http://www.pogo.org/whistle/paulrevere.htm
Project On Government Oversight (POGO) & Government
Accountability Project (GAP)
Immediate Release September 19, 2001
For more information contact:
Tom Devine (x124) or Douglas Hartnett (x136), GAP,
202-408-0034
Danielle Brian or Beth Daley, POGO, 202-347-1122
WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE
MODERN PAUL REVERES AGAINST TERRORISM
The September 11 terrorist attacks highlight a
longstanding necessity to strengthen free speech
protections for national security whistleblowers, a
number of whom who have already made significant
contributions to reducing U.S. terrorist
vulnerability, two public interest groups said in a
statement today. (Whistleblowers whose contributions
have or should have contributed significantly to
public debate and strengthened policies against
terrorist threats are listed below.)
Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government
Oversight (POGO), summarized: "As we unite as
Americans and focus our attention on improving our
nation's safety, we must keep in mind the vital role
played by national security whistleblowers in
safeguarding our well-being. Their freedom to warn the
American public of shortfalls in national security
must be better protected as an integral part of our
efforts to better protect the country."
�Protection for responsible freedom of speech must be
on the front lines of any realistic plan to defend
national security. Whistleblowers have made critical
disclosures of security breakdowns against terrorists
threats ranging from nuclear materials to food
stockpiles,� added Tom Devine, legal director of the
Government Accountability Project (GAP), a
whistleblower protection organization. "In the
bureaucracy, whistleblowers act as the �miners� canary
that provides an early warning about continued U.S.
vulnerability to terrorist attack,� Devine said.
�Whistleblowers give America a greater chance to
prevent avoidable tragedies. Without them, we may not
learn of problems until it is time to mourn the
consequences. Unfortunately, the standard bureaucratic
response has been actively or passively to silence
messengers blowing the whistle on national security
breakdowns. As a rule, reactions range from negligence
(ignoring them), to harassment (yanking their security
clearances or firing them).�
Both groups agreed that security measures being
considered for adoption after the September 11 attack
should not weaken already tenuous free speech
protections for federal workers. �We cannot allow a
culture of bureaucratic secrecy to eliminate those who
give us the chance to anticipate threats before it is
too late,� said Douglas Hartnett, GAP�s national
security director. �Secrecy that covers up
bureaucratic negligence or misconduct is a clear and
present danger to national security." Whistleblowers
assisted by GAP and POGO seek to prevent terrorist
attacks and responsibly end security breakdowns that
compromise America's civil and military nuclear
programs, as well as other energy, transportation, law
enforcement, and food safety."
Below is an illustrative list of whistleblowers
defending national security by exercising freedom of
speech to challenge significant problems to their
superiors, Congress and the press:
Martin Edwin �Mick� Andersen
In the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice
(DOJ), Mick Andersen was a senior advisor for policy
planning, working on the training of foreign police
and prosecutors. In 1997, Andersen reported to the DOJ
security chief about leaks and careless handling of
highly-classified information, which included
documents detailing the internal workings of foreign
police and confidential sources in other nations.
Within a month after making his disclosures about
wrongdoing, Andersen was portrayed as a security risk
and stripped of his security clearance. In September
1997, despite previous outstanding performance
appraisals and offers of promotion, the Department
failed to renew his two-year appointment. His
disclosures, however, prompted the Justice Department
to order a massive security sweep of the division�s
foreign training programs that resulted in several top
administrators having their security clearances
suspended. In September 2000, the Office of the
Inspector General (OIG) concluded an extensive
three-year investigation in which security officials
confirmed Andersen�s allegations, also finding more
than 150 sensitive documents in unsecured areas. The
OIG report also found that visa fraud had been
committed in Russia by a top advisor to then Attorney
General Janet Reno on behalf of a Moscow girlfriend
who had previously been denied entry into the United
States. According to the OIG, this misconduct by the
Department�s top troubleshooter, who had just been
appointed to �clean up� the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS), made him vulnerable to
extortion or blackmail by foreign intelligence
services or international mafiosi. In 2001, the U.S.
Office of Special Counsel (OSC) awarded Andersen its
prestigious Public Servant Award for extraordinary
service protecting national security information.
Darlene Fitzgerald-Catalan
A former federal agent with the U.S. Customs Service
and veteran Officer in the U.S. Army Military Police
Corps, Fitzgerald-Catalan had more than 20 years of
combined law enforcement experience in major
investigations of complex conspiracies involving
narcotics trafficking and money laundering by
high-level members of Colombian and Mexican organized
crime. Her contributions resulted in significant
multi-million dollar seizures, arrests, indictments
and convictions of criminals and the development of
key intelligence information regarding these smuggling
organizations. As a Captain in the U.S. Army Military
Police Corps, Darlene held management positions as
Executive Officer, Operations Officer and Deputy
Provost Marshal. After her active duty assignment was
fulfilled, she continued as a Captain in the Reserves
assigned to a Counter-Terrorism Task Force.
Fitzgerald-Catalan was one of three whistleblowers to
fight high-level corruption within the Customs
Service, including failure of the agency to move
against sophisticated smuggling operations in which
tons of narcotics and perhaps other illegal goods were
brought into the country. In response to their
protected disclosures, the three agents were the
objects of continuing retaliatory investigations, were
put under surveillance by their own agency,
threatened, disciplined and finally forced out of the
U.S. Customs Service.
Mark Graf
An Alarm Station Supervisor and Authorized Derivative
Classifier, Mark Graf worked 17 years at the
Department of Energy's Rocky Flats Environmental
Technology Site. After Wackenhut Services, a private
security agency, took over this site, with more than
21 tons of uranium and plutonium, Graf witnessed the
elimination of their bomb detecting unit, sloppy
emergency drills, and negligence in taking inventory
of the plutonium for months at a time. He raised
serious concerns about a terrorist risk to the
security of plutonium as more than a ton of the
material is unaccounted for at Rocky Flats. Graf took
his concerns to Wackenhut management, who took no
action. In 1995, after blowing the whistle to
Representative David Skaggs, Graf was immediately
reassigned away from the areas that raised concerns in
the first place. In a classified memo to the site's
supervisors and later to the Defense Nuclear
Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), Graf outlined
specific vulnerabilities, which�if exploited�could
result in catastrophic consequences. With no
corrective action being taken, Graf gave an interview
with CBS News that aired in November 1997. After the
interview, he was subjected to a psychological
evaluation and placed on administrative leave. As a
condition of returning to work, Graf was gagged from
speaking to Congress, the DNFSB, and the media, under
the threat of job termination. In 1998 he filed and
later won a whistleblower reprisal complaint,
currently being appealed by his employer. His
disclosures contributed to legislation in the 1998
Defense Authorization Bill requiring an annual review
of DOE's Safeguard and Security program.
Dr. Peter M. Leitner
As a senior advisor to the Office of the Secretary of
Defense, for years Dr. Peter Leitner criticized the
relaxed policies of export controls, particularly to
the Peoples Republic of China. During that time, China
received shipments of dual-use technology equipment,
which by itself appears to be harmless, but when
combined with other exports, supports highly
sophisticated military production. Leitner claims this
policy not only has saved China billions of dollars in
research and development but has escalated the pace of
upgrading China's forces. There is evidence of the
sale and transfer to China of a highly sophisticated
pharmaceutical-grade fermenting machine, which could
be used to make advanced germ-warfare products that
pose significant risks to U.S. security. To create
awareness about this issue, Leitner teamed up with
Scott Wheeler of television's American Investigator to
produce a documentary video, "Trading With the Enemy:
How the Clinton Administration Armed China."
Linda M. Lewis
Linda Lewis was an emergency planning specialist with
the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) at the
United States Department of Agriculture, one of
several professionals on the Emergency Planning Staff
(EPS) of the FSIS. A valued member on more than 20
inter-agency emergency planning exercises, Lewis'
emergency response whistleblowing disclosures raised a
number of concerns about nuclear power plants,
including vulnerability to terrorist attack and
isolation of the food supply from radiation, problems
consistently ignored until she was removed from the
work. In 1996 her concerns and those of a co-worker
who represented Argonne National Laboratory were
deliberately excluded from a Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) Region III report regarding
state emergency planning. Instead, USDA ordered her to
take repeated psychiatric examinations despite
objections from its own therapist who examined her,
and then stripped all her duties by removing her
security clearance. For nearly two years, she has been
reassigned to her home without duties.
Ed McCallum
Ed McCallum was a former colonel in the Special Forces
with service in Vietnam. He worked in Department of
Energy security for twenty years, and authored DOE's
1996 Annual Report to the President on the status of
safeguard and security, which was highly critical of
security and caused a serious controversy at DOE. As a
result, McCallum was immediately put on administrative
leave and investigated. In early 1999, McCallum�s
concerns about the lack of security at Rocky Flats
nuclear materials storage facility were made public.
At about the same time, then-Secretary Bill Richardson
issued a zero-tolerance order against whistleblower
retaliation and stated: �Management must also create
and foster a work environment that allows free and
open expression of security concerns, where workers
fear no reprisals or retaliation.� It didn�t work.
McCallum was put on administrative leave based for an
alleged security violation that was later dropped.
McCallum took a job at the Pentagon, and is no longer
working on security issues at DOE. Rep. Curt Weldon
(R-PA) stated "Officials at the highest levels,
including three Secretaries of Energy and White House
personnel, consistently ignored Lt. Col. McCallum's
warnings, placing our national security in jeopardy. .
. Lt. Col. McCallum deserves accolades for what he did
to protect our national security -- not the continued
destruction of his reputation and career."
Sandy Nunn
A federal agent with the U.S. Customs Service for over
12 years, Nunn worked in both domestic and
international cases, and had a very broad-based
background in large-scale narcotics investigations;
international money-laundering investigations; arms
and high-technology transfer including chemical,
biological & weapons of mass destruction. She was Lead
Case Agent for what was regarded as the "second
largest money laundering case in U.S. history" -- a
scam responsible for laundering over $150 million in
drug proceeds throughout the U.S. and foreign banks.
She also served in an undercover capacity on major
arms cases resulting in the seizure of more than 1000
fully-automatic AK-47's being imported illegally from
mainland China.
Like Fitzgerald-Catalan (mentioned above), Nunn was
one of three whistleblowers to fight high-level
corruption within the Customs Service, including the
agency's failure to move against sophisticated
operations smuggling tons of narcotics and perhaps
other illegal goods into the country. In response to
their protected disclosures, the three agents were the
objects of continuing retaliatory investigations, were
put under surveillance by their own agency,
threatened, disciplined and in Fitzgerald-Catalan and
Nunn's cases, forced out of the agency.
Colonel David Ridenour
In 1996, Colonel David Ridenour, a former Strategic
Air Command missile officer, became Director of the
Safeguard and Security Division at the Rocky Flats
Field Office. Immediately upon taking the position
Ridenour was being harassed for trying to do his job
of overseeing the security contractor at Rocky Flats.
In a letter to then- Energy Secretary Federico Pena,
he said �I was instructed by my direct
supervisor...that my mission was to �not negatively
impact the contractor� and that I was to �facilitate
the contractor (Kaiser-Hill) winning the award fee�.�
He resigned several months later, claiming �In my
professional life as a military officer, as a
Registered Professional Engineer...I never before
experienced a major conflict between loyalty to my
supervision and duty to my country and to the public.�
Ron Timm
Ron Timm, and his corporation RETA Security were
experienced security analysts under contract to the
DOE Headquarters Office of Safeguards and Security. He
told the IG that he has suffered retaliation for
raising concerns about public health and safety.
Timm�s work assignments analyzing SSSP�s for all DOE
facilities over the previous five years had plummeted.
The IG found no retaliation, as Timm�s company was
performing other DOE work for Secretary Richardson. As
soon as the IG inquiry concluded, Timm�s contract was
terminated. Timm sent a second letter to the new DOE
Secretary, Spencer Abraham, in January 2001 thinking
the new administration would look into the ongoing
security failures at nuclear facilities. In this
letter, he said, �[T]ime has shown that the existing
bureaucracy at DOE have not adequately acted upon the
issue of risk to the public other than in ineffective
and reactive ways. I am writing this letter to bring
this to your immediate attention.� However, Secretary
Abraham delegated the response to the letter to one of
the officials about whom Timm accused of covering up
security problems. Timm is no longer working on
Headquarters security issues at DOE. RETA Security has
now filed the first ever corporate whistleblower
complaint with the DOE Office of Employee Concerns.
Dr. Frederick Whitehurst
As the FBI's highest-rated explosives residue expert,
Dr. Frederick Whitehurst brought allegations of
deficiency and corruption against his colleagues at
the FBI crime lab in 1995. The deficiency related to
several significant cases, including the World Trade
Center bombing, the Oklahoma City bombing, the mail
bomb assassination of U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Vance,
and the bombing aboard an Avianca Airlines jet. A
subsequent investigation by the Department of Justice
revealed that significant deficiencies, such as
inaccurate and scientifically flawed testimony and
reports, existed in several high profile cases. The
1997 report called for substantial changes in policies
and practices in the bureau's crime lab. Despite these
findings, Whitehurst was sent to a psychiatrist and
later suspended to begin the process of easing him out
the FBI. With the assistance of the National
Whistleblower Center, whose associated law firm
specializes in FBI whistleblower cases, Whitehurst
responded by successfully suing the government to
obtain a financial settlement.
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