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

 As you know, Congress is about to vote on a bailout bill for the financial
 sector. Whether you support this bill or not, we ask that you immediately  call your Senators and demand that strong whistleblower protections be  included in the bill because if we had meaningful whistleblower protection  we probably wouldn't be in the mess we are in today!!!
 
 Just call 202-224-3121 and ask for each of you Senator's offices. Tell them
 that there can be no meaningful accountability in the bailout bill without
 strong whistleblower protections. If you are going to call it has to be done
 today and right away!!!

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In an unprecedented show of solidarity and hunger for reform, public interest groups from across the political spectrum are urging Congress to pass whistleblower reforms this term. With the Congressional session winding down, and Congress readying a bill to provide massive corporations with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, getting the whistleblower legislation passed has never been more urgent.

The following press release was issued yesterday by a coalition of good government groups including the National Whistleblowers Center and the Government Accountability Project. It includes links to three sign-on letters, representing over 200 organizations and millions of Americans, to Congressional leaders detailing the urgent need for whistleblower protections.
 

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The National Whistleblower issued this action alert yesterday demanding that Congress amend the banking "bailout" bill to include the whistleblower provisions included in H.R. 985. The alert, written by NWC advocacy director Lindsey Williams, rightly points out that in order to ensure that this taxpayer funded multi-billion dollar lifesaver isn't subjected to fraud, waste or abuse, the bill should include strong whistleblower protections.

Further, Congress has stalled long enough in passing the Whistleblower Protection Act amendments (hr.985) and this is the perfect opportunity to add them, as an amendment, to a bill that is sure to pass.

Click here to take action on this issue.

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In 2002, Congress passed a sweeping corporate reform bill known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). This legislation was a direct result of the crimes committed by publicly traded companies such as Enron and Worldcom. In drafting the bill, lawmakers wisely recognized that SOX would be meaningless without the "teeth" of a strong whistleblower protection provision. And when President Bush signed the bill, it was hailed as a great day for corporate reform, and for corporate whistleblowers. 

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This Wednesday, September 24th, American University in Washington, DC will be holding a symposium entitled "A Question of Conscience." The event will focus on issues surrounding national security whistleblowers, and specifically the case of Katherine Gun, a former British Secret Service agent who blew the whistle on illegal US/UK espionage activities aimed at selling the Iraq war to the rest of the world. At the event, Ms. Gun will tell her story, along with Martin Bright, the newspaper editor who made the decision to publish her allegations. Also making presentations will be Marcia and Thomas Mitchell, who analyzed Ms. Gun's case in their book The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War, and the well-known Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.  

I urge all whistleblower supporters in the DC area to attend this event at 8:10pm on Wednesday. For more information, click here to view the brochure.

UPDATE: Katherine Gun, Marcia Mitchell and Thomas Mitchell were interviewed today on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show.
NPR's website has more information, including a recording of the interview available here.  

For more information, call 202-885-2408.

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A U.S. District Judge in Michigan has ruled that Detroit Free Press reporter David Ashenfelter must testify in a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino against his old boss, the DOJ. Ashenfelter has been refusing to testify in depositions regarding confidential DOJ sources who provided him with disparaging information regarding Convertino, which Ashenfelter then published in the Detroit Free Press newspaper. Convertino believes that the DOJ sources violated the Privacy Act when they released confidential information to Ashenfelter, and Convertino filed a motion to compel testimony from the journalist; that motion has been granted.

Ashenfelter claimed that his confidential sources should be protected by Michigan's journalist "shield law," but U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland did not agree. Cleland's decision strikes a delicate balance between the First Amendment rights of journalists and the need to protect whistleblowers.
 

Click here to read the full press release from the National Whistleblower Center. 

Click here to read the order handed down by U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland

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US Army Corps of Engineers whistleblower Bunny Greenhouse is featured in a chapter of the new book, Your America: Democracy's Local Heroes. The book by John Siceloff and Jason Maloney arises from episodes of the PBS series "NOW" with David Brancaccio.

The book is available online for $24.95 plus shipping and handling from Powell's Books at: http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780230605336-0 
 

Bunny Greenhouse blew the whistle on the Army's contracting abuses in giving no-bid contracts to Halliburton to manage Iraq's oil after the invasion. Here, Bunny presents a copy of the book to her attorney, Michael D. Kohn:
 

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On September 8^th,  181 public interest organizations, including the National Whistleblower Center, sent a letter to Congress urging  it to pass much needed amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act  (WPA). The crucial amendments would grant employees the right to jury trials, protect scientists who report fraud in federal research, protect whistleblowers in the FBI and other intelligence agency, and extend coverage to Transportation Security Officers (airport screeners).   The House and Senate have both passed versions of the WPA (H.R. 985 and S. 274).  However, the House version is a much more comprehensive reform of the WPA and includes many of the revisions that we deem essential to the protection of whistleblowers.   We are asking Congress to act quickly to reconcile these bills before the end of this session.

Click here to read the letter. 

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Many of our readers (and certainly those who attended Whistleblower Week in Washington 2008) may have heard about the case of Dr. Gil Mileikowsky. Dr. Mileikowsky is a California Obstetrician who, in 2000, began blowing the whistle on some very disturbing issues at a hospital that was operated by Tenet Healthcare. Among other things, Dr. Mileikowsky, who has been practicing in the US since 1979, reported negligence by his coworkers and a lack of willingness by the hospital to investigate medical errors. Because of these reports, he suffered unrelenting retaliation, and has been stripped of his clinical priveleges. (for more information on Dr. Mileikowsky, see his homepage and the Alliance for Patient Safety website, which details his struggle).

Dr. Mileikowsky has filed suit against HCA and Tenet Healthcare, and the case is currently being appealed in the Supreme Court of California. 20 Public Interest Groups, including the National Whistleblower Center, have signed on to an Amicus Curaie brief in support of this brave physician.

Click Here to read the brief.

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