Authored by Sharyl Attkisson, op-ed via The Hill,
I’m in my 30th year of covering national news and I’ve learned a hard truth about the federal government under numerous administrations. It’s a culture where truth-telling is frowned upon; coverup is rewarded and encouraged.
That helps answer a question many have recently asked about the FBI and our intelligence community: Why haven’t more whistleblowers come forward?
Several months ago, an FBI source told me that numerous whistleblowers had gone to members of Congress with information about the FBI and the Trump-Russia scandal, only to have congressional leaders turn their names over to the Department of Justice. True or not, this was the word on the street, and it had a chilling impact on other would-be whistleblowers.
The fact is, insiders know that things rarely turn out well for the whistleblowers. They and their families are targeted, attacked and smeared. They lose their jobs or chance to advance. Their health suffers. Their personal lives fall apart.
Meantime, they look over their shoulders and see that their truth-telling changed nothing. The guilty parties usually stay in their cushy jobs or are allowed to quietly retire with full benefits. Sometimes they’re promoted.
So it’s no surprise that, even though I believe the federal government is populated with mostly good people, they tend to keep their mouths shut and go along. After all, why come forward if your actions aren’t going to fix anything and the only result will be that your life is ruined?
There’s a simple yet dramatic way to change this longstanding culture, one that everyone should be able to get behind: A new whistleblower amnesty program.
It could start with the Department of Justice and intelligence community. Attorney General William Barr could set it up quickly, before the establishment has time to mount a full-force lobbying campaign to stop it.
Here are two potential aspects:
1. Amnesty period
Establish a 60-day amnesty period of time for anyone in the intel community to come forward and admit their own wrongdoing or blow the whistle on others.
Offer anonymity, legal representation and job security for the whistleblowers. Any whistleblowers whose names become known would fall under a new group of protected federal employees with independent overseers ensuring they do not suffer retaliation. In the alternative, a mutually beneficial separation could be negotiated.
Someone confessing to his or her own wrongdoing generally would be guaranteed immunity from administrative punishment or prosecution. The seriousness of the offense or crime would be weighed against factors, such as the information he or she provides about broader wrongdoing, and a mutually beneficial resolution for the individual and government would be negotiated.
2. Intermediaries
Establish trusted intermediaries through which the whistleblowers would work. “Trusted” means intermediaries trusted by the whistleblowers, not necessarily by the establishment figures whose policies and processes would be challenged. (The agency inspectors general are not universally trusted, and often are seen by insiders as part of the establishment protecting the agencies they oversee.)
Several ideas for intermediaries come to mind: the Obama-appointed Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko (who continues to serve under President Trump); the Project on Government Oversight, headed by Danielle Brian; attorney Victoria Toensing, who long has worked with whistleblowers; and Marcel Reid and Michael McCray of the National Whistleblower Center. There are many more possibilities; these are simply a few examples showing that it is possible to find resources likely to be considered trustworthy by various whistleblowers.
Those who do not come forward during the amnesty period, but who are implicated in wrongdoing, would face the full force of administrative action or prosecution.
For those who believe there is little wrongdoing and corruption inside the Department of Justice and our intelligence communities, this process would be speedy and nimble.
However, if there are more problems than we think, we should be prepared for a giant purge. If the idea works, it could become a model for rooting out problems within all federal agencies.
Such a process would change the longstanding federal culture that overlooks or encourages corruption, and lead to cleaner, more effective governing.
Logically, there should be few legitimate objections. All should be able to get behind a relatively simple plan to root out corruption and wrongdoing in our federal agencies.
But they probably won’t.
via zerohedge
The corruption in the Justice Department has roots to the Obama administration! While there are many good FBI agents the higher up yes men that will sell their souls are still there! Barr needs to appoint a special counsel and root out these corrupt people!
Clinton ???
FDR ???
LBJ ???
HRC, Pelosi, Schumar, Ohr, Brennon, Shifty eyed Schiff, and Comey as well as many more but it’s late. Nothing would please me more then to see the named indiividuals in handcuffs and orange jump suits.
The amnesty plan sounds good but don’t leave it here. SEND IT ON TO ATTY. BILL BARR. He is the one who needs to see it!
The whole situation stinks. The public only hears about 25 percent of all the corruption behind closed doors. I don’t even want to know anymore.
I would rather have a sister in a whore house then a politican brother.
LOL SORRY TO HERE THAT , HOW’S YOUR SISTER FEEL ABOUT THAT ?
NO MAN JUST KIDDING , BECAUSE IT’S REALLY SAD THIS SHIT IS GOING ON ,
WE ALL KNOW WHO THE LOW LIFE’S IN THE BACK ROOM PUSHING THEM & PULLING THERE STRINGS ! GIVE U ALL A HINT , [ H] & [ O ] BOTH ARE IN CONTROL OF THEM ALL !!
Donna, Soros is in control of “H” & “O”. He got “O” elected but failed to get “H” elected and this is why you see all that is going on now. Soros is spending millions to disrupt everything in the Capitol because his mission crumbled before his eyes and is. trying to regain control. “O”, “H” and the Democratic Party are all under his thumb and benefited
from his millions and media support
Time for Barr to go after the Corrupt ones in the FBI, DOJ, CIA and Others and also Protect the So Called Whistled Blowers from any Punishment and actually Give them RewardsC8d4
Excellent idea! Barr came out of retirement knowing he would be subjected to the evil spewed by the left and did it anyway. We finally have a few leaders in place who love this country and believe in the rule of law. Praying for their safety - may God guide them to the truth so that true healing can begin in this country.
Does this also apply to anyone who blows the whistle on the Clinton Cabal ? I can’t believe I just typed that ! Wow Look at all the phony investigating into the Hillary Secretary of State “Matter”
Exonerated by Comey Months before even questioned , She lied to the FBI and congress(both felonies i believe) She lied to the World about a video she claimed caused Benghazi and the Murder of an American Ambassador and three brave soldiers and so did Susan Rice FIVE TIMES ON NATIONAL TELEVISION And this is just the tip of the Iceberg and no one even got any punishment for it at all and these are all known facts out there in plain view for all to see so Why is there a need to have a “Whistleblower”protection act ? Do we need more two year investigations costing over 30 million dollars of taxpayer’s money? Just to find out that there js nothing there and no mention during the two years of the investigation about the”Notorious Clinton Crimes” which were handily swept under the “Rug” At this point a Question comes to mind , Does anyone Care ?
Gerry May 8, 2019 at 12:51 pm
Another theory is that some embyios never make the magical transition to being human. She is excellent evidence validating this theory.
If Attorney General William Barr does his job dominoes will fall and lead right to the fraud and usurper barack hussein obama and foot in the mouth Biden . Eight long years of an illegal obama administration will be exposed along with the people who helped put him ILLEGALLY in office .
Yes, He should question how it happened when the Democratic Party knew Obama was not eligible to be President nominated him anyway and then Nancy Pelosi obviously certified him
with a Certification of his birth rather than a Live Birth Certificate to all States except Hawaii.
Why not Hawaii? This was where he was said to be born but no such Live Birth Certificate
was ever produced by that State, rather a bogus one from the White House that failed forensic examination. You know what the penalty for treason is and not one person in Congress had the guts to point this out. Time for set terms in Congress to get rid of all the corruption there but have to figure a way to do this because members of Congress will no go along with it.
It sounds too reasonable for politicians to support.
And your last statement says it all. This is why we need term limits.
That corruption has been going on since the “50’s”……….They have gotten away with it for too many decades and they think they are magicians……..The CIA is just as corrupt………Time to flush the sewer of those that hate telling the truth……….
Barr has been a big part of that corruption since he advised Reagan . He is the lead corruptor and that is why Trump hired him. He has come to a very bad end for a last ditch effort of our financial eunuch, Trump to hide all his crimes. As usual, he has just given up his career for the biggest loser in the world.
Absolutely, It’s high time they are taken down. Then I think a bill should be passed limiting their time in the HOR or Congess. A two term limit should be the standard not making a career on the taxpayers dime like Ted Kennedy and John McCain and not accomplishing anything but accruing more debt because they refuse to accept the truth in Muellers report. They have not accomplished a single thing in government since they were appointed in January. Their only focus is President Trump, hate and revenge. They could give two shits about the american citizens and their constituents needs.
Sara I respectfully disagree with you. Everyone is entitled to an opinion and I respect that however AG Barr came out of retirement to take this position. The Democrats are just pissed because AG Barr held a press conference on the Mueller report before they had a chance to view it and put their spin on it to fit their narrative. I am aware that President Trump can be a bit crass (he’s a New Yorker for heavens sake) but quite frankly not many men could handle the scrutiny he has been under yet he works for free and donates his salary quarterly to various organizations. The way he has been attacked by the MSM, the Democrats, Tweets received by half of the nation not to mention the rumors and accusations of Russian Collusion all based on a Fake Dossier written by a foreign spy and was paid for by Hillary Clinton and the DNC that was then in turn hand carried over to the FBI by RINO John McCain. The FBI are supposed to investigate and confirm the information they receive but the did not. They then lied to FISA Court judges to obtain warrants to wire tap the Trump organization. Think about it the Obama Administration and Clinton were actually spying on a validated presidential candidate. They lied three more additional times to the FISA court judges and spied illegally.
Spy in closing I am really hoping that he does appoint a special council to investigate HRC on her emails, illegal campaign fund contributions just reported happened in 2006, Benghazi etc.
When I went to the polls to vote I only had two options for the presidential candidate andI do not know your age but I have not forgotten the scandals in the eighties and nineties, Perhaps you should review it and you might understand I voted Trump.
This information was compiled and confirmed by various reporters in the 1990’s when they actually only reported the facts with no bias at all. Go to www,prorev.com/wwindex.htm
Hopefully Barr already has his investigators in place? Treason is a very serious crime in any country in the world, most countries would simply march the guilty out of chambers and have them executed in the back of the building? I think Barr is a bit more civil than that, but i do believe and hope he will call in the Marshals and have these people removed from office. put them all in cages like in the Neuremburg trials so the public can see and hear these fools bury themselves.
How do you even find a Special Council with enough integrity to investigate the corruption in the Intelligence Services? People are afraid to come forward because they are instantly destroyed along with their entire families ala Gestapo Mueller! These are the tactics the Nazis used in the 1930’s and no one was safe from these Thugs! America has changed so much that I’m deeply worried for the future. We are seeing the the Political Class stops at nothing to remove the only President who does not play along and for that they wish to destroy him at any cost. Now they are trying to destroy AG Barr before he can bring any action against the traitors, We simply can’t let this happen!!
My prayer is that the “rule of law” that has made and kept this country one of the best ever known to mankind be restored and maintained by all the true patriots of this nation. GOD BLESS AND AMEN!!!
One of the ways they hide corruption is from the fbi,cia,nsa etc. is: they come up with “we can’t let that information out because it will put national security at risk” that is a lot of shit. How are we supposed to know one way or another?
The corruption goes back to the founding of the nation. Some of the “founding fathers” were actually first rate scoundrels. Notably, the scoundrels were John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton. There were others, nearly all bankers, and some of their crony business men; the corporate CEOs of those times. All were aided by another insidious group, the attorneys. Andrew Jackson put something of a damper on the corruption that controlled its growth until 1861. At the end of March 1861, the constitutional united states of America ceased to exist. The War of Northern Aggression that the government indoctrination centers (schools) wrongfully call the Civil War did NOT restore the Union, or anything else. After the military defeat, the states that had formed the Confederate States of America were ruled as an occupied country. They were then forced to “join” a private municipal corporation, incorporated in Delaware, that modeled itself after the republic to a great degree, but left the president with the ability to make law, and/or to change law by edict (executive order). Abraham Lincoln, with no authority whatever from anyone, issued Executive Order No. 1 on April 15, 1861. All sixteen thousand some that have been issued are numbered starting on that date. All are “legal” under the corporate by-laws. None are constitutional. In 1913, the corporate by-laws were amended to change the manner in which senators were chosen from that of an imitation republic to an imitation representative democracy. From that time forward unrestrained corruption was guaranteed. We would have, “the best government that money could buy.” That same year the foundation was laid, by those whom money had bought, for the fleecing of the people. (Federal Reserve Bank, a private for profit fraud) By 1963, all of the states had become subsidiary corporations of the federal corporation, and the local governments subsidiaries of their state corporation. The people were then entirely unrepresented. Honesty and civility in the halls of the de facto government came to what is now terminal velocity free fall into the abyss of a vast and unrestrained criminal enterprise.
AGUS can do that.
Maybe Barr is just letting all the rats poke their heads out of their holes before he traps them all . Keep the faith!
Barr won’t go much higher than Comey, if at all. Trump should gather them all, every man jack alive in the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and State Department and give them a two word speech:
YA FIYED!
The question is not what or how much corruption there is in the Justice system or Politician. The question is why so many people voted for this scrum bags in the first place. We have so many American that can’t even think for themselves much less think for others. My point is that many people are so uneducated and uninformed on what and how politician work. There are other that just plain dumb as a box of marble. Sorry, marble i didn’t mean to hurt your feeling. Anyway you slice it these demoncrap have been in office for so long that they really don’t gives a pile of shit to anyone but themselves. AG need to to check their status and background on each and everyone of these scrum demoncrap. If we don’t do it now America will be destroy and our system will no longer be there. Why? Because the legion will take over our mind, body and soul.