The war on whistle-blowers

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."

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."

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