Meet the Whistleblowers: CIA, NSA & FBI Whistleblowers on Retaliation | National Whistleblower Day

Meet the Whistleblowers: CIA, NSA & FBI Whistleblowers on Retaliation | National Whistleblower Day Whistleblowers from the CIA, NSA, FBI, and federal agencies discuss whistleblower retaliation, prosecution under the Espionage Act, and why whistleblower protection laws so often fail. Watch the opening panel from this year’s National Whistleblower Day celebration, where FBI whistleblower Jane Turner hosts a panel of truth-tellers from the intelligence community, federal agencies, aviation security, and the private sector. Each panelist shares what they exposed, what it cost them, and what they learned along the way. In this conversation, the panelists speak openly about retaliation, prison, bankruptcy, divorce, stalking, and years of litigation. They also talk about the family, friends, faith, attorneys, and fellow whistleblowers who helped them get through it. In the second half, they take audience questions on why the Whistleblower Protection Act and the Merit Systems Protection Board fall short, and what Congress should do: jury trial access, real enforcement, protection from firing during review, legal funding for whistleblowers, and bipartisan whistleblower protection laws with actual teeth. Panelists (in order of appearance): Jane Turner (moderator): FBI whistleblower Rosemary Dew: former FBI agent and retired Defense Intelligence Agency official; reported a non-compliant contract award at the Department of Defense Will Kramer: former safety and risk consultant who filed an SEC whistleblower complaint over illegal hazardous waste dumping and repackaging; now a whistleblower attorney John Kiriakou: former CIA officer and Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator; exposed the CIA torture program and served 30 months in prison Dr. Toni Savage: exposed contract fraud at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Huntsville, Alabama; her case set the “Savage standard” for hostile work environment protections for federal whistleblowers Thomas Drake: former NSA senior executive; exposed 9/11 intelligence failures, government fraud, and NSA warrantless mass surveillance; faced 35 years in prison under the Espionage Act Sarah Carver & Jennifer Griffith: Social Security Administration whistleblowers who exposed one of the largest Social Security disability fraud schemes in U.S. history through a qui tam (False Claims Act) case, featured in the series The Big Con Robert MacLean: former federal air marshal who exposed cockpit door security vulnerabilities on commercial flights; won a 7–2 Supreme Court decision in Department of Homeland Security v. MacLean If you’re a whistleblower or considering coming forward, you’re not alone. Reach out to the National Whistleblower Center for support and resources. Get help: https://bit.ly/NWC_Attorney Connect with us: → Subscribe: https://bit.ly/NWC_YouTube → Facebook: https://bit.ly/NWC_FBFacebook → X: https://bit.ly/NWC_Twitter → NWC Website: https://whistleblowers.org/ Support NWC: → Donate to support NWC's work: https://bit.ly/NWC_Donate → Get your copy of The New Whistleblower's Handbook: https://whistleblowers.org/book Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to National Whistleblower Day 0:37 FBI whistleblower Jane Turner introduces the panel 2:56 Rosemary Dew: Contract fraud at the Department of Defense 5:00 Will Kramer: Exposing illegal hazardous waste dumping 6:22 John Kiriakou: Blowing the whistle on CIA torture 7:58 Dr. Toni Savage: Army Corps of Engineers fraud and the "Savage Standard" 9:47 Thomas Drake: 9/11 failures and NSA mass surveillance 11:33 Sarah Carver & Jennifer Griffith: A billion-dollar Social Security fraud scheme 13:45 Robert MacLean: The cockpit security gap on commercial flights 17:43 What have you learned from blowing the whistle? 22:45 John Kiriakou on helping Greece write a whistleblower law 24:17 Toni Savage: Faith, family, and finding support 27:34 Thomas Drake: Facing 35 years in prison 30:34 Sarah & Jennifer: Retaliation, persistence, and "The Big Con" 36:42 Q&A: Do presidential whistleblower directives have any teeth? 38:43 What can whistleblowers do when protections fail? 39:56 What should Congress do? 44:14 Robert MacLean: Why whistleblowers need jury trials 46:34 Closing: "We need to fight"