Editor’s Note: After nine years of managing the Daily Whistleblower News, today is my final day at GAP. It has been my pleasure to relay such important information to you, and thank you for your continued interest in the truth.
– GAP Communications Director Dylan Blaylock
Atlantic Journal-Constitution: Democrats to Press for Stronger Whistleblower Protections Next Year
A new legislative proposal in Georgia stands to strengthen the state’s whistleblower law by giving public employees and journalists more protections when filing or reporting complaints.
The Senate Democratic Caucus is pushing for reform after republican Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration was rocked by whistleblower complaints (which were later vindicated).
Deal, in turn, has stated he wants to change the law to make whistleblowing more difficult, as he seeks to “more narrowly define who can file those types of complaints.”
Ars Techina: The Executive Order that Led to Mass Spying, as Told by NSA Alumni
This article summarizes the historical implications of surveillance and how Executive Order 12333 – the legal basis allowing intelligence agencies to collect mass communications from U.S. citizens – is still being used to continue the massive expansion of technological surveillance. Only until recently did this law (and others) remain secret, but thanks to whistleblowers the public is able to glimpse the NSA’s troubling actions against U.S. citizens. GAP clients and NSA whistleblowers Bill Binney and Thomas Drake, and GAP’s Jesselyn Radack, are quoted in the piece.
Key Quote: The document, known in government circles as “twelve triple three,” gives incredible leeway to intelligence agencies sweeping up vast quantities of Americans’ data. That data ranges from e-mail content to Facebook messages, from Skype chats to practically anything that passes over the Internet on an incidental basis. In other words, EO 12333 protects the tangential collection of Americans’ data even when Americans aren’t specifically targeted—otherwise it would be forbidden under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978.
In a May 2014 interview with NBC, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden said that he specifically asked his colleagues at the NSA whether an executive order could override existing statutes. (They said it could not.) Snowden’s lawyer, Jesselyn Radack, told Ars that her client was specifically “referring to EO 12333.”
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“That’s the problem,” Drake said. “That’s why you can’t have secret laws and secret orders in a constitutional order; it’s anathema. All of this was avoidable. We had the technology and the laws in place. We didn’t have to upend anything. No one has been charged for violating FISA. Those who have tried to expose it were charged with espionage, like me. The government has unchained itself from the constitution.”
Canadian Press: Canada’s Integrity Watchdog, Whistleblower Protector Quitting in December
After four years, Mario Dion will leave his job as Canada’s public sector integrity watchdog and protector of civil service whistleblowers, citing personal reasons. Previously, whistleblower protection groups called for his removal after Canada’s Auditor General found that Dion’s office treated whistleblower filings with “gross mismanagement” and incompetence. Dion is the second successive Integrity Commissioner accused of wrongdoing.
Press Democrat (CA): Fired Sonoma County Employee Files Whistleblower Suit
A former county government worker in California is suing Sonoma County’s Human Services Department for allegedly being fired for blowing the whistle on her department’s treatment of disabled employees.
Michael Riley is a Communications Intern for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.