Tom Devine's Page
http://www.whistleblower.org/blog BK Expert Community Member Author
Tom Devine is legal director of the Government Accountability Project, where he has worked to assist thousands of whistleblowers to come forward. He has been involved in the all of the campaigns to pass or defend major whistleblower laws over the last two decades. He is a frequent expert... read more...
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Fly-by-Night FAA Aviation Safety Given a Second Wind by Whistleblower Reprisal
The case of aviation safety and consumer protection champion Kim Farrington suggests that, for federal workers, there is no statute of limitations on having done the right thing ahead of the bureaucratic norm—even on issues involving life and death. An allegory on how whistleblower "cold cases...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Trouble at UN OHCHR: Investigate the High Commissioner
Under Ban Ki-Moon, the past Secretary General, United Nations management did not react well to the deteriorating credibility of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Trouble in that corner has now been brewing for some years, but it must be immediately addressed if the ...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Grassley to Trump: Whistleblowers Are Key to ‘Draining the Swamp’
In Letter to President, Grassley Seeks Ceremony Honoring Whistleblowers WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is calling on President Donald Trump to empower whistleblowers who bring attention to fraud, waste and misconduct in government. In a letter today to Trum...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Maryland Legal Information Website Adds Whistleblower Info
The People’s Law Library (PLL) of Maryland, which just celebrated its twentieth anniversary, is a legal information website designed primarily for self-represented citizens of Maryland. Starting out in the 1990s as a University of Maryland law school clinical project, it has operated under the...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
The United Nations Needs a Special Adviser on Whistleblowing
On February 24, 2017, United Nations whistleblower Miranda Brown wrote to the Secretary General Antonio Guterres and proposed that he name a Special Adviser on whistleblowing. The Government Accountability Project (GAP), which has represented her for two years, also wrote to support the propos...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
The Insanity of Self-Censorship: Climate Change, Politics, and Fear-Based Decision-Making
Climate change has a long list of known human health consequences, not the least of which is a set of adverse impacts on mental health. As more and more people are directly affected by destructive floods, heat waves, drought, deadly storms and other extreme weather events – all worsened by in...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Misleading Results From the United Nations Staff Satisfaction Survey
In February, approximately 4,000 United Nations staff members completed the Global Staff Satisfaction Survey (click here for the survey results), and the tabulated results were released internally in March. At the Government Accountability Project (GAP), where we work with whistleblowers from ...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
UN Staff Survey Shows Shortcomings in Oversight Office
According to the Global Staff Satisfaction Survey results recently released at the United Nations, the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) has a leadership problem. OIOS is the Office responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct, as well as retaliation complaints submitted ...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
GAP and the March for Science: Protecting Science and Truth
Science, free from political influence, should be a non-negotiable priority of our government. Evidence-based, publicly transparent science protects the public and the environment from present harm and is essential to securing the future of our country and planet. But in the past several month...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
GAP Requests Accountability at UN/WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the United Nations headquartered in Geneva, poses increasing difficulties for the United States and for whistleblowers. The real problems became public in 2014, when the US-nominated Deputy Director General, James Poo...
April 19, 2017
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
WIPO Director General Retaliates Against Whistleblower
At the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a specialized agency of the UN, former Deputy Director General James Pooley, filed a misconduct report through proper channels in April, 2014. The subject of his report was Francis Gurry, the Director General, whom Pooley alleged had infl...
October 4, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
GAP Joins 33 Organizations in Demanding Stronger Congressional Oversight of Intelligence Community
GAP has joined 33 organizations in signing a letter that endorses stronger congressional oversight of the intelligence community, including strengthening Congress’ capacity to engage with whistleblowers. Check out the letter here, along with a white paper courtesy of our friends at Demand Pr...
September 30, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Retaliation Against Whistleblowers Tolerated at the United Nations
GAP’s blog “Tribunal Ruling Shows That UN Whistleblowers Cannot Be Protected” reviews the logic applied by the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) when it rejected an application for relief from retaliation submitted by two UN whistleblowers. The applicants to the Tribunal were Ai Loan Ngu...
September 30, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
The US Prepares to Abandon WIPO Whistleblowers
The legal counsel to the Staff Council at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIIPO) has written a strongly worded letter to all Ambassadors at the United Nations specialized agency, headquartered in Geneva. (link to letter here). The letter is a reaction to the apparent decision of ...
September 30, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
After a Devastating Year for UN Whistleblowers, US State Department Reports All’s Well
In recent years, the Secretary of State has been obliged to report to the Appropriations Committees of the Congress on the implementation of best-practice whistleblower protections at the United Nations, its Funds, Programs, and Specialized Agencies. A favorable report on each UN agency is req...
August 31, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Oversight Committee Demands Answers in Mistreatment of Whistleblower
In a series of unyielding hearings and letters, Congress has demanded answers around the retaliation of nationally vindicated U.S. Federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean. In 2003, MacLean warned Congress that the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) intended to go AWOL during a confirmed terrorist...
August 31, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Continuing Cover-up at the UN’s World Intellectual Property Organization
Last week, the Chairs of the General Assembly and the Coordinating Committee of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) delivered their assessment of a United Nations investigation to the WIPO Member States. It is awful. The investigation in question focused on Francis Gurry, WIPO’...
August 31, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Tribunal Ruling Shows that UN Whistleblowers Cannot be Protected
In the whistleblower world, we were discouraged to read the ruling the UN Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) released on August 24th in the case of Nguyen-Kropp & Postica vs. the Secretary General. The final decision in the case was, of course, communicated months ago, but the UNAT’s argument to sup...
August 31, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
“We know through painful experiences that truth will never come by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” –inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr. The morning of July 27, 2016 brought together courageous and inspiring whistleblowers, GAP coalition partners, and advocacy leaders at ...
August 15, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
CSPW – A Lesson in Constitutional Illiteracy: Lamar Smith and the Climate Science Witch Hunt
Read the full story here. On September 17th of 2014, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology voted 4-3 to grant subpoena powers to the Committee Chair, useable without consultation of the Committee as a whole. This extraordinary power became available for the first time during th...
July 27, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
New whistleblower protection law in France not yet fit for purpose
Check out the full story via Transparency International here! Michel Sapin, the French Minister of Finance, promised to deliver a comprehensive anti-corruption law that included protection for those courageous enough to speak out against corruption and malpractice. The minister set the bar hig...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
The Insider Threat Program: Determined to Avoid Accountability
Foreword In the aftermath of classified disclosures to Wikileaks, the Obama administration created an Insider Threat Program tasked with identifying the “malicious insiders.” In practice, however, we have found that the Insider Threat Program is really a threat to insiders who commit the truth...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
GAP Joins Coalition to Oppose Changing “Rule 41” to Safeguard Americans’ Privacy Rights
Thanks to whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden, we know about illegal government surveillance. Now the U.S. government wants to use an obscure procedure—amending a federal rule known as Rule 41— to radically expand their authority to hack. The changes to Rule 41 would make it easier for them ...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
House Whistleblower Caucus Member Leads Passage of OSC Reauthorization Bill
On June 21st, the United States House of Representatives unanimously passed the “Thoroughly Investigating Retaliation Against Whistleblowers Act” (H.R. 4639). Introduced by House Whistleblower Protection Caucus member Representative Rod Blum (R-IA) and cosponsored by Representatives Elijah Cum...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Advocacy Groups Call on Armed Services Committees to Preserve Military Whistleblower Rights
After both chambers of Congress passed their versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for FY 2017, twenty-eight public interest organizations and advocacy groups sent a letter to leadership of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and encouraged them to maintain the i...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
FOIA Responses Echo Urgent Whistleblower Warnings in BP Gulf Disaster Investigation
“For every breaking story and revelation made possible by the FOIA, countless others are undoubtedly buried as the law’s effectiveness sags under the weight of processing backlogs resulting from, among other things, a lack of resources and reliance on outdated technology, as well as inconsiste...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Successful use of FOIA in the International Program at the Government Accountability Project
“For every breaking story and revelation made possible by the FOIA, countless others are undoubtedly buried as the law’s effectiveness sags under the weight of processing backlogs resulting from, among other things, a lack of resources and reliance on outdated technology, as well as inconsiste...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
FOIA Reveals Criminal Investigation into Federal Air Marshal Whistleblower Robert MacLean
“For every breaking story and revelation made possible by the FOIA, countless others are undoubtedly buried as the law’s effectiveness sags under the weight of processing backlogs resulting from, among other things, a lack of resources and reliance on outdated technology, as well as inconsiste...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Ban Ki-moon has Dismantled UN Reform
On June 30th, the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) declared the attempt to reform the UN on the basis of non-invasive management surgery officially over. In the case of two whistleblowers, the UNAT announced it had no jurisdiction, throwing the issue of UN whistleblowing backwards at lea...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine posted a blog post
Stop Union-Busting and Retaliation Against Whistleblowers at WIPO
In partnership with the Federation of International Civil Servants' Associations (FICSA), of which the WIPO Staff Association is a member. FICSA is a federated group of staff associations/unions from organizations belonging to the United Nations common system. In September 2014 the Director Ge...
July 11, 2016
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Tom Devine is now a member of Berrett-Koehler Community
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