Sibel Edmond's Case Rejected for Appeal

The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, effectively ends the suit by the translator, Sibel Edmonds.
Her lawyer said, however, that she planned to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Ms. Edmonds, a contract linguist for the bureau for about six months, translating material in Azerbaijani, Farsi and Turkish, was trying to revive the lawsuit she filed after being was fired in 2002.
She had repeatedly complained that bureau linguists produced slipshod and incomplete translations of important terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She also accused a linguist in the Washington field office of blocking the translation of material that involved acquaintances who had come under suspicion and said the bureau had allowed diplomatic concerns to affect the translation of important intelligence.
Ms. Edmonds's suit was dismissed in July after Attorney General John Ashcroft invoked a rarely used power and declared that the case fell under "state secret" privilege.
The judge who issued that ruling, Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court, said he was satisfied with government statements that the suit could expose intelligence-gathering methods and disrupt diplomatic relations.