Whistleblowers Get The Short Shrift And Threats From The Government

Former NSA Codebreaker: No One Listened When I Tried To Blow The NSA Whistle Year Ago

November 6, 2013 by Ben Bullard 

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William Binney, a codebreaking specialist whom the National Security Agency enlisted to help decipher electronic data to foil post-Sept. 11 terror plots, recently told CBS Baltimore his attempt several years ago to protest the agency’s abuse of its growing tech powers led only to personal heartache as the government pushed back against his vocal concern.

Binney was brought in by the NSA after the World Trade Center attacks to help develop new software that could mine enormous amounts of cell phone and email data he believed the agency was collecting legally to target potential foreign terrorists.

But as he helped build the new computer program and gained access to exactly how indiscriminate the spy agency’s surveillance methods were, he backed away.

“The idea was, ‘How can you look into terabytes of data going by every minute and see what’s important in that data that you need to pull out to look at and analyze to figure out intentions, capabilities of potential enemies in the world,’” he told CBS. “The data that was being taken in was all about United States citizens. They’re destroying our democracy is what they’re doing.”

Binney maintains that Congress, for all its outrage over the Edward Snowden revelations, has for years failed to listen to other would-be whistleblowers who tried to effect change by legal means. “The government can’t admit a mistake. They have to cover up everything,” he said.

Frustrated at the stonewalling, and unwilling to collude with the government in an endeavor he knew to be illegal and wrong, Binney resigned from his job.

For his trouble, the FBI raided him in 2007 on suspicion that he had already divulged too much.

“They pushed their way in with guns drawn and pushed my son out of the way and came upstairs and pointed guns at my wife and me. They took our computers and all the electronic equipment we had,” he said.

“I think they’re violating the foundation of this country. The thing that makes this country strong are the rights and freedoms that we have in the Constitution.”

Read the full CBS Baltimore report here.

Benghazi Hearings Could Be Explosive

3 State Dept. 'Whistleblowers' To Testify at Benghazi Hearing

Saturday, 04 May 2013 12:10 PM

By Sandy Fitzgerald

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Three career State Department officials – who describe themselves as Benghazi "whistleblowers" — will testify at Wednesday's widely anticipated congressional hearing,Fox News reported, releasing the names that have been kept a well-guarded secret.

The three men who will testify about the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks, in which U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed, are:

• Gregory N. Hicks, a foreign service officer and former Deputy Chief of Mission/Chargé d’Affairs in Libya

• Former Marine Mark I. Thompson, acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism for the State Department.

• Diplomatic security officer Eric Nordstrom, former Regional Security Officer in Libya. He was the top security officer in the country in the months leading up to the attacks.

They will appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by California Republican Darrell Issa.

Related: Hiring Brigade for Benghazi a 'National Security Failure'
“I applaud these individuals for answering our call to testify in front of the Committee," Issa said in the statement releasing the names of the witnesses.

"They have critical information about what occurred before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks that differs on key points from what Administration officials – including those on the Accountability Review Board – have portrayed,” said Issa. “Our committee has been contacted by numerous other individuals who have direct knowledge of the Benghazi terrorist attack, but are not yet prepared to testify.

"In many cases their principal reticence of appearing in public is their concern of retaliation at the hands of their respective employers. While we may yet add additional witnesses, this panel will certainly answer some questions and leave us with many new ones.”

Nordstrom testified before the committee in October 2012, just a month after the assault, telling lawmakers about the series of requests he, Stevens and others made seeking enhanced security at the Benghazi consulate.

The State Department refused most of their requests, leading Nordstrom to angrily declare "for me, the Taliban is on the inside of the [State Department] building."

Newsmax Exclusive: US Hired al-Qaida-Linked Group to Defend Benghazi Mission
Hicks and Thompson have not yet spoken publicly about the attacks. Hicks, a veteran Foreign Service officer, has been stationed in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen in the past, and received one of Stevens' earliest phone calls during the attack, Fox news reported.

Thompson is an expert who advises "senior leadership on operational counterterrorism matters, and ensures that the United States can rapidly respond to global terrorism crises," according to the State Department website.

Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, and wife Victoria Toensing, a former chief counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee told Fox this week they are representing, pro bono, two career State Department "whistleblowers" who believe their accounts about Benghazi were disregarded by the Accountability Review board, convened by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Further, they claimed their clients – whose names they did not discuss in the interview – have faced threats from some superior officers.

“I'm not talking generally, I'm talking specifically about Benghazi — that people have been threatened,” Toensing said. “And not just the State Department; people have been threatened at the CIA….It's frightening….They're taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over.”© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

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