Coverage of the Need for Federal Whistleblower Reform
NPR: Obama’s Crackdown on Press Leaks (June 15)
Joined by Scott Shane of the New York Times and Kim Zetter of Wired, the Government Accountability Project’s Jesselyn Radack and the Hudson Institute’s Gabriel Schoenfeld debate the need for whistleblower protection in the intelligence community. Without adequate internal channels, Radack says whistleblowers are forced to go to the press.
KPFA: Letters to Washington (June 14)
Daniel Ellsberg, the man who became famous for leaking the Pentagon Papers, discusses the manhunt for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Justice Department whistleblower Jesselyn Radack, now Director of Homeland Security and Human Rights at the Government Accountability Project, discusses Obama administration’s hard line on prosecuting whistleblowers.
New York Times: Administration Takes a Hard Line Against Leaks to Press (June 11)
Thomas A. Drake, a former NSA employee, faces 10 felony charges related to classified information he shared with a reporter. Drake’s case is but one of many that show an increased focus on prosecuting whistleblowers and leakers under the Obama administration, the Times says.
Whistleblowers in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth office faced retaliation after speaking out against lax enforcement and inspection practices.
CNN: Whistleblower says poor inspections partly to blame for spill (June 9)
A 22-year veteran of the Minerals Management Service details the “culture of corruption” and lack of proper inspection that he says led to the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
ABC 7 Washington: Whistleblowers gather in Washington (May 28)
Washington, DC’s ABC 7 reports on the 2010 National Whistleblower Assembly held May 24-25. Includes interviews with Daniel Ellsberg, the Defense Department employee who leaked the Pentagon Papers; NYPD whistleblower Frank Serpico, and DoD whistleblower Franz Gayl.
C-SPAN: National Whistleblower Assembly (May 24)
Former FBI Special Agent and 9/11 whistleblower Coleen Rowley and Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine discuss the importance of whistleblower protection reform in the national security and intelligence communities.
Wall Street Journal: “I Didn’t Want to Be Responsible for Somebody Dying”: Whistleblower (May 13)
The Wall Street Journal examines a May 13 special report from the New England Journal of Medicine about the motivations of whistleblowers in the pharmaceutical industry.
Los Angeles Times: When whistle-blowers suffer (April 27)
Using her experiences as a Justice Department whistleblower and the case of Thomas A. Drake, an NSA whistleblower, as examples, Jesselyn Redack’s op-ed in the LA Times illustrates the need for members of the national security and intelligence communities to have safe internal channels through which they can lodge ethics and legal complaints.
Kansas City Star: Whistleblower campaigns for more protections (March 21)
George Sarris, a former civilian Air Force mechanic, expressed concerns about aircraft maintenance practices and faced heavy retaliation in response to his actions.
USA Today: Whistle-blowers’ rights get a second look (March 14)
USA Today details the hurdles faced by federal whistleblowers who have been retaliated against. The article specifically examines the case of Robert MacLean, a federal air marshal who lost his job for telling the media about an unclassified plan to remove air marshals from flights during a terrorism alert in 2003.
The Associated Press: Case seen as example of anti-whistleblower bias (December 20)
The Associated Press examines the case of Franz Gayl, a senior civilian employee of the Marine Corps. In 2008 while working as a science adviser in Iraq, Gayl informed Congress that the Marine Corps had failed to purchase and deploy vehicles that would have protected troops from roadside bombs. He has since faced severe retaliation in the workplace.
Coverage from 2009 can be found here.
Earlier coverage can be found here.