(((Christy!)))

MN in general and my area in particular is home to Coleen Rowley, the FBI whistleblower who tried to move that sometimes moribund agency into action re Zacarias Moussaoui before 9/11. Destroyed her career.

Oh, one of my childhood villain. The evil Ming the Merciless from the planet Mongo.

*tag*

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

Good morning Christy, I haz coffee!

I agree that there are procedures in place for whistleblowers but we have also seen the Bush administrations habit of putting idealogues in charge of everything and the whistle blower getting blunted and shafted.

I do believe there are going to be people telling stories after Jan. 20th that will make our hair turn white.

Another point you make is the case for treason.
That threshold has been passed. I am waiting to see whether or not anything gets done about it.

Good, but wet and cold, Morning Christy et al,,,
What I don’t understand about the Goodlings of our fair nation is, don’t they realize that presidents and their followers and such have a term limit? There is no term limit on the Constitution. Not really.

Morning all — who has the coffee?

Do you know what Rawley is doing now?

Mine’s already white. Will the turn it back to that mousy brown?

edit – Will the they turn it

Preview is mah fren

(((Ming))) remembered.

Re: Whistleblowers. I’d make a list and see whether they’re on the side of good, or dangerous. Let the evidence guide your judgement.

Any program this blatantly illegal and offensive to the American ideal (aversion to tyranny) is a no-brainer.

I would guess that the hard part about whistle-blowing is predicting how high the price of your integrity will run. If it starts to involve loved ones, then the call could become very tough.

Otherwise, Mr. Tamm is a hero, and Townsend should join the private sector.

Period.

Thanks Christy.

Thanks to dakine01 for opening up the digg

It’s Folgers, that Starbucks stuff is way too strong for me.

The country needs a whistleblowers hall of fame not to mention a politicians hall of shame.

Townsend’s already in the private sector. *g* She was a “before the end of the era” bail.

You’re thinking of Min, my little blind tiger. Min was an Egyptian god. Thanks for the thought. She is surely missed.

My point with this — in case it wasn’t clear since I was writing on a single cuppa coffee — is that the oath to the constitution trumps everything when you are weighing options, in my book. And the folks who wanted loyalty to bush/Cheney above all else are utter skeezeballs.

Digg It Christy.

One of the reasons I lost my security clearances back when was that I stated in a clearance interview that if I became aware of a classified operation that broke the laws of the US that it would be my duty to blow the whistle (hoping that I would actually be able to have the resolve). I used the Iran/Contra as a textbook example of this but I think going forward that this will be the new generation textbook example.

It was always after having exhausted all mechanisms in getting the operations stopped without going public.

From what I read, it sounded as if Mr Tamm did exactly that. I agree with you about the dilemma but the reality is, every whistle-blower in my lifetime seems to have been run through the same wringer.

I do have a one of a kind iron statue of a dragon which I named Ming, though. Got it in Yokosuka.

That’s right. Rainbow Bridge. Better place.

And it is a shitty place to be, don’t you think? Especially if you’ve found that the program in question was deliberately put in that sort of Schroedinger’s box just to confound anyone who might raise important questions from ever being able to raise them.

That’s the part that pisses my inner prosecutor off the most: the deliberate, coordinated, meticulous planning that went on to set this up just this way. And the fact that it was going on long before 9/11 ever occurred — which never gets the play in media like it ought to, does it?

Southern: I thought you were outa here. I am having the same problem…cannot face this day. Sorta cold & wet here (TX) of course, not like MN etc where it’s really cold. Plus, I hate to miss anymore shoe comments.

Im thinking we should fill the new multi-million $$ cul de sac in Dallas with a variety of shoes…At the holocaust museum in DC, there is a large collection of shoes of victims… all sizes. Let W be reminded of his victims everyday of his lying life.

From what I can tell, Tamm wasn’t actually ‘read into’ the Stellar Wind Program – but he was in a position to ’see’ OIPR enabling Warrantless Wiretaps Signed Only by the AG – info which came from the Stellar Wind Program – doing an end-around on FISA and the FISA Court.

So, what Tamm ’saw’ was a Conscious, Systematic Program operating outside the Rule of Law.

There is No Reason to think that the ‘normal’ channels to report illegal or immoral conduct would work – the ‘Program’ appeared designed to Avoid Oversight or Court Review, on purpose.

Thankfully, Tamm had the wits to size-up the situation and realize that he had no real choice except to Sound the Alarm through the Press.

Good on Tamm!

If we opened a politician’s hall of shame, they’d be adding new wings every ten minutes. *G*

Some mornings are harder than others.
School bus just got here. Half-hour late. Sonnyboy was starting to think he was staying home with me. We were going to bake cookies. Ah, well. Just me and the dog.

An’ I’m still here. Can ya tell I don’t wanna go to work? I wonder how long we could keep up sending shoes to Shrub’s lie-berry.

Thanks, CHS. Yikes, Is that my ignorance showing?

I’m normally not a Manichaean, but there are times it’s better to remember the basic principles first.

Good riddance to Ms. Townsend.

Thanks for so many great columns over the years, too!

She’s retired from FBI. Is a peace activist. Lectures about civil liberties and the assault thereon.

the Stellar Wind Program

Like a church house creeper from cheenee

We’ll get Southern and join you & the dog…tho’ Im thinking about just going back to bed..sigh.

If you have it in your area, try Caribou Coffee. Yum!!!

Sounds very much like her loss is our gain. I’m truly sorry about her career, but from society’s POV, there are plenty of people who want to work for the FBI, but not so many who are activists for civil liberties & peace.

Thanks for a great discussion on Tamm, but my mind is working at a much lower level this morning. My question is, “Where was Pig Missile when the shoe missiles were launched?” We know they’re saying Perino got a black eye from this, but I’ve looked at a lot of the videos and pictures and don’t see her there.

Tag! You can do this. The sooner you’re out, the sooner you can come back!!

And even fewer who can speak with that sort of “been there, survived that” experience, either.

Excellent point. She brings a great deal of credibility.

I read she got her injuries from a microphone during the scuffle.

Definitely a shitty place to be. Which is why I also hoped I would be able to live up to the standard of doing what is right (instead of expedient).

Of course, I often caught a lot of grief for even expressing admiration for someone blowing the whistle. Actually having to live through the attempted destruction of a life (which is really what happens to whistle-blowers), it pretty much always has to be a crime so egregious and the avenues to stop it so blocked, that going public is the only remaining recourse.

I heard she was injured in the scuffle which ensued.

That would be nice. I’d love it. Gots plenty to do today, tho. I’m making photo albums for my older two – 25 and 21. Selecting photos of each throughout their years so far and writing the story of what was going on. Also, adding inspirational and historical quotes. Found some beautiful, fabric covered albums at Aaron Bros.

I had thought her black eye actually had appeared before the shoe…but I am way too confused to figure it out. Let us know if you get the facts.

The news reports say she got a microphone in her eye during the scrum. Perhaps soneone will ask her at the briefing today.

You’re absolutely right, except…in our neck of the woods, peacemakers and peace activists are subject to ridicule. Part of that is due to the fact that they make their own signs, banners, etc., rendering them unacceptable to the high tech, microsecond attention span prevalent in these times. Long ago and far away (well, not very, actually), I called myself a peacemaker (in spite of my personal shortcomings in that regard) and was an activist of sorts. I don’t know what happened to her….

Thanks for another, as usual, great post Christy.

BTW, speaking of whistleblowers, has anyone had any recent news about Bunny Greenhouse? I’m hoping she will have a job with some clout after these clowns leave office.

A friend told me his nephew sends a disc to Apple every year with the photos for each of his kids. Apple turns them into books. Don’t know the details or what the result looks like, but it certainly seems better than physically cutting & pasting.

Do you know what her venue is for the peacemaking activities?

I’ve looked at photos from lots of angles. The one in my diary is taken from the front of the room looking back. You can see the thrower on the ground but no Perino. The videos from the back of the room show only Bush and Maliki at the lecterns. Can’t imagine where she was. The throw and subsequent struggle came from well back in the room, so it’s unlikely to me she would have been back with the Iraqi press.

Trying to finish up my cookies and candies today. On deck: spiced rum balls, pumpkin cookies (trying a new recipe, still can’t find my usual one), jam thumbprints and pecan tassies. Have to finish it today because I want to send cookie trays in with Mr. ReddHedd to the office tomorrow.

Last time I spoke to folks in Congress about her — I check from time to time to see if ther is any news *g* — she was still in the appeals process and not allowed to do much because the Bushies didn’t want her reviewing anything else that might make them look bad. Go figure…

She did a National Press Club gig in mid-November. Dunno if Christy had this link to the Whistleblowers Protection Blog and too lazy to scroll up to see. Apologies if redundant. Apologies if redundant. “g”

She probably was injured when the cowerer in chief tried to hide behind her. She will no doubt get a purple heart for being injured in a war zone.

I agree with you, dakine01. This malady of retribution exists far down into lower levels of our government agencies. Anyone who asked questions of our visiting regional reps to which they knew not the answer was branded forever – troublemaker, not a team player = promotions denied. And the grievance procedure was a cruel joke.

I’m sure Mr. Tamm thought long and hard, evaluating the different govt authorities to whom he might appeal, such as the senate and house intelligence committees. My conclusion to that would have been that they were in on the deals – not help but retaliation there.

Yes, Mr Tamm will suffer; but he has proven that he lives by the dictates of his principles. That is Who he is and What he is and no outside force can destroy that, no matter what they do.

My thanks to you, Mr. Tamm.

That Starbucks stuff is way too anti-union for me!!

This was good, Christy, thx.

We still haven’t heard what Sibel Edmonds has to say about the people in her part of the FBI who were involved with the Turkish intel people, her husband, Dennis Hastert’s role in supporting the traitors within.

We really do need something akin to a Truth and Reconciliation Commission going back to at least the Iran-Contra days, maybe earlier, so that the American people can get a handle on what’s been done to this country in the past generation.

I won’t hold my breath, though.

Civic organizations, churches (!), etc. She ran unsuccessfully against John “The Colonel” Kline in MN’s 2nd Congressional District in 2006.

These albums have pages the size of photos, like 4 x 6, with clear sleeves. Just slip the photo or story in each one. A labor of love, I guess.
But, thanks for that tip.

I can’t think of an instance when it wouldn’t involve your family, in that it would always put your livelihood at risk. When you think how hard people work to have unblemished records and compete for advancement, to decide to jump above or around superiors is a monumental decision for yourself and your family. Additionally, can anyone think of an instance when a whistleblowing was not adverse to the person’s subsequent life and economic well being? Off hand, I can’t.

Yum. Has the fil gained any weight since living with you?
Thought of you and your dachsy this am when I was trying to nudge our huge hound outside for his business. He just looked at me like I was nuts (which is of course true) and like, Mom, make it stop.

Good Morning Christy and Firedogs,

the “hiding their tracks” would be a get-outta-jail-free card for his defense. lord knows what a good atty would do with that in front of a jury. it has reasonable doubt written all over it

was troubled by Isikoff writing twice in the story about how all this was instituted after 9/11 – in Tamm’s case, no problem, but we all know the stink started before then

I couldn’t either — was trying to think of that myself this morning as I was writing and couldn’t come up with anything. There is such a risk in exposing something like this — look at what happened to the fellow who exposed the Abu Ghraib mess and how crappy he was treated by folks above him the chain of command for doing so. Same with folks who exposed wrongdoing with due process and other concerns in the “trials” at Gitmo and…well, you get the picture.

It’s been one, long eight years of craptastic ick, hasn’t it?

Oh, wait. Just re-read your question. My earlier answer was mostly about civil liberties. Coleen, her husband and a cadre of loyal supporters do a peacemaking presence every week at the busy intersection near Lockheed Martin. They have appeared on street corners all over the Twin Cities metro. On interstate highway overpasses. At the state capitol. Vigils in assorted locations. Tight with Dennis Kucinich via a local family that has supported him through thick, thin and thinner. Etc.

Here’s link to Robert Perry discussing how far back in history the Rs & Ds protect each other’s secrets “for the good of the country.” Spur for the interview is Perry’s comments on the recently released LBJ tapes wherein LBJ calls Nixon a traitor for Nixon’s work (back channel thru Kissinger who was playing both side) sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks. Nixon told SVN rep not to show up cause he would get a better deal once Nixon was elected. Worked like a charm for Nixon.

From that beginning the interview traces that behavior under subsequent prez & congress.

That kind of behavior is by now so embedded in U.S. pols there’s really no way of unringing the bell.
http://antiwar.com/radio/2008/…..t-parry-8/

Being a whistleblower is perilous to your career. However, one way I have seen people go about it is what I would call the anonymous dog whistle. That is you whistle in a manner only certain folks hear and do it without revealing who you are.
Like Clinton’s triangulation strategy, it might not earn you a chapter in the next edition of ‘Profiles in Courage’, but it can work.

You know, he hasn’t gained weight, actually. He’s lost a little because I try and cook very healthy meals for the most part — the cookie season is a bit of an aberration here every year. *g* He wasn’t eating very well before because neither of them could really cook for themselves, so it was a lot of icky take-out and delivery pizza and such. Now he’s getting veggies and salads with meals and that’s a good thing.

But I’ll let you know after the holidays…because he’s certainly sampling a few cookies this morning. LOL

She also spent time in Crawford when Cindy Sheehan was camping there. I don’t always agree with her (Coleen), but I totally admire the fact that she has absolute courage of her convictions.

What do you think it would take to get that sort of fact-finding going? Andrew Sullivan said on Matthews show that the Obama people will likely have something like that on the Bush “war Crimes”….his words. We are so far into taint, it seems some sort of serious disclosure is the only way out. Same sort of thing was called for on the Moyers’ show on Friday. Certainly the conversation has started. What would be the energy & pressure?

look at what happened to the fellow who exposed the Abu Ghraib mess and how crappy he was treated by folks above him the chain of command for doing so. Same with folks who exposed wrongdoing with due process and other concerns in the “trials” at Gitmo and…well, you get the picture.

Or you can consider what happened to Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift after he beat the President of the US in court!

I want names. I want the names not only of the persons on top who authorized the programme — we already know pretty much who they were — but the names of those who enthusiastically carried out illegal operations. I’d like the names of all the Federalist Society clones who joyfully set up an internal spying programme using a technology Stalin and the Nazi’s would have died for.

As to the bringers of bad news, the official response has always been to kill the messenger. Few of us are as courageous as Tamm or Sakharof, or Daniel Ellsberg; but without them we’d have a lot less liberty. There ought to be another monument on the Mall for people like them.

Thanks for all the background. That’s what I meant to ask…thanks.

Can’t remember if I told you about a product called BeneCalorie. It’s a tasteless liquid that can be added to soups, hot cereal, potatoes, whatever. Adds almost 300 calories. Was recommended to me by an oncology nutritionist. Used it a couple times a day when cooking for David. Until the feeding tube era, he held within 10 pounds of his ideal weight.

In my mind, the problem always comes back to how far into Congress complicity goes as well. There is so much of a “I’ll get your back, you get mine” mentality because so many seem to have so many skeletons these days that there are days when I despair of ever really getting to the bottom of anything.

The press, when they do their jobs well, do offer some hope of some sunlight — when they fix their job as ascertaining “the truth” as opposed to carrying water. But it can be tough to tell which is which, depending on the report and the reporter, far too often, frankly. Ugh…what a fricking mess.

THanks — but Mr. ReddHedd’s dad does not have a problem of being too underweight. *g* Will keep it in mind if and when we ever get there, though — good to know.

in June, Parry published ‘Iran-Contra, The Lost Chapter’ detailing all that Senate kumbaya had concealed:

The American people thus were spared the chapter’s troubling finding: that the Reagan administration had built a domestic covert propaganda apparatus managed by a CIA propaganda and disinformation specialist working out of the National Security Council.

someone’s spinnin’ lord, kubaya

link

Oopsy! Misunderstood. Good news, though (I think).

Is HuffPost correct in its piece about Kerry being poised to have Blagojevich run with him in 2004 (speaking of oily payback deals involving Congress critters)?

No idea on that one. *G*

Yes, and Swift didn’t step outside of his job description or outside the chain of command. He simply did an excellent job when the powers that be wanted him to fail.

I have a friend who is a whistleblower, but not NSA stuff. I’m sure he’s watched closely and on many lists, but he doesn’t feel especially threatened. He does talk in a kind of code when we speak on the phone, tho. Mainly to protect me, I think. He’s been arrested once, for trespassing while covering a story.

You all have a great day…it is sooo dreary here. I am going to have to make the effort to put some part of myself in motion. Later…friends.

I hear you on that — am trying to get myself in gear to get started on the last of the cookies here. And I keep talking myself into another 15 minutes of procrastination instead…

During his childhood, he played under the desk of J. Edgar Hoover.

Given what we know about J. Edgar, is this something you want on your resume? Or is Michael just casting more aspersions?

Now she lectures? … if you work for the government you can’t believe in civil liberties? She had to quit to get the faith…thought this was a faith-based administration/

Crap erase comment above skim reading again

Good luck…sort of like a 12 Step group. I tried going back to bed; didn’t help, so I may have to get dressed. What a day. I don’t usually struggle like this…wet, cold, dreary…so why shouldn’t I want to stay home. Enjoy the cookies. ;)

If you go through channels, as you describe, and they do nothing so that you are forced to go to the press or someone other than the Chair of an Intel Cmte, then you are telegraphing that YOU are the whistleblower and will be the immediate target of harrassment (that is what it is, NOT a legitimate investigation of a “leak” – you CAN’T illegally leak criminal/unconstitutional conduct).

Unless there are strong, un-circumventable whistleblower protections in the law, then going through channels first is just a good way to paint a big target on your back.

Besides STRONG/ABSOLUTE whistleblower protections, the offices that are theoretically responsible for investigating complaints by erstwhile whistleblowers needs to be made truly independent and beyond the control of the office they are attached to and absolutely beyond the control of the President. In a word, truly independent and free to do what they are in place to do.

The whole concept of the Executive having the power to classify is something that the court has recognized as deriving from the common law. An equally important concept in the common law was that you could not “legally” (in a manner enforceable by a court) bind someone to participate in or cover up criminal activities.

These are just some of the many problems that you get when Congress (and remember it wasn’t just Hoekstra and Roberts – Harman, Pelosi, Rockefeller, Reyes,those aren’t Republicans but they have been as devastating to the rule of law as any Republican you can point to) bends over backwards to immunize criminal behaviour. In large part, they tell not only whistleblowers who reveal the criminal activity, but even more devastatingly, soldiers who would refuse an illegal order, that the behaviour is “allowed” and acceptable and … legalized.

Two years after people sweated blood to get the Dems in office, they are not just an embarassment, they are repulsive.

J-Men Forever!

The thing is that he DID try to complain, but he was told to keep his mouth shut. His oath is to the Constitution first, and that trumps any law or regulation that in effect protects evildoers (such as the people who were exposed by Mr. Tramm.) In addition, being labeled top secret doesn’t count if, as in this case, no national security is involved. The only reason that this was labeled secret was to protect the perpetrators from going to jail, nothing else.

To suggest that he abused his position by using his own judgment is ridiculous. It does not take a degree in basketweaving to understand that the “secret” program was illegal and that its perpetrators needed several years of timeout at some government facility. The people involved knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was illegal, but they, in their megalomania, didn’t care. No one has ever seriously suggested that the spy program had any legal basis.

As for those who feel that he is a traitor, I have to question their loyalty to the US. The program Mr. Tramm exposed was as illegal as anything could be, but those having a fit about it being exposed don’t seem to care. Why? Where is their loyalty?

Leen – Tamm was a lawyer who worked with national security information and that’s why he knew he didn’t have an actual whistleblower route that he could take, and I assume (complete with ass possiblities) that’s why he didn’t go that route. He knew the program was classified at the highest levels – that means agency head of an intel branch at a minimum. He also knew later that the AG himself was so involved that there was talk of indicting him.

In a so-called “national security” setting, the IG (to whom someone with a complaint or concern would normally turn) is required to contact the heads of the security agencies and at that point, the heads of such agencies can shut down the IG. The IG MUST tell the agency head about the complaint, and if the agency head (Tenet, Hayden etc.) chooses they can tell the IG that he/she is prohibited from “from initiating, carrying out, or completing any audit,inspection, or investigation” by simply saying that national security requires that the investigation be shut down.

There’s no real oversight of a nat sec agency head’s decision to shut down the IG in such a situation. AND there is no protection, in intel/nat sec settings, for the person who went to the IG to start with.

So in a situation where it is pretty clear that the agency heads are involved in the programs, as a practical matter, there is no internal whistleblower route. There have been efforts to try to address that, but they never carry.

Thank you, Mary. We’ve all read many documented accounts of the dirty dealings of the NSA/CIA, including murdering their own people who “got out of line” or who appeared to be about to talk.

And, it was the “interest of the national security” that permitted Bush to write the many signing statements and executive orders that have stripped us of our constitutional rights and the rule of law.

The NSA has been virtually regulation-free and above the law from its beginning. Who dares try to clean it up?