leahy.  “The Bureau has reflexively ignored and punished its whistleblowers, to the detriment of the Bureau’s effectiveness and sometimes to the detriment of the public’s safety.  The Bureau needs to break that pattern and learn from its mistakes in order to be as effective as the American people need it to be in countering terrorism and in all its other vital missions.  I commend the Inspector General for ensuring that an unclassified version of this report was made available to the public.” 

"Time and again we hear from the FBI that whistleblowers who raise legitimate complaints will not be retaliated against.  It's time for more than just lip service. The Inspector General's report did not address the truthfulness of the allegations. But, the IG did determine that if the FBI had actually looked into the allegations, they might have found that where there's smoke there's fire.  Once again the FBI has shown that it has a long way to go in its treatment of whistleblowers,” said Grassley. "While this report shows only the problems encountered during the FBI's investigation of this case, the larger issue with the translation department remains.  I plan to continue to monitor the implementation of the recommendations made in previous reports that I expect will help restore integrity to the translation department."

Over the years Grassley and Leahy have partnered on several legislative and oversight initiatives to protect whistleblowers and to reform the FBI.  Most recently the two senators joined forces to amend the National Intelligence Reform Act (the so-called 9-11 Bill) to ensure greater oversight of the beleaguered foreign language translation unit.  The Grassley-Leahy amendment expanded the requirements governing the Attorney General’s reporting to Congress on the translation unit.  The senators offered the amendment following an OIG audit showing the slow pace of reforms in the translation unit in the three years since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  The audit also revealed that thousands of hours of tapes of terrorist targets had not been translated in a timely manner, security problems persisted, and systemic difficulties had not been overcome.  An unclassified version of that audit was released at Leahy’s and Grassley’s request in September 2004.

Grassley and Leahy also have a pending request for the release of a public version of another classified OIG report on certain information obtained by the FBI prior to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

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