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whistleblowers

Council of Europe criticizes U.S. ‘cult of secrecy’

donal brown September 8, 2011

The inter-parliamentary  Council of Europe has issued a draft resolution blasting the U.S. for its “cult of secrecy” and said whistleblowers played a vital tole in challenging government secrecy. The resolution pointed up the ill effects of secrecy, “In some countries, in particular the United States, the notion of state secrecy is used to shield agents of the executive from prosecution for serious criminal offenses such as abduction and torture, or to stop victims from

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NASA considers changes in policies to favor whistleblowers

donal brown August 22, 2011

In response to criticism that scientists working for the National Aeronautical and Space Agency have been prevented from criticizing the agency’s operation and policies, NASA has agreed to draft policies that would grant their employees greater freedom of dissent. Under the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, expanded in 1994, whistleblowers have been favored in only 3 of 206 cases filed in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. The new policies would address the loopholes in

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Whistleblowers send open letter to Obama, Congress on Protections Act

FAC June 30, 2011

The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2010 passed the House and Senate in December, but at the last minute was put on “hold” by an anonymous Congressperson. Today, in honor of the Fourth of July, 30  whistleblowers sent an open letter to President Obama and Congress in an effort to get the legislation, which provided  incentives for federal workers to put make protected disclosures to their superiors, Congress or the public. Those who work at

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New Yorker article critical of Obama administration in prosecuting whistleblower

donal brown May 16, 2011

The Justice Department is charging Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency executive, with espionage for taking top-secret documents from N.S.A. offices and leaking information to a Baltimore Sun reporter. The reporter, Siobhan Gorman, wrote a prize-winning series of stories about waste, mismanagement, and dubious legal practices in the agency’s counter terrorism programs. New Yorker writer Jane Mayer quotes Secrecy News‘ Steven Aftergood who has followed the Drake indictment closely and thinks the case has

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Federal appeals court rules employees reporting fraud can be punished for talking to media

donal brown May 5, 2011

A law on whistle-blowers does not protect them from retaliation if they take their case to the media, ruled a federal appeals court in San Francisco. The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act only protects whistle-blowers if they report suspected fraud to federal regulators, Congress or a workplace supervisor. In so ruling the court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit by Boeing auditors fired in 2007 for telling a Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter that they were being pressured to

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