National
Security Whistleblowers Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- February 9, 2007
Contact:
Sibel Edmonds, Founder & Director- National Security Whistleblowers
Coalition (NSWBC), sedmonds@nswbc.org
NSWBC to Testify Before the House
Oversight & Government Reform Committee
The Hearing on
Meaningful Legislation to Protect Whistleblowers
WHAT: The House Committee on Oversight
& Government Reform will hold a hearing on the
need for meaningful & enforceable protection for government whistleblowers.
Where: The
House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform,
Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. (Room Number: TBD)
When: 1:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 13, 2007
BACKGROUND:
The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), together with partner
whistleblowers coalitions and supporting organizations, welcome the efforts and
initiations taken up by the House Committee on Oversight & Government
Reform under the leadership of Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) to bring to light
the ineffective and failed existing “protections” for government
whistleblowers.
Recently,
NSWBC led an action campaign to urge the new congress to put in place
comprehensive, meaningful, and enforceable legislation to protect
whistleblowers and enable congressional oversight and accountability (To read
the petition signed by hundreds of whistleblower members and supporting
organizations ‘click
here’).
The petition
specifically urged the congress to provide the following provisions in any
whistleblower protection legislation; the proposed legislation should:
·
Provide
a cause of action for recovery of monetary damages for all employees, including those in intelligence and law
enforcement agencies, federal contractors or subcontractors, and corporate
employees who are retaliated against for reporting national security concerns,
threats to public health and safety, or fraud, waste, mismanagement or
violations of law to their employer, the Government Accountability Office, or
Congress.
·
Provide
the right of jury trial for government whistleblowers, and appeals from whistleblower
decisions in cases at law should be all courts review rather than being limited
to the Federal circuit.
·
Limit
the effect in civil cases of the State Secrets Privilege, dubious
classification of potential evidence, and any other privilege that prevents the
discovery or use of evidence. If the government asserts the State Secrets
Privilege, then the factual matters at issue covered by the privilege should be
resolved in favor of the whistleblower.
If the government asserts the privilege as the basis to dismiss a case,
then judgment should be made for the plaintiff.
·
Criminalize
acts that knowingly initiate, further, facilitate, or cause to be carried out
reprisal against employees seeking to report violations of law or for
contacting or attempting to contact members of Congress.
·
Guarantee
the right of all employees to report, without fear of criminal prosecution or
loss of security clearance, violations of law, policies that endanger national
security, waste, fraud, and abuse to members of Congress.
The
coalition also requested a series of congressional hearings designed to supply
an integrative and comprehensive picture of retaliation against whistleblowers,
the damage done to national security by allowing such retaliation to take
place, the cost to taxpayers for ineffective restraints on the treatment of
whistleblowers, the chilling effects of retaliation on other employees who
might otherwise have been emboldened to come forward, and the costs to
Congress’ duty of oversight for not having yet enacted comprehensive protection
for whistleblowers.
Sibel Edmonds, the Founder & Director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition states:
‘As it stands now, a government employee has to
choose between career and conscience when confronted with agency wrongdoing. We
need to adopt protections for employees that allow them to be secure in their
jobs and encourage them to report waste, fraud, and abuse of power. Many lives,
our national security, and the health of our democracy, may hinge on whether or
not Congress is brave enough to provide meaningful and effective protection for
national security whistleblowers. After three decades of half-hearted
attempts to provide general protection to whistleblowers it is time to do the
job right. Existing “protections” are
more dangerous than no protections at all, since they often beguile people into
believing that they will be safe if they report illegal activity, fraud, abuse,
and dangerous policies. And national
security whistleblowers are excluded from even this illusory protection. The “system of protection” is a catastrophic
failure.
About National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition
National Security
Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC), founded in August 2004, is an independent and
nonpartisan alliance of whistleblowers who have come forward to address our
nation’s security weaknesses; to inform authorities of security vulnerabilities
in our intelligence agencies, at nuclear power plants and weapon facilities, in
airports, and at our nation’s borders and ports; to uncover government waste,
fraud, abuse, and in some cases criminal conduct. The NSWBC is dedicated to aiding national security
whistleblowers through a variety of methods, including advocacy of governmental
and legal reform, educating the public concerning whistleblowing activity,
provision of comfort and fellowship to national security whistleblowers
suffering retaliation and other harms, and working with other public interest
organizations to affect goals defined in the NSWBC mission statement. www.nswbc.org
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