Stephen Kohn explains whistleblowing as a civil liberties and a First Amendment issue, the role of whistleblowers as enablers of congressional oversight, and discusses the legal and political implications involved in whistleblowing. He talks about the broken Merit System Protection Board, the abuses of secrecy laws and State Secrets Privilege, the current status of whistleblower protection laws in Congress, the case of Halliburton whistleblower Bunnatine Greenhouse, the current administration’s highly disappointing stand against national security whistleblowers despite President Obama’s endorsement prior to his elections, and more!

Stephen M. Kohn is the Executive Director of National Whistleblowers Center, one of the nation’s foremost experts in whistleblower protection law, and the author of the first legal treatise on whistleblowing, Protecting Environmental and Nuclear Whistleblowers: A Litigation Manual. Since 1984, Mr. Kohn has successfully represented whistleblowers in numerous cases (both at trial and on appeal), has testified in Congress on behalf of whistleblower reforms, and has worked directly with the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee on drafting the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate whistleblower law. Mr. Kohn has a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law; an M.A. in Political Science from Brown University; and a B.S. in Social Education from Boston University.  In addition to his books on whistleblower law, Mr. Kohn is the author of Jailed for Peace  and American Political Prisoners.

Here is our guest Stephen Kohn unplugged!

 

 Interview with Stephen Kohn [69:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Sandalio Gonzalez, Retired Special Agent in Charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), discusses the Kent Memo Scandal, the House of Death cover up, our so-called War on Drugs, US Congress, and more.

For more relevant background read my special post on Sandy Gonzalez here.

In 1978 Sandalio Gonzalez joined the DEA as a Special Agent in the Los Angeles Field Division. In 1983 he was transferred to San Jose, Costa Rica where he served as Assistant Country Attaché. In 1989 he was assigned to the Inspection Division at DEA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he served as a Unit Chief in the Office of Security Programs and later as an Inspector in the Office of Professional Responsibility. In 1992 he was promoted as the DEA Advisor to the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Southern Command in Panama where he served until 1994. Mr. Gonzalez returned to Washington as Chief of the Drug Suppression Section in the Office of Cocaine Investigations, and in 1995 took over as Chief of the South America Section in the Office of International Operations, where he was in charge of DEA operations in South America. In January 1998 he reported to the Miami Field Division as an Assistant Special Agent in Charge, and later that year he was promoted to the Senior Executive Service of the United States as Associate Special Agent in Charge. On January 18, 2001, Mr. Gonzalez was reassigned as the Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso Field Division, El Paso, Texas.

As a Senior Executive Service management official in the DEA, Mr. Gonzalez reported serious allegations of wrongdoing and cover-ups by federal agents and prosecutors in Miami, Florida and El Paso, Texas. He became the target of an internal investigation and was involuntarily transferred and retaliated against by the Department of Justice and the DEA.

Here is our guest Sandalio Gonzalez unplugged!

 

 Interview with Sandalio Gonzalez [65:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

President Obama, We have You on Record, Fulfill Your Promise

We are approaching ‘the day’ with the Senate Committee on the whistleblower protection legislation. The mark up is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday, July 29, 10:00 a.m. EST. The White House seems to have backed off from their previous position. Here is what I just sent to my organization members:

As you know in the last two years I have not been ‘optimistically’ active in the ongoing congressional related whistleblower protection debate. However, the following campaign by the National Whistleblower Center got my attention. Why? Because our new president appears to be talking from both sides of his mouth. During his campaign, as in many issues, he made a bunch of ‘on-the-record’ promises regarding needed protection for whistleblowers, including the most important ones, those in the national security related agencies. Now he may be royally backing off from those promises. I for one am not surprised; not in the least. On the other hand, I am glad to see that National Whistleblower Center is not willing to let our president off the hook. They have him on the record, and they are planning to remind him loudly and publicly.

Copy-pasted below is their letter to President Obama. They want your backing and support. I just signed it; after all, I am a national security whistleblower and I want to go on record with this ‘needed’ reminder to the president. I hope you do the same. Please send me (by e-mail) your name and title, and let me know if you support this campaign.

Regards,
Sibel Edmonds

And here is the letter from the National Whistleblower Center:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

On May 8, 2007, your presidential campaign promised America’s whistleblowers in writing that you stood behind their need for legal protection and fully supported support federal court access and jury trials for all federal employees. The House of Representatives enacted these protections when it overwhelmingly passed H.R. 985 in a veto-proof, bipartisan manner. In another bipartisan effort, Representatives Van Hollen (D-MD), Waxman (D-CA), Towns (D-NY), Braley (D-IA), and Platts (R-PA) have reintroduced this bill as H.R.1507.

Now we need your help. While the House version of the bill is more inclusive, the Senate version lacks many key protections. The Senate bill currently lacks coverage for the hundreds of thousands of federal employees who participate in the global war on terror and oversee a budget well over $150 billion. Please stand by your promise and ensure that all federal employees receive comprehensive whistleblower protections.

The reason typically cited for denying court access for all federal employees is that it could create a national security risk. As current or former national security whistleblowers, we know this is not true. In an objective and independent review, the General Accounting Office (GAO) saw “no justification for treating employees at [intelligence] agencies differently from employees at other federal agencies except in rare national security cases.” This finding has held since 1996, and yet misinformation about extending full due process protections to national security whistleblowers is still pervasive today.

Moreover, whistleblowers have actually been instrumental in pointing out issues that threaten our nation’s security. Even without full due process protections, courageous employees have pointed out problems including deficiencies in the counterterrorism program that contributed to the success of 9/11, the promotion of faulty intelligence that led to a war, systemic due process violations through misconduct in crime labs, and billions of dollars in waste and illegal contracting. Rather than a national security threat, whistleblowers are a central defense against misconduct.

The future of our nation depends on your support for this critical oversight and accountability issue. Taxpayers put forward billions in government spending, and they deserve accurate information and a guarantee of accountability. Please safeguard our nation against future terrorist attacks by removing the gag order from the brave men and women who are charged with ensuring our safety.

The past ten years have demonstrated the invaluable contributions of whistleblowers. We have made countless preventable mistakes, including the failure to search Moussaoui, abuses in Abu Ghraib, and lies to Congress about secret CIA programs. The need to fully protect national security whistleblowers is indisputable. They are vital to our country’s safety, and their future is in your hands.

And here is Mr. President on record during his campaign:

Come on Mr. President; be a man of your word. Show us what kind of a man you are.

Let’s watch this together, and let’s demand the deserved protection for whistleblowers…