This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos blog.

There are already countless wrinkles to the Times Square attempted bombing case and coming prosecution of accused bomber Faisal Shahzad, and more are certain to emerge. No doubt some officials will ratchet up the "homegrown terrorism" fear-mongering. Others (like Senator Lieberman) will propose offensive limitations on naturalization. And some may call for increased video surveillance (even though the cameras in Times Square aren't what stopped the bombing) or more body-scanners in airports and more "no-fly" lists (even though the "no-fly" list failed miserably at stopping Shahzad from getting through security checkpoints and boarding a flight to Dubai just before his arrest).

One especially disappointing wrinkle is the debate over whether Shahzad should have been read his Miranda warnings. Unfortunately for those lampooning the Obama administration for "giving terrorists rights," reading Miranda rights is totally optional.

Here's a brief refresher: It is not just something fictional cops do on Law & Order. Mirandizing a suspect is a constitutionally-mandated practice required to preserve one of our most fundamental constitutional rights (the privilege against self-incrimination) and is often required to preserve a criminal case against a suspect.

Government Accountability Project Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack posted an extremely popular blog yesterday on her Daily Kos Diary about the recent aggressive behavior by the Obama administration toward reporters and sources.

The administration authorized a subpoena Monday that would require a New York Times journalist to turn over documents and testify about his confidential sources for a chapter of his 2006 book, State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration. Journalists James Risen and a colleague won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 for reporting on the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. That article had been blasted by the Bush administration, which opened an investigation into the sources used by the journalists. But no one was indicted under Bush.

Was the Risen subpoena an aberration? Apparently not. The Obama administration has indicted a NSA source for blowing the whistle on agency mismanagement. In a follow-up blog on Daily Kos. Radack quotes a statement by President Obama on government whistleblowing:

Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled.

The official who was indicted is Thomas A. Drake, a former senior executive for the NSA. As the Washington Post notes, "[Drake] has not been accused of sharing the most sensitive of the NSA's secrets: the means it uses to intercept e-mails and phone calls around the world, or the tools it employs to crack adversaries' codes." Instead, Drake was indicted on charges that he mishandled classified information and tried to obstruct an investigation of his actions. What was the information that he "mishandled?" As Radack writes, the information led to articles in the Baltimore Sun that "exposed technical failings and cost overruns of several agency programs that cost billions of dollars."

This post was written by GAP Homeland Security Director Jesselyn Radack for her Daily Kos blog.

The timing of Bradley Birkenfeld's petition for clemency should be lost on no one. Today is tax day--the day that honest, hardworking Americans file their tax returns.

Bradley Birkenfeld is the whistleblower who exposed the $20 billion offshore illegal tax fraud scheme of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank. The U.S. thanked him by sending him to prison. In other words, the person solely responsible for the recovery of billions of U.S. tax dollars is the same person who has served more time than anyone connected to the UBS scandal.

I urge you to join a sign-on letter to President Obama urging clemency for Mr. Birkenfeld. My organization, the Government Accountability Project, has done so.

Today is tax day, the day that honest hardworking Americans file their tax returns. But on tax day this year a great injustice continues:

Today is also the day that President Obama can fix this injustice by issuing a full presidential pardon or commuting Mr. Birkenfeld's sentence to time-served immediately. Mr. Birkenfeld put tax money back in the hands of every American. We must return the favor and demand the he be released from prison.

The Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency charged with protecting federal employees from retaliation for whistleblowing, has been without a leader for almost 18 months. This issue deserves more media attention, and it’s good that GovExec is recognizing that. Without a director, the agency has been unable to implement major policy changes or program initiatives, or support upcoming whistleblower protection legislation.

Several Government Accountability Project clients have found success with the OSC. Gabe Bruno, former Federal Aviation Administration Manager of the Orlando Flight Standards District Office, blew the whistle on certain failures of the FAA to promote security. The OSC informed Bruno in 2009 that it found his disclosures revealed a “substantial likelihood that serious safety concerns persist in the management and operation of the certification and management programs at FAA.”

Bogdan Dzakovic was a former leader of the FAA’s counter-terrorism unit ‘Red Team’ which, prior to 9/11, tested aviation security in airports around the world. The security systems failed around 75-90 percent of the time, but the FAA censored any written records of the failures, and banned retesting. After the attacks, the Red Team was grounded. Dzakovic filed a formal whistleblower complaint with the OSC, which eventually ruled in favor of his allegations, stating that the FAA executed its civil aviation security mission in a manner that “was a substantial and specific danger to public safety.”

A coalition of civil liberties groups, including GAP, the ACLU, Alliance for Justice, Amnesty International, and five others, are urging all members of Congress to vote against purchasing the Thomson Correction Center in Illinois to house the current prisoners of Guantanamo Bay, in effect prolonging the detainees’ current stay at the long-controversial holding facility. Guantanamo is known for its officers’ use of torture techniques against prisoners, and has come under fire recently for three alleged detainee deaths from torture in 2006 that were, again allegedly, covered up by the military as suicides.

This may seem counterintuitive, as many of the groups (including GAP) have publicly stated that Guantanamo Bay should be closed – but closing the facility at Guantanamo Bay in favor of a facility in Illinois with the same due process and constitutional problems is a band-aid without a cure. The current plan for the Illinois facility could include holding detainees indefinitely without bringing charges. Which, of course, is one of the major problems with Guatanamo Bay. A letter sent by the groups to all members of Congress urged that no action be taken to purchase the prison…

unless Congress, at the same time, also enacts a permanent, statutory ban on using the Thomson prison for indefinitely detaining persons without charge or trial, or for holding persons during military commission trials or for serving sentences imposed by military commissions.

The letter continues:

…we would support using the Thomson facility for holding any detainees now at Guantánamo who may be charged, tried, or sentenced in federal criminal court. However, we strongly oppose transporting the worst of Guantánamo policies – indefinite detention without charge or trial and military commissions – to a prison within the United States itself. If used for one or both of these purposes, the purchase of the Thomson prison could result in institutionalizing and perpetuating policies that should instead end.

The key is the institutionalization of these atrocious and bogus policies, which sets an unacceptable precedent of unfair detention practices taking place on American soil. It should be noted that the organizations believe the Obama administration has taken several excellent measures attempting to rectify the Guantanamo situation since taking office (notably beginning his presidency with a promise to shut down the facility and permitting detainees to receive fair trials in the federal court system).

On his first full day in office, President Obama told federal agencies that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), "which encourages accountability through transparency, is the most prominent expression of a profound national commitment to ensuring an open government." The Justice Department also advised agencies to not withhold information "merely because an exemption [under FOIA] legally applies."

However, despite President Obama's call for greater transparency, the government has increased its use of FOIA exemptions to keep records secret, according to an Associated Press investigation. The investigation found that use of almost every one of FOIA's nine exemptions to withhold information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

Yesterday a story in the Politico newspaper reported that whistleblower and employee free speech protection groups, including GAP, are worried that the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, currently stalled in the Senate, will not adequately protect FBI whistleblowers.

GAP would like to take this opportunity to expand on what was reported in the story, to provide a clearer picture and set the record straight.

First, there is no disagreement between the White House and congressional staff, in the House or Senate, that the problem must and will be fixed before final passage of legislation to restore a credible Whistleblower Protection Act. Other serious issues remain disputed, some hotly, but this is not one of them.

Second, in our view, whistleblower supporters who deserve our trust, such as Hawaii Senator Daniel Akaka and President Obama, have not let down whistleblowers or the American public on this issue. While we disagree with them on specific details, they have been public servants in their unqualified commitment to strengthening whistleblower protection. Senator Akaka has, time after time, proven his unqualified commitment to stronger whistleblower rights, illustrated by his quiet personal strength and stamina during this ten-year marathon to restore a viable Whistleblower Protection Act. His efforts are unsurpassed by any other member in Congress. With respect to President Obama, throughout his professional history and now through his White House staff, he has been a hero to whistleblowers. While many of us disagree on the extent of rights for FBI and intelligence agency employees, no President in GAP’s 32-year history has worked as hard to help and support whistleblowers to strengthen their rights. In fact, no other President has come close, and he is the first President to play it straight with us.

“Change we can believe in” and reform do not just happen: These two key offices have been walking the walk, doing the seemingly endless, unglamorous, hard work to earn genuine whistleblower rights for federal workers. Their efforts deserve recognition and credit.