Anyone here have "whistleblower" experience?

[QuettaKid]

Need advice on how best to proceed. Is posting on DU the best and safest way to get some potentially devastating info out into the world?

[spuddonna]

1. Whoa... kicking for help!

No idea! Anyone?

[adarling]

2. sure

also e-mailing or calling the newsfolk. Newspapers like NYT or something, depends on how juicy it is.

[BuyingThyme]

22. No, do not contact major news outlets. They all have g-men vetting

their stories. Just ask the senior editors at the NYT who withheld information about the Chimp spying until after the presidential election.

If you go to a government agency, it's the same thing; they'll shut you up.

I'm no expert, but do it here.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. There is no safe way to blow the whistle

You WILL suffer. Probably not horribly, but there is always SOME blow-back unless the deed can be done hard and fast.

That said, get a lawyer, and figure out how much you can depend on your family and friends for -- not just financial help, but moral support, too.

It takes guts, Kid. Only you can answer the fundamental question of whether you can tough it out. There is no shame is leaving the onus to someone else. But if you do decide to take the swing, you have my admiration.

--p!

[Cleita]

4. If it's really juicy and harmful to the power grid in our country,

I think I would leak to a foreign press, maybe Canadian or other English speaking country like Australia or New Zealand. This is how those new torture pictures got out. I think if they had been leaked to our own press they would have gotten buried.

[NanceGreggs]

6. Kickin' to keep it up there ...

... until one or more of our legal-type DUers have a chance to weigh in.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

5. Was an assistant manager at a large retail store once (a Loooong time ago)

and blew the whistle on the manager of the store who was ripping the company off.

I never got a think you, kiss my ass or anything.

Big disappointment. Do it for the right reasons and don't expect anything but karma in return.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

7. In my experience, the WB always gets fucked

Suggest leaking without revealing your identity and let the cards fall. Hey, pukes do it all the time and most of what they leak isn't true!

[slampoet]

8. I found a better way.

Leak the damaging information to a rival business and let them blow the whistle.

[roguevalley]

14. me too. However, I would do it again.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

23. Well, hell, if I owned a dog that cute,I would go for it too.

n/t

[roguevalley]

26. That's Tippy, more faithful than God to me.

[acmejack]

9. Has Agent Mike dropped by yet?

[catzies]

18. Would we know if we did?

:hide:

[upi402]

10. Dunno, but I donate to the ACLU

They protect the Constitution AND people.

Maybe they can help you. 212-549-2500
www.aclu.org

[Junkdrawer]

11. I'd begin by sending the information to many friends and letting...

EVERYONE know the information is in many UNKNOWN hands. This gives you time to get the story straight before you go public. But make no mistake, the danger starts when they know you know and before you go public.


(Unless the information is classified. In that case you would need a Sy Hersh quality reporter.)

[panzerfaust]

12. I was a whistleblower.

Well. Not actually. But I paid the price.

I did help an 'official' whistleblower with a justified complaint against a hospital which was allowing illegal practices.

For a bit it looked as though the rule of law would prevail. However, when the state criminal investigator interviewed me, he said: “You have to be realistic, the only way the complaint can stand is if the original investigating division admits that they did an inadequate investigation”. He said this because he knew that he was being flat-out lied to by the hospital administration and everyone involved, and that they were all going to stick by their story.

Needless to say, the original investigator did not come clean and, the end result was that while the illegal practices stopped, the whistleblower lost her job. I also basically lost my job (of several decades), my house, my savings, and income. All told, helping a whistleblower – who was absolutely correct – cost me approximately 1.4 million dollars in actual money. As it happens, that was my retirement.

You CANNOT trust even the current Federal Whistleblower office (Search the Web to see why).

My advice: post something here (using an anonymous account) then forget it.

You are not living in your father's country.

[PVK]

13. Whistleblowing blows. Whistleblowers always get shafted.

There IS no justice.

I lost a gov't. job myself trying to do the right thing. I got blacklisted by management and couldn't get a promotion or a transfer to another department so I had to quit.

[KittyWampus]

15. Yes, and I was stabbed in the back for it. Mainly people seem to want

to just go along...

[Booster]

16. I blew the whistle on the company I worked for because they

were poisoning ferral cats on their lot. Management hated me, but all of the rest of the thousands of employees supported me all the way - so did the Humane Society when they came out to have a little talk with management. ha I'd do it again, but at no time did I think management would poison me over it, so if that's your case, I wouldn't want to suggest you do something that would endanger you or your family. I'd probably do it, but I've always gone against the stream.

[UTUSN]

17. You mean, being DEMEANED/ MARGINALIZED/ INSULTED ??????

No, not me.

[reprehensor]

19. Hey, check out this website...

If you are legit, Sibel will probably give you some advice.

http://justacitizen.com

[Tsiyu]

20. If you want to tell a secret

First write down everything you know about the situation: dates, times, people, places. Try to find documentation to verify your reports. Make copies of all of the above and create at least three packets. Keep one in a safe deposit box at the bank, give one to a very trusted friend and give another to your attorney.

Next, update home security. (Big dogs are good.) Get legal advice about ramifications of telling your story. Understand that you may suffer because of this, and protect your assets if you have any (put property in kids' names, for example) in case someone sues you over the info you tell.

In this country, people have lost their outrage, but try to disseminate info to groups that would support your side of things and good luck!

[reprehensor]

21. Oh...

And sometimes the good guys win...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/2/13/124823/931

:)

[rucky]

24. 1) Get an Attorney w/ FEDERAL creds.

2) Make copies of your evidence and secure them with a friend (and/or said attorney).
3) Get ahold of a GOOD investigative newspaper reporter (don't trust TV with this unless it's 20/20 or 60 Minutes).

PM me if this story has national impact and you're sure you want to go public. I can help.

[BuyingThyme]

25. kcik

[GoddessOfGuinness]

27. QuettaKid, are you still with us?

:tinfoilhat: