The Whistleblowers

Jul 22, 2023 07:35 Blowing the whistle on animal welfare crime Augusta University in the US state of Georgia is currently involved in a case marred by allegations of fraud, forgery, and cover-up after a research monkey died nine years ago. The university went to great lengths to keep the animal’s death a secret. But there was a doctor working on the case who said that what the university was doing...

Jul 15, 2023 06:19 Managerial dysfunction & the Intelligence Authorization Act Ryan Sweazey blew the whistle on a colleague at the Defense Attaché Office in Rome, who was secretly reporting negative information about the performance of coworkers to superiors. The practice turned managers in Western Europe against their subordinates, creating a hostile work environment and disrupting their effo...

Jul 8, 2023 06:05 Protesting the Iraq & Afghanistan wars Matthew Hoh is a former soldier, a former diplomat, and a whistleblower. He took part in the American occupation of Iraq, first in Salah al-Din Province with a State Department reconstruction and governance team, and then in al-Anbar Province as a Marine Corps company commander. Hoh speaks to John Kiriakou about his decision to resign fr...

Jul 1, 2023 06:12 Corruption at Veterans Affairs Department Tim Petoskey reported on numerous issues at the US Department of Veterans Affairs to the VA Office of Inspector General including discrimination, gross mismanagement and misuse of overtime, and he said an investigation led to the then-chief, deputy chief, patrol commander, and operations commander all being terminated. Petoskey tells John...

Jun 24, 2023 06:23 Behind the murder curtain Bruce Sackman was a special agent in charge of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General. Sackman’s main responsibilities included investigating white-collar crimes such as embezzlement when he was drawn into the macabre world of doctors and nurses who murder their patients. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou a...

Jun 17, 2023 06:45 Delta’s corrupt safety culture Captain Karlene Petitt was a veteran pilot with Delta Airlines, one of the largest carriers in the world.  In 2016, Karlene raised concerns about potential safety violations at Delta, and it almost cost her her career.  On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou talks with Petitt about how she was subjected to psychological exams and a ph...

Jun 10, 2023 06:46 Pentagon whistleblower On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks to a Pentagon whistleblower. She’s not a household name. Academics will not base their dissertations on her case. She hasn’t been the subject of fawning exposés. But Jackie Garrick is a clear example of a person doing the right thing – bringing to light evidence of waste, fraud, abuse, illegality,...

Jun 7, 2023 06:01 Did Britain’s GCHQ tap Donald Trump’s phone? On this episode of Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with former CIA and State Department officer Larry Johnson. He left government service to set up a successful consulting firm and is also known for a daily blog in which he offers insights – sometimes biting and controversial – into current events. Johnson discusses in detail why...

Jun 3, 2023 06:40 Independent journalists under fire It is often said that truth is the first casualty of war.  That statement was first made more than 100 years ago, and few can imagine anybody disagreeing with it.  So where do we get news—reliable news—in a time of conflict? This week on the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with independent journalist, Patrick Lancaster, about what it is lik...

May 31, 2023 06:13 Citicorp and the fall of the housing market This week on The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks to Citigroup whistleblower Richard Bowen, who tried repeatedly to warn the bank that bad prime and subprime mortgage loans could sink the company as the economy began to slow. He was ignored and punished for his revelations, even though he did it in exactly the way that he was taugh...

May 27, 2023 06:51 The man behind Lux LeaksOn this episode of The Whistleblower we are going to tell you about one of the most important and impactful financial whistleblowers in the world, who you have probably never heard of. John Kiriakou speaks with Antoine Deltour, the man behind LuxLeaks. John and Antoine discuss how whistleblowing can be a dangerous affair and lead to financial and emotiona...

May 24, 2023 05:21 The alleged weapons of mass destruction Scott Ritter is a name known to many around the world. He had extensive experience in the US military, having been an officer working for US Central Command General Norman Schwarzkopf. That’s where Scott’s whistleblowing began. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Ritter about speaking in front of a contentious...

May 20, 2023 06:03 The fall of Enron Enron was one of the biggest energy, commodities, and services companies in the world. Wall Street loved the company right up until it fell apart. John Kiriakou speaks with the former Vice President of Corporate Development at Enron, Sherron Watkins. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, Watkins explains how when Enron’s financial numbers just didn’t add up, s...

May 17, 2023 06:30 Weaponization of the Federal Government Republicans in the House of Representatives have established the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government. It takes a look at how the CIA, FBI, and Department of Justice may have been censoring information on Twitter. FBI whistleblower Jane Turner gives her take on the committee’s actions and tells her own story to Jo...

May 13, 2023 06:09 Big oil and government bribes Jonathan Taylor was working for a Dutch multinational oil company when he discovered evidence of bribes being offered to government officials in return for lucrative contracts. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou talks with Taylor about how doing the right thing, and uncovering these crimes, completely upended his life.

May 10, 2023 06:39 Manipulating Google’s algorithms In 2019, Zachary Vorhies, a senior engineer at Google, decided to release hundreds of pages of internal documents to Project Veritas. Vorhies collected the documents over the course of a year. The information he released revealed damning information about how Google’s search algorithms function. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriako...

May 6, 2023 05:59 Bugging the United Nations Katharine Gun blew the whistle on the American National Security Agency’s regional targets division. Gun intercepted an email from the chief of staff of the NSA  asking for help in bugging the United Nations offices of six countries that were members of the United Nations Security Council. On this episode of the Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou talks with...

May 3, 2023 06:29 Suing the US government over federally-funded abortions Stephanie Carter is a nurse in a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Texas. She’s now seeking a court injunction to block the Department of Veterans Affairs from compelling her and other colleagues to participate in providing any abortion-related services. On this episode of The Whistleblowers John Kiriakou discusses...

Apr 29, 2023 06:23 The pitfalls of classified documents It seems that all the talk in Washington is about classified documents. Who has them? Why were they retained? And what should be done about it? But those are the easy questions. The more difficult ones concern why the American government produces more than 100 million classified documents every year. How many of those documents are properly a...

Apr 26, 2023 05:59 The Swiss currency scandal On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou tells us about another courageous banking whistleblower who has been harassed by the Swiss government and banking sector for more than a decade. Trevor Kitchen exposed a multi-billion-dollar currency scandal. As a result, he lost his job, his reputation was damaged, and just two years ago he was char...

Apr 22, 2023 06:39 South African Airways whistleblower Cynthia Stimpel was a treasurer at South African Airways. She became aware of an irregular deal of 256 million Rand at South African Airways under the leadership of Dudu Myeni. Cynthia reported the irregularity, but the deal went ahead anyway, against her strict orders. In the end, she saved millions of Rand from being lost in an illegal and u...

Apr 19, 2023 06:04 Taking in Snowden: The Tibbo refugees Most people know the story of whistleblower Edward Snowden. The story that is not often told, however, is where Snowden hid, and with whom, while he was in Hong Kong. They are now known as ‘the Tibbo refugees’. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks with Robert Tibbo, a lawyer for the refugees, for more on this fascinati...

Apr 15, 2023 06:41 The lost reality of Reagan’s Star Wars program The Strategic Defense Initiative was President Reagan’s idea for a space-based anti-missile system. Detractors called it ‘Star Wars’, as the science fiction film series exploded in popularity. Even though the president begged for support from Congress to fund the program for years, no progress was made. Finally, Subrata Ghoshroy, on...

Apr 12, 2023 05:59 The corruption of Trillian Capital South African financial advisory firm Trillian Capital’s transactions are currently the subject of various fraud, corruption, and money laundering investigations and prosecutions in South Africa. On this episode of The Whistleblowers, John Kiriakou speaks to Bianca Goodson, whose evidence and disclosures continue to make an important contributi...

Apr 8, 2023 06:36 What really happened to JFK? There are enough questions about the John F. Kennedy assassination to fill a library. Countless books have been written on the subject, and many of them have only served to make the issue murkier, rather than to clearing up some of the myriad questions surrounding the case. Every five to ten years, Congress demands the CIA declassify and release a tra...