Deep Throat right to blow the whistle

Whistleblowers continue to comment on the revelations surrounding Deep Throat. Former CIA Operations Officer Lynne Larkin tells Deep Harm:

I feel that at the time Felt was there at the FBI, it was so obvious how deep the corruption went and how dangerous the players were that there was little to no chance that he could do what he did officially. Blowing the whistle on the president is quite a level to contemplate, and I believe he was right in considering that personal physical harm was a threat. I think with that in mind, there is no question he did the right thing and could now help us in our cause.

Linda Lewis, a Department of Agriculture whistleblower, agrees with Larkin's conclusions, and adds:

The streets are littered with the careers of civil servants who took their concerns up the chain of command. Those who are not immediately fired often are subjected to daily harassment and humiliation. Federal laws have proved useless to stop the slaughter, and the Bush administration has opposed new legislation that would provide real protections.

Adding to the perils of public whistleblowing, the current administration has threatened criminal prosecution of employees at the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies for releasing information, even when it is not classified. Realistically, truthtellers have only one option for exposing serious abuses of justice and threats to public safety: go to the press anonymously to provide information that may trigger a public investigation.

The response of the Bush administration and many conservatives has been to disparage reporters who use such sources - even though the Bush administration is itself a frequent source of "anonymous" commentary. Even more alarming is a spate of prosecutions of reporters who refused to identify their anonymous sources for grand jury investigations. Because grand jury investigations are easy to initiate, there is great potential for abuse of the process.

The great writer Henry David Thoreau said, "It takes two to speak the truth: one to speak, and another to hear." But, in today's America, it takes four: one to speak, one to publish, one to hear - and one to defend the first two in court.

New laws to protect whistleblowers and the journalists who report their disclosures are critical to ensuring integrity and efficiency in government. For, as the 9/11 investigations showed, agency mismanagement can have grave consequences for the nation.

Motive of a whistleblower

In the rush to cover the Deep Throat story, few publications have attempted to show its implications for other whistleblowers. One perhaps surprising exception is BusinessWeekOnline, which features a commentary by Patricia O'Connell.

In Deep Throat's Lessons for Whistleblowers, O'Connell accurately describes the difficulties whistleblowers typically suffer, but dismisses the notion that whistleblowing is either useless or wrong-headed. She writes, "When good men and women do something true and right, evil is sometimes vanquished. That's the highest ideal that a whistle-blower can aspire to, even if others may question his or her motives."

Human beings are complex creatures; whistleblowers themselves often are unclear about their motives. As long as one of the motives is to serve the public interest, and the allegation me rits such concern, blowing the whistle is justified and commendable. When less honorable motives are involved, the whistleblower is affected more than the public. The long, dark journey of a whistleblower is very hard to bear without a worthy and compelling motivation.

That fact that many whistleblowers, having been through a meat grinder of harassment, legal procedures and career destruction, say they would blow the whistle again suggests that whistleblowing is not generally an act of betrayal, but one of devotion. The motives of convicted Watergate conspirators and supporters, who attack Deep Throat and other whistleblowers as "traitors," are less admirable.

Criticisms of Felt ignore reality

Following the identification of "Deep Throat" as former FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, a number of current and former government officials have harshly criticized Felt, claiming that he should have gone through channels with his concerns rather than express them secretly to Washington Post reporters.

Among the critics are Bush administration officials, Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense. Myers, writes Government Executive, claims workers have access to telephone hotlines and whistleblower laws to protect them, and Rumsfeld says there is an obligation to report wrongdoing "to the Department of Justice or to the proper authorities in the department."

The remarks have outraged whistleblowers and whistleblower advocates, who say the remarks fail to acknowledge the realities of government service. Tom Devine, legal director for the Government Accountability Project, told Government Executive, "Whistleblowers have neither viable rights nor respect for challenging conventional wisdom throughout the executive branch."

Indeed, it is widely known that the Whistleblower Protection Act (WPA) of 1989 fails to provide any real protection for federal employees covered by it. And, the law does not apply at all to employees of the FBI and other agencies with intelligence responsibilities.

As recently as April 28, a coalition of national security whistleblowers met with Congressional representatives to explain the need for new and stronger legislation, particularly for employees with security clearances. Such legislation has been proposed; but, the Bush administration refuses to give its support.

Whistleblower Teresa Chambers (tcchambers@honestchief.com) offered Deep Harm weblog the following observation regarding Felt. "If the system had worked, he [Felt] would have never felt it necessary to be "deep throat" but could have used the power of his position to get the job done."

Chambers' experience as a government whistleblower is described on her website, www.honestchief.com.

FBI whistleblower comments on Deep Throat

Deep Harm has received a number of comments from whistleblowers regarding the revelation that "Deep Throat" is W. Mark Felt, former Deputy Director of the FBI. Some staunchly defended Felt, but others reported feeling conflicted. Jane Turner, also an FBI whistleblower, has given permission to publish her "Open letter to W. Mark Felt," below.

Dear Mr. Felt,

You did the right thing in protecting the FBI from obstruction of justice by the White House. You did the right thing by bringing criminal behavior to light. All FBI Agents take an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States, and you did just that, for which I salute you.

Most FBI whistleblowers, in their desperate struggle to bring the truth to light, have taken their concerns and regards through the chain of command, right up to the top (I know I did). Usually what happens is that the FBI whistleblower suffers retaliation and reprisal which eventually leads to termination. This has been a consistent policy for FBI management: to distort, deny and destroy their whistleblowers. The trials and travails of FBI whistleblowers are public and consistently the same, and they carry names like Fred Whitehurst, Coleen Rowley, Sibel Edmonds, Mike German, Jane Turner, Robert Wright, Manny Johnson, and so on.

Each and every FBI Whistleblower has had to suffer tremendous sacrifices and terrible financial pain. They have also had to suffer the separation from their beloved FBI family. It has been long known, since J. Edgar Hoover, that a FBI Agent must never embarrass the Bureau. That mantra covers FBI whistleblowers.

You, Mr. Felt, as a second in command FBI administrator, had the ability and position to make the choices you did, and do it in private. I wonder if those "hundreds of FBI colleagues " would have appeared outside a courthouse when you were arraigned in 1978, if they knew you had been a whistleblower?

And that, Mr. Felt, is why I am conflicted about your role as a FBI whistleblower. You could have made a difference for any and all FBI whistleblowers that came after you. You had the ability and the position to change the insular culture of the FBI and the self imposed mantra of never embarrassing the Bureau. You could have stood on your oath of office, and taken the high moral ground, as we have, and suffered the consequences. Instead, your desire to remain inside the FBI "family" was stronger than your desire to make the FBI a better place.

By hiding, and remaining silent when other FBI agents were vilified and retaliated against when they blew the whistle, you allowed the system to continue with business as usual. Where were you when Fred Whitehurst was being destroyed both inside and outside (the current and retired agents associations) the FBI ?

By remaining silent, you received a substantial government pension, you were able to attend numerous local, regional and national retired agent FBI reunions (where FBI whistleblowers were demonized). You received accolades and commendations, monetary awards and the recognition of your peers. You had the status and all the colleageality that the FBI can give. You got to keep it all.

However, by hiding in the shadows, and deliberately denying your whistleblowing role, you continued the FBI tradition of viewing FBI whistleblowers as "criminal" , unsavory, unstable or non team players. For whatever personal reasons, you did the right thing by keeping the Bureau from being used in a political manner, and keeping the White House from obstructing justice.

You also, Mr. Felt, did a great disservice for those FBI whistleblowers who followed you. That which you feared the most, you also allowed to remain in place. That which you so treasured, remaining part of the FBI family, is the first thing that those FBI whistleblowers who followed you lost.

Unlike you, having managed to keep it all, other FBI whistleblowers know what it is like to lose it all. That is why I am conflicted, Mr. Felt. You did the right thing, but by trying to hide your role as an FBI whistleblower, I fear you did it for the wrong reasons. You stated you were afraid of being called a "criminal", but I guess you had no fear of being called a coward.

Your life is your message, Mr. Felt, and you have written yours. I and other FBI whistleblowers, have written a different ending to our message. We were willing to pay the high price our whistleblowing activities cost, in order to uphold our oath of office, and protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. You had the ability and the position to make it better for those that followed you, who also wanted to do the right thing. For some reason, your concern was not with those who would follow you, but only for yourself. You stood by when other FBI whistleblowers were demonized, constructively discharged, and destroyed. You, Mr. Felt, were both a saint and a sinner.

Sincerely,

A Fellow FBI Whistleblower

Deep Throat revealed

Late Tuesday, the Washington Post confirmed the veracity of a Vanity Fair article revealing the identity of "Deep Throat" - for three decades one of journalism's best kept secrets. For any who may not know, "Deep Throat" was the code name given to a government official whose disclosures of Nixon administration abuses provided the basis of a famous investigative story by Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and led to a Congressional investigation, the resignation of President Richard Nixon and government reforms.

Deep Throat, it turns out, was W. Mark Felt, then Deputy Director of the FBI, now aged 91. Vanity Fair's blockbuster interview of Felt is in its July issue, but also has been published on the magazine's website.

Many consider Deep Throat one of history's most intriguing and successful whistleblowers. His disclosures changed the course of history and, by maintaining his anonymity, Deep Throat was able to avoid the negative consequences experienced by many other government whistleblowers.

Deep Harm salutes Mr. Felt for his patriotic act to ensure that abuses of authority by the nation's highest officials were not swept under the rug.