National Security Watch: Disquieted whistle-blowers
Still, several lawyers agreed that there is not much room for appeal when a security clearance is revoked. Now, Zaid says, Shaffer– who is still employed by the DIA –is worried about getting fired from his job.
"We're trying to figure out what we can do," Zaid said, "which is not much." But he added that he will most likely appeal the clearance revocation. Zaid is also looking into filing a class action suit related to the revocations of security clearances in whistle-blower cases. "It's the mentality of how the executive branch works," he said. "You can show a pattern."
It's something that several other panelists had in common. Russ Tice worked as an analyst at the NSA, which houses the nation's international eavesdropping capabilities. He worked on some of the nation's most secret intelligence-collection projects. But while he was on temporary assignment at the DIA, he said, he became concerned that an analyst there might be spying for the Chinese government.
"She exhibited the classic signs," he said, including unauthorized foreign trips, apparently living well beyond her means, and voicing unusually strong negative opinions about Taiwan. But after raising concerns to counterintelligence officials over several years, he suddenly found his own career in trouble after an unusual emergency psychiatric evaluation concluded he was a psychotic paranoid. "How could something like this happen? I implicated a lady whose mother was well-connected," he said. He was sent to work at the NSA motor pool and eventually lost his security clearances.
Another panelist, John Cole, was an 18-year veteran of the FBI before he raised allegations that several bureau translators might be engaged in espionage, including at least one who worked on South Asian issues.
"Nobody wanted to hear what I had to say," he recalled. "I hand carried a letter to [FBI Director Robert] Mueller's office." He was reassigned several times, and after raising the cases with several senators, he was eventually pushed out of the FBI under a cloud. As with Shaffer and several other panelists, the FBI revoked Cole's security clearance after a few security allegations. Cole now works counterintelligence and counterterrorism issues for the U.S. Air Force, even though he says the FBI still treats him with disdain.
"I never thought I would be a whistle-blower," he said. "There has to be some way to get people to listen and make a change, because otherwise there will be another 9/11."
The conference was organized by Sibel Edmonds, a former FBI translator who was pushed out of the bureau after raising accusations of wrongdoing by other FBI translators. She has been barred from discussing the details of her case by the FBI, which denies her allegations and says the entire issue is classified. She created the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition www.nswbc.org to bring whistle-blowers like her together to push for legal reforms and bring together other advocacy groups.
"9/11 changed a lot," she said. "It was a big catalyst for national security whistle-blowers coming forward. These people go through the chain of command and Congress and usually the media as a last resort."
But government whistle-blowers, especially those in the national security area, do not enjoy nearly as much legal protection as their corporate counterparts. Many complain of significant retaliation. Her group now boasts at least 60 members, all of whom are current and former intelligence and law enforcement officials. Several remain undercover and cannot be identified publicly.
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