A New York Times Op-Ed from Eyal Press Monday highlighted a little-known but important government memo, which threatens the rights of whistleblowers. In line with this administration\u2019s unprecedented crackdown on government employees who blow the whistle, Eyal notes that the document, issued by the Obama administration in January, \u201cinstructs the director of national intelligence and the Office of Personnel Management to establish standards that would give federal agencies the power to fire employees, without appeal, deemed ineligible to hold \u2018noncritical sensitive\u2019 jobs.\u201d Whistleblower advocates see the memo as a means to restrict the options and rights of dissenting government workers. Press noted:<\/p>\n
The administration claims that the order will simply enable these agencies to determine which jobs qualify as \u201csensitive.\u201d But the proposed rules are exceptionally vague, defining such jobs as any that could have \u201ca material adverse impact\u201d on national security \u2014 including police, customs and immigration positions.<\/p>\n
If the new rules are put in place, national security could soon be invoked to deny civil servants like Franz Gayl the right to defend themselves when subjected to retaliation. Back in 2010, Mr. Gayl was accused of engaging in a pattern of \u201cintentional misconduct\u201d and suspended from his job. A Marine Corps adviser who had been deployed to Iraq in 2006, Mr. Gayl claimed he was being punished for publicly disclosing that Pentagon bureaucrats had ignored battlefield requests for mine-resistant armored vehicles, at a time when roadside bombs were killing and maiming soldiers.<\/p>\n