Comments for Was Fired Siegelman Whistleblower Really a Security Risk? »
Posted By jovial 5 months, 2 weeks ago in Political NewsA whistleblower in the Don Siegelman case was fired from her job in the U.S. Department of Justice because she was considered an "unreasonable risk to operational security."
Scott Horton, of Harper's magazine, reports that the DOJ terminated Tamarah Grimes' security clearance as a prelude to firing her--and as an end run around the No Fear Act of 2002.
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jovial5 months, 2 weeks ago
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Being a whistleblower has become a sure way to ruin one's career. Government has become a place where secrecy is held above justice, morality, and the right of the people to know what's being done in their name. Something needs to change.
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cleare5 months, 2 weeks ago
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i think obama needs to sic emmanuel on the justice department.
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i was initially encouraged by obama's statement in support of foia on his first day in office, but have been disappointed in the lack of follow through on transparency. seems job #3 (after the economy & the wars) should be to clean out any remnants of rove & cheney associates in high government positions.-
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hyperbola5 months, 2 weeks ago
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Judging from Obama's record so far, especially on things like government secrecy, not much will change. It is sad to see Obama cementing in the loss of our liberties.
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Bush and Obama - Two Sides of the Same Coin: Heads-Heads
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/05/28/bush-and...
During the campaign, amid their state of elation, many disregarded Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama’s past record and took any criticism of these past actions as partisan attacks deserving equally partisan counterattacks. Some continued their reluctant support after candidate Obama became grand finalist and prayed for the best. And a few still continue their rationalizing and defense, with illogical excuses such as ‘He’s been in office for only 20 days, give the man a break!’ and ‘He’s had only 50 days in office, give him a chance!’ and currently, ‘be reasonable — how much can a man do in 120 days?!’ I am going to give this logic, or lack of, a slight spicing of reason, then, turn it around, and present it as: If ‘the man’ can do this much astounding damage, whether to our civil liberties, or to our notion of democracy, or to government integrity, in ‘only’ 120 days, may God help us with the next [(4 X 365) - 120] days.....
Despite all the promises Mr. Obama made during his campaign, especially on those issues that were absolutely central to those whose support he garnered, so far the President of Change has followed in the footsteps of his predecessor. Not only that, his administration has made it clear that they intend to continue this trend. Some call it a major betrayal. Can we go so far as to call it a ‘swindling of the voters’?
On the State Secrets Privilege
Yes, I am going to begin with the issue of State Secrets Privilege; because I was the first recipient of this ‘privilege’ during the now gone Administration...
Not only has the new administration continued the practice of invoking SSP to shield government wrongdoing, it has expanded its abuses much further. In the Al Haramain case, Obama’s Justice Department has threatened to have the FBI or federal marshals break into a judge’s office and remove evidence already turned over in the case, according to the plaintiffs attorney. Even Bush didn’t go this far so brazenly....
On NSA Warrantless Wiretapping
The new Administration has pledged to defend the Telecommunications Industry by giving them immunity against any lawsuit that may involve their participation in the illegal NSA wiretapping program.-
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hyperbola5 months, 2 weeks ago
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Obama’s Justice Department defended its predecessor not only by using the State Secrets Privilege, but taking it even further, by astoundingly granting the Executive Branch an unlimited immunity for any kind of ‘illegal’ government surveillance.
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Let me emphasize, the Obama Administration’s action in this regard was not about ‘being trapped’ in situations created and put in place by the previous administration. These were willful acts fully reviewed, decided upon, and then implemented by the new president and his Justice Department....
Accountability on Torture
President Obama’s action and inaction on Torture can be summarized very clearly as follows: First give an absolute pass, under the guise of ‘looking forward not backward,’ to the ultimate culprits who had ordered it. Next, absolve all the implementers, practitioners and related agencies, under the excuse of ‘complying with orders without questioning,’ and then start giving the ‘drafters’ of the memos an out by transferring the decision for action to the states....
Not only that, he goes even further to shove his secrecy promotion down other nations’ courts throat.... Today he and his administration unapologetically maintain the same Bush Administration position on extraordinary rendition, torture, and related secrecy to cover up....
The Revival of Bush Era Military Commission
After all the talk and pretty speeches given during his presidential campaign on the ‘failure’ of Bush era military tribunals of Guantanamo inmates, Mr. Obama has decided to revive the same style military commission, albeit with a little cosmetic tweak here and there to re-brand it as his own. .... Thankfully the ‘on the record’ statements of Candidate Obama in 2008 on this issue, contradicting his action today, are accessible to all:....
On War and Bodies Piling Up
Here is the first paragraph in a New York Times report on May 15, 2009:
“The number of civilians killed by the American air strikes in Farah Province last week may never be fully known. But villagers, including two girls recovering from burn wounds, described devastation that officials and human rights workers are calling the worst episode of civilian casualties in eight years of war in Afghanistan.”....-
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hyperbola5 months, 2 weeks ago
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All this death and destruction is carried out while the administration’s Afghan policy is still murky and confused, and it’s strategy ambiguous. Sure, our so-called ‘New’ Afghan Strategy includes more troops and asks for a much larger budget allocation; nothing new there. It is another war with no time table. It is the continuation of the same abstract ‘War on Terror’ without any definition of what would constitute an ‘accomplished mission.’ ...
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....I can go on listing cases of Mr. Obama’s change on change. Whether it is his reversal on protection for whistleblowers, despite his campaign promise to the contrary, or his expansion of the Un-American title of ‘Czardom,’ where we now have more czars than ever: Border Czar, Energy Czar, Cyber Security Czar . . . Car Czar . . . maybe even a Bicycle Czar!. Or . . . But for now I’ll stick with the major promises that were ‘Central’ to him getting elected, all of which he has flipped on in less than 150 days in office, a track record indeed....
...With too much at stake, too many unfinished agendas for the course of our nation, and too many skeletons in the closet in need of hiding for self-preservation, the ‘permanent establishment’ made certain that they took no risk by giving the public, via their MSM tentacles, a coin that no matter how many times flipped would come up the same — Heads, Heads.
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DarkWizard5 months, 2 weeks ago
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FTA - "We are troubled, however, that the investigators appear to have reached this conclusion without interviewing the US Marshals who supervised the Siegelman jury and who are described in the email as having been the conduit for jury messages to the prosecution. Nor do the investigators appear to have interviewed any member of the jury."
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Now, there were many quotable statements within this article, but I picked this one to make a point. Whistle-blowers are NOT protected! Yes, the No Fear Act of 2002 is in place, but is so broad as to give no real protection to whistle-blowers whom are retaliated against.
I have studied whistle-blower cases for years, having been one myself, and have seen a pattern of firings that seldom is thwarted by the No Fear Act.
Why doesn't this Act work? Because in each case the whistle-blower was fired for reasons unrelated to the allegations brought forth by said whistle-blower.
In most cases the whistle-blower becomes an "unsatisfactory" or problem employee soon after it is discovered they acted as a whistle-blower. False charges are brought against whistle-blowers that are dealt with "internally" (usually after a documented investigation) and are not made public, evaluations suddenly paint a picture of an employee who is incompetent, insubordinate, and/or breaking policies, or coworkers are intimidated (usually with loss of job) to testify against the whistle-blower.
Every company using these practice will deny any claim that they are doing anything wrong or illegal and claim that they are only following policies and laws governing such matters. And, in most cases it can't be proven otherwise.
The treatment of whistle-blowers is truly disgusting and it should be very obvious that employees who are honest and have a spotless record until the time of the act of whistle-blowing don't suddenly become "bad" employees after the fact.
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