tagged w/ Homeland Security
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Dig the colors. Big Brother is closing down sites to flex his muscles.
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POGO has long been a supporter of whistleblower Robert MacLean--for good reason. Thanks to Bob, Americans can feel safer stepping on an airplane. In 2003, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) attempted to remove air marshals from "high-risk" flights when there was a heightened intelligence warning of hijackings. MacLean, an air marshal himself, disclosed this dangerous cost-cutting plan. As a result, he was fired.
Now, MacLean only has one more chance to appeal the ruling made by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), which wrongly decided in July that his case did not constitute retaliation. As POGO has pointed out before, this ruling was flawed for several reasons, and MacLean deserves all legal protections afforded to a whistleblower.
Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) plan to send a friend of the court brief to MSPB that defends MacLean’s retaliation claim. POGO is also encouraging other Members of Congress to do the same, and calling on our readers to get in touch with their Members of Congress about this issue.
MacLean was retaliated against in part because of a policy loophole that essentially amounts to ex post facto law. Like many whistleblowers, MacLean tried to make the disclosure inside his agency but was rebuffed, so he went to the press. Three years later, TSA marked his disclosure—which was an agency-wide, unencrypted text message—as Sensitive Security Information (SSI). TSA then retroactively charged MacLean for mishandling this newly-marked text message by delivering it to the media.
According to MSPB, it basically didn’t matter whether the information was marked SSI or not because MacLean should have known better. But good government groups don’t agree with this so-called logic.
“The Board’s decisions mean that virtually anything can be pseudo-classified and gagged by agency regulations years after the fact. That is a one-two punch to knock out whistleblowers,” said Tom Devine, the legal director at the Government Accountability Project (GAP).
MacLean’s case also demonstrates the weaknesses inherent in current whistleblower protections. According to MSPB, TSA does not dispute that MacLean is a whistleblower who was fired after he sparked congressional action and stopped a potential homeland security risk. However, MSPB did say there are still no whistleblower protections available to him under the law—due, once again, to that tricky retroactive charge.
Before MacLean was fired, he had an immaculate record of 14 years of military and federal civil service. He is a whistleblower who should be rightfully honored and protected for upholding the public’s interests and safety. We encourage you to express your support for his final appeal.
"Freedom of speech and whistleblower protections are meaningless if some TSA bureaucrat can retroactively deem a disclosure 'sensitive,'" MacLean said. "If I lose, large numbers of would-be government whistleblowers may opt to stay silent."POGO has long been a supporter of whistleblower Robert MacLean--for good reason.... more
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Michael Collins Piper, veteran JFK researcher and author of "The Final Judgement," exposes the storyline and official government version of a potential assassinate plot of President Obama, or a future president in the book "In the President's Secret Service" by New York Times best selling author Ronald Kessler.
Kessler goes on to blame a future assassination plot on affirmitive action, the Secret Service's hiring of too many unqualified African-American agents, and also the Obama administration for their lapses in security.
Kessler is in effect creating a kind of plausible deniability on behalf of the government along with a possible "official government version" of the event.Michael Collins Piper, veteran JFK researcher and author of "The Final... more
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The plans for a Homeland Security bureaucracy were put together years before 9/11 and only able to be publicly announced and endorsed after the terror attacks of 9/11.
In the years after 9/11 we have seen a full scale police state begin to be initiated with the Department of Homeland Security at the forefront of the destructive, anti American police state policies that now run rampant throughout the country.
Just five days after 9/11, Gingrich appeared on live TV to essentially plug the idea of Homeland Security a full 14 months before it came into existence.The plans for a Homeland Security bureaucracy were put together years before 9/11 and... more
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While it is reported that intercepting unencrypted drone communication data streams had first been known to US military since the mid-1990's, this exploitation continued on into 2009 where militant laptops were found with drone data and unencrypted video feeds from Predator drones...
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18778-How-the-RQ-170-Was-Hijacked.htmlWhile it is reported that intercepting unencrypted drone communication data streams... more
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If we we consider the Occupy movements across the globe, demonstrating and protesting against income inequality and inequitable policies around commerce and taxation, the persistent cart vulnerability could become a seemingly benign form of occupation that could develop into a serious threat...
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18630-OWWWS-The-Other-Form-of-Occupy.htmlIf we we consider the Occupy movements across the globe, demonstrating and protesting... more
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Have we now arrived at the point in obtaining medical care that in addition to looking into the medical practitioner's experience and confirming they are compliant with HIPAA, that we now must review their data handling policies before choosing a health care provider?
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/18525-Are-Your-Health-Records-at-Risk.htmlHave we now arrived at the point in obtaining medical care that in addition to looking... more
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