Wilson 1          

Silence or Truth—An Issue for Whistleblowers

Looking around in today's American society, it must be noted that large numbers of citizens turn the other way, keep their mouth shut, or lack the integrity to speak up when it  comes to corruption.  This lack of voicing out is usually related to desire to continue in a given position or place, be safe, or avoid controversy.  There would be no need to worry about people not doing what they are supposed to if everyone did what they should to their best ability without slipshod or corrupt work; however, this is not always the case.  A person’s character is sometime thought to reflect their actual character and is thought to be based on their quality of work, moral beliefs, and accountability.  One such instance of accountability was questioned when Sibel Edmonds accused the FBI bureau of ineptitude because the bureau allowed inaccurate translations.  Thus, it should be assumed that everyone should do everything to the best of one's ability and in a correct fashion, concede to the fact that they are not capable of doing the action, or seek the help of someone else.

            Correct actions should be taken by every person in regard to every aspect of their life.  The actions to be considered in this case are those of Sibel Edmonds who was labeled as “whistleblower”.  Edmonds, a contract linguist, worked for the FBI for about six months.  She was “translating material in Turkish, Persian and Azerbaijani” and “she was dismissed in 2002 after she complained repeatedly that the bureau linguists had produced slipshod and incomplete translations of important terrorism intelligence before and after the Sept. 11 attacks” (Lichtblau).  Edmonds was presenting an accurate question

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Wilson 2           regarding the translation process used by other translators.  She raised the question of whether or not others were doing their job as they should.

Edmonds went on to present a concern regarding another employee.  Likewise, this accusation was a concern regarding the accuracy of linguistic abilities.  “She also accused a fellow Turkish linguist in the bureau's Washington field office of blocking the translation of material involving acquaintances who had come under FBI suspicion and said the bureau had allowed diplomatic sensitivities with other nations to impede the translation of important terrorism intelligence” (Lichtblau).

            Edmonds, “whistle blowing”, brought about considerable concerns regarding the integrity of other employees in the same work area that she was working; therefore, she was placing her own employment, integrity, and continued employment opportunity at risk.  As a result of her repeated complaints, she was dismissed from her job.  Even though Edmonds was dismissed from her job, it was disclosed that her complaints regarding other employees did have factual evidence that supported her claims.  “The FBI confirmed that Edmonds's co-worker had been part of an organization that was a target of top-secret surveillance and that the same co-worker had 'unreported contacts' with a foreign government official subject to the surveillance, according to a letter from two senators to the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General” (Grimaldi).  It was also noted that there were other problems.  “In addition, the linguist failed to translate two communications from the targeted foreign government official, the letter said” (Grimaldi). 

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Wilson 3

This case shows Sibel Edmonds as a primary stakeholder in the fact that she is not only applying the integrity of her job but also the principals of doing the correct action for herself and encouraging that correct action for all who work within a similar job capacity that she worked.  She wants to do the correct actions in all capacities.  On the other hand, the FBI admits to some error on their part.  The FBI are stakeholders because of the allegations against their lack of action regarding the work issues and integrity of those issues presented by Edmonds regarding ineptitude by the FBI in regard to translators or those working in that area.  Eric Lichtblau, a New York Times reporter, reported that “The Edmonds case has proved to be a growing concern to the FBI because it touches on three potential vulnerabilities for the bureau:  its ability to translate sensitive counterterrorism material, its treatment of internal 'whistle-blowers,' and its classification of sensitive material that critics say could be embarrassing to the bureau” (Lichtblau).

This case shows Sibel Edmonds, a woman who is an interpreter for the FBI, trying to do the appropriate action in accordance of what she feels is the correct and the not correct practices in her work place.   Edmonds reported this situation or incorrectness because she felt it was her duty.  Immanuel Kant supports this in saying: “An action done from duty has its moral worth, not in the purposes that is to be attained by it, but in the maxim according to which the action is determined.”  Kant goes on to say that  “The moral worth depends, therefore, not on the realization of the object of the action, but merely on the principle of volition according to which, without regard to any objects of the faculty of desire, the action has been done” (Pojman 199).  Kant lends support to Edmonds and her decision to speak up regarding her work situation.

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Wilson 4          

As for Edmonds' situation, one must view the apparent--She was only trying to do the good or right thing.  Aristotle says that "Every craft and every investigation, and likewise every action and decision, seems to aim at some good; hence the good has been well described as that at which everything aims" (Pojman 249).  Obviously, Aristotle would have supported the claims that Edmond made because it would be the standard of good to which he would have counted as an aim for all.  Edmonds was speaking out to establish a quality of good for all in her workplace and all affected by the job that the translators must do.  The action she took was to protect a means to establishing the good for all.

            Because she took this action to do what is good and right, she was dismissed from her job with the FBI.  Thus, a second issue regarding Edmonds arises.  This issue deals with keeping her job despite the fact that she is a “whistleblower” as labeled by the FBI.  “Most employees remain silent.  Others choose to bear witness and speak out.  They make a difference by blowing the whistle on unethical conduct in the workplace” (Government Accountability Project).  In Edmonds situation, keeping silent may very well have resulted in her keeping her job.  It was noted that Edmonds was dismissed because of what federal officials “described as her 'disruptive' presence in the field office” (Lichtblau).  James Grimaldi, a Washington Post staff writer reported that “Edmonds had been found to have breached security, FBI officials told Senate investigators.  However, Edmonds said that two of those alleged breaches were related to specific instruction by a supervisor to prepare a report on the other translator on her home computer” (Grimaldi).  This seems like it is just one more incident in which Edmonds

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Wilson 5

was doing what she thought she was supposed to be doing.  This may have been just a way for the FBI to cover up their lack of ability to monitor translators and prevent slipshod work. 

In other words, the FBI was trying to fix the situation so that in the short term they appeared to be doing the right and good thing.  John Stuart Mill commented on this when he said “Men lose their high aspirations as they lose their intellectual tastes, because they have not time or opportunity for indulging in them; and they addict themselves to inferior pleasure, not because they deliberately prefer them, but because they are either the only ones to which they have access, or the only ones which they are any longer capable of enjoying” (Pojman 143).  The FBI seemed to be taking a route that was of access to them and for the moment it sufficed to keep the FBI looking good and in a happy state.  This does not account for the fact that it was correct nor does it account for the fact that it was going against what was right.  It seems that it must be the job of the FBI to protect all Americans from espionage and slipshod work done by translators.  This lack of protecting the people in order to make the FBI look like there is not wrong is both morally and legally wrong.

As Americans, there are certain rights that must be secured.  The right of freedom should not be compromised because someone cannot follow the rules—compromise is not good for anyone.  John Hospers points this out when he states that “Each act, in the moral life, falls under a rule; and we are to judge the rightness or wrongness of the act, not by its consequences of its universalization—that is, by the consequences of the adoption of the rule under which this act falls” (Pojman 160).  Sibel Edmonds was trying to act according to the rule that translators do complete and do accurate work in order to help protect Americans. 

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                                                                                                                                                                                                                Wilson 6      Reporting the incomplete and slipshod work by other translators should have in no way caused any question regarding her performance.  Despite the fact that Edmonds allegations were found to be true, she was not rehired.  However, the FBI did state that they “wanted to encourage all FBI employees to 'raise good faith concerns about mismanagement or misconduct' without fear of reprisals or intimidation” (Lichtblau).  Sibel Edmonds did what she needed to do because she believed in doing a correct and right job to help protect American people.  Edmonds stresses that everyone should do everything is a correct fashion and to the best of their ability or admit it when they are not capable of doing this.  Without a doubt, she should have been labeled a model employee rather than a “whistleblower”.

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