 Courtesy of Flickr user New Media DaysAssociated Press: Assange Can Continue Extradition Fight
Summary: A British court decided yesterday that WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange can continue with his legal battle against extradition to Sweden to face sex crime allegations. Assange’s appeal against extradition to a British High Court in July had been denied, however, he can now appeal to the British Supreme Court.
Related Articles: Washington Post, New York Times
RT: Manning Wants Obama and Clinton as Witnesses
Summary: On Friday, the attorney for Bradley Manning – the soldier accused of providing Wikileaks with classified documents – submitted a list of defense witnesses that included President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The witnesses are requested to appear at the first military hearing against Manning, set to begin December 16, which will determine whether the case should be referred to a full court martial.
Climate Science Watch: “Smog Rules”
Summary: The director of GAP's Climate Science Watch program, dedicated to holding politicians accountable for their use of climate change data, argues that President Obama has allowed science to be “set aside” in the debate on environmental protection.
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Wall Street Journal: Decorated Marine Sues Contractor
Several months ago, US Marine Dakota Meyer made history, becoming the first living Marine to receive the distinguished Medal of Honor for actions performed in Iraq or Afghanistan. After leaving active duty in early 2010, Meyer eventually worked for defense contractor BAE Systems. After resigning in protest over that company's decision to sell sniper equipment to the Pakistani military, Meyer is now suing BAE for asserting to the federal government that he had drinking problems and mental issues.
Related Articles: NPR
NDTV: Names of Indians with Swiss Accounts to be Revealed Next Year: Assange
WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange has stated that the names of prominent Indians holding Swiss bank accounts may be released by the organization next year. This news comes as an Indian official is on trial for allegedly passing the information on to WikiLeaks.
Arizona Republic: A Decade after Enron, Reform Still a Hot Topic
Ten years after the fall of Enron precipitated the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, this article quickly looks at some of the effects of that law's passage.
Releasing Meat & Poultry Plant Inspection Data Would Increase Public Safety
The National Research Council released a report last week touting the benefits of making inspection data collected at meat, poultry, and egg products' processing plants readily available online. GAP's Food Integrity Campaign explains how such transparency would detail the problems that whistleblowers have been trying to unveil all along.
Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
في نهاية هذا التقرير تجد ترجمة له باللغة العربية
As the Egyptian people continue to protest and demand accountability and democratic rule by the thousands in the wake of the collapse of the corrupt Mubarak regime, we have received increased requests from friends throughout the Middle East to translate our reporting on our investigation into former Egyptian Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieldin into Arabic, so that far more people affected by or concerned about these issues can directly access our analyses. As explained in my previous posts, which are now all available in Arabic (here, here and here), despite having been named in allegations involving at least three suspicious privatization transactions that cost the Egyptian people thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars, Mohieldin continues to sit unquestioned in a senior position as a Managing Director at the World Bank -- even as multiple former officials associated with him in those transactions face similar charges and allegations of corruption, profiteering and abuse of public assets.
I will be reporting back soon on the latest phase of our investigative efforts into Moheldin's conduct as Egypt's Investment Minister, as well as the World Bank's failure to respond to our repeated requests for Bank President Robert Zoellick to review Mohieldin's current role as Managing Director in light of these serious allegations and finally agree to make his financial records public.
Stay tuned...
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 Washington Post: Trade in Surveillance Technology Raises Worries
Summary: The sale of surveillance technology with few restrictions is worrying to human rights and privacy activists. WikiLeaks released a number of the surveillance technology industry sales documents to certain media outlets, showing that “many companies are selling sophisticated tools capable of going far beyond conventional investigative techniques.”
These technologies are sold not only to repressive governments overseas, but also to American agencies acting covertly. According to the WikiLeaks website, “In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm.”
GAP’s Jesselyn Radack explores how the FBI used its overreach to spy on Muslim communities.
Related Articles: IT World, Forbes, CNN
Times-Tribune (PA): State Waiting on Cabot Report Expected Wednesday
Summary: Cabot Oil and Gas Corporate was supposed to file a report with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection that allegedly would disprove whistleblower claims of oil spills and cover-ups. The report has yet to be filed.
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained documents using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that reveal that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using co-called "community outreach" programs to spy and target Muslim Americans. The documents show that:
The FBI has been illegally using its community outreach programs to secretly collect and store information about activities protected by the First Amendment for intelligence purposes. . .
The FBI's blanket denial that the outreach is used as a cover for surveillance is far from credible considering WaPo's article today:
. . . the files also depict agents as recording Social Security numbers and other identifying information of people after they meet, and, in at least one instance, noting their political views. It appears that the agents are conducting follow-up investigations in some instances, but heavy redactions in the documents make it impossible to determine how far any examination might have gone.
Conducting surveillance based on First Amendment-protected activities under the auspices of "community outreach" is not only a colossal waste of law enforcement time, it is a tear in the fabric of our democracy. The FBI needs a wake-up call about the First Amendment: The First Amendment protects ideas and speech - even abhorrent ideas and speech. The dangerous misconception that any one idea or religion creates violence invites racial profiling, discrimination, and hate while doing nothing for our safety.
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 Courtesy of Flickr user D H WrightBloomberg: Woodford Seeks Shareholder Backing for Control of Olympus
Summary: The former Olympus executive-turned-whistleblower has resigned from the board. The camera company fired him as CEO (although he had retained his position on the board) after he spurred revelations that the corporation covered up losses through major acquisition payments. The whistleblower, Michael Woodford, intends to work with shareholders who could hold a special session to reinstall him as CEO, along with “untainted” board members. A battle between Woodford and the current President for such shareholder support is expected over the coming months.
Since these revelations, the whistleblower and his family have faced financial strain and emotional trauma, according to Reuters.
Wall Street Journal: Whistleblower Feted in NY Hospital Case
Summary: A physician revealed to the Office of Special Counsel that a New York hospital had been operating an unaccredited nuclear medicine program. The program was shut down as a result of the investigation.
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 The GAP publication The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide: A Handbook for Committing the Truth, released this past April, has been awarded the prestigious getAbstract International Business Book of the Year Award at this year's Frankfurt Book Fair. This prize seeks to honor books that have made a worldwide impact in business and economics. GAP Legal Director Tom Devine and former GAP Investigator Tarek Maassarani penned the book.
The guide prevailed in the face of much competition, as it was chosen from over 10,000 non-fiction books, and then selected from 10 finalists. getAbstract specializes in summarizing important business-related books in an effort to provide executives with the best of the latest business knowledge. As a winner, The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide represents one of the most innovative business books of 2011. Along with the honor of being chosen, Devine and Maassarani join the ranks of previous winners Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan, 2007), Robert Shiller (The New Financial Order, 2003), Benoît Mandelbrot (The (Mis)behavior of Markets, 2004) and Chris Anderson (The Long Tail, 2006).
Praise for the book has been overwhelming, as illustrated by the Library Journal's accolade of its "admirably pragmatic chapters," and conclusion that "this is an important (and cost-effective) book for libraries to own."
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