Sibel Edmonds Quotes
During my work there I came across some very significant issues that I started reporting in December of 2001 to the mid-level management within the FBI.
Edmonds, Sibel. "Gagged, but Not Quiet." Interview by Jim Hogue. Baltimore Chronicle, 21 May 2004.
The term “great corporations” had been in common use to indicate large corporations with no implications of quality as “great” would imply today. Search for “great corporations” to see the common usage.
This is the definition of good business that most conservative a business interests prefer. They do not wish to differentiate among the businesses nor do they wish to imply that businesses have any other obligations or desirable characteristics. By this definition, a business that makes money producing adult pornography is as good as one that develops pharmaceuticals; one that creates well paying jobs is as good as one that creates minimum wage jobs or even exports jobs overseas. Complying with the law in a democracy has never been a definition of good citizenship. It is a minimum duty to which all are obliged some businesses enhance the quality of life; others diminish it. This is where many differ with Mr. Longworth.
This quotation was ridiculed at the time. Virginia had very lax political ethical laws and regulations for politicians and in that year, both the Republican Governor and the Republican Attorney General had accepted large gifts from businessmen of the state which in other states would have been considered as bribes and be illegal. The rules in Virginia were so lax, that expensive gifts were given to members of politician’s family. In one case that year, a businessman paid for the Governor’s daughter’s expensive wedding. With both houses of the state legislature also in Republican hands, there was no oversight or investigations. It was only though the efforts of the press that the facts emerged. Howell did not say or do anything about the situation. Although in 2013 it was Republicans who were corrupt, the same lax rules had prevailed for years and when they were in power the Democrats made no effort to tighten the ethics laws and rules.
Corporations were not common at the time. The corporations of the day like large corporations today had directors and managers who were not the principle owners. There was deep suspicion that these professional managers would not watch over the money of the corporation with the same degree of vigilance as would the owner manager. The same problem exists today when the economic vested interest of the managers and the shareholders do not always coincide. Various bonus schemes have been created to ameliorate the problem, but as the meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession demonstrated, many managers would make ruinous decisions for the corporation as they could get large bonuses. “Copartnery” is an older English term for “partnership.”
Sibel Deniz Edmonds is a former contract translator for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the founder and editor-in-chief of the independent news website NewsBud.
