Monday, November 27, 2006
 From USA Today Nov 24: "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.
Edmonds took a polygraph test and was investigated for typing her allegations — which contained classified information — on her home computer, even though her supervisor had given permission for her to do so, the inspector general's report said.
[...]
The state secrets privilege — a series of U.S. legal precedents — has been cited by the federal government at least 18 times since 9/11 and at least 81 times since the privilege was first recognized in 1953, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.[...]
----- MORE...: "[...]Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the average number of employees filing whistle-blower disclosures with the government has risen 43%, from an average of 376 annually in the four years before the attacks to 537 annually after. The statistics are kept by the Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency that handles whistle-blower cases if employees prefer not to directly confront their bosses about suspicions of wrongdoing.
An increasing number of whistle-blowers allege that rather than being embraced, they're being retaliated against for coming forward.
In the four years before the terrorist attacks, whistle-blowers filed an average of 690 reprisal complaints with the OSC annually. Since the attacks, an average of 835 complaints have been filed each year, a 21% increase.
The number of whistle-blower reprisal complaints is higher than the number of whistle-blower disclosure complaints because employees can file reprisal complaints with the OSC even if they had not previously filed their disclosure with the OSC.
"The sad reality is that rather than learning lessons from 9/11, the government appears to have become more thin-skinned and sensitive," says Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit group that offers legal aid to whistle-blowers.
Even advocates have begun to dissuade some government employees from coming forward.
"When I get calls from people thinking of blowing the whistle, I tell them 'Don't do it,' " says William Weaver, a professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and a senior adviser to the National Security whistle-blowers Coalition. "Most of the time they go ahead and do it anyway and end up with their lives destroyed."
[...]
Lawmakers recently considered two sets of legislation that would affect whistle-blowers. One attempted to extend the whistle-blower Protection Act to cover intelligence agency employees through amendments to the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill.
In October, a conference committee removed the whistle-blower amendments from the final version of the bill.
The other bill that might affect whistle-blowers stiffens penalties for knowingly leaking classified information to those not authorized to receive it. That bill was introduced by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.
[...]
Lawmakers recently considered two sets of legislation that would affect whistle-blowers. One attempted to extend the whistle-blower Protection Act to cover intelligence agency employees through amendments to the 2007 Defense Authorization Bill.
In October, a conference committee removed the whistle-blower amendments from the final version of the bill.
The other bill that might affect whistle-blowers stiffens penalties for knowingly leaking classified information to those not authorized to receive it. That bill was introduced by Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo...
Bond's legislation would make prosecuting leakers easier by eliminating the need to prove the disclosure damaged national security. The measure would subject those who leak classified information to a fine and up to three years in prison. It would apply to those who signed a non-disclosure agreement, regardless of their job at the time of the leak.
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