The Guardian (UK): Bradley Manning to Speak for First Time Since Arrest in Pre-Trial Testimony
Summary: Bradley Manning – the soldier accused for giving classified information to WikiLeaks – will speak publicly for the first time since he was arrested in 2010. He is scheduled to testify at his pre-trial hearing today. Manning’s lawyer is seeking to have the soldier’s sentence reduced based on the fact that Manning suffered “pre-trial punishment” at Quantico when he was held there for nine months. Manning’s full court martial is scheduled for early February.
Related Articles: Associated Press, Salon
The Guardian (UK): World Bank Reforms Must Embrace Racial Equality and Accountability
Summary: This blog post calls on the World Bank to be more transparent in its efforts to counteract the racial inequality at the institution. In particular, the post cites a GAP report that studied this subject.
Key Quote: At issue is the conspicuous under-representation of African-Americans at senior levels of the bank. In 1978 William Raspberry reported in the Washington Post that there were only three black Americans, out of 619 Americans working at the World Bank. Thirty years later (in a report titled "Racial discrimination at the World Bank: a review of the treatment of black employees in recruitment, retention and justice decisions" (pdf)) the Washington-based Government Accountability Project (GAP) reported that of more than 1,000 American World Bank staff of professional grade, four were African-Americans.
White House “Insider Threat” Memo Will Silence Whistleblowers
Summary: In this blog post, GAP National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack expresses concern that a recent White House memo instructing agencies to create policies to deal with “insider threats” will be used to target whistleblowers, since agencies generally already have these internal policies in place.
Washington Examiner: WMATA Finds Whistleblower Faced Retaliation
Summary: A WMATA (the DC metro system) panel has found that an IT employee was fired as retaliation for blowing the whistle on a “troubled technology project.” According to the review panel, the employee’s cooperation with an internal inspector general investigation into a major information technology project contributed to the worker’s termination.
A Thanksgiving Message to Whistleblowers: Of Appreciation, and Long Overdue Credit
Summary: GAP Legal Director Tom Devine wrote this message to all whistleblowers, thanking them for their courageous actions and joint efforts made to pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which will improve protections for some federal workers exposing wrongdoing.
Wall Street Journal: Olympus CEO Turned Whistleblower – Lessons Learned
Summary: In this video, the former Olympus CEO-turned-whistleblower talks about his experiences blowing the whistle on high-level corruption in the camera company. The company had been hiding loss of profits in large acquisition payments.
Salt Lake Tribune: SUU Police Cite Plagiarism Whistleblower for Theft
Summary: The police of Southern Utah University have targeted a former ESL teacher for allegedly stealing plagiarized student papers that were later turned over to administrators. The instructor says she had taken the papers off-campus to photocopy, but replaced them a short time later. She views the theft charge and “trespass notice” as retaliation for speaking out about the ESL program’s low standards.
Related Article: Daily Utah Chronicle
