(Washington, D.C.) – Today, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and over 60 other groups, including the National Taxpayers Union and Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, sent a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Ca), urging him to reconsider his newly changed position of wishing to delay a House of Representatives vote on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) until next Congress. The WPEA would greatly strengthen whistleblower protections for federal workers.

“In one afternoon, 63 groups from all views joined to demand House passage of rights for whistleblowers,” commented GAP Legal Director Tom Devine. “That is only an opening taste of how strongly the public feels about protecting those who risk their careers to fight fraud, waste and abuse. Isn’t that what the last election was supposed to be about?”

The full letter is available here

In a news report this morning, a spokesman for the Representative stated that there were "new areas of concern that have been raised by the WikiLeaks" disclosures.

Last week, Senator Lugar sent out this press release, "Lugar Urges International Development Banks to Step Up Corruption Cases." Bless the man for trying to uphold notions of honesty not-currently-in-vogue in most of the rest of the world -- or in government for that matter. Lugar had asked the multilateral development banks about how they addressed criminal violations in their operations, when such crimes came to light. Not surprisingly, the answer he got from World Bank President Robert Zoellick didn't really answer the question. While Zoellick's reply was encouragingly upbeat, it was also irrelevant.

As I read the letter from Zoellick, I began to ponder the nature of corruption in the 21st Century. It must be the season: a time to look back on the year and consider how many real scandals were ignored....

My own humble focus this year has been on the farce also-known-as-criminal-justice in India and the Satyam scandal -- the "biggest fraud in Indian corporate history.” Zoellick's letter to Lugar and my interest in Satyam converge because Satyam was suspected of some serious crimes at the World Bank, as its lead IT outsourcer from 2000 through 2008. These allegations were described in depth and with documents in a series of articles written by Richard Behar and published by Fox News (I know, I know.) Satyam’s criminal malfeasance seemed to range from Chinese espionage to loading illegal spyware on secure computers to irregular invoices from Satyam to the World Bank to shadow employees and corporate shell games.

Government Accountability Project: Oversight Groups Overwhelmingly Support Passage of Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act

A “vote alert” sent yesterday by the National Taxpayers Union is just one of the latest actions from over 90 good government groups that support passage of S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Notable whistleblowers such as Frank Serpico and Robert MacLean have also outlined the need to pass S. 372.

The criticisms of S. 372, which suggest that the bill would actually take away whistleblower protections, are flawed and dangerously misleading. GAP has detailed the ways in which the WPEA would provide greater federal protections by overhauling the judicial loopholes that have gutted current whistleblower protections.

We’re at the crossroads of a breakthrough for free speech rights; however, there has been a divergent campaign in the 11^th hour. Today, Ms. Julia Davis wrote an article titled “Kill the Bill” – referring to S. 372, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Curiously, days earlier this same author joined a letter by whistleblowers that supports S. 372.

In the Examiner, Davis writes, “Proponents of the corrections for the bill argue that unless the bill is fixed before it’s signed into law, whistleblowers rights will be catapulted backwards into the dark ages.”

The aforementioned statement, unaddressed, is dangerously misleading for anybody unfamiliar with the current state of federal whistleblower protections, because whistleblowers do not have viable rights under current law.

A few examples of how the Whistleblower Protection Act has been gutted over the years through judicial activism may help put Davis’ statement into context. Currently, you are not eligible for federal whistleblower protection if:

• you are not the first person who discloses given misconduct;
• you make a disclosure to your co-worker;
• you make a disclosure to your supervisor;
• you disclose the consequences of a policy decision;
• and the kicker: if you blow the whistle while carrying out your job duties.

The media support keeps coming for S. 372, Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA). The Orange County Register just put out a story outlining how GAP client and former Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean would have benefitted from the protections outlined in S. 372.

To remind, in 2003 MacLean revealed a cost-cutting plan to cancel FAM coverage from long distance flights on the eve of a confirmed al-Qaeda suicidal hijacking plan. The plan never went into effect after Congress protested – based solely on his whistleblowing disclosure. Three years later, however, TSA fired him with a single charge of “Unauthorized Disclosure of Sensitive Security Information” (SSI) - an unclassified “hybrid secrecy” label the TSA retroactively applied to the information that he disclosed.

MacLean’s case is ongoing. But it should be noted that the attempted 2009 Christmas bombing by an Al-Qaeda agent is the exact same type of flight the MacLean blew the whistle on – a flight that did not have a FAM on it. Weeks after the attack, an anonymous TSA official shared with the media that FAMs were not on the NW253 because of “budget issues.”

This morning the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), a leading taxpayer advocacy organization, sent a “vote alert” on S. 372, The Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. The alert urges all Members in the House of Representatives to support passage of this taxpayer safeguarding measure:

S. 372 must be enacted now; it represents admirable progress toward ensuring that those with credible information about fiscal mismanagement in the federal government are protected from retaliation

This alert is just one of the latest from over 90 good government groups that support the passage of this critical legislation.

NTU points out that other fiscal responsibility measures passed in the 111th Congress, such as the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, remain incomplete without adequate protections for federal employees to disclose violations of law, and it is taxpayers that pay the price:

For the better part of a decade, one of those missing reforms – comprehensive whistleblower protections – has stalled despite the best efforts of citizen groups across the political spectrum. All the while, taxpayers have been treated to a lamentable litany of fiscal scandals, even as whistleblower provisions for non-federal workers were strengthened.

The New York Times: Release on Bail of WikiLeaks Founder Is Delayed by Appeal

Although WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was ordered to be released on $315,000 bail, he currently remains under house arrest in London while awaiting the outcome of an extradition attempt by Swedish authorities.

The lawyer for the Swedish authorities has emphasized that the extradition is not about WikiLeaks, but rather over the sexual crimes he allegedly committed against two women. However, Assange’s lawyer maintains that the lack of evidence in the sex crimes case reveals it as “nothing more than a holding charge” being used to expose Assange to U.S. authorities. Furthermore, the lawyer claims that a Justice Department grand jury is currently hearing evidence of Assange’s potential role in exposing the American diplomatic cables, while investigating ways that he could be criminally charged.

Last night on MSNBC's Countdown, filmmaker Michael Moore praised Assange and WikiLeaks for exposing wrongdoings by the federal government, and stated that he personally posted some of Assange's bail money. Moore hypothesizes that the course of the Vietnam War may have been much different had WikiLeaks existed during that time. In a recent op-ed, FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley looked at whether 9/11 could have been averted with the existence of WikiLeaks.