March 14, 2006

STATEMENT BY MELVIN A. GOODMAN,

Former CIA ANALYST, NSWBC Member

Whistleblowers are not anonymous sources or “off-the-record” sources for journalists. Whistleblowers are not trying to vent personal grievances or malicious gossip. Whistleblowers in government and private enterprise are trying to correct wrongdoing in their organizations and are calling attention to the lack of communication that exists within their organizations and particularly within the government. The current tension that exists between the executive and legislative branches of government is due in part to the overwhelming silence on the part of public servants who have not reported malfeasance within their respective organizations.

Whistleblowing is particularly important within the intelligence community because of the secrecy of intelligence organizations and the lack of accountability within intelligence agencies. Whistleblowing reminds all of us that public servants have a loyalty to the U.S. Constitution and not merely to their managers or supervisors. Three years ago, Time magazine named three whistleblowers the “person of the year;” one was FBI agent Colleen Rowley who was simply trying to do her job, which could have prevented the terrorist attacks of 9/11. She shared this honor from Time with whistleblowers in the private sector who exposed massive wrongdoing that took place at Enron and WorldCom.

Today we are dealing with a national security system that is essentially broken and would benefit from timely whistleblowing. The NSA is engaging in warrantless eavesdropping of American citizens, which is a violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The CIA has created secret prisons and conducted torture and abuse in them, which is a violation of the Geneva Conventions and American law. The Pentagon is conducting surveillance of American peace and anti-war activists, and is maintaining data bases on American citizens, another violation of U.S. law. The Department of Defense drove Army General Eric Shinseki into retirement for telling a congressional committee that the Pentagon had not adequately planned or staffed for the post-war situation in Iraq that is now in chaos.

The need for protection for whistleblowing is particularly important because of the dysfunctional nature of our congressional oversight process. The oversight process was created in the mid-1970s due to the intelligence abuses that took place at CIA, FBI, and NSA during the Vietnam War. For the first 13 years, the oversight process was successful and bipartisan, and led to some reform of our clandestine and covert policies. Since 1991, however, when former Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH) accused critics of the nomination of Robert M. Gates as CIA director of “McCarthyism,” the Senate and House committees have become increasingly partisan and virtually irrelevant.

Currently we have virtually no oversight of the intelligence community. Senate chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) and House chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) refer to themselves as “advocates” for the intelligence community and refuse to investigate intelligence abuses in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The committees refuse to investigate domestic eavesdropping, torture and abuse in CIA prisons, and the misuse of intelligence to gain congressional authorization and public acceptance of the use of force against Iraq. The committees have also permitted the cover-up of the CIA’s accountability report on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Whistleblowers could help to address these issues, but there is need for some congressional protection for the few brave soles recognizing that the cost of silence has become too high.

We are fortunate that Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ), and Representatives Markey (D-MA) and Maloney (D-NY) want to offer the same protection to government employees that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides for exposure of accounting fraud. They recognize that, if the members of the public service with the greatest integrity and courage are to protect the public, then the government must provide some protection for those willing to step forward.