This Op/Ed was written by Jesselyn Radack, Homeland Security director of the Government Accountability Project. It appeared in several media outlets throughout the country, including: Aurora Sentinel (CO), New Britain Herald News (CT), Litchfield Register Citizen (CT), Burlington Hawk Eye (IA), Bemidji Pioneer (MN), Bristol Press (CT), Aberdeen Daily World (WA), Fall River Herald News (MA), and Huntingdon Daily News (PA).

The Obama administration is proceeding with a Bush administration-devised plan to use the National Security Agency in screening government computer traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T slated to be the test site. This classified pilot program, “Einstein 3,” takes the two worst offenders from Bush’s secret surveillance program and puts them in charge of scrutinizing all Internet traffic going to or from federal government agencies.

Supposedly, Einstein 3 is meant to protect government networks from hackers. But if Einstein 3 is only meant to be an intrusion detection system, then why will it monitor outgoing communications?

This Op-Ed was written by Jesselyn Radack, GAP Homeland Security Director. It has appeared in several news outlets throughout the country, including: Detroit News, Austin American Statesman, Arizona Daily Star, and the Wilmington News Journal (DE).

Cyber security is a real issue, as evidenced by the virus behind July 4 cyber attacks that hobbled government and business websites in the United States and South Korea. It originated from Internet provider addresses in 16 countries and targeted, among others, the White House and the New York Stock Exchange.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration has chosen to combat it in a move that runs counter to its pledge to be transparent. The administration reportedly is proceeding with a Bush-era plan to use the National Security Agency to screen government computer traffic on private-sector networks. AT&T is slated to be the likely test site. This classified pilot program, dubbed "Einstein 3," is developed but not yet rolled out. It takes two offenders from President Bush's contentious secret surveillance program and puts them in charge of scrutinizing all Internet traffic going to or from federal government agencies.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, (Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security) is holding a hearing today entitled: Aviation Safety: FAA’s Role in the Oversight of Air Carriers. Surprisingly, the subcommittee, according to its witness list, has failed to include any FAA whistleblowers to testify. This is indicative of a perpetual problem for the federal government – the continual failure to address the role that whistleblowers can play in safeguarding the flying public.

Last week, the newly formed FAA Whistleblower Alliance – a strong coalition partner of GAP – sent a letter to the Committee highlighting several “likely preventable tragedies” where members of the Alliance made safety disclosures well before the accidents occurred. The letters further details problems with the current structure and status quo of the FAA, along with remedies of how to address the historical lack of FAA oversight and accountability.

Click here to read the letter

GAP has submitted and is posting comments on the President’s scientific integrity policy. On March 9, the White House announced the draft policy and specified that it should include agency by agency whistleblower policies, for which it requested guidance. GAP’s comments analyze seven core recommendations to:

1. Comply with the current Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) and Anti-Gag Statute by eliminating loopholes in its policies that require prior approval to communicate unclassified information that falls into new hybrid secrecy categories such as “Unclassified But Sensitive”
2. Adopt internal whistleblower policies that implement dormant, decade-old recommendations of the Commission on Research Integrity
3. Voluntarily adopt additional free speech protections in pending legislation to strengthen the WPA
4. Exercise visible leadership by agency chiefs to end the environment of fear
5. Eliminate prior restraint for media communications
6. Eliminate authority to make changes in the text of published material without the author’s knowledge and approval, and
7. Train managers to accept scientific freedom and openness as the operating premise for the workplace environments they supervise.

Op-ed written by GAP President Louis Clark

There is a great deal of talk recently about “shovel-ready” projects. These are state, local and federal construction programs that will be the first to spend hundreds of billions of dollars as part of the recently enacted American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), better known as the Stimulus Bill, in the hopes of lifting the economic condition of our nation.

There is a serious problem, however. Other than in the heavily regulated nuclear industry, there are few government contractors in the country with any experience in dealing with whistleblower protection provisions, required of all those receiving stimulus funds.

by GAP Legal Director Tom Devine

Congress wisely included "best practices" whistleblower rights for all employees of contractors, state or local governments receiving the $787 billion stimulus. But it included nothing to protect federal workers in a position to expose stimulus fraud. What happened, and what can be done?

What happened was simple: Key Senate offices objected that the full scope of expanded federal rights only had been subjected to House hearings and not processed through the regular order. There was no time to argue. But the whole law was passed out of "regular" order. The same rules should apply to accountability decisions as to spending.

Written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack.

It's one of the nasty little secrets of Washington that everybody claims to dislike but nobody does anything about. It's called burrowing--the insidious phenomenon of political appointees, who should leave with the outgoing president or be forced to compete for positions to stay, instead frantically converting to career posts at the end of a presidential administration.

In nature, animals burrow into the ground to protect themselves from predators and harsh weather. In the government workplace, people burrow into the bureaucracy to protect themselves from the proper outcome of the democratic process. And that's outrageous.