MSNBC: Countdown With Keith Olbermann

This segment looks at the U.S. Army’s treatment of Bradley Manning, the private who is being held at Quantico for allegedly leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

The description of Manning's treatment is alarming. He is being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours each day, is not allowed to exercise (even in his cell), and is denied basic necessities such as sheets and a pillow. Some are saying that these harsh conditions qualify as torture, and that they are too severe for someone who has not yet been convicted of any crime. Noted FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley is interviewed for her reaction.

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New York Daily News: Manhattan Doctor Could Get Millions in Reward Money After Blowing Whistle on Medicaid Overbilling

A Manhattan doctor who blew the whistle on New York City’s overbilling of Medicaid by “tens of millions” could receive up to 25 percent of the money won by the government. Federal prosecutors are attempting to recover more than $60 million that they claim was lost in the city’s illegal, round-the-clock care for unqualified patients.

Dear GAP Supporters:

As you know, last weekend GAP and On The Media launched a campaign to identify the senator who sabotaged the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) with an anonymous "secret hold" on the final day of the last session of Congress. This legislation would stem government corruption, fraud, and wrongdoing.

We're making tremendous progress. We can now rule out 24 senators because of our and On The Media's supporters taking a few minutes to stand up for government accountability.

If you've already contacted your senator, we wholeheartedly thank you. If you haven’t had the time yet to do so, please take three minutes to call your senators!

Click here to help GAP and On The Media identify the culpable senator!

The campaign is growing steadily and has been featured by: On The Media, ProPublica, Newsworks.org, Fairwarning.org, PBS Frontline, and Slate Magazine.

Whichever way senators may answer, you can report your correspondence to On The Media at blowthewhistle@wnyc.org and their site will post the information. With your help, we can blow the whistle on the senator that refused protections to government whistleblowers.

Dylan Blaylock is Communications Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower advocacy organization.

Washington Post: Ex-Park Police Chief Could Get Old Job Back

Yesterday, the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) ordered the National Park Service to reinstate whistleblower Teresa Chambers as Chief of the U.S. Park Police. Chambers' case garnered national attention when she was removed by the Bush administration in 2004 after telling the Washington Post that "traffic accidents had increased along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway because two, rather than the recommended four, officers were on patrol," as well as that more officers were needed to safeguard the country's national parks. Whistleblowers and members of the public from across the country responded by voicing their support for Chambers.

Throughout her ordeal, Chief Chambers' representation has been led by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and its Senior Counsel Paula Dinerstein. GAP Senior Counsel Richard Condit and attorney Mick Harrison have also been part of Chief Chambers' legal team throughout her efforts to challenge her unlawful termination. The fifty-three page ruling by the MSPB is a tremendous victory for federal employee whistleblowers. Chambers is now due over six years of back pay, as well as reimbursements for costs and legal fees.

Related Articles: CNN, WTOP

Roughly two years ago, Ramalinga Raju, the CEO of Satyam Computer Services, confessed to his board that the company -- the fourth largest IT outsourcer in India at the time -- was insolvent. Approximately $1 billion in assets, Raju admitted then, did not exist. Satyam, an acclaimed good corporate citizen, collapsed spectacularly, earning itself the moniker “India’s Enron” in a few short weeks.

Defrauded investors filed a series of lawsuits, and criminal charges sent Raju, his PriceWaterhouseCoopers auditors, and other Satyam officers to jail to await trial. There they remain, while the Securities and Exchange Bureau of India untangles the web of false invoices, inflated payrolls, fraudulent accounts, doctored balance sheets and offshore businesses that surround the Satyam debacle.

Background

The company had enjoyed a meteoric rise in the corporate outsourcing business that began with its surprising selection as the principal IT vendor for the World Bank’s internal information technology work. In the late 1990s, Satyam was an obscure, mid-size, family-owned IT company headquartered in Hyderabad, India. There it was discovered by Mohamamed V. Muhsin, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the World Bank. Muhsin, at the instigation of James Wolfensohn, had assumed the responsibility for establishing the IT architecture of the Bank. For reasons that remain somewhat unclear, he enlisted Satyam in the enterprise, selecting it over larger and better-known companies. In the digital hysteria leading up to following the Y2K scare, Satyam received a flow of ever-larger contracts from the bank, and rumors began to circulate in Muhsin’s department that held a financial interest in the company.

ProPublica: Which Senator Secretly Sabotaged the Popular Whistleblower Protection Bill?

This ProPublica piece looks at GAP and On The Media’s crowdsourcing effort to discover which senator placed a secret hold on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, effectively killing the legislation. A related Newsworks.org story also highlights the campaign.

Thirty-seven senators have been contacted thus far, and ten have explicitly denied placing the hold. Please help us blow the whistle on the senator who refused protections to government whistleblowers.

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WCPN (NPR Cleveland): Ethics Expert Endorses Local Effort

GAP Senior Counsel Richard Condit spoke at a seminar in Cleveland about a proposed county plan to foster ethical and accountable government. Condit praised several components of the document and also offered recommendations, such as providing greater protections for government whistleblowers. The local chapters of the League of Women Voters and Society of Professional Journalists sponsored the event.

Key Quote: (Condit) - “In many instances, the best people to tell you what’s going on, are the people on the ground, are doing the day to day job, the people that are observing what goes on and what goes right and what goes wrong.”

Dear GAP Supporters:

As you know, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) was killed by an anonymous "secret hold" by a lone senator on the final day of the last session of Congress.

Over the weekend, GAP and On The Media launched a campaign to identify the senator who sabotaged this crucial legislation that would stem government corruption, fraud, and wrongdoing. On The Media is asking its listeners, and GAP is asking our supporters to contact their respective senator's offices and ask them if they were the party who wrongfully killed this paramount legislation.

So far, 25 senators have been contacted. Seven senators (or their staffers) have come forward to explicitly deny being the culprit.

On The Media (NPR): Blow the Whistle

This OTM segment features a follow-up interview with GAP Legal Director Tom Devine on the death of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372) in the lame duck session of Congress. The legislation was killed at the last minute (despite passing in the Senate just weeks before) due to one anonymous senator’s decision to place a secret hold on the bill.

GAP and On The Media are working together to identify the senator who placed the secret hold. On The Media is asking its listeners, and GAP is asking our supporters to contact their respective senator's offices and ask them if they were the party who wrongfully killed this paramount legislation. Then, however senators may answer, you can report your correspondence to On The Media at blowthewhistle@wnyc.org and their site will post the information.

Please help us identify the culpable senator!

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Los Angeles Times: Who Killed the Whistleblower Bill?

This op-ed by GAP Legal Director Tom Devine explains how the whistleblower reform bill was killed last minute in Congress through one senator’s “secret hold,” despite overwhelming support for the bill. Devine argues for congressional reform of the “secret hold” process, which he deems “an open invitation to corruption.”