Obama Files More Anti-Leaker Cases in 2 Years than all Presidents in Last 40 Years

[The Straight Story]

Obama Files More Anti-Leaker Cases in 2 Years than all Presidents in Last 40 Years

The administration that promised more openness with government information has instead taken a tougher stance on whistle-blowing than any other White House in the last four decades.

Since taking office, President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice has filed criminal charges in five separate cases involving unauthorized distribution of classified national security information to the media. Before Obama, the government prosecuted a total of three cases during the previous 40 years.

The two highest profile cases being pursued currently involve WikiLeaks; one against founder Julian Assange and another against Army Private Bradley Manning who is accused of turning classified military and diplomatic files over to the whistle-blowing website.

A third case, begun during the Bush-era, is against former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake, who was charged with willful retention of national defense information after allegedly leaking information about waste in the government’s secret surveillance program to the Baltimore Sun in 2006 and 2007.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Obama_Files_More_Anti_Leaker_Cases_in_2_Years_than_all_Presidents_in_Last_40_Years_110309

[Indydem]

1. Open and Transparent.

Change you can believe in, dontcha know.

[mmonk]

2. Yep. No safe haven for whistleblowing with this administration.

[dennis4868]

5. that is true....

if you choose to ignore facts that make Obama look good when it comes to whistleblowing.....DUers are really good at that. :-(

[dennis4868]

3. Of course at DU you never get the full story....

when it comes to Obama...only knee jerk reactions.

Whisleblower Law Blog: http://employmentlawgroupblog.com/2011/01/04/president-obama-signs-food-safety-bill-protecting-whistleblowers-who-report-contaminated-food/

President Obama Signs Food Safety Bill Protecting Whistleblowers Who Report Contaminated Food
January 4th, 2011 · No Comments
Today President Obama has signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which imposes stricter food safety standards and grants the Food and Drug Administration greater authority to regulate tainted food. The FMSA was prompted in part by numerous instances of fatal food contamination that revealed insufficient regulation and oversight of food production, including outbreaks of contaminated peanuts, eggs, and produce. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that there are 76 million cases of foodborne disease each year in the United States, 5,000 of which result in death.

To ensure that workers can disclose food safety concerns without fear of reprisal, Congress included in the FMSA a robust whistleblower protection provision (Section 402) that protects workers engaged in the manufacture, processing, packing, transporting, distribution, reception, holding, or importation of food.

more here: http://employmentlawgroupblog.com/2011/01/04/president-obama-signs-food-safety-bill-protecting-whistleblowers-who-report-contaminated-food/

And here also:

The Washington Independent http://washingtonindependent.com/43923/obama-signs-federal-contractor-whistleblower-protection-law

Obama Signs Federal Contractor Whistleblower Protection Law

In February, TWI’s Daphne Eviatar called attention to the weak protections in the federal economic stimulus bill for whistleblowers who expose contracting fraud. At the time, Daphne wrote:

he stimulus bill fails to adequately protect employees of government contractors, who are in the best position to blow the whistle on fraud and abuse of taxpayer money. The Senate version of the bill also doesn’t protect federal employee whistleblowers — an odd oversight given that state and local employees are protected. And neither version explains how the government is going to ramp up its own hiring quickly enough to oversee and coordinate all these new government contracts.

Today, President Obama took a big step toward rectifying these problems when he signed the Federal Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 (pdf) into law, extending broad new protections for employees of federal contractors and subcontractors who shed light on fraud.

the rest is here....http://washingtonindependent.com/43923/obama-signs-federal-contractor-whistleblower-protection-law

CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHEN OBAMA DID THE THINGS DESCRIBED ABOVE TO PROTECT WHISTLEBLOWERS DU GAVE HIM NO CREDIT? Oh yes, because it would not fit the "DU Obama narrative."

[dionysus]

4. good find...

[MattSh]

7. You do realize...

that they are two totally different types of whistleblowers?

Hey, I have no problem with Obama protecting people who whistle blow on companies trying to rip off the government.

But I do have a problem with Obama prosecuting whistleblowers who try to expose fraud the government is perpetrating on the taxpayers.

[BlueIris]

8. But how do those actions "balance out" his prosecution of other leakers?

Dodging the questions about the significance of his protection of the intelligence community at all cost won't make them go away, you know. Nor will dodging the significance of the rest of his screw ups, or whining about the perceived unfairness of the "DU narrative."

[emulatorloo]

13. How do you know the CIA agent wasn't a Dick Cheney Plant?

Why do you think it is good for a State Department contract analyst to leak classified information to FOX NEWS?

[walldude]

9. LMFAO.. So the Obama administration

cheers on whistleblowers, as long as they aren't blowing the whistle on the government, and you use that as a DEFENSE and an excuse to whine about the DU narrative?
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Yeah, blow the whistle all you want, just not on us. Bwhahahahahahahahaha...

[JoeyT]

10. So according to what he does rather than what he says:

Whistleblowers are to be commended, unless the whistle they were blowing was a government whistle, then it's time to prosecute these scum.

Looks like he's getting all the credit he deserves.

[emulatorloo]

12. Worth noting that the original source for OP is POLITICO

Which is pretty much a Right Wing Pot Stirring Machine.

Probably 2/3rds of it will be refuted by tomorrow.

Here is the article cited by OP's source:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50761.html

[chill_wind]

6. He's got some political supporters working on it for him

in Congress:

Already, Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) have proposed a bill that would make it a crime to disclose the name of a classified U.S. source or informant. And Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has drafted legislation that would make it easier to charge and convict leakers.

An aide to Cardin called his measure “a balanced approach” and said it would enhance whistleblower protections, but critics warned Cardin’s bill edges close to Britain’s Official Secrets Act—a statute that makes it a crime to leak anything the government designates as secret.

(snip)

Aftergood said that if the law passed it would discourage what he termed “good leaks,” which expose government wrongdoing or abuse.

“The downside is very serious,” he said. “Should disclosure of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison have been a felony just because the information was classified at the time? Should the disclosure of domestic surveillance that violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have been a felony. I say, no. By failing to allow for the possibility of good leaks, the bill sweeps too broadly.”

(from the link)

[emulatorloo]

11. "has accused State Department contract analyst Stephen Kim of giving a Fox News reporter secret info

regarding North Korea."

AH THE OUTRAGE! HOW DARE THE OBAMA ADMINSTRATION GO AFTER FOX NEWS!"