Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protections

Abstract

Whistleblowing can be defined as the act of reporting waste, fraud, abuse and corruption in a lawful manner to those who can correct the wrongdoing. Intelligence community (IC) whistleblowers are those employees or contractors working in any of the 17 elements of the IC who reasonably believe there has been a violation of law, rule, or regulation; gross mismanagement; waste of resources; abuse of authority; or a substantial danger to public health and safety. The IC has publicly recognized the importance of whistleblowing, and supports protections for whistleblowers who conform to guidelines to protect classified information. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) whistleblowing policy and guidance is publicly available and specifically addresses the process for making protected disclosures and whistleblower protections for IC contractors, members of the Armed Forces, and federal IC employees. There are differing opinions, however, on whether the ICs internal processes have the transparency necessary to ensure adequate protections against reprisal, and whether protections for IC contractors are sufficient.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 23, 2019
Accession Number
AD1170161

Entities

People

  • Michael E. Devine

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Government Employees
  • Governments
  • Intelligence Community
  • Intelligence Community (United States)
  • Law
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • Public Health
  • Public Policy
  • Security
  • Training
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Government and Public Administration Law.