Washington Spectator: NSA Analyst – ‘We Could Have Prevented 9/11’
Summary: NSA whistleblower and GAP client Thomas Drake talked to the Washington Spectator about his whistleblowing experiences and the problems plaguing the NSA.
Key Quote: Thomas Drake, a brilliant intelligence analyst, software engineer, and IT management consultant, worked at the CIA in the 1980s, then as a contractor at the National Security Agency (NSA), and ultimately as an NSA senior executive in 2001. But from 2006 until July 2011, he became the government's and NSA's public enemy.
Why? From his high-level perch at NSA, he saw the failure to act on intelligence that might have prevented the 9/11 attacks, and he saw corruption at the highest levels.
So he blew the whistle.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer: State Passes New Whistleblower Protection Law
Summary: Washington state has recently passed a qui tam law, which incentivizes whistleblowers to expose Medicaid fraud and allow them to file suits on the state’s behalf. Now, 29 states and the federal government have such laws.
Fox 59 News (IN): Gubernatorial Candidates Call for Audit of State Revenue
Summary: The Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Indiana is calling for an audit of all state revenue after the state found $320 million in misplaced money last year. In addition, candidate John Gregg wants to enact a whistleblower protection law, which would protect state employees from retaliation if they were to expose problems like this.
Related Article: WISH TV (IN)
Time: Private Bradley Manning – Hero or Traitor?
Summary: This interview with the author of a new book about Bradley Manning – the soldier accused of giving classified information to WikiLeaks – explores Manning’s role in the disclosures and his trial.
Key Quote: From a purely legal standpoint a leak is a leak, whether from Bradley Manning or Leon Panetta. Are we going to start charging every official who leaks classified information, from the President on down, with aiding the enemy, or its civilian equivalent, treason? Charging someone with aiding the enemy for, basically, communicating with the press, needlessly endangers our free-press traditions by taking a perfectly good military regulation and applying it to a situation for which it was clearly not intended.
Hannah Johnson is Communications Associate for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
