USA Today has just published a series of three articles about whistleblowers – including Sibel Edmonds, Russ Tice, Mike German, and Coleen Rowley – and the costs they endure for trying to do their duty, including banishment, humiliation, and often their careers, homes and marriages.
The government’s best and only strawman argument is:
“When classified information is printed in the newspapers, it’s not just Americans who read it… It’s also America’s enemies.”
Of course, most whistleblowing is done INTERNALLY and only bursts out into the public domain when all other channels are exhausted.
Thanks to USA Today for at least publishing this series – but see if you spot the difference between their description of Sibel’s whistleblowing (“shoddy translations”) and Sibel’s description (narcotic activities, illegal arms sales, money laundering, and terrorism related activities overlap and become one including espionage and the senior members of congress, State Dept and the Pentagon)
Whistle-blowers tell of cost of conscience
In 2002, decorated FBI Special Agent Mike German was investigating meetings between terrorism suspects. When he discovered other officers had jeopardized the investigation by violating wiretapping regulations, he reported what he found to his supervisors, in accordance with FBI policy.
At the time, Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent who had raised concerns about how the pre-9/11 arrest of al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was handled, was being hailed as a national hero. German says he had also just received a mass e-mail from FBI Director Robert Mueller, urging other whistle-blowers to come forward.
“I was assuming he’d protect me,” German says.
Instead, German says his accusations were ignored, his reputation ruined and his career obliterated. Although the Justice Department’s inspector general confirmed German’s allegations that the FBI had “mishandled and mismanaged” the terrorism investigation, he says he was barred from further undercover work and eventually compelled to resign. FBI spokesman Bill Carter declined to comment.
The experience is familiar to other government employees who have blown the whistle on matters of national security since 9/11.
[..]
“I’m one of the last people who survived,” says Rowley, the former FBI whistle-blower and Time magazine “Person of the Year” who recently lost her bid for a U.S. congressional seat in Minnesota. She says widespread, favorable media coverage saved her FBI career“But is that the important story here — that one person in the country has been fired or is not being used to their fullest potential?” she asks. “It’s the country that’s going to suffer from a lack of whistle-blower protections.”
* USAToday:
‘They treat a whistle-blower like a virus’
Most people first heard about Russell Tice last December when the former National Security Agency intelligence analyst asked to testify before Congress about NSA programs he claims are illegal.
But his confrontation with his employer began much earlier. In 2001, Tice reported suspicions that an employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, which oversees the NSA and other intelligence-gathering agencies, was spying for China.
When he followed up on the allegations several years later, Tice was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation. Although he had passed his regular exam nine months earlier, the in-house psychologist conducting the latest evaluation decided Tice had psychotic paranoia.
After almost 20 years in intelligence, Tice’s security clearance was revoked. He was transferred to a maintenance position at the NSA vehicle pool, and then to a government furniture warehouse.
* USAToday:
‘State secrets privilege’ blocks fired translator from suing FBI
Sibel Edmonds, who formed the 100-plus member National Security whistle-blowers Coalition in 2002, began working as a linguist for the FBI the week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
Several months into her contract, she discovered “shoddy” translations relevant to 9/11 created by translators who had “failed the proficiency exams,” she says.
A report by the Justice Department’s inspector general subsequently confirmed that at least one translator had failed the FBI’s language proficiency exams. Edmonds says the translator was sent to Guantanamo Bay to translate “the most sensitive terrorist-related information” from interviews of detainees.
Edmonds also notified her superiors that a co-worker was responsible for translating wiretaps of a company the latter used to work for. The co-worker “was blocking the intelligence coming from her family members and friends,” Edmonds says.
I could spend a thousand words explaining why the article about Sibel is completely inadequate – in fact, I could probably spill a thousand words explaining why the headline (“‘State secrets privilege’ blocks fired translator from suing FBI”) to the article is very, very wrong – but that would probably be a waste of four thousand letters.
Let’s try to keep this positive – and use USA Today’s series to argue for better protection for whistleblowers, and also as a hook to get reporters to actually look more closely at the individual cases – Sibel, Russ Tice, and others.
be polite: editor@usatoday.com
update: there’s another article in the USAToday series: “Ex-employee says FAA warned before 9/11”
