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GovernmentExecutive.com reports that President Barack Obama still has not appointed anyone to lead the Office of Special Counsel (OSC). The article quotes leaders of a federal employee union, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) and former OSC officials who all agree that a new Special Counsel is needed.  OSC investigates reports by federal employee whistleblowers, and can intervene to protect their jobs from retaliation. It has been eighteen (18) months since the former Special Counsel, Scott Bloch, was forced out amidst scandal.  This protracted time without a permanent leader is unprecedented for OSC. "We need a win for whistleblowers," Brian said, "and we have not had one."

One candidate for Special Counsel, Dave Nolan, has asked the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) for an endorsement, and we gave it. He is currently Legal Director of the Federal Ethics Center, and he has endorsed H.R. 1507, the version of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) that would give federal employees a genuine right to jury trials for whistleblower retaliation claims.

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio issued a press release today calling on the University of Akron to retain Professor Matt Williams.  Prof. Williams resigned his adjunct position last October to protest the university's policy of collecting a DNA sample from all job applicants. The practice is illegal under the newly enacted Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). The university rehired Prof. Williams to teach this semester, but has now rescinded that contract on grounds that his prior resignation makes him unreliable. It is hard to see how this is anything other than firing him for blowing the whistle.

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WikiLeaks.org has released an 18 minute video that shows United States armed forces in Iraq attacking a group that included two journalists from Reuters. The journalists, and about ten other civilians, were fatally injured in the 2007 attack.

National Public Radio (NPR) this morning reports (although not in its on-line article) that the video came from a whistleblower. A number of circumstances point to whistleblowing as a source for this video.  The video was classified and encrypted. So, whoever released this video is likely to have had a security clearance. Also WikiLeaks.org has posted a decrypted version of the video. This indicates either that the source had access to the decryption methods or that the government's encryption is vulnerable.

WikiLeaks.org is a volunteer organization that has vetted and released anonymous submissions since 2007. Its initial focus was to expose corruption by authoritarian regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, the Middle East and Africa. In 2008, a federal judge in California ordered that it be shut down after it exposed illegal activities by the Cayman Islands branch of a Swiss bank. Last December, WikiLeaks.org suspended availability of past leaks due to a funding shortage. The site is now widely distributed and mirrored to stymie censorship.

Today's video release exemplifies the role whistleblowers can play in revealing how national security laws are used to cover up mistakes or misconduct by military and other government officials. The public debate and historical record benefit from this whistleblower leak. The release is also a test of how technology can facilitate whistleblowing by persons with security clearances.

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