I have stopped posting on this site, since Yahoo 360 was purportedly going away.

You may keep up with whistleblower interest news and views at:

http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com

http://whistleblowersupport.blogstream.com

http://gflorencescott.wordpress.com

See you there!

GFS

As Yahoo 360 goes away, you will find this kind of material lives on continues to be posted at:

http://whistleblowersupporter.typepad.com

http://gflorencescott.wordpress.com

http://whistleblowersupport.blogstream.com

OSC Watch <www.oscwatch. org> is focused on
exposing and stopping systemic and persistent
lawbreaking in US Office of Special Counsel
(OSC). OSC Watch contends that OSC, since at
least 1989, has fundamentally failed to comply
with its most important nondiscretionary duty to
enforce the civil service laws, rules, and
regulations under its (frequently sole)
jurisdiction. OSC Watch contends that OSC, in
investigating about 30,000 complaints since 1989
of violations of law, rule, or regulation under
its jurisdiction, has failed to investigate the
complaint, determine whether there is reasonable
cause to believe violations occurred, and, if so,
to report them to the involved agency head, per 5
U.S.C. 1214(e), and create a permanent, public
record of its report and the agency response, per 5 U.S.C. 1219.

OSC, contrary to the clear wording of the law,
its legislative history, and a final decision of
a federal court - all of which state that 5
U.S.C. 1214(e) applies to ANY law, rule, or
regulations, including those within OSC's
jurisdiction, still openly holds to its
self-nullifying interpretation of the law it is
charged to implement, that it does not apply to
laws, rules, or regulations under its jurisdiction.

OSC is the "immune system" of the Executive
Branch agencies - it has jurisdiction for the
laws, rules, and regulations that uphold the
merit principles of the federal civil service,
particularly to prevent agency retribution
against concerned federal employees. Because it
has nullified the law - 5. U.S.C. 1214(e) - that
is the heart of its obligations to do so, by its
untenable claim that it does not apply to the
laws, rules, and regulations under its
jurisdiction, OSC is a broken "immune
system." As a result, the merit principles of
the federal civil service are battered, much
corruption and dysfunction in many federal
workplaces has taken root and flourished, leading
to violations of laws, rules, and regulations not
under OSC's jurisdiction in those agencies, such
as the possible politically motivated prosecutions at Department of Justice.

OSC Watch has been in contact with Alabama Gov.
Siegelman, "Exhibit A" of possibly politically
motivated prosecutions by the Department of
Justice, and the House Judiciary Committee about
its concerns that OSC's lawbreaking, resulting
from its interpretation of 5 U.S.C. 1214(e), is a
significant part of the context in which the
abuses in the Department of Justice occurred.

The following recent press release of the House
Judiciary Committee is relevant to OSC Watch's
concerns that OSC's fundamental failure to
implement the law to enforce the laws under its
jurisdiction has contributed to corruption in the Department of Justice.

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* *******

U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
http://judiciary. house.gov/ newscenter. aspx?A=955

April 17, 2008
Melanie Roussell

(Washington, DC)- Today, House Judiciary
Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and
Committee Members Linda Sánchez (D-CA), Artur
Davis (D-AL), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) announced
three critical actions in the Committee's
investigation into allegations of selective or
poltiically- motivated prosecution in the Justice
Department. The Members today invited Karl Rove
to testify before the committee; urged the
Justice Department's Office of the Inspector
General and Office of Professional Responsibility
to investigate those allegations; and demanded
that Attorney General Michael Mukasey provide
additional documents on this subject.

Today's actions result from the Committee's
majority staff report, also released today, which
details the cases, interviews and documents they
have reviewed since the Committee began its investigation last year.

"There continue to be numerous complaints of
selective or politically motivated prosecution
since our investigation began last year," Conyers
said. "The actions we are taking today, including
calling Karl Rove to testify, are an effort to
get to the bottom of this matter."

Today's announcement stems from the Committee's
2007 oversight hearing on selective prosecution,
during which testimony was heard and documents
were entered into the record regarding cases from
Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Georgia, and
Pennsylvania. Since the hearing, majority
committee staff has continued its investigation
with interviews and document collection about
additional cases across the country.

"While this report is extensive and significant
progress has been made in our investigation, many
facts remain unknown," Conyers said. "The Justice
Department has simply not been forthcoming and I
feel the only way to move this investigation
forward is to seek further independent
investigation and testimony from Karl Rove, who
appears to be the missing link in a chain from
the White House to the Justice Department."

The letters and the majority staff report are
available at <http://judiciary. house.gov/ Printshop. aspx?Section= 833>.

##110-JUD-041708# #

GSA administrator fires latest salvo in battle with agency inspector general

By Robert Brodsky rbrodsky@govexec.com April 18, 2008

Give General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan credit for this much -- she's not afraid of making new, and powerful, adversaries.

First, it was Brian Miller, GSA's inspector general, with whom she has feuded virtually since the day she took office. Then Doan drew the wrath of Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., when they alleged she improperly meddled in GSA contract negotiations.

The most recent object of Doan's ire is Kenneth Kaiser, chairman of the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency's Integrity Committee, and assistant director of the FBI's criminal division. In her second letter to Kaiser in less than two months, Doan again railed at him over his January dismissal of several whistleblower allegations, calling Kaiser's explanation "absurd" and "particularly offensive to all of the people over the past several months that have demonstrated personal courage in bringing these allegations to your attention."

The committee, which is responsible for probing complaints against inspectors general, announced earlier this year that it had dismissed a number of serious whistleblower allegations filed by four attorneys in GSA's IG office against Miller and his top deputies. The investigation lasted less than six weeks. At that time, Doan wrote her first missive to Kaiser on the subject, saying the decision "confirms the suspicions of many that the PCIE is a hollow shell, that the PCIE exists only as a fig leaf to provide the illusion of oversight over IG misconduct, but, in fact, its real purpose is to whitewash any wrongdoing, avoid responsible action and ensure a blind eye to IG misconduct."

PCIE dismissed the complaints, because they did not fall within the purview of its oversight powers and referred them to an outside IG office. The FBI said the complaints have been reviewed by both PCIE and another inspector general, and the results have been sent to Clay Johnson, deputy director of management at the Office of Management and Budget, and Kaiser.

"Due to privacy issues, the PCIE cannot comment on the outcome, nor can we comment on Mr. Kaiser's letter to Administrator Doan," said Stephen Kodak Jr., a spokesman for Kaiser.

The dispute dates back to the fall of 2006, when a female employee in GSA's inspector general office filed a series of whistleblower complaints against Miller and Robert Samuels, his former top deputy. Shortly thereafter, Samuels assigned the employee to an eight-month nonreimbursable detail with the Housing and Urban Development Department. Samuels extended the detail several times. That action sparked a series of complaints and countercomplaints among attorneys in the IG counsel's office.

Miller and Samuels have denied the allegations against them. The IG's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment about Doan's letters.

Doan has attempted to link the whistleblower's complaints to her own long-running and very public feud with Miller, charging that they are fruit from the same poisonous tree.

The administrator has filed numerous complaints with PCIE against Miller, charging the IG with improper contracting, leaking documents to the media, falsifying records and issuing excessive bonuses to his staff. She also complained that Miller's tactics had caused three contractors -- Canon, EMC Corp. and Sun Microsystems -- to cancel their GSA schedule contracts.

Doan also appears to be seeking help in her battle with Miller from an unlikely source: Grassley.

She wrote to Grassley on March 24, briefing the senator about PCIE's complaints and urging cooperation. "We need to ensure a hostile workplace does not exist at GSA, which might prevent us from attracting and retaining qualified contracting officers. I am committed to this effort and to helping the four whistleblowers."

Grassley, a longtime supporter of whistleblower rights, has yet to respond to the letter, according to a spokeswoman.

Miller has investigated Doan for her role in a Sun Microsystems contract, her alleged attempt to give a sole-source contract to a friend and her participation in a politically motivated conference. Last year, the Office of Special Counsel found that Doan had violated the Hatch Act, a federal law restricting political activity by executive branch employees.