MetaFilter posts tagged with Whistleblowers

Stellar Wind

homunculus — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 09:21:36 -0800

The Fed Who Blew the Whistle: Is he a hero or a criminal? Three years after the New York Times first revealed the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program, whistleblower Thomas Tamm has acknowledged his role in making it public. [Via]

NSA Has ‘Routinely’ Listened In On Americans’ Phone Calls, Passed Around ‘Salacious’ Bits

ericb — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:27 -0800

"Ever since President Bush confirmed the existence of a National Security Administration wiretapping program in late 2005, he has insisted it is aimed only at terrorists’ calls and protects Americans’ civil liberties ("This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America — and I repeat: limited.")....However, ABC News reports [text with embedded video] that the NSA frequently listened to and transcribed the private phone calls of Americans abroad....These conversations included those of American soldiers stationed in Iraq and American aid workers abroad, such as Doctors Without Borders."^* A former military intercept operator: "These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East....personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism....[We] routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted....'Hey, check this out...there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, 'Wow, this was crazy.'"

Protecting Whistleblowers, You Bet!

Kirth Gerson — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 05:02:20 -0800

Congress at Work The U.S. House Judiciary Committee sends an email to all persons who had sent messages to its "tip line." The email described the measures the committee was taking to safeguard the tipsters' identities. All the the email recipients' addresses were in the To: field. Oops. "Compounding the mistake, the committee later sent out a second email attempting to recall the original email; it, too, included all recipients in the "to:" field, according to a recipient of the emails."

A Web of Truth

Postroad — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 10:31:10 -0800

Whistle-Blower or Troublemaker, Bunny Greenhouse Isn't Backing Down Another trouble maker can't keep her mouth shut !Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq. It has made her easy to love for some, easy to loathe for others, but it has not made her easy to know.

Legitimate Businessmen only.

drezdn — Sat, 25 Dec 2004 22:05:38 -0800

Worried that the new guy might tip off the feds about your "concrete company?" The internet gives you the perfect research tool.

Who talked?

Eloquence — Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:31:01 -0800

"The Transportation Security Administration is conducting a 'witch hunt' to ferret out and discipline employees in the federal air marshal program who have talked to the media", according to MSNBC. See previous thread on air marshals being pulled from high risk flights. The "Patriot Act" is involved, too. Via the hole.

The Gun Industry Exposed

lilboo — Tue, 04 Feb 2003 08:47:24 -0800

The Gun Industry Sins Exposed? (nyt - registration required)

But Mr. Ricker, who has been working for more than two decades in the gun industry, including a stint as a lawyer for the N.R.A., said the gun makers had long known that "the diversion of firearms from legal channels of commerce to the black market" takes place "principally at the distributor/dealer level."
(print friendly version)

Persons of the year?

MarkO — Fri, 27 Dec 2002 00:55:57 -0800

Time Magazine's 2002 Persons of the Year. A distinction that has been given to such newsmakers as Gandhi, Hitler, Jeff Bezos, a machine, and a planet, now belongs to three whistleblowers at Enron, WorldCom, and the FBI. Is Time magazine way off or right on target?

homunculus — Mon, 01 Jul 2002 10:12:54 -0800

Department of Homeland Security to be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act and the Whistleblower Protection Act? The last episode of NOW ran a piece on the FOIA which described how back in 1974 President Ford and his staff, which included Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, opposed Congress' strengthening of the FOIA, and Ford tried unsuccessfully to veto it. Now this new exemption looks like the continuation of a 28 year-old feud. Ridge says it is in order to not "draw a road map of critical infrastructure vulnerabilities," but are complete exemptions really necessary for that? The potential for abuse seems quite dangerous. (Some previous discussions of FOIA revelations here and here).

gsh — Sat, 08 Jul 2000 09:05:44 -0800

Criticize a company online - get targeted for corporate re-education New system developed to find and track online critics of corporate entities - including having posts or websites suddenly removed. All hail the power of the brand.