The Ridenhour Awards are today, and GAP, as always, is extremely proud to partner with the Nation Institute, Fertel Foundation, and others to make this event happen. There should be more events that honor the brave acts that whistleblowers take in the name of Americans. These coveted prizes are among the most respected for those citizens who act "in the spirit of courage and truth."

Every year, the awardees are exceptional. This year is no different. Whistleblower and author Wendell Potter takes the Ridenhour Book prize this year for his work in exposing the true nature of health care providers. Sen. Russ Feingold takes the Courage Award for his continued, principled fight against corporate wrongdoing. And a new award this year, the Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize, is being handed out to the producers of Budrus.

And the coveted Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize -- hands down the most respected annual American award for whistleblowers -- is going to National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Tom Drake. Drake, who GAP has advocated for strenuously over the past year, helped expose multi-billion dollar waste and fraud at the NSA by going through several internal government channels. His concerns eventually were reported in the Baltimore Sun. For his actions of protecting America, he now has the dubious distinction of being the fourth American indicted under the Espionage Act for allegedly mishandling classified information. Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was the first person.

U.K. Guardian: Bradley Manning Case Sparks UN Criticism of US Government

A senior United Nations torture representative is reprimanding the US government’s refusal to allow him to visit privately with Bradley Manning – the Army soldier currently being held in military prison for allegedly giving classified information to WikiLeaks. The UN representative stated that he is acting on a complaint that the treatment of Manning (which has allegedly included confining him to his cell for 23 hours a day and forcing him to sleep naked) amounts to “cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or torture.”

Key Quote: Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said: "I am deeply disappointed and frustrated by the prevarication of the US government with regard to my attempts to visit Mr. Manning."

Asbury Park Press: Radioactive Leaks Increasing at U.S. Nuclear Plants

This in-depth piece discusses the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) failure to penalize nuclear plants in New Jersey and other states for leaking radioactive water that threatens public water supplies. An investigation found that although major leaks have increased since the 1970s, the NRC’s lax regulation has “allowed the radioactive leaks to go on for decades - with little regard for the public's health.”

In a related piece, nuclear whistleblower George Galatis warns that the use of spent fuel pools – the method that the U.S. currently uses to store nuclear waste – is unsafe, and that the federal government lacks a long-term plan for dealing with such waste.

Auburn Journal: DC IRONY Strikes Again

This article draws attention to the irony of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) being killed by an anonymous secret hold, and summarizes GAP and On The Media’s three month Blow the Whistle project – a campaign to identify the senator who placed the secret hold.

That campaign ended last weekend, with the startling revelation that House Republican leadership asked one of two (remaining) senators to place the hold at the last minute.

Arizona Daily Star: Kyl Should Clear Up Secret Hold on Whistleblower Act
 
This piece spotlights Republican Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona – one of only two remaining senators who refuses to deny that they were the party responsible for placing the secret hold on the WPEA. Mentions GAP Legislative Campaign Coordinator Shanna Devine.

Key Quote: After bipartisan consultation, a small section was taken out of the legislation, but nothing else was changed and it was sent back to the Senate on the last day of the session for another vote, according to Shanna Devine of the Government Accountability Project, which has fought for whistleblower protection. "Everything was the same on what he'd (Kyl) already approved," she said.

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Devine said the Government Accountability Project heard from several congressional offices that the secret hold was placed at the behest of the Republican leadership in the House – as a professional courtesy of sorts, to stall the bill until the next Congress, when its Republican majority in the House was seated.

Grist: Monsanto Cash Helped Fund Bill to Stifle Whistleblowers in Iowa

This piece focuses on the support of Monsanto, an agricultural biotechnology company, for a bill that would criminalize the production of undercover videos at agricultural facilities in Iowa.

Key Quote: Sarah Damian of the Government Accountability Project, a "whistleblower advocacy organization," observes over at the Food Integrity Campaign's blog that Monsanto has been throwing lobbying dollars behind Iowa's effort to draw a steel curtain around food production.

BBC: Satyam and PwC Are Fined in US for Accounting Fraud

Satyam Computer Services, a billion-dollar IT outsourcing corporation in India, along with its former auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), will pay a collective $17.5 million to the U.S. government for massive accounting fraud that indirectly affected the New York Stock Exchange. The SEC claims that Satyam “created false invoices to inflate cash balances that appeared to double the value of the company's assets from 2005 to 2009.” The SEC also said the fine imposed on PwC's Indian equivalents ($7.5 million) is "the largest American penalty against a foreign firm."

GAP has been monitoring the Satyam case since it began in 2008.

GAP Praises Legislation Aimed at Safeguarding Taxpayer Dollars

(Washington, D.C.) -- The Government Accountability Project (GAP) praised Senator Daniel Akaka and a bipartisan group of 11 other sponsors for today’s introduction of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA).

The legislation is identical to that unanimously approved last December by the Senate with one exception – removal of a loophole that would have excluded anti-retaliation protection for disclosures of “trivial” illegality which is minor, inadvertent, and occurs during the conscientious carrying out of official duties.

The bill includes protection for national security whistleblowers that the House removed last December after objections by retiring member Pete Hoekstra (R.-Mich.), the former ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Although both parties agreed to the removal and the bill passed that chamber unanimously, GAP has learned over the last several weeks that House Republican leadership secretly asked Senate Republican leadership to block the legislation’s passage, and the shrunken bill was killed on December 22 by a "secret hold" hours before Congress adjourned (see more below).

GAP Legal Director Tom Devine expressed appreciation for the bipartisan persistence by Senators Akaka, Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa), Joseph Lieberman (I.-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R.-Maine), stating: “These four Senate offices have been a bipartisan 'Good Government Gang of Four' with a marathon commitment since 2000 to pass this reform for both taxpayers and the public servants who defend them against bureaucratic abuses.” Devine explained “The whistleblower bill always has had bipartisan public support, but these offices defend whistleblowers behind closed doors as well.”

Washingtonian: NSA Espionage Trial Could Avoid Calling Reporter to Stand

A judge ruled in a hearing last week that Thomas Drake – the NSA whistleblower who has been indicted for retaining classified information in conjunction with a series of news articles that revealed wrongdoing at the agency – could introduce the news articles as evidence in his case.

The prosecutor in the case, William Welch, stated that he has “no interest in subpoenaing the reporter” who wrote the NSA series. Yet, Welch has subpoenaed journalists in the past, most recently in the case against former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, in which Welch attempted to force New York Times reporter James Risen to reveal his sources.

Key Quote: Advocates for Drake chastised the government for pointing the finger back at the defense. “It’s ridiculous for Welch to blame the defense for wanting to subpoena a reporter,” says Jesselyn Radack, an attorney with the Government Accountability Project, which has filed motions on Drake’s behalf. “Welch is the one who put the newspaper articles at issue by making wild allegations about them in the indictment – conveniently leaving out one of Drake’s main ground rules: that he would never give the reporter classified information.”

On The Media (NPR): The Conclusion of the Blow the Whistle Project

This piece discusses the history, impact, and conclusion of GAP and On The Media’s Blow the Whistle Project – a campaign to identify the senator who used a secret hold to kill the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) last Congress. During the campaign, which asked GAP’s supporters and On The Media’s listeners to call their senators and ask if they were the party who wrongfully killed the WPEA, we were able to rule out nearly every senator as being a suspect.

In this interview, GAP Legal Director Tom Devine revealed that one of the two remaining senators – Senator Kyl and Senator Sessions – placed the hold on the WPEA at the request of House Republican leadership. Devine also spoke about the future of the WPEA, stating that the bill is expected to be reintroduced shortly in the Senate. One of On The Media’s listeners also detailed her experience trying to get her senator to give a statement regarding the secret hold.

GAP wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to all of our supporters who participated in this campaign. Because of your efforts, whistleblower rights for all federal employees are closer to becoming a reality.

Click here to read GAP’s press release.

Related Article: Newsworks.org