C-SPAN: Whistleblower Tour
Earlier this week, C-SPAN aired and posted GAP’s American Whistleblower Tour stop at the University of Southern California (USC) on April 8. Sponsored and filmed at the USC Annenberg School, the panel discussion – featuring Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, NSA whistleblower Tom Drake and GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack – explores the critical balance between civil liberties and national security. C-SPAN aired the full program, which runs 129 minutes.
Related Article: Truthdig
More coverage of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper’s recently-signed directive barring intelligence community employees from speaking to the media about intelligence-related matters, including unclassified matters, without authorization. Employees violating this order may have their security clearances revoked or face termination. The directive defines media personnel to include those “engaged in the collection, production or dissemination to the public of information in any form related to topics of national security,” which could include bloggers and activists who write about the intelligence community (like GAP staff). GAP’s Radack is quoted.
Key Quote: But despite being in effect for nearly a month, no one in the media or in civil liberties groups seems to have noticed any change in behavior from their intelligence community sources in the meantime.
Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights for the Government Accountability Project and a onetime government whistleblower herself, told The Post that the group has not seen a downtick in intelligence community sources coming forward since the directive was signed. But she attributes that to the “Snowden effect.”
“Courage is contagious,” she said, but added that whistleblowers and her own organization were already taking extra precautions, such as using encryption. In her view, the directive reads as both “draconian” and “desperate.”
“Consider the source of this, James Clapper, a man who lied to Congress on camera,” she said, referring to an incident last year in which Clapper answered “no” to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) about whether the NSA collected “any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans.”
More coverage of the new documentary Silenced, which focuses on the federal government’s treatment of whistleblowers during the past several years. Directed by Oscar-nominee James Spione, the film details reprisals suffered by NSA whistleblower Tom Drake, CIA/torture whistleblower John Kiriakou, and GAP’s Radack for each one’s distinct action of exposing wrongdoing. Drake, Radack and Spione appear in this interview.
Related Articles: Motherboard, FireDogLake
Associated Press: Iowa Senate Panel Passes Whistleblower Bill
Yesterday, an Iowa Senate committee passed a bill expanding whistleblower protections to state workers. The bill, which may be brought to the Senate floor today, “makes it illegal to fire, demote or inflict other reprisal for reporting mismanagement, abuse of authority or other problems.”
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.