Tag: whistleblowers

CIA terminates whistleblower who prompted flood of sexual misconduct complaints

The CIA this week terminated a woman whose whistleblower account of being assaulted in a stairwell at the spy agency’s headquarters prompted a flood of colleagues to come forward with their own complaints of sexual misconduct. The woman’s attorney called the action a brazen retaliation.

While the CIA said that accusation was “factually inaccurate,” it wouldn’t comment further on the case and declined to explain why the 36-year-old did not make it through the agency’s clandestine officer training program known as “the Farm” and, unlike many of her classmates, was not hired into another job.

“To be clear, the CIA does not tolerate sexual assault, sexual harassment or whistleblower retaliation,” CIA spokesperson Tammy Thorp told The Associated Press, adding the agency uses “consistent processes to ensure the fair and equal treatment of every officer going through training.”

The woman’s termination came less than six months after she filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging the CIA retaliated against her for reporting what she said was a 2022 stairwell assault in Langley, Virginia, to law enforcement and testifying about it in a closed congressional hearing.

The lawsuit accused the agency of giving her harsher performance reviews and “slut shaming” her by improperly releasing her personal information during the state prosecution last year of Ashkan Bayatpour, a then-fellow CIA trainee convicted of assaulting her with a scarf.

The woman’s attorney, Kevin Carroll, told the AP that the CIA has now “unlawfully ended a young woman’s career only because she had the moral courage, lacking in her managers, to stand up and be a witness about her sexual assault.”

“The agency’s festering workplace sexual violence problem,” Carroll said, “is now harming the retention of young women who won’t put up with it any longer.”

The woman, who is not being identified because the AP does not generally identify victims of alleged sexual abuse, was credited with launching a reckoning, of sorts, at the CIA because hers was the rare allegation of sexual misconduct at the super-secret spy agency to make it into a public courtroom.

An AP investigation found the case helped embolden at least two-dozen women to come forward to authorities and Congress over the past two years with their own accounts at the CIA of sexual assaults, unwanted touching and what they contend is a campaign to keep them from speaking out.

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FOIA’d Emails Reveal MI AG Nessel Personally Visited Detroit USPS Distribution Center Day Before 2020 Election After Whistleblower Claimed “Thousands of ballots are sitting” Inside Post Office Warehouse

On Monday, November 2, 2020, only one day before a critically important presidential election, Michigan’s Democrat Attorney General was busy investigating a claim by a USPS whistleblower who worked at the Detroit USPS distribution center.

According to FOIA’d documents obtained by independent investigator Yehuda Miller and shared on Twitter,  a postal worker, who asked to remain anonymous, first told MI Rep. Ellissa Slotkin’s office that “thousands of ballots are sitting in the main Detroit postal service distribution center (references their warehouse).” The whistleblower mentioned that “there are boxes and boxes of ballots that have not been counted and the reason being given is because there are not enough sorters.”

The whistleblower complaint was forwarded to MI AG Nessel’s Chief of Staff, Zaineb Hussein.

Good Afternoon Zaineb,

I hope you are safe and well.

Today, our office received a message from another congressional office regarding a postal worker concerned about absentee ballots being held at a local postal distribution facility.

The postal worker reached out to Rep. Slotkin’s office to express concerns about the facility they work at. The postal worker didn’t want to provide a lot of details and wanted to remain anonymous. The worker reported to Slotkin’s office that thousands of ballots are sitting in the main Detroit postal service distribution center (references their warehouse).

The worker mentioned that there are boxes and boxes of ballots that have not been counted and the reason being given is because there are not enough sorters.

We wanted to flag this issue for Secretary Benson’s awareness, but we will also be reaching out to our postal liaison to bring this matter to their attention as well.

Please feel free to let us know if you have any additional questions.

Larissa Richardson | District Director
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, MI-13
O: (313) 463-6217
Personal Pronouns: She, Her, Hers

Instead of contacting the MI AG’s office, Democrat Rep. Ellisa Slotkin’s office contacted Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s office with the complaint.

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Former CIA coder sentenced to 40 years in prison for WikiLeaks ‘Vault 7’ breach

A federal judge sentenced former CIA programmer Joshua Schulte to 40 years in prison on Thursday afternoon on espionage charges for the largest leak in agency history, in addition to child pornography convictions.

Comparing the WikiLeaks “Vault 7” leak of top secret Central Intelligence Agency cyber-espionage tools to a “digital Pearl Harbor,” U.S District Judge Jesse Furman said Thursday he was “blown away by Mr. Schulte’s complete lack of remorse and acceptance of responsibility.”

“The impact on our nation’s intelligence operations was enormous and we will likely never know the extent of the damage caused, but no doubt it was massive and real,” Furman said before imposing the 480-month sentence.

“It did have, as substantiated by the deputy director’s unclassified letter and even more substantiated by a confidential letter, an immediate and catastrophic effect on the CIA, and caused untold damage to national security,” the Obama-appointed judge said at the conclusion of the two-hour sentencing hearing.

Furman sentenced Schulte to 400 months imprisonment on the espionage counts and separately to 80 months for child pornography counts.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York asked for the judge to impose a sentence of life prison for Schulte’s convictions of what they called “some of the most heinous, brazen violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

“Schulte’s theft of an arsenal of extremely sensitive intelligence-gathering cyber-tools from the Central Intelligence Agency and subsequent dissemination of that information to WikiLeaks — which in turn publicized it to America’s adversaries — is ‘one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the history of the United States’,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing letter.

Schulte, who has been detained at federal jails in Manhattan and Brooklyn for over six and a half years, requested nine years’ imprisonment followed by five years’ supervised release.

Federal prosecutors argued an additional terrorism enhancement on his sentence was warranted because Schulte’s theft of the arsenal of extremely sensitive, intelligence-gathering cyber-tools from the Central Intelligence Agency — and subsequent dissemination of that information to WikiLeaks — was intended to satisfy a personal vendetta and “clearly calculated to retaliate against the United States as a whole.”

The 35-year-old asked for a sentence of time served, citing the “immoral human rights abuses” he says he endured during his pretrial detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

In his lengthy 28-minute sentencing statement, Schulte decried the conditions of his “torture cage” at the Bureau of Prison facility, calling it “New York City’s very own Auschwitz,” and “something only the SS could come up with.”

Judge Furman during sentencing called Schulte’s comparison to Nazi concentration camps “offensive”.

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Fani Willis Axed Employee Who Blew Whistle on Misuse of Federal Funds

Fani Willis may have fired the employee who warned her about mishandling federal funds. But she didn’t deny her allegations.

Less than a year into her tenure as Fulton County district attorney, in 2021, Willis met with Amanda Timpson, an employee in the district attorney’s office responsible for giving nonviolent juvenile offenders “alternatives to the juvenile court system.” During their conversation, a recording of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, Timpson claimed to Willis that she had been demoted after attempting to stop a top Willis campaign aide from misusing federal grant money meant for a youth gang prevention initiative.

According to Timpson, the aide, Michael Cuffee, planned to use part of a $488,000 federal grant—earmarked for the creation of a Center of Youth Empowerment and Gang Prevention—to pay for “swag,” computers, and travel.

“He wanted to do things with grants that were impossible, and I kept telling him, like, ‘We can’t do that,'” Timpson told Willis in a Nov. 19, 2021, meeting. “He told everybody … ‘We’re going to get MacBooks, we’re going to get swag, we’re going to use it for travel.’ I said, ‘You cannot do that, it’s a very, very specific grant.'”

“I respect that is your assessment,” Willis responded. “And I’m not saying that your assessment is wrong.”

Later in the conversation, Willis apologized to Timpson, and said Cuffee had “failed” her administration.

Less than two months later, Willis abruptly terminated Timpson and had her escorted out of her office by seven armed investigators, according to Timpson. When Timpson filed a whistleblower complaint the following year that alleged wrongful termination, Willis’s office issued a statement describing Timpson as a “holdover from the prior administration” who was terminated because of her “failure to meet the standards of the new administration.”

Timpson’s experience sheds further light on how Willis—who campaigned on the promise of restoring “integrity” to the district attorney’s office—does business. The Democrat has come under fire amid revelations that she tapped her lover, Nathan Wade, to handle the office’s racketeering case against former president Donald Trump. Willis is also alleged to have misappropriated taxpayer funds to facilitate her affair with Wade, a married man with scant prosecutorial experience.

To Timpson, these twin incidents demonstrate “a pattern” in Willis’s conduct.

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FBI Blocked Interview of Ex-Gov’t Official Suspect in J6 Pipe Bomb Case, Says FBI Whistleblower

The FBI blocked the surveillance team investigating the January 6 pipe bomb incident from interviewing the suspect tied to the case, a former FBI agent claims.

An individual was caught on security cameras placing a pair of pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic National Committee buildings in Washington, D.C. the night before Jan. 6, 2021.

Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin told the Daily Wire that his surveillance team used the security footage to track the suspect’s movements shortly after he placed the bombs, where he first used a fare card at the Metro station then transferred to a car in Northern Virginia.

Apparently, the person of interest was also identified as a former U.S. military official.

Both the car and the fare card were in the name of “a retired Air Force chief master sergeant who was now working as a contractor with a security clearance.”

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Air Force Whistleblower’s Concerns “Legit” Over US Govt UFO Program Cover-Up; House Oversight Committee

A classified briefing on UFOs delivered to members of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Friday elicited a mixed response, with some saying they were dissatisfied by the fragmented information presented, while others were grateful to receive some more clarity.

Interest in UFOs, which officials now call unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), surged in July 2023 when the Oversight Committee invited Air Force veteran David Grusch to speak after he’d filed a formal complaint with the Inspector General of the U.S. intelligence community, claiming “the U.S. government is operating with secrecy—above Congressional oversight” on the subject.

During that hearing, Mr. Grusch accused the Pentagon and its private contractors of covering up a “multi-decade” program to reverse-engineer technology retrieved from crashed UFOs piloted by “non-human” beings, or “biologics” as he called them.

He also mentioned knowledge of people harmed or injured in efforts to cover up or conceal the extraterrestrial technology program.

Though apparently only limited information was disclosed during Friday’s 90-minute briefing at the Capitol Building in Washington, the attendees agreed that the hearing seemed to confirm Mr. Grusch’s claims.

“Based on what we heard,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said, “many of Grusch[’s] claims have merit!”

“I think everybody left there thinking and knowing that Grusch is legit—if they didn’t think that before,” attested Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).

The Tennessee legislator, one of the stronger voices calling for transparency on the issue of UAPs, nevertheless left the meeting somewhat frustrated, saying the meeting was just “more of the same.”

“By design this issue is very compartmentalized,” he explained. “It’s like looking down the barrel of a .22 rifle. All they know is just right in that little circle.”

“Now it’s just whack-a-mole—you go to the next [briefing], until we get some answers.”

For Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) the limited information presented only proved there was a “concerted effort to conceal as much information as possible—both in Congress and to the general public.”

“I asked very specific questions and was unable to get specific answers,” he said. “And so that’s a problem, and we’re not going to stop until we get the truth.”

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UFO community grows rapidly after whistleblower testimony makes national headlines: ‘Watershed moment’

UFOs, also known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), are at the center of a “watershed moment” in American politics as the community continues to grow, according to some professors and enthusiasts. 

“We are living in a watershed moment,” Dr. Christopher Bader, a professor at Chapman University, told The Wall Street Journal in a story published Monday, adding that congressional hearings on alien life “have legitimized the discussion of UFOs in a way that is virtually unprecedented.”

UFO whistleblower David Grusch intimated that he was threatened to stay silent on secret government programs and records of alien life during a highly publicized July 26 House Oversight Committee hearing.

Since that hearing, six members of Congress signed an Aug. 21 letter to Inspector General Thomas Monheim to ask for more details on UFO technology and government evidence of extraterrestrial life. 

The Wall Street Journal interviewed longtime UFO believers and newcomers into the community, many of whom said they became interested in extraterrestrial life after Grusch gave his explosive testimony to Congress. 

“With little green men now a subject of serious scrutiny on Capitol Hill, aliens are taking over the American mind,” The Post reported. “Skepticism is declining, with 34% of Americans believing UFOs are probably alien ships or are controlled by nonhuman life-forms in 2022, compared with 20% in 1996, according to polls by YouGov and Newsweek.”

Colleges and universities are also taking note of the increased public interest in UFOs. 

“Following the release of the U.S. Pentagon UFO report, there has been a surge of interest,” a description for a University of Michigan online course titled, “UFOs: Scanning the Skies,” reads. 

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UFO whistleblower held secret talk with ‘Wall St bigwigs’ and CIA officials in Manhattan – where he claimed US was in possession of 40ft Tardis-like craft that was ‘the size of a football field when you stepped inside’

A UFO whistleblower shared new details of a Tardis-like craft in government possession during a secret meeting in New York City.

Decorated former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch claims his sources worked on a 40-foot UAP that ‘was the size of a football field’ when they stepped inside, according to an attendee at the event.

The object could manipulate both space and time and use and could harness enough energy to power 70,000 homes a year, the source said.

DailyMail.com understands that guests included officials from the FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, tech entrepreneurs and Wall Street ‘bigwigs.’

All in, Grusch gave the talk to 60 people at a penthouse in Manhattan, and photos were banned from the event.

The only information about the meeting was leaked by an anonymous attendee who took pictures of Grusch.

DailyMail.com has since verified that the meeting took place and was told by sources that Coinbase advisor John D’Agostino and high-powered attorney John J. Altorelli hosted the event.

Coinbase is a publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform.

The two men are said to host monthly events at the penthouse apartment, focusing on different topics. 

The leaker said: ‘It was hosted by a Wall Street bigwig and his lawyer friend.

‘It was sort of a small saloon-style talk. David also did it for free. Even went as far as to fly into NYC just for this. 

‘He had arrived only a few hours beforehand and then left 1st thing the next day. 

‘The idea was to get a group of both skeptics and believers from all these different walks of life for a talk regarding David and the things he has said. 

‘Most of the people who left had left as believers.’

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Court Date Set For Julian Assange’s Final Appeal To Avoid US Extradition

Imprisoned publisher Julian Assange will face two High Court judges over two days on Feb. 20-21, 2024 in London in what will likely be his last appeal against being extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act. 

Assange’s wife Stella Assange confirmed that the hearing will take place at the Royal Courts of Justice. Assange had had an earlier request to appeal rejected by High Court Judge Jonathan Swift on June 6.

Assange then filed an application to appeal that decision and the dates have now been set. Assange is seeking to challenge both the home secretary’s decision to extradite him as well as to cross appeal the decision by the lower court judge, Vanessa Baraitser.

Baraitser had ruled in January 2021 to release Assange from Belmarsh Prison and deny the U.S. request for extradition based on Assange’s mental health, his propensity to commit suicide and conditions of U.S. prisons. On every point of law, however, Baraitser sided with the United States.

The U.S. appealed her decision, issuing “diplomatic assurances” that Assange would not be mistreated in prison. The High Court, after a two-day hearing in March 2022, accepted those “assurances” and rejected Assange’s appeal.

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Secrets of Area 51: Metallic egg-shaped UFO the size of an SUV was kept at the highly-classified Air Force base in the 1980s, whistleblower claims

An egg-shaped metallic UFO was kept at Area 51 in the 1980s, a whistleblower claims in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com.

Engineers at the Nevada airbase claimed the CIA found the strange craft in the desert and brought it to them for investigation – but later shipped it to another base after they were unable to get inside the object.

Eric Taber has been a defense aerospace contractor for 13 years and has held a security clearance to work on military aircraft.

In an interview with DailyMail.com, he revealed the story his late great uncle Sam Urquhart, an Area 51 contractor, told him about a UFO at the mysterious desert base.

Taber testified in May to the Pentagon‘s UFO investigation unit, the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), who are collecting accounts of alleged government possession of non-human craft.

The claim – though an unverified story from a now-deceased witness – is part of a long history of rumors about potential extraterrestrial craft or futuristic spaceships stored at the Nevada desert airbase near Groom Lake, north of Las Vegas.

The news comes after whistleblowers told Congress the government has a secret program to capture crashed or landed ‘non-human’ vehicles and has for decades been attempting to glean technological insights from these alleged out-of-this-world objects.

The claims have prompted lawmakers to draft legislation to disclose any such programs, currently working its way through Congress.

Taber spoke to DailyMail.com only about his great uncle’s story, declining to comment on any of his own work as a defense contractor.

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