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Joe Davidson of the Washington Post contacted three former national security whistleblowers whose stories of “official revenge are a frightful warning to the CIA staffer. Yet all three would do it again, in service to their country.”

One of them is Jane Turner, a 25-year veteran special agent with the FBI. She led the FBI’s  programs for women and children on North Dakota Indian reservations. After reporting problems within the child crime program, Turner was retaliated against.

From the Post

 She fought back. A 2015 Government Accountability Report critical of FBI whistleblower procedures said the Justice Department “ultimately found in her favor in 2013 — over 10 years later.”

“Was the destruction of my career and family worth the excruciating time and money, ostracism and vilification? No,” she said Wednesday. “Was standing up and doing the ethical, legal and moral whistleblowing the right thing? Yes. Would I do it again? My moral and legal compass would not allow any different course of action.”
Continue Reading National security whistleblowers pay a price for doing the right thing

Public urged to Take Action!

The National Whistleblower Center issued the following action alert today which featured a 2016 speech by then FBI Director James Comey.  The full action alert is reprinted below:

In light of the news of former FBI Director James Comey’s dismissal, the NWC is calling for our government to reaffirm its commitment to protecting whistleblowers from retaliation.
Continue Reading NWC Publishes Former FBI Director Comey’s Speech on Whistleblowers

Today, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) released its End-of-Year Report, filled with whistleblower successes from 2016.  In the past year, the NWC continued its mission to strengthen whistleblower protections and incentives, defend whistleblowers’ rights, and educate people at home and abroad about the power of whistleblowers in combatting fraud and corruption.
Continue Reading NWC Releases End-of-Year Report Boasting Whistleblower Successes of 2016

Sputnik News published an interview today with National Whistleblower Center Executive Director Stephen M. Kohn. In the interview Mr. Kohn discusses the fact that US intelligence agencies are failing to use the skills of Arab-American employees in the War on Terror.

Kohn states in the article “There has been willful and intentional discrimination against…

The following is from guest contributor Jon C. Hopwood.
This article was originally published in 2009 on Yahoo Voice and is reprinted here by permission of the author.

Summary: Donald Eugene Gates, who was convicted of the 1982 rape-murder of a Caucasian college coed, was released on the basis of new DNA evidence.

Donald Eugene Gates, a 58 year-old African American wrongfully convicted in 1982 of the rape-murder of Caucasian college coed Catherine Schilling, was freed by the D.C. Superior Court after a DNA test revealed that he could not be the culprit.

The prosecution of Gates was heavily dependent on the testimony of F.B.I. Crime Lab analyst Michael P. Malone, who testified that two hairs found on Schilling’s body came from an African American male. Schilling, who was a student at Georgetown University, was murdered in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. in 1981.

Gates, who has always maintained that he was innocent of the crime, had been imprisoned for nearly 30 years until ordered release by Senior Judge Fred B. Ugast. Ugast had overseen his trial back in 1982.

In 1988, Ugast had ordered a DNA test of the evidence used to convict Gates, but DNA testing a generation ago was primitive. The more sophisticated DNA testing of the 21st Century proved that Gates was right: He was innocent.

Crime Lab Corruption

Since the Gates trial, former F.B.I. agent Michael Malone has become notorious as an unreliable and unethical expert witness who likely committed perjury in hundreds of trials. Dr. Frederic Whitehurst of the National Whistleblower Center’s Forensic Justice Project first revealed the widespread corruption at the F.B.I. Crime Lab back in 1993, when he, too, was an F.B.I. employee.  
Continue Reading Man Wrongfully Convicted by Perjured FBI Testimony Freed After 28 Years in Prison; Donald Eugene Gates Released on Basis of New DNA Evidence

The following is from guest contributor Jon C. Hopwood.
This article was originally published in 2009 on Yahoo Voice and is reprinted here by permission of the author.

Summary:  The testimony of Special Agent Michael P. Malone was instrumental in convicting Donald Eugene Gates of a rape-murder he did not commit. Gates was exonerated but scores of others convicted with Malone’s testimony are still in jail.

The testimony of Special Agent Michael P. Malone, an employee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Lab, was instrumental in convicting Donald Eugene Gates of a rape-murder he did not commit. After spending 27 years in prison, Gates was exonerated by a federal judge who denounced Malone and excoriated the Federal government for not revealing to him in a timely manner that Malone’s testimony amounted to perjury.

The Washington Post, in its lead editorial on Friday, December 18, 2009, lambasted the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia for failing to report that it knew that Malone’s testimony was bogus. Donald Gates finally achieving justice, but scores of others convicted with Malone’s testimony are still in jail.

“Justice Delayed”

Donald Eugene Gates, a 58 year-old African American wrongfully convicted in 1982 of the rape-murder of Caucasian college coed Catherine Schilling, was exonerated by D.C. Superior Court Senior Judge Fred B. Ugast on December 18, 2009. Ugast, the judge who oversaw Gates’ original trial, had earlier freed him after a DNA test revealed that he could not be the man who killed Schilling.

Due to the improper conduct of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted the Gates case, Schilling’s rapist-killer remains free.

The prosecution of Gates was heavily dependent on the testimony of F.B.I. Crime Lab analyst Michael P. Malone, an F.B.I. agent, who testified that two hairs found on Schilling’s body came from an African American male. Schilling, a Georgetown University student, was murdered in 1981.

The Washington Post, in the lead editorial in its Friday edition that came out before Ugast exonerated Gates, quoted a statement Gates made at the time of his trial, 27 years ago: “I didn’t kill her. I never saw her. I am sorry she died, because her death has ruined my life.” 
Continue Reading Who is Michael P. Malone? Corrupt F.B.I. Agent’s Testimony Sent Innocent Man to Prison; Donald Eugene Gates was Convicted of Rape-Murder He Did Not Commit

The story of FBI whistleblower Theresa Foley is distasteful and sordid – one too often told when speaking of FBI whistleblowers. 

Theresa Foley is no shrinking violet. She came from a law enforcement family and was a DEA support employee before joining the FBI in 2000. In 2003, Theresa volunteered for Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (aka GTMO), Cuba, which contained a military prison where FBI agents participated in the interrogations of detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Theresa was the only full-time female FBI agent. After arriving at GTMO, she was given a rat-infested dwelling, while male agents had cleaner and better housing (many at Navy lodges or base houses). Theresa’s dwelling had previously been a party “hooch,” and food, dirty dishes, and soiled furnishings were everywhere.  There was an overwhelming stench, and rat feces and urine were visible throughout the rooms. The first night Theresa spent at the dwelling was a long one, and she slept poorly. She kept hearing rats running in the ceiling and in the walls and the mattress was full of fleas. Each time she finally fell asleep, she was re-awoken by another rat or fleabite. Continue Reading The FBI is Waiting for Special Agent Theresa Foley to Die

In Washington, there’s an old cliché: The definition of a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. So this recent internal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) video gone viral, one of several internal “changecasts” from Acting ATF director B. Todd Jones, has got to qualify him for induction into the Gaffe Hall of Fame.
Continue Reading ATF’s Orwellian Warning to Whistleblowers