The Whistleblowers

Jan 27, 2024 07:56 Whistleblowing on domestic violence On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Barry Goldstein, who is an attorney, an educator, an expert witness, and a prolific author on the issue of domestic violence. John and Barry discuss the role journalists and educators play in blowing the whistle on a widespread social issue. Where is the problem most prominent, w...

Jan 20, 2024 07:29 Israel - Hamas war The entire international community has been focused on the Israel-Hamas War since the attack on Israel on October 7. There are reportedly two million Palestinian refugees on the border with Egypt–the largest movement of refugees since the Second World War. The Israeli government says it will continue the war for months to come, and it is doing so with the full...

Jan 13, 2024 06:16 Nuclear safety Joe Carson blew the whistle on the Department of Defense for using paid consultants to supplement employees. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Carson about the fallout and retaliation from the DOE.

Dec 23, 2023 05:19 The Hunter Biden laptop The Hunter Biden laptop has been released by Garrett Ziegler. It mostly just contains bad porn. Hundreds and hundreds of pictures of Hunter Biden naked, and usually with prostitutes. There are hundreds of pictures of him doing drugs, and there are hundreds of emails and text messages. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with legal...

Dec 16, 2023 07:10 Nestle whistleblower In 2009, a large-scale food poisoning incident affected 300,000 babies in China, 13 of whom died. This was after eating Nestle baby biscuits. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with the one woman behind ousting Nestle, Yasmine Motarjemi, and how she tried to prevent this tragedy.

Dec 9, 2023 05:29 Gender-based violence Nicole Stephens was a victim of a violent assault, where she was raped and strangled nearly to death. Her injuries were so severe that she was placed on medical disability. During her disability, Nicole became a domestic violence and civil society activist. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks to Nicole about how she now helps others r...

Dec 2, 2023 07:16 The woman who knew too much UBS bank executives ordered some of its employees to destroy all of their computer files related to customers with offshore accounts in Switzerland. But one employee, Stephanie Gibaud, refused to destroy evidence. UBS responded by trying to fire her during the 2008 financial crisis. The French government intervened, but UBS was successful in harassing...

Nov 25, 2023 07:28 Space Shuttle Challenger explosion The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on January 28, 1986 just 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members on board. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Richard Cook about the truth surrounding the Challenger disaster.

Nov 18, 2023 07:51 Nursing homes Susie Talevska sued a nursing home and the state of Indiana, arguing that her father’s rights had been violated. The case made it all the way up to the United States Supreme Court. By a vote of 7-2, the Supreme Court ruled that Susie Talevska was right and the Biden Administration was wrong. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Talevska...

Nov 11, 2023 07:59 The Palestine laboratory Israel uses its tech prominence to sell its occupation of Palestine to the world and its dominance of the narrative to social media companies. It’s not an accident that if you post a pro-Palestinian comment or story on Facebook or publish a pro-Palestinian tweet, an algorithm will either keep people from seeing it or perhaps will delete it altogether. On...

Nov 4, 2023 06:16 Financial whistleblower extraordinaire The US has been home to countless banking scandals over the decades. On The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou has spoken to numerous whistleblowers who have told us about money laundering, income tax evasion, and illegal offshoring of assets. But sometimes the good guys actually win. Bill Black is an associate professor of economics and author o...

Oct 28, 2023 08:35 A never ending mystery: Havana Syndrome We told you last season that many, many people across the United States and in a half-dozen other countries have been diagnosed with a strange malady called Havana Syndrome. These symptoms first began manifesting in 2016, when diplomats at the US Embassy in Havana, Cuba began reporting things ranging from physical pain to ringing in the ea...

Oct 21, 2023 06:07 Whistleblowing on the VAO n this episode of The Whistleblowers, Ted Blickwedel, a 27-year veteran, began providing counseling services for Vet Centers in 2009. However, by 2016, he realized that what was originally a people-centered approach to helping veterans had become a numbers game, where patients were rushed through appointments to meet Veterans Administration numbers expe...

Oct 14, 2023 05:58 Dark side of the Railroad There are on average three train derailments in the United States every single day. That’s more than 1,000 every year. Some are disasters. Trains can derail while carrying dangerous chemicals or petroleum products, catch fire, contaminate land and ground water, lead to the death of farm animals, and sometimes even railroad employees or members of the pu...

Oct 7, 2023 08:29 FTX trial Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX and the cofounder of Alameda Research, is about to begin his trial for fraud. A year ago, Forbes ranked the 31-year-old as the 41st richest American and the 60th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $26 billion. Some called him a genius, and many analysts lauded his abilities in quantitative research. But it turns out it...

Sep 30, 2023 07:02 Julius Baer Bank, Cayman Islands On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Swiss whistleblower Rudolf Elmer. While working in the Cayman Islands as an employee of Julius Baer, he exposed financial crimes. In blowing the whistle, Elmer believes he was acting in the public interest. Since then, he has been pursued for breaking the draconian Swiss banking sec...

Sep 23, 2023 07:05 Blowing the whistle on Apple On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with someone who blew the whistle on the biggest company in the world. When the bottom line is profits, nearly every company will cut corners. But sometimes they will do it at a cost to the health and safety of their workers and to the public’s privacy. And for a whistleblower, that’s just n...

Sep 16, 2023 06:53 Samsung whistleblowing in South Africa On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with major international business whistleblower June Bellamy. She will tell us about her whistleblowing revelations and the aftermath, working against Samsung in South Africa. What makes Bellamy so important is what she chose to do in the aftermath of her whistleblowing. Watch to f...

Sep 9, 2023 17:07 Accused of Medicaid fraud Rosa Serrano was convicted of Medicaid fraud in the state of Texas. Rosa was the owner and sole employee of a small company that made eyeglass lenses. She was accused of overbilling Medicaid, charged with fraud, and found guilty at trial. As you might imagine, there are cases like this across the United States every single day, and they are rarely notewo...

Sep 2, 2023 06:18 Whistleblowers of America There are lots of whistleblower organizations out there, especially in the United States, western Europe, and Australia. But many of them are parochial. They focus on narrow subjects or issues, rather than on the mental wellbeing of the whistleblower. Becoming a whistleblower is a decision not to be taken lightly. It often results in almost immediate soc...

Aug 26, 2023 06:25 USS Liberty survivor On June 8, 1967 an overt act of war was committed against the United States. The combined air and sea attack against the naval ship USS Liberty killed 34 sailors, wounded another 171, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the vessel was in international waters north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. But the aggressor was not Egypt. It was not the Soviet Unio...

Aug 19, 2023 06:08 Whistleblower protections in the UK British whistleblower Georgina Halford-Hall has blown the whistle against wrongdoing multiple times—first with bullying in her son’s military school, and next in a non-profit charity. In this episode of 'Whistleblowers', John Kiriakou talks with Halford-Hall about the fallout from her whistleblowing, how she started her own nonprofit Whistlebl...

Aug 12, 2023 07:10 Remembering Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg, probably the most famous and most highly-revered national-security whistleblower in American history, died in June at the age of 92. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou remembers the legacy of Daniel Ellsberg, speaking with his personal friends about his life. Randy Credico, a longtime comedian and social-justice acti...

Aug 5, 2023 06:59 Assange: Desperate for freedom Arguably, the most famous whistleblower in the world is Julian Assange, the cofounder of WikiLeaks. The European Court of Human Rights has on three separate occasions refused to extradite UK nationals to the US due to the practice of solitary confinement, which the Europeans and the United Nations recognize as a form of torture. Assange has very few...

Jul 29, 2023 07:39 Anti-bullying legislation Jenny Foster is an anti-bullying activist, whistleblower and human rights advocate. She represents Better Working Lives, which is currently negotiating with the Irish Government to put together Workplace Bullying legislation. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Foster about her testimony on bullying before the Irish Parliame...