An open letter to: President Barack Obama Congresswoman Nancy ...

An open letter to:
President Barack Obama
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
Congressman John Boehner
Senator Mitch McConnell
Senator Harry Reid
November 22, 2010
Please pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act during this lame duck session.
Please get the job done this time, without further procedural sabotage of a bill that has
unsurpassed trans-partisan voter support, but has been blocked five times by back rooms
procedural sabotage after five unanimous bi-partisan committee approvals over the last 12 years.
There’s no excuse for further delay, and how politicians handle getting the job done before
adjournment will be a litmus test for credibility of all their fraud, waste and abuse rhetoric. Don’t
come home without it!
As seasoned veterans we know from painful experience, cops can’t get the job done without the
freedom to enforce the law. Sometimes the greatest threat to public safety is friendly fire from
corrupt bureaucracies.
For those reasons and more, we law enforcement whistleblowers write you today to ask that you
take concrete steps in favor of law enforcement whistleblowers that will help restore timehonored
values of openness, honesty and transparency back to the federal service – and help those
entrusted with public safety and national security to do their jobs in a manner consistent with the
public interest.
A call to public service without necessary whistleblower protections can only at some future date
put public safety at risk.
Each one of us, together with our families, and sometimes our friends and colleagues, have paid a
heavy price.
While we law enforcement whistleblowers made critical disclosures that exposed corruption and
protected life at the expense of our own careers and financial security, our government peers took
the safe route by turning a “blind eye” and remaining silent, so that their careers could advance.
The steps we are asking that you take are both a necessary remediation for past wrongs and a
clear signal to those considering future retaliation of others. Other law enforcement officers will
not become – as we did not so long ago – victims of those bureaucratic wrongdoers who may still
feel that, somehow, they can continue to get away with their misdeeds.
The lack of protection currently afforded to whistleblowers means that federal workers – the front
line in the fight against fraud and waste, and best guarantee that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely
and government works effectively – must either sit on the sidelines or, forced to look over their
shoulders for signs of reprisal, risk their careers.
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Not only has the U.S. Office of Special Counsel fallen into ridicule under the stewardship of Scott
Bloch. The Merit Systems Protection Board, charged with adjudicating federal worker claims, has
found only two cases of illegal retaliation in 56 decisions on the merits, and less than two per cent
of cases since the Board was created. And only three whistleblowers out of 213 prevailed in
decisions on the merits in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals since October 1994, when the
current whistleblower “protection” law last was modified.
We the undersigned, law enforcement whistleblowers from agencies across the federal
government, know the special vulnerability people like us have in trying to do right by our
principles and by the country we love. And we still do not have any real safeguards against
retaliation. Instead, for protecting this nation, we and others face having our security clearances
yanked, as well as a rosary of humiliation, demotions, threats, punitive polygraphs and myriad
other intimidating measures. To be sure, these are meant not only to destroy our careers, our
physical and mental well-being, our marriages and the tranquility necessary for nurturing our
families in a wholesome environment, but also to serve as a warning to others – that the price is
high, too high, and the possibility for real vindication remote. Even if Inspectors General,
Congressional committees, the reputable news media, or other outside groups are fully able to
corroborate our complaints,
wrongdoers are mostly allowed to retain their posts, and many even receive promotions.
Ensuring true transparency and accountability means the enforcement of a zero-tolerance policy
for repression and retaliation and the guaranteeing of the legal rights of every federal employee.
We urgently need a law to protect law enforcement whistleblowers from retaliation, including
those in agencies where even paper protections do not exist. We ask you to make as one of your
highest priorities in the lame duck session, pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement
Act and end our second-class status compared to all other federal employees, contractors, and
private sector workers who report homeland security or national security flaws, threats to public
health and safety, violations of laws or regulations, or waste, fraud and mismanagement.
Finally, we respectfully request that for those of us who have lost jobs, reputations and significant
professional opportunities because we have stood fast in favor of your principles you have
maintained in your office, consideration be given to “making us whole” once again. In giving us
the opportunity to restore our shattered lives, others will know that better times are in store for
people who tell truth to power on behalf of the American people.
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Danielson
Former Police Officer
Department of Energy / Special Response Team
Steve Elson
Special Agent
Department of Transportation / Federal Aviation Administration
Robert J. MacLean
Former Federal Air Marshal
Department of Homeland Security / Transportation Security Administration /
Federal Air Marshal Service
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Spencer A. Pickard
Former Federal Air Marshal
Department of Homeland Security / Transportation Security Administration /
Federal Air Marshal Service
Coleen Rowley
Former Special Agent
Department of Justice / Federal Bureau of Investigation
Craig R. Sawyer
Former Assistant to the Special Agent in Charge
Department of Homeland Security / Transportation Security Administration /
Federal Air Marshal Service
Frank Serpico
Former Detective
City of New York Police Department
George R. Taylor
Former Master-at-Arms Senior Chief
Navy
Jane A. Turner
Former Special Agent
Department of Justice / Federal Bureau of Investigation
Glenn A. Walp, Ph.D.
Security Director
Department of Energy / Los Alamos National Laboratory
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