Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Whistblower Being Wronged For Doing Right!

    
Thomas Drake became a symbol of the dangers whistleblowers

face when they help journalists and Congress investigate

wrongdoing at intelligence agencies. He claims he was subjected to

a decade of retaliation by the National Security Agency that

culminated in his being charged with espionage.

But when the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office opened an

inquiry into the former senior NSA official’s allegations of

retaliation in 2012, it looked at only two of the 10 years detailed in

his account, according to a recently released Pentagon summary of

the probe, before finding no evidence of retaliation. That finding

ended Drake’s four-year effort to return to government service.

Whistleblower advocates say Drake’s experience, spelled out in a

document McClatchy obtained this month through the Freedom of I

information Act, underscores the problem that intelligence and

defense workers face in bringing malfeasance to the surface. The

agencies that are supposed to crack down on retaliation are not up

to the task, especially when the alleged wrongdoing involves

classified information, they charge.

“This report epitomizes the utter lack of protection for national

security whistleblowers,” said Jesselyn Radack, Drake’s attorney.

“This is a pathetic, anemic excuse for an investigation.”

Although investigators appear to have rejected Drake’s claims

almost a year ago, the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office did not

publicly disclose its findings and hadn’t shared them even with

Drake’s attorneys. McClatchy gave the attorneys a copy of the

report.


The news of the rejection comes as McClatchy has learned that the

same officials who are supposed to be helping whistleblowers such

as Drake claim that they themselves have been forced to blow the

whistle on their own office.

Multiple former and current officials from the Pentagon Inspector

General’s Office have alleged to the Office of Special Counsel, the

independent government agency that investigates whistleblower

claims, that they’ve been retaliated against for objecting to how

cases are handled. Drake’s case is one of several singled out for

criticism.
  “It illustrates the bleak landscape faced by whistleblowers and IG  investigators,” said one of the several people who described the  accusations but asked to remain anonymous because of the  sensitivity of the matter. “The numerous allegations of reprisal and  misconduct directed against senior IG officials call into question  the efficacy of the whistleblower mission. If true, one can make the  case that the office of inspector general has failed.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2015/02/23/5534356/rejection-of-nsa-whistleblowers.html#storylink=cpy

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