Dear friends,
As a government
whistleblower, I was most interested to hear that courageous fellow whistleblower
Sibel Edmonds
organized a recent national conference for whistleblowers. As the revealing
article below states, "current and former officials at the conference
said that today's climate in Washington has never been worse for whistleblowers."
Let us do all we can to support these courageous individuals who have risked
their jobs, careers, and reputations to stand up against special interests
in government and to support what's best for all in our nation and world.
For my own whistleblowing action which drew international media attention,
see http://www.WantToKnow.info/050226fredburkswsj
With best wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info Team
Former language interpreter
for Presidents Bush and Clinton
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/051011/11natsec.htm
National Security Watch: Disquieted whistleblowers
Posted 10/11/05
By Kevin Whitelaw
CHINCOTEAGUE,
Va. – The first annual National Security Whistleblowers Conference, held
on this tiny resort island, has to be one of the more unusual gatherings of
intelligence veterans in recent years. The nearly 20 current or former officials
from the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, and even the supersecret National
Security Agency who make up the core of the conference share an unusual distinction:
They are all deeply out of favor with their longtime employers.
After speaking
up, either internally or publicly, about alleged wrongdoings, many have been
pushed out, typically under a cloud of usually unrelated but classified personal
allegations. Many are still fighting to preserve their careers or at least
their reputations. Most cannot discuss the allegations they are making
in detail because the specifics are highly classified. Some even have trouble
outlining the alleged violations that ended their own careers. The agencies
they work for also refuse to answer questions about the specific cases.
So this disparate
lot of intelligence and law enforcement veterans came together this week to
see what they might all have in common. The tone was deeply pessimistic. In
the wake of 9/11, many in Washington had voiced strong support for whistleblowers
like Colleen
Rowley, the FBI analyst who wrote a memo laying out a series of failures
in the case of Zacarias Moussaoui, who had been arrested while attending flight
school a month before the al Qaeda attacks. But the current and former
officials at the conference said that today's climate in Washington has never
been worse for whistleblowers. Citing what many referred to as the Bush
administration's penchant for secrecy amid their war on terrorism, several
panelists bemoaned the difficulty of government officials raising allegations
of government abuse, fraud, or incompetence without suffering retribution
in their careers.
One of
the biggest names of the conference never even uttered a word. Lt. Col. Anthony
Shaffer is the military intelligence operative who recently went public with
a controversial claim that a year before September 11, his top-secret task
force "Able
Danger" was able to identify the man who later turned out to be the
lead hijacker as being connected to al Qaeda. Shaffer is a veteran of
top-secret operations against terrorists, including some in Afghanistan, and
several of his DIA colleagues have come out publicly to confirm that they
remember Mohamed Atta being identified in 2000 as part of a project that combed
through public databases looking for hidden links. But these allegations have
been vigorously denied by the Pentagon and the White House, while several
members of Congress are investigating. Shaffer was slated to speak but instead
sat quietly by as his lawyer, Mark Zaid, spoke for him.
"Tony
is not allowed to talk," Zaid said. "He is effectively gagged from
talking. He is gagged from talking to Congress."
Indeed, while Shaffer's case is being championed by Republican Rep. Curt
Weldon, the Pentagon has prohibited him from speaking further to members of
Congress without prior approval. He has already watched the Pentagon revoke
his security clearance. Zaid says that the Pentagon cited a series of old,
unsubstantiated claims that had been addressed during his routine security
screenings earlier in his career. "When he was 15, he took some pens
from the U.S. Embassy where he was doing an internship," Zaid said. "This
is one of the reasons" Shaffer was given for the revocation. Officials
also brought up several newer allegations, including two small claims of unauthorized
expenses, as well as an allegation that he accepted an award to which he was
not entitled. Zaid says that Shaffer disputes all the allegations and can
offer evidence in his defense.
Still, several lawyers agreed that there is not much room for appeal when
a security clearance is revoked. Now, Zaid says, Shaffer– who is still employed
by the DIA –is worried about getting fired from his job.
"We're trying to figure out what we can do," Zaid said, "which
is not much." But he added that he will most likely appeal the clearance
revocation. Zaid is also looking into filing a class action suit related to
the revocations of security clearances in whistleblower cases. "It's
the mentality of how the executive branch works," he said. "You
can show a pattern."
It's something that several other panelists had in common. Russ Tice worked
as an analyst at the NSA, which houses the nation's international eavesdropping
capabilities. He worked on some of the nation's most secret intelligence-collection
projects. But while he was on temporary assignment at the DIA, he said, he
became concerned that an analyst there might be spying for the Chinese government.
"She
exhibited the classic signs," he said, including unauthorized foreign
trips, apparently living well beyond her means, and voicing unusually strong
negative opinions about Taiwan. But after raising concerns to counterintelligence
officials over several years, he suddenly found his own career in trouble
after an unusual emergency psychiatric evaluation concluded he was a psychotic
paranoid. "How could something like this happen? I implicated a lady
whose mother was well-connected," he said. He was sent to work at the
NSA motor pool and eventually lost his security clearances.
Another panelist, John Cole, was an 18-year veteran of the FBI before he
raised allegations that several bureau translators might be engaged in espionage,
including at least one who worked on South Asian issues.
"Nobody wanted to hear what I had to say," he recalled. "I
hand carried a letter to [FBI Director Robert] Mueller's office." He
was reassigned several times, and after raising the cases with several senators,
he was eventually pushed out of the FBI under a cloud. As with Shaffer and
several other panelists, the FBI revoked Cole's security clearance after a
few security allegations. Cole now works counterintelligence and counterterrorism
issues for the U.S. Air Force, even though he says the FBI still treats him
with disdain.
"I never thought I would be a whistleblower," he said. "There
has to be some way to get people to listen and make a change, because otherwise
there will be another 9/11."
The conference
was organized by Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was pushed out
of the bureau after raising
accusations of wrongdoing by other FBI translators. She has been barred
from discussing the details of her case by the FBI, which denies her allegations
and says the entire issue is classified. She created the National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition www.nswbc.org
to bring whistleblowers like her together to push for legal reforms and bring
together other advocacy groups.
"9/11 changed a lot," she said. "It was a big catalyst for
national security whistleblowers coming forward. These people go through
the chain of command and Congress and usually the media as a last resort."
But government
whistleblowers, especially those in the national security area, do not enjoy
nearly as much legal protection as their corporate counterparts. Many complain
of significant retaliation. Her group now boasts at least 60 members, all
of whom are current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Several remain undercover and cannot be identified publicly.
Note: For a detailed article in Vanity Fair on Sibel Edmonds' courageous
efforts to expose the truth:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/sibeledmondsvanityfair
For an excellent
news summary of Able Danger—the Pentagon program which linked the lead 9/11
hijacker to Al Qaeda over a year before 9/11:
http://www.WantToKnow.info/abledanger911
