The following is the Joe Lieberman excerpt from my interview with Sibel Edmonds on whistleblowers and the Dirty Dozen. This is Sibel speaking:
Senator Joseph Lieberman
Homeland Security Committee
Well - with Lieberman - and his staff - do they ever come out and oppose whistleblowers? Absolutely not! Because to oppose whistleblowers you’ve got have balls! And the man lacks them! He ain't got none! ya know - he's a weasel. What he does is, and he's the ranking minority with Collins - so this letter that we sent Collins, a copy went to Lieberman, and you can see the letter - it's on the front page of our website - but with Lieberman, as the ranking minority member on the Homeland Security Committee with not only ours, but also with independent whistleblowers. The Dept of Homeland Security is the most troublesome, screwed up agency in the country - every day is just a disaster with them - like every day I’m getting 2 or 3 applicants from the federal air marshals or baggage screeners. It's disastrous! It’s incredible!
And Lieberman - what has Lieberman done? He has absolutely refused to push anything. You see, it’s the ranking minority member who can push and say 'we want to have these hearings on these issues. Nothing from Lieberman.
I also have a whistleblower from DoD and this is the guy who blew the whistle big-time 4 or 5 years ago on the anthrax case (Lieberman/Anthrax story here) - when they were forcing them to take anthrax vaccine - and he brought together a large group of the DoD people who refused to take the vaccine - and they were retaliated against big time. This whistleblower is from Connecticut - from Lieberman’s state - and for the past 5 years, they have tried unsuccessfully to get his office to do anything. This despite a) they're his constituents in Connecticut, and b) it's whistleblowing and security related too - and Lieberman again has been very irresponsive. So Lieberman is on our list, and he's the most important coming up for re-election from the Homeland Security Committee .
We would definitely have Collins on our list if she was involved in November - but Lieberman is the ranking minority member on the same committee.
Again, the Senate is different to the House - in the House for example, we have had the ranking minority really pushing the legislation and the reform and hearing requests, and that at least created some pressure on the majority - on, lets say Tom Davis. It was all the pressure by Waxman, together with us, that got the hearings before Shays' committee - it was all that exposure to the issues that finally got Davis disgusted to the point that he was like 'yeah - I’m signing up for this!' In the Senate - with this committee, we don't have that - you know why? It’s because the leader of that committee's minority is Joe Lieberman! And Joe Lieberman does not want any controversy. Joe Lieberman is there to simply go along with whatever the leadership says. That is Joe Lieberman’s position. And that holds true especially for whistleblower issues and whistleblower-related hearings and legislation. At least I’ve got to give Joe Lieberman one thing - he's been consistent!
You know Lieberman is having some trouble in Connecticut - and I salute his constituents and the democrats who understand that this man is NOTHING like the man they thought they were voting for - as far as his action and his inaction - both. I would love to go up there and somehow work with Lamont's campaign if he agrees to be pro-whistleblowers.
I’ve heard wonderful things about Lamont - and I’ve read his interview transcript on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. I think he handled himself very well. I was thinking of writing a formal letter and introducing myself. I don’t know what's the best way to get it into the right hands - so that some intern doesn’t get it and throw it away - and I'll say look 'I’m willing to go up there and speak - I will do that - I’ll speak about my case - I'll speak about the importance of these issues as it relates to Joe Lieberman and his position on these types of issues - secrecy, and retaliation, and privileges and having no oversight.' I would love to do that!
Now, in the Senate, the Senator who championed the only meaningful whistleblowers legislation out there is Sen. Lautenberg from New Jersey, Dem. He's on the Homeland Security Committee. He sponsored this bill, and he begged Collins to co-sponsor the bill, and we keep sending letters to Collins saying that this is the most comprehensive bill there is out there - that provides, not only protection, but also provides accountability. Collins refused, but unlike the House - where Markey, Waxman and Maloney are all supporting this bill - Lieberman has said that he's not going to support the model legislation, he's absolutely against it, he's not going to have anything to do with it - so not only did we not get support from Collins, we didn't even get support from the ranking minority member - the Democrat, Lieberman!
Lautenberg's bill is the complete bill - he introduced it March 2006, it's on our website - and all the provisions are listed there - and he had a press release on this, he asked for Dems to come and support him - both from the Judiciary Committee, the Homeland Security Committee and also Armed Services Committee - guess what - we haven't had a single Dem Senator supporting it - because, their leader in the Homeland Security Committee, Lieberman, is saying that he's not going to have anything to do with it. That's another reason Lieberman is on the Dirty Dozen list. He is actually standing against Lautenberg's bill.
I'm sure that Feingold will be very supportive - he's on the Judiciary Committee - but Lautenberg is not in the Judiciary Committee - it has to pass Lautenberg's committee first right, the Homeland Security Committee - Collins just said 'no - we're going to do S494 - we're not even going to look at this model bill' So the ranking Dem, Lieberman, said exactly the same - he's simply not going to have anything to do with it. Akaka - he's like a parrot - he follows Lieberman's act, and won't do his own thing. So the top two senior democrats on the Homeland Security Committee have left Lautenberg isolated - because he dared introduce some legislation that has some teeth - and Lieberman and Akaka just turned their back on him. Zero support. And it’s such a let-down - because if you can't get the support of the top two Dems in the committee, do you think the Republicans will support it? No - they'll eat you alive. So Lautenberg hasn’t been able to do anything with it. That was one of the main things with Lieberman that I forgot to mention. A huge thing.
Someone told me - and I know people who know all this stuff - they said that several very influential Israeli lobbies are putting their support behind Lieberman - and that they are going to really really rally for him. There you go. So the obvious question is why the hell would these Israeli lobbies come to his support?
Lieberman is a pathetic case!
(update: another case that Lieberman refused to touch was the 'House of Death: Juarez Murders' case, involving DEA murders in Mexico. The whistleblower is GS 14 level, Supervisory Special Agent, Sandalio Gonzalez)
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