USA

Snitch or hero: Modern whistleblowers still aren’t getting much respect

Sujets: 
USA, National security, Whistleblowers
Scores: 
0

Randy Boswell – June 14, 2013

As the world wrestles with the hero-or-traitor conundrum posed by ex-CIA technician Edward Snowden and his bombshell revelations about U.S. government surveillance of citizens’ email and phone traffic, longtime promoters of the whistle-blowing movement — a now-global phenomenon launched by American political activist Ralph Nader in 1971 — are defending the informant ethic as a noble instinct and a crucial check on corruption, corporate malfeasance, excessive secrecy and other abuses of power in modern democracies.

But where some see personal courage and a sterling sense of civic duty on display in the secrecy breach at the U.S. National Security Agency, critics of whistleblowers such as Snowden, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier now on trial for his massive leak of classified American diplomatic dispatches, instead see a betrayal of trust, reckless glory-seeking and even the aiding of terrorists and other “enemies of the state.”

USA NGO statement: Edward Snowden is a whistleblower

Sujets: 
USA, National security, Whistleblowers
Scores: 
0
Edward Snowden

Government Accountability Project – June 14, 2013

Recently, the American public learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) has conducted, and continues to conduct, wholesale surveillance of U.S. citizens through a secretive data-mining program.

The program collects the phone records, email exchanges, and internet histories of tens of millions of Americans who would otherwise have no knowledge of the secret program were it not for the disclosures of recent whistleblowers. The latest of these whistleblowers to come forward is former Booz Allen Hamilton federal contractor employee, Edward Snowden.

Manning's US court martial a ruthless gambit to put an end to whistleblowing

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

Paul McGeough – June 8, 2013

The Obama administration is going for broke in the case of Bradley Manning, the perpetrator of the biggest leaking of classified documents in US history - but at the end of the first week of the trial, it seems that Washington is flogging a dead horse.

The pint-sized Manning arrives at court some mornings, sandwiched between two seemingly enormous military guards and looking more like a schoolboy being hauled before the headmaster. And arguably he has given the headmaster what he wants - in admitting that he leaked the 700,000-plus diplomatic and military papers, he has pleaded guilty to about half of the charges against him and says he will do 20 years in jail.

U.S. data reveals how hospitals gouge Americans

Sujets: 
USA, Health care
Scores: 
0

Two-thirds of personal bankruptcies are caused by huge medical bills

William Marsden – May 10, 2013

If you need a new hip or knee joint in the United States, it’s probably best not to hobble over to Monterey Park Hospital in California. They’ll try to skin you for at least $223,000 US.  In fact, stay out of California altogether. Just over in Inglewood at the Centinela Hospital Medical Center the charge isn’t any better: a mere $220,800.

The best bet is to head for tiny Ada, Okla. There, the Chickasaw Nation Medical Center will fix you up for only $5,300. This huge disparity is the same story for pretty well every medical procedure everywhere in the United States.

Anomalies found along newly laid Keystone XL pipeline in Texas

Sujets: 
USA, Oil & gas industry, Public health & safety, Environment, Whistleblowers
Scores: 
0

Public Citizen – May 30, 2013

Dozens of anomalies, including dents and welds, reportedly have been identified along a 60-mile stretch of the southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline, north of the Sabine River in Texas.

In the past two weeks, landowners have observed TransCanada and its vendor, Michels, digging up the buried southern segment of the Keystone XL pipeline on their properties and those of neighbors in the vicinity of Winnsboro, Texas. Some of the new pipeline has been in the ground on some owners’ land for almost six months.

Texas Landowners Say TransCanada is Digging Up Parts of Keystone Pipeline for Repairs

Sujets: 
USA, Oil & gas industry, Whistleblowers, Public health & safety, Environment
Scores: 
0

Brantley Hargrove – May 31, 2013

Landowners along the nearly 500-mile southern section of the Keystone XL pipeline say contractors have been excavating long-buried lengths of pipe to repair apparent defects. They've documented stakes jutting from turned-up dirt near the pipeline right-of-way through East Texas that read, "anomaly," "dent" and "weld." They've seen sections of excavated pipe -- some buried for as long as six months -- spray painted with the words "cut out."

"Here this pipeline has been in the ground for months and now they're here again," Winnsboro landowner David Whitley told Public Citizen. "An independent TransCanada inspector has told me there are all these anomalies on land up and down the pipeline along this 60-mile stretch, including the one on my property they are digging up now."

Can a film about rape in the military win an oscar

Sujets: 
USA
Scores: 
2

Amy Davidson – February 23, 2013

One of the nominees for Best Documentary in Sunday night’s Academy Awards is “The Invisible War,” about sexual assault in the military. It is a wrenching film; woman after woman tells about being attacked by a fellow-soldier, sailor, or Marine, and then being betrayed, more profoundly, by the her officers and by military as an institution.

The women were the ones who end up paying a price or losing their careers. Some remembered being cautioned, when they asked help, about the punishment for making false charges: Were they ready to risk not being believed?

Former Bush Administration Lawyer Asks Judge for Probation

Sujets: 
USA, Office of Special Counsel, Watchdogs
Scores: 
0

Mike Scarcella – April 30, 2013

Federal prosecutors will not oppose a sentence of probation for a former George W. Bush administration lawyer who's charged in Washington with the destruction of government property.

Prosecutors in December charged Scott Bloch, the former head of the Office of Special Counsel, with the misdemeanor crime of destruction of property for his role in deletion of files from government computers.

Sentencing postponed for former head of US whistleblowing watchdog

Sujets: 
USA, Office of Special Counsel
Scores: 
0

Ann E. Marimow – May 13, 2013

The legal odyssey of Scott J. Bloch, the former head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, continued Monday when a federal judge balked at proceeding with sentencing because of what he called an “improperly sanitized version of events.”

Bloch, the Bush-era head of the Office of Special Counsel, pleaded guilty in February to a misdemeanor offense of destroying government property when he ordered the deletion of office computer files by private technicians.

Canadians indicted in USA on fraud, money laundering charges

Sujets: 
White-collar crime, Ontario, USA
Scores: 
2

Kevin Donovan – April 12, 2013

A U.S. grand jury has indicted two Ontario private detectives and a consultant on fraud and money laundering charges. The detectives faked Cayman Islands and Swiss banking records to convince divorcing spouses or business associates that someone they once trusted had stashed millions of dollars offshore, according to the indictment filed in a courthouse in Newport News, Va.

Cullen Johnson and Elaine White were extradited from the Turks and Caicos this week to face charges. They are being held in jail in Newport News. A third man, Theodoros Grontis, a Toronto consultant who was living in Virginia, is also facing charges.

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