Swordsmyth
09-12-2019, 09:59 PM
On a spring day in late April 2014, officials at the CIA’s watchdog office slapped yellow crime-scene tape and heavy-duty combination locks on an employee’s office door after security walked him out of the building for allegedly accessing information he wasn’t supposed to have.
But more than five years later, external investigators reviewed the case and concluded that Andrew Bakaj, a former attorney in the CIA Office of the Inspector General, was retaliated against by his bosses who were hoping to expose and ferret out whistleblowers inside the office.
A new unclassified summary (https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019/I16-NON-DHS-SID-18500.pdf) of a years-long investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, which does not cite Bakaj by name, says that the CIA watchdog “opened a ‘retaliatory investigation’” into an employee who was cooperating with a separate review of the office.
At the time, the intelligence community’s inspector general, which conducts independent audits and reviews across the spy agencies, was investigating concerns about potential evidence manipulation at the CIA inspector general’s office, issues that Bakaj and others, some of whom still remain anonymous, had raised.
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general was called in to make an impartial decision about whether Bakaj’s resulting administrative suspension and loss of clearance was retaliation for cooperating with investigators.
Mark Zaid, Bakaj’s attorney and a co-founder of Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit law office, confirmed that his client is the subject of the summary. “The CIA retaliated against Bakaj, a national security whistleblower, and has finally been held to account for its misconduct.”
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/rare-external-investigation-finds-wrongdoing-in-the-ci-as-watchdog-office-090046808.html
But more than five years later, external investigators reviewed the case and concluded that Andrew Bakaj, a former attorney in the CIA Office of the Inspector General, was retaliated against by his bosses who were hoping to expose and ferret out whistleblowers inside the office.
A new unclassified summary (https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2019/I16-NON-DHS-SID-18500.pdf) of a years-long investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, which does not cite Bakaj by name, says that the CIA watchdog “opened a ‘retaliatory investigation’” into an employee who was cooperating with a separate review of the office.
At the time, the intelligence community’s inspector general, which conducts independent audits and reviews across the spy agencies, was investigating concerns about potential evidence manipulation at the CIA inspector general’s office, issues that Bakaj and others, some of whom still remain anonymous, had raised.
The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general was called in to make an impartial decision about whether Bakaj’s resulting administrative suspension and loss of clearance was retaliation for cooperating with investigators.
Mark Zaid, Bakaj’s attorney and a co-founder of Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit law office, confirmed that his client is the subject of the summary. “The CIA retaliated against Bakaj, a national security whistleblower, and has finally been held to account for its misconduct.”
More at: https://news.yahoo.com/rare-external-investigation-finds-wrongdoing-in-the-ci-as-watchdog-office-090046808.html