National security

U.S. missiles infected with Chinese fakes

Sujets: 
Food safety, China, National security, Defence industry, Consumer safety
Scores: 
0

F. Michael Maloof – June 3, 2012

Fake electronic components from China have been discovered in thermal weapons sights delivered to the U.S. Army on mission computers for the Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missiles and on military aircraft, including several models of helicopters and the P-8A-Poseidon, according to federal investigators.

Suspected electronic parts were found in the Forward Looking InfraRed, or FLIR, Systems being used on the Navy’s SH-60-B. The counterfeit parts were delivered by Raytheon, which alerted the Navy.

Bradley Manning lawyer in struggle to have government documents released

Sujets: 
Wikileaks, Leaking, National security
Scores: 
0

Ed Pilkington – June 3, 2012

The US government is in possession of 250,000 pages of documents relating to the transmission of state secrets to whistleblower website WikiLeaks, which it is refusing to disclose to defence lawyers representing the alleged source of the leaks, Bradley Manning.

Manning's civilian lawyer, David Coombs, has lodged a motion with the military court that is hearing the court-martial of the US soldier. Coombs writes in the motion that the government has revealed to him in a throwaway footnote that there are 250,000 pages in its possession that relate to Manning, WikiLeaks and secret official assessments of the damage that the massive leak caused to US interests around the world.

The Case Of An Accused Leaker: Politics Or Justice?

Sujets: 
USA, Torture, National security, Espionage
Scores: 
2

Carrie Johnson – April 22, 2012

Former CIA official John Kiriakou heads to a Virginia courthouse Friday, where he's expected to plead not guilty. He's the sixth person accused of violating the Espionage Act during the Obama presidency.

Prosecutors say Kiriakou, 47, broke a solemn pledge he took when he joined the CIA in 1990 by sharing information about his former colleagues with reporters at The New York Times and ABC News.

Ottawa abolishes spy overseer’s office

Sujets: 
Watchdogs, National security, Espionage
Scores: 
3

Jeff Davis – April 26, 2012

The government did away with an office mandated to oversee the activities of Canada’s spies Thursday, a move critics say opens the door to abuses of power by the secretive Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The Office of the Inspector General of CSIS played a key role in ensuring Canada’s spies don’t break the law, according to Jez Littlewood, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies.

The Obama administration's disturbing treatment of whistleblowers

Sujets: 
USA, Honours, National security
Scores: 
2

Paul Harris – April 11, 2012

Later this month six Americans will be honoured with a Ridenhour prize which celebrates truth-telling in the public interest.

They are a varied bunch. Eileen Foster helped expose systemic fraud at America's largest mortgage provider Countywide Financial. Lt Col Daniel Davis spoke out against the top brass's portrayal of US military actions in Afghanistan while he was still a serving soldier.

Obama targets journalists

Sujets: 
USA, Freedom of the press, National security
Scores: 
0

Jesselyn Raddack – April 9, 2012

For two years I have been writing about the criminalization of whistleblowing, or as Glenn Greenwald has put it more aptly, the “war on whistleblowers.”  I’m an attorney with the Government Accountability Project, the nation’s leading whistleblower organization.

How did I get into this line of work?  Because I myself was a whistleblower when I worked as a Legal Advisor at the Justice Department and blew the whistle when my advice not to interrogate “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh without an attorney (and, parenthetically, not to torture him) was ignored and then “disappeared” from the file in contravention of a federal court discovery order.

Joining the Whistleblowers' Club

Sujets: 
Whistleblowers, USA, National security
Scores: 
2

Peter Van Buren – April 9, 2012

People ask the question in various ways, sometimes hesitantly, often via a long digression, but my answer is always the same: no regrets.

In some 24 years of government service, I experienced my share of dissonance when it came to what was said in public and what the government did behind the public’s back. In most cases, the gap was filled with scared little men and women, and what was left unsaid just hid the mistakes and flaws of those anonymous functionaries.

US whistleblower Jesselyn Radack's book acclaimed

Sujets: 
Whistleblowers, USA, Books, National security
Scores: 
0

David C.N. Swanson – February 8, 2012

It began with that monstrous young man so evil we needed to blindfold him and strap him to a board, that confusing young man who looked like Christ but cast us in the role of crucifiers, that treasonous young man who brought dark and heathen evils across linguistic and cultural borders and brought torture onto the list of accepted government actions.

When you hear the phrase "American Taliban" you probably think of a young American who betrayed his country, aided its enemies, and - like Saddam Hussein - was behind the attacks of 9-11. John Walker Lindh was an American. That part is accurate.

In Afghan War, a Colonel Becomes a Whistleblower

Sujets: 
USA, Afghanistan, Message control or 'spin', National security
Scores: 
2
Daniel Davis

Scott Shane – February 5, 2012

On his second yearlong deployment to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis traveled 9,000 miles, patrolled with American troops in eight provinces and returned in October of last year with a fervent conviction that the war was going disastrously and that senior military leaders had not leveled with the American public.

Since enlisting in the Army in 1985, he said, he had repeatedly seen top commanders falsely dress up a dismal situation. But this time, he would not let it rest. So he consulted with his pastor at McLean Bible Church in Virginia, where he sings in the choir. He watched his favorite movie, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” one more time, drawing inspiration from Jimmy Stewart’s role as the extraordinary ordinary man who takes on a corrupt establishment.

Obama’s unprecedented war on whistleblowers

Sujets: 
USA, Reprisals, National security
Scores: 
0
John Kiriakou and Bradley Manning

Peter Van Buren – February 9, 2012

On January 23rd, the Obama administration charged former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to journalists about the waterboarding of al-Qaida suspects. His is just the latest prosecution in an unprecedented assault on government whistleblowers and leakers of every sort.

Kiriakou’s plight will clearly be but one more battle in a broader war to ensure that government actions and sunshine policies don’t go together. By now, there can be little doubt that government retaliation against whistleblowers is not an isolated event, nor even an agency-by-agency practice.

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