CIA terminates whistleblower who prompted flood of sexual misconduct complaints
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.
Carroll, the woman’s attorney, said she had been given protected whistleblower status before speaking with Congress. But those familiar with the Whistleblower Protection Act cautioned that such protections can be limited, especially at the CIA.
Tom Devine, a longtime whistleblower rights advocate who is legal director for the Government Accountability Project, said CIA employees don’t have the same rights as other federal employees because of national security concerns.
“You can blow the whistle, but only within the intel community,” Devine said. “So when she went to the police, she was very much on her own. It’s an obnoxious loophole.”
Such a classic - "You can only complain to the people who won't do anything"
I get the whole "national security" bit, at least to a degree...
But if America's national security is at risk because a woman told the cops she was assaulted, something is very wrong.
What kind of secrets are there that voters must not be aware about? Not one.
“You can blow the whistle, but only within the intel community,”
AMD community left out
said CIA employees don’t have the same rights as other federal employees because of national security concerns.
That is absolute bullshit. Classified intel and missions are irrelevant to sexual harassment in the workplace.
Am I the only one who thinks ‘terminates’ isn’t the best synonym for fired with this employer?
You can't possibly think the CIA would simply kill someone would you? /s
Did they terminate her employment,, or did they terminate her life?
Yes.
And people wonder why Snowden went outside of "whistleblower protection" avenues.
We all know such protections are useless if those exposed are powerful enough. Best to get it out beyond their control before they even know they have been outed.
That sure asks a lot more questions than it answers, first and foremost- Why was she fired?
She should have been given a medal of bravery for starting something that could drain the swamp but seems they are against that kind if behavior.
This is why I still come to Kbin, not a drop of this on other social media sites.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
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.
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.
Their accusations ranged from lewd remarks about sexual fantasies at after-work happy hours to a case in which a senior manager allegedly showed up at a subordinate’s house at night with a firearm demanding sex.
A congressional inquiry and bipartisan calls for a watchdog investigation prompted CIA Director William Burns last year to launch a series of reforms to streamline claims, support victims and more quickly discipline those behind misconduct.
The original article contains 839 words, the summary contains 257 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!