The McClatchy press has run a series of articles critical of the investigative lab at the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command. Some of the reports detailed botched DNA and weapons testing, and the falsification of documents. Evidence was lost, sometimes for months, delaying investigative outcomes.
The senior service realized it had a problem on its hands. So it did when any bureaucratic organization will do:
Stung by critical stories about their crime laboratory, officials at Army Criminal Investigation Command recently questioned lab employees for hours and scrutinized personal phone records looking for contacts with reporters.
The inquiry was launched after a McClatchy reporter asked questions late last year about the lab losing evidence. A command spokesman characterized the investigation as looking into violations of privacy law, but the investigation report, which McClatchy obtained, shows that the command was interested primarily in whether employees had provided information that resulted in a story about lab problems.
“This investigation was aimed at rooting out anyone even remotely critical of the lab,” charged Peter Lown, an attorney for one of the employees questioned in the probe. “The lab’s management doesn’t want any more critical stories.”
And it isn’t just the lab, according to McClatchy, which posits that the clampdown on whistle-blowing is part of a larger effort:
The Army’s investigation of media contacts comes as the Obama administration takes a hard-line stance on leaks. President Barack Obama’s Justice and Defense departments have criminally prosecuted more former and current government officials on charges of disclosing information than previous administrations have.
Unlike in the Army investigation, however, all the prosecuted officials were accused of divulging classified intelligence, which can be a felony.
“This is an unprecedented crackdown by the Obama administration,” Jesselyn Radack, a lawyer with the Government Accountability Project, a public interest organization that protects whistleblowers. “It sends a very chilling message to any kind of whistleblower who is considering dissenting or speaking out.”
Transparency, and that. “Hope and change,” etc.
The Iron Law of Bureaucracy strikes again.
Kill the messenger bearing dire tidings? What a novel idea! Never heard of THAT before..
I’m not sure why NIS (also known as the Admiral’s Gestapo) and CID went away. Not sure about the CIC, but I understand NCIS is essentially a civvy org these days. We have to many civvies around the military and we need to end that. Almost everything in the service used to be done by people in uniform, and we need to get back to that.
Typical behavior from LIB Moonbats….They fail and want to ensure those who can detail the failure for closer scrutiny are silenced ( only they can’t do it in the same manner as there comrades overseas would )….
OMG – Obama must go !!!
In the present assignment I work with a lot of former CID folks. I trust each and every one of them explicitly. Often it is not the folks that do the work but the political leadership that poisons the pot.
To be clear, SES positions are political even if they are not appointed. There is so much more to say but, frankly, I need to watch my six. That crap wastes more time and causes more angst than anything else. As Lex would say, it is to cry.
“They told me that if I voted for John McCain, we would see mass violations of the Constitution…”
Nope. Can’t do it. It’s just not the same when the real world is scarier than farce world.