December 7, 2010

POGO: DoD Whistleblower System Far From Perfect

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Military whistleblowers: watch your back.

Back in July of 2009, the Department of Justice Inspector General’s office issued a report that found that the Pentagon’s system for investigating military whistleblower retaliation has been given the short shrift. Focusing on the Pentagon IG’s Directorate of Military Reprisal Investigations (MRI), the DOJ’s IG report found that the number of military whistleblower retaliation allegations more than doubled between 1997 and 2007, suggesting a considerable dearth of oversight. The previously undisclosed report was obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), an independent watchdog group.

One of the report’s biggest criticisms of the MRI: that the office has failed to resolve complaints within the required 180-day timeframe. “The failure of MRI to meet consistently the statutory time deadline,” it says, “is largely a function of insufficient staffing to handle the large and growing number of reprisal allegations.” The report also found that the military reprisal program wasn’t viewed as a priority with the DoD IG’s office. “We believe that MRI should do more to ensure that cases delegated to the service IGs are assigned for investigation outside the chain of command of the involved parties,” the report adds. The DOJ IG report also recommended greater oversight and better training for IGs.

The DoD IG’s office has been cleaning up its act in the 16 months since the DOJ took it to task. A March 2010 report to Congress shows progress towards implementing Justice Department’s reform recommendations, including increased staffing and improved procedures.

The bad news is that this was a problem in the first place. But at least things are improving. Whistleblowing, of course, violates the armed forces’ foundational culture—respect for the chain of command. But words like Iran-Contra, Tailhook, Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo make it painfully obvious that that chain isn’t immune to perversion. And it’s a big deal that the DoD is acknowledging that.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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