Transcript of a July 8th Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio (WNJC 1360 AM) interview with Whistleblower advocate Tom Devine, discussing the unhappy situation whistleblowers are now in, thanks to a decision by a Bush appointee holdover Obama failed to replace.
Rob: For the second half of
our show, we're with Tom Devine. Tom, what's your title?-
Tom: I serve as the Legal Director
of the Government Accountability Project. We're a non-profit, non-partisan
public interest law firm. Our commission is to help whistleblowers.
With that term, it's in the eye of the beholder""one person's hero
can be another person's traitor. In our case, we help individuals
who use free speech rights to challenge the abuses of power that betray
the public trust.-
Rob: You've got a couple
urgent messages that you want to get across. You've told me there
are a lot of people in power who Bush appointed that are still in power
and are actively engaged in trying to prevent the transparent government
that Obama campaigned on.-
Tom: All the whistleblower
agencies are either rudderless or have Bush holdovers who've spent
their entire careers fighting the transparent, open government values
that Obama ran on. This is a hopeless contradiction""he's keeping
in office the enemy who is fighting a relentless rear-guard action against
everything that we elected Obama to change. This really needs to stop""he
needs to get people who believe in his policies to run the offices that
implement them.-
Rob: So what are these offices
that you're talking about?-
Tom: One is the whistleblower
protection agency""the Office of Special Counsel. They haven't had
a leader since the inauguration and are just completely adrift and afraid
to take a stand against retaliation until a new leader arrives. Then
there's the Merit Systems Protection Board where whistleblowers get
their only day in court. It's a bureaucratic, bush-leage court. The
board is run by a Bush holdover who, in a legacy ruling a few weeks
ago, pretty much killed the Whistleblower Protection Act for all practical
purposes, and there's no excuse that this person is still in office
wielding power.-
Rob: Can you speak a little
bit more about this agency?-
Tom: The MSPB is the successor
to old Civil Service Commission. It's the only place where whistleblowerss
can get a day in court when they're retaliated against in violation
of their free speech rights. It's a very poor excuse for the court
and kind of the lowest common denominator of our legal system. It gives
you a bush-league hearing as a substitute for a real day in court where
a jury of citizens can decide if your rights were violated.-
Rob: And what about this judicial
decision that was devastating for whistleblower protection rights?-
Tom: Unfortunately it wasn't
even a judicial decision""it came from this same minor-league substitute
for courts""the Merit Systems Protection Board. And yes, it finished
off the Whistleblower Protection Act until Congress acts. What happened
was a federal air marshal a few years after 9/11 stopped the Dept of
Homeland Security from a disastrous mistake. The air marshal service
had run out of money b/c frankly they'd blown it on pork-barrel spending
w/ the old-boys network. So in order to make up this money, they decided
to cancel cross-country air marshal coverage during the middle of a
hijacker alert. So one of the air marshals got the order and protested
internally and was told to get lost. So he went public with it, Congress
jumped on it, and it spread by wildfire. So the bureaucracy blinked
and said, "Oh, we didn't mean to do that. It was a clerical mistake."
You would think that the air marshal would get some sort of commendation
for correcting the mistake. But no. After he stopped this fiasco, TSA
(Transportation Security Administration) issued gag regulations that
you can't disclose anything called "sensitive security information,"
which is basically anything that the bureaucracy wants to keep secret.
There are virtually no standards other than that it "undermines air
security." All they have to do is have an opinion; they don't even
have to be right. You can be prosecuted for revealing this SSI. The
problem is, Rob, it doesn't have to be marked. You don't even know
it was secret. The only way you can know whether you are crossing the
line is by asking for advanced permission""the opposite of protection
of free speech.-
Rob: Sounds Orwellian.-
Tom: Oh, it is. It's the
worst nightmare of ending free speech in this country, and it's being
done in a back door fashion through these unmarked protect yourself
from- TSA think will undermine air security. After Robert Maclean,
the air marshal, blew the whistle, TSA issued regulations creating these
new SSI. Several years later, they applied them retroactively to fire
Mr. Maclean. They told him that he had exposed SSI, even though it wasn't
labeled sensitive at the time. Three weeks ago, at an MSPB hearing,
they told Maclean that agencies have the power/authority to cancel the
WPA through internal secrecy regulations. That means that the whole
law is basically guidance for a voluntary honor system by any government
bureaucracy.-
Rob: So the MSPB made this
determination""who did?-
Tom: A guy named Neal McFee,
the holdover chairman of the MSPB who was appointed by Bush. Currently,
there are only Republicans on the board, even though it's supposed
to be a bipartisan board.-
Rob: So the new administration
flat-out didn't do their job?-
Tom: Well, they have a lot
to do, but yes, this needs to be protected. In the meantime, the WPA
is a bad joke""it's a fraud.-
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).