VIDEO: Scenes from outside the stunning deposition of FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds

It's amazing that the media is asleep at the wheel on Edmonds' explosive testimony. Brad Blog is trying to get the text transcript of Edmonds' deposition.

As reminder, from Sibel Edmonds' blog:

Here is the press release by my attorneys’, Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 4, 20094:08 PM
CONTACT: National Whistleblowers Center [1]Stephen M. Kohn (202) 342-6980Lindsey M. Williams (202) 342-1903

Sibel Edmonds Requests Attorney General Review the Invocation of State Secrets Privilege

Edmonds to Testify in Ohio Case Unless Attorney General Re-Invokes the Privilege

WASHINGTON - August 4 - Attorneys for FBI whistleblower Sibel D. Edmonds have requested that Attorney General Holder review the state secrets privilege invoked in her case and reverse the decision made under former President Bush. A copy of the letter can be found here
[2].
Ms. Edmonds was illegally fired from the FBI due to her protected disclosures. An independent investigation by the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General confirmed the serious misconduct committed by the FBI and the illegality of her termination. On or about October 18, 2002 the previous administration invoked the state secrets privilege in order to have Ms. Edmonds's whistleblower/First Amendment claims dismissed and to protect the government from embarrassment.

Ms. Edmonds has now been requested to provide sworn deposition and affidavit testimony in a case pending before the Ohio Elections Commission in the Schmidt v. Krikorian [3] case. This case raises nationally significant issues of electoral fraud and violation of law. The state secrets privilege has stifled Ms. Edmonds for the past seven years, and this deposition will be the first time that she will put her knowledge on the record.

Given the pendency of this case and the request for her testimony, the National Whistleblowers Legal Defense and Education Fund requested that the Attorney General immediately and independently review the basis upon which that privilege was initially invoked, and formally and in writing withdraw that privilege. At the time of this release, two separate deadlines for the Department of Justice to respond to the attorney's letter had passed, and consequently the deposition has been scheduled for Saturday. Although a request was hand delivered to the Department of Justice, the Attorney General's office informed counsel that they were having difficulty locating it. According to Stephen M. Kohn, the Executive Director of the National Whistleblowers Center and one of Ms. Edmonds's attorneys, "The Obama administration must take a fresh look at how the state secrets privilege was improperly used to hide government misconduct from the public view. The Edmonds case was the first case the 'privilege' was invoked, and it must be the first case the 'privilege' is revoked. The government's misguided attempt to cover up wrongdoing by abusing the state secrets privilege to bully a whistleblower must end. Ms. Edmonds has been requested to provide testimony in court. She will do so unless the government again invokes the privilege to quash her First Amendment rights."

Ms. Edmonds's deposition is scheduled for Saturday, August 8, 2009, at 10:30am. It will be held at the National Whistleblowers Center at 3238 P. St. NW, Washington, DC. The event is open to the press.
###

And the DOJ was a no-show.

Brad Blog:

Selected public commentary from the attorneys, candidate David Krikorian, and Edmonds, taken before, during breaks, and after the testimony follows. For many many more details, quotes and information about the information disclosed at the deposition.

On side note: Edmonds said in the video [see below] that whistleblowers like her were gagged and silenced and information was stamped classified. This sounds very familiar. Remember the Scooter Libby trial? From Firegdoglake liveblogging the Libby trial:

Libby Live: David Addington Four By: emptywheel 1:45 F returns to the Libby sonnet/Cheney meat grinder document.

Asking A how it would look when he found it. There's a stamp at the top, that says, "treated as Top Secret/SCI, then crossed out, with declassified."

F walks him through how it looked when Addington got it. Has Addington talk though what Top Secret and SCI mean. Can documents be properly classified as "treated as Top Secret SCI" Is that a proper classification?

A President's EO doesn't use that phrase.

F Do you recall seeing any other document that were "treated as Top Secret/SCI"

F Did you put that marking there.

A No

F Do you know how it got there?

A On this particular page, no, but in the course of production, there were situations in which I received handwritten notes saying "treated as" some particular classification, when the govt came back later and asked for originals, from that I take it that when they made copies, they stamped that on there, but this one it seems like they stamped that on the original.

SCI stands for sensitive compartmented information.

Also this:

The June 12 CPD [Counter Proliferation Division] Note

The first copy of Libby's notes from the conversation with Cheney where he told Libby that Plame was CPD--the one that was a copy of the original, which was used before the Grand Jury--was stamped "treated as Secret/SCI." So was the transcribed copy. But the original was stamped "treated as Top Secret/SCI."