The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann: Assange Granted Asylum
Summary: GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack appeared on The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann yesterday to talk about the ongoing Julian Assange saga. After holing up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two months, Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador yesterday, but the British government has refused the request to allow him to relocate to the Latin American country.
Antiwar: How Not to Reconstruct Iraq, Afghanistan – or America
Summary: State Department whistleblower and GAP client Peter Van Buren writes at Antiwar on how the government has failed in its reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan – and here at home – particularly through overspending.
FoodNavigator: Fonterra Firm Against Removing Permeate
Summary: One of New Zealand's largest dairy companies has refused to end its use of permeate – a waste product from the ultra-filtration of milk – that it adds back into milk products, a practice banned in some countries.
GAP's Food Integrity Campaign recently blogged about a dairy industry whistleblower who exposed the controversial use of permeate as an additive in Australian milk, as well as the implications for industry whistleblowers in the United States.
NPR: When This Oil Spills, It’s ‘a Whole New Monster’
Summary: Michigan is dealing with the aftereffects of a major oil spill and, as one whistleblower tells it, the Kalamazoo River is still not clean two years later. According to the whistleblower, he and other cleanup workers were just told to bury the oil. Instead, he took cell phone photos of the wrongdoing and went to the Environmental Protection Agency. He was fired shortly after, but later settled with the contractor. Now, he’s suing the company that runs the pipeline.
Global Post: Whistleblowers Who Changed the World
Summary: In light of the recent controversies surrounding WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, this article takes a look at some of the most historically influential whistleblowers, citing Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, tobacco corporation whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, and Bradley Manning, among others.
Surveillance Creep: Invasive Software Used to Monitor Government Employees
Summary: GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack blogged this morning about the software that is being used by several federal agencies to monitor the electronic activities of their employees. According to Radack, “TSA officials denied the software would be used against whistleblowers, but the FDA scandal evidences otherwise.”
Houston Chronicle: Spring Company Accused of Retaliation against Whistleblower
Summary: A Texas woman has filed suit against a tech company, alleging she was ostracized, slandered, and passed over for promotions after she reported improper bookkeeping processes.
Hannah Johnson is Communications Associate for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
