Government Accountability Project

Protecting Corporate, Government & International Whistleblowers since 1977

Secrecy & Transparency

"Secret" Drone Killings of Civilians & the Selective Leaks Defending Drones

on February 08, 2012

Courtesy of Fotopedia user jamesdale10I wrote last week about the absurdity of the Obama administration's position on the supposedly-secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strikes that Obama defended publicly at a town hall meeting. Despite Obama's claims that the drone strikes are "very precise, precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates," the Washington Post reports today on a recent strike:

U.S. drone-fired missiles hit a house in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region near the Afghan border Wednesday, killing nine people, Pakistani intelligence officials said. . . .

This strike follows one in November:

Pakistan kicked the U.S. out of a base used by American drones last year in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops at two Afghan border posts on Nov. 26.

We also know that drones have killed at least three Americans – Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, his companion Samir Khan, and al-Awlaki's 16 year-old son.

If the most recent strike had killed only suspected terrorists, certainly the Obama administration would be publicizing it the way it did when Obama touted the al-Awlaki assassination as a "tribute to our intelligence community."

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South Koreans Form Group to Support U.S. Whistleblower Indicted Under the Espionage Act

on February 07, 2012

A group of Korean scholars recently launched a campaign to support and vindicate a Korean-American who was indicted by the U.S. government on an espionage charge while he served as a North Korea expert for the U.S. State Department.

That Korean-American is Stephen Kim, a former State Department arms expert, and next on deck in the Obama administration's unprecedented persecution (err, prosecution) of so-called "leakers," who are usually whistleblowers.

Undeterred by its extravagantly ungraceful belly-flop in the case of former NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, the Justice Department is pursuing the Kim case with equally misguided over-zealousness. Kim, like Drake, is being charged under the heavy-handed Espionage Act, which is meant to go after spies, not public servants. His "crime" caused no harm to the United States and did not benefit a foreign nation (elements of the Espionage Act.)

Citizens of South Korea appear more transparency friendly than their government, and attuned to the free speech implications of silencing dissent. No surprise in light of South Korea government's indicting an activist just last week:

South Korean prosecutors indicted a social media and freedom of speech activist this week for reposting messages from the North Korean government's Twitter account.

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Obama Administration: Leaks Are OK When It's Obama Defending Controversial Drone Program

on February 01, 2012

Courtesy of Fotopedia user jamesdale10The Obama administration recently continued its campaign against so-called "leakers," who are more often than not whistleblowers, with the indictment of a record-breaking sixth person under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information.

Obama's abhorrence for "leaks" apparently only applies to disclosures that expose embarrassing or negative aspects of the administration. At an online town hall - sponsored by adjust-your-privacy-expectations-downward Google – Obama defended the CIA's supposedly covert drone program:

“I want to make sure that people understand that drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties,” Obama replied. “For the most part, they have been very precise, precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates.”

The perception that “we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly,” Obama said, is incorrect. “This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists, who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases and so on.”

“I think that we have to be judicious in how we use drones,” Obama added.

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The Danger of Labeling Whistleblowers "Spies"

on January 10, 2012

Iran sentenced American citizen Amir Mirzael Hekmati to death for alleged spying.

The U.S. is justifiably outraged:

U.S. officials said the charges were false and politically motivated, describing them as the latest in a series of provocations by Iran’s clerical rulers.

“We strongly condemn this verdict,” said Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for the State Department.

We should feel similar outrage when our own government accuses people who exposed fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement and illegality of being spies. The Obama administration has brought a record number of prosecutions against so-called "leakers" - who are more often than not whistleblowers – using the antiquated Espionage Act, a law meant to go after spies.

Iran's unjustifiable death sentence should warn against slapping a whistleblower with the toxic label "spy." The injustice for Hekmati is also a stark warning against the dangerous combination of secret courts, government overreach, and questionable prosecutorial conduct, a combination that permeates the current spate of Espionage Act prosecutions.  

The Obama administration's Espionage Act prosecutions for alleged mishandling of classified information number more than all past presidents combine, and include - as The New York Times pointed out – one target from each of the State Department (Stephen Kim), the Defense Department (Bradley Manning), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (Shamai Leibowitz), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (Jeffery Sterling), and National Security Agency (NSA) (Thomas Drake).  

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FBI Used Outreach to Spy on Muslim Communities

on December 02, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) obtained documents using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that reveal that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is using co-called "community outreach" programs to spy and target Muslim Americans. The documents show that:  

The FBI has been illegally using its community outreach programs to secretly collect and store information about activities protected by the First Amendment for intelligence purposes. . .

The FBI's blanket denial that the outreach is used as a cover for surveillance is far from credible considering WaPo's article today:  

. . . the files also depict agents as recording Social Security numbers and other identifying information of people after they meet, and, in at least one instance, noting their political views. It appears that the agents are conducting follow-up investigations in some instances, but heavy redactions in the documents make it impossible to determine how far any examination might have gone.

Conducting surveillance based on First Amendment-protected activities under the auspices of "community outreach" is not only a colossal waste of law enforcement time, it is a tear in the fabric of our democracy. The FBI needs a wake-up call about the First Amendment: The First Amendment protects ideas and speech - even abhorrent ideas and speech. The dangerous misconception that any one idea or religion creates violence invites racial profiling, discrimination, and hate while doing nothing for our safety.

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