Sharp Criticism Follows Rejection of NSA Whistleblower’s Retaliation Claim

Thomas Drake, a National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower, who reported billions of dollars in waste and rampant civil liberties abuses by the NSA on a surveillance program called Trailblazer, has had his claim of NSA retaliation for whistleblowing rejected by the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office. The IG’s Office reviewed only 5 months of ten years of retaliation in Drake’s complaint, according to a Pentagon summary of the probe obtained by McClatchy.

The news comes with revelations that the DoD IG’s destruction of records in the Drake case triggered debate within the office, and that the very governmental officials charged with helping whistleblowers have had to blow the whistle themselves on the Pentagon Inspector General’s Office, after being mistreated for speaking out against the mishandling of whistleblower cases.

“I am stunned but not surprised to finally see official confirmation, thanks to GAP and the press, that the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General sold me out, after I became one of the most severely retaliated against whistleblowers in US history, and destroyed exculpatory information to cover it up,” Drake stated.

“Even after getting burned by the system, I attempted to use proper channels for reporting reprisal against me, which included criminal prosecution: the government painted me as an Enemy of the State. I am disappointed that a very dense, years-long whistleblower reprisal complaint resulted in a shoddy seven-page Report of Investigation limited to a 5 month segment of a decade-plus long ordeal.”

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