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govtoversight:

From POGO’s Director of Public Policy Angela Canterbury

President Obama picked up the whistleblower protections Congress had left by the wayside, finally providing intelligence community workers with specific free speech rights and some protections against retaliation when they legally report waste, fraud, and abuse.

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We have raised concerns about the possible infringement of rights and the chilling effect on would-be whistleblowers of the aggressive prosecutions and certain post-WikiLeaks policies. We have repeatedly urged that anti-leak efforts include authentic protections for those who make lawful disclosures of wrongdoing in the intelligence community. With the stroke of his pen today, President Obama did just that and took unparalleled action to protect whistleblowers, for which we are truly gratified and grateful.

While this directive is not a panacea, it begins to fill a large void in whistleblower protections and lays the framework for more government accountability where it is sorely needed.

Read the full statement at POGO.org.