JOHN KIRIAKOU: Memo to Biden - What About the Other Whistleblowers?
April 22, 2021
Darnella Frazier deserves national commendation. The same goes for Joshua
Schulte, Daniel Hale and Darin Jones, all of whom are in dire straits right
now.
George Floyd memorial in Minneapolis, Aug. 17, 2020. (Fibonacci Blue,
Flickr,CC BY 2.0)
By John Kiriakou
Special to Consortium News
Darnella Frazier is a whistleblower. She's an important one. Few Americans
will know her name, but we should all be thanking her.
Darnella is the 17-year-old who took the video of former Minneapolis police
officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd. That video has become the de
facto official record of Floyd's death. Where would we be without it?
The Minneapolis Police Department's initial account was entitled, "Man Dies
After Medical Incident During Police Interaction." It said that police had
been called to a Chicago Avenue South address for a "forgery in progress,"
that Floyd "appeared to be under the influence," and that he was "detained
without the use of any weapons." Almost every word in that statement was a
lie, of course. The weapon used was Derek Chauvin's knee. And thanks to
Darnella Frazier, we know the truth.
There's a legal definition of whistleblowing, which many of you may be tired
of seeing me write, but which nonetheless bears repeating. That definition
is "bringing to light any evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality, or
threats to the public health or public safety." That's exactly what
Darnella Frazier did, and because of that, we are now - finally - debating
national police reform in Congress.
In the hours after the jury's conviction of Derek Chauvin, President Joe
Biden telephoned the Floyd family to offer his support. He had said earlier
in the day that he was hoping for the "right verdict." Isn't that nice?
And it's all because of Darnella Frazier's whistleblowing.
Biden, though, isn't so responsive to the revelations of other
whistleblowers, many of whom are in dire straits right now. Biden can set
himself apart from his recent predecessors by supporting the work of
whistleblowers, especially national security whistleblowers. He could start
with the following people. But he likely won't.
Joshua Schulte & 'Vault 7'
Former CIA technical officer Joshua Schulte, who is alleged to have released
to WikiLeak sinformation known as "Vault 7," which showed that the CIA was
able to hijack the computers in our cars to cause us to drive into trees or
off cliffs, and was able to take over our smart TVs to turn them into
eavesdropping devices.
Schulte was tried on nearly a dozen espionage charges in federal court in
New York last year. He was found guilty of two more minor counts and his
jury hung on all other charges. Instead of releasing him pending retrial,
though, the judge ordered that Schulte be held at the notorious Metropolitan
Correctional Center in Manhattan, where FBI agents from the Biden Justice
Department recently raided his cell to search for additional evidence to
strengthen their case against him. He was denied access to a laptop computer
to assist with his own defense, and his complaints of a fully-lighted cell
24 hours a day and lack of heat were rejected.
Schulte complained further that he was being denied access to, and
visitation from, his family. The judge forced the Justice Department to
reverse that policy. Schulte still faces the prospect of spending the rest
of his natural life in prison. And Biden's Justice Department is pulling
out the stops to make sure that happens.
Daniel Hale & Killer Drones
Daniel Hale at peace protests in undated photo. (DIY Roots Action website)
Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale finds himself in a similar position. Hale
last month decided to plead guilty to one count of violating the Espionage
Act for telling an Intercept journalist that the U.S. was using drones to
kill civilians, including women, children, and elderly people, in violation
of both U.S. and international law.
The Trump administration went after Hale hard, and many of us thought that
the Biden Justice Department would back off his prosecution. But that has
not been the case. Hale will be sentenced on July 13. He faces up to 10
years in prison. And he still has additional charges to contend with.
Darin Jones & FBI Contracts
FBI whistleblower and former supervisory contract specialist Darin Jones is
yet another example. He told his superiors that Computer Sciences
Corporation (CSC) had been awarded a $40 million contract improperly because
a former FBI official with responsibility for granting the contract then was
hired as a consultant at CSC.
Jones maintained that this was a violation of the Procurement Integrity Act.
He made seven other disclosures alleging financial improprieties at the FBI,
and he was promptly fired for his whistleblowing. Sen. Chuck Grassley, has
gone to bat repeatedly for Jones and has demanded that the FBI reinstate him
and pay him all back pay owed to him since his firing. The FBI has ignored
him.
That's where we come back to Biden. He certainly knows these cases. He was
a senator for 36 years. He was chairman of both the Senate Judiciary
Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was vice president
for eight years. He understands what is involved in malfeasance in the
intelligence community and the foreign policy apparatus.
He can fix it.
Just don't hold your breath that he will, nice comments to the Floyd family
and about Darnella Frazier notwithstanding.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior
investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the
sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage
Act-a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a
result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
