Marine Corps Whistleblower Franz Gayl Stripped of His Security Clearance

The Washington Post broke the news this afternoon. Franz Gayl, a Marine Corps science advisor, had his security clearance stripped a few weeks ago. “Gayl's alleged offense - described in official documents - was inserting a USB device into a computer containing classified information twice in 2008 and then failing to turn over the device to a supervisor. They first raised this concern in March, and no security leaks have been alleged,” according to the Post.

Gayl blew the whistle in 2007, alleging that the Marine Corps and Pentagon bureaucracy had ignored an urgent request from Marines in Iraq in 2005. The Marines had requested Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, which are better protected from the blast created by improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. In 2007, as news articles exposed the delay and Congress began asking questions, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made MRAPs the Defense Department’s highest acquisition priority, and thousands of vehicles were bought and fielded rapidly. However, due to the sluggish response to the request, potentially hundreds of lives of soldiers and Marines were lost due to IEDs.

As the Post article notes:

“The reality is that decisionmakers in the Pentagon's requirements system were not enthusiastic about any additional armor, much less heavy, expensive MRAPs,” even though the vehicles would immediately save lives, three defense experts wrote in a study of the episode for the National Defense University in October 2009.

Gayl deserves a medal for his whistleblowing, not retaliation. But until the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act is passed—which POGO and a host other groups are urging lawmakers to make happen this lame duck session—patriotic whistleblowers in situations like Gayl’s will not have recourse.

Photo: courtesy Frank Gayl

-- Nick Schwellenbach

Update: POGO and over two dozen other groups have just sent a letter to Secretary Gates, urging him to help end the retaliation against Gayl.

The Government Accountability Project, which is legally representing Gayl, has created an online petition to help drum up public support for Gayl.   Check it out and put your name down to help Franz.

Comments

[Dfens]

Give me a damn break! We set up a procurement system that primarily rewards contractors and military personnel for development programs that they can drag out to infinity, and then we are shocked when our military-industrial complex would rather develop an entirely new vehicle for our armed forces than they would sell us existing vehicles? Yeah, who could have possibly seen that one coming?

Why don't we fix the procurement system so it doesn't pay profit on development and also, therefore, does not develop huge procurement oversight bureacracies, then we won't need whistleblowers to let us know when our troops are being under served by their equipment? No, that would make too much sense. Let's not change anything, right. I mean, hell, what we have now is working so damn well. 25 years to design a fighter jet is perfectly reasonable. Don't change a damn thing.

[Dr. Janet Parker DVM]

Passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act must be a priority for the lame duck session of Congress.

We are facing a looming crisis because we have not heeded the warnings from our federal whistleblowers. Right now we need to enact strong enact strong legislation to protect federal whistleblowers. Protecting whistleblowers is a reform that has strong bilateral support across ideological lines. Federal employees, the foot soldiers in the war on waste, fraud and abuse, need to get the protections they deserve. They must be able to fight back when they are fired, harassed or demoted in retaliation for their efforts to protect the public health and safety and taxpayer dollars.

http://www.change.org/medicalwhistleblower/petitions/view/enact_whistleblower_protection_now

Join Medical Whistleblower Advocacy Network:
http://www.change.org/medicalwhistleblower

See our active petitions at: http://www.change.org/medicalwhistleblower/petitions