Researcher Published by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Quarterly Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Protecting Whistleblowers

Do employees who speak out need better protection?

rom prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison to fraud at Enron, some of the most dramatic revelations of cor- porate and government wrongdoing have come from insiders. The Whistleblower Protection Act and other Flaws are designed to shield employees who reveal wrongdoing from retaliation by vengeful bosses. But federal employees who claim they were harassed after blowing the whistle lose their cases Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a U.S. Army Corps of far more often than they win. They lose so often, in fact, that Engineers contracts supervisor, was demoted in 2005 after challenging contracts awarded to a subsidiary of the Halliburton Co. some whistleblower advocates urge potential whistleblowers to become anonymous sources for reporters instead. National-security I employees are in an especially delicate position, because what N THIS REPORT S they want to disclose may involve secret information. Several THE ISSUES ...... 267 I bills now before Congress aim to strengthen protections for BACKGROUND ...... 274 D whistleblowers, including those in intelligence agencies. CHRONOLOGY ...... 275 E AT ISSUE ...... 281

CQ Researcher • March 31, 2006 • www.cqresearcher.com CURRENT SITUATION ...... 282 Volume 16, Number 12 • Pages 265-288 OUTLOOK ...... 283 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 286 EXCELLENCE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 287 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS CQ Researcher

March 31, 2006 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 16, Number 12

• Are federal whistleblow- Whistleblower Suits MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin 267 ers adequately protected? 268 Recovered $9.6 Billion • Is the Bush administration More than 5,100 suits were ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch hostile to whistleblowers? filed since 1986. ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost • Should civil servants leak Before You Blow the Whistle STAFF WRITERS: Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel, information to reporters in- 269 Whistleblower advocates offer Pamela M. Prah stead of whistleblowing? 10 suggestions. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Rachel Cox, Sarah Glazer, David Hosansky, BACKGROUND Backlog of Whistleblower Patrick Marshall, Tom Price 271 Cases Reduced Civil War Abuses The Office of Special Counsel DESIGN/PRODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis 274 The 1863 False Claims Act closed 1,154 cases in 2004. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Melissa J. Hipolit authorized fraud suits on the government’s behalf. Only Three Whistleblowers 272 Won Their Cases Legal Shields Claims by more than 160 276 The 1978 Civil Service Re- employees were rejected. form Act created two A Division of Chronology Congressional Quarterly Inc. whistleblower agencies. 275 Key events since 1967. SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER: 278 Famous Whistleblowers 276 The Downfall of Richard John A. Jenkins Insiders’ revelations rocked M. Barlow DIRECTOR, LIBRARY PUBLISHING: Kathryn C. Suárez the tobacco industry and An outspoken Pentagon Air Force in the 1990s. analyst is forced to resign. DIRECTOR, EDITORIAL OPERATIONS: Ann Davies Critics Question Agency’s Post-9/11 Whistleblowing 278 CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY INC. 280 Government intelligence Commitment Is the Office of Special CHAIRMAN: Paul C. Tash officials were challenged. Counsel anti-whistleblower? VICE CHAIRMAN: Andrew P. Corty At Issue PRESIDENT/EDITOR IN CHIEF: Robert W. Merry CURRENT SITUATION 281 Should Congress expand whistleblower rights? Copyright © 2006 CQ Press, a division of Congres- Legislative Potential sional Quarterly Inc. (CQ). CQ reserves all copyright 282 Sen. Frank Lautenberg and other rights herein, unless previously specified proposes protection for FOR FURTHER RESEARCH in writing. No part of this publication may be re- spy-agency whistleblowers. produced electronically or otherwise without prior For More Information written permission. Unauthorized reproduction or 285 Organizations to contact. transmission of CQ copyrighted material is a violation Free Speech at Work of federal law carrying civil fines of up to $100,000. 282 The Supreme Court may limit whistleblower rights. Bibliography CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- 286 Selected sources used. free paper. Published weekly, except March 24, July 7, July 14, Aug. 4, Aug. 11, Nov. 24, Dec. 22 and OUTLOOK 287 The Next Step Dec. 29, by CQ Press, a division of Congressional Additional articles. Quarterly Inc. Annual full-service subscriptions for institutions start at $667. For pricing, call 1-800-834- Open Floodgates? Citing the CQ Researcher 283 Is a wave of whistleblower 287 9020, ext. 1906. To purchase a CQ Researcher re- Sample bibliography formats. port in print or electronic format (PDF), visit complaints coming? www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $10. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic- rights licensing are also available. Periodicals post- age paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to CQ Cover: Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracts supervisor, was Researcher, 1255 22nd St., N.W., Suite 400, Washing- demoted in 2005 after challenging Iraq war contracts awarded to a subsidiary of the Halliburton ton, DC 20037. Co. She is contesting her demotion. (Getty Images/Chip Somodevilla)

266 CQ Researcher Protecting Whistleblowers BY PETER KATEL

Today, with the war in Iraq beginning its fourth year and THE ISSUES debate intensifying over the hen Sgt. Samuel government’s counterterrorism Provance learned tactics, national-security W U.S. forces at Abu whistleblowers increasingly Ghraib prison near Baghdad have come in conflict with were abusing Iraqi prisoners, government efforts to control he knew he had to do some- information affecting the coun- thing. But there was pressure try’s safety. to remain silent, he testified “When they go out and before the House National talk to the public about a Security Subcommittee on highly classified program, they Feb. 14, sitting ramrod straight harm the national security of at a gleaming, wooden wit- this country,” Attorney Gen- ness table. eral Alberto R. Gonzales told “I was told that the honor the Senate Judiciary Commit- of my unit and the Army de- tee on Feb. 6. pended on either withhold- But whistleblowers and ing the truth or outright lies,” their defenders contend that he said. 1 government officials often use Nonetheless, Provance secrecy rules to stifle politi- informed his superiors, and cally embarrassing truths. then reporters, that Military “New whistleblower protec-

Intelligence officers had di- Getty Images/Linda Spillers tions should immediately be rected the abuses — con- Former FBI translator , at her home in established for members of Alexandria, Va., was dismissed by the FBI after exposing trary to official claims that alleged wrongdoing and incompetence. The U.S. the executive branch who rogue troops were responsi- Supreme Court refused to hear her case after report evidence of wrong- ble. In response, the Army government lawyers said they couldn’t argue against doing — especially where it revoked his security clear- her lawsuit without revealing state secrets. involves . . . the sensitive ance and demoted him. areas of national security,” The Defense Department present- zens when it comes to asserting their former Vice President said in ed no witness to contradict Provance’s rights to speak truth to power.” a January speech. 3 account. Nor were other witnesses’ In recent years, whistleblowers Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., has allegations of reprisals disputed. They have exposed wrongdoing or incom- introduced a bill to prevent govern- told of being harassed, fired or forced petence hidden behind walls of cor- ment officials from claiming secrecy to resign for revealing a number of porate or government secrecy, from when whistleblowers try to denounce national security foul-ups, including the financial fraud that led to the wrongdoing or prove retaliation. And the alleged cover-up of early discov- Enron collapse to the tobacco indus- Rep. Todd R. Platts, R-Pa., and Sen. eries concerning the Sept. 11, 2001, try’s lies about the cancer-causing na- Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, introduced terrorists; a botched FBI terrorism ture of cigarettes. whistleblower-protection bills last year. investigation; foreign infiltration of the In the process, whistleblowers often The Senate Homeland Security and top-secret become media heroes. In 2002, FBI Governmental Affairs Committee ap- (NSA) and poor security at U.S. nuclear agent Colleen Rowley was named one proved the Akaka bill, and the House power plants. of Time magazine’s “Persons of the Government Reform Committee OK’d “We need national-security whistle- Year” for revealing FBI incompetence Platts’ proposal, but neither bill has blowers to tell us when things go wrong,” before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist at- moved to the full Congress. said Subcommittee Chairman Christo- tacks. Also named were two corpo- The bills were introduced against pher Shays, R-Conn. “But those with rate whistleblowers — former Enron the backdrop of high-stakes court bat- whom we trust the nation’s secrets are Vice President Sherron Watkins and tles between whistleblowers and the too often treated like second-class citi- WorldCom auditor Cynthia Cooper. 2 executive branch. Last November the

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 267 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

The system for intelligence-commu- Whistleblower Suits Recovered $9.6 Billion nity whistleblowers largely revolves More than 5,100 “qui tam” (whistleblower) suits have been filed around the inspectors general offices attached to — but independent of — against companies allegedly cheating the federal government since the various federal agencies. But in- the False Claims Act was updated in 1986 to offer more protection spectors’ powers are limited. For ex- and financial incentives to whistleblowers. During the same period, ample, a report by the Justice Depart- more than $9.6 billion was recovered. ment’s inspector general concluded that Edmonds did have legitimate No. of Qui Tam Suits Money Recovered (in $ millions) grounds for voicing suspicions about 2,000 $2,000 Whistleblower Suits and Recoveries a colleague’s possible ties to a foreign Under the False Claims Act intelligence service. “Edmonds had her 1,500 1,500 case reviewed by the FBI, which did not, and still has not, adequately in- vestigated these allegations,” said the 1,000 No. of suits filed 1,000 Money recovered January 2005 report, noting the bureau also failed to prove that Edmonds’ 500 500 firing was justified. 6 In response, the FBI launched a new investigation of her allegations. 7 0 0 ’87 ’88 ’89 ’90 ’91 ’92 ’93 ’94 ’95 ’96 ’97 ’98 ’99 ’00 ’01 ’02 ’03 ’04 ’05 A separate law, the Intelligence Com- munity Whistleblower Protection Act What Is a Qui Tam Suit? of 1998, allows intelligence-service employees to report wrongdoing of The False Claims Act allows citizens and organizations with evidence of “urgent concern” to Congress. 8 “Exer- fraud against the government to sue the wrongdoer on behalf of the cising one’s rights under this act is an government. Such actions are known as qui tam, or “whistleblower” appropriate and responsible way to lawsuits. Qui tam is part of a longer Latin phrase (qui tam pro domino bring questionable practices to the at- rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur) that means “he who brings tention of those in Congress charged an action for the king as well as for himself.” The person filing a with oversight of the intelligence agen- successful suit receives 15-30 percent of the money recovered. cies,” CIA Director Porter Goss wrote just before Shays held his hearing. “And Sources: Taxpayers Against Fraud; Project on Government Oversight it works.” As House Intelligence Com- mittee chairman in 1998, Goss was U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an contained inaccurate information. Jus- one of the law’s authors. appeal by former FBI translator Sibel tice Department lawyers have filed a But intelligence analyst Russell Tice, Edmonds, who claims she was fired brief in the case, arguing that the First who was fired by the NSA last year for exposing alleged wrongdoing and Amendment doesn’t cover public em- after warning that a colleague might incompetence. However, the justices ployees who speak out in the course be a foreign spy, told Shays’ subcom- refused to hear Edmonds’ appeal after of their jobs. 5 mittee the agency had barred him from government lawyers said they couldn’t Stephen Kohn, a Washington reporting his concerns to Congress on argue against her lawsuit without re- lawyer specializing in representing the grounds that House and Senate In- vealing state secrets — an argument whistleblowers, calls the government’s telligence Committee members didn’t lower court judges had accepted. 4 position “outrageous” and potentially have the security clearances required But the justices have agreed to de- disastrous for employees who try to to hear about certain NSA and Defense cide whether government employees report wrongdoing. Intelligence Agency operations. But a have a constitutionally protected free- Even if the court determines the First Jan. 9 letter from the agency did tell speech right to report wrongdoing. The Amendment doesn’t always protect pub- Tice that no members or staff of the case involves a Los Angeles deputy lic employees from reprisals, they still Intelligence committees were “cleared district attorney who contends his rights are shielded by the federal whistle- to receive the information” concerning were violated when he was demoted blower-protection system established by “Special Access Programs” that Tice for denouncing a search warrant that Congress about 30 years ago. wanted to disclose. The letter added

268 CQ Researcher that Tice had to inform the Defense Department and NSA of what he Before You Blow the Whistle . . . wanted to say, and be directed by them Employees should consider the following checklist before becoming how to deal with the congressional whistleblowers, according to three whistleblower advocacy groups. committees. No one disputes that national-se- 1. Consult your loved ones — This is a family decision, and you want curity whistleblowing raises legitimate to have your spouse, family and/or close friends on your side. worries about the country’s safety. Even former CIA and Defense Department 2. Check for skeletons in your closet — Is there a peccadillo or analyst Richard M. Barlow, whose ca- something in your past that could be used against you? reer was shattered after he spoke up, 3. Document, document, document — Keep records of important says he was troubled by The New York documents; your access to agency documents might be denied after Times’ disclosure of the NSA’s war- whistling. rantless electronic spying on U.S. cit- 4. Do not use government resources — Do not use agency resources, 9 izens. (See sidebar, p. 276.) such as phones and fax machines, when engaging in whistleblowing. “I can understand how White House people are concerned that this stuff 5. Check to see who will support your account — If you can’t count ended up in The Times,” says Barlow, on co-workers or others to defend your case, consider waiting. an expert on Pakistan’s nuclear-arms 6. Consult an attorney early — Seek legal advice before you intervene. program. “This is not good.” 7. Choose your battles — Don’t fight personnel issues, because the Barlow conjectures that if NSA em- advantage is with the employer, not the employee. ployees had had a reliable channel to pass information about wrongdoing to 8. Identify allies — Share your knowledge with others at the agency Congress — and if lawmakers had been that might have interest in your evidence. more receptive to whistleblowers — the 9. Have a plan — Create a step-by-step action plan, including how the revelations might never have wound up agency will respond and how you will counter its response. in the headlines. Critics like Barlow 10. Get career counseling — Consider where your actions will leave point to Abu Ghraib whistleblower you in a year, two years, five years. Provance as proof that those who step forward become sitting ducks for pay- Sources: “The Art of Anonymous Activism: Serving the Public While Surviving back by their superiors. Public Service”; Project on Government Oversight, Government Accountability Still, a Defense official suggested Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility that Provance hadn’t taken full advan- tage of the whistleblower-protection Trained as an intelligence and “commission or possible commission” system. Under questioning by Shays, computer expert, Provance says that of a federal crime. 10 Jane Deese, director of military-reprisal since being demoted from sergeant “That is an extremely powerful tool,” investigations for the Pentagon’s in- to specialist he has been relegated to says Kohn, who has written five books spector general, called Provance’s ac- “picking up trash and guard duty and on whistleblowing. “It prohibits the gag- count “disturbing” but added that he things of that nature.” ging of federal employees, even those had never filed a complaint. As the fight over whistleblower involved in highly sensitive national- After the hearing, one of Provance’s protection heats up again, here are security issues. They can go to federal lawyers, Deborah Pearlstein of Human some of the leading issues in debate: law enforcement under this law.” Kohn Rights First, said Provance had likely con- says the law has not been used much, cluded on the basis of what he’d already Are federal whistleblowers ade- but he expects lawyers to begin in- suffered that he would worsen his situ- quately protected? voking it in whistleblower cases. ation by filing a retaliation complaint. Whistleblower expert Kohn says Dozens of states have enacted laws Asked by Rep. Henry Waxman, D- some 40 laws protect federal whistle- providing varying degrees of protection Calif., how his superiors had reacted to blowers — at least in theory. They to government whistleblowers. In the his accounts of detainee abuse, Provance include a little-known 2002 statute federal system, the extent of protection said their responses made clear that that makes job retaliation a crime varies by agency. For instance, employ- “anything that I had to say was just when directed at someone who pro- ees who work in fields affecting public going to be avoided or ignored.” vided truthful information about the health and safety, such as nuclear power,

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 269 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS aviation, trucking and en- 13, 2006, only two pre- vironmental protection, vailed, Devine says. 12 can take complaints of re- Board General Counsel taliation directly to the Martha Schneider does not Labor Department and, dispute the figures. But depending on the re- she says the board works sponse, directly to feder- within limits set by the Fed- al District Court. eral Circuit and the 1987 Those employees and Whistleblower Protection most other federal em- Act (WPA). The court set ployees — except na- a key precedent in 1999 tional-security workers — when it ruled that in order fall under the Office of for whistleblowers to sus- Special Counsel (OSC) tain their cases, a “disin- and the Merit Systems terested observer” would Protection Board (MSPB). have to agree that mis- Whistleblowers can take conduct had occurred. “The cases of alleged serious WPA is not a weapon in retaliation — such as fir- arguments over policy or ing or suspension — to a shield for insubordinate the board. Complaints of conduct,” the court said. 13 transfers, blocked pro- Since that ruling, a single motions and the like can witness on behalf of a be reported to the OSC government agency has if the alleged reason was been enough to knock retaliation or another pro- down employees’ cases. hibited practice. If the And, Schneider says, the OSC doesn’t act within WPA statute itself is “fair- 120 days, employees can ly narrow” in its definition Time, Inc. bring their cases to the Time tapped three whistleblowers as its “Persons of the Year” in of the kinds of activities MSPB. The OSC can also 2002: auditor Cynthia Cooper, who revealed phony accounting that whistleblowers get pro- conduct preliminary dis- practices at WorldCom; FBI agent Colleen Rowley, who tected for reporting — a documented bureau failure to follow-up leads before the closures of serious mis- 9/11 terrorist attacks; and Enron Vice President violation of law, regulation conduct in agencies and Sherron Watkins, who warned about massive financial or gross mismanagement; require full-scale investi- irregularities at the now bankrupt firm. gross waste of funds; abuse gations by the agencies of authority; or a “sub- themselves if the allegations seem to example — rather than going to the stantial and specific danger” to pub- be well-founded. MSPB and the OSC. “If you enter that lic health or safety. Given those lim- If the OSC concludes an employee box, you will get a ruling from some- its, Schneider says, it is “harder for has been improperly treated, it can body that says you are not a real whistle- whistleblowers to prevail.” ask the MSPB to postpone the per- blower, which undermines your abili- In reality, some whistleblower ad- sonnel action about to be taken ty to go to Congress and the press and vocates say, the board has long been against the worker. But if the MSPB get your issues addressed,” he says. hostile to employees who appear be- rejects that request, the OSC cannot For instance, of the 120 Federal fore it. In 1994, the House Committee appeal that decision. 11 The Court of Circuit rulings on the merits of on Post Office and Civil Service re- Appeals for the Federal Circuit, created whistleblower appeals between 1994 ported that it had heard “extensive tes- in 1982, has exclusive jurisdiction over and 2005, only one went in favor of timony at hearings that the MSPB and appeals of board decisions. the employee, according to Thomas the Federal Circuit have lost credibili- But Kohn and other experts advise Devine, legal director of the Govern- ty with the practicing bar for civil ser- whistleblowers to sue in federal Dis- ment Accountability Project. And of vice cases.” 14 trict Court — alleging violations of their the 52 whistleblowers that took their Devine says members of the three- First Amendment free-speech rights, for cases to the MSPB from 1999 to March member board are traditionally “minor-

270 CQ Researcher league political appointees who know they won’t rise up the political food Backlog of Whistleblower Cases Reduced chain by helping people who chal- In an effort to clear out its large backlog of whistleblower cases, the lenge abuses of power by the presi- dent or his political appointees.” Board Office of Special Counsel (OSC) closed nearly three times as many Chairman Neil A. G. McPhie, a former cases in 2004 as it did in 2003. Only eight of the 18 cases alleging Virginia senior assistant state attorney government fraud, mismanagement or abuse were substantiated in general, did not respond to a request 2004. In 2005, however, despite a caseload half as large, twice as for comment. many cases were substantiated. Whistleblower advocates direct even harsher criticism at the Office of Spe- OSC Disposition of Whistleblower Disclosures cial Counsel, headed by Bush ap- FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 pointee Scott J. Bloch. Bloch draws criticism for both his handling of Total cases pending 1,091 1,262 583 whistleblowers and personnel issues Referred to agency for investigation 11 18 19 in his own agency. A complaint filed Substantiated by agency 13 8 16 against Bloch by whistleblower advo- Processed and closed 401 1,154 473 cacy groups and others charges he is- sued an illegal gag order, transferred employees he considered disloyal and Source: Office of Special Counsel, fiscal 2007 Congressional Budget Justification disposed of cases often without in- and Performance Budget Goals terviewing the employees who filed the complaints. (See sidebar, p. 278.) much more aggressive in regard to Taken alone, a new category of whistleblowers [in its] secrecy policies, classified information might not sound Is the Bush administration hos- which creates more possibilities for re- alarming in post-9/11 America. But the tile to whistleblowers? taliation and creates a chilling effect,” policy worries the whistleblower-pro- No contemporary president has gen- says Beth Daley, an investigator with tection network, particularly in view erated much enthusiasm among whistle- the Washington-based Project on Gov- of other recent efforts by the federal blower advocates. ernment Oversight. 15 government to either withhold infor- “Every administration’s Justice De- The administration has created a mation from the public or retaliate partment has objected to every whistle- new category of “sensitive but unclas- against those who reveal irregularities. blower bill since the [1978] Civil Service sified” information that agencies are For instance, the government has Reform Act,” a Democratic congression- prohibited from disclosing — though a secretly reclassified more than 55,000 al aide says, asking not to be named. definition of the category has yet to be intelligence and diplomatic documents “They have an institutional bias, because hammered out. So far, prohibited data in the National Archives that had been they would always be defending an include information on shipments of publicly available for years, some dat- agency against a whistleblower. So any hazardous materials, injury rates among ing back to the Korean War. The re- bill that helps a whistleblower means workers at the Portland, Ore., airport classification began under President they might lose cases.” and plans for a liquefied natural gas Clinton in 1999, when the CIA and Indeed, in an April 12, 2005, letter power plant on Long Island Sound. other agencies objected to the un- to Congress on Akaka’s proposed bill, Bush has ordered National Securi- sealing of what they considered secret Assistant Attorney General William E. ty Director John D. Negroponte to information following a 1995 presi- Moschella cited strong opposition by come up with a governmentwide de- dential declassification order. The re- the Clinton administration in 1998 to finition of “sensitive but unclassified” classification intensified under Bush. 17 a proposal to extend whistleblower information in order to enhance in- After disclosure of the program prompt- protection to employees whose re- formation sharing “amongst those en- ed outrage from historians, Allen Wein- ports of alleged wrongdoing included tities responsible for protecting our stein, director of the National Archives, classified information. communities from future attack,” said announced a halt, pending talks with the Even so, President Bush stands out Negroponte spokesman Carl Kropf. 16 spy and military agencies. He also asked for his insistence on controlling gov- Negroponte’s office declined to dis- the agencies to do their best to restore ernment information, say whistleblower cuss the effect of the classification on to public access as many of the newly advocates. “The Bush administration is national-security whistleblowers. reclassified files as possible. 18

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 271 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

committees to protect intra-agency de- Only Three Whistleblowers Won Their Cases liberative materials prepared for senior officers in executive departments.” 21 Only three out of 172 employees in recent years won their cases Goldsmith was disputing a Con- after claiming employers retaliated against them for revealing gressional Research Service (CRS) problems. Under the 1999 Whistleblower Protection Act, retaliation memo declaring that Congress’ right claims can be filed with either the Merit Systems Protection Board or to information trumps any gag orders the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. on employees. “Congress has a clear right and recognized prerogative . . . Status of Whistleblowers’ Retaliation Claims to receive from officers and employ- ees of the agencies and departments Rulings of Merit Systems Protection Board of the accurate and truth- (From June 1999 to March 13, 2006) ful information regarding the federal programs and policies,” wrote Jack 22 In favor of 2 Maskell, a CRS legislative attorney. whistleblower In 2004 U.S. Park Police Chief Against Teresa Chambers was fired after telling whistleblower 50 reporters that her officers were unable to patrol Washington-area parks be- 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 cause of a new policy that they main- tain a bigger presence at national Rulings of Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit monuments. A Merit Systems Protec- (From 1994 through March 2006) tion Board judge upheld the dismissal, saying she had broken the chain of In favor of command by going public. 23 whistleblower 1 Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Against 119 Responsibility, said the Chambers case whistleblower cast an especially big shadow because 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 the police chief didn’t see herself as a whistleblower but as the agency’s Source: Government Accountability Project , March 2006 spokesperson. “Now the line between whistleblowing and simply telling the In 2005 the U.S. Army Corps of En- ministration officials had claimed. The truth is increasingly blurred,” Ruch says. gineers demoted Bunnatine H. Green- inspector general of the Health and “A lot of times, the people we work house, a contracts supervisor who chal- Human Services Department (HHS) later with don’t realize they’re whistleblow- lenged Corps contract awards to Kellogg concluded that Foster’s boss did not act ing by being inconveniently candid.” Brown & Root — a subsidiary of Hal- illegally because Foster had no inde- Consciously or not, however, the liburton (formerly headed by Vice Pres- pendent right to inform Congress. 20 employees are colliding with the Bush ident Dick Cheney), which received more HHS’ position reflected a May 21, 2004, administration doctrine that high-ranking than $10 billion in contracts for work in memo to the department from then-As- officials — not their subordinates — Iraq. The Corps said it was not retaliat- sistant Attorney General Jack L. Gold- decide what information to release. A ing against Greenhouse, but her lawyer smith, who concluded that government “fundamental principle” of presidential argued that was the only explanation, officials’ powers include control of what authority, Goldsmith wrote in his memo given her stellar track record before the information Congress gets to see. “Ex- on the Medicare matter, is that “his sub- Halliburton issues arose. 19 Greenhouse’s ecutive privilege,” he wrote, referring to ordinates must be free from certain types challenge of her demotion is pending. the doctrine of presidential secrecy, “ap- of interference from the coordinate Medicare actuary Richard Foster was plies governmentwide, and is not limit- branches of government.” 24 threatened with dismissal in 2003 if he ed to presidential decision making. . . . Whistleblower advocates argue that told Congress that a prescription-drug Presidents George [H.W.] Bush, Bill Clin- with both the executive branch and Con- reimbursement plan (since enacted) ton and George W. Bush each asserted gress controlled by Republicans, the nor- would cost $100 billion more than ad- executive privilege against congressional mal checks and balances — specifically

272 CQ Researcher congressional over- and authored a new sight — do not exist. book about the intelli- “The Republicans are gence community and not going to do any the war in Iraq. Without oversight of them- information from “cur- selves,” says Kris J. rent and former officials Kolesnik, who helped from the Bush adminis- draft the 1989 Whistle- tration, the intelligence blower Protection Act community and other (WPA) as an aide to parts of the government,” Sen. Charles Grassley, the book couldn’t have R-Iowa. Kolesnik, also been written. 27 a Republican, is now But CIA Director executive director of Goss has little tolerance the National Whistle- for leakers. “Those who blower Center. choose to bypass the Administration of- law and go straight to ficials say they sup- the press are not noble,

port whistleblower- Getty Images/Adam Rountree honorable or patriotic,” shield systems. Last Tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, right, who revealed Goss wrote. “Nor are April, as the admin- that Brown & Williamson officials knew cigarettes caused cancer, they whistleblowers. In- joins New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he istration prepared announces his Smoke-Free Air Act on Oct. 9, 2002. stead, they are commit- to establish a new ting a criminal act that personnel system for civilians at the Should civil servants anonymously potentially places American lives at Pentagon — the National Security Per- leak information to reporters in- risk.” 28 sonnel System (NSPS) — then-Navy stead of becoming whistleblowers? Goss told a Senate Intelligence Com- Secretary Gordon England (now The firings and demotions experi- mittee hearing in February that re- deputy secretary of Defense) told the enced by some government whistle- porters writing stories based on NSA Senate Armed Services Committee blowers discourage others from going leaks should be hauled before a grand that the new system “will not remove through official channels to reveal jury and “asked to reveal who is leak- whistleblowing protections.” wrongdoing. Instead, some insiders ing this information.” 29 In fact, the But an official of the American Fed- protect their jobs by leaking informa- Bush administration has instigated a eration of Government Employees, tion anonymously to the press. criminal investigation that could end which opposes the system, says the The consequences of whistle- in just that. 30 NSPS would wreck whatever protec- blowing can be even more serious Rather than leak to the press, FBI tions exist. Mark Roth, the union’s gen- for workers at intelligence agencies, whistleblower Rowley worked within eral counsel, points to an appeal sys- where both law and workplace cul- the system, sending a 13-page letter tem in which the Merit Systems ture demand observance of secrecy to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III Protection Board would be able to rules. At the least, their security clear- and copies to two members of the overturn a boss’ personnel action only ances can be revoked — effective- Joint Intelligence Committee. if it were found “totally unwarranted,” ly ending their careers. In some cases, Nevertheless, Rowley acknowledges which would mean that any infraction they can be prosecuted for reveal- that exceptional circumstances justify by an employee would be enough to ing state secrets. Thus, it was not extraordinary measures, citing the no- sustain a demotion or disciplinary move. surprising that the recent press re- torious 1968 massacre of Vietnamese On Feb. 27, U. S. District Judge Emmet ports about warrantless NSA domestic civilians at My Lai by U.S. troops and G. Sullivan accepted the union’s argu- spying were based on anonymous FBI Assistant Director ’s leaks ments in barring the Pentagon from sources. — as “” — to The Wash- putting most of the NSPS into opera- “All reporters know that the very ington Post during the Watergate scan- tion. “The appeals system is the an- best stories — the most important, dal. “When your bosses are destroy- tithesis of fairness,” the judge wrote. 25 the most sensitive — rely on them,” ing evidence and outright lying — England said he expected his depart- wrote reporter James Risen, who broke then, yes, you actually have to go out- ment to appeal the ruling. 26 the domestic-spying story in the Times side the chain of command.” (Rowley

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 273 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS retired from the FBI and is running parency, immediately saw whistle- as a Democrat for a U.S. House seat blowers’ value in arousing the pub- in Minnesota.) BACKGROUND lic as well as politicians. Still, given the potential risks of whistle- On Jan. 30, 1971, Nader organized blowing, some whistleblower advocates a Conference on Professional Re- encourage employees to leak informa- sponsibility, which kicked off a cam- tion about misdeeds. “We talk people Civil War Abuses paign for legislation encouraging em- out of blowing the whistle, says Ruch ployees to tell Congress about of Public Employees for Environmental hen Civil War contractors were government misdeeds while protect- Responsibility (PEER). If you think about W discovered selling the Union ing them from retaliation. “The will- it, if an agency is forced to confront the Army gunpowder cut with sawdust ingness and ability of insiders to blow issue directly and can’t blame it on a and other shoddy supplies, Congress the whistle is the last line of defense disgruntled employee, that’s very good authorized civil servants and citizens ordinary citizens have against the de- terrain to be on.” to sue cheaters on the government’s nial of their rights and the destruction “The Art of Anonymous Activism,” behalf and share any money recov- of their interests by secretive and pow- published by the Project on Govern- ered with the government. 31 erful institutions,” Nader wrote. 35 ment Oversight (POGO), the Govern- Although the 1863 False Claims Act Nader and his allies had been in- ment Accountability Project and PEER, was groundbreaking legislation, it only spired by four young staffers for Sen. advises employees on how to leak in- dealt with whistleblowers reporting Thomas J. Dodd, D-Conn., the father formation. “Throwing away your en- abuses by private contractors. It did of today’s Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, tire career, particularly if there are not address insider accounts about D-Conn. In 1965, they gave inves- other ways to ventilate the problem, public servants. President Theodore tigative reporter Jack Anderson copies is imprudent and counterproductive,” Roosevelt set the stage for such leg- of documents from Dodd’s files that the booklet argues. islation when he barred employees indicated he was pocketing campaign But lawyer Kohn argues that even in 1902 from contacting Congress on contributions. Anderson’s articles led anonymous leakers can endanger their their own. 32 to Dodd’s 1967 censure by the Sen- careers. For one thing, he says, while The dispute over lawmakers’ ac- ate for misusing political funds. 36 bosses and co-workers usually can fig- cess to direct information from the Dodd’s downfall notwithstanding, ure out an anonymous source’s iden- executive branch agencies simmered most government whistleblowing has tity, a leaker who suffers retaliation through 1912, when Congress passed been centered on the executive branch. might not be able to prove that his the Lloyd-Lafollette Act, which pro- In 1968, shortly after the Dodd ex- boss has identified him. hibited the firing of employees who posé, a civilian Air Force financial an- But Rep. Shays responds that contacted Congress. 33 alyst, A. Ernest Fitzgerald, told a con- when whistleblowers follow the offi- The early laws provided the only gressional subcommittee that the cost cial chain of command it often leads legal backing to civil servants report- of developing the C-5A transport plane to a dead end: “Leaks happen be- ing improper conduct until Congress was $2 billion over budget. Fitzgerald cause whistleblowers are not getting took a comprehensive look at whistle- was forced out of his job but chal- heard.” blowing in 1978. lenged his ouster in court and was re- Administration officials show little In 1972, journalist-historian Taylor instated in 1982. sympathy for that argument — or for Branch defined whistleblowers as po- In 1987, Fitzgerald made news leakers. Attorney General Gonzales told litical descendants of the turn-of-the- again when he forced the Reagan the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. century journalistic crusaders known administration to back down from re- 6 the Intelligence Community Whistle- as muckrakers, who specialized in ex- quiring employees to take a secrecy blower Protection Act protects em- posing corporate and government cor- pledge aimed at keeping government ployees wanting to report misconduct. ruption. 34 information out of the hands of Con- “The danger or problem of going to Muckraking’s heyday had faded by gress and the press. 37 the media as an initial matter is that the time insiders began blowing the Fitzgerald’s stand against wasteful you have some people . . . whose whistle on government and corporate military spending became a nation- motivation . . . can be questioned in misdeeds during the government-re- al news story, but he remained an terms of why are they doing that,” form movement of the 1960s. Ralph inside-the-Beltway Washington fig- Gonzales said. Nader, an advocate of corporate ac- ure. Defense analyst , countability and government trans- Continued on p. 276

274 CQ Researcher Chronology

1960s-1970s 1990s New generation 2000s National-security Whistleblowers reveal govern- of whistleblowers makes sensa- whistleblowers face retaliation. ment misdeeds during Vietnam tional disclosures of corporate War and Watergate scandal. and government wrongdoing. 2002 FBI agent Colleen Rowley reveals 1968 1992 FBI’s pre-9/11 incompetence. Pentagon fires A. Ernest Fitzgerald Congress halts mental health exams for revealing cost overruns in de- for military whistleblowers and re- 2003 veloping the C-5A transport plane. stores cash awards to whistleblowers Medicare actuary Richard Foster is He was reinstated in 1982. who save the government money. threatened with dismissal after threatening to tell Congress the 1971 1993 Bush administration is low-balling Consumer advocate Ralph Nader Democratic Vice President Al Gore cost estimates for its prescription- launches drive for whistleblower- encourages whistleblowers as part drug reimbursement plan. protection laws. of the Clinton administration’s “Reinventing Government” effort. 2004 1973 Army Sgt. Samuel A. Provance is re- Prosecutors drop charges against 1994 duced in rank after revealing abuses former Pentagon analyst Daniel Congress strengthens WPA, allowing at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Ellsberg for leaking the “Pentagon whistleblowers to challenge agency Papers” to . decisions to alter their working con- March 2005 ditions or order them to undergo Bills introduced by Sen. Daniel 1978 psychiatric testing. Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Rep. Todd Congress passes first, comprehen- R. Platts, R-Pa., would close loop- sive whistleblower legislation, the 1995 holes in the whistleblower law. Civil Service Reform Act. Former tobacco-industry scientist Jeffrey Wigand reveals the cover-up Aug. 28, 2005 • of smoking hazards by Brown & Army Corps of Engineers demotes Williamson Tobacco Co. contract specialist Bunnatine H. Greenhouse after she complains of 1980s Congress 1996 irregularities in Iraq war contracts. strengthens the new statute. Aircraft maker McDonnell-Douglas pays fines for accounting fraud re- Nov. 28. 2005 1984 vealed by whistleblowers. U.S. Supreme Court refuses to Merit Systems Protection Board finds hear appeal by FBI whistleblower most employees are still fearful of 1997 Sibel Edmonds. reporting wrongdoing. Internal Revenue Service auditor Jennifer Long tells Congress the IRS Feb. 14, 2006 1987 targets lower-income taxpayers Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., in- Congress passes Whistleblower seen as easy targets. . . . On Oct. troduces bill aimed at shielding na- Protection Act (WPA), but Republi- 24, a federal District judge in tional-security whistleblowers. . . . can President Ronald Reagan ve- Houston rules the False Claims Act House National Security Subcommit- toes it the next year, claiming it is unconstitutional; Supreme Court tee holds hearings on whistleblowers. would be a vehicle for the merely later overturns the decision. disgruntled. Feb. 17, 2006 1998 Supreme Court calls for reargument 1989 FBI agrees to pay large settlement in case of Los Angeles prosecutor President George H.W. Bush signs to former crime laboratory official Richard Ceballos, who was demoted a toned-down version of the WPA. Frederic Whitehurst, who revealed after revealing that a warrant con- manipulation of FBI lab results. tained false information.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 275 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

The Downfall of Richard M. Barlow

raise for his skills, friends in high places and four years reer, and he quit and joined the Defense Department as a pro- of high-level national-security work — Richard M. Bar- liferation specialist in 1989. P low can claim it all. What he lacks is a career. Again, he clashed with a superior over Pakistan, this time Barlow was forced out of his job at the Defense Department after learning the CIA was still misinforming Congress about in 1989. He’s been trying to get it back ever since — along Pakistan’s nuclear weapons in order not to jeopardize the $1.4 with his pension — with help from powerful supporters. billion sale of F-16 fighters by the U.S. to Pakistan. Barlow had “As a message to whistleblowers, Rich’s case is chilling,” reported to his bosses that the planes were being modified to says former Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci, dean carry nuclear weapons. Told he’d be fired, Barlow quit. 4 of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, who is Over the years, as more details surfaced about Pakistan’s trying to persuade Congress to restore Barlow’s retirement pay. weapons program — including black-market sales of nuclear tech- Barlow’s adversaries tended to criticize him for being too rigid nology by A. Q. Khan, then the director of Pakistan’s nuclear — and not a team player. His supporters said he was honest — weapons program, — Barlow’s accuracy was confirmed. 5 But the and accurate — to a fault. Indeed, Victor Rostow, a former di- Defense Department refused to rescind its actions against him, rector of negotiations policy at the Pentagon, said Barlow’s views even when a General Accounting Office (now the Government “may have been absolutely right, but in the atmosphere of the Accountability Office) report called the Pentagon’s case against creation of policy, being absolutely right is sometimes a hin- Barlow legally unsupported. The 1997 report noted that even the drance. . . . There’s a point at which you have to back off.” 1 Pentagon did not accept an account by Barlow’s boss, Gerald Barlow’s downfall began in 1987 at a closed-door briefing Brubaker, that Barlow had threatened to contact Congress over for the House Subcommittee on South Asian Affairs on Pak- the matter on his own. 6 istan’s nuclear weapons program. Barlow, then a brash, young By 1998, it was clear that even Barlow’s influential lawyer, CIA specialist, had the temerity to contradict testimony by Gen. former Assistant Defense Secretary Paul C. Warnke, had failed. David Einsel, a top National Intelligence Council official. Although Warnke had persuaded congressional leaders from At the time, the Reagan administration wanted to keep aid both sides of the aisle to pressure the Pentagon to rescind its flowing to Pakistan, which had been helping the United States personnel actions, it wouldn’t budge. 7 Then, Sen. Jeff Binga- oppose the Soviet Union’s takeover in Afghanistan. But after man, D-N.M., introduced a “private relief bill” to obtain for Bar- the outlines of Pakistan’s nuclear program surfaced, Congress low the equivalent of the $1.1 million retirement pay he had had imposed two conditions on aid: The president was forced forfeited when he was forced out of government. 8 to certify that Pakistan wasn’t building a nuclear weapon. And The bill never got out of committee. Instead, the Senate in no aid could go to any country that was illegally obtaining 1998 sent Barlow’s case to the U.S. Court of Claims, which des- U.S. materials of any kind to build a nuke. 2 ignates a judge to act as a hearing officer for Congress. 9 Four Years later, after Barlow sued to get his job back, a Court years later, Senior Judge Eric G. Bruggink concluded that De- of Claims judge conceded, “We can safely assume that Gener- fense had acted within the law. In doing so, he accepted an ac- al Einsel’s testimony was materially incorrect.” 3 count that Barlow had threatened to contact Congress about Pak- Yet, abrasiveness aside, Barlow had delivered his testimony istan’s nuclear weapons on his own — a conclusion previously under orders from his bosses at the CIA, which months later rejected by the Defense Department itself. “Mr. Barlow was a awarded him a “certificate for exceptional accomplishment.” probationary employee who was terminated because of perfor- Nonetheless, the episode effectively ended Barlow’s agency ca- mance deficiencies and personality conflicts,” Bruggink wrote. 10

Continued from p. 274 After Watergate, lawmakers and the on the other hand, achieved inter- Legal Shields public viewed administration officials national fame in 1971 for leaking the bent on secrecy as villains and whistle- secret Defense Department history he men who monitored Ellsberg’s blowers as heroes. In 1978, Congress of the Vietnam War known as the T calls — and also broke into his psy- responded to the popular mood by “Pentagon Papers.” Ellsberg was ar- chiatrist’s office in search of damaging in- including whistleblower-protection rested weeks after The New York formation — became infamous when they measures in the Civil Service Reform Times began publishing the long ac- were caught breaking into the Democ- Act. “These conscientious civil ser- count, but charges that he had vio- ratic National Committee’s offices at the vants deserve statutory protection lated the Espionage Act were dropped Watergate Hotel. 39 The resulting cover- rather than bureaucratic harassment after government agents illegally up and Watergate scandal led to Presi- and intimidation,” said a Senate re- tapped his phone. 38 dent Richard M. Nixon’s resignation. 40 port on the legislation. The law cre-

276 CQ Researcher Bruggink’s decision ignited a de- 1 Rostow testified at a 2002 hearing before a layed behind-the-scenes dispute cen- Court of Claims judge. tering on the decision to bow to the 2 For background on Pakistan’s nuclear arms government’s wishes on excluding program, see Douglas Frantz, “From Patriot to Proliferator,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 23, 2005; evidence. Aides to Sens. Susan Collins, Richard Weintraub, “Pakistan Faces Woes From R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Within, Without; Nuclear Question Threatens Ties to the U.S.,” , July 28, 1987, Homeland Security and Governmental p. A10, and Richard Weintraub “Pakistan Denies Affairs Committee, and Joseph I. Connection to any Nuclear-Export Plot,” The Lieberman of Connecticut, the com- Washington Post, July 22, 1987, p. A1. 3 mittee’s ranking Democrat, told Bar- See 53 Fed. Cl. 667, 2002 Court of Claims, pp. 4-5; a fuller account of the episode and of its low that Bruggink’s report was the consequences can be found in , last word. But the staffers agreed to “On the Nuclear Edge,” The New Yorker, March 29, 1993, www.newyorker.com/printables/ meet with Gallucci, Joseph Ostoyich, archive/040119fr_archive02. who took over the case from Warnke, 4 General Accounting Office [now, Government and Louis Fisher, then a senior spe- Accountability Office], “Inspectors General: Joint cialist in separation of powers at the Investigation of Personnel Actions Regarding a 11 Richard Barlow Former Defense Employee,” July 10, 1997, pp. Congressional Research Service. Former Defense Department nuclear- 2-3. Fisher argued that Bruggink had not proliferation expert Richard Barlow. 5 For background, see Mary H. Cooper, “Nuclear been obliged simply to accept the se- Proliferation and Terrorism,” CQ Researcher, April 2, 2004, pp. 297-320. crecy claim but could have reviewed documents and admitted 6 General Accounting Office, op. cit. some of them or sent the case back to the Senate because full 7 Warnke, who died in 2001, was also a former director of the Arms Con- evidence was unavailable. As it was, Fisher wrote, the court al- trol and Disarmament Agency. Barlow provided to CQ Researcher a file of lowed the government to introduce the evidence it wanted, while correspondence between Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., other lawmakers, and Defense officials. denying Barlow the same right. 12 “My pitch was that the court 8 105th Congress, 2d Session, S. 2274, “For the relief of Richard M. Barlow didn’t do what it was supposed to do to get at the facts,” Fisher of Santa Fe, N.M.,” July 8, 1998; press release, “Bingaman Seeks Compen- says. “The record is pretty clear that the court failed in its duty.” sation for Pentagon Whistleblower,” Office of Sen. Bingaman, July 8, 1998. Barlow spent most of the 1990s working under a consulting contract with Barlow, for his part, faults congressional lawmakers. “You Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. can hardly blame the executive branch for pushing its power 9 Louis Fisher, “National Security Whistleblowers,” Congressional Research and authority as far as Congress lets them push it,” he says. Service, Dec. 30, 2005, pp. 35-38, www.pogo.org/m/gp/gp-crs-nsw- “We’re dealing with a Congress that’s not been engaging in 12302005.pdf. 10 any checks and balances or oversight — giving the signal that Federal Court of Claims, op. cit. 11 Fisher joined the staff of the Library of Congress’ law library on March the executive can do whatever it wants.” 6, 2006, after 35 years at CRS. See, Yochi J. Dreazen, “Expert on Congress’s As for the misinformation about Pakistan’s nuclear Power Claims He Was Muzzled for Faulting Bush,” The Wall Street Journal, weapons that Congress received, “There is something to the Feb. 9, 2006, p. A6. 12 Louis Fisher, “Congressional Research Service memorandum to: Jennifer idea that Congress sort of half-wanted to be misled in the Hemingway, Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental ’80s,” Gallucci says. “People like Rich were going to force Affairs, Nov. 25, 2005.” them to look at it in the eye. He really did get screwed.” ated the Merit Systems Protection official misconduct doubled between deserving employees to avoid firing, Board (MSPB) and the Office of Spe- 1980 and 1983, according to an demotion or other action. cial Counsel (OSC) to prosecute pro- MSPB study. 41 The following year, Congress passed hibited personnel practices, such as Acknowledging that reality, Con- and President George H.W. Bush signed reprisals against whistleblowers. gress passed the Whistleblower Pro- a toned-down version of the bill — But the protection process was tection Act of 1987, which would have with the OSC’s appeal power removed. complicated and fraught with limita- authorized the OSC to appeal MSPB But even the new legal protections tions, and few employees used it. decisions in federal court and made proved less than solid. A 1994 MSPB Fear of reprisals grew stronger dur- it easier for whistleblowers to claim survey found retaliation on the up- ing the early years of the Reagan ad- they were victims of retaliation. But swing, with 37 percent of respondents ministration. Indeed, the percentage President Reagan pocket-vetoed the saying they had suffered retaliation for of employees keeping quiet about bill in 1988, calling it a way for un- exercising their rights — including re-

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 277 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

Critics Question Agency’s Commitment

histleblower advocates say the chief federal official General Accounting Office. “We appreciate the professional se- charged with protecting whistleblowers who are fed- riousness with which you . . . reduced the existing backlogs,” W eral employees is out to sabotage employee rights. Davis said, in a letter cosigned by Rep. Jon G. Porter, R-Nev., A formal complaint filed by employees and whistleblower- chairman of the House Federal Workforce Subcommittee. “Un- advocacy organizations charges that Scott J. Bloch, who heads fortunately, this activity, while beneficial to whistleblowers, was the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), issued an illegal gag order regarded with suspicion by activists who claim to work on be- and transferred employees he considered disloyal. half of whistleblowers.” 4 “Complainants’ allegations against Special Counsel Bloch The whistleblower advocates cited leaked OSC reports, a . . . go to the heart of OSC’s credibility and effectiveness as practice Bloch excoriated. “It’s unfortunate that we have a leak- a watchdog of the [federal] merit system,” said the Govern- er or leakers in our office who went to the press rather than ment Accountability Project, the Project on Government Over- coming to me,” Bloch said. 5 He later ordered that any “offi- sight, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and cial comment on or discussion of confidential or sensitive in- Human Rights Campaign. Their initial complaint was filed on ternal agency matters with anyone outside OSC” had to be ap- March 3, 2005. 1 proved by him or his immediate staff, according to the Whistleblower advocates say Bloch’s personnel practices re- complaint. That directive violated both the First Amendment flect the OSC’s performance in handling whistleblower cases. and a federal law authorizing federal workers to disclose in- “This OSC is even worse than the others,” says Washington lawyer formation to Congress, the complaint argues. 6 Stephen M. Kohn, who often represents whistleblowers. While Bloch himself told Federal News Radio he is pro-whistle- OSCs in previous years filed a couple of cases, he says, “this blower. “Any time we can give more protection to whistle- one does straight-out nothing.” blowers and make sure that they understand that they’re pro- For its part, the OSC reports it referred 19 whistleblower al- tected, it’s a good thing. . . . They do have an agency that legations to federal agencies for investigation last year, and that does go to bat for them. It is true that some don’t get as much 16 were substantiated. justice as they wish or as quickly as they ought to. We are The complaint against Bloch charges that his methods of making significant progress in that.” 7 trimming the office’s case backlog included closing cases “at The interview didn’t touch on the charges against Bloch’s breakneck speed” — often without even interviewing com- management of the agency. Loren Smith, the OSC’s congres- plainants alleging retaliation. 2 sional and public affairs director, says Bloch doesn’t want to Bloch, who took office in January 2004, has dismissed the discuss the complaint until investigators have examined the al- allegations as false — the product of disgruntled employees and legations. administration opponents. “They don’t like the success Bush of- The complaint that received the most attention said Bloch ficials are having in dealing with the bureaucracy,” he said. 3 flouted federal law by refusing to pursue cases involving em- Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government ployees who report discrimination based on sexual orientation. Reform Committee, congratulated Bloch last May for reducing Bloch ignited the controversy shortly after taking office by re- the agency’s historically massive backlog of whistleblower and moving references to sexual-orientation discrimination from his other cases, which had been cited in a critical report by the agency’s Web site. He later said that while discriminating against porting fraud, waste or abuse — up U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal sion to change their working conditions from 24 percent in 1983. And fewer Circuit, the only court authorized to hear or order them to get psychiatric testing. than 20 percent of employees who appeals of MSPB decisions. In one case, The new law also authorized the MSPB filed complaints with the MSBP were the House Post Office panel said a judge to reinstate employees at the same job successful in their cases. 42 violated congressional intent in upholding level they would be occupying if the The OSC’s record was even more the firing of a Department of the Army prohibited personnel practice hadn’t oc- dismal. A 1994 report by the House Post employee who claimed her dismissal curred and reimburse the employees for Office and Civil Service Committee found was retaliation for whistleblowing. The attorney’s fees and back pay. that the agency had not litigated a sin- department had not even been required gle case to restore a whistleblower’s job to prove that the whistleblowing played — even though 400 to 500 employees no part in her firing. Famous Whistleblowers had filed cases with the OSC since its That case helped persuade Congress 1979 creation. 43 in 1994 to amend the law, allowing em- espite weaknesses in the protec- Employees also fared badly in the ployees to challenge an agency deci- D tion laws, corporate and gov-

278 CQ Researcher an employee’s sexual “conduct” would Office of Personnel Management (OPM) be illegal, discriminating against an — will pursue the case energetically. employee’s sexual “orientation” “We’re not holding our breath,” she says. might not be. 8 “Depending on the complexity, it could Following a storm of criticism from take three or four months,” says Norbert gay-rights advocates and administra- Vint, the OPM’s assistant inspector gen- tion critics, White House spokesman eral for investigations. As to the com- Trent Duffy said, “The president be- plainants’ low confidence, Vint says, “I lieves that no federal employee can’t comment on their opinion. Our opin- should be subject to unlawful dis- ion is that we will do a thorough in- crimination. That’s longstanding fed- vestigation.” eral policy that prevents discrimina- tion based on sexual orientation.” 9 1 Detailed allegations are contained in “Statement In response, Bloch seemed to ad- in Support of Complaint of Prohibited Personnel Practices Against U.S. Special Counsel Scott J. just his view, announcing he’d con- Bloch,” March 3, 2005; “Amended Complaint,”

cluded after a legal review that his U.S. Office of Special Counsel March 31, 2005, both available at, office could investigate claims of dis- Scott J. Bloch, special counsel, federal http://pogo.org/p/government/OSCcompendium. Office of Special Counsel. html. crimination based on sexual orienta- 2 Ibid., p. 22. tion when the discrimination was root- 3 Tim Kauffman, “Spotlight; New counsel reviews ed in an assumption about an employee’s private conduct. 10 whistleblower, bias laws,” Federal Times, March 22, 2004, p. 22. But a month later, he told the Senate Homeland Security and 4 For background, see, “U.S. Office of Special Counsel: Strategy for Reducing Persistent Backlog of Cases Should be Provided to Congress,” General Ac- Government Affairs Subcommittee that he didn’t have legal au- counting Office [now, Government Accountability Office], GAO 04-36, March thority to defend workers who suffer discrimination simply be- 2004, www.gao.gov/new.items/d0436.pdf. cause they are gay. 5 Kauffman, op. cit. Senators of both parties responded by lecturing Bloch on 6 “Statement in Support of Complaint,” op. cit., pp. 26-28. 7 how to treat employees. Rep. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said “Are whistleblowers protected?” Jan. 1, 2006, available at www.osc.gov/ library.htm. he had learned that 10 of the 12 Washington staffers ordered 8 Tim Kauffman, “OSC to study whether bias laws covers gays,” Federal transferred by Bloch had left the agency rather than transfer Times, March 15, 2004, p. 4. to offices in Dallas and Detroit. Bloch said he’d had no in- 9 Jerry Seper, “Bush backs policy against bias; Challenges counsel’s deci- tention of harming any employees. “Your actions don’t com- sion on sexual orientation,” The Washington Times, April 2, 2004, p. A6. 10 Office of Special Counsel,” Results of Legal Review of Discrimination port with your words,” Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., told Statute,” press release, April 4, 2004, www.osc.gov. 11 the counsel. 11 Stephen Barr, “Senators Criticize Special Counsel’s Treatment of Employ- Beth Daley, senior investigator for the Project on Govern- ees,” The Washington Post, May 25, 2005, p. B2, and Christopher Lee, “Of- ment Oversight, says she has little hope that the agency as- ficial Says Law Doesn’t Cover Gays,” The Washington Post, May 25, 2005, p. A25. signed to investigate the allegations against the OSC — the ernment insiders continued speaking out The year before, in an even more state attorneys general and private lawyers in the mid-1990s. In 1996, whistleblowers sensational case, Jeffrey Wigand, a for- in which major tobacco firms agreed to at the McDonnell Douglas Corp. re- mer research director for Brown & pay $206 billion over 25 years to end vealed more than $1 billion in overruns Williamson Tobacco Corp., testified the states’ anti-tobacco lawsuits. 46 on development of the Air Force’s C-17 company had opposed developing Another tobacco whistleblower leaked cargo jet, triggering a Pentagon investi- safer cigarettes in order to escape li- documents showing that Brown & gation, dramatic congressional hearings ability for the negative health effects Williamson executives knew that ciga- and the forced retirement of three gen- of cigarettes. 45 rettes caused cancer. 47 Merrell Williams, erals. The company paid a $500,000 fine Although Brown & Williamson had a paralegal for a Louisville law firm, se- to the Securities and Exchange Com- already fired Wigand, it sued him for cretly photocopied the documents and mission to settle charges it misled stock- breaking a confidentiality agreement. But gave them to a prominent plaintiffs’ holders about the C-17 project. In set- the firm dropped the suit as a prelude lawyer, who turned them over to Rep. tling, the company neither admitted nor to a massive 1998 settlement between Waxman, then chairman of the House denied wrongdoing. 44 the tobacco industry and a group of Health and Environment Subcommittee.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 279 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

The documents were crucial to the to- Whistleblowing by Richard Nuccio, Testifying before the Senate Ju- bacco settlement, and Williams — when a State Department official involved in diciary Committee made Rowley a his name surfaced — became a hero peace talks between the Guatemalan media superstar. Her prominence to anti-tobacco advocates. government and left-wing guerrillas, may have insulated her from retal- In a more public display of whistle- didn’t end so happily. In 1995, he re- iation, but Judiciary Committee mem- blowing, Jennifer Long, an IRS audi- ported possible CIA human-rights abus- bers also got Mueller to pledge there tor in Houston, and six colleagues — es to Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., who would be no reprisals against her. hidden behind screens, their voices passed the information to The New York Soon afterward, Rowley and two disguised — told the Senate Finance Times. After Nuccio was identified as other whistleblowers became Time’s Committee that some auditors target- the source, the CIA revoked his secu- “Persons of the Year.” 60 ed low-income taxpayers seen as de- rity clearance for releasing the infor- Accompanying her on the maga- fenseless but didn’t cite wealthier cit- mation without authorization. 54 zine’s cover were corporate whistle- izens for violations because they The Senate Intelligence Commit- blowers Sherron Watkins, the Enron vice could afford lawyers to challenge IRS tee then proposed a new provision president who had warned Chairman examiners. 48 in the Intelligence Authorization Act Ken Lay the firm faced financial col- Long’s bosses took steps to fire her, allowing executive-branch employees lapse; and WorldCom auditor Cynthia but they backtracked after Finance Com- to disclose classified information to Cooper, whose accounts of phony ac- mittee Chairman William V. Roth, R- congressional committees or to their counting practices helped push the tele- Del., complained to the IRS commis- own representatives if doing so re- com giant into bankruptcy. 61 sioner and described the attempted vealed improprieties or threats to the In the years that followed, however, firing as “contempt of Congress.” 49 public. 55 But President Clinton vowed national-security whistleblowers eclipsed Even as the IRS and tobacco dra- to veto any intelligence bill that con- their private-sector counterparts, includ- mas were playing out, complex whistle- tained the provision, and House-Sen- ing Richard A. Clarke, counterterrorism blower allegations were surfacing from ate conferees removed the whistle- director at the National Security Coun- the worlds of law enforcement and blower shield. 56 Without his security cil under presidents Clinton and Bush. national security. clearance, Nuccio lost his job. 57 Clarke asked to be reassigned after his At the FBI, Frederic Whitehurst, a He wasn’t the only national-security pre-9/11 warnings about the al Qaeda chemist in the explosives library, whistleblower involved in sensitive mat- terrorist network went — as he saw it began telling superiors in the early ters. In the late 1980s, former Defense — unheeded. 62 1990s that laboratory reports were Department and CIA specialist on nu- After leaving government in 2003, scientifically flawed and typically slant- clear proliferation Barlow lost his De- Clarke described his failed whistle- ed against defendants. 50 By 1994, fense job after running afoul of U.S. blowing in a 2004 book, Against All his complaints had prompted an in- policy toward Pakistan and its nuclear Enemies: Inside America’s War on ternal investigation. The conclusion: ambitions. 58 Terror. When then-National Security Whitehurst was “an idealist and per- Director Condoleezza Rice and other fectionist who sees everything as black officials challenged his account, Clarke or white.” 51 Post-9/11 Whistleblowing repeated his charges before the bi- Whitehurst demanded an indepen- partisan commission investigating pre- dent investigation, and a Justice De- fter the terrorist attacks, whistle- 9/11 security breaches. 63 partment inspector general concluded A blowers focused an often-searing The Iraq war became a new field he had been largely correct. 52 In 1998, spotlight on the competence of gov- for whistleblowers. Corps of Engineers in return for Whitehead’s resignation, ernment intelligence officials. contract supervisor Greenhouse raised the FBI agreed to pay the 50-year-old First came FBI agent Rowley, who questions about contracting irregularities chemist the salary and pension he would in 2002 accused top FBI officials of in a series of billion-dollar contracts have received if he had retired at 57 blocking efforts to probe more deeply awarded to the Halliburton subsidiary — a deal worth about $1.1 million. The into Zacarias Moussaoui, whom agents Kellogg Brown & Root. 64 In 2005, FBI also paid $258,580 of Whitehurst’s had arrested shortly before 9/11 in Greenhouse was demoted for allegedly legal costs. Then, to settle a Whitehurst Minneapolis, where he’d been taking poor job performance, but the Corps’ lawsuit against Justice, the department flying lessons. She also criticized the commander said retaliation had not paid him $300,000. Typical settlements failure to follow up a Phoenix agent’s been the motive. 65 She is contesting in such lawsuits were $5,000, said White- inquiries about Arab men studying her demotion. 53 59 hurst’s lawyer. aviation. Continued on p. 282

280 CQ Researcher At Issue:

ShouldYes Congress expand whistleblower rights?

THOMAS DEVINE WILLIAM E. MOSCHELLA LEGAL DIRECTOR, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL PROJECT DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FROM A LETTER TO THE U.S. SENATE, MARCH 13, 2006 FROM A LETTER TO THE U. S. SENATE, APRIL 12, 2005 welve years of hostile court rulings against whistleblowers by the federal Circuit Court of Appeals have effectively he WPA [Whistleblower Protection Act] already provides rewritten the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) — adequate protection for legitimate whistleblowers. The fed- t eral Circuit appropriately has recognized that the purposes against congressional intent. Since the 1994 vote to strengthen t the WPA, whistleblowers have suffered a 1-119 track record of the WPA must be taken into account in determining whether there for decisions on the merits. a disclosure is one protected by the WPA. These limitations are The federal Circuit Court translated explicit statutory lan- reasonable and serve to further the purpose of the WPA to pro- guage to provide legal protection for “any” lawful disclosure tect legitimate whistleblowers. of wrongdoing to mean “almost never.” This was done The proposed expansive definition [of whistleblower com- through rulings that disqualify whistleblower protection for the plaints] has the potential to convert any disagreement or con- most common disclosures of wrongdoing, such as those made trary interpretation of a law, no matter how trivial or frivolous, to a supervisor or during the course of one’s job duties. into a whistleblower disclosure. Such an increase in the number The impact of these and other rulings [has] made the of frivolous claims would impose an unwarranted burden upon Whistleblower Protection Act the most powerful reason for federal managers. Given the expanded definition of disclosure, government workers who witness fraud, waste or abuse to re- it would be exceedingly easy for employees to use whistle- main silent.yes We cannot expect public servants to defend our blowing as a defenseno to every adverse personnel action. families and our tax dollars if they cannot defend themselves. Nearly every federal employee will, sometime during the A status quo that is bad for whistleblowers is also bad for course of his or her career, disagree with a statement or interpre- the taxpayers. Secrecy breeds corruption. In an era of record tation made by a supervisor, or during the course of performing government spending, we need whistleblowers . . . to guard his or her everyday responsibilities report an error that may against waste, fraud and abuse and so that we know the true demonstrate a violation of a law, rule or regulation. Without the cost of programs. We need them for homeland security — to ability to take the context — the time, the place, the motive — allow Congress to act against vulnerability to terrorists caused of the alleged disclosure into account, even trivial matters would by bureaucratic negligence at our nuclear weapons facilities, at become elevated to the status of protected disclosures. our airports and elsewhere. We need them to protect the health Conceivably, any time a supervisor suspected wrongdoing of America’s families — whether to warn about government- by an employee and determined to look into the matter, the approved painkillers that have killed tens of thousands or “investigation” could be subject to challenge. Employees government-inspected meat and poultry that have hospitalized would be able to delay or thwart any investigation into their hundreds of thousands more. own or others’ wrongdoing. Genuine rights are long overdue for those who champion The Constitution not only generally establishes the president accountability within the federal bureaucracy. After the Enron as the head of the executive branch but also makes him com- and MCI scandals, Congress gave state-of-the-art whistleblower mander in chief of all military forces, the sole organ of Ameri- rights to corporate workers [that are] far stronger than what ca’s foreign affairs and the officer in the government with the are available for federal employees. Those defending America’s express duty (and corresponding authority) to take care that families need protection against retaliation as much as those the laws are faithfully executed. defending America’s stock values. The executive branch remains committed to accommodating Just before Christmas, United Nations Under Secretary Gen- Congress’ legitimate oversight needs in ways that are consistent eral Christopher Bernham unveiled a whistleblower policy for with the executive branch’s constitutional responsibilities. Howev- U.N. employees that is far stronger than the WPA. The new er, a process exists by which this has been and may be done. policy is based largely on the best practices of other nations, The process of dynamic compromise between the branches, whose whistleblower protections also have surpassed those in whereby each branch seeks an optimal accommodation by the United States. Mr. Bernham . . . effectively insisted on and evaluating the needs of the other, cannot function where won some of the precise protections for U.N. employees that every covered employee of the executive branch is vested with the right to decide for himself or herself — without any are notNo available for federal workers in the United States. official authorization — [what] disclosures are appropriate.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 281 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

Continued from p. 280 • Allowing employees to use clas- sified information to report Free Speech at Work wrongdoing to Congress; CURRENT • Allowing whistleblowers to appeal Supreme Court ruling this sum- MSPB decisions to federal Circuit A mer may limit public employees’ SITUATION courts for a period of five years, whistleblower rights. helping to end the Federal Circuit’s The high court last year heard ar- monopoly over jurisdiction; and guments in the landmark case — in- Legislative Potential • Providing a review mechanism for volving a Los Angeles search warrant employees whose security clearance containing false information — but re- en. Lautenberg is proposing the is revoked. visited it on March 21 after Justice Samuel S most far-reaching measures to Although the administration opposes A. Alito Jr. joined the court. 66 strengthen whistleblower protections. both measures, they passed their re- The case essentially revolves around His Whistleblower Empowerment, Se- spective committees last year, and the the following questions: Does the con- curity, and Taxpayer Protection Act of Senate legislation had been approved in stitutional right to free speech apply to 2006 would bring spy-agency workers committee in two previous years. After public employees who speak or write under the Whistleblower Protection Act. an administration official testified the as part of their jobs? Can such em- That would guarantee whistleblowers Senate bill could make managing fed- ployees speak or write about corrup- alleging retaliation access to federal Dis- eral employees more difficult, the Sen- tion or improprieties they witness at trict Court, authorize them to ask for ate Homeland Security and Governmental their jobs? special prosecutors to investigate the re- Affairs Committee said in its 2005 report The Bush administration argues that taliation and subject bosses to fines for on the bill, “We can take other steps to the First Amendment doesn’t apply in retaliating against whistleblowers. deter and weed out frivolous whistle- such cases. “Constitutional rights are “Right now, managers who retali- blower claims, but we cannot begin to personal, and when a public employ- ate against whistleblowers get off ba- calculate the potential damage to the na- ee speaks in carrying out his job du- sically scot-free, even though whistle- tion should good-faith whistleblowing ties, he has no personal interest in the blower retaliation is against the law,” become chilled by a hostile process.” speech,” U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Lautenberg said in a statement. Nevertheless, the bill never reached Clement argues in his brief. 67 But many question whether Con- the floor. Advocates of stronger whistle- Victory in that argument would be gress is in the mood for such a sweep- blower legislation say only public a giant step back for employees, says ing change. “It would take a miracle for pressure can force congressional lead- whistleblower lawyer Kohn. “It would it to pass on its own,” says Devine of ers to allow legislation to reach the permit you to fire many whistle- the Government Accountability Project. full House and Senate, but more op- blowers,” he says. “It’s such a gigan- For instance, the bill would have to pass timistic advocates say the political cli- tic issue because 98 percent of all through the Senate Intelligence and Ju- mate may be changing. whistleblowers go to management first. diciary committees, where objections “We are hearing more about people And the majority would deny to your would be likely. The National Security disclosing issues of national concern and face that they were whistleblowers; Whistleblowers Coalition, organized by getting in trouble for it,” says a Demo- the majority say they were just doing dismissed FBI translator Edmonds, helped cratic Senate aide. “I think the American their job. The moment you stop that draft the bill, which she says answers people aren’t going to stand for it.” type of conduct from being protect- a need for sweeping legislation. But Sen. Akaka says his bill’s immo- ed, you undermine almost all whistle- Devine and some other whistle- bility after committee approval last year blower cases.” blower advocates are pinning their has led him to consider tacking it onto Furthermore, Kohn contends, exist- hopes on the measures introduced last other legislation in the form of amend- ing Supreme Court precedents give year by Sen. Akaka and Rep. Platts. ments. Whatever the Bush administra- public employees on-the-job First The bills would close loopholes in ex- tion’s attitudes toward whistleblowers Amendment rights on issues of pub- isting whistleblower law by: may be, Akaka says, lawmakers aren’t lic concern, even if they deal with • Ensuring that federal employees leaping to defend them. “The reactions those issues as part of their jobs. could get whistleblower protec- and responses indicate they would The high-stakes legal dispute evolved tion even if discovering the wrong- rather not touch the issue,” he says. after a deputy Los Angeles prosecutor doing they are reporting is part Whistleblowers can affect “a lot of spe- investigated a defense lawyer’s motion of their job; cial interests that members have.” to throw out a search warrant that had

282 CQ Researcher authorized a search that led to drug ty — increasing management preroga- and firearms charges. 68 Prosecutor tives to hire and fire.” Flexibility, he says, Richard Ceballos concluded that the OUTLOOK can become a euphemism for facilitat- warrant contained false information ing retaliation against whistleblowers. and that the deputy sheriff who ob- Furthermore, as efforts to combat ter- tained it may have lied. Ceballos ar- Open Floodgates? rorism continue indefinitely, expanded gued to his boss that the criminal charges presidential wartime powers pose a dan- should be thrown out, and he said as othing generates protection for ger for whistleblowers, especially given much in court. But after the hearing, N whistleblowers better than scan- any administration’s built-in aversion to he was demoted and transferred to a dal, says whistleblowers’ lawyer Kohn. whistleblowers. But, says Rep. Shays, distant office. After Enron and WorldCom imploded, “This war against Islamist terror is going Ceballos sued District Attorney Gil Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley to last a long time, so you need to be Garcetti and Los Angeles County, claim- Act of 2002, which gave corporate in- even more alert that powers aren’t ing the punitive actions taken against siders the right to file federal lawsuits abused. With more power there has to him violated his First Amendment right if they suffered retaliation after re- be more congressional oversight.” And to free speech. A U.S. District Court porting wrongdoing. 70 for oversight to be effective, “You need and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Ap- Now, he contends, the Bush ad- to empower people to speak out when peals agreed. Garcetti (now out of of- ministration’s policy of controlling in- they see wrongdoing — and they need fice) and the county appealed to the formation is breeding new cadres of to be protected.” Supreme Court, arguing they acted insiders. Inevitably, information about Right now, the level of protection for legally against Ceballos because he misconduct will surface, he says, gen- national-security whistleblowers is “pa- had no free speech on matters in- erating pressure for more laws. thetic,” he acknowledges. Even Congress volving his job. “Whistleblowers can save our gov- provides no whistleblower protection But his lawyers argue that stifling ernment a lot of grief, a lot of money for its own employees, he points out. whistleblowing is a bad idea: “It is not and correct some of the inequities and Shays insists whistleblowers can help in any government agency’s best in- problems our government has,” Sen. a president stay on top of an issue. terest ‘to fly blind’ because its em- Akaka says. “The whistleblowers who “They share things that need to be ployees are afraid to report corruption have come forward to disclose secu- disclosed, and the sooner they’re dis- or abuse.” 69 rity lapses and, in particular, threats to closed, the better.” While Solicitor General Clement ar- public health and safety since 9/11, For her part, FBI whistleblower Row- gues that public employees would be have brought renewed attention to ley is sure that if she were speaking out protected if they spoke out as citizens those who alert the public to gov- now, rather than soon after 9/11, she instead of as civil servants, his brief ernment wrongdoing.” would have paid a price in retaliation. warns that any employee whose job The public has no trouble grasping “I think they view me as a big mistake,” duties include reporting wrongdoing whistleblowers’ role, Kohn says. “If you she says. “I ended up having a certain is generally “prohibited from speaking look at most other areas of employment amount of power. I even criticized [At- to the press about an ongoing inves- discrimination, there hasn’t been that much torney General John] Ashcroft. I don’t tigation without the permission of his movement, but in the whistleblower field think it would happen again. Now they employer, [who] may well discipline they keep passing laws.” The public is would say, ‘Next time, we’ll fire whistle- him for violating the prohibition.” saying to companies and agencies, he blowers from the start.’ ” Ceballos’ chief lawyer, Bonnie Robin- adds, “ ‘the more you don’t get the mes- Rowley, however, accepts the valid- Vergeer of the nonprofit Public Citizens sage that things have changed, the laws ity of the executive branch’s “floodgates” Litigation Group of Washington, calls are going to get tougher and tougher.’ ” argument — that a wave of trivial whistle- the government position “startling and However, whistleblower protection can blower complaints could overwhelm the extreme.” And as a practical matter, no mean almost anything, depending on federal personnel system and Congress. employee who calls the press as a cit- who’s talking. “It’s become a mother- But that should not doom whistleblower izen to report wrongdoing would es- hood issue,” says Ruch of Public Em- protection, says Rowley. “Someone has cape discipline. “It’s just what it looks ployees for Environmental Responsibili- to be a gatekeeper,” she says. like,” she says of the government po- ty. “It’s like the environment; no one’s Barlow, the former Defense nuclear- sition. “It means the public employee anti-environment. So officials will say, proliferation expert, rejects the “flood- really can’t speak on matters of pub- we’re in favor of whistleblower protec- gates” argument entirely. “Federal em- lic concern.” tion, but we’re also in favor of flexibili- ployees do not go marching down to

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 283 PROTECTING WHISTLEBLOWERS

Congress unless it’s something serious,” 5 For background see Nat Garrett, “Tomorrow’s 15 For background on executive branch au- he says. “Whistleblowers are always Argument: Garcetti v. Ceballos, Oct. 11, 2005, thority, see Kenneth Jost, “Presidential Power,” going to get screwed by their col- Scotusblog, www.scotusblog.com/movable- CQ Researcher, Feb. 24, 2006, pp. 169-192. leagues. It’s human nature; you’re never type/archives/2005/10/tomorrows_argum_11.ht 16 Lancy Gay, “Government withholds ‘sen- going to make that go away.” Crimi- ml; and “Brief for the United States as Amicus sitive-but-unclassified’ information,” Scripps- nalizing retaliation would help control Curiae Supporting Petitioners,” Gil Garcetti, et Howard News Service, Feb. 2, 2006, al., v. Richard Ceballos, Case No. 04-473, www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=de- that behavior, he adds. www.usdoj.gov/osg/briefs/2004/3mer/1ami/200 tail&pk=UNCLASSIFIED-02-02-06. Kohn agrees. “The thing that has 4-0473.mer.ami.pdf. 17 Scott Shane, “U.S. Reclassifies Many Docu- hurt whistleblowers the most is hav- 6 “A Review of the FBI’s Actions in Con- ments in Secret Review,” The New York Times, ing former friends and colleagues turn nection With Allegations Raised by Contract Feb. 20, 2006, p. A1. their backs on them,” he says, espe- Linguist Sibel Edmonds, Unclassified Sum- 18 Scott Shane, “Archivist Urges U.S. to Re- cially since the difference between win- mary,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of open Classified Files,” The New York Times, ning and losing a case “is obtaining the Inspector General, January 2005, March 3, 2006, p. A1. evidence and getting witnesses.” www.usdoj.gov/oig/special/0501/index.htm. 19 Erik Eckholm, “Army Contract Official Crit- Whistleblower advocate and former 7 “Statement by the FBI Regarding the Office ical of Halliburton Pact is Demoted,” The New Senate aide Kolesnik says the solution of Inspector General’s Report,” press release, York Times, Aug. 29, 2005, p. A9. 20 is to negotiate a good settlement — one Jan. 14, 2006, www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05 Tony Pugh, “Medicare Drug Costs Ordered /011405.htm. Withheld,” The Miami Herald, March 12, 2004, that allows a whistleblower to walk away 8 Louis Fisher, “National Security Whistle- p. A1, and Tony Pugh, “Concealing Drug Bill from a job without having doomed his blowers,” Congressional Research Service, Dec. Cost Called Legal,” The Miami Herald, July 7, future prospects. Whatever shape pro- 30, 2005, pp. 33-35, www.pogo.org/m/gp/gp- 2004, p. C1. tection may take, he says, whistleblow- crs-nsw-12302005.pdf. 21 Department of Justice, “Authority of ers still must rely on their common sense: 9 James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, “Bush Lets Agency Officials to Prohibit Employees From “You have to know the law and know U.S. Spy on Callers without Courts,” The New Providing Information to Congress, Letter what you’re doing.” York Times, Dec. 16, 2005, p. A1. Opinion for the General Counsel, Health and 10 Federal statute 18 USC 1513(e), “Retaliating Human Services,” May 21, 2004, www.usdoj. against a witness, victim, or an informant.” gov/olc/crsmemoresponsese.htm. Notes 11 L. Paige Whitaker and Michael Schmer- 22 Congressional Research Service memoran- ling, “Whistleblower Protections for Federal dum To: Hon. Charles Rangel; From: Jack 1 For background on Provance’s disclosures Employees,” Congressional Research Service, Maskell, April 26, 2004, www.pogo.org/m/ to the press, see Douglas Jehl and Kate updated May 18, 1998, pp. 2-10, http://whis- gp/wbr2005/AppendixD.pdf. Zernike, “The Struggle for Iraq: Abu Ghraib,” tle20.tripod.com/crswhistle.pdf. 23 Marty Niland, “National Park Service Fires The New York Times, May 28, 2004, p. A11. 12 For background, see earlier Devine testi- Chambers,” The , July 9, 2004; 2 For background see James Kelley, “Year of mony, “Statement of Tom Devine,” Senate Gov- Derrill Holly, “Judge Upholds Park Police Chief’s the Whistleblowers,” Time, Dec. 30, 2002. ernmental Affairs Committee, Nov. 12, 2003, Firing,” The Associated Press, Oct. 8, 2004. 3 A transcript of Gore’s Jan.16, 2006, speech http://hsgac.senate.gov/_files/111203devine.pdf. 24 Department of Justice, op. cit. is available at www.washingtonpost.com/wp- 13 LaChance v. White, Court of Appeals for 25 American Federation of Government Em- dyn/content/article/2006/01/16/AR2006011600 the Federal Circuit, 98-3249, http://caselaw. ployees AFL-CIO et al. v. Donald H. Rums- 779.html. lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=fed& feld, Civ. No. 05-2183 (EGS), Memorandum 4 Linda Greenhouse, “Justices Reject F.B.I. navby=case&no=983249. Opinion; see also, Christopher Lee, “Court Translator’s Appeal on Termination,” The New 14 House Report 103-769, 103d Cong., 2nd Ses- Blocks DOD’s New Rules for Workers,” The York Times, Nov. 29, 2005, p. A22. sion, 12 (1994), quoted in Fisher, op. cit., p. 31. Washington Post, Feb. 28, 2006, p. A1. 26 Tim Kauffman and Mollie Ziegler, “DoD will proceed with NSPS plan, despite adverse About the Author court ruling,” FederalTimes.com, Feb. 28, 2006, http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=1565465. Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ- 27 James Risen, State of War: The Secret Histo- ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and ry of the CIA and the Bush Administration (2006). Newsweek and covered the Southwest for newspapers 28 Porter Goss, “Loose Lips Sink Spies,” The in New Mexico. He has received several journalism New York Times, Feb. 10, 2005, p. A25. awards, including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for drug 29 David Johnston, “Inquiry Into Wiretapping coverage from the Inter-American Press Association. He Article Widens,” The New York Times, Feb. holds an A.B. in university studies from the University 12, 2006, p. A26. of New Mexico. His recent reports include “Immigration 30 Ibid. Reform” and “Rebuilding New Orleans.” 31 For background see Charles S. Clark, “Whistleblowers,” CQ Researcher, Dec. 5, 1997,

284 CQ Researcher pp. 1059-1078. 32 Fisher, op. cit., pp. 3-4. 33 Ibid. FOR MORE INFORMATION 34 Taylor Branch in Charles Peters and Taylor Government Accountability Project, 1612 K St., N.W., Suite 1100, Washington, DC Branch, Blowing the Whistle: Dissent in the Pub- 20006; (202) 408-0034; www.whistleblower.org. Founded 28 years ago to represent lic Interest (1972), pp. 3-31. whistleblowers, among other watchdog duties. 35 Ralph Nader, Peter J. Petkas and Kate Black- well, Whistle Blowing: The Report of the Confer- Merit Systems Protection Board, 1615 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20419; ence on Professional Responsibility (1972), p. 7. (202) 653-7200; www.mspb.gov. Quasi-judicial agency hears cases of alleged 36 E.W. Kenworthy, “Censure of Dodd is asked retaliation against whistleblowers. in Ethics Panel’s Report for ‘Dishonor’ of Sen- National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, PO Box 20210, Alexandria, VA ate,” The New York Times, April 28, 1967, p. A1; 22320; www.nswbc.org. Aids intelligence and military whistleblowers. Congress and the Nation, Congressional Quar- terly, Vol. II, 1965-68, pp. 900-902. National Whistleblower Center, PO Box 3768, Washington, DC 20007; (202) 37 Nader et al., op. cit., pp. 40-41; Molly Moore, 342-1902; www.whistleblowers.org. Runs an attorney-referral service, mounts test-case litigation and provides other services. “A. Ernest Fitzgerald: Analyst Who Knows the Price of Exposing Cost Overruns,” The Wash- Office of Special Counsel, 1730 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036; (202) ington Post, Feb. 23, 1987; Richard Halloran, “U.S. 254-3600; www.osc.gov. A federal agency that investigates whistleblower reports Drops Threat on Disputed Pledge of Secrecy,” and other employee allegations. The New York Times, Aug. 22, 1987, p. A8. 38 Project on Government Oversight, 666 11th St., N.W., Suite 500, Washington Stuart Taylor Jr., “Disclosing Secrets to the DC 20001; (202) 347-1122; www.pogo.org. Investigates alleged government miscon- Press: U.S. Calls it Espionage,” The New York duct, works with whistleblowers and advocates on their behalf. Times, Oct. 8, 1984, p. A13. 39 Information in this section is drawn from U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 717 Madison Place, N.W., Whitaker and Schmerling, op. cit., except Washington DC 20439; (202) 633-6550; www.fedcir.gov. Hears federal govern- where indicated. ment whistleblower cases; Web site contains texts of relevant decisions. 40 Congress and the Nation, op. cit., pp. 989- 990; Congress and the Nation, Vol. IV, 1973- York Times, April 17, 1999, p. A1. June 7, 2002, p. A1; “3 Whistle-Blowers Get 1976, pp. 948-949. 50 Richard A. Serrano, “1994 Internal FBI Probe Time Magazine Honors,” The Associated Press, 41 Cited in, Whitaker and Schmerling, op. cit., Revealed Only Minor Flaws With Crime Lab,” Dec. 23, 2002, in The New York Times, p. A14. pp. 2-3. Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1997, p. A20. 61 Ibid., The Associated Press. 42 U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, “Work- 51 Ibid. 62 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks ing for America: An Update,” July 1994, pp. 52 David Johnston, “Report Criticizes Scien- Upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission vii, 20-21, www.mspb.gov/studies/work2.pdf. tific Testing at F.B.I. Crime Lab,” The New Report (2004), pp. 201-205. 43 Congress and the Nation, Vol. IX, 1993- York Times, April 16, 1997, p. A1. 63 Judith Miller, “Former Terrorism Official Faults 1996, pp. 820-821. 53 “Justice Dept. to Pay Settlement to FBI White House on 9/11,” The New York Times, 44 Ralph Vartabedian, “McDonnell Douglas to Whistle-Blower Whitehurst,” The Associated March 22, 2004, p. A18; Dan Eggen and Wal- Pay $500,000 to Settle Charges on C-17 Pro- Press, March 12, 1998. ter Pincus, “Ex-Aide Recounts Terror Warnings,” gram,” Los Angeles Times, June 25, 1996, p. D1. 54 Thomas Newcomb, “In From the Cold: The Washington Post, March 25, 2004, p. A1. 45 Henry Weinstein, “At White House, Red The Intelligence Community Whistleblower 64 T. Christian Miller, “Halliburton Contracts Carpet for Tobacco Whistle-Blowers,” Los An- Protection Act of 1998,” Administrative Law Bypassed Objections,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. geles Times, July 19, 1997, p. D1; Barry Meier, Review, fall 2001. 29, 2004, p. A1. “The Spoils of Tobacco Wars,” The New York 55 Ibid. 65 Eckholm, op. cit., p. A9. Times, Dec. 22, 1998, p. C1. 56 Ibid. 66 “Supreme Court to Rehear Whistleblower 46 Ibid. For background, see Kenneth Jost, 57 Frank del Olmo, “Perspective on the CIA; Case,” The Associated Press, Feb. 17, 2006. “High-Impact Litigation,” CQ Researcher, Feb. Blow the Whistle, Get Blown Away,” Los An- 67 “Brief for the United States as Amicus 11, 2000, pp. 89-112. Lawyers for anti-tobacco geles Times, Dec. 5, 1996, p. B9. Curiae Supporting Petitioner,” Department plaintiffs and the industry originally settled on 58 For background see Seymour M. Hersh, “A of Justice, p. 9. a figure of $246 billion, but Congress refused Reporter At Large: On the Nuclear Edge,” The 68 Background on the case is drawn from to authorize that amount. New Yorker, March 29, 1993, www.newyork- briefs for respondent (Ceballos), petitioner 47 Richard Leiby, “Smoking Gun,” The Wash- er.com/printables/archive/040119fr_archive02. (Garcetti) and amicus curiae (the United States), ington Post, June 23, 1996, p. F1. 59 James Risen and David Johnston, “Traces of all available at www.scotusblog.com/movable 48 Albert B. Crenshaw and Stephen Barr, “IRS Terror: The Intelligence Reports; Agent Com- type/archives/2005/10/tomorrows_argum_11.html. Official Reports Double Standard,” The Wash- plaints Lead F.B.I. Director to Ask For Inquiry,” 69 Ibid., p. 44. ington Post, April 28, 1998, p. A4. The New York Times, May 24, 2002, p. A1. 70 For background on Sarbanes-Oxley, see 49 David Johnston, “On Tax Day, IRS Pre- 60 Eric Lichtblau, “Bureaucracy is Hobbling the CQ Almanac Plus, 2002, 107th Congress, 2nd pared to Fire Star Whistle-Blower,” The New FBI, Rowley Testifies,” The New York Times, Session, Vol. LV111,” pp. 11-3, 11-4.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 285 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books The silencing of a government expert who argued that the Bush administration was low-balling Medicare drug-plan cost Ellsberg, Daniel, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the estimates was first reported by a Washington reporter for Knight Pentagon Papers, Penguin, 2003. Ridder newspapers. The most famous — or notorious, depending on one’s point of view — whistleblower of the Vietnam War-era tells the story Rose, David, “An Inconvenient Patriot,” Vanity Fair, of how and why he made the Pentagon Papers public. September 2005, p. 264. FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who took her whistleblow- Kohn, Stephen M., Concepts and Procedures in Whistle- ing against the bureau all the way to the Supreme Court, is blower Law, Quorum, 2000. profiled at length. A Washington lawyer who specializes in whistleblower litigation lays out the legal and bureaucratic fundamentals Reports and Studies of the federal system designed to protect whistleblowers. “Homeland and National Security Whistleblower Protections: Swartz, Mimi, with Sherron Watkins, Power Failure: The The Unfinished Agenda,” Project on Government Oversight, Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, Currency, 2004. April 2005. Watkins, the corporate whistleblower who sounded the A Washington-based watchdog and advocacy organization alarm about the imminent collapse of the Houston-based argues its case for strengthening career protection for whistle- company, was a major source, but not the only one, for blowers at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Swartz, an editor at muckraking Texas Monthly. “A Review of the FBI’s Actions in Connection With Alle- Articles gations Raised by Contract Linguist Sibel Edmonds,” U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Alonso-Zaldivar, Ricardo, “Bag Scanning System Called Office of Oversight and Review, Unclassified Summary, Easily Foiled,” Los Angeles Times, Feb. 28, 2002, p. A11. January 2005. The account of major airport security lapses by whistleblower The only publicly accessible part of the report of an in- Bogdan Dzakovic of the Federal Aviation Administration was vestigation of whistleblower Edmonds’ charges shows how one of the most shocking revelations to emerge from post- the inspector-general system functioned in this recent, high- 9/11 investigations. profile case.

Hersh, Seymour, “On the Nuclear Edge,” The New Yorker, “U.S. Office of Special Counsel: Strategy for Reducing March 29, 1993. Persistent Backlog of Cases That Should be Reported to A leading investigative reporter’s account of near-nuclear war Congress,” General Accounting Office (now the Govern- between India and Pakistan includes the first coverage of the ment Accountability Office), March 2004. case of CIA and Pentagon whistleblower Richard M. Barlow. Congress’ investigative arm opens a window into the work- ings of one of the agencies empowered to protect whistle- Leiby, Richard, “Smoking Gun: Merrell Williams, ex-actor, blowers. The Office of Special Counsel’s reported backlog has is the most important leaker of documents since Daniel since been reduced, but the report was a key factor in the Ellsberg,” The Washington Post, June 23, 1996, p. F1. continuing debate over how whistleblowers fare at the agency. A reporter digs into motivations of a law firm paralegal who photocopied and distributed thousands of pages of tobacco Fisher, Louis, “National Security Whistleblowers,” Con- industry documents. gressional Research Service, Dec. 30, 2005. The former senior specialist in separation of powers analyzes Miller, T. Christian, “Halliburton Contracts Bypassed in detail, but in layman’s language, the law and legislative his- Objections,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 29, 2004, p. A1. tory concerning whistleblowers from the spy establishment. A reporter dissects the case of Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, Fisher is now at the Library of Congress’ Law Library. the Army Corps of Engineers contract analyst whose objec- tions to a series of Iraq contracts for a subsidiary of a politi- Whitaker, L. Paige, and Michael Schmerling, “Whistleblower cally well-connected company led to her demotion. Protections for Federal Employees,” Congressional Research Service, May 18, 1998. Pugh, Tony, “Medicare Drug Costs Ordered Withheld,” Two analysts examine the system set up to protect federal The Miami Herald, March 12, 2004, p. A1. whistleblowers.

286 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Federal Government and Whistleblowers Five former employees of the FBI, National Security Agency, Defense Department and Energy Department told a House Kaufman, Marc, “Attempt to Discredit Whistle-Blower committee how national-security whistleblowers have little Alleged,” The Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2004, p. A19. legal protection against retaliation. Food and Drug Administration officials allegedly tried to anonymously smear an agency safety officer who challenged Hentoff, Nat, “The FBI Retroactively Classified Information the FDA’s drug safety policies. About Edmonds’ Claims Provided to Congressional Staff,” Chicago Sun-Times, July 29, 2004, p. 43. Pear, Robert, “Congress Moves to Protect Federal Whistle- Sens. , D-Vt., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, are blowers,” The New York Times, Oct. 3, 2004, p. 29. investigating documents that the government reclassified after Both parties want to protect federal employees who expose FBI translator Sibel Edmonds blew the whistle on government wrongdoing, but the administration says it inter- problems within the agency before Sept. 11. feres with the president’s authority. Marks, Alexandra, “National Security vs. Whistle-Blowing,” Iraq/Counterterrorism The Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 24, 2006, p. 2. Government employees who uncover potentially illegal actions Eckholm, Erik, “Army Demotes Halliburton Contract at work are having problems blowing the whistle and proving Critic,” Chicago Tribune, Aug. 29, 2005, p. 4. their case because the Bush administration has increased the A top Army contracting official, Bunnatine Greenhouse, amount of government material that is classified. was demoted after criticizing a large, non-competitive con- tract with Halliburton Co. for work in Iraq. Shane, Scott, “Bipartisan Support Emerges For Federal Whistle-Blowers,” The New York Times, Feb. 17, 2006, Hastings, Deborah, “Suit Accuses Contractor of Bilking Mil- p. A17. lions in Iraq,” The Houston Chronicle, May 1, 2005, p. A25. Some congressional Republicans are joining Democrats Two former employees of Custer Battles, a private securi- in supporting government employees who say they were ty firm that has won millions of dollars in contracts for work punished for disclosing sensitive information on reported in Iraq, allege the company defrauded the government. abuses.

Lichtblau, Eric, “Justice Review Backs FBI Whistle-Blower’s Chaddock, Gail Russell, “A Surge in Whistle-Blowing . . . Claims on Terror Case,” The Houston Chronicle, Dec. 4, and Reprisals,” The Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 16, 2005, p. A14. 2006, p. 1. Undercover operative Mike German accused the FBI of re- Since Sept. 11, the number of government insiders alleging taliating against him after he revealed how bureau officials wrongdoing in government has surged and so has government mishandled a Florida terror investigation. retaliation against the whistleblowers.

Meyer, Josh, “CIA Official Challenges Agency on Terrorism,” CITING THE CQ RESEARCHER Los Angeles Times , Nov. 9, 2004, p. A16. Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography Senior CIA counterterrorism official Michael Scheuer refuses to stop publicly criticizing the agency’s response to the al include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats Qaeda terrorist network, arguing that uncorrected management vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. problems since Sept. 11 continue to put the U.S. at risk. MLA STYLE White, Josh, and Scott Higham, “Soldier: Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Re- Behind Abuse,” The Miami Herald, May 20, 2004, p. A25. searcher 16 Nov. 2001: 945-68. Sgt. , the first military-intelligence service- member to speak openly about abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, APA STYLE says military-intelligence officials directed the interrogation Jost, K. (2001, November 16). Rethinking the death penalty. techniques in question. CQ Researcher, 11, 945-968. National Security CHICAGO STYLE Fisher, William, “Corruption-U.S.: With the Feds, No Good Jost, Kenneth. “Rethinking the Death Penalty.” CQ Researcher, Deed Goes Unpunished,” IPS-Inter Press Service, Feb. 20, November 16, 2001, 945-968. 2006.

Available online: www.cqresearcher.com March 31, 2006 287 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

Are you writing a paper? Need backup for a debate? Want to become an expert on an issue? For 80 years, students have turned to the CQ Researcher? for in-depth reporting on issues in the news. Reports on a full range of political and social issues are now available. Following is a selection of recent reports:

Civil Liberties Education Health/Safety Social Trends Right to Die, 5/05 Academic Freedom, 10/05 Pension Crisis, 1/06 Future of Newspapers, 1/06 Immigration Reform, 4/05 Intelligent Design, 7/05 Avian Flu Threat, 1/06 Cosmetic Surgery, 4/05 Gays on Campus, 10/04 No Child Left Behind, 5/05 Birth-Control Debate, 6/05 Gender and Learning, 5/05 Disaster Preparedness, 11/05 Terrorism/Defense Crime/Law Domestic Violence, 1/06 Presidential Power, 2/06 Death Penalty Controversies, 9/05 Environment Drug Safety, 3/05 Re-examining 9/11, 6/04 Domestic Violence, 1/06 Nuclear Energy, 3/06 Marijuana Laws, 2/05 Methamphetamines, 7/05 Climate Change, 1/06 Youth Identity Theft, 6/05 Saving the Oceans, 11/05 International Affairs Bullying, 2/05 Marijuana Laws, 2/05 Endangered Species Act, 6/05 Future of European Union, 10/05 Teen Driving, 1/05 Supreme Court’s Future, 1/05 Alternative Energy, 2/05 War in Iraq, 10/05 Athletes and Drugs, 7/04 Upcoming Reports Health-Care Costs, 4/7/06 Port Security, 4/21/06 Transgender Issues, 5/5/06 Native Americans’ Plight, 4/14/06 Future of Feminism, 4/28/06 Controlling the Internet, 5/12/06

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