Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, was arrested for leaking 91,731 secret U.S. military reports about the war in Afghanistan, and 251,287 diplomatic cables from the State Department, including a classified airstrike video showing U.S. gunfire killing 11 civilians in Baghdad, including two Reuters journalists.
Samy Kamkar is a computer hacker who exposed the illicit global mobile phone tracking of all users, regardless of GPS or Location Services settings, on the Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone mobile devices, and their transmission of GPS and Wi-Fi information to their parent companies.
Four sales representatives for Eli Lilly – Robert Rudolph, Joseph Faltaous, Steven Woodward, and Jaydeen Vincente – filed separate qui tam lawsuits against the company for illegally marketing the drug Zyprexa for uses not approved by the FDA, including the treatment of dementia in the elderly.
Dr. Dean Wyatt, a former USDA Public Health Veterinarian, discovered humane handling violations at two slaughter plants in Oklahoma and Vermont. Though he was reprimanded and subjected to retaliation, he was ultimately vindicated by an undercover video released in 2009.
Former head of corporate communications at CIGNA Wendell Potter testified against the HMO industry in the US Senate and authored the book Deadly Spin, detailing industry-wide deceitful tactics.
John Kopchinski is a former Pfizer sales representative whose whistleblower lawsuit launched a massive government investigation into Pfizers illegal marketing of prescription painkiller Bextra. Part of a $2.3 billion global settlement, the case was the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.
Renee Dufault is a former FDA health researcher who retired after she was pressured to stop investigating traces of mercury found in high fructose corn syrup. In January 2009, she published her findings in a peer-reviewed journal.
Gabe Bruno was a former FAA Manager of the Orlando Flight Standards District Office. He alleged the FAA lacks a national security screening mechanism for mechanics with fraudulent certificates, leaving the industry open to potential terrorism.
Dr. Kunal Saha came forward with evidence that World Bank funds had been used for years to purchase defective test kits designed to detect the presence of HIV/AIDS in blood samples.
While overhauling security for a major telecommunications company (independently identified as Verizon), computer security expert Babak Pasdar discovered the “Quantico Circuit” at the company’s facility that surreptitiously re-routed and captured all customer mobile phone communications. Pasdar’s findings were one of the pioneering disclosures that exposed the full extent of domestic spying on Americans.