Burrowing and Purging at Sunset
David Swanson reports in AfterDowningStreet.org that the Bush administration has accelerated efforts to purge federal departments of whistleblowers before the inauguration of President-Elect Obama. The story follows on the heels of a Washington Post report about the "borrowing" of political appointees into civil service positions to protect their jobs after the change of administrations.
His article is available at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/stopthepurge
Swanson spoke with Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo who called what's happening a "silent coup d'etat." The Bush administration, she said, is "embedding their foot soldiers inside the government in order to sabotage any Obama initiatives while at the same time terminating federal employees who they assume would be supportive of the new administration." Dr. Coleman-Adebayo won a jury verdict against the Environmental Protection Agency for discrimination, and inspired the No-FEAR Act. Now the EPA has proposed to remove her from federal employment. More about her story is available at: http://johnsonmustgo.org/marsha
Other purges are in the Departments of Commerce, Labor and Transportation, according to Swanson. Hopefully, Obama's transition team will review these purges with an eye toward fulfilling candidate Obama's pledge to protect federal whistleblowers. Click here to see Obama's survey responses to the National Whistleblower Center.
Click here to see why Obama's hardest promise will be protecting whistleblowers.
