Here we go again!

Since Richard Clarke magically appeared on the scene just as John Kerry went on vacation, many wondered who would come out the woodwork when Kerry took a few days off for shoulder surgery.

As if on cue, we meet Sibel Edmonds.

Mrs. Edmonds was hired the week after September 11th as a translator for the FBI. Her job was to help catch up a backlog of untranslated wire tape tapes. She was fired just 6 months later in March 2002. Over the last 2 years, she has made a series of increasingly explosive charges about her 6 months at the FBI.

In July 2002 she told 60 Minutes that many of the translators working for the FBI were incompetent and that her bosses told her to translate tapes slowly so their department would look overworked. She also claimed the FBI had been infiltrated by a Turkish agent who threatened to kill her if she did not join a terrorist group.

Early in Jan 2004 Mrs. Edmonds expanded her story when she claimed that some of the FBI’s Arabic translators cheered the attacks on 9/11.

Later in Jan 2004 her story grew even larger when she told The New York Observer’s Gail Sheehy that the FBI told her when she was fired that if she hired a lawyer she would be thrown in jail.

Then on March 26, 2004, after watching the glamor treatment Richard Clarke got, she kicked her story up a big notch…

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…and told Salon that she had testified before the 9/11 commission that, “We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001” because she claims we had information terrorists wanted to fly planes into buildings.

Now don’t forget she was hired AFTER Sept 11 to play catch up on tapes that were not yet translated. The best she could hope to claim is that a 90 day backlog on translation was long enough that we missed important clues. It would be hard for her to make the case that we had the info and ignored it. Or would it?….

But yesterday she told the Guardian that in addition the the tapes she saw specific files with specific targets and specific dates on them and the Whitehouse failed to act.

So now the cycle will start anew….

A Democrat Senator or two will claim outrage over these allegations. Then a few left wing groups will “call for” something. (an investigation, someone to resign, what ever, they don’t care what, but they will “call for” it and the media will run that.)

Then the Democratic Senators will write letter to the Republicans “calling for” something. (probably an investigation to investigate the investigation going on) These letter will be released to the media and the circus will crank back up with popcorn and cotton candy for the children.

Next thing you know, the mainstream media will be back in full swing and they will never quite have the time to google Mrs Edmonds as I did and watch her story grow over the years.

Now before you think I’m just bashing the woman.- I’m sure there are reasonable explanations for how someone that only worked for the FBI for 6 months saw so much explosive evidence when nobody else from the FBI is coming forward to corroborate her allegations. (in fact many came forward to deny them) And I’m also sure there is a reason she forgot to mention all these allegations on 60 Minutes 2 years ago. I’m also quite positive there is a reason her story keeps getting bigger.

I know it has nothing to do with that fact that she got fired or that she wants a million dollar book deal like Clarke got. (Never! I’m shock you would think such a thing- Shocked!)

There will be another interesting part of the media circus I’m betting will come. Her main charge is that the FBI was a mess. Of course that was the FBI that Clinton was responsible for thru 8 year in office and Bush had for 7 months. Of course the media will make it sound like the FBI was just fine when Clinton left office.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the media will show some restraint or dare I say it– Check out the woman’s story.– But after watching the AWOL story and Clarke, I doubt it.

What I do know, is that I have no right to question why her story kept growing thru the years and it in no way makes her many versions less credible. By me mentioning that her story keeps getting more and more grand I am part of a right-wing hit squad out to assassinate her character. Or so they’ll say.

UPDATE: I could not get into Wizbang! last night so I typed this in a word processor. This morning, the cycle I predicted is already starting… Get yer pop-corn… The circus is coming back to town.