TV Series "Whistleblowers - the Untold Stories" -- UA Pilot and Spokesperson, Dan Hanley, Now Missing

YouTube -- CitizensCommittee

Whistleblowers, the unsung heroes of American society, are routinely persecuted, prosecuted and terrorized by the government, in an effort to discredit their reports, deny their constitutional rights, destroy their lives and careers. We will bring their shocking stories to the public. The truth is no longer a secret.

KEY UPDATE:  From an article by Julia Davis at The Examiner 

Concerned whistleblowers and family members of the former United Airlines Pilot Captain Dan Hanley report that this outspoken whistleblower advocate has seemingly vanished 3 weeks ago. Dan Hanley has been actively serving as the national public spokesperson of the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association for the last 7 years. Captain Hanley’s and the Whistleblowing Airline Employees Association Facebook pages with over 10,000 friends have disappeared and the Association’s official website, http://www.airline-whistleblowers.org/, has been “frozen”.

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DHS Changes "Nixonian" Practices Before Hearing to Investigate

Activist Post

When Mary Ellen Callahan was appointed by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to be Chief Privacy Officer for Freedom of Information requests, she was an unlikely whistleblower.  But delays in the process of releasing information to the public led to her frustration that was revealed in uncensored emails on Wednesday.

In Callahan's internal emails, she called the vetting process of FOIA releases "crazy," "nuts," "banannas," and added, "I really really want someone to FOIA this whole damn process." In other words, she wanted the process exposed for what it was.  On Thursday, she got her chance to testify about the political battle over information in the House oversight committee hearing.

Last summer these emails were released to the Associated Press and were heavily censored leading the inspector general to say, "We are concerned that certain statements may have been withheld from the AP release merely to avoid embarrassment to the department, which is not appropriate."The report being investigated in the hearing accused the Department of Homeland Security of "administrative incompetence, illegal politicization and official obstruction." However, in perfect party-line political form, the hearing devolved into Democrats calling the assertions "political theater," "nonsense," and "propagandist."  While the Republicans compared the process to "Nixonian enemies lists."

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, as the process in question was already rescinded prior to the hearing.  According to the Associated Press:

Republicans in Congress objected Thursday to the Homeland Security Department's now-rescinded practice of requiring secretive reviews by political advisers of hundreds of requests for government files under the Freedom of Information Act. The chairman of a House oversight committee said the process 'reeks of a Nixonian enemies list' and was unacceptable. 

Mary Ellen Callahan was much more composed during her testimony than her frustrated emails which were censored for the hearing despite being released to the press in full.  Even though it was her speaking out that originally sparked the investigation she kept her answers to just the facts and her professional opinion of the process.

The senior official in charge of submitting files for the reviews, Mary Ellen Callahan, acknowledged there had been 'management challenges' in the program and said the political scrutiny 'at times took longer than anticipated.' But Callahan deflected suggestions by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., that the process injected political considerations into decisions about federal records the government was turning over to journalists, watchdog groups or even members of Congress.

Despite the political theater of the hearing, DHS is now being forced to streamline the way they release information to the public under FOIA.  From AP:

This week, Callahan reduced the period for political advisers to review government files to one business day. But the inspector general said even the new, speedier process 'is not required by FOIA and seems inconsistent' with the Obama administration's instructions prohibiting unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles under the Freedom of Information Act.

Under the previous system in place, no files could be released to reporters, watchdog groups or even members of Congress without specific approval by Napolitano's political advisers. The inspector general called it 'unprecedented involvement in the FOIA process.'

The fact that DHS had to change their policy prior to this hearing is a clear indication of the value of people with conscience inside government.  Which, of course, is why there is a move afoot to silence whistleblowers.

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DHS Emails: Insiders worried over political 'meddling'

FOI logo/Wikimedia Commons

Ted Bridis
AP News

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Homeland Security Department official in charge of submitting sensitive government files to political advisers for secretive reviews before they could be released to citizens, journalists and watchdog groups complained in emails that the unusual scrutiny was "crazy" and hoped someone outside the Obama administration would discover the practice, The Associated Press has learned.

Chief Privacy Officer Mary Ellen Callahan, who was appointed by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, complained in late 2009 that the vetting process was burdensome and said she wanted to change it, according to uncensored emails newly obtained by the AP. In the emails, she warned that the Homeland Security Department might be sued over delays the political reviews were causing, and she hinted that a reporter might find out about the vetting. The reviews are the subject of a congressional hearing later this week and an ongoing inquiry by the department's inspector general.

"This level of attention is CRAZY," Callahan wrote in December 2009 to her then-deputy, Catherine Papoi. Callahan said she hoped someone outside the Obama administration would discover details of the political reviews, possibly by asking for evidence of them under the Freedom of Information Act itself: "I really really want someone to FOIA this whole damn process," Callahan wrote.

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Obama takes 'unprecedented' aim at leakers

Demonstrators protest for Bradley Manning
© AFP/Getty Images/File Chip Somodevilla

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Elected on a promise of a more transparent government, President Barack Obama has taken "unprecedented" aim at leakers who divulge classified information to journalists, critics say.

"We've seen the current president bringing five prosecutions so far... against people for whistleblowing, for leaks of classified information," said Daniel Ellsberg, famous for his 1971 leak of the "Pentagon Papers," which helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War.

"All previous presidents put together brought three prosecutions... We see a campaign here against whistleblowing that is highly unprecedented in legal terms."

The White House declined to answer questions about its policy towards those who leak government secrets.
The five prosecutions include the case of US soldier Bradley Manning, who is accused of having handed hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks.

Manning, 23, was arrested in June while deployed to Iraq, amid suspicions he was responsible for passing a trove of secret US government documents to the whistle-blowing website, many of which were then published around the world.

Earlier this month, the military unveiled 22 additional charges against Manning including "aiding the enemy", which carries a potential death sentence, though the army said it would not seek capital punishment.

US investigators have failed so far to establish a direct link between the Manning and the website, which began publishing the documents last year.

Rights groups have criticized the conditions of Manning's detention at a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia.

And earlier this month State Department spokesman PJ Crowley was forced to resign after publicly criticizing the "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid" way in which he is being treated.

Another accused leaker facing possible prison time is Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA operative accused of passing US secrets to the New York Times.

And Thomas Drake is said to have revealed the existence of the George W. Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program. His trial is set to begin in Baltimore next month.

Despite the barrage of prosecutions, experts say the government will have a heavy burden in proving its case under a 1917 espionage law.

"One of the statutes says that you have to give this information... 'with the intent or reason to believe that this information is to be used to the injury of the US'," said Andrew Contiguglia, an expert on constitutional law.

"In the situation that you have here, there are former CIA operatives, military operatives, taking the information and giving it off to press people, not spies," he said.

"What makes us think that when we give information to the press, that info is going to be used to the injury of the US?"

He goes on to argue that the leaks are part of the American system.

"It's important that in order to strenghten our democracy, we have to keep our government honest, and the only way to keep our government honest is to give access to that information," he said.

Dan Marcus, a law professor at the American University in Washington, says it's possible to read too much into the administration's probes.

"All presidents and all national security branch officials worry about unauthorized leaks," he said.

"There's always been a great concern in the governments about leaks of damaging national security information, and I don't think that's changed dramatically from one administration to another."

He added that there is a bit of a double standard at play.

"There is a certain amount of hypocrisy," Marcus said.

"There are good reasons for the government trying to keep certain information secret (but) government officials often leak some information when they believe it is in the interest of the government to do so."

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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Scientist Leuren Moret: Japan Earthquake and Nuclear “Accident” are Tectonic Nuclear Warfare (Video)

YouTube -- ExopoliticsTV

Independent scientist Leuren Moret, whose 2004 landmark article in the Japan Times unmasked lies and distortions by government and company officials that led to the construction of nuclear power plants in seismically dangerous areas, has declared in an exclusive 65-minute video interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre that the "Japan earthquake and "accidents" at the Fukushima's 6 nuclear power plant units starting March 11, 2011 are in fact deliberate acts of tectonic nuclear warfare, carried out against the populations ecology of Japan and the nations of the Northern Hemisphere, including the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

RELATED ARTICLES:
Japan's Nuclear Crisis Debacle and the Depopulation Agenda
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Police brutality against Col. Ann Wright and Daniel Ellsberg at Free Bradley Manning Protest (Video)

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RELATED:
Obama: Torturer-in-Chief

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How the So-Called Guardians of Free Speech Are Silencing the Messenger

WikiLeaks Screenshot/AFP image

John Pilger
Truthout 

As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gaddafi is "delusional" and "blood-drenched" while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of "stability."

But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is. Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks. This is not a new idea. In 1792, the revolutionary Tom Paine warned his readers in England that their government believed that "people must be hoodwinked and held in superstitious ignorance by some bugbear or other." Paine's "The Rights of Man" was considered such a threat to elite control that a secret grand jury was ordered to charge him with "a dangerous and treasonable conspiracy." Wisely, he sought refuge in France.

The ordeal and courage of Paine is cited by the Sydney Peace Foundation in its award of Australia's human rights gold medal to Julian Assange. Like Paine, Assange is a maverick who serves no system and is threatened by a secret grand jury, a malicious device long abandoned in England, but not in the United States. If extradited to the US, he is likely to disappear into the Kafkaesque world that produced the Guantanamo Bay nightmare and now accuses Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks' alleged whistleblower, of a capital crime.

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RELATED ARTICLES:
Why is Hillary Not Defending the Rights of Saudis to Protest?
Obama's 6 Hypocritical Guidelines for Peaceful Protest

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State Dept spokesman quits after slam of Pentagon

Philip Crowley
© AFP/File Nicholas Kamm

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) - State Department spokesman Philip Crowley resigned Sunday after slamming the Pentagon's treatment of a US solider suspected of leaking thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents to WikiLeaks as "counter-productive."

"Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Spokesman for the Department of State," Crowley said in a statement released by the State Department.

On Friday, Crowley departed from his characteristic diplomatic language when asked at a forum on new media and diplomacy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the United States "torturing" Private First Class Bradley Manning.


Manning, 23, was arrested in June while deployed to Iraq amid suspicions he had passed a trove of secret US government documents to WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website which were then published in newspapers around the world.

Crowley said Manning's treatment by the Defense Department, which includes solitary confinement and being forced to sleep naked, "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid," BBC reporter Philippa Thomas wrote on her blog.

"Nonetheless Bradley Manning is in the right place," Crowley said, adding "there is sometimes a need for secrets" to advance US diplomatic interests.

Later Friday Obama insisted the Pentagon's treatment of Manning was appropriate.

Last week the US military unveiled 22 additional charges against Manning including the serious offense of "aiding the enemy," which carries a potential death sentence. But the army said he would face possible life in prison.

In his statement Sunday, Crowley said his remarks "were intended to highlight the broader, even strategic impact of discreet actions undertaken by national security agencies every day and their impact on our global standing and leadership."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted Crowley's long service to the United States in accepting his resignation.

"(Crowley) has served our nation with distinction for more than three decades, in uniform and as a civilian," she said.

"His service to country is motivated by a deep devotion to public policy and public diplomacy, and I wish him the very best."

Clinton said Michael Hammer, currently deputy spokesman at the state department, will serve as acting spokesman.

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