“True patriotism hates injustice in its own land,
more than anywhere else� – Clarence Darrow
CONTENTS / Definition
p. 6-7
Chelsea Manning Leaks
p. 8-15 p. 11-15
Julian Assange Wikileaks
p. 16-22 p. 20-22
Edward Snowden Prism
p. 23-27 p. 25-27
The Chronicles
28-125
1970 - 1979 1980 - 1989 1990 - 1999 2000 - Present day
p. 28-39 p. 40-57 p. 58-77 p. 78-125
* Chronicles chapter Colour coded for decade quick search
A whistleblower IS
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A whistleblower is a person working within an organization who reports misconduct. He or she may be a current or past employee, and the misconduct may be ongoing at the time of the report or may have taken place in the past. In most cases, the misconduct reported by the whistleblower violates a law and threatens the public in one way or another, though any form of misconduct may be reported. There are two types of whistleblower: internal and external. An internal whistleblower reports the misconduct to another person working within the place of business, such as another employee or a superior. An external whistleblower, however, reports the misconduct to an outside agency, such as the media, a lawyer, law enforcement, or special protective agencies. In many countries, the whistleblower is protected by law. The United Kingdom, for example, passed the Public Interest Disclosure Act in 1998. This act protects employees from being fired when reporting malpractice or other forms of misconduct. The United States also has laws in place to protect whistleblowers, though the specific protection depends on the state in which the report takes place as well as the type of misconduct reported.
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Chelsea MANNING
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B o r n :
1 7. 1 2 . 1 9 8 7
Nationality:
American
Organization:
United States Army
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after releasing the largest set of classified documents ever leaked to the public. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years confinement with the possibility of parole in eight years, and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army From early life through much of Army life, Manning was known as Bradley, and was diagnosed with gender identity disorder while in the Army. Manning is a trans woman and in a statement the day after sentencing said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea, and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy. Assigned in 2009 to an Army unit in Iraq as an intelligence analyst, Manning had access to classified databases. In early 2010 she leaked classified information to WikiLeaks and confided this to Adrian Lamo, an online acquaintance. Lamo informed Army Counterintelligence, and Manning was arrested in May that same year. The material included videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike, and the 2009 Granai airstrike in Afghanistan; 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables; and 500,000 Army reports that came to be known as the Iraq War logs and Afghan War logs. Much of the material was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners between April and November 2010.
9
Sentencing Manning was ultimately charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy, which was the most serious charge and could have resulted in a death sentence. She was held at the Marine Corps Brig, Quantico in Virginia, from July 2010 to April 2011 under Prevention of Injury status—which entailed de facto solitary confinement and other restrictions that caused domestic and international concern—before being transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where she could interact with other detainees. She pleaded guilty in February 2013 to 10 of the charges. The trial on the remaining charges began on June 3, 2013, and on July 30 she was convicted of 17 of the original charges and amended versions of four others, but was acquitted of aiding the enemy. She will serve her sentence at the maximum-security U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth. Reaction to Manning’s disclosures, arrest, and sentence was mixed. Denver Nicks, one of her biographers, writes that the leaked material, particularly the diplomatic cables, was widely seen as a catalyst for the Arab Spring that began in December 2010, and that Manning was viewed as both a 21st-century Tiananmen Square Tank Man and an embittered traitor. Reporters Without Borders condemned the length of the sentence, saying how vulnerable whistleblowers are.
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LEAKS
C
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WikiLeaks named the Baghdad airstrike video “Collateral Murder,� and Assange released it on April 5, 2010, during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The video showed an American helicopter firing on a group of men in Baghdad, one of them a journalist, and two other Reuters employees carrying cameras that the pilots mistook for anti-tank grenade launchers (RPG-7). The helicopter also fired on a van that had stopped to help the injured members of
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the first group; two children in the van were wounded and their father was killed. The Washington Post wrote that it was this video, viewed by millions, that put WikiLeaks on the map. According to Nicks, Manning emailed a superior officer after the video aired and tried to persuade her that it was the same version as the one stored on SIPRNet. Nicks writes that it seemed as though Manning wanted to be caught.
13
Reykjavik13 On February 18, 2010, WikiLeaks posted the first of the material from Manning, the diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavík, a document now known as Reykjavik13. On March 15 WikiLeaks posted a 32-page report written in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Defense about WikiLeaks itself, and on March 29 it posted U.S. State Department profiles of politicians in Iceland.
Afghan War logs, Iraq War logs WikiLeaks and three media partners—The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel—began publishing the 91,731 documents that became known as the Afghan War logs on July 25, 2010. This was followed on October 22, 2010, by 391,832 classified military reports covering the period January 2004 to December 2009; these became known as the Iraq War logs. Nicks writes that the publication of the former was a watershed moment, the “beginning of the information age exploding upon itself.”
Granai Airstrike Manning said she gave WikiLeaks a video, in late March 2010, of the Granai airstrike in Afghanistan. The airstrike occurred on May 4, 2009, in the village of Granai, Afghanistan, killing 86 to 147 Afghan civilians. The video was never published; Julian Assange said in March 2013 that Daniel Domscheit-Berg had taken it with him when he left WikiLeaks, and had apparently destroyed it.
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julian assange B o r n :
16
0 3 . 0 7. 1 9 7 1
Nationality:
A u s t ra l i a n
Organization:
Wikileaks
Julian Paul Assange is an Australian editor, activist, publisher and journalist. He is known as the editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks, which publishes submissions of secret information, news leaks and classified media from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers. Assange was a hacker as a teenager, then a computer programmer before becoming known for his work with WikiLeaks, initially started in 2006 and making public appearances around the world speaking about freedom of the press, censorship, and investigative journalism. WikiLeaks became internationally well known in 2010 when it began to publish U.S. military and diplomatic documents with assistance from its partners in the news media. Chelsea Manning (then Bradley Manning) has since pled guilty to supplying the cables to WikiLeaks. U.S. Air Force documents reportedly state that military personnel who make contact with WikiLeaks or “WikiLeaks supporters” are at risk of being charged with “communicating with the enemy”, and the United States Department of Justice reportedly has considered prosecuting Assange for several offenses. During the trial of Manning, military prosecutors presented evidence that they claim reveals that Manning and Assange collaborated to steal and publish U.S. military and diplomatic documents. Since November 2010, Assange has been subject to a European Arrest Warrant in response to a Swedish police request for questioning in relation to a sexual assault investigation. In June 2012, following final dismissal by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom of his appeal against enforcement of the European Arrest Warrant, Assange has failed to surrender to his bail, and has been treated by the UK authorities as having absconded. Since 19 June 2012, he has been inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has since been granted diplomatic asylum. The British government intends to extradite Assange to Sweden under that arrest warrant once he leaves the embassy, which Assange says may result in his subsequent extradition to the United States to face charges over the diplomatic cables case.
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WikiLeaks was founded in 2006. That year, Assange wrote two essays setting out the philosophy behind WikiLeaks: “To radically shift regime behaviour we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not. In his blog he wrote, “the more secretive or unjust an organization is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie.... Since unjust systems, by their nature, induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance. Assange is the most prominent media spokesman on WikiLeaks’ behalf. In June 2010, he was listed alongside several others as a member of the WikiLeaks advisory board. While newspapers have described him as a “director” or “founder of WikiLeaks, Assange has said, “I don’t call myself a founder”; he does describe himself as the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, and he has stated that he has the final decision in the process of vetting documents submitted to the site. Assange says that WikiLeaks has released more classified documents than the rest of the world press combined: “That’s not something I say as a way of saying how successful we are – rather, that shows you the parlous state of the rest of the media. How is it that a team of five people has managed to release to the public more suppressed information, at that level, than the rest of the world press combined? It’s disgraceful. WikiLeaks has been involved in the publication of material documenting extrajudicial killings in Kenya, a report of toxic waste dumping on the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, Church of Scientology manuals, Guantanamo Bay detention camp procedures, the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike video, and material involving large banks such as Kaupthing and Julius Baer among other documents.
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19
Wikileaks
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WikiLeaks is an international, online, non-profit organisation which publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media from anonymous sources. Its website, initiated in 2006 in Iceland by the organization Sunshine Press, claimed a database of more than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder, editor-in-chief, and director. Kristinn Hrafnsson, Joseph Farrell, and Sarah Harrison are the only other publicly known and acknowledged associates of Julian Assange Hrafnsson is also a member of Sunshine Press Productions along with Assange, Ingi Ragnar Ingason, and Gavin MacFadyen. The group has released a number of significant documents which have become front-page news items. Releases included documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings in the Afghanistan war and corruption in Kenya. In April 2010, WikiLeaks published gunsight footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed by an AH64 Apache helicopter, known as the Collateral Murder video. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available to the public. In October 2010, the group released a set of almost 400,000 documents called the “Iraq War Logs” in coordination with major commercial media organisations. This allowed the mapping of 109,032 deaths in “significant” attacks by insurgents in Iraq that had been reported to Multi-National Force – Iraq, including about 15,000 that had not been previously published. During April 2011, WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files relating to prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
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In November 2010, WikiLeaks collaborated with major global media organisations to release U.S. State department diplomatic “cables” in redacted format. On 1 September 2011, it became public that an encrypted version of WikiLeaks’ huge archive of unredacted U.S. State Department cables had been available via BitTorrent for months and that the decryption key (similar to a password) was available to those who knew where to find it. WikiLeaks blamed the breach on its former publication partner, the UK newspaper The Guardian, and that newspaper’s journalist David Leigh, who revealed the key in a book published in February 2011; The Guardian argued that WikiLeaks was to blame since they gave the impression that the decryption key was temporary (something not possible for a file decryption key). The German periodical Der Spiegel reported a more complex story involving errors on both sides. The incident resulted in expressed fears that the information released could endanger innocent lives.
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EDWARD SNOWDEN B o r n : 0 3 . 0 7. 1 9 7 1
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
National Security Agency
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Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is an American computer specialist, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee, and former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor who disclosed up to 200,000 classified documents to the press. Details released from the cache have revolved primarily around the NSA mass surveillance program, and to a lesser extent, its counterparts such as the British, Israeli, Canadian, Australian and Norwegian secret service agencies. Snowden’s release of NSA material was called the most significant leak in U.S. history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg. A series of exposés was published in June 2013 revealing Internet surveillance programs such as PRISM, XKeyscore and Tempora, as well as the interception of US and European telephone metadata. The reports were based on disclosures Snowden leaked to The Guardian and The Washington Post while employed by NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. By November 2013, the Guardian had published 1 percent of the documents, with “the worst yet to come”. A subject of controversy, Snowden has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a traitor, and a patriot. According to Snowden, his “sole motive” for leaking the documents was “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.” The disclosures have fueled debates over mass surveillance, government secrecy, and the balance between national security and information privacy. Snowden is considered a fugitive by American authorities who have charged him with espionage and theft of government property.He is currently living in Russia under temporary asylum.
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PRISM is a clandestine mass electronic surveillance data mining program known to have been operated by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) since 2007. PRISM is a government code name for a data-collection effort known officially by the SIGAD US-984XN. The Prism program collects stored Internet communications based on demands made to Internet companies such as Google Inc. under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any data that match court-approved search terms. The NSA can use these Prism requests to target communications that were encrypted when they traveled across the Internet backbone, to focus on stored data that telecommunication filtering systems discarded earlier, and to get data that is easier to handle, among other things. PRISM began in 2007 in the wake of the passage of the Protect America Act under the Bush Administration. The program is operated under the supervision of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court, or FISC) pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Its existence was leaked six years later by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who warned that the extent of mass data collection was far greater than the public knew and included what he characterized as “dangerous” and “criminal” activities. The disclosures were published by The Guardian and The Washington Post on June 6, 2013. Subsequent documents have demonstrated a financial arrangement between NSA’s Special Source Operations division (SSO) and PRISM partners in the millions of dollars. Documents indicate that PRISM is “the number one source of raw intelligence used for NSA analytic reports”, and it accounts for 91% of the NSA’s Internet traffic acquired under FISA section 702 authority.” The leaked information came to light one day after the revelation that the FISA Court had been ordering a subsidiary of telecommunications company Verizon Communications to turn over to the NSA logs tracking all of its customers’ telephone calls on an ongoing daily basis. U.S. government officials have disputed some aspects of the Guardian and Washington Post stories and have defended the program by asserting it cannot be used on domestic targets without a warrant, that it has helped to prevent acts of terrorism, and that it receives independent oversight from the federal government’s executive, judicial and legislative branches. On June 19, 2013, U.S. President Barack Obama, during a visit to Germany, stated that the NSA’s data gathering practices constitute “a circumscribed, narrow system directed at us being able to protect our people.”
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– ZXX (The NSA-proof font)
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“Edward Snowden has been careful with his info, doling it out to responsible news organizations — T h e P o s t , T h e N e w Yo r k Ti m e s , th e G u a rd i a n , e tc . — not tossing it up in the a i r, W i k i L e a k s s t y l e , a n d echoing the silly mantra Information wants to be free.” – Richard Cohen, Washington Post (10/22/2013)
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1970–1979
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*
1971
Frank Serpico / B o r n :
14.04.1936
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
N e w Yo r k P o l i c e Department
Former New York City police officer who reported several of his fellow officers for bribery and related charges in front of the Knapp Commission probing police corruption in the NYPD. Serpico was the first police officer in the history of the NYPD to step forward to report and subsequently testify openly about widespread, systemic corruption payoffs amounting to millions of dollars. The 1973 film Serpico is an account of his story.
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– Serpico, Al Pacino
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1972
W. Mark Felt / B o r n :
1 7. 0 8 . 1 9 1 3
D i e d :
18.12.2008
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Fe d e ra l B u re a u of Investigation
Known only as Deep Throat until 2005, Felt was Associate Director of the FBI, the number-two job in the Bureau, when he leaked information about President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal. The scandal would eventually lead to the resignation of the president, and prison terms for White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and presidential adviser John Ehrlichman.
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1973
Stanley Adams / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Hoffmann-LaRoche
A senior executive at Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffman-LaRoche, Adams supplied evidence to European Economic Community regulators on the company’s price fixing in the international vitamin market. The EEC revealed his name during the resulting investigation and Adams was arrested for industrial espionage by the Swiss government and spent six months in jail. He fought for ten years to clear his name and receive compensation from the EEC.
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N a t i o n a l i t y :
1973
A. Ernest Fitzgerald / American
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States D e p a r t m e n t o f D e f e n s e
U.S. Department of Defense auditor who was fired in 1973 by President Richard M. Nixon for exposing to Congress the tidal wave of cost overruns associated with Lockheed’s C-5A cargo plane. After protracted litigation he was reinstated to the civil service and continued to report cost overruns and military contractor fraud, including discovery in the 1980s that the Air Force was being charged $400 for hammers and $600 for toilet seats. Fitzgerald retired from the Defense Department in 2006.
$600
$400
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– Silkwood, Meryl Streep
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B o r n :
19.02 . 19 4 6
D e a d :
1 3 . 1 1 . 1 9 74
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Kerr-McGee
1974
Karen Silkwood /
There have been a number of nuclear power whistleblowers who have identified safety concerns at nuclear power plants. The first prominent nuclear power whistleblower was Karen Silkwood, who worked as a chemical technician at a Kerr-McGee nuclear plant. Silkwood became an activist in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union in order to protest health and safety issues. In 1974, she testified to the United States Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns. The 1983 film Silkwood is an account of this story where Martha Stewart plays the role of Karen Silkwood.
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1973
Minor, Hubard, Bridenbaugh / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
G e n e ra l E l e c t r i c
Nuclear power whistleblowers. On February 2, 1976, (Gregory C. Minor, Richard B. Hubbard, and Dale G. Bridenbaugh (known as the GE Three) “blew the whistle” on safety problems at nuclear power plants, and their action has been called “an exemplary instance of whistleblowing”. The three engineers gained the attention of journalists and their disclosures about the threats of nuclear power had a significant impact. They timed their statements to coincide with their resignations from responsible positions in General Electric’s nuclear energy division, and later established themselves as consultants on the nuclear power industry for state governments, federal agencies, and overseas governments. The consulting firm they formed, MHB Technical Associates, was technical advisor for the movie, The China Syndrome. The three engineers participated in Congressional hearings which their disclosures precipitated
38
B o r n :
03.05.1943
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
C e n t r a l I n t e l l i g e n c e Agency
1973
Frank Snepp /
CIA analyst at the US Embassy, Saigon who published Decent Interval in 1977 about Operation Frequent Wind and the failures of the CIA and other American entities to properly prepare for the Fall of Saigon. Although he redacted all names, methods, and sources from the book, after it was published, CIA Director Stansfield Turner had Snepp successfully prosecuted for breach of contract for violating his non-disclosure agreement. Snepp lost all income, including royalties, from publication of the book, a verdict upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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“ We s a y i n t h i s n a t i o n t h a t w e are looking for people with h o n e s t y, i n t e g r i t y, d r i v e a n d dedication, and then when we find such people, we take them out and whip them.”
– anonymous whistleblower
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1980–1989
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1984
Clive Ponting / B o r n :
04.1946
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United Kingdom Ministry of Defence
Senior civil servant in the UK Ministry of Defence who leaked classified documents to Labour Member of Parliament Tam Dalyell confirming that the General Belgrano was sunk by British forces during the Falklands War while outside the total exclusion zone, contradicting statements by the Thatcher Government.
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43
– B1 Lancer
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O r g a n i z a t i o n :
1984
John Michael Gravitt / G e n e ra l E l e c t r i c
Became the first individual in 40 years to file a qui tam lawsuit under the False Claims Act after the statute had been weakened in 1943. Gravitt, a machinist foreman, sued GE for defrauding the United States Department of Defense when GE began falsely billing for work on the B1 Lancer bomber. Gravitt was laid off following his complaints to supervisors about the discrepancies. The case of Gravitt v. General Electric and Gravitt’s deposition to Congress led to federal legislation bolstering the False Claims Act in 1986. The amended Act made it easier for whistleblowers to collect damages. Gravitt’s suit proceeded under the 1986 amendments and GE settled the case for a then record $3.5 million.
45
1984
Duncan Edmonds / N a t i o n a l i t y :
Canadian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Canadian Government
Canadian civil servant who reported to his chief, the top Canadian civil servant, that Minister of Defence Robert Coates had visited a West German strip club while on an official mission, with NATO documents in his possession, creating a security risk. Coates was asked to resign from Cabinet by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who also fired Edmonds and made him persona non grata in government circles.
46
N a t i o n a l i t y :
English
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
MI5
1985
Cathy Massiter /
Former MI5 officer who accused the British security service of having over-zealously interpreted which groups qualified as subversive, thus justifying surveillance against them. Massiter revealed that MI5 had spied on trade unions, civil liberty organisations and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
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1985
Ronald J. Goldstein / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
EBASCO Constructors Inc.
Nuclear power whistleblower Goldstein was a supervisor employed by EBASCO, which was a major contractor for the construction of Houston Lighting and Power Company’s South Texas Project (a complex of two nuclear power plants). In the summer of 1985, Goldstein identified safety problems to SAFETEAM, an internal compliance program established by EBASCO and Houston Lighting, including noncompliance with safety procedures, the failure to issue safety compliance reports, and quality control violations affecting the safety of the plant. SAFETEAM was promoted as an independent safe haven for employees to voice their safety concerns. The two companies did not inform their employees that they did not believe complaints reported to SAFETEAM had any legal protection. After he filed his report to SAFETEAM, Goldstein was fired. Subsequently, Golstein filed suit under federal nuclear whistleblower statutes. The U.S. Department of Labor ruled that his submissions to SAFETEAM were protected and his dismissal was invalid, a finding upheld by Labor Secretary Lynn Martin. The ruling was appealed and overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that private programs offered no protection to whistleblowers. After Goldstein lost his case, Congress amended the federal nuclear whistleblower law to provide protection reports made to internal systems and prevent retaliation against whistleblowers.
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B o r n :
14. 10. 19 5 4
N a t i o n a l i t y :
I s ra e l i
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
I s ra e l i n u cl e a r we a p o n s p ro g ra m
1986
Mordechai Vanunu /
Revealed Israel’s clandestine nuclear program to the British press. He spent seventeen and a half years in prison as a result, the first eleven of these in solitary confinement. After his release, sanctions were placed on him: among others, he was not allowed to leave Israel or speak to foreigners. The sanctions have been renewed every twelve months. At present, he is appealing a further six-month prison sentence imposed by an Israeli court for having spoken to foreigners and foreign press.
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1988
Peter Wright / B o r n :
0 9.08 . 19 16
D i e d :
2 7. 0 3 . 1 9 9 5
N a t i o n a l i t y :
English
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
MI5
Former science officer of MI5 who claimed in his book, Spycatcher, that the UK Security Service plotted to remove Prime Minister Harold Wilson from office and the Director General of MI5w was a Soviet spy. After its publication in Australia, which the Thatcher government tried to block, the government attempted to ban the book in Britain under the Official Secrets Act. Through litigation, it succeeded in imposing a gag order on English newspapers to prevent them from publishing Wright’s allegations. The gag orders were upheld by the Law Lords.Eventually, in 1988, the book was cleared for legitimate sale when the Law Lords acknowledged that overseas publication meant it contained no secrets. However, Wright was barred from receiving royalties from the sale of the book in the United Kingdom. In November 1991, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the British government had breached the European Convention of Human Rights in gagging its own newspapers. The British Government’s legal cost were estimated at £250,000 in 1987.
50
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
1988
Roland Gibeault / G e n i s c o Te c h n o l o g y
Gibeault filed a qui tam lawsuit against defense subcontractor Genisco Technology Corp. after working undercover for 18 months with the FBI and DCIS to uncover the company’s fraudulent test methods which were being used to pass key components off on the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) missile. The FBI and DCIS case resulted in a plea-bargained $725,000 fine and three Genisco executives being sent to federal prison Gibeault, who was fired from Genisco following revelation of whistleblowing, received $131,250 of the fine. In 1989, Gibeault and fellow employee Inge Maudal also filed qui tam actions against Genisco’s parent company, Texas Instruments.
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1988
Douglas D. Keeth / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
U n i t e d Te c h n o l o g i e s C o r p o ra t i o n
Filed a qui tam lawsuit against United Technologies Corp. (UTX) where he held the title vice president of finance. Mr. Keeth and others had investigated billing practices at UTX’s Sikorsky Aircraft division, uncovering inflated progress billings going back at least as far as 1982. w if he would keep quiet, but Keeth rejected the offer. In 1994, UTX paid $150 million to the government and Keeth was awarded a bounty of $22.5 million.
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U T X o f f e r e d M r. K e e t h a
$1 million - Keith rejected -
UTX paid $150 million to the government and Keeth was awarded a bounty of
$22.5 million.
53
1989
William Schumer / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
H u g h e s A i rc ra f t
Filed a lawsuit January 1989 alleging fraud by Hughes Aircraft with respect to the B-2 bomber. In 1997 the Supreme Court held that the claim should have been dismissed as based on invalid retroactive legislation because the alleged fraud occurred in 1982-1984, before the 1986 amendments to the Fraudulent Claims Act which might have permitted it. The government did not support Schumer in his lawsuit as it had determined the alleged fraud had actually benefited the government by shifting costs from the cost-plus B-2 contract to the fixed-price F-15 contract.
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55
F-15
1989
Myron Mehlman / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Mobil
A toxicologist who warned managers at Mobil that the company’s gasoline that was being sold in Japan contained benzene in excess of 5 percent, and that levels needed to be reduced. Upon his return to the United States, he was fired. He later successfully sued the company.
NE
ZE
N BE
56
B o r n :
04.01.1949
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Nuclear Energy Services
1989
Arnold Gundersen /
Nuclear power whistleblower Arnold Gundersen discovered radioactive material in an accounting safe at Nuclear Energy Services (NES) in Danbury, Connecticut, the consulting firm where he held a $120,000-a-year job as senior vice president. Three weeks after he notified the company president of what he believed to be radiation safety violations, Gundersen was fired. According to The New York Times, for three years, Gundersen “was awakened by harassing phone calls in the middle of the night” and he “became concerned about his family’s safety”. Gundersen believes he was blacklisted, harassed and fired for doing what he thought was right. NES foled a $1.5 million defamation lawsuit against him that was settled out-of-court. A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission report concluded that there had been irregularities at NES, and the Office of the Inspector General reported that the NRC had violated its own regulations by sending business to NES.
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“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
– Albert Einstein
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1990–1999
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1992
Mark Whitacre / B o r n :
01.05.1957
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Archer Daniels Midland
PhD scientist and former Divisional President with Archer Daniels Midland, who worked with the FBI as a secret informant, to blow the whistle on price-fixing cartel in his company. This story is featured in the film ‘The Informant!’.
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– The Informant, Matt Damon
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1994-95
William Sanjour / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States E n v i r o n m e n t a l Protection Agency
Whistleblower at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for over 20 years who also wrote on whistleblower protection issues. He won a landmark lawsuit against the federal government which established the First Amendment rights of federal employees to “blow the whistle� on their employer.
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O r g a n i z a t i o n :
1996
George Galatis / Nuclear power industry
Nuclear power whistleblower George Galatis was a senior nuclear engineer who reported safety problems at the Millstone 1 Nuclear Power Plant, relating to reactor refueling procedures, in 1996. The unsafe procedures meant that spent fuel rod pools at Unit 1 had the potential to boil, possibly releasing radioactive steam. Galatis eventually took his concerns to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to find that they had “known about the unsafe procedures for years”. As a result of going to the NRC, Galatis experienced “subtle forms of harassment, retaliation, and intimidation”. The NRC Office of Inspector General investigated this episode and essentially agreed with Galatis in Case Number 95-771, the report of which tells the whole story. George Galatis was the subject of a Time magazine cover story on March 4, 1996. Millstone 1 was permanently closed in July 1998.
63
1996
Jeffrey Wigand / Born:
Nationality:
1 7. 1 2 . 1 9 4 2
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Brown & Williamson
Jeffrey Wigand had been recently fired from his position as vice president of research and development at tobacco company Brown & Williamson when, on February 4, 1996, he stated on the CBS news program 60 Minutes that the company intentionally manipulated the level of nicotine in cigarette smoke to addict smokers. Wigand claims that he was subsequently harassed and received anonymous death threats. He was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 1999 film The Insider.
64
– T h e I n s i d e r, R u s s e l l C r o w e
65
1996
Allan Cutler / N a t i o n a l i t y :
Canadian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Canadian government
The first whistleblower on the Canadian “AdScam� or sponsorship scandal. Without legal protection, he was fired by the Canadian government. As the case developed, federal legislation was passed to protect future whistleblowers in the Canadian civil service. Several convictions have been recorded to date with the case, with proceedings still in progress.
66
1996
Gary Webb/ B o r n :
31.08.1955
D i e d :
10. 1 2 . 2 0 0 4
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Canadian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
C e n t r a l I n t e l l i g e n c e Agency
Webb’s “Dark Alliance,” a 20,000 word, three-part investigative series alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold and distributed crack cocaine in Los Angeles during the 1980s, and that drug profits were used to fund the CIA-supported Nicaraguan Contras. Webb never asserted that the CIA directly aided drug dealers to raise money for the Contras, but he did document that the CIA was aware of the cocaine transactions and the large shipments of cocaine into the U.S. by the Contra personnel. In 2004, Webb was found dead from two gunshot wounds to the head, which the coroner’s office judged a suicide.
67
1996-98
Nancy Olivieri / N a t i o n a l i t y :
Canadian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Apotex
Starting in 1996, Nancy Olivieri was part of a group conducting a clinical trial in order to evaluate the use of a drug of Apotex, deferiprone, in treating persons with a blood disorder, thalassaemia. During the course of the trial, Olivieri became concerned about evidence that pointed to the toxicity of the study drug and to the drug being inefficacious. Olivieri informed both the research ethics board that was monitoring the study and Apotex, the drug maker. The research etics board instructed Olivieri to inform participants about her concerns. Apotex responded by noting that Olivieri had signed a confidentiality agreement as part of the drug trial and that informing participants about her concerns, the validity of which Apotex disputed, would violate that confidentiality agreement. Apotex threatened to vigorously pursue all legal remedies against her if she disclosed her conclusions to patients. Olivieri disclosed her concerns to her patients and Apotex ended the portion of the study in which she was participating. In 1998, the New England Journal of Medicine published her paper suggesting that deferiprone led to progressive hepatic fibrosis.
68
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
1997
Frederic Whitehurst / Fe d e ra l B u re a u o f Investigation
A chemist at the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation who was the FBI Laboratory’s foremost expert on explosives residue in the 1990s, and became the first modernday FBI whistleblower. He reported a lack of scientific standards and serious flaws in the FBI Lab, including in the first World Trade Center bombing cases and the Oklahoma City bombing case. Whitehurst’s whistleblower disclosures triggered an overhaul of the FBI’s crime lab following a report by the U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General in 1997. Dr. Whitehust filed a federal lawsuit claiming whistleblower retaliation, and he reached a settlement with the FBI worth more than $1.16 million. Whitehurst now directs the FBI Oversight Project of the National Whistleblower Center.
69
1997
David Shayler / B o r n :
24.12.1965
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
MI5
Along with girlfriend Annie Machon, resigned from MI5 to expose alleged criminal acts by the UK Secret Services, including a failed assassination attempt on Muammar Gaddafi. Shayler also accused the Security Services of planting false stories in the press, substantiated in one example by a court.
70
71
1997
Christoph Meili / B o r n :
21.04.1968
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Swiss-American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
UBS
A night guard at a Swiss bank, he discovered that his employer was destroying records of savings by Holocaust victims, which the bank was required to return to heirs of the victims. After the Swiss authorities sought to arrest Meili, he was given political asylum in the United States.
72
N a t i o n a l i t y :
A u s t ra l i a n
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
A u s t ra l i a n G ove r n m e n t
1997
Alan Parkinson /
Alan Parkinson is a mechanical and nuclear engineer who has written the 2007 book, Maralinga: Australia’s Nuclear Waste Cover-up, about the clean-up of the British atomic bomb test site at Maralinga in South Australia. In 1993, Parkinson became the key person on the Maralinga clean-up project, representing the then federal Labor government. By 1997, however, there was much cost-cutting involved which compromised the project, and personal differences about how the project should proceed, which led to the sacking of Parkinson by the new Howard government. The clean-up was totally unsatisfactory according to Parkinson and he exposed the situation through the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, provoking a strong rebuttal and personal abuse from the government.
73
1998
Linda Tripp / B o r n :
24.11.1949
N a t i o n a l i t y : O r g a n i z a t i o n :
American C l i n to n A d m i n i s t ra t i o n
Former White House staff member who disclosed to the Office of Independent Counsel that Monica Lewinsky committed perjury and attempted to suborn perjury, and President Bill Clinton committed misconduct, by denying the Clinton-Lewinsky relationship in the Paula Jones federal civil rights suit. A victim of retaliation by the Clinton Administration, Tripp successfully sued the Department of Defense and the Justice Department for releasing information from her security file and employment file to the news media in violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. In 2003, Tripp settled with the federal government for over $595,000. In addition, she received a retroactive promotion and retroactive pay for the years 1998, 1999, and 2000, a pension and was cleared to work for the federal government again.
74
B o r n :
08 .0 9. 19 3 0
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Hungarian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Rowett Research Institute
1998
ArpAd Pusztai /
Ă rpĂĄd Pusztai is a biochemist and nutritionist, a world expert on plant lectins. In 1998, he publicly announced that the results of his research showed feeding genetically modified potatoes to rats had negative effects on their stomach lining and immune system. This led to Pusztai being suspended and his annual contract was not renewed. The resulting controversy became known as the Pusztai affair.
75
1999
Marlene GarciaEsperat/ B o r n :
29.08 . 19 5 9
D i e d :
24.03.2005
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Pilipino
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Philippines Department of Agriculture
Former analytical chemist for the Philippines Department of Agriculture who became a journalist to expose departmental corruption, and was murdered in 2005. Her assailants later surrendered to police, and have testified that they were hired by officials in the Department of Agriculture.
76
B o r n :
24.0 9. 19 6 0
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States Air Force
1999
Karen Kwiatkowski /
Retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force who worked as a desk officer in The Pentagon and in a number of roles in the National Security Agency. She has written a number of essays on corrupting political influences of military intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and has said that she was the anonymous source for Seymour Hersh and Warren Strobel on their exposĂŠs of pre-war intelligence.
77
“ To s e e a w r o n g a n d not to expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” – D r. J o h n R a y m o n d B a k e r
78
2000–Present day
79
2000
Marsha ColemanAdebayo / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States E n v i r o n mental Protection Agency
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo was a Senior Policy Analyst in the Office of the Administrator at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). She blew the whistle on the EPA for racial and gender discrimination in violation of Civil Rights Act of 1964 which began after she was removed from her position in South Africa where her “job was to essentially help the South African government to work on issues that impact public health�. In South Africa she brought to the attention of the EPA the dangerous conditions an American company was exposing African workers to who were mining vanadium, a dangerous substance. Her case eventually led to the passing of the No-FEAR Act in 2002 that makes federal agencies more accountable for employee complaints.
80
Vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the free metal somewhat against further oxidation.
81
2001
Joseph Nacchio / B o r n :
22.6.1949
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Qwest / National Security Agency
Nacchio was chairperson and CEO of Qwest when it refused to participate in NSA spying on its customers in February 2001. Qwest was the only telecommunications company to not require FISA court orders. Nacchio claims that in retaliation, Qwest subsequently was denied government contracts.
82
B o r n :
12.12.1970
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
2001
Jesselyn Radack /
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States D e p a r t m e n t o f J u s t i c e
Radack, a DOJ lawyer, told Newsweek that the DOJ both lied about and destroyed documents regarding John Walker Lindh’s interrogation and his parent’s attempts to get him a lawyer. The DOJ retaliated by pushing her out of the Department, getting her fired from her next job, trying to get her law licence revoked, & other means.
83
2001
Kathryn Bolkovac / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United Nations International Police
Originally hired by the U.S. company DynCorp as part of a $15 million U.N. contract to hire and train police officers for duty in Bosnia. She eventually reported that such officers were paying for prostitutes and participating in sex-trafficking. Many of these were forced to resign under suspicion of illegal activity, but none have been prosecuted, as they also enjoy immunity from prosecution in Bosnia. Bolkovac filed a lawsuit in Great Britain against DynCorp for unfair dismissal due to a protected disclosure (whistleblowing), and on 2 August 2002 the tribunal unanimously found in her favor. Her story is portrayed by actress Rachel Weisz in the 2011 film ‘The Whistleblower’.
84
– T h e W h i s t l e b l o w e r, R a c h e l We i s z
85
2001
Glenn Walp Steven L. Doran / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
University of California L o s A l a m o s N a t i o n a l L a b o ra to r y
Glenn Walp and Steven L. Doran were hired to investigate allegations of fraud at the University of California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. They were fired after they exposed breaches of security as well as fraud and mismanagement to the Department of Energy. Their investigation resulted in congressional hearings. Walpo received a $930,000 settlement from the University of California (UC) for wrongful termination. Doran accepted UC’s offer of a position as security consultant.
86
B o r n :
08.03.1970
N a t i o n a l i t y :
I ra n i a n -A m e r i c a n
Organization:
Fe d e ra l B u re a u o f Investigation
2002
Sibel Edmonds /
Former FBI translator naturalized American citizen of Turkish descent who was fired in 2002 by the FBI for attempting to report coverups of security issues, potential espionage, and incompetence. She has been gagged by the State Secrets Privilege in her efforts to go to court on these issues, including a rejection recently by the Supreme Court of the United States to hear her case without comment. She is now founder of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) that is looking to lobby congress and help other whistleblowers with legal and other forms of assistance.
87
2003
Diane Urquhart/ Born:
0 8 . 0 3 . 1 9 7 0
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Canadian
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Canadian Government
Former senior securities industry executive who revealed to the Canadian House of Commons’s finance committee that Canadian frozen non-bank asset-backed commercial paper caused a loss of $7–$13 billion held primarily by government, corporation pension funds and treasuries.
88
B o r n :
08.03.1970
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
2003
Robert MacLean /
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States Tr a n s p o r t a t i o n S e c u r i t y A d m i n i s t r a t i o n
U.S. Federal Air Marshal who exposed the TSA’s agency-wide plan to remove Federal Air Marshals from nonstop, long distance flights for two months in order to avoid expenditures associated with air marshals lodging in hotels overnight. The plan was formulated in response to a budget shortfall due to overspending. The plan was formulated three days after the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued an Advisory that warned the airline industry and law enforcement of a suicide hijacking plot in which terrorists would exploit U.S. immigration and airport security loopholes. After outrage from U.S. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles Schumer, Barbara Boxer, and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, TSA’s plan was rescinded before becoming operational. MacLean was fired after DHS discovered he disclosed the plan.
89
2003
Richard Convertino / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States D e p a r t m e n t o f Justice
Former federal prosecutor who obtained the first conviction of a defendant in a terrorism case post-9/11. After Convertino testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee in September 2003 about the lack of Bush Administration support of anti-terrorism prosecutions post-9/11, Convertino alleges the Justice Department leaked information and violated a court order to publicly smear him in retaliation for his whistleblowing. Additionally, the Justice Department indicted Convertino for obstruction of justice and lying, which Convertino alleges is further whistleblower retaliation.
90
2003
Satyendra Dubey / B o r n : 2 7. 1 1 . 1 9 7 3
D i e d :
2 7. 1 1 . 2 0 0 3
N a t i o n a l i t y :
Indian
Organization:
India National Highways Authority
Accused his employer NHAI of corruption in highway construction projects in India, in letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. Assassinated on November 27, 2003. Enormous media coverage following his death may lead to Whistleblower Act in India.
91
2004
Julia Davis / B o r n :
2 7. 1 1 . 1 9 7 3
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
U n i te d S ta te s D e p a r t m e n t of Homeland Security
Reported a breach of national security at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on 4 July 2004, related to the admission of 23 improperly-processed subjects from terrorist countries into the U.S. via the land border with Mexico. In retaliation for her report to the FBI (JTTF), Julia Davis endured two malicious prosecutions, two false imprisonments, 54 investigations, years of warrantless surveillance and a Blackhawk helicopter raid of her home by the Department of Homeland Security. Files found within Osama Bin Laden’s compound in 2011 confirmed that 4 July/ Independence Day was in fact a date of planned terrorist attacks on the United States, potentially confirming the validity of Julia Davis’ official reports to the FBI/ JTTF that have been closed with “no action” and without any investigation.
92
93
2004
Craig Murray / B o r n :
1 7. 1 0 . 1 9 5 8
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n : United Kingdom F o r e i g n a n d Commonwealth Office
British Ambassador to Uzbekistan who opposed the Karimov regime’s use of torture and its other violations of human rights, and British Government support for the use of torture.
94
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
Organization:
Nuclear power industry
2004
Gerald W. Brown /
Nuclear power whistleblower Gerald W. Brown was a former firestop contractor and consultant who uncovered the Thermo-lag circuit integrity scandal and silicone foam scandals in U.S. and Canadian nuclear power plants, which led to Congressional proceedings as well as Provincial proceedings in the Canadian Province of Ontario concerning deficiencies in passive fire protection.
95
2004
Peter Rost / N a t i o n a l i t y :
Swedish
Organization:
Pfizer
Former vice president at the pharmaceutical company that reported about accounting irregularities and other irregularities to the US authorities. In response to his whistleblowing he was exiled internally by Pfizer and removed from all responsibilities and decision making. In 2004, he testified in Congress as a private individual in favour of drug reimportation, a position strongly at odds with the official policy of the pharmaceutical industry. In December 2005, Rost was fired from Pfizer. In September 2006 he published his experiences in the book “The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman.�
96
N a t i o n a l i t y :
A u s t ra l i a n
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Queensland Health
2005
Toni Hoffman /
Toni Hoffman is an senior Australian nurse who exposed the medical malpractice of surgeon Jayant Patel. She originally began to raise doubts about the ability of Patel with hospital management and other staff. Both doctors and surgeons who were familiar with his work were also deeply concerned. Patel became the subject of the Morris Inquiry and later the Davies Commission. Eventually the matter was raised in the Queensland Parliament. Hoffman received the 2006 Australian of the Year Local Hero Award and an Order of Australia Medal, for her role as a whistleblower.
97
2005
Russ Tice / B o r n :
1 7. 1 0 . 1 9 5 8
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States
G o v e r n m e n t
Former intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency (NSA), the U.S. Air Force, the Office of Naval Intelligence, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Tice first approached Congress and eventually the media about the warrantless surveillance of the US population by the NSA. Tice was a major source for the 2005 New York Times exposĂŠ and spoke out widely following subsequent disclosures by other NSA whistleblowers. He was the first to speak publicly and openly with allegations during the era beginning with the George W. Bush administration (which continues into the Obama administration). He had earlier been known for reporting suspicions that a DIA colleague of his might be a Chinese spy.
98
B o r n :
22.04.1957
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
National Security
2005-11
Thomas Andrews Drake /
A g e n c y
Thomas Drake worked at the NSA in various analyst and management positions. He blew the whistle on the NSA’s Trailblazer project that he felt was a violation of the Fourth Amendment and other laws and regulations. He contacted The Baltimore Sun which published articles about waste, fraud, and abuse at the NSA, including stories about Trailblazer. In April 2010, Drake was indicted by a grand jury on various charges, including obstructing justice and making false statements. After the May 22, 2011 broadcast of a 60 Minutes episode on the Drake case, the government dropped all of the charges against Drake and agreed not to seek any jail time in return for Drake’s agreement to plead guilty to a misdemeanor of misusing the agency’s computer system. Drake was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.
99
2005-09
Brad Birkenfeld / B o r n :
26.02.1965
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
UBS
An American banker who formerly worked for UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, he was the first person who exposed what has become a multi-billion dollar international tax fraud scandal over Swiss private banking. He provided extensive and voluntary cooperation with the U.S. government, registering as an IRS whistleblower, Birkenfeld is the only U.S. citizen to be sentenced to prison as a result of the scandal.
100
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States Department of Justice
2005
Thomas Tamm /
Attorney for the DOJ’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review who initially informed The New York Times for the story that became a 2005 exposÊ on mass warrantless surveillance. His home was raided in 2007 during FBI investigation of the leaks and he began to openly speak out publicly in 2008.
101
2005
Shawn Carpenter / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Sandia National L a b o ra to r i e s
Discovered that a sophisticated group of hackers were systematically penetrating hundreds of computer networks at major U.S. defense contractors, military installations and government agencies to access sensitive information. After informing his superiors at Sandia, he was directed not to share the information with anyone, because management cared only about Sandia’s computers. He, however, went on to voluntarily work with the U.S. Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to address the problem. When Sandia discovered his actions, they terminated his employment and revoked his security clearance. His story was first reported in the September 5, 2005, issue of Time. On February 13, 2007, a New Mexico State Court awarded him $4.7 million in damages from Sandia Corporation for firing him. The jury found Sandia Corporation’s handling of Mr. Carpenter’s firing was “malicious, willful, reckless, wanton, fraudulent, or in bad faith.”
102
N a t i o n a l i t y :
British
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
HBOS
2005-09
Paul Moore /
Executive at the UK bank HBOS who in 2005 was fired, allegedly after warning his senior colleagues that the company’s sales strategy was at odds with prudent management. In 2009 Moore spoke out about his warnings to the Treasury Select Committee of parliament during its investigation into the turmoil in the UK banking system.
103
2006
Michael J. Nappe / O r g a n i z a t i o n : U n i v e r s i t y o f M e d i c i n e a n d D e n t i s t r y o f New Jersey
Raised issues about the payment of millions of dollars of bills without purchase orders or supporting documentation by UMDNJ in New Jersey. He also exposed an internal billing scheme involving the use of “dummy invoices” to charge internal departments with a markup without their knowledge or approval. Nappe also exposed his subordinate who was running a personal business with the University’s cell phone account. Nappe was also mentioned in a NY Times Best Seller, “The Soprano State, New Jersey’s Culture of Corruption” for his efforts to institute reforms, and the retaliations he endured as a result of being honest and accountable for taxpayer money. To humiliate him, his employer assigned his office to a lunch room and stripped him of his staff. He became known internationally as “The Man in the Lunch Room”. Additionally, the director of UMDNJ’s legal management ordered any department responsible for investigating Nappe’s disclosures to not investigate them and submit them to his office, where they remained inactive. Six months after the University “resolved the issue with Mr. Nappe”, several of Nappe’s allegations were proven to be true.
104
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
2006
Gary J. Aguirre /
Exposed the SEC’s failure to pursue investigation of John Mack in insider trading case involving Pequot Capital Management and Arthur J. Samberg. Aguirre was fired for complaining about special treatment for Mack, which prompted investigations by the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, culminating in a joint report vindicating Aguirre. Through his FOIA request filed to learn more about his wrongful termination, he uncovered the “smoking gun” that forced the SEC to re-open its case against Pequot, leading to a settlement of $28 million in 2009. A month later, the SEC settled Aguirre’s lawsuit for wrongful termination, paying $755,000. Aguirre also won a lawsuit against the SEC filed in District Court.
105
2006
Mark Klein / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
AT & T, N a t i o n a l Security Agency
Retired communications technician for AT&T who revealed the details of the secret 2003 construction of a monitoring facility in Room 641A of 611 Folsom Street in San Francisco, the site of a large SBC phone building, three floors of which are occupied by AT&T. The facility is alleged to be one of several operated by the National Security Agency as part of the warrantless surveillance undertaken by the Bush administration in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
106
2006
Cate Jenkins / O r g a n i z a t i o n : United States E n v i r o n m e n t a l Protection Agency
Wrote memos to the EPA Inspector General, U.S. Congress, and FBI detailing the chemical composition of dust from the September 11 attacks and its hazards to responders. She alerted the The New York Times in 2006 and said in a 2009 CBS interview that the EPA explicitly lied about the danger of the dust which caused chemical burns in the lungs of responders, debilitating illnesses in many that included fatalities, and that it could have been prevented with proper safety equipment. Jenkins claims that the EPA has been misleading about evidence of debris inhalation hazards since the 1980s. She was fired and in 2012 successfully sued to be reinstated, but in 2013 was again terminated.
107
2006
Richard M. Bowen III/ N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Citigroup
Starting in June 2006, Senior Vice President Richard M. Bowen III, the chief underwriter of Citigroup’s Consumer Lending Group, began warning the board of directors about the extreme risks being taken on by the mortgage operation that could potentially result in massive losses. When Bowen first blew the whistle in 2006, 60% of the mortgages were defective. The amount of bad mortgages began increasing throughout 2007 and eventually exceeded 80% of the volume. Many of the mortgages were not only defective, but were fraudulent. Bowen attempted to rouse the board via weekly reports and other communications. On 3 November 2007, Bowen emailed Citigroup Chairman Robert Rubin and the bank’s chief financial officer, chief auditor and the chief risk management officer to again expose the risk and potential losses, and claiming that the group’s internal controls had broken down. He requested an outside investigation of his business unit that eventually confirmed his charges. In retaliation, Citigroup stripped Bowen of most of his responsibilities and informing him that his physical presence was no longer required at the bank.
108
109
2006-13
Adam B. Resnick / B o r n :
10.0 3 . 197 2
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Omnicare
Starting in 2006, Resnick sued the pharmaceutical company Omnicare, a major supplier of drugs to nursing homes, under federal whistleblower law, as well as the parties to the company’s illegal kickback schemes. Omnicare allegedly paid kickbacks to nursing home operators in order to secure business, which constitutes Medicare and Medicaid fraud. In 2010, Omnicare settled a False Claims Act suit filed by Resnick and taken up by the U.S. Department of Justice by paying $19.8 million to the federal government, while the two nursing homes involved in the scheme settled for $14 million. A second whistleblower lawsuit filed against Omnicare it by Resnick and Total Pharmacy Services V.P. Maureen Nehls related to kickbacks that were part of its 2004 acquisition of Total Pharmacy Services was settled for $17.2 million by Omnicare and $5 million by the Total Pharmacy owners.
109
to the federal government
$ 19. 8 m i l l i o n the two nursing homes involved in the scheme settled for
$14 million Pharmacy Services was settled for
$ 1 7. 2 m i l l i o n b y t h e To t a l P h a r m a c y o w n e r s .
$5 million
with a total cash settlement of
$56 million
110
2007
Justin Hopson / N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
New Jersey State Police
During his first few days as a rookie New Jersey State Trooper, Hopson witnessed an unlawful arrest and false report made by his training officer. When he refused to testify in support of the illegal arrest, he was subjected to hazing and harassment by his fellow troopers. He uncovered evidence of a secret society within the State Police known as the Lords of Discipline, whose mission it was to keep fellow troopers in line. Trooper Hopson blew the whistle on the Lords of Discipline, which sparked the largest internal investigation in State Police history. Hopson filed a federal lawsuit alleging that after Hopson refused to support the arrest, he was physically assaulted, received threatening notes, and his car was vandalized while on duty. In 2007, the State of New Jersey agreed to a $400,000 settlement with Hopson.
111
– Lords Of Discipline
112
2007
John Kiriakou / B o r n :
0 9.08 . 19 6 4
N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
C e n t ra l I n te l l i g e n c e Agency
In an interview to ABC News on December 10, CIA officer Kiriakou disclosed that the agency waterboarded detainees and that this constituted torture. He was convicted of releasing classified information and sentenced, on January 25, 2013, to 30 months imprisonment. Having served the first months of his service he wrote an open letter describing the inhuman circumstances at the correction facility.
113
N a t i o n a l i t y :
I s ra e l i
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
I s ra e l i D e fe n s e Fo rc e
2008
Anat Kamm /
Leaked documents to the media that revealed the IDF had been engaging in extrajudicial killings. While serving as an assistant in the Central Command bureau, Kamm secretly copied classified documents that she leaked to the Israeli Haaretz journalist Uri Blau after her military service was over. The leak suggested that the IDF had defied a court ruling against assassinating wanted militants in the West Bank who could potentially be arrested safely. Kamm was convicted of espionage and providing confidential information without authorization.
114
2006
Rudolf Elmer / N a t i o n a l i t y :
Swiss
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Julius Bär
A long-term employee of the Swiss bank whose final position entailed overseeing its Caribbean operations until he was terminated in 2002, Elmer blew the whistle on Julius Bär in 2008 when he gave secret documents to WikiLeaks. The documents detailed Julius Bär’s activities in the Cayman Islands and alleged tax evasion. Convicted in Switzerland in January 2011, he was rearrested immediately for having distributed illegally obtained data to WikiLeaks. Julius Bär alleges that Elmer has doctored evidence to suggest the tax evasion.
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N a t i o n a l i t y :
American
O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States Government
2008-12
Robert J. McCarthy /
Robert J. McCarthy served as Field Solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior and as General Counsel, U.S. Section, International Boundary and Water Commission. The Oklahoma Bar Association honored him in 2008 with its Fern Holland Courageous Lawyer Award for helping to expose the Interior Department’s mismanagement of $3.5 billion in Indian trust resources. In 2009, McCarthy disclosed massive fraud, waste and abuse by the IBWC, that imperiled the health and safety of millions of people on both sides of the U.S.- Mexico border and seriously damaged the border ecosystem. In both cases he was forced from government service, but continued to advocate for the victims of government abuse. In addition, his scholarly publications have revealed the fatal flaws in whistleblower protection laws, as well as the need for radical reform of specific government agencies.
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2006
HervE Falciani / B o r n :
0 9.01 . 197 2
N a t i o n a l i t y :
French-Italian
O r g a n i z a t i o n : H S B C ’s S w i s s s u b s i d i a r y H S B C Private Bank
Since 2009 he has been collaborating with numerous European nations by providing information relating to more than 130,000 suspected tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts - specifically those with accounts in HSBC’s Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank.
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O r g a n i z a t i o n :
2009
Michael Paul / C a l i fo r n i a A d m i n i s t ra t ive Office of the Courts
Former senior technical analyst of the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts publicly disclosed that tens of millions of dollars worth of overpriced construction work was being steered to unlicensed contractors in a bid rigging scheme that involved his employer and public funds. After Mr. Paul went public with his allegations as well as his previous requests to his employer for a qui tam release required under the state’s false claims act, the California Administrative Office of the Courts filed suit to recover a fraction of the monies paid to the unlicensed contractors, demoted Mr. Paul and extended the terms of the underlying contracts, contracts that are deemed void under the California Business & Professions Code. In response, Mr. Paul filed a taxpayer lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court to recover all of the false claims paid and to enjoin the California Administrative Office of the Courts from wasting taxpayer funds. He was promptly fired in violation of the California False Claims Act, the California Whistleblower Protection Act and the California Labor Code.
118
2009
Cathy Harris / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
United States Customs Service
A former United States Customs Service employee who exposed rampant racial profiling against Black travellers while working at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Harris’s book, Flying While Black: A Whistleblower’s Story, she personally observed numerous incidents of Black travellers being stopped, frisked, body-cavity-searched, detained for hours at local hospitals, forced to take laxatives, bowel-monitored and subjected to public and private racist/colorist humiliation. The book also details her allegations of mismanagement, abuses of authority, prohibited personnel practices, waste, fraud, violation of laws, rules and regulations, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, favoritism, workplace violence, racial and sexual harassment, sexism, intimidation, on and off the job stalking, etc., and other illegal acts that occurs daily to federal employees especially female federal employees at U.S. Customs and other federal agencies.
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stopped, frisked, body-cavity-searched, detained for hours at local hospitals, forced to take laxatives, bowel-monitored and subjected to public and private racist/colorist
humiliation
120
2009
John Kopchinski / O r g a n i z a t i o n :
Pfizer
Former Pfizer sales representative and West Point graduatewhose whistleblower lawsuit launched a massive government investigation into Pfizer’s illegal and dangerous marketing of Bextra, a prescription painkiller. Pfizer paid $1.8 billion to the government to settle the case, including a $1.3 billion criminal fine, which was the largest criminal fine ever imposed for any matter. The Bextra settlement was part of a $2.3 billion global settlement – the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history.
Pfizer paid
$1.8 billion to the government to settle the case.
121
N a t i o n a l i t y :
French-Italian
O r g a n i z a t i o n s :
Apple, Microsoft, and Google
2010-11
Samy Kamkar /
Computer hacker who exposed the illicit, global mobile phone tracking of all users, regardless of GPS or Location Services settings, on the Apple iPhone, Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone mobile devices, and their transmission of GPS and Wi-Fi information to their parent companies, which led to a series of class-action lawsuits and a privacy hearing on Capitol Hill.
122
2012
Ted Siska / O r g a n i z a t i o n : Wa r d D i e s e l F i l t e r S y s t e m s , I n c . o f N e w Yo r k
Ward Diesel Filter Systems Inc. has agreed to pay the United States $628,000 to resolve allegations that it knowingly submitted false claims to federal agencies under a contract to provide diesel exhaust filtering systems for fire engines through the General Services Administration’s (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule program, the Justice Department announced on June 26, 2012. The government’s investigation was initiated by a lawsuit, U.S. ex rel. Siska v. Ward Diesel Filter Systems, Inc., filed under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions, which permit private parties to sue for false claims on behalf of the United States and to share in any recovery. The whistleblower, Ted Siska, will receive $94,200 of the settlement.
123
B o r n :
0 9.01 . 1 97 2
N a t i o n a l i t y :
French-Italian
2012
Vijay Pandhare /
O r g a n i z a t i o n : H S B C ’s S w i s s s u b s i d i a r y H S B C Private Bank
Pandhare was a bureaucrat belonging to the Irrigation Department in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He blew the whistle on the Maharashtra Irrigation Scam of 2012 that led to the resignation of Maharashtra Deputy Chief MinisterAjit Pawar.
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bradleymanning.org/