WASHINGTON – An FBI language translator, hired after Sept. 11, claims she was told by her supervisor to let her work pile up so that the bureau could show that 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.
Edmonds 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.
After she claims she was fired, she went to Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), an FBI critic, who called her “very credible” because he says people in the FBI corroborated parts of her story.