Whistleblower Lawyer & Attorney : National Whistleblower Legal Defense and Education Fund : Whistleblower Protection, Fraud Claims : Washington DC

Bassem Youssef, an FBI Supervisory Special Agent and Middle Eastern counterterrorism expert, is scheduled to testify tomorrow (May 21, 2008) before the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security in the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2141


You may recall from previous posts that SSA Youssef has been the victim of ongoing retaliation from upper-level FBI managers ever since he began reporting serious mismanagement and misconduct in terrorism related investigations. Earlier this year, Mr. Youssef was gagged by the FBI when he was invited to speak before the American Library Association regarding the misuse of NSL letters to obtain phone records without a warrant.


SSA Youssef is expected to give shocking testimony about potentially catastrophic mismanagement the FBI's Middle Eastern counterterrorism programs. I encourage everyone to attend the hearing and show your support for this brave whistleblower. See the National Whistleblower Center press release below for more information.

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FBI WHISTLEBLOWER TO TESTIFY ON MISTAKES
INSIDE COUNTERTERRORISM PROGRAM

Unit Chief to disclose shortfalls in war on terror

WHAT:           FBI Whistleblower and Supervisory Special Agent Bassem Youssef testifying before Congress

WHEN:           Wednesday, May 21, 1:30 p.m. EDT

WHERE:         Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2141

Washington, D.C. -- FBI Counterterrorism Whistleblower Bassem Youssef will testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

During the oversight hearing, titled On The FBI Whistleblowers: Exposing Corruption and Retaliation Inside the Bureau, Supervisory Special Agent Bassem Youssef will for the first time alert Congress and the American people to the grave deficiencies within the FBI's Counterterrorism Division since 9/11.

It is expected that Youssef's testimony will include previously undisclosed information.

Youssef is the Unit Chief of the FBI's Communications Analysis Unit. He is the highest-ranking Arab-American agent in the Counterterrorism Division, and the highest-ranking fluent Arabic speaker. In 1994, he earned the Intelligence Community's prestigious and coveted award, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, awarded by the Director of Central Intelligence. The award was for outstanding accomplishments in a terrorism case involving an al-Qaeda-related investigation.

Youssef has also been instrumental in reporting and rectifying problems with the FBI's National Security Letter program.

For more information about Youssef, please visit the National Whistleblower Center's website at http://www.whistleblowers.org/html/bassem_youssef.html

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David Welch, the first corporate employee to file for protection under the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was in court today. nearly 7 years after filing his first complaint, Mr. Welch is still battling his former employer and attempting to win reinstatement.

An AP reporter covered the hearing in Richmond, VA today -- you can read about it here

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A few weeks ago I posted a story  about a University of Nevada (Reno) professor who was fired after blowing the whistle on animal abuse occuring in campus laboratories. Now a group of demonstrators is protesting the decision, made by UNR president Martin Glick, and demanding that he fully reinstate Dr. Hussein S. Hussein, who is a world renowned animal nutritionist.

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This Monday, May 12, the Democratic Policy Committee is scheduled to hold hearings  to  "examine  the impact  of  American  reconstruction  and  anti-corruption failures on the U.S. mission in Iraq." Several former government employees will be offering testimony.

This hearing is a continuation of the admirable work that this committee has done in shedding light on problems in Iraq. In September 2007, Army Corps whistleblower Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse testified before the committee regarding her opposition to the multi-billion dollar "no bid" contract awarded to Halliburton/KBR in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Detailed information about the May 12, 2008 hearing can be found here.

Here are the links for the September 2007 testimony of Bunnatine Greenhouse and Stephen M. Kohn.

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Many MSM sources (such as the New York Times and CNN)and blogs (like Talk Left) are now reporting that the Office of Special Counsel was raided by the FBI today, along with the home of agency head Scott Bloch. Bloch and his agency are under investigation for obstruction of justice stemming from an ongoing probe in which Bloch and other managers at the OSC -- the agency responsible for investigating federal whistleblower complaints -- are suspected of retaliating against whistleblowers in that agency.


Mr. Bloch has been under investigation since 2005, and today's events are in no doubt related to the fact that he used a private computer service company (Geeks on Call) to erase his personal and office computers during the time of the investigation.

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