Whistleblower’s Dilemma:
Duty, Honor, Country. . . Or All of the Above?

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff has a doozy of a story on one of the NSA domestic spying leakers. I couldn’t help wondering: What’s Isikoff’s purpose — beyond the publicity of getting a big scoop — is this another warning to potential whistleblowers? A cautionary tale regarding internal guidelines? A beacon to come forward now that the Bushies have one foot out the door?

Whose water is really being carried here — and why?

The heart of a whistleblower’s dilemma and the balance of duty, honor, country against the internal restrictions skewed toward keeping national secrets is here:

Tamm’s story is in part a cautionary tale about the perils that can face all whistleblowers, especially those involved in national-security programs. Some Americans will view him as a hero who (like Daniel Ellsberg and perhaps Mark Felt, the FBI official since identified as Deep Throat) risked his career and livelihood to expose wrongdoing at the highest levels of government. Others—including some of his former colleagues—will deride Tamm as a renegade who took the law into his own hands and violated solemn obligations to protect the nation’s secrets. "You can’t have runoffs deciding they’re going to be the white knight and running to the press," says Frances Fragos Townsend… "There are legal processes in place [for whistle-blowers' complaints]…. It offends me, and I find it incredibly dangerous."

I don’t say this very often, but Townsend is correct that care is needed to expose wrongdoing involving national security. Absolutely. (Although the irony of her conduit role with Comey about the program is not lost.)

On the other hand, how does one expose a program that is patently illegal, being pushed forward by folks who manipulated levers of government, hiding their tracks from people who might have called a halt had they known at its inception?

What Cheney, Addington, and crew did was nothing short of a treasonous end-run of the Constitution, the rule of law, and the checks and balances put in place to halt such a brazen grab at illegal consolidation of power. They did so deliberately — manipulating the very processes which protect the nation’s most dangerous secrets: They abused the classification system. They deliberately circumvented the FISA court because they knew—they knew—what they were doing would be called out as illegal if anyone with half a shred of commitment to their oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" ever found out.

This is Iran Contra gone wild.

So, what is a whistleblower to do under those circumstances? Especially when you have a Congress controlled by the GOP — and Pete Hoekstra and Pat Roberts as your goto Intel committee chairs?

We have had the perfect storm of crappy governance. The safeguards, oversight, and balancing mechanisms failed precisely because self-interested, politicized assholes put their own self-interest ahead of the public’s and the rule of law, from top to bottom.

But going to a newspaper rather than the internal OIG or OPR exposure? Or various top-level clearance Senators or Reps? Or any number of other sensitive exposure avenues? Would they thoroughly follow through? Probably not, but I’m not altogether comfortable with a deliberate breach of clearance regs without those avenues being tried.

But where’s the heart of this? In duty, honor, and country.

Contrary to the Goodling’s of the world who felt they took their oath to Bush/Cheney, that duty rest in the Constitution and the laws that govern this nation, to our long-term honor, and to a nation that has withstood any number of idiots because brave people stood up and said "no" to power-hungry zealots and craven politicos.

My tendency is toward more sunshine pretty much always. But my gut tells me that this is only a drop in the bucket of what will be exposed in the years to come.

Related posts:

1. Dick Cheney Spied on the State Department–Did He Intercept Torture Whistleblower Emails?
2. FDL Book Salon Welcomes Rana Husseini, Murder in the Name of Honor
3. Jerrold Nadler Moves to Curb Use of State Secrets
4. G.I. No: NRO’s Miller Longs for Country of Green Plastic Men
5. The Open Door: The Character of Our Country