Katrina documentary in theaters for one-night only

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

Five years after Hurricane Katrina a new feature-length documentary “The Big Uneasy” is taking a look at the true cause of the disaster. Humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer speaks to an Army Corp of Engineers whistleblower who reveals that “some of the same flawed methods responsible for the levee failure during Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the new New Orleans from future peril.” Mr. Shearer has stated that his documentary showcases the negative consequences for those who had the courage to tell the truth. If you would like to take action to support federal employees at the Army Corp of Engineers and other federal agencies charged with protecting us please click here. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The documentary will be shown in theaters across the country for one-night only, Monday, August 30th. Please click here for a list of locations.

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Stephen Kohn to appear on C-Span tomorrow at 8:30 am

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

NWC Executive Director, Stephen M. Kohn, will appear on C-Span’s Washington Journal tomorrow at 8:30 am EST. He will be discussing the stalled Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act showcased in a recent Politico article and other whistleblower issues.  Viewers will have the opportunity to ask questions via phone, email and Twitter.

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Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

FBI whistleblower Jane Turner appeared on Fox Business last night to speak about her experience as a whistleblower. After twenty years as a FBI Special Agent, Jane Turner led efforts to force the FBI to provide protection for child sex crime victims on the North Dakota Indian Reservations.  In retaliation for exposing FBI failures within its child crime program, Turner was removed from her position.  Her whistleblower case is still pending. Turner also learned that FBI agents had stolen “souvenirs” from the 9/11 terrorist attack crime scene.  She was fired after reporting the thefts to the Inspector General  A federal jury vindicated her in a historic 2007 verdict in her Title VII discrimination case.

Ms. Turner explained that you have to be blowing the whistle for the right reasons because it places tremendous stress on you and your family. She recommended finding an attorney who specializes in whistleblower law.  If you are considering blowing the whistle on corruption and would like to consult an attorney the National Whistleblower Center Legal Defense and Education Fund may be able to help you.

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Russia's YouTube Whistleblower

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

Alexei Dymovsky, a Russian police major, fed up with rampant corruption decided to use YouTube to report his grievances. He blew the whistle on his superiors forcing officers to investigate nonexistent crimes and arrest innocent people to improve crime statistics. Shortly after his video was posted Dymovsky was fired and jailed on fraud charges. After six weeks, the charges were dropped after the case became an embarrassment to the government.  Dymovsky's videos have been viewed over 2 million times and have encouraged other Russians to use YouTube to blow the whistle on corruption.

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NWC Advocacy Director Appears on Fox Business

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

I had the pleasure of appearing on Fox Business last week to discuss the historic whistleblower provisions included in the recently passed financial reform bill. The qui tam provisions in the bill provide strong protections and financial rewards for reporting financial fraud. These provisions are designed to encourage private employees to report fraud. The FOIA exemption in the whistleblower provision of the bill is necessary to protect the identity of whistleblowers who step forward. 

 

However, for all the good provisions in the bill, Congress still left out an important piece of the puzzle. They failed to include protection for federal employees. So, the employees at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who are concerned that the agency is not properly investigating a case will still have no protection. We cannot have effective oversight and accountability without both pieces.  Federal employees deserve the same strong whistleblower protections that Congress has repeatedly granted to private employees. The amendments to the Whistleblower Protection Act have been pending in Congress for years and if Congress does not act soon another session will end without the passage of meaningful reform. Congress must immediately pass the House version of the bill, H.R. 1507. You can help by clicking here to send a letter to Congress asking then to pass strong federal employee whistleblower protection.
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Whistleblower "Watchdog" Blurs It's Record

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Stephen Kohn

We are deeply disappointed at the letter from Darshan A. Sheth, Acting Director of Public Affairs for the Office of Special Counsel (letter to the editor, Washington Post on Monday, July 26, 2010). There is bipartisan consensus that the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) is dysfunctional, and instead of suggesting reforms, the OSC responded to this criticism by obfuscating its record. This is a bureaucracy that has failed to protect whistleblowers for the past ten years.

The letter from the OSC fails to mention the most recent statistics it released, which show that during fiscal year 2008 the OSC ignored 95% of whistleblower disclosures without any investigation and obtained zero stays from the Merit Systems Protection Board. Indeed the letter notes that there is an “increase in the number of whistleblower reprisal complaints“ even as the OSC continues to do little or nothing to support the whistleblowers who file these complaints.

The only way for whistleblowers to be truly protected is if this defensive posturing by the OSC ends.  Real reform must occur, and President Obama must appoint a new chief watchdog at the OSC who will protect and champion the whistleblower. 

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Whistleblower sues Bayer over termination

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

According to Reuters, whistleblower, Ralph Fabiano, sued German pharmaceutical manufacturing company, BAYER AG. Fabiano alleges that he was terminated from his position at the company for refusal to alter the results of particular auditing and accounting tests required under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Subsequent to Fabiano’s dogged refusal to falsify data, he was removed from the project and fired shortly thereafter. The plaintiff alleges that his termination was a “breach of contract and breach of good faith and dealing” by BAYER AG defendants, and violates whistleblower provisions as delineated by the SarbAnes-Oxley act.  While, representatives for the company avow that Mr. Fabiano’s claims of misconduct are unsubstantiated, he continues to fight for his rights in U.S. district court, in the Southern District of New York.

*Emily Brundage (a NWC intern) contributed to this posting

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Allegations of Retaliation Against Whistleblowers Surround U.S. Attorney Nominee

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

President Obama recently nominated Robert E. O’Neill to serve as U.S. attorney for Florida’s Middle District, one of the country’s busiest regions. The nomination will be reviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in the coming months and will need to be approved by a vote of the full Senate. However, there are questions regarding his nomination based on O’Neill’s alleged involvement with whistleblower retaliation.

Between 1999 and 2003, O’Neill was former federal prosecutor Jeffrey J. Del Fuoco’s supervisor. Del Fuoco was in charge of investigating a corrupt Manatee County, Florida sheriff, Charles B. “Charlie” Wells, and an elite group of his deputies known as the Delta Squad. Then Assistant U.S. Attorney O’Neill gave Del Fuoco a glowing review, stating he “was able to demonstrate the legitimacy of the investigation and the fact that the corruption was rampant.”

 

The street crime-fighting record of Sheriff Wells was praised, but there were a number of allegations over the years that he mixed public and private business. Sheriff Wells was an advisor to Florida governor Jeb Bush. When George W. Bush appointed a new U.S. attorney, Paul I. Perez, Wells met with Perez to express his “opinion that Mr. Del Fuoco needed to be closely supervised.” According to the St. Petersburg Times “given the history of investigation into the Sheriff’s Office, Perez’s visit put him in a position where it could have appeared he was being influenced by Wells, an expert on legal ethics says.”

In 2002, Del Fuoco was still working on the sheriff’s case, but was spending most of his time investigating corrupt police officers in another city. So, when he discovered a black vehicle watching his home he assumed that it was as a result of that case. However, it was quickly discovered that a Manatee sheriff’s employee had run Del Fuoco’s tag numbers through the Florida Crime Information Center (FCIC) computer in order to get his home address and other personal information. Del Fuoco, concerned for his family, repeated asked Perez for protection, but received nothing for those efforts.

Out of frustration that the DOJ had done nothing to protect his family, Del Fuoco filed a lawsuit against the Sheriff and some of his employees for illegally accessing law enforcement data to retaliate against him for prosecuting Delta Squad members. The lawsuit “ helped poison Del Fuoco’s relations with supervisors, who felt he had acted rashly.” Del Fuoco’s lawsuit also helped spur more allegations involving the Manatee Sheriff’s Office to be reported to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. However, in May 2003, Del Fuoco was transferred from the criminal to civil division, all contemporaneous with filing a lawful complaint of whistleblower retaliation with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC). Del Fuoco considered his demotion to be in retaliation for filing the lawsuit against the politically connected sheriff. In fact, shortly after Del Fuoco was removed from the investigation into Sheriff Wells the investigation of Wells was dropped and the investigators were told that since Wells “swings a big bat,” there “would be no further investigations targeting him.” Del Fuoco resigned his position at the DOJ in August 2005.

Please click here to read a letter dated April 26, 2004 from Attorney Stephen M. Kohn to former Attorney General John Ashcroft detailing the improper and illegal harassment suffered by Mr. Del Fuoco and his family.

The National Whistleblowers Center hopes that the Senate Judiciary Committee conducts a full investigation into whether or not nominee Robert E. O’Neill retaliated against whistleblower Jeffery J. Del Fuoco for having the guts to stand up to a corrupt, politically connected sheriff. If the committee concludes that O’Neill illegally retaliated against a whistleblower, then they should not approve of his nomination.

Related Articles:

“Robert O’Neill nominated for U.S. attorney” St. Petersburg Times, June 9, 2010

“Was Manatee sheriff a target of prosecution or persecution?” St. Petersburg Times, March 29, 2008

“Former Manatee County sheriff merits closer scrutiny” St. Petersburg Times, April 4, 2008

April 26, 2004 letter from Attorney Stephen M. Kohn to former Attorney General John Ashcroft
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New Investigation Finds OSHA Dismisses 80% of Whistleblower Cases

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

Investigative journalist Myron Levin, writing for FairWarning.org, has found that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) dismisses about 80% of its whistleblowers cases. Levin founded FairWarning.org to be an online nonprofit publication covering workplace safety, health, and employer conduct issues. Of the 279 cases brought to OSHA's whistleblower protection office, Department of Labor attorneys filed a mere 32 lawsuits on behalf of employee whistleblowers. OSHA investigators are sometimes frustrated that despite the outstanding merits of a given case, solicitors will only pursue the “slam dunk” cases that are sure to win.

OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program is supposed to protect the right of employees to report workplace violations without retaliation. However, in the past 14 years the program has achieved little, as the assurance of whistleblower protection through the program appears to have fallen far short of a guarantee. Workers on the job just have no assurance that they will be protected if they raise a concern about a danger to health or safety.

As the “legal arm” of the Department of Labor, the Office of the Solicitor General has not given whistleblowers a helpful legal hand. The office has fallen short of compliance with the OSHA law and left employee whistleblowers with “grossly inadequate” protections and nowhere to turn.  Unlike whistleblowers under environmental, transportation and other federal laws, workplace health and safety whistleblowers have no private right of action under federal law. This defect, and others in the OSHA Act, would be fixed by the Protecting Americas Workers Act (PAWA), H.R. 2067, now pending in a House committee. Meryl Grenadier (NWC Fellow) wrote about the House hearing on PAWA in this blog.

The Whistleblower Protection Program has too few OSHA investigators for the volume of complaints and an austere budget with little room for needed equipment and training. As a result, whistleblowers must wait long periods of time before receiving the results of their complaints, which primarily are rejections.

However, attempts are being made to improve OSHA’s whistleblower program. New Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels recently announced that improving whistleblower protections is now a priority. His office launched a whistleblower protection program website, www.whistleblowers.gov. This website lists the OSHA protections of employees from employer retaliation and discrimination, and outlines the steps employees should take to exercise their rights when reporting health and safety violations in the workplace. OSHA’s whistleblower website simplifies the process of reporting misconduct and filing discrimination complaints. Unfortunately, this site does not tell whistleblowers that complaints about retaliation must be filed in writing within thirty (30) days of the employee's first notice of each adverse action.

For Myron Levin's full article please click here.

*Emily Brundage (a NWC intern) contributed to this posting
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Something You Can Do To Help One Soldier This Memorial Day

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Lindsey Williams

You can take a few minutes to send a letter of support on behalf of Lieutenant Colonel Darrel Vandeveld. Lt. Col. Vandeveld is a highly decorated member of the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps  who served in Bosnia, Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan, as both a solder in combat and a prosecutor.  After almost 20 years of courageous service to our country the Army is threatening his ability to retire with honor.  You may be asking yourself why. I know I certainly did.

Lt. Col. Vandeveld served as a prosecutor in the Office of Military Commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from May 2007 to September 2008. He went to bring “to justice detainees who President George Bush had said were ‘the worst of the worst,’” but eventually left Guantanamo because he concluded that he could not “ethically or legally prosecute” the case he was assigned.  Lt. Col. Vandeveld admits that he arrived at Guantanamo as a “true believer” and brushed off stories of detainee abuse as “hyperbole.” One such case was that of young Afghan Mohammed Jawad.  Jawad informed the court that he was a minor and that he had suffered horrible abuse during his detainment.  Lt. Col. Vandeveld accused Jawad of “exaggerating and ridiculed his story as ‘idiotic’” and “railed against Jawad’s military defense attorney” for being a terrorist sympathizer.

The Lt. Col. thought that he was working on a simple case that would produce a quick conviction and prove that the Guantanamo Military Commissions worked.  Little did Lt. Col. Vandeveld know that he was actually opening Pandora’s box.  He discovered many serious issues including: abusive interrogations, evidence withheld from the defense, judicial incompetence, and confessions coerced through torture.  When Lt. Col. Vandeveld brought these issues to his supervisors they were “harshly dismissive” of his concerns and “on some unspoken level, began to question my [his] loyalty, even though my [his] combat experience exceeded both of theirs combined.”  Lt. Col. Vandeveld made the “enormously painful decision to ask to be reassigned” because he could not “in good conscience continue.”

Following his resignation, Lt. Col. Vandeveld was ordered by the military commission judge to testify for the defense in Jawad’s case. He spoke honestly under oath concerning the constitutional violations committed against Jawad including subjecting him to the sleep deprivation regime, known as the “frequent flier program,” which involved moving him to a different cell 112 times over a 14-day period-an average of once every 2 1/2 hours.  In return for his honesty under oath and the public outrage that followed, the military issued him his first ever negative performance evaluation.
 
Lt. Col. Vandeveld was then subpoenaed in 2009 to testify before Congress regarding the Military Commissions Act of 2009, where he again spoke the truth, stating, "the military commission system is broken beyond repair. Even good faith efforts at revision...leave in place provisions that are illegal and unconstitutional."  He also explained to Congress that trying to revise the commission system “place our men and women in uniform at risk of unfair prosecution by other nations abroad, harm the reputation of the United Sates,....[and] undermine the fundamental values of justice and liberty upon which this great country was founded.”  Instead of taking his testimony seriously, the Army chose to retaliate against Lt. Col. Vandeveld for his courageous stand and also to resume the commissions at Guantanamo with minimal revisions.

Fortunately for Jawad, Lt. Col, Vandeveld’s testimony helped lead to the exclusion of his coerced confession and a federal judge granting his habeas corpus petition and releasing him from detention.  However, just 4 months away from 20 years of outstanding service to our nation, Lt. Col. Vandeveld’s career is in jeopardy. On June 1, a military promotions board will meet, ironically, not to honor or promote Lt. Col. Vandeveld for his courage.  The promotion board will more than likely to refer him to a show cause board where he would be forced to justify his continued service in the Army.

We cannot allow the reputation of a distinguished soldier to be destroyed because he defended the constitution that so many of our men and women have died to protect.  Please take a few minutes before you head out to attend a Memorial Day parade or picnic to send a letter in support of Lt. Col. Vandeveld and forward it to your friends and family.  

 
 
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