Senators Demand Investigation Of Intelligence Community's Refusal To Implement Whistleblower Protections

from the incentives-unperverse;-rejected dept

When the Snowden leaks dropped, plenty of people rushed to criticize his actions, saying he should have brought his concerns to officials via the proper channels. Always assumed to be mostly worthless, the intervening four years have proven nothing shoots messengers faster than the "proper channels." Despite periodic legislative attempts to institute better whistleblower protections, working within the system rarely produces positive changes. It does, however, subject the whistleblower to plenty of retaliation.

This sad fact is personified by Dan Meyer -- the former official whistleblower channel for the Intelligence Community. Meyer blew the whistle himself, pointing out wrongdoing by top IC officials. Now, he's being forced out of office, clearing the path for the IC's attempt to rebrand whistleblowers as "insider threats." Meyer is facing an ad hoc Star Chamber of IC Inspector Generals, all of them apparently gunning for his swift removal.

Meyer, who for the past four years has served as executive director of Intelligence Community Whistleblowing and Source Protection, has come under fire amidst a move to reduce his role in educating employees at the 17 intelligence agencies about their rights and obligations in reporting alleged waste, fraud and abuse.

A special executive review board composed of an unusual grouping of IGs from other agencies has been hearing from witnesses concerning management’s decision not to certify Meyer after his probationary period as program manager. That decision could result in his firing. Meyer has many years of experience working with whistleblowers in Defense Department agencies.

Meyer's whistleblowing concerned IC agencies' apparent refusal to shield whistleblowers from retaliation. The irony likely isn't lost on Meyer, but leaving the government with all the irony you can carry isn't much of a severance package. Meanwhile, officials accused of retaliation are jockeying for top spots in the new administration.

The nominee for CIA inspector general, Christopher Sharpley, has several outstanding retaliation complaints against him that could delay his confirmation. Sharpley is mired in ongoing reprisal cases from at least two former CIA Office of Inspector General employees, Jonathan Kaplan and Andrew Bakaj.

The inspector general at the Defense Intelligence Agency, Kristi Waschull, is plagued by retaliation complaints by former employees who argue she is too deferential to her former colleagues and friends in management at the agency, and that she has softened internal reports and neutered the agency, as FP reported.

Meanwhile, George Ellard, the NSA inspector general who was placed on administrative leave after he was found by a panel of other IGs in 2016 to have retaliated against a whistleblower, got his job back in the new administration.

Whatever whistleblower protections have been erected over the past several years are being methodically stripped away, even as the Intelligence Community talks a good game about "rigorous oversight" and "unprecedented transparency." This isn't sitting well with a few legislators, including longtime advocates of whistleblowers.

Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine) of the Intelligence Committee, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, penned a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Dec. 7 demanding that the oversight agency conduct a far-reaching review.

[...]

“The Inspectors General within the Intelligence Community have the responsibility to oversee the protection of whistleblowers, ensure that whistleblower protection policies and processes are properly adhered to, and guarantee that claims made by whistleblowers are investigated in a timely and fair manner,” the senators wrote in a letter exclusively obtained by Foreign Policy.

It's going to be a mess of acronyms if everything goes to plan. The Government Accountability Office will audit the whistleblower protection efforts of the NSA, NRO (National Reconnaissance Office), CIA, and the IC Inspector General. That's a lot of secretive entities with zero desire to share their internal behavior with outsiders. But given the long history of whistleblower retaliation in these agencies, there's no way they can be trusted to investigate themselves.

In the meantime, one of the best whistleblower outlets in the Intelligence Community is being kicked out of the inner circle, if not out of the government entirely. Replacing him won't be a priority for the IC, which has harbored several enemies of whistleblowers for several years. As this administration continues to root out leakers, the situation is only going to get worse.

Filed Under: congress, dan meyer, intelligence community, whistleblower protections, whistleblowers

Intelligence Community Apparently Wants More Snowdens, Continues Ouster Of Official Whistleblower Channel

from the need-more-unauthorized-whistleblowing dept

The Intelligence Community -- sixteen government agencies engaged in intelligence work under the ODNI's direction -- doesn't have much in the way of effective oversight. It's also not fond of whistleblowers, despite several legislative efforts to force the IC to play nice with those who report wrongdoing. Because of this, it's been repeatedly rocked by leaks. That's the sort of thing that happens when someone clamps down on the official whistleblowing routes: the pressure has to escape somewhere.

Things will get worse in the IC, especially for whistleblowers, before it gets any better… or if it gets any better. A few months ago, the IC began ousting its in-house oversight. Dan Meyers, the Inspector General for the IC, is slowly and steadily being stripped of his power. Not only is Meyers barred from communicating with whistleblowers, but he's forbidden from briefing Congress or IC agencies about his office's tasks. He's also been stripped of his staff.

Things have gone from bad to worse, Jenna McLaughlin reports:

The chairman of the the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding to know why an employee in charge of whistleblower outreach was removed from his workplace “pending a tribunal.”

“I just learned that Dan Meyer, the Executive Director of Intelligence Community Whistleblowing and Source Protection, was placed on administrative leave and escorted out of his offices pending a tribunal before senior executives to consider his proposed termination,” wrote Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, in a letter sent November 29 to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Wayne Stone, the acting director of Office of the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community.

No one's saying why Meyer is being booted from the IG's office, but it appears to be related to the Trump administration's war on leakers. There's no room in the current administration for whistleblowing, and that's going to be a problem going forward. Removing lifeboats won't prevent a ship from being sunk.

Some inside the intelligence community remain concerned that sidelining Meyer, who helps employees field complaints legally, could inadvertently lead to the next major leaker, like former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Meyer is out as Inspector General and no replacement has been picked to head the IC's internal oversight. Senator Grassley, who's generally been good on whistleblower issues, seems to feel Meyer's ouster is retaliatory -- that his office is viewed as a threat to the government for encouraging whistleblowers to come forward with evidence of misconduct or malfeasance.

Grassley argued it is important that Meyer be protected from retaliation for managing his whistleblower protection program, and demanded any records and documents relating to his case.

“For the agency to take such a drastic personnel action while there is no confirmed, permanent Inspector General in place irreparably undermines the independence of that office,” he wrote.

The lack of a successor is concerning. It shows the agencies involved in the ouster aren't interested in any form of oversight, much less honoring laws protecting whistleblowers. IC employees with concerns will have no official outlet to bring their complaints and concerns to. This leaves only unofficial routes, which certainly can't be the administration's intention. Agencies with the power to violate rights en masse via unauthorized or misused surveillance can't be left to sort out their own internal issues.

Filed Under: dan coats, dan meyer, inspector general, intelligence communicate, odni, official channels, whistleblowers