For quite some time now at daily kos, the term "whistleblower" has been used to describe various people including Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. So, when, for example, Manning is found guilty of 19 of the 22 charges leveled against him, with five of the guilty charges coming under the Espionage Act, an expectations bubble may exist. How can Manning be found guilty? Isn't he a whistleblower? Well, the simple answer to that is that he's not.
The federal government has an extensive statutory and regulatory framework dealing with whistleblowers. On top of that, there is federal case law all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. Procedures are in place to provide whistleblowers with (a) the mechanisms with which to shine a spotlight on illegality, corruption and waste in the federal government, and (b) the means to seek redress if they are discriminated against in the workplace for coming forward.
If you fail to follow these procedures, you are not a whistleblower.
To obtain protection under the Whistleblower Protection Act, a whistleblower must disclose facts or documentation showing what he or she reasonably believes to be a violation of law, rule, or regulation, some type of gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(8).
If your disclosure doesn't include this kind of information, you are not a whistleblower.
Moreover, the disclosure must be made to the appropriate person or entity. For people like Snowden and Manning, the disclosure must be made to the Office of Special Counsel, the agency's Inspector General or to “another employee designated by the head of the agency to receive such disclosures.” Special rules applied to them by virtue of their security clearances and because the information in their possession was designated classified for national defense purposes. See 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(8) (2006).
As you can see, none of the proper channels includes Julian Assange or Glenn Greenwald. Also, Manning and Snowden fail to meet the criteria for a whistleblower based on the type of information disclosed, Manning because his 700,000+ disclosure of classified documents was like he had fired an information shotgun randomly in a public square not knowing who he might harm ... 700,000 times, and Snowden because none of his disclosures have dealt with government illegality. The lesson from Snowden is that you cannot disclose classified information just because you don't like the policy.
Every federal employee has the statutory duty to report fraud, corruption and illegality in the government. See 5 C.F.R. § 2635.101(b)(11) (2011). And there are hundreds of specialized whistleblowing statutes dealing with just about every agency and on just about every important topic. For example:
15 U.S.C. §2651 Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA)
42 U.S.C. §7622 Clean Air Act (CAA)
42 U.S.C. §9610 Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA)
12 U.S.C.A. §5567 Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), Section 1057 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010
15 U.S.C. §2087 Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
42 U.S.C. §5851 Energy Reorganization Act (ERA)
49 U.S.C. §20109 Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA)
33 U.S.C. §1367 Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA)
46 U.S.C. §80507 International Safe Container Act (ISCA)
49 U.S.C. §30171 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21)
6 U.S.C. §1142 National Transit Systems Security Act (NTSSA)
29 U.S.C. §660, Section 11(c) Occupational Safety and Health Act
49 U.S.C. §60129 Pipeline Safety Improvement Act (PSIA)
42 U.S.C. §300j-9(i) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)
18 U.S.C.A. §1514A Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
46 U.S.C. §2114 Seaman's Protection Act, 46 U.S.C. §2114 (SPA), as amended by Section 611 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, P.L. 111-281
21 U.S.C. 399d Section 402 of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)
29 U.S.C. 218C Section 1558 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
42 U.S.C. §6971 Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA)
49 U.S.C. §31105 Surface Transportation Assistance Act (STAA)
15 U.S.C. §2622 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)
49 U.S.C. §42121 Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21)
And there is a website that allows you, as a private workforce employee, to know what to do if you see fraud, corruption, waste or illegality that involves the government or federal laws:
OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program enforces the whistleblower provisions of more than twenty whistleblower statutes protecting employees who report violations of various workplace safety, airline, commercial motor carrier, consumer product, environmental, financial reform, food safety, health insurance reform, motor vehicle safety, nuclear, pipeline, public transportation agency, railroad, maritime, and securities laws. Rights afforded by these whistleblower acts include, but are not limited to, worker participation in safety and health activities, reporting a work related injury, illness or fatality, or reporting a violation of the statutes.
You know, I've read over 100 diaries at daily kos purportedly dealing with whistleblowers and whistleblowing, and I have yet to come across one that provided information about the federal standard for whistleblowing and the procedures for whistleblowing. For that matter, I don't remember any diaries focusing on the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012, which President Obama signed into law last November, and which received praise from many quarters, including the Government Accountability Project and Climate Science Watch.
About this latest law, Climate Science Watch reported:
The legislation provides millions of federal workers with the rights they need to safely report government corruption and wrongdoing. "After a 13 year rollercoaster campaign, Congress unanimously has given whistleblowers who defend the public a fighting chance to defend themselves," said Government Accountability Project Legal Director Tom Devine. Among its numerous provisions, the bill creates specific legal protection for scientific freedom, providing whistleblower rights to employees who challenge censorship, and makes it an abuse of authority to punish disclosures about scientific censorship.
What we had over the years at daily kos was a segment of the population calling Manning a whistleblower and a hero, when, come to find out, there were available channels for him to report violations, and available procedures to follow. It turns out that Manning not only violated the Espionage Act, but he was also convicted of fourteen violations of other acts. And what does Manning now get at dkos? He gets a defense based on a logical fallacy: Look at what these other folks did who don't have to spend years in prison.
Instead, why not enlighten the public about the proper way to indict the Government's fraud, corruption and illegality? That seems like the responsible thing to do, and who knows, it may someday save a naive kid like Manning from years in the stockade.