January 19, 2010 (Washington Post) The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

E-mails obtained by The Washington Post detail how counterterrorism officials inside FBI headquarters did not follow their own procedures that were put in place to protect civil liberties. The stream of urgent requests for phone records also overwhelmed the FBI communications analysis unit with work that ultimately was not connected to imminent threats.

Are jury trials better protection or just "window dressing"?

OhMyGov! August 24, 2009. A new whistleblower bill, the Whistleblower Enhancement Act of 2009, passed the Senate in late July to decidedly mixed reviews.

"This significantly strengthens protections of whistleblowers," said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) of the Senate bill. But the praise is far from universal.

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Washington Times. August 20, 2009. White House attorneys have backed away from an effort to weaken legal protections for FBI whistleblowers in a bill now before Congress, according to advocacy groups in negotiations with the Obama administration.

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Government Accountability Project (GAP) and Project on Government Oversight (POGO) said this week that they were given guarantees that protections for FBI whistleblowers - federal employees who uncover fraud and waste - would be restored in a Senate bill when Congress returns in September.

The shift follows a report in The Washington Times earlier this month about the uproar among civil liberties groups and past FBI whistleblowers about proposed changes in the bill, which critics said would strip existing rights for FBI whistleblowers who expose fraud or misdeeds.

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Washington Times. August 18, 2009. FBI whistleblower Frederic Whitehurst spent close to a decade fighting the Clinton White House to win limited protections for his brethren in the intelligence community willing to risk their careers to expose wrongdoing.

Now critics say the Obama administration is seeking to strip away those protections, and Mr. Whitehurst predicts the effort will set national intelligence employees back decades in their efforts to expose fraud and corruption.

"It's very dangerous thing that [President Obama] has done. That he would allow that as touting himself as a president of the people is astonishing," Mr. Whitehurst said.

National security whistleblower Sibel Edmonds was allowed to testify Saturday in the Schmidt v. Krikorian case.  Ms. Edmonds' attorney, Michael D. Kohn (President of the National Whistleblowers Center) said that he was pleased government attorneys refrained from intervening in the legal case, and allowed the deposition to proceed.  He said he hopes that the video tape of the deposition can be released soon.  The NWC press release from Friday, August 7th with links to the letters sent by the Department of Justice and the FBI can be found here.  For more information on the Ms. Edmonds' case and video from outside the deposition please visit The Brad Blog.

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Washington Times. August 7, 2009. Despite its pledge to better protect federal employees who expose wrongdoing, the Obama administration privately sought to weaken protections for national security whistleblowers under legislation making its way through Congress, according to correspondence obtained by The Washington Times.

E-mails that documented the White House's intervention show the White House counsel's office provided its own drafts of the proposed legislation in late June and mid-July.

While strengthening protections for some whistleblowers, the drafts weakened protections for FBI employees and reduced access to jury trials for those national security workers who sue for protection from retaliation after blowing the whistle.

Daily Kos. June 11, 2009, by Jesselyn Radack

This afternoon, a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee will hear testimony on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.  Why should we care?  Last month, President Obama said he would seek to bar the release of photographs that depict abusive interrogations at secret overseas prisons during the Bush years--photos that are similar to, or worse, than the Abu Ghraib photos disclosed by whistleblower Joe Darby back in 2004. 

NWC General Counsel David Colapinto testifies at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009.

President Obama Urged to Reject DOJ Opposition to Whistleblower Protection  

Washington, D.C. , May 14, 2009.  In testimony presented today by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Policy, the DOJ opposed giving national security whistleblowers judicial due process protections.  The policy presented by the DOJ was in stark contrast to the position taken by President Obama during the presidential campaign, when his campaign endorsed judicial protection for all federal employee whistleblowers.  

Thirteen national security whistleblowers on Monday, May 11, sent President Barack Obama an open letter asking that he take immediate steps to end the “second-class status” of federal employees like themselves and to criminalize bureaucratic retaliation against government workers who exercise their free speech rights in the public interest.

To read the press release please click here.

For Immediate Release

Friday, February 27, 2009

Grassley urges the President to change culture of bureaucracy by honoring whistleblowers with a Rose Garden ceremony

WASHINGTON --- Senator Chuck Grassley today urged President Barack Obama to plan a Rose Garden ceremony to honor whistleblowers in order to strengthen transparency, good government and accountability in the federal bureaucracy.