Last
month, GAP’s Whistleblower News service reported on the story of a whistleblower
who exposed insufficient concrete used at tarmacs at the Las Vegas airport. The
whistleblower, John Zedler, was fired for raising his concerns to his company, Western Technologies, which is owned by
Bechtel, a major federal contractor that GAP has been very critical of in the
past.
This
week marks the second year of annual events and conferences aimed at raising
awareness of whistleblower issues in Washington, D.C. GAP is sponsoring six
forums and/or panels during this time period. These include the topics of:
-- Secret Domestic Surveillance
-- Are We Safe When We Fly?: Addressing Issues of Aviation
Safety & Security
-- Scientific Freedom & the Public Good
-- Joint Congressional Forum: Congress at the
Crossroads for Your Rights
-- Forum on the Office of Special Counsel
-- From Immunity to Impunity: Whistleblowers at
International Organizations
-- Dylan Blaylock
This excellent Associated
Press article details one whistleblower’s long legal battle with the bank
he was fired from for refusing to approve financial statements. His firing, in
2002, continues its legal battle today.
The piece does an excellent job in illustrating: how
long and tedious whistleblower legal battles can be; how loopholes in the
Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower law were immediately sought-after by
corporations and the Bush administration in 2002; and overall, why stronger
protections, such as the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, are needed
today.
-- Dylan Blaylock
Perhaps
in name only, GAP’s blog will be getting a little competition, starting this
week. The Minneapolis Star Tribune, one of the highest circulated newspapers in
the country, is debuting a new blog titled “The Whistleblower.”
It’s
quite different from GAP’s however. Our blog focuses on news related to our
projects and general whistleblower news. The ‘Strib’ blog will highlight that
newspaper’s public service work, which they deem as their ‘watchdog journalism’
stories.
Good
for them. It would be wonderful if more and more large newspapers made watchdog
journalism a priority.
This
is also a good sign for whistleblowers in general. It wasn’t long ago that the overall
connotation of the word whistleblower was negative, and stigma was attached to
those who donned the label. With whistleblowers making more and more positive
differences for society every year, and the public realizing the value of
individuals who risk their professional livelihoods to fight societal
injustice, these truth-tellers have become gradually accepted and lauded for
their efforts. This new blog is simply another sign of that.
--
Dylan Blaylock
Pasdar’s
disclosures are credited with persuading the House of Representatives to not
grant immunity to telecommunications companies involved with the warrantless
wiretapping and illegal domestic spying scandal.
-- Dylan Blaylock
A New York Times masthead editorial from today
analyzes how and why the Justice Department (under the Bush administration) has
decided not to prosecute over 50 large corporations on serious charges over the
last three years, instead opting to enter into “deferred prosecution
agreements.” This is where “companies are allowed to pay fines and hire
monitors to watch over them.” 
Part
of this story was revealed back in January to be a
shocking abuse of government power. According to the Washington Post back
then, “federal prosecutors are steering no-bid contract to former government
officials who earn millions of dollars by monitoring companies accused of
cheating investors and other schemes.”
The
NY Times editorial sums it up best (with emphasis added):
Defenders say these deals
save the government time and the expense of going to trial and avoid doing
unnecessary harm to corporations and their employees. The cost to the public and the rule of law is too high.
If
corporations believe that they can negotiate their way out of a prosecution,
the deterrent effect of the criminal law will inevitably be weakened.
Yep,
that’s exactly right.
--
Dylan Blaylock
An article from today’s Washington Post details how
the federal government can use telecoms to spy on Americans and gather
remarkable amounts of private information.
The article is based largely on the disclosures of
GAP client Babak Pasdar, a computer expert who discovered a mysterious
"Quantico Circuit" at a major telecommunications company’s facility
in 2003 which provided the federal government unfettered access to all customer
mobile phone communications - all calls, emails, text messages, internet use,
videos, billing, location - with no record of what was taken.
Pasdar’s disclosures are credited
with persuading the House of Representatives to not grant immunity to
telecoms involved with the warrantless wiretapping and
illegal domestic spying scandal.
GAP Legal Director Tom Devine has written an op-ed
centering on Pasdar’s disclosures, which has run in many newspapers throughout
the country.
-- Dylan Blaylock
Yesterday
at the National Press Club, the fifth annual Ridenhour Awards & Luncheon
took place. The Ridenhour Awards seek to recognize and encourage those who
persevere in acts of truth-telling that protect the public interest, promote
social justice or illuminate a more just vision of society. GAP is a strategic
partner in producing the event, and a past winner of the Truth-Telling prize is
Climate Science Watch Director Rick Piltz.
The
awards are named in honor of Vietnam veteran Ron Ridenhour, who famously wrote
a letter to Congress and the Pentagon describing the My Lai Massacre. Ridenhour
later became a very respected investigative journalist before his death in
1998. Awards this year were handed out as follows (from the Ridenhour Awards Web
site):
Bill Moyers is awarded the
2008 Ridenhour Courage Prize in recognition of his fierce embrace of the public
interest and his advocacy of media pluralism, and for contributing an
unyielding moral voice to our national discourse.
James D. Scurlock is awarded the 2008 Ridenhour Book Prize honoring an
outstanding work of social significance from the prior publishing year.
Scurlock’s book, Maxed Out: Hard Times in the Age
of Easy Credit is a disturbing account of
America’s unsustainable relationship with debt, revealing the vulnerability of
the average person to the predatory and unethical lending methods of banks and
credit card companies.
Matthew
Diaz has been awarded the 2008 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling. Diaz is a
former JAG officer who, while stationed at Guantánamo Bay, was the first person
to release the names of the prisoners at the detention camp. In early January
2005, on the last night of his tour, he mailed a list—with the names and
corresponding serial numbers of the 551 prisoners—in a Valentine’s Day card to
a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Diaz hoped that his actions
would help lawyers file habeas corpus petitions on
the prisoners’ behalf.
--
Dylan Blaylock
In the latest piece of an ongoing story, two FAA whistleblowers stated that supervisors ignored their reports that Southwest Airlines tried to hide its maintenance problems. 
Furthermore, the inspector-whistleblowers claim that Southwest tried to have them specifically removed from reviewing the company’s planes.
In what should be a highly charged and watched event, both Southwest’s Chairman and CEO will testify today at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee about this entire scandal. This story broke a few weeks ago, when it was revealed that Southwest had flown passengers on planes (for up to 30 months) that did not have mandatory, routine safety checks for some equipment performed.
You can watch the hearing starting at 10 a.m. Eastern Time on the committee’s Web site here.
-- Dylan Blaylock
The Legal Times (free subscription on its Web site) published
an excellent
article detailing a rare victory for a whistleblower in February at the
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. That court, the only one which handles
federal whistleblower claims, has only found for whistleblowers three (out of
186) times since late 1994.
The whistleblower in this case is former U.S. Park Police
Chief Teresa Chambers, who was fired in 2004 for blowing the whistle on a lack
of staffing and funding resources which threatened park security.
--
Dylan Blaylock
