December 15, 2010 at 16:05:43 By Joan Brunwasser (about the author)opednews.com
My guest today is Jim Murtagh, a fellow editor at OpEdNews. Welcome, Jim. We're here today to talk about the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act that is currently wending its way through the final days of the lame duck session in Congress. Before we get started, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and why this is of particular interest to you?
Thanks, Joan. As you know, I'm been the whistleblower editor of OpEdNews since June, 2008. I'm a practicing doctor of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and the Medical Director of Sleepcare Eastgate Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Formerly, I was tenured Associate Professor at Emory University. I also have a background as molecular biology, and was the Director of the Molecular Core Facility of the VA in Atlanta. Before that, I worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
In 2008, I formed a group called the International Association of Whistleblowers (IAW), which I co-chair with Mike McCray. We work with prominent whistleblowers such as Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (aka the Insider) and advocates like Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project. Our goal has been to promote public safety and the public good by protecting Persons of Conscience, also known as whistleblowers.
In the last few years, we've seen huge catastrophes that could have been avoided if whistleblowers had been protected. The collapse of our industry, the banking crisis, the oil spill, you name it, could have been avoided if people of conscience had been listened to. The public really loses out when whistleblowers are silenced. Bad information led to wars. We want the public to be safer, our nation more secure, and an end to waste fraud and abuse.
Who's in the IAW? Does your group have a partisan slant, Jim?
We are bipartisan. Senator Charles Grassley has done a great deal for this movement. President Obama was the lawyer for one of the members of our group before he went into politics. The recent deficit reduction committee could agree on exactly one thing: that we need to end waste fraud and abuse. More than 10% of our national budget is estimated to be lost to fraud. Nobody but the fraudsters wants such a huge loss.
In medicine, preventable medical error is a leading cause of loss of life. But if a doctor comes forward to report the loss or try to improve the system, his career can be and usually is completely cut down by secret unscrupulous "peer reviews" behind close doors. So every patient in the country is put at risk because doctors are unable to speak out and ask for improvements.
I've written all of this in OpEdNews. OEN has been a great outlet for our materials, and we've made full use of it. We've pulled together more than 200 good government groups working together for transparency, transpartisanship and transcendent whistleblower protection.
If everyone is in agreement that whistleblowers should be protected, what's the problem? And what's the rush? Isn't any session of Congress as good as any other, in respect to this overwhelmingly popular bill?
It's all coming to a showdown this week. My friend Tom Devine has worked for over a decade to try and get protection for whistleblowers passed. Amazingly, he passed it many times. But one Senator repeatedly put a hold on the legislation, even after it was passed unanimously by the rest of his peers!
Now, we are racing to get it finally passed in this lame duck. We know we don't have a chance if the new Congress comes in and undoes our decade of work. Again incredibly, Tom Devine and the 200 united groups got the Senate to pass the WPEA again. The logjam is broken! No Senator has attached a hold. I can't believe this has gotten done during the lame duck with so many other national items on the agenda.
That's exciting and encouraging. Now what?
One final hurdle. The Senate bill now has to pass the House on an up or down vote. We're out of time. There can't be any change made to the bill. One change kills the bill. This all has to happen in the next several days.
Can you just take one second to explain why a change in the bill ends up killing it? What if it makes the bill better?
This is the end of the Congressional session. If the House and Senate pass different versions of the bill, they would have to have a conference in order to reconcile the differences. It's too late to have a conference; there's barely time for an up or down vote, so it's either a lame duck [session] or a dead duck.
Drs. Wigand and Murtagh at Congress
Why have whistleblowers been so critical throughout history to the running of a free society?
High drama. I'm not the best person to explain all of this. I hope you have time to talk to the leaders of the coalitions including POGO [Project on Government Oversight], Public Citizen, GAP [Government Accountability Project], all of the groups published in the letter last night. I am a foot soldier. I'm a doctor, not a lawyer. I know the impact this bill will have on the sick people I see every day. Integrity in medicine is not a luxury. It is essential. We want Marcus Welby in charge of your medicine, not Enron medicine.
Look at history. Civilizations fell when they did not listen to truth-tellers. Achilles should have listened to Cassandra. Caesar should have listened to the soothsayer. Britain should have listened to Patrick Henry and Thomas Paine.
We face incredibly challenges today. The first step is to know the truth. We can't solve the deficit unless we know the real facts about where money is going. We can't solve climate change when scientists are gagged. Patients deserve to know if they are getting quality care. Our nation can't afford to go to war based on false information. The Trojans and the Greeks were both destroyed in their futile war. What started that fighting? Nobody really knows, probably the Helen incident was all a hoax and a pretext, much like the WMD. Does it matter to the soldiers that ended up sleeping with the strengthless dead? They knew, as all armies know as they charge each other, that someone had blundered. Real national security rests on knowing the truth, and avoiding those blunders.
People someday will ask why America slept during the storms arising now. As Churchill would say, we are no longer in a period of indecision - we are entering a time of consequences. Passing the WPEA is the bill that makes possible all the other bills needed to safeguard the public and decrease the deficit.
Truth tellers are patriots. We want our country to continue to succeed. How can America thrive when truth tellers are gagged? Look upon the works past, ye mighty, and despair, unless we take a different path. It is an honor to be with the few brave people who are happy warriors in this great drama.
All that remains of Caesar is his salad. Now is the time to pass the WPEA for the USA!
Okay, okay, I'm sold! Can you give us more details about some of the IAW's whistleblowers and their stories?
Great question, Joan. GAP just wrote a white paper about whistleblower witch hunts. It really is a startling report- I hope that you can publish the entire report as a separate article on OEN.
I also suggest your readers watch the videos we've made over the years that are posted at GAP TV- more than 70 stories. Some are famous like Dr. Ellsberg, Coleen Rowley, Frank Serpico and Dr. Wigand. Others are unknown whistleblowers who have made a huge impact on our society, such as my good friend Michael McCray who predicted and might have been able to prevent the mortgage meltdown.
Many medical doctors are foot soldiers like myself in this story. Many can't be named because hospitals take draconian steps so that they are never heard from. I've written about this in OEN many times.
It's gratifying to know that OpEdNews had a small hand in this. What exactly have you found helpful?
Both Rob Kall and yourself have been huge supporters of the whistleblower movement. Since 2008, OEN has featured dozens of articles regarding the Whistleblower Protection Act, and our yearly meetings to promote the WPEA. Rob has been a featured speaker, and he also introduced us to many influential Congress people. We had one very good meeting with Congressmen from Michigan and Rob that was pivotal.
Terrific! And what about your role as the OEN editor for whistleblower news?
Yes, it has been extremely helpful in our goal to promote consensus. We actually have unanimous support now in the Senate. We were able to unite hundreds of good government groups.
Part of the record of OEN's role can be seen at my author's page:
You've used the Silver Screen in your efforts to push for the passage of the WPEA. How and why?
Yes, I love to write about the movies, and often find stories of the little guy up against the big guy. Michael Clayton and The Insider powerfully show the need for the WPEA. Although, getting to know Dr. Jeff Wigand I've found that he is completely different than the movie. The insider is a great movie, but it doesn't do justice to Dr. Wigand's incredible intellect. Also, Dr. Wigand is as funny as hell.
What about Harry Potter ? The connection to the WPEA there is less obvious.
I loved the shift midway into the series where Harry suddenly is leading a rebellion against McCarthy-like establishment forces. Even the Wizards of Hogwarts couldn't handle the truth.
Some movies did a disservice. The Informant was a particularly distorted view of an important case. It was a caricature.
A few more questions if you don't mind, Jim. I see that you have called Paul Revere the founding father of whistleblowing. Tell us about that.
Yes- Paul Revere rode through the villages blowing the whistle that the redcoats were coming! Frank Serpico likes that analogy.. he thinks whistleblowers should be called "lamplighters" because we are like the men in the North tower lighting the lamp so that Paul Revere can warn the country.
Which presidents have been most concerned with whistleblower protection? Is it a modern phenomenon?
Abraham Lincoln was the first to enact whistleblower protection laws so that the government would not be ripped off by crooked defense contractors. Then, Ronald Reagan modernized the laws to fight waste fraud and corruption. President Obama defended a whistleblower who won a Supreme court victory when he was in private practice.
So, there is a long line of American figures realizing that truth tellers must be protected. This is as patriotic and bipartisan as apple pie and hot dogs.
Sen. Grassley honored at first Whistleblower Week, DC, 2007
If that's the case, why has it been so hard to get this bill?
Well, a lot of people make a lot of money off fraud. Those people then contribute to the campaigns of politicians, and also judges.
Judges? Did you say judges?
Yes, I'm sorry to say that there are a lot of laws on the books already that don't get enforced. Judicial activism unfortunately has not helped us.
What do you mean by that?
Prominent judges are often biased in favor of economic interests of their regions, especially in states where judges must run for re-election. Judicial elections have gotten so expensive that it has forced judges to become politicians in robes.
That's depressing. Can you give examples?
I have too much respect for the courts of our nation to discuss any particular judge. However, the Wall Street Journal just ran an article entitled "Judges Gone Wild" about the unprecedented misconduct in the Georgia judicial system.
If the judges won't enforce the law, what good will passing laws do?
This is a debate in the whistleblower community. Laws have unintended consequences, loopholes and get twisted into anti-whistleblower laws. It is really hard to stand up to the defense attorney lobby, which has virtually unlimited resources. You can see what happens every day in the movie, The Insider. The lawyers of the tobacco companies were so powerful they could crush almost anyone.
So how do you keep going and stay sane?
It's better to light a candle than curse the darkness. We've got to do what we can.
How can you be optimistic in the face of all this?
I know in the end we will win. The WPEA is a step, but it won't be the end. Our country must combat fraud. What we are doing now is not sustainable. This country was not built for a day, but for our children and our descendants.
If we don't change things around, our country is not sustainable. We can't absorb disaster after disaster. We need open government and transparency. If the people are to govern, they must know the facts important to governing. Otherwise the USA, like Rome, will perish from the earth.
What about the need for secrecy? Aren't lives at risk?
Daniel Ellsberg once said that lives are always at risk. Secrecy itself puts lives at risk. How many lives were lost as a result of the WMD disinformation? How many lives were put in jeopardy by the highly preventable oil spill? How many lives are lost when fraudulent HMOs refuse to pay for standard medical care?
You raise heavy questions, Jim. Anybody ever tell you you should write a book?
I have. But I am not allowed to publish it.
Hold on. What about freedom of speech? Who won't let you publish?
Sorry, I can't comment.
What about reports that a member of your group was poisoned with arsenic?
Poisoning with arsenic is about the most painful torture imaginable. But I can't comment more than that.
So the risks are real.
Jeff Wigand had to be protected with armed guards. Karen Silkwood paid the ultimate price. Serpico was hung out to dry during a drug bust, apparently his partners abandoning him to be killed. Many members of our group have gotten death threats. Around the world, the situation is much worse. Whistleblowers outside the country are often killed.
Yikes! Why in the world would people voluntarily stick their necks out?
Soldiers die defending our country. My father fought in World War II. Not every heel was in Germany during that war. There are dangers within as dangerous as the armies our fathers fought. Imagine- if Coleen Rowley's report on security lapses leading to 9/11 had been listened to, our country would be immensely safer.
This is part of defending our freedom, and it is a privilege to do it. Though, I also agree with Patton- it is more patriotic to make the other sons-of-bitches die defending their fraud. Pardon my French- but Patton had that way about him.
I'm sure Patton would have been just as mad if fraudsters ripped his army off and he didn't have the material he needed to fight. If someone blundered and had him invade the wrong country he'd have torn the politicians a new one.
How can we learn more, Jim?
Tom Devine has just finished a new book on corporate whistleblowing, with a forward by Jeff Wigand. The Corporate Whistleblower's Survival Guide: A Handbook for Committing the Truth (BK Currents) It's going to be a blockbuster!
I bet! And how do we get the word out?
Steven Colbert, a lonely nation is waiting for you! I thought all of this should have been featured at the rally to restore Sanity. What could be saner than the truth!
Okay. You've given us a pretty thorough rundown on what's going on and what's at stake, Jim. What would you like our readers to do in the next few days?
1. Call your Congressman, write to him/her and demand swift vote in the next few days of the WPEA - this is urgent. Tell the readers that every hour counts.
2. Demand further protection and support additional whistleblower protection in the future- an uphill battle, but this is not the end of the struggle.
3. Support your co-workers, friends and others who speak truth to power.
4. Demand that journalists cover the whole truth.
5. Campaign finance reform for both elected politicians and elected judges.
We are simply asking for a nation of laws by the people, for the people and of the people.
Okay, folks. You've got your assignments. This bill is for you; don't doubt that for a moment. Thanks for talking with me, Jim. And, good luck to all of us on the fate of this bill. WPEA for the USA!
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POGO has a great site about what you can do:
Whistleblowers and Taxpayers Held Hostage by Tax Cuts
Tell your Representative and Senators to pass the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act (S. 372) now!
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Jim says: I'm proud to have founded the first Whistleblower Week in Washington:
http://www.vawbc.com/WWWschedule.pdf
Here are great photos of the whole group: Coleen, Jeff, me, Tom, Grassley. It was my honor to give Grassley an award:
http://www.vawbc.com/WWWJJM.pdf
International Paul Reveres Ride Again!
Whistleblowers, From Revere, to Lincoln to Semmelweis, Inspire Modern Truth Tellers at Second Annual Whistleblower Lobbying Meeting in Washington.
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good article on WPEA
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure (
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