“This is a film we were told time and time again not to pursue. We were told not to waste our time—no one would listen.”
Watch Live: The 10th Annual Ridenhour Prizes →
Today at 12:30 ET you can watch a live stream of the Ridenhour Prizes, which are given to exceptional truth-tellers including whistleblowers, journalists, and film makers. Click above to see who won this year and to watch the live stream.
“The Office of Public Health has not released these data, or even the fact that this important information on Gulf War veterans exists. Anything that supports the position that Gulf War illness is a neurological condition is unlikely to ever be published.
On the rare occasions when embarrassing study results are released, data are manipulated to make them unintelligible.
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said former VA researcher Steven S. Coughlin, in front of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
Obama objects to whistleblower protections in defense bill →
The expansion of whistleblower protections to contractor employees was a huge win in the NDAA. Unfortunately, President Obama used a signing statement to object to the expanded protections, which could help uncover billions more in waste and fraud.
HUGE VICTORY: Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act passed and sent to President →
Last night, the Senate unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (WPEA) and sent it to the President for his signature. The Project On Government Oversight has been working on this for years, and we thank everyone who helped us with this fight. The WPEA will help protect workers who risk their careers to report fraud, waste, and abuse in the federal government. That means fewer of the good guys will get punished for speaking up, and taxpayers will save as more people are empowered to step up and fix what is wrong with government. Read more about the WPEA at POGO.org.
SEC Whistleblower Office Gets Nearly 3,000 Tips - Corruption Currents - WSJ →
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s whistleblower office, which opened last August, has already received almost 3,000 tips from around the U.S. and across the world, according to a MarketWatch report.
SEC Commissioner Luis Aguilar told enforcement officials at an event Thursday that the agency’s staff has seen a noticeable difference in the quality of information they have received since implementing a Dodd-Frank Act program that gives whistleblowers a 10% to 30% reward if they provide original information that leads to a successful enforcement case netting a penalty of $1 million or more.
BREAKING NEWS: President Obama Issues Landmark Directive for National Security and Intelligence Community Whistleblowers →
From POGO’s Director of Public Policy Angela Canterbury
President Obama picked up the whistleblower protections Congress had left by the wayside, finally providing intelligence community workers with specific free speech rights and some protections against retaliation when they legally report waste, fraud, and abuse.
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We have raised concerns about the possible infringement of rights and the chilling effect on would-be whistleblowers of the aggressive prosecutions and certain post-WikiLeaks policies. We have repeatedly urged that anti-leak efforts include authentic protections for those who make lawful disclosures of wrongdoing in the intelligence community. With the stroke of his pen today, President Obama did just that and took unparalleled action to protect whistleblowers, for which we are truly gratified and grateful.
While this directive is not a panacea, it begins to fill a large void in whistleblower protections and lays the framework for more government accountability where it is sorely needed.
President Obama signing the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012. Standing next to him are the makers of the moving documentary Semper Fi: Always Faithful, which follows the fight of the victims of the water poisoning at Camp Lejenue as they work for justice while the Marine Corps and the Navy attempt to cover up their knowledge of the 30 year water contamination that harmed as many as one million people. Also in the room were Jerry Ensminger, who lost his 9-year-old daughter to cancer, and Mike Partain, who is one of many male breast cancer victims with ties to Camp Lejeune.
Read more about the Camp Lejeune water contamination.
(Source: whitehouse.gov)
