OMNI
NATIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER’S DAY
NEWSLETTER, JULY 30, 2019.
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace
and Justice
(#1
Oct. 21, 2011; #2 Dec. 12, 2011; #3 January 31, 2012; #4 Sept. 12, 2012; $5,
March 29, 2013; #6, May 22, 2013; #7 June 24, 2013; #8 July 30, 2013; #9 July
30, 2014; #10, July 30, 2019).
NOTE: FOR
EIGHT NUMBERS THIS NEWSLETTER ON WHISTLEBLOWERS WAS PUBLISHED
PERIODICALLY. Beginning with #9 IT IS
STILL PUBLISHED OCCASIONALLY BUT ON (AT
PRESENT the PROPOSED) NATIONAL WHISTLEBLOWER’S DAY, JULY 30. SEE EXPLANATION in #9).
OMNI’s endowed fund at UA’s
Mullins Library for the purchase of books and films on Victims includes books
and films on corporations and on resistance to US Imperialism Abroad and
Repression at Home—including whistleblowers, leakers, and investigative reporters,
true heroes, real valor.
CONTENTS OF #10, July 30,
2019
HELP WHISTLEBLOWERS
Thomas Drake and John Kiriakou—Roots Action
Jeffrey Sterling—Roots Action
Daniel Hale—The Intercept, Truthout
GOOGLE SEARCH
NEWSLETTER #9
TEXTS
You can support whistleblowing
now
Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, RootsAction Education Fund
5-30-16 info@rootsaction.org via uark.onmicrosoft.com
|
|
May 29 (1 day ago)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
NSA
whistleblower Thomas Drake and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou have paid
a steep price for speaking truth about undemocratic
power. Now they need your help!
With vindictive prosecutions, the government wrecked their personal
finances. Please click here to make a tax-deductible
donation now. Half of every dollar will go directly
to Tom and John, while the other half will go to the Whistleblowers
Public Education Campaign that they co-chair.
Below is a special message from Tom Drake about their experiences and
current work.
In a recent conversation with someone who had just seen the documentary
SILENCED, I was once again reminded of the huge cost John Kiriakou and I
have paid (and continue to pay) for speaking truth to power -- both
personally and professionally.
I was also reminded again that the court declared me indigent just after
the Department of Justice indicted me in April 2010, as I almost went
bankrupt.
I really had to effectively start my life over again in 2011 and am now
going on five years doing so.
Taking off the veil of government secrecy has more often than not turned
people like ourselves into truth tellers and whistleblowers.
The government would have you believe that we're turncoats and
traitors. The result has been severe punishment, and more often
than not, criminal charges -- for exposing government
wrongdoing, misconduct, violations of statutes and accords (including the
Nuremberg Principles) as well as criminal conduct.
And yet we were eyewitnesses to the dark side of history -- standing on
that long arc of history -- bending it just a bit more toward justice.
Our government's actions vis-a-vis torture and warrantless wiretapping
were and are wrong. They're immoral, unethical, and, we believe,
illegal. We were compelled to stand up and say so. We're glad we did,
despite the price we've paid.
One of the effects of the government's crackdown on whistleblowers is
that it has frightened would-be whistleblowers from going public.
National security reporters have said publicly that their sources have
dried up since our prosecution. But that hasn't stopped
everybody.
We only know about the government's drone program because of
whistleblowers. And Ed Snowden credited both of us with inspiring him to
go public with his revelations. We're proud of that. And we hope
that still others will come forward and speak truth to power.
Please donate generously
to support us, so we can rescue and restore our rights and freedoms
increasingly held hostage by the government.
Thank you --
Thomas Drake
_______________________________
PS from the RootsAction Education Fund Team:
We hope you can take a minute now to make a tax-deductible
contribution in solidarity with Thomas Drake, John
Kiriakou and the Whistleblowers Public Education Campaign.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Celebrate
the truth tellers: Jeffrey Sterling
RootsAction
Education Fund via uark.onmicrosoft.com
|
5-24-19
|
9:02
AM (47 minutes ago)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"As another Memorial Day
approaches, I find that it, like all holidays, has taken on a different,
more indelible meaning for me; it seems freedom after incarceration
bestows in one a higher level of appreciation of things that may have been
previously taken for granted.”
-- Central Intelligence Agency whistleblower
Jeffrey Sterling
 The
CIA and the U.S. Justice Department tried to destroy the life of Jeffrey
Sterling. Now, after two and a half years in prison, he’s trying to
rebuild it.
Jeffrey readily acknowledged going through channels to blow the whistle
on an ill-conceived and dangerous CIA operation against
Iran involving flawed diagrams for nuclear weaponry. But the government
prosecuted him on charges that he provided classified information to
a New York Times reporter who included it in a book.
The January 2015 trial had a jury that included no African Americans and
was filled with people sympathetic to local Northern Virginia
mega-employers like the Pentagon and CIA. By early summer, Jeffrey was in
prison.
Here at the RootsAction Education Fund, we were proud to work in
solidarity with Jeffrey during his long imprisonment, and we’re now
equally proud to sponsor his work as the coordinator of The Project for
Accountability. You’ll give
him a lift with the project if you make a tax-deductible
donation in support of this exciting new venture.
“To me, Memorial Day has always served as a reminder of those who made
the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives in service to their country,
but I see it a bit differently now,” Jeffrey told us days
ago. “Those brave Americans who have died in active military
service should be honored. However, I am dismayed at how honoring those
who have sacrificed their lives serving our country has become the
exclusive commemoration province for those who have served in the
military.”
Referring to whistleblowers, Jeffrey said: “Serving and sometimes
dying fighting for freedoms within this country is just as worthy of the
admiration and honor so automatically granted to those in uniform. But
those who sacrifice themselves and stand up to power and fight for truth
in this country aren’t rewarded with the same honors so ritualistically
granted to those same heroes who choose to serve in our armed forces.
Instead, they are harassed, vilified and prosecuted as being supposed
enemies to our country.”
Jeffrey knows all too much about harassment, vilification and prosecution
as being a supposed enemy of the United States. A key goal of what the
government did to Jeffrey was to make an example of him -- to crush him
-- as a warning to other would-be whistleblowers.
Instead, the RootsAction Education Fund is glad to be joining in with
Jeffrey’s post-prison work so that he can continue to be an example of
resilience and revival in the face of persecution.
Jeffrey went to prison after prosecution that BBC News called “trial by
metadata.” Now, he says, “I would like to address the need
for accountability of power.”
You can help Jeffrey do that by
supporting his new work.
. . . . . . .
And he adds: “I am also excited to let you know that my book ‘Unwanted Spy -- The
Persecution of an American Whistleblower’ is due to be
released this October. It is a memoir chronicling my journey in America
battling the issue of race and the American dream and ultimately staying
true to myself in the face of working at the CIA and being wrongfully
tried for, convicted, and imprisoned for espionage. I am looking forward
to a fall book tour which will allow me to meet the many of you who have
been in solidarity with me during this journey.”
Jeffrey’s refusal to knuckle under to illegitimate power has come at a
very steep personal cost. That’s the way top CIA officials wanted it. His
enduring capacity to speak truthfully can help strengthen a wide
range of whistleblowers -- past, present and future.
You can help make that happen with a tax-deductible donation of any
amount.
Please do what you can to support Jeffrey’s new work
as coordinator of The Project for Accountability.
Thank you!
Please share on Facebook and Twitter.
--- The RootsAction Education Fund team
Background:
>> BBC News: "Jeffrey Sterling's Trial by Metadata"
>> John Kiriakou: “CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling Placed in
Solitary Confinement”
>> ExposeFacts: Special Coverage of the Jeffrey Sterling Trial
>> Marcy Wheeler,
ExposeFacts: "Sterling
Verdict Another Measure of Declining Government Credibility on
Secrets"
>> Norman Solomon, The
Nation: "CIA Officer
Jeffrey Sterling Sentenced to Prison: The Latest Blow in the Government's
War on Journalism"
>> Reporters Without Borders: "Jeffrey Sterling Latest Victim of the
U.S.' War on Whistleblowers"
>> AFP: "Pardon Sought for Ex-CIA Officer in
Leak Case"
>> Documentary film: "The
Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling"
|
|
|
|
|
DANIEL
HALE
THE
INTERCEPT, EDITOR’S PICKS
The Second Drone Age May 18, 2019
Donald Trump is on track to prosecute more journalistic
sources, using the 1917 Espionage Act, than Barack Obama. On the Intercepted
podcast this week, Jeremy Scahill explored the weaponization of this draconian
law against investigative journalism — and the case of Daniel
Hale, who
faces 50 years in prison for allegedly disclosing classified documents,
including ones about U.S. drone warfare.
The U.S. was the first country to use drones to kill people after 9/11, but
the genie is out of the bottle. As reporter Umar Farooq revealed, Turkey is
among the world’s most prolific users of lethal drones, manufacturing these
aircraft on its own. We are now in the second drone age,
in which killer drones are used by a widening number of states and nonstate
actors.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The recent indictment of former intelligence analyst Daniel
Hale offers a
cautionary tale to all future whistleblowers: You cannot expect privacy in
high-risk situations if you go for digital convenience. Contrary to everything
that Silicon Valley says and sells, there are no "secure" digital
channels, and quick-fix gadgets are no substitute for a disciplined, rigorous
process.
Read the Article →
WHISTLEBLOWER GOOGLE SEARCH
8-2-19
OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of more
than 20 whistleblower statutes protecting
employees from retaliation ...
A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a
person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal,
unethical, or not correct within an organization that is either private or
public.
Watch Full Episodes on CBS All Access. S2 E6 Bunny's
War/Opioid Lollipops. ... Whistleblower takes a thrilling look into the real-life David vs.
Goliath stories of heroic people who put everything on the line in order to
expose illegal and often dangerous wrongdoing when major ...
Safeguard against retaliation. Whistleblowing takes experience and
preparation. Many states provide whistleblower protection laws that can help you with a ...
The leading NGO in the field of whistleblower law. NWC has worked
to protect and incentivize whistleblowers for over 30 years. We provide legal advocacy
tools ...
Apr 5, 2019 - When a whistleblower revealed the Trump administration's decision to overturn
25 security clearance denials, it was the latest in a long and ...
Jan 27, 2019 - Assistance and information from a whistleblower who knows of
possible securities law violations can be among the most powerful weapons
in ...
Top
stories
The CFTC's Whistleblower Program provides monetary incentives to individuals who
report possible violations of the Commodity Exchange Act that lead to
a ...
From exposing multi-million dollar financial scams to dangerous
medical practices, whistleblowers play a crucial role in saving resources and even lives.
Searches
related to whistleblower
Contents July 30, 2014 National Whistleblower Day #9
RootsAction,
Donate to More Ellsberg Billboards
Tomgram: National
Secrecy State
Creates Whistleblowers
Liptak: From Nixon to Obama
Film
War on Whistleblowers, Rev. by Karen
Martin
RootsAction,
Prisoner Whistleblowers
GAP,
Bridging the Gap
Bridging the Gap on NSA
Zizek,
Public Reason and International Network to Protect Whistleblowers
Greenwald
on Maher, Who Elected the Whistleblowers and Leakers?
Tomgram,
Next Whistleblower Battle?
END
WHISTLEBLOWER/LEAKERS DAY NEWSLETTER #10, JULY 30, 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment