The Wrap: Tribeca Docs on Government Spying – ‘What was Illegal Under Nixon is Legal Under Obama’
The documentary Silenced, which focuses on the federal government’s treatment of whistleblowers during the past several years, premiered over the weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film is directed by Oscar-nominee James Spione and details the reprisals suffered by NSA whistleblower Tom Drake, CIA/torture whistleblower John Kiriakou, and GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack for each one’s distinct action of exposing wrongdoing. Drake, Radack and Spione appeared on a panel following the Saturday night premiere of the film, which will be released later this year.
Key Quote: “Silenced” makes the damning case that the federal government, in hanging onto the expanded powers granted after 9/11, selectively uses the threat of prosecution not to go after true spies, but to harass whistleblowers for revealing illegal activities or government scandals. In the film, executive produced by Susan Sarandon, Spione artfully mixes three case studies from three different government agencies: Kiriakou spoke out against the use of waterboarding, Drake found the NSA hiding from Congress its culpability in missing signs that the 9/11 attacks were coming, and Radack grew incensed that the Justice Department was trying to hide emails that proved it ignored American citizen John Walker Lindh’s constitutional rights.
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Radack is now director of national security and human rights at the Government Accountability Project, and counts Snowden among her clients…
“The biggest leaker of classified information in our nation is the U.S. government,” said Radack in the Q&A moderated by Pulitzer-winning Washington Post journalist Barton Gellman. “It happens on a daily basis to make themselves look good. But if someone does it to expose the biggest scandals of my generation, the full force of the government comes down on you.”
Tennessee Legislature Wins ‘Muzzle’ Award for Pushing Anti-Whistleblower Ag Gag Bill
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression (TJC) has announced its annual ‘Jefferson Muzzles,’ which are given to institutions that “forgot or disregarded Mr. Jefferson’s admonition that freedom of speech ‘cannot be limited without being lost.'” This year, TJC named the Tennessee legislature as one recipient for being the sole state congress to pass an Ag Gag bill, which attempts to silence whistleblowers that expose wrongdoing at industrial farms (the state’s governor vetoed the measure). GAP’s Food Integrity Campaign has more.
Virginia Supreme Court Rejects ATI’s Demand for Climate Scientists’ Email
The Virginia Supreme Court has rejected a discovery request for email records between a University of Virginia climate scientist and his colleagues. GAP’s Climate Science Watch program (and Director Rick Piltz) praised the decision after advocating for such a result during the past several years.
Key Quote: In upholding a higher education research exclusion from freedom of information access in this case, the Court cited the potential for “harm to university-wide research efforts, damage to faculty recruitment and retention, undermining of faculty expectations of privacy and confidentiality, and impairment of free thought and expression.”
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I am well-aware of and strongly supportive of the need for effectively implemented Freedom of Information laws in dealing with government agencies, in order to foster open government and the public’s need to know. On the other hand, generally Freedom of Information advocates recognize there is a balance to be struck when it comes to protecting academic freedom and the confidentiality of communications among university scholars. I strongly support the Court’s ruling in this case.
Tampa Bay Times: All Children’s Hospital Agrees to Pay $7 Million to Settle Whistleblower Suit
A Florida-based hospital has settled a whistleblower case for $7 million. The suit alleged the institution violated “antikickback laws by paying inflated salaries and bonuses to doctors so that they would bring in more patients and revenues.”
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.