Security bill bars blowing whistle

By Audrey Hudson
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

June 22, 2002

A provision in the bill seeking to create a Homeland Security Department will exempt its employees from whistleblower protection, the very law that helped expose intelligence-gathering missteps before September 11.

The legislation now before Congress contains a provision allowing the director of the proposed agency to waive all employee protections in Title V, including the Whistleblower Protection Act. The act protects government employees from retaliation or losing employment for speaking out on waste, fraud and abuse.

FBI Agent Coleen Rowley blew the whistle on her agency for mishandling a probe of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of conspiracy in the September 11 attacks. Mrs. Rowley testified before a Senate panel earlier this month that a "climate of fear" prevented an aggressive investigation of the man whom authorities believe was to be the 20th hijacker.

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