Reprisals

CIA whistleblower Kiriakou gets posh send-off to prison

Topics: 
USA, Whistleblowers, Reprisals
Rating: 
0

David Montgomery – February 21, 2013

John Kiriakou stood in the ninth-floor banquet hall of the Hay-Adams hotel Thursday night and took in the spectacular view of the White House and the Washington Monument. He recalled briefing two presidents during his career with the CIA.

“It’s ironic,” he said, spreading his arms as if to embrace the tableau. “This really is the reason I came to Washington 30 years ago in the first place.” But next Thursday he will check into the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa., to begin a 30-month sentence for divulging information that prosecutors said could harm his country.

The state versus the whistleblower

Topics: 
UK, Whistleblowers, Reprisals
Rating: 
2
The following are selected extracts

The forces of power are being used increasingly to silence the brave people who keep our vulnerable freedoms alive.

Andrew Gilligan – February 17, 2013

For Peter Golds, a Conservative councillor in Tower Hamlets, east London, the price of opposing the Islamic extremists who exercise significant control over his borough has never been small. Regular threats are made against him.

Prominent allies of the independent executive mayor, Lutfur Rahman, barrack him as “Mrs Golds”, “Zionist scum” and a “------- poofter” at the council’s own meetings. But in the last few months, at a cost to taxpayers of up to £100,000, Peter Golds has been deliberately targeted for professional destruction – for supposedly leaking information to this newspaper.

Journalist agreed to probe background of UK gas market rigging whistleblower

Topics: 
UK, Whistleblowers, Reprisals
Rating: 
2

Terry Macalister – February 5, 2013

A senior industry journalist agreed with an executive now working for Icis-Heren, the company at the centre of the gas market rigging allegations, to probe the background of the whistleblower who first raised the issue.

The journalist, Roger Milne, wrote emails claiming that "a regulatory affairs bod at lcis-Heren" wanted him to do "a bit of very circumspect detective work about a guy called Seth Freedman". Milne said his enquiries were "jolly sensitive".

'To whistleblow is like a death sentence'

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, Reprisals, Victories
Rating: 
4
The following are selected extracts

Charlie Cooper – March 23, 2013

Five people who risked everything by speaking out reflect on what they accomplished and the effect on their own lives.

The whistleblowers are: Nevres Kemal,fomer social worker; Michael Woodford, former CEO of Olympus; Margaret Heywood, former nurse; Craig Murray, former british ambassador; and Frank Serpico, former New York police officer.

York University staff knew about fraud but didn’t report it, documents show

Topics: 
Academia, Corruption, Reprisals
Rating: 
0

Tony Van Alphen – March 12, 2013

York University staff knew about alleged fraud in a key campus division but didn’t alert senior management because of fears of reprisals, according to university documents.

An unidentified number of current and former employees were not willing to come forward in 2009 with allegations of abuse, harassment, bullying and financial improprieties against a senior administrator at a time when York had no whistleblower protection, university affadavits and an internal audit report show.

Another Quebec whistleblower receives death threat

Topics: 
Quebec, Organized crime, Reprisals, Whistleblowers
Rating: 
4
Andre Durocher

Jean-Louis Fortin – February 12, 2013

A former Quebec excavation contractor received a sympathy card, making reference to his own death, after he blew the whistle on collusion in his industry.

Andre Durocher is the second witness to be intimidated with a condolence card after testifying at the Charbonneau Commission.

Orangeville Police Act hearing proceeds, despite sergeant’s objections

Topics: 
Policing, Reprisals
Rating: 
0

Bill Tremblay – January 26, 2013

Whether or not charges against Orangeville police Sgt. Curtis Rutt are reprisal for raising concerns about the department is not for a Police Service Act hearing to decide.

That’s the ruling the hearing’s officer Morris Elbers made Friday (Jan. 25), after Rutt tabled several concerns with the process. Elbers said the issue of reprisal is not under PSA jurisdiction and should be brought before the Orangeville Police Service (OPS) or its board.

Judge raps Justice officials for treatment of whistleblower

Topics: 
Justice Department, Whistleblowers, Reprisals
Rating: 
5
Edgar Schmidt

Bill Curry – January 16, 2013

Ottawa is crafting legislation that risks running afoul of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms without informing Parliament, a federal lawyer charges.

In a highly unusual case, Department of Justice lawyer Edgar Schmidt is challenging his own department in Federal Court and revealing details about the internal guidelines used by federal lawyers. The department accuses Mr. Schmidt of violating his duties as a lawyer and public servant and has suspended him without pay.

Daniel Ellsberg on secrecy and national security whistleblowing

Topics: 
National security, Reprisals, Message control or 'spin', Daniel Ellsberg
Rating: 
2
The following are selected extracts

Daniel Ellsberg – January 13, 2013

Daniel Ellsberg is the former American military analyst who sparked a national uproar in 1971 by releasing the top secret 'Pentagon Papers' to the USA media. This encyclopedic 7,000-page history of the Vietnam war revealed that successive presidents had systematically lied to the American people about the war, which they knew to be unwinnable.

In this lengthy and insightful article Ellsberg discusses the rigorously enforced culture of secrecy that pervades many agencies, especially the 'intelligence community'. Ellsberg asserts that virtually all of this secrecy is not to protect the nation from foreign powers, but to protect agencies from proper oversight and accountability – by keeping the public and lawmakers in the dark.

Internet pioneer found dead amid prosecutor 'bullying'

Topics: 
USA, Harassment, Reprisals
Rating: 
3
Aaron Swartz

Zach Carter, Ryan Grim and Ryan J. Reilly – January 12, 2013

Open democracy advocate and internet pioneer Aaron Swartz was found dead Friday in an apparent suicide, flooding the digital spectrum with an outpouring of grief. He was 26 years old.

Swartz spent the last two years fighting federal hacking charges. In July 2011, prosecutor Scott Garland working under U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, a politician with her eye on the governor's mansion, charged Swartz with four counts of felony misconduct -- charges that were deemed outrageous by internet experts who understood the case, and wholly unnecessary by the parties Swartz was accused of wronging.

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