All Things Whistleblower: A GAP Blog

Whistleblower Exposes ‘Substandard’ Health Treatment of Marines; Promptly Retaliated Against

Complaints of poor Marine mental health care at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina will be investigated by the Defense Department following a request from a North Carolina Congressman. The Congressman asked for the investigation following the release of documents pertaining to the September firing of a brain trauma specialist who worked as a contractor at Camp Lejuene and had made internal complaints about the facilities, quality of care, and poor security. Salon.com, which had originally reported on the firing, last week released the documents, which showed Camp Lejeune officials had changed the psychiatrist's performance evaluations from good to poor after he made the complaints.

GAP is no stranger to Marine Corps retaliation against whistleblowers. Franz Gayl, a former Marine and now civilian working for the Marines, faced unrelenting retaliation from blowing the whistle on the bureaucratic holdup of putting MRAP vehicles – which offer significantly greater protection to American troops than Humvees – in the field.

Gayl appeared on GAP's television program, Whistle Where You Work, to discuss the retaliation he has faced as a whislteblower. To watch the episode and learn more about Franz Gayl's courageous struggle, click here.

Google Partnering With NSA = Cacophony of Alarm Bells

This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos Blog.

Google has decided to partner with the National Security Agency (NSA) to analyze the recent corporate espionage attack on Google's systems  - said to have originated in China - in an effort to prevent similar cyber attacks in the future.

There is an enormous danger to Americans' privacy and a great propensity for error when government and private sector partnerships are initiated without aggressive oversight and meaningful regulation.

Alarm bells sound even louder when the NSA is involved, considering the NSA's infamous record of teaming up with the private sector to invade Americans' privacy in the name of national security. George W. Bush's so-called  "terrorist surveillance program," (a.k.a. warrantless wiretapping) authorized under dubious legal reasoning from our favorite former-DOJ official "torture lawyer" John Yoo, resulted in the NSA and telecommunications companies doing an end-run around the 4th Amendment to dig into Americans' private data without warrants.

Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, insists that the Google-NSA partnership is necessary for national security, a mantra we've heard too many times to justify improper surveillance and privacy-invading programs:

Cyberspace cannot be protected [Blair] said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners."

There are countless unanswered questions about the Google-NSA partnership:  Exactly what information will Google and the NSA be sharing? What happens to that information? What safeguards are in place to guarantee the information shared is kept out of government databases when there is no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity? What authority will the NSA use to obtain information from Google in the name of cyber security? Will a neutral party oversee the partnership to ensure Americans' privacy is protected?

It is especially worrisome that, as reported in The Washington Post, Google and NSA refused to comment specifically on the agreement:

Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data.

After all of the disastrous missteps and proven illegality that the NSA has committed in recent years, it is unacceptable that all the assurances we have that this program will protect privacy and not result in illegal spying are from "anonymous sources."  It seems the NSA is once again saying "trust us, we're the government."  Frankly, while trusting the government is an already dubious notion, it is downright laughable coming from an agency like the NSA.

Cyber security is no doubt an important issue.  However, private sector cooperation with government agencies, especially ones notorious for secret surveillance, should only be undertaken where there are regulatory privacy safeguards and aggressive oversight in place.  Privacy should not be an area where we shoot first and ask questions later. The right to be left alone is far too crucial to our democracy to be cast aside by a few powerful government officials and corporate executives.  

Google should heed its own mantra - "Don't Be Evil" - before it leaps into bed with a government agency already known to toss out the rule of law.

Wikileaks Shuts Down

Wikileaks.org, launched in 2007 as a website that allows for the anonymous uploading of sensitive documents, has temporarily shut down operations because of budget problems.

Wikileaks has published millions of documents, and fought off more than 100 legal challenges since its inception in 2007. It is famous for posting, among other things, the U.S. military manual for procedures at Guantánamo Bay, which included a list of inmates who would be off-limits for the Red Cross, and the Australian Communications and Media Authority's controversial blacklist of websites that would be banned under the federal government's Internet censoring policy (turning out to be online poker sites, YouTube links, and Wikipedia postings).

The groups’s officers announced its plan to shutter the site in December unless it raised enough funds to continue - but so far fundraising efforts have only netted $130,000, which amounts to a little more than half its annual costs - not including pay for staff.

A statement on the website claimed that Wikileaks had recently received hundreds of thousands of documents pertaining to "corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others," but no longer had the resources to release them.

More Problems for DC Fire Department

Two Washington, D.C. City Council committees have concluded that Mayor Adrian Fenty's friend Sinclair Skinner, and administration official David Jannarone, skirted city policy to donate a firetruck and ambulance to a beach city in the Dominican Republic last year.

According to the reports, Skinner and Jannarone decided to transfer the aging firetruck after a vacation together in the Dominican Republic to attend a friend's bachelor party. Officials are alarmed that Skinner, a fraternity brother of Mayor Fenty, seems to have made city procurement decisions and had control over taxpayer resources.

"What makes the transaction so incredible is the fact that so much effort -- at the highest levels of District government -- was expended to facilitate a transfer of surplus property without even a hint of potential benefit for the District government," said a report by the Committee on Government Operations and the Environment. "Rather, the entire affair was merely the pet project -- even if well intentioned -- of a senior District official and a well-connected non-government individual."

The government operations committee also accused Skinner of taking $11,000 from the mayor of the Dominican Republic town for transporation, only depositing some of the money and spending the rest.

Skinner failed to show up before a city council hearing for the second time in a row on Wednesday.

This incident is only the most recent in many controversies surrounding the DC Fire Department. GAP is currently representing two department whistleblowers, former Captain Vanessa Coleman and former General Counsel Teresa Cusick.

Vanessa Coleman, former Captain with the Fire Department and a 19-year veteran of the force, was recently fired from her position as a result of blowing the whistle on wrongful actions taken against her by Department officials. She had been steadily retaliated against since March 2008, stemming from the fallout of the Mt. Pleasant apartment fire in Washington, D.C. Despite a history beginning as a fire cadet in 1990, with subsequent promotions to Sergeant, Lieutenant, and Captain, and annual performance reviews greater than “satisfactory,” Coleman has been singled out by department officials and made to bear the blame for the problems stemming from the fire. During the fire, Coleman was directed away from the basement of the apartment building to the third floor. This diversion was later found to be of great importance, as fire officials now believe the fire originated in the basement. Despite an audio recording proving that a Battalion chief John Lee ordered Coleman and her crew to the third floor, Coleman was continually retaliated against.

Theresa Cusick was forced out of her position as General Counsel for the Fire Department by Fire Chief Dennis Rubin after speaking out about an Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation of another D.C. fire official. Despite nine years with the D.C. Fire Department, Cusick was transferred by Chief Rubin only two months into his administration, forced to take a pay cut and move into a non-legal position.

GAP recently produced a video about the flagrant retaliation against Theresa Cusick in the DC Fire Department. Here’s the video.

Other scandals facing Chief Rubin recently include a fire safety demonstration at Gallaudet University that went wrong when a plexiglass curtain melted and fell on firefighters, sending one firefighter to the hospital with burns on his hands and face. Rubin’s comments after the event infuriated the union that represents local firefighters, who stated publicly that Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council should reprimand Rubin for failing to follow multiple safety procedures while personally organizing the event.
Rubin also faced criticism earlier this year after the house of a well-known community leader and arts patron burned down when firefighters could not get an adequate amount of water from hydrants. Later, the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary concluded the water problem was due to a lack of preparation on the part of the Fire Department.

In the News Today

In news from Capitol Hill today:

Despite a promise from President Obama that his administration would be the most open in history, more than 300 individuals and groups have filed lawsuits in order to get public records in the past year. Many of the plaintiffs argue that the lack of transparency remains the same since the Bush administration, as 298 public-records lawsuits were filed in 2008, the last year of Bush’s tenure.

Embattled Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will face many tough questions today during his testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The specific issue at hand is Geithner's role in the bailout of AIG as president of the New York Federal Reserve, and his possible role in its decision not to disclose information about AIG's "back-door" bailout of other firms. Geither has faced criticism from Democrats and Republicans.  

A coalition of nonprofit groups, including GAP, sent a letter to President Obama asking for a revision in the year-old executive order than restricts lobbyists from jobs in the administration. The order does not cover many special interest insiders, while still restricting non-profit or charity lobbyists, who do not have a particular financial interest in policy.

In public safety news:

New technology for radiation, and the nature of overworked hospital workers, has created new avenues for human error in the therapies. And because of the nature of the therapies, mistakes can be repeated multiple times, causing serious damage to patients.

And finally in climate science news:

Following the Massachusetts special election win by Republican Scott Brown, advocates of a climate policy are creating a more modest proposal, believing their more comprehensive cap-and-trade based plan would not pass the Senate. Instead, they are turning to a plan involving more "job-creating energy projects and energy efficiency measures."

In recent months, two cases against big producers of heat-trapping gases, including ExxonMobil and Shell Oil, have gone ahead in federal court after previous decisions to dismiss them were reversed. The cases, and others, are part of a climate change litigation movement that could eventually bring large industries to the negotiating table.

Two New Investigations Into AIG/Geithner

In response to documents obtained because of a House Oversight and Government Reform committee investigation into the New York Federal Reserve’s handling of bailout money for AIG, Neil Barofsky, special investigator general overseeing the Troubled Assets Relief Program, has opened two new investigations into the shady deals, and will likely discuss their nature during his testimony in front of the committee tomorrow.

First, Barofsky will be investigating whether the New York Federal Reserve illicitly withheld information about the AIG bailout. Emails recently showed AIG trying to hush up details of the $27.1 billion in payments to their counterparties, a move known as the "backdoor bailout."

Secondly, Barofsky will also be investigating the "extent of the Federal Reserve's cooperation" during an audit of the bailout system.  

 

The House investigation was sparked by documents that showed that AIG fully paid for credit default swap contracts to banks after their $150 billion bailout, instead of attempting to negotiate a lower rate, and attempted to keep the full payment of the contracts off SEC filings. 

 

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was president of the New York Federal Reserve during the bailout of AIG, has been caught up in the investigation. Spokespeople for the Treasury and the New York Fed both claim Geithner was not involved, but he will be required to testify before the committee tomorrow. 

 

"If anyone at the Fed thought that this investigation will stop after Wednesday's hearing - they are completely mistaken," Ranking Republican Darrell Issa (R-CA) said to Politico. "There has been a widespread effort by officials at the NY Fed to thwart transparency and we will continue to pursue this investigation for as long as it takes to get the truth."

Dead British Whistleblower’s “Suicide” Files Closed for 70 Years?

In a stunning move, all information pertaining to the alleged 2003 suicide of a British government scientist and UN weapons inspector must be kept secret for 70 years because of an eye-raising, seemingly unjustified order.

Several days before his death, David Kelly was revealed as a source of a BBC story claiming that evidence of Saddam Hussein's weapons had been exaggerated to justify an invasion. He blew the whistle, reportedly claiming that accounts of Iraqi weaponry had been "sexed up."

Kelly became caught in the crosshairs of a battle between the BBC, British Ministry of Defense, and the Office of the Prime Minister when his name was announced as a source for the story. Kelly had blown the whistle confidentially, and some claimed Prime Minister Tony Blair "used a [public] battle with the BBC to divert attention from the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." The Ministry of Defense also chose to confirm his name to journalists, despite a normal policy of not identifying civil servants. The head of the BBC, for its part, has been accused of hinting strongly to Kelly as the source of the story, in order to confirm that the source was high-placed in the preparation for the invasion of Iraq.

Kelly allegedly killed himself at his home on July 17, 2003, after suffering immensely following the publication of his name. Despite public knowledge that he was the whistleblower, the BBC finally publicly identified him as their source soon after.

The new order to keep information pertaining Kelly's death secret follows a 2003-2004 inquiry of the circumstances surrounding his death that cleared the British government of all wrongdoing and harshly criticized the BBC. However, several national newspapers accused the inquiry of participating in an "establishment whitewash," and not delivering the truth.

The chairman of the inquiry has not given any explanation for his order, nor has he commented on it publicly. The order means "vital evidence, including the results of Dr Kelly's post-mortem examination – which have never been made public – will remain under wraps until 2073, by which time anyone involved in the case will almost certainly be dead."