Obama issues whistleblower directive to security agencies

[ProSense]

Obama issues whistleblower directive to security agencies

By Joe Davidson

President Obama has done what Congress has not — extend whistleblower protections to national security and intelligence employees.

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Angela Canterbury, director of public policy for the Project On Government Oversight , an advocacy group, said “this unprecedented Presidential Policy Directive is leveled at the endemic culture of secrecy in the intelligence community (IC) and the dearth of accountability it fosters. The directive prohibits retaliation for protected disclosures by IC employees; prohibits retaliatory actions related to security clearances and eligibility for access to classified information and directs agencies to create a review process for related reprisal claims; mandates that each intelligence agency create a review process for claims of retaliation consistent with the policies and procedures in the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA); provides significant remedies where retaliation is substantiated, including reinstatement and compensatory damages; and creates a review board of Inspectors General (IGs) where IC whistleblowers can appeal agency decisions.”

But for all it does, the directive “only is a landmark breakthrough in principle,” according to another organization, the Government Accountability Project (GAP).

“Until agencies adopt implementing regulations, no one whose new rights are violated will have any due process to enforce them,” said Tom Devine, GAP’s legal director. “Further, there are only false due process teeth on the horizon,” because, according to GAP, regulations to enforce whistleblower rights will be written by the same agencies that routinely are the defendants in whistleblower retaliation lawsuits.

Both Canterbury and Devine praised Obama’s action, while calling on Congress to do more. “President Obama has kept his promise to national security whistleblowers,” Devine said.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/obama-issues-whistleblower-directive-to-security-agencies/2012/10/10/5e2cbbfe-132d-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_blog.html

GAP Praises President's Action to Protect National Security Whistleblowers

by Dylan Blaylock

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The Directive includes the following major advances in national security whistleblower rights:

1. Extension of Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) free speech rights banning retaliation against intelligence community employees for disclosures within institutional channels, including their supervisors. These are workers at organizations like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Agency (NSA), and intelligence units in nearly all other government agencies.
   
   
2. Extension of WPA free speech rights and protection against retaliation to all federal workers for decisions on access to security clearances.
   
   
3. Extension of anti-retaliation rights to intelligence committee employees for exercise of appeals and grievances.
   
   
4. Requirement that each agency issue consistent due process rights certified by the Director of National Intelligence, in intra-agency appeals of security clearance decisions.
   
   
5. Provision for "make whole" relief for those whose rights are violated, including reinstatement, reassignment and compensatory damages.
   
   
6. Provision of appeal rights to a committee of Inspectors General for review of agency compliance with the Directive.
   
   
7. Requirement for agency regulations within 270 days to implement the new rights.
   
   
8. Requirement of agency programs for outreach, education and counseling on the new rights.
   
   
9. Requirement for Offices of Inspector General to issue dedicated procedures for protection of whistleblowers against retaliation.
   
   
10. Reassurance that everything in the Directive is additive to current employee rights and remedies, not substitutive.

The Directive does not include –

1. Any independent, third party due process to enforce the rights.
   
   
2. Protection for pre-clearance "suitability" decisions on whether an employee can apply for a security clearance, which permits retaliatory firings before clearance actions begin.
   
   
3. Any change in current law to provide protection for disclosures to Congress or the public, even of unclassified information, which currently are unprotected.

Devine put the new reform in perspective: "President Obama has crafted a significant 'anti-leaks' reform, because employees finally have a legally-protected alternative. Whenever they bypass agency channels they lose their rights against harassment. Now that the President has done his share, Congress needs to finish what he started."

http://www.whistleblower.org/blog/42-2012/2297-gap-praises-presidents-action-to-protect-national-security-whistleblowers

[jody]

1. Hope Obama orders Holder to apply this to Vince Cefalu. If not it's just more BS.

"Rift wipes out ATF bureau in Reno" see http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012/09/19/rift-wipes-out-atf-bureau-in-reno/57808256/1

Vince was the whistle blower on Fast and Furious and has just been fired by Holder.

[ProSense]

2. Yeah, it's BS

Everything is.

[jody]

3. Golly I hope you meant that as sarcasm. I need a boost not a reality pill. Seems like politics

is like Charlie the tuna, candidates don't know the difference between "politicians who look good" and "leaders who do good things".

[ProSense]

4. Kick! n/t

[jody]

5. Obama Pursuing Leakers Sends Warning to Whistle-Blowers

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-18/obama-pursuing-leakers-sends-warning-to-whistle-blowers.html

Eric Holder, attorney general under President Barack Obama, has prosecuted more government officials for alleged leaks under the World War I-era Espionage Act than all his predecessors combined, including law-and-order Republicans John Mitchell, Edwin Meese and John Ashcroft.

The indictments of six individuals under that spy law have drawn criticism from those who say the president’s crackdown chills dissent, curtails a free press and betrays Obama’s initial promise to “usher in a new era of open government.”