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The war on whistle-blowers

U.S. officials have long retaliated against employees who speak out, burying the
dangers they expose. Now, Congress wants to give whistle-blowers greater
protection -- but President Bush vows to stop it.
By James Sandler

Nov. 01, 2007 | If there is any doubt about how the Bush administration treats government
whistle-blowers, consider the case of Teresa Chambers. She was hired in early 2002, with
impeccable law enforcement credentials, to become chief of the United States Park Police. But
after Chambers raised concerns publicly that crime was up in the nation's parks, she was rebuked
by superiors and fired. When Chambers fought to regain her job through the legal system meant
to protect whistle-blowers, government lawyers fought back, and associated her with terrorists.
Despite a multiyear legal struggle, she is still fighting for her job.
Whistle-blowers have faced hostility not only under Republican administrations. During President
Clinton's tenure, Bogdan Dzakovic, an undercover security agent with the Federal Aviation
Administration, suffered retribution for speaking out about weak airport security -- three years
before Sept. 11, 2001. Dzakovic was passed up for promotion time and again, and today, he
says, he remains consigned to data entry duties for the Transportation Security Administration.
Every year, hundreds of federal workers sound the alarm about corruption, fraud or dangers to
public safety that are caused or overlooked -- or even covered up -- by U.S. government
agencies. These whistle-blowers are supposed to be guaranteed protection by law from
retaliation for speaking out in the public's interest.
But a six-month investigation by the Center for Investigative Reporting, in collaboration with
Salon, has found that federal whistle-blowers almost never receive legal protection after they take
action. Instead, they often face agency managers and White House appointees intent upon
silencing them rather than addressing the problems they raise. They are left fighting for their jobs
in a special administrative court system, little known to the American public, that is mired in
bureaucracy and vulnerable to partisan politics. The CIR/Salon investigation reveals that the
whistle-blower system -- first created by Congress decades ago and proclaimed as a cornerstone
of government transparency and accountability -- has in reality enabled the punishment of
employees who speak out. It has had a chilling effect, dissuading others from coming forward.
The investigation examined nearly 3,600 whistle-blower cases since 1994, and included dozens
of interviews and a review of confidential court documents. Whistle-blowers lose their cases, the
investigation shows, nearly 97 percent of the time. Most limp away from the experience with their
careers, reputations and finances in tatters.
Legal experts and lawmakers say the system is badly in need of reform. In fact, new legislation to
strengthen whistle-blower protections has been moving through Congress this year, with strong
bipartisan support, and is expected to come before the Senate this session. But in the latest
setback to the system, the Bush White House has vowed to veto the legislation, citing among its
criticisms a risk to national security.
"Whistle-blowers are treated like a skunk at a picnic, and there's no excuse for it," Sen. Charles
Grassley, the Iowa Republican, said after being provided with details of the CIR/Salon
investigation. Grassley has long sought stronger whistle-blower protections and is backing the
new legislation toward reform. "It's whistle-blowers who can help us truly understand problems at
government agencies. They stick their necks out to speak the truth. They don't take the easy way
out."
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"It's imperative that there are whistle-blower protections for civil servants when they see
something that is wrong," said Lynn Jennings, an attorney who served during the Clinton
administration as general counsel for the special whistle-blower court, known as the Merit
Systems Protection Board. "They need to know that if they speak out they are going to be
protected. Ultimately, it is to save lives, to save money, to save the integrity of the federal
government."
To be sure, some cases brought by whistle-blowers are frivolous. Recent cases included one in
which an employee sought protection after reporting missing candy bars at a government
commissary. In another case, a worker complained about colleagues using a drinking fountain as
a spittoon. One government worker was discovered by investigators to have fabricated his entire
complaint. Most such cases, however, are weeded out of the system.
But the apparently legitimate cases -- some involving serious issues such as aviation security or
tainted meat in the U.S. food supply -- have long been undermined by a lack of resources and
case backlogs. And legal precedents created by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in
Washington -- the sole appeals court that hears and interprets the law for the special whistle-
blower system -- have made it virtually impossible in recent years for whistle-blowers to win their
cases.
The beginnings of modern whistle-blower protections can be traced to the U.S. Senate floor in
April 1951, when the junior senator from California proposed a new law, telling his fellow
lawmakers that "it is essential to the security of the nation and the very lives of the people" that
employees do not become "a parade of yes-men for administration policies." The senator was
Richard Nixon, and his proposed law eventually stalled. It might have faded away forever, if not
for the scandal that shook public confidence in the federal government under Nixon's own
administration two decades later.
In the wake of Watergate, Congress passed the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. It established
the Office of Special Counsel, with a staff of investigators to look into complaints of retaliation
against employees who spoke out. The new law also created the Merit Systems Protection
Board, the administrative court with a bipartisan panel of three judges, and it assigned a special
federal appeals court to interpret the law in the most complex cases.
But year after year, whistle-blowers complaining of retaliation lost their cases. Some faced
insidious tactics by their co-workers and superiors.
Joseph D. Whitson Jr. was a civilian chemist in the Air Force who spoke out about superiors
falsifying drug test results. His desk was moved to a room in the basement and his job duties
stripped.
Vernie Gee Sr. was an agricultural inspector who sounded the alarm about tainted meat in the
U.S. food supply and inspectors taking bribes from slaughterhouses. Gee was beaten up by a
plant worker during an inspection -- and then reprimanded by superiors for fighting.
George Randall Taylor, a chief of police at a Navy base in Bermuda, exposed coverups of rapes
on the base. He was then forced into a psychiatric hospital.
Before Teresa Chambers was fired from the Park Police, she found used condoms on her car,
and someone pepper-sprayed her office door.
"One of the great tricks in whistle-blowing is to get rid of someone for a reason that doesn't seem
like it was for whistle-blowing," said Fred Alford, a professor of government at the University of
Maryland. "You do all the things you can to get someone to quit, to get them enraged, to get them
to act out. Then you can fire them."
Government managers and attorneys almost always argue that measures taken against whistle-
blowers were justified because of bad behavior or poor performance by the employee.
"It is usually not that hard for [agencies] to build up a case against somebody if they want to," said
Elaine Kaplan, who headed the Office of Special Counsel under President Clinton. "They start
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looking at your e-mails, they start nitpicking you … It is difficult to prove whistle-blower
retaliation."
Details of Chambers' case reflect that struggle.
Prior to becoming chief of the Park Police, Chambers had a distinguished 28-year career in law
enforcement. She was a Republican, was eager to serve the nation in the wake of the 9/11
terrorist attacks, and would be the first woman to lead the force. But her pedigree apparently
would no longer matter once her public comments created political embarrassment for the Bush
administration.
After 9/11, the administration feared terrorist attacks on high-profile U.S. landmarks, and ordered
Chambers to double the number of officers standing guard at icons like the Statue of Liberty and
those on the National Mall in Washington. But the Park Police force already faced staffing
shortages, and Chambers was forced to pull officers who were patrolling other national parks,
leaving those areas vulnerable. Drug dealers soon moved in, and rapes more than tripled. In
August 2002, when one of Chambers' patrolmen was handling a traffic accident with insufficient
backup, he was run over and killed.
In the fall of 2003, when a Washington Post reporter contacted Chambers for a story about the
growing peril in the parks, she responded candidly. The Park Police, she told the Post, needed
twice as many officers and millions of dollars to cover overtime expenses. She said officers had
been working grueling 12-hour shifts, and department morale was plummeting. "My greatest fear
is that harm or death will come to a visitor or employee at one of our parks," she said.
Retaliation against her began almost immediately. Chambers' supervisor, Donald W. Murphy,
then the deputy director of the National Park Service, ordered her in an e-mail to never again
"reference the President's '05 budget under any circumstances" and summoned her to his office.
In court documents later filed by Chambers she described how armed federal agents suddenly
appeared and surrounded her in Murphy's reception area, and took away her gun and badge.
She was then paraded in front of media when escorted to another building to collect her
belongings.
During the course of her case, Bush officials and attorneys attacked Chambers from multiple
angles, documents show. One high-ranking official at the Interior Department, which oversees the
Park Police, said Chambers was no longer "trustworthy" and that she "potentially endangered
large numbers of citizens" by speaking to the media. Murphy, her former boss, said Chambers
had been "communicating to the criminal elements," signaling to them that national parks had
become their "free territory to exploit." A lawyer for the Bush administration asserted that
Chambers had made reconnaissance operations easier for "America's enemies in the world."
In a recent interview, Chambers questioned whether raising concerns about an understaffed force
angered Bush officials who were talking up policies for securing the U.S. homeland. "Was it just a
bad day at the White House where I said we needed more officers, when somebody else was
standing at a podium saying we've never been safer?" asked Chambers, who now teaches part-
time at Johns Hopkins University and maintains a Web site documenting her case. "I don't know."
One advocacy group that assists whistle-blowers, the Government Accountability Project in
Washington, has scrutinized past rulings to determine how whistle-blowers fare. GAP's
pioneering work showed that whistle-blowers seldom win. But until now, no comprehensive study
has been done on whistle-blower cases. The Merit Systems Protection Board does not
specifically keep track of cases, but using records obtained through the Freedom of Information
Act, the CIR/Salon investigation reviewed 3,561 whistle-blower cases filed since 1994, when the
Whistleblower Protection Act was last revised by Congress. The cases often traversed a costly
and drawn-out series of legal steps prior to a decision. During the Clinton administration, in cases
from 1994 to 2000, whistle-blowers won only 3.5 percent of the time. During President Bush's
tenure, from 2001 through June 2007, 3.3 percent of whistle-blowers won. Most whistle-blowers
spent several years fighting in court.
"Whistle-blowers are overly confident in the law, but in most cases there is no recourse," said
University of Maryland's Alford, who has studied the issue. "We have this idea of whistle-blowers
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from television -- from '60 Minutes,' from Time magazine. But most whistle-blowers live and die in
anonymity."
"If you are looking at that record and advising [a whistle-blower], I would suggest seeking out a
different venue," said Robert G. Vaughn, a law professor at American University who has written
extensively about the Merit Systems Protection Board.
Beth Slavet, a former judge on the Merit Systems Protection Board during the Clinton and Bush
administrations, said of the court's record: "It has a chilling effect. Why would you bring a case
that you don't think you can win?"
The system's track record has left some whistle-blowers wondering whether their cases were
tainted by partisan politics. In the 2003 case of Craig F. Johns, a former special agent for the
Department of Veterans Affairs, confidential court documents obtained by CIR and Salon reveal
such meddling -- by a Republican judge on the court itself.
Johns' case, which alleged forged training records and anti-gay harassment inside his agency,
had crawled through the whistle-blower courts for seven years. In 2003, his case reached its final
appeal at the Merit Systems Protection Board. At the time there was a vacancy on the bipartisan
three-judge court. Johns' case was being heard by a Democrat and a Republican -- two judges
with sharply different interpretations of the whistle-blower law. Beth Slavet, the Democrat, was a
former staffer for Sen. Ted Kennedy and had an extensive career practicing labor law. Her
Republican colleague, Susanne T. Marshall, had never been an attorney or even graduated
college, but had been appointed to the court after a long career as a Republican staffer on the
Senate committee for governmental affairs.
The two judges had in fact battled for more than three years over the Johns case, the court
documents show, clashing over, among other things, how to address Johns' claims of anti-
homosexual harassment. Discrimination laws do not cover sexual orientation, but Slavet felt
Johns' case underscored such a need and drafted a decision that would grant Johns' case a new
hearing. But Marshall disagreed, and she used a procedural tactic to stall the case until an
incoming Bush-appointed judge arrived to replace Slavet, whose term was almost over.
Slavet wrote a scathing memorandum to Marshall in response: "It is fundamentally unfair to the
parties and destructive of the process to hold up these cases pending my departure and Mr.
McPhie's confirmation," Slavet wrote in the memo dated Feb. 25, 2003, referring to the incoming
Bush appointee, Neil McPhie. Soon after, McPhie joined the court and Slavet's term ended.
Marshall and McPhie decided the Johns case that August: "Corrective Action Denied."
It was not the only case that Marshall stalled, documents show. There was the case of Lori A.
Sutton, a Department of Justice secretary who alleged retaliation after filing an equal opportunity
complaint; and the case of Valerie E. Johnson, a Department of Defense commissary worker who
alleged retaliation after exposing the reselling of food items that had been picked at by rats.
Marshall and McPhie also ruled against these whistle-blowers.
Marshall is no longer with the court and could not be reached for comment. But the current
general counsel of the Merit Systems Protection Board, Chad Bungard, disputed that Marshall's
stalling of whistle-blower cases should be chalked up to partisan politics. "This could be totally
innocuous," Bungard said. "I can't speculate on what Marshall's intent was."
Craig Johns has since left government work and opened a rescue ranch for injured animals in
Texas, naming it the Ranch of Last Resort. "It's very disturbing, to learn about this political
interference," he said recently. "This is why I prefer the company of animals to people."
Johns' case, like many others, never made it to the Federal Circuit Court in Washington, the only
court that can preside over appeals of whistle-blower cases beyond the Merit Systems Protection
Board. Through a series of precedent-setting rulings -- which are binding for the entire whistle-
blower legal system -- the judges on the Federal Circuit Court have interpreted the law in recent
years to the point where, as one investigator from the Office of Special Counsel put it, whistle-
blowers must "utter magic words" to get protection.
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Whistle-blowers are often employees who, during the course of their jobs, notice violations of
rules or laws; before going public, they may casually mention the wrongdoing to a boss, or write a
memo expressing the need to address a danger to public safety. Teresa Chambers is one
example of a person who first raised concerns within her department, to no avail. But legal
precedents created by the Federal Circuit Court have rigged the odds heavily against such
employees.
One ruling determined that employees will not be protected if the nature of what they disclose is
"debatable" by others. Another precedent says whistle-blowers won't be protected if the coverup
they disclose is common knowledge in the office. Another precedent strips protections for whistle-
blowers who complain only to their direct boss but to no one higher up the chain. Perhaps the
most notorious precedent, known as "Huffman," says whistle-blowers will not be protected if it is
their job to scrutinize safety issues or mismanagement, and they speak out about a coverup --
like meat inspectors who discover a coverup of tainted beef in the food supply, or law
enforcement officials who speak out about dangers to public safety.
In other words, these legal precedents have made the law more beholden to murky workplace
protocols than to the substance of the allegations, even when those allegations concern serious
public safety issues and are proven to be true.
"The problem is that no whistle-blower knows a damn thing about whistle-blowing before they do
it. You can't go back and repackage the disclosure to meet the requirements of the law," said a
senior Pentagon official who specializes in employment law. The official spoke on the condition of
anonymity, fearing that he would not be protected from retaliation if he were openly critical of
whistle-blower protections. "Never have your name in print," he said.
Another government lawyer, who insisted on anonymity for the same reason, characterized the
Federal Circuit Court's view of whistle-blowers as juvenile. "No one likes a tattletale," he said. "It's
that simple."
The Federal Circuit Court's longest sitting jurist, Haldane Robert Mayer, was appointed by Ronald
Reagan. Prior to his appointment, Mayer had been the acting U.S. special counsel -- the chief
whistle-blower investigator. But Mayer resigned from that position in 1982 after the Office of
Special Counsel was accused of holding seminars for political appointees and agency managers
-- to teach them how to fire whistle-blowers effectively within the confines of the law. The scandal
led Congress to strengthen the whistle-blower law, but it did not stop Reagan from appointing
Mayer to the bench.
"Judge Mayer is one of the most significant people in the legal system to translate the whistle-
blower law passed in response to his own [alleged] abuses of power," said Tom Devine, legal
director for the Government Accountability Project.
Judge Mayer did not respond to an interview request.
In fact, many whistle-blower cases never even make it to the court. They first go to the U.S. Office
of Special Counsel, the agency charged with investigating whistle-blower complaints. But the
agency has long been considered a failure, due to a chronic backlog of cases, lack of resources
and poor leadership. Year after year, the special counsel attempts to justify the existence of the
agency by publicizing a handful of whistle-blower cases. "You make examples of high-level and
mid-level officials to let them know that they are not going to get away with it," explained Scott
Bloch, the current special counsel, during an interview in September.
But in reality, only 5 percent of employees said they were satisfied with the treatment their case
received from the Office of Special Counsel, according to an agency survey released last year.
Whistle-blowers find themselves waiting in line behind hundreds of other employees who file
complaints each year.
Elaine Kaplan, the Clinton-era special counsel, left office with more than 1,000 cases backlogged.
"We received a tremendous amount of complaints there," she said. "To tell you the truth, we were
starting to move cases more quickly toward the end, but no one wants their case to move quickly
to a bad conclusion."
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Since Bloch's appointment by President Bush in 2003, the office has been fighting critics from
both political parties, going round and round over allegations of everything from purging
backlogged cases to discriminating against gay whistle-blowers. Bloch himself has for two years
been under investigation for retaliating against his own employees.
"People have the right to file complaints if they want to and lawyers can say anything they want,"
Bloch said when asked about the whistle-blower complaint against him. "But it's all fiction -- all the
stuff is made up!"
The new whistle-blower law making its way through Congress, called the Whistleblower
Protection Enhancement Act of 2007, is no panacea. But crucially, say its backers, it would allow
whistle-blowers to appeal their cases in other U.S. circuit courts, whose judges may have a
different interpretation of the law than those on the Federal Circuit Court. And prior to that stage,
if the Merit Systems Protections Board didn't act on a case in a timely manner, whistle-blowers
would be able to get a jury trial at a federal district court. Moreover, the legislation would seek to
include whistle-blowers in the national security realm, instead of having to rely on more secretive
internal procedures at the FBI or other law enforcement and intelligence agencies for recourse.
"These changes would help whistle-blowers appeal negative decisions and hopefully increase the
likelihood their complaints of retaliation would be heard," said Sen. Grassley, who is co-
sponsoring the legislation.
Briefed on the results of the CIR/Salon investigation, Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii,
who introduced the legislation, said: "What these statistics show is a real need to strengthen
protections for federal whistle-blowers and close loopholes in the law created by judicial decisions
that are inconsistent with congressional intent. It is important for our laws to protect the rights of
these individuals who come forward with legitimate claims."
But the Bush administration has vigorously opposed stronger whistle-blower protections. In a
confidential e-mail from 2006, obtained by CIR and Salon, the White House registered strong
objections to a congressional committee that was reviewing a similar law to protect whistle-
blowers drawn up last year, saying the "excessively overbroad definition of whistleblowing ...
forbids using any common sense." And President Bush has said he will veto the new legislation
moving through Congress, saying in a two-page Statement of Administration Policy that the new
law would "increase the number of frivolous complaints and waste resources" and could
"compromise national security."
Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for the Bush administration, declined to elaborate on the
administration's position. "There is a policy that we let the Statements of Administration Policies
speak for themselves," said Kevelighan.
But for the thousands of federal employees who have descended into the bewildering world of
whistle-blowing, there is only deep frustration or bitter resolve.
"My only regret is the stress that it placed on my family, my wife, myself," said Craig F. Johns, the
Veterans Affairs special agent whose appeal was blocked by Marshall, the Republican judge. "I'm
still suffering the economic and psychological consequences, but I will never regret speaking the
truth."
"I grew up believing that federal service was an honorable profession," said Bogdan Dzakovic,
the former undercover FAA investigator, who remains a federal employee, unhappily waiting for
his pension. "I realized that [blowing the whistle about security problems] was a totally pointless
exercise."
Teresa Chambers, the former Park Police chief, is still trying to appeal her case to the Federal
Circuit Court, nearly four years after her firing. "Growing up in municipal policing, it was the
expectation that we would be candid with the community that we served," Chambers said. "I was
aghast to find out that [in the federal workforce] candor was not only not expected, it was in this
case forbidden."