WhistleblowerSupporter

Support Your Local “Occupy Your Town/City” Movement

I received an email today from someone who did not understand why I was not actively supporting the “Occupy” efforts across the country.  I’ve been watching news of these activities with interest. (The real news, not corporate owned media outlets who are NOT reporting it for the most part, and not accurately reporting it for the rest.)   A week or so ago I intended to go down and find out for myself what was going on, but work and several family disasters delayed my expedition down there.  Probably the same excuse, many of you have for not actively helping in some way or another.  

 

When you consider that the Occupy efforts appear to be a collaboration of committed individuals who have various concerns and complaints, many of which are caused by corporations, politicians, bureaucracy, greedy examples of those with more than most, etc.  The problems are social, economic, and political.  I can see my reader’s point

 

These are the same people who are helping to enable corporations and various hands and arms of government that are causing the very situations that are creating whistleblowers.  Greed, power mongering, cronyism, influence pedaling, unethical and criminal contracting activities, fraud, waste, abuse, and a host of other ills are examples.  Honorable people when confronted by this try to change it, report it, fix it and usually get the stuffing kicked out of them for their efforts in the climate we are dealing with in this country today. 

 

I agree that I should help promote the support of those who have the courage, determination and commitment to go be an active part of peaceful protest in events being staged across the nation.  Even if you cannot take part in the sign holding and waving, stop by and talk, find out why these people are down there and what they need to stay well and comfortable.  This is especially true in parts of the country that are now turning cold, wet and inhospitable.  My reader suggested donating supplies that are so critically needed like, warm coats, gloves, hats, food, especially things that can be cooked or heated under outdoor camping conditions.  Waterproof plastic storage boxes, tents, sleeping bags, cooking utensils, first aid supplies, those hand warmer sticks you can buy at sporting goods stores, and anything else that will keep up the volunteer’s spirits and energy.  

 

My reader reported that the Occupy Tacoma (in Washington State, south of Seattle, in a park on Pacific Avenue, downtown, at the cross street with the new bridge across the Puyallup River) is a neat and orderly effort showing a positively motivated cooperative of young and old that demonstrates a stellar example of the best of human effort.  They, who are giving the best they can to make a difference and to help the majority of us break out of our complacency and paralyzed condition, deserve our support and help. 

 

When those  with wealth and political control,  who continue to take and take and manipulate things to the detriment of the majority (working class and poor)  in this country are taken to task, and our society balances and rights itself again, we will also be reducing the number of whistleblowers, because there will be less crap and corruption to report,  and to fight against in our work places. 

 

Please take time this week or weekend and do what you can for your local “Occupy ____________” effort.  If you can report on your local Occupy activities, please comment here on this site; you are welcome to voice your observations and opinions. 

 

As for me, I am going to the coat closet, storage room and pantry right now! 

GFS

 

 

Decision Making Advice from Gandhi

Some quotes from Benjamin F. Schafer, sent in to Whistleblower 411 (Yahoo)   Thank you!  -GFS

 

The idea of the four groups nuance a subcategory of humanity, some people rise above and are outside these four groups. Below are examples of two people that I believe meet this criteria.

-Benjamin F. Schafer

 

“All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move. “

Benjamin Franklin

 

 

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?

Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought.

 

DoD Auditors Auditing Less.

Here is another article and comment sent from a reader.  Thank you again, Old Navy Man.  And GFS

 

 

G. Florence-

 

Reduce government, and you reduce defense contractor oversight.

 

An Old Navy Man

 

  

WashingtonTechnology

 

DOD auditors raise the limit on what they'll examine

Watchdog group cries foul over what they see as reduced oversight

By Alice Lipowicz

Oct 29, 2010

 

The Defense Department has reduced the scope of contracts audited by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, according to a DCAA memo released today by the Project on Government Oversight, a watchdog group.

According to the memo, contracting officers' requests for DCAA reviews of contractor cost data must meet a threshold of $10 million for fixed-price proposals and $100 million for cost-type proposals, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Previously, the threshold was $700,000 for fixed-price proposals and $10 million for cost-type proposals, POGO officials said in a post published on the organization's website.

Approximately $92 billion in annual DOD contracts will be affected by the new thresholds, POGO estimated, calling it a radical reduction in contract oversight by DCAA.

“POGO has long feared contractors and their government allies would block DCAA from exposing contractor ripoffs,” Nick Schwellenbach, POGO’s director of investigations, said today.“Why are billions of dollars being put at risk when [Defense] Secretary [Robert] Gates is demanding cost savings?”

DCAA officials were not immediately available for comment.

 

 http://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2010/10/29/dcaa-audits-contractor.aspx

 

 

 

Security Clearances: Bankruptcy a Security Risk?

Ex-spies group official: Bankruptcy a security risk

The executive director of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, the main organization for ex-CIA and military spies, says people with security clearances who have fallen into bankruptcy should be closely monitored.

The Washington Post, citing lawyers who handle bankruptcies, reported Wednesday that “the moratorium on many foreclosures across the country has unexpectedly put some federal workers and contractors in jeopardy of losing their security clearances because of the heightened uncertainty clouding their finances.”

Elizabeth Bancroft, AFIO’s executive director, told SpyTalk that, “based on the examples provided” in the Post article, “the security reviews should indeed be held up when one sees this level of irresponsible overspending.”

The current crisis “has little to do with mortgage paperwork and more to do with irrational investment expectations, investment zeal and an unwillingness to accept the reality that some investments can become major losses,” maintained Bancroft, who emphasized she was not speaking for AFIO as a whole.

“Even houses are risky investments. Three investment properties that go bad can bring down, shall we say, the whole house of cards: career, retirement savings, credit rating, and even a security clearance,” she said.

Theoretically, employees of the spy agencies and Pentagon are closely monitored for all kinds of stresses that might leave them open to bribery or blackmail, including financial stresses.

That is not always the case, as past security studies have shown. But the extended mortgage crisis may be prompting security officers at the CIA, Pentagon and other agencies involved in sensitive operations to be more attentive to potential problems than usual.

“This problem is especially acute in the Washington region, home to nearly a third of the nation's 854,000 employees with top-secret clearances,” the Post’s Dana Hedgpeth and Dina Elboghday reported.

But bankruptcy is not likely to trigger an automatic, immediate or permanent revocation of their clearances, Bancroft said.

“I think people caught up in this foreclosure mess are given a ‘wait and see’ security evaluation - even if it’s just an update of the clearance. If it is a case of a responsible but now overextended employee being transferred to a new post, but trapped in an underwater mortgage, few background security officers are going to hold that against them.”

“They should permit them to continue in the job,” Bancroft added, “but there should be enhanced [counterintelligence] scrutiny of such employees until their financial houses are in order. They, too, could represent a risk. They should be allowed to continue, but required to sign a document which lays bare to agency review all personal financial transactions until the deep indebtedness has been resolved.”

The security clearances of new hires with financial problems should be put on hold, Bancroft also advised.

“It’s frustrating for the division waiting to hire them, but still the wisest course is caution,” she said.

The FBI Agents Association declined to comment on the issue, as did the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI.

By Jeff Stein  | October 21, 2010; 9:11 AM ET

 

Link to original:  http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/10/ex-spies_group_official_says_b.html

 

Why are we selling weapons to Saudi Arabia with their record of abuse of U.S. Citizens?

Really, why are we selling Saudi Arabia weapons?  I know the first answer...they are our ally in the middle east.  But wait, consider the abuse of Boeing/BISS employee, U.S. veteran, Robin Petersen, and others who were/are being held captive by the Saudi government, as if they were indentured servants, rather than U.S. citizens who accepted employment with a subsidiary of the mega-corporation, Boeing?  Hey all of you normally vociferous advocates for human rights and torch carriers against governments who commit human rights violations and persecute certain groups of people within their grasp - where are you now?  Is it right for the U.S. to service and provide for those who abuse U.S. citizens, (and loyal U.S. veterans)?  GFS

 

Pentagon plans $60 billion weapons sale to Saudi Arabia

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 21, 2010; 12:58 AM

The Defense Department has notified Congress that it wants to sell $60 billion worth of advanced aircraft and weapons to Saudi Arabia. The proposed sale, which includes helicopters, fighter jets, radar equipment and satellite-guided bombs, would be the largest arms deal to another country in U.S. history if the sale goes through and all purchases are made.

Congress has 30 days to review the sale before the Pentagon and the weapons makers go into more detailed contract discussions with Saudi Arabia. Congress is expected to review the deal when it is back in session after the elections.

The arms package includes 84 new F-15 fighter jets and upgrades to 70 more F-15s that the Saudis already have, as well as three types of helicopters: 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds. Saudi Arabia would also get versions of a satellite-guided "smart bomb" system, plus anti-ship and anti-radar missiles.

To read more follow the link.

Link to original and comments:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/20/AR2010102006518.html

 

BP Plans to Close Safety Office in US: History of Poor Treatment of Whistleblowers

From GAP: 

 

U.K. Guardian: BP Plans to Close Its US Safety Watchdog

Today:  10-11-10

 

Summary: BP is moving to disband the safety ombudsman office it set up in 2005 after an explosion at a Texas refinery that killed 15 people. This development is troubling, as this is an office where BP whistleblowers could supposedly bring their concerns in confidence. This move to stop taking complaints (effective July 2011) comes despite an increasing number of safety concerns from BP employees. BP says that it had always intended to phase out the office and recently announced that it will create a new internal safety department.

 

Critics claim that without this third-party ombudsman system, under which the number of concerns reported incresed almost fourfold, employees will come forward less frequently than they do now. GAP Executive Director Mark Cohen argued in a recent op-ed why BP employees choose to often remain silent -- because BP has a history of firing whistleblowers (and continues to do so), as opposed to listening and acting upon their concerns.

 

Related Article if found in the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska  USA

 

Link:  http://community.adn.com/adn/node/153603

 

Whistleblowers Now a Target for Those Pesky Hedge Fund Investors

 

Honestly, now that salmon are missing in action, they are going to wager on whistleblowers?  These people really do need to take the medication on a regular basis, that the nice Doctor prescribed.  Wacky! -GFS

Whistle-Blowers Become Investment Option for Hedge Funds

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Hedge funds have found a new market to invest in: whistle-blowers.

Informants who turn in tax cheats have to wait years to get their share of any reward from the I.R.S.’s recently expanded whistle-blower program. So hedge funds, private equity groups and other big investors are offering an alternative. They are essentially agreeing to buy a percentage of those future payouts in exchange for a smaller amount upfront to the whistle-blowers.

The surging size of the potential awards is driving all the interest. Three years ago, the I.R.S. began offering bigger rewards — 15 percent to 30 percent of whatever money the government recovered — in a move that has turbocharged the agency’s whistle-blower program.

Where it once handled only a trickle of tips, often involving relatively small amounts of unpaid taxes, I.R.S. offices now receive a torrent of big money claims. Accountants and company employees have taken to trooping in bearing computer records and boxes of documents to back up their claims of underpayment by big companies.

In what is believed to be the first of these structured tax payouts, an I.R.S. informant who reported that an overseas multinational corporation had underpaid its taxes by billions of dollars received $4 million last month from a private equity firm. In exchange, the firm will receive a portion of the award the informant expects to collect eventually.

The whistle-blower’s lawyer, Eric R. Havian, declined to name his client or provide specifics of the deal, such as how much more than $4 million the investor expects to get. But he said the informant needed money to cover living expenses because he had had trouble finding work since filing his claim.

“The investors take a big bite out of the awards because they could get nothing if the I.R.S. decides not to pay,” said Mr. Havian, a partner in Phillips & Cohen, a firm in Washington specializing in whistle-blower cases.

“And for the whistle-blowers, the amount of the potential award is so astronomical — tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars — that they have to ask themselves, ‘How many times over do you have to be rich?’ and ‘Would I be better off with the guarantee of some money now?’ ”

Determining the value of a whistle-blower complaint is a risky endeavor for the investors. Confidentiality rules forbid I.R.S. officials from discussing the status of an investigation even with the whistle-blower, so investors are left to gauge the strength, and potential payoff, of any claim by reviewing the documentation provided by the informant and his lawyer.

I.R.S. officials acknowledge that they have discussed such agreements with whistle-blower lawyers, but the agency does not keep track of how many may have been executed.

Among the lawyers, hedge funds and investors who may provide the financing for class-action lawsuits and whistle-blower cases against government contractors, the reinvigorated I.R.S. program has attracted attention.

Even Credit Suisse, the big Swiss bank, which has been criticized by the United States and other governments for allowing tax evaders to use its private accounts to hide assets, has explored the possibility of investing in a whistle-blower’s award, according to lawyers involved in the negotiations. A Credit Suisse spokesman, however, said the bank had not made any deal and was no longer interested in one.

David Desser, whose capital management firm specializes in litigation finance, said the market was likely to expand once the I.R.S. awarded its first whistle-blower a check under the expanded program, which is expected later this year.

“As soon as the I.R.S. begins paying whistle-blowers, more people will realize that this is a whole new class of assets to be monetized,” Mr. Desser said. “It will be limited in size, because only a percentage of whistle-blowers will have incentive to sell. But for investors there is potential here for outsized returns.”

While the market in whistle-blower futures is in its infancy, investors have been requesting as much as 65 percent of any award an informant receives, according to lawyers negotiating possible deals. In the more established field of litigation finance, investors who underwrite the cost of a lawsuit get 5 percent to 50 percent of any legal settlement or jury award.

Although the I.R.S. has long accepted tips from informants, until recently it seemed reluctant to investigate their complaints or reward them. For the five years ended in 2008, the I.R.S. received about 80 whistle-blower complaints a year, and recovered an average of $155 million a year from tips in previous years, paying an average of $14 million annually in awards.

Since sweetening its awards, the whistle-blower’s office has been receiving more than 500 tips a year, involving far larger amounts. In the five years through fiscal 2008, tips from informants led to 20 cases in which the I.R.S. had been underpaid by at least $2 million. Now the I.R.S. receives 40 or 50 such tips a month, about 10 percent claiming fraud of $100 million or more.

It is too early to gauge whether the program will deliver on the promise that it might recover billions each year, but the preliminary results are promising: an audit by the Treasury Department found that in 2008 alone, whistle-blowers had reported $65 billion in unpaid taxes.

Law firms have been aggressively marketing themselves by setting up whistle-blower blogs and seminars, financing taxpayer antifraud groups, firing off press releases to trumpet big claims, and holding whistle-blower boot camps to train lawyers.

Some accountants and tax lawyers warn that the lure of big money awards could taint the process, even encouraging false accusations from unscrupulous business rivals, or disgruntled employees looking to cash in.

Donald L. Korb, former chief counsel of the I.R.S., said he considered it “unseemly” for the government to encourage citizens to become bounty hunters by informing on their co-workers, employers and neighbors.

During his tenure at the I.R.S., Mr. Korb said he had tried to set up a sophisticated set of procedures to vet complaints because he feared that misuse of the program might bring new complaints about overzealousness by I.R.S. auditors. “I think it’s a bad precedent,” said Mr. Korb, now a partner at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

But I.R.S. investigators say that the whistle-blower’s office will carefully screen cases to prevent abuse and that the program already precludes monetary awards for people involved in planning or initiating the tax fraud they report.

Those restrictions will be tested in the case of Bradley C. Birkenfeld, the whistle-blower who helped pierce the secrecy of the Swiss banking system.

Mr. Birkenfeld’s tip helped the government win a $780 million settlement from UBS, another big Swiss bank, and could lead to billions more because he helped the I.R.S. find thousands of Americans with offshore accounts.

But Mr. Birkenfeld also withheld information from investigators about his actions to help a client evade taxes, and is now serving a 40-month sentence. Dean A. Zerbe, who represents Mr. Birkenfeld, said the I.R.S. risked undermining the program if it reneged on paying an award.

“He came forward and helped them recover more tax money than anyone else in history,” said Mr. Zerbe, who helped write the new whistle-blower rules four years ago, while working for the Senate Finance Committee. “And if people see that he went to jail and didn’t get the kind of award the I.R.S. has been promising, why would anyone ever come forward again?”

A recent round of “program changes” by the I.R.S. announced that informants are entitled only to a portion of the money directly paid to the government. If a tip simply leads to the denial of a refund — or if the unpaid taxes are used to offset other losses — the whistle-blower comes up empty.

Erika Kelton, a whistle-blower lawyer who testified before the Senate when the rules were being amended, predicted the limits would be struck down “either in tax court or in Congress.”

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 21, 2010

An article on Thursday about hedge funds’ investing in informants who turn in tax cheats misstated, in some copies, the business of Sullivan & Cromwell, where Donald L. Korb, former chief counsel of the I.R.S., now works. It is a law firm, not an accounting firm.

Link to original:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/business/20whistleblower.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=all

The Louis Berger Group Still Getting Contracts in Afghanistan Despite Accusations of Billing Fraud.

Here is something that came in today from Government Accountability Project.  This is exactly what many of us have been talking about.  It is a continuation of fraud, waste, abuse and U.S. Taxpayers are still footing the bill, while no one in the government, oversight or criminal investigations seems willing or able to do anything about it.  That in itself is criminal.  I must remind everyone of the non-prosecution deal worked out between Eric Holder and the Boeing company after the outing of Darleen Druyan and Michael Sears, and the later prosecution of them.  As long as the company can point to a scapegoat, those employees will take the full blunt of the blame, prosecution and punishment while the company can continue on its same path, using its same business practices.  This solved nothing.  It is interesting that under the direction of Holder, this game is once again in play.  GFS

U.S. contractor accused of fraud still winning big Afghan projects

By Marisa Taylor and Warren P. Strobel

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON | On July 31, 2006, an employee of The Louis Berger Group, a contractor handling some of the most important U.S. rebuilding projects in Afghanistan, handed federal investigators explosive evidence that the company was intentionally and systematically overbilling American taxpayers.

Neither the whistle-blower’s computer disk full of incriminating documents nor a trail of allegations of waste, fraud and shoddy construction, however, prevented Louis Berger from continuing to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

In fact, two months after the government learned of the employee’s allegations, the U.S. Agency for International Development tapped Louis Berger — which has an office in Kansas City — to oversee $1.4 billion in reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan.

The decision to brush aside the allegations and the evidence and keep doing business with Louis Berger, underscores a persistent dilemma for the Obama administration in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Cutting ties with suspect war-zone contractors in Afghanistan would threaten the administration’s effort to rebuild the country and begin withdrawing some of the nearly 100,000 U.S. troops there next July. However, as the recession, unemployment and budget deficits prompt belt-tightening at home, the billions the administration is spending to try to rebuild Afghanistan and Iraq are receiving increasing scrutiny from Congress and the public.

Louis Berger’s alleged overbilling, a practice that dates at to least the mid-1990s, swelled to tens of millions in lost tax dollars, according to a person familiar with the inquiry who spoke to McClatchy Newspapers on the condition of anonymity because the allegations are the subject of a sealed court case.

Court documents, however, reveal that the Justice Department is negotiating a deal that would “aid in preserving the company’s continuing eligibility to participate” in federal contracting in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Founded in 1953, The Louis Berger Group does engineering and construction-related work domestically and in about 80 countries worldwide, according to the company’s website. It has more than 5,000 employees and is based in Morristown, N.J.

Holly Fisher, a Louis Berger spokeswoman, said the investigation into the company’s pricing shouldn’t taint its work for the government.

“While its work in Afghanistan was covered by that methodology, it is the methodology that is in question, not the work in Afghanistan,” she said.

Fisher declined to answer additional questions about the investigation or to make any corporate officers available for interviews.

USAID officials acknowledged last year in an internal report that they’d lost confidence in Louis Berger to oversee projects under the latest, $1.4 billion Afghanistan contract, which is jointly held with Black & Veatch of Overland Park.

USAID, however, didn’t respond for three weeks to repeated requests for interviews about why it continued to award contracts to Louis Berger or about the ongoing criminal investigation or on contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Instead, the agency issued a statement pointing to its internal report about the joint venture.

“The assessment found vulnerabilities, and we immediately worked to address the identified issues,” USAID said.

The agency said it began to hold weekly meetings with company officials, assigned monitors to every site and changed personnel involved in the contract.

“USAID continues to take necessary actions to protect U.S. taxpayer funds in this matter,” the statement said. “We are engaged in ongoing dialogue with the Louis Berger Group, Inc. to ensure that the corporation is in full compliance with our contracts.”

However, Ashley Jackson, the head of policy in Afghanistan for the international aid organization Oxfam, said little has changed despite the Obama administration’s pledge to revamp the agency.

USAID hasn’t been an aggressive watchdog in Afghanistan, partly because it’s under political pressure to pump billions into the country without regard to the quality of the work, Jackson said.

“A system has emerged where USAID is basically like a pass-through for these contractors,” she said.

Posted on Sat, Sep. 18, 2010 10:15 PM

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/18/2233583/us-contractor-accused-of-fraud.html#ixzz1088SGxKH

Whistleblowers and Wallstreet

http://www.ft.com

US to pay big sums for Wall St tip-offs

By Jean Eaglesham and Brooke Masters in New York

Published: August 8 2010 22:30 | Last updated: August 8 2010 22:30

New US whistleblowing incentives within the Dodd-Frank financial reform act – that could net informants multimillion dollar pay-outs – are likely to generate a surge in allegations against US-listed companies and Wall Street banks, lawyers say.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expecting a sharp increase in tip-offs from senior employees and third parties prompted by potential seven-figure bounties.

“The scale of the awards reflects the high quality of whistleblower we hope to get – people within a company, broker or other regulated firm that we might not have heard from before,” Stephen Cohen, an SEC official, told the Financial Times. “We’re expecting a tremendous response.”

The substantive new financial incentives for securities fraud whistleblowers are part of the sweeping Wall Street reforms that became law last month.

People who provide original information that leads to a successful SEC enforcement action will now be entitled to 10 per cent to 30 per cent of any sanction collected over $1m – including a share of the proceeds from any related regulatory action.

“We’ve seen recent settlements of SEC actions of up to $800m . . . this is a tremendous incentive for people to blow the whistle and for entrepreneurial law firms to represent them,” said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University.

Similar whistleblowing payments for actions for fraud against the government, under the false claims act, have spawned a multibillion dollar industry of law firms specialising in healthcare claims.

“We’re predicting that there are going to be more cases, based on the experience under the false claims act,” said Tim Coleman, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm.

However, financial industry bodies and lawyers representing companies warned that the scale of the potential pay-outs could generate rogue tip-offs by disaffected employees, wasting resources for both the employer and regulator.

“Our only concern is if this were to encourage malicious whistleblowing – people making stuff up to cause trouble,” said the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.

“The company will end up being cleared, but investigations still take up a great deal of time and resources. This [provision] will need careful monitoring.”

The SEC insisted it could cope with the expected influx of new allegations.

“We already have systems in place, which we’re improving, for dealing with thousands of tips every year,” Mr Cohen said. “If this canhelp us to bring cases more efficiently and quickly, it will make us a more effective regulator.”

National Security Whistleblowers Still Need Protection

This article by Shanna Devine is excellently written and right spot on.  This is exactly what federal employees, in fact a growing number of federal employees, have been experiencing.  Few ever seem to get real justice and are made whole again. 

One huge problem is security classification creep.  I am referring to when certain people purposefully misclassify something in order to hide it, as they know it will get them into trouble or mess up their business practices if it is discovered.  They try to keep these things secret by putting them behind the curtain.  During the past decade, it seems many with authority to affect this kind of behind the scenes change in policy were using the claim of “National Security” to hide many things, including illegal activities committed by themselves, their cronies in the government, or their cronies in industry, including defense contractors.  (Sometimes the wrongdoing was done in collusion between all of them.)  This has corrupted the whole meaning and implementation of  “classified.”  While there are things that truly are classified for good reason and are necessary to keep out of public view for real and legitimate national security concerns, there are many things which have been abominations which need to be identified and formally outted, taking the greedy and unethical wrongdoers who used such improper classifying of these things to hide theft, fraud, bribery, etc. into custody and begin prosecution.  GFS

 

*******

 

The Birmingham News - Congress Should Protect National Security Whistleblowers

The following op-ed was written by GAP Legislative Officer Shanna Devine and was published in Alice Echo News (TX), Daily Sun News (WA), and Madison Capital Times.

What makes America safe? This fundamental question lays at the heart of current Congressional debate over whether national security employees who expose wrongdoing should have the right to fight against retaliation.

Some in Congress believe that protecting national security whistleblowers translates to an eventual dangerous dissemination of classified information. This is fear mongering. The efforts of past intelligence whistleblowers have increased our safety when government managers are missing in action.

If you look at these employees who have been fired or harassed, you do not find people who sought to reveal state secrets. Instead, you meet patriots trying to do their jobs protecting the public by acting as professionals, not bureaucrats.

Richard Barlow had a distinguished CIA career, where he helped the agency find and convict two agents in Pakistan’s nuclear weapons development department. Subsequently, he joined the Office of Nonproliferation in the Department of Defense (DoD). In 1989, Barlow then learned that his bosses were misleading Congress by failing to disclose that the planned sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan could potentially help that country deliver nuclear bombs. When he raised those concerns within his agency, he was stripped of his security clearance and labeled a risk. A DoD investigation exonerated him as a threat, but the Pentagon never reinstated his security clearance – successfully destroying his career without any independent appeal rights. Barlow did all he could to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, keep Congress informed, and make the world a safer place. And how was he thanked? To this day he has been denied government pension or health insurance. Pakistan now has its nuclear weapons, but Barlow has yet to get his vindication.

In 2006, 30-year Air Force mechanic George Sarris followed what government posters said was his duty – to contact the Inspector General about bureaucratic misconduct. He challenged maintenance breakdowns for American reconnaissance aircraft over Afghanistan and Iraq. One real risk were potential in-flight fires, caused by not replacing fuel hoses 15 years past expiration. In response, the Air Force IG accused him of committing a crime by “stealing” evidence which they initially demanded he produce to prove his charges. The IG put Sarris under criminal investigation, stripping all job duties by suspending his security clearance. Reassigned to the employee break room, his job was to fill space as an example to others.

Franz Gayl, a retired Marine major, is a civilian Marine Corps Science and Technology Advisor. In 2006, he served in Iraq, where he witnessed over 700 combat fatalities caused by an 18-month delay in providing armored vehicles that withstand roadside bombs. Gayl’s whistleblowing to Congress led to delivery of the mine resistant vehicles, and the unnecessary fatalities ended. However, Marine officials suspended Gayl, took away his key job duties, denied him further training, and placed him under criminal investigation.

These stories, and numerous others, are not just tragedies for the whistleblowers involved. They send a powerful signal to all national security employees: Keep your head down. If you see anything wrong, keep it to yourself.

The climate of fear within our national security agencies is the biggest threat to our national security. As noted FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley observed: “Bureaucratic breakdowns and needless disasters keep recurring, in huge part, because government whistleblowers have been silenced.”

We will never be safe until national security whistleblowers can tell the truth. That cannot happen until Congress gives them normal rights against retaliation, a reform stalled since last year by secret procedural holds that haven’t even been challenged. It is time for the politicians to get serious about protecting those who protect us.

Shanna Devine is Legislative Officer for the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization based in Washington, D.C.