Patterico's Pontifications

11/8/2014

Friend of Patterico and Federal Whistleblower Robert MacLean Hopefully Headed for Victory in Supreme Court

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:08 pm



The New York Times recently reported:

A majority of the justices seemed ready to side with a fired air marshal on Tuesday in a Supreme Court argument over whether he was covered by a federal law protecting whistle-blowers.

In 2003, the air marshal, Robert J. MacLean, received a secret briefing about a terrorist threat affecting long-distance flights. Two days later, he was told by text message from the Transportation Security Administration that to save money, the agency was canceling assignments requiring an overnight stay.

He complained to his superiors, saying the move would imperil public safety. When they failed to act, he contacted a reporter for MSNBC. The resulting news coverage promptly led to a reversal of the travel policy.

When the government later identified Mr. MacLean as the source of the report, it fired him for disclosing sensitive information without authorization. Mr. MacLean challenged his dismissal under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which insulates federal workers from retaliation if they disclose “a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.”

Mr. MacLean is a friend of the blog, and provided me exclusive insights seven years ago, in posts like this one and this one. For non-clickers, here is part of what Mr. MacLean told me in one of those old posts:

After 9/11, immediately putting thousands of air marshals on flights was the right decision. But now, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) misuse of the air marshal program as a visual deterrent is one of the worst threats to aviation security right now.

With the current checkpoint bypass and pre-boarding policies that TSA and the airline companies insist on, an air marshal team is going to get ambushed and their weapons will be used to take another plane down. Air marshals right now are sitting ducks with the current strategy.

But then we got Barack Obama — and he has been great to whistleblowers. Hope and change. So we now have nothing to worry about, folks.

Nothing to worry about.

Good luck to Mr. MacLean. He and people like him represent what is best about this country: people willing to stand up for what’s right, in the face of powerful vested interests. I have nothing but respect for Mr. MacLean and people like him.

UPDATE: Mr. MacLean needs work. If any Patterico readers know of a position for an honest, upstanding guy, email me.

13 Responses to “Friend of Patterico and Federal Whistleblower Robert MacLean Hopefully Headed for Victory in Supreme Court”

  1. First, I am, I am!

    Yoda (d89de1)

  2. Indeed, yo da man !

    Alastor (2e7f9f)

  3. Obama’s not against whistleblowing in principle. He’s just determined that anything which might make him look bad or hurt him politically is forbidden from public disclosure.

    If a few thousand people have to die in terrorist attacks as a result, it’s a price he’s willing for us to pay.

    Estragon (ada867)

  4. My Best Regards to you Robert MacLean, Thank you!

    ropelight (7ba8bc)

  5. With the current checkpoint bypass and pre-boarding policies that TSA and the airline companies insist on, an air marshal team is going to get ambushed and their weapons will be used to take another plane down. Air marshals right now are sitting ducks with the current strategy

    It didn’t happen. Why?

    Possible reaosns:

    1) People making security plans are more aware of weaknesses than people planning attacks. In which it may be a bad idea to publicize this.

    2) This would not actually be a possible plan. People making security plans sees weaknessesthat ar where in fact the situation isn’t so bad. For instance to seize weapons would require a lotof training, and there likely be chaos. This is no plan any terrorist group could count on working..

    3) It would be a possible plan, but the reason it hasn’t happened is because of deterrence. There is tendency to confuse deterrence with security – to think you have security when in reality you have deterrence.

    3a) Perhaps not complete deterrence, but the sponsers of terrorist groups don’t want to gte too strong a reaction.

    Sammy Finkelman (89ef89)

  6. Before September 11, 2001, we thought there was security that would prevent airplane hijackings, but in reality there was deterrence.

    Sammy Finkelman (89ef89)

  7. One obvious example of surveillance is video taping of checkpoints and other areas of security implementation. There is constant testing of the limits by various groups, some of which, like the Flying Imams, seem pretty obvious as surveillance or harassment of the airlines personnel.

    Mike K (90dfdc)

  8. that whistle ain’t gonna blow itself that’s for sure

    happyfeet (831175)

  9. Obama’s not against whistleblowing in principle. He’s just determined that anything which might make him look bad or hurt him politically is forbidden from public disclosure.

    Yes, if a government worker were to come forward and provide damaging information that was embarrassing to the Bush Administration, no doubt Obama would provide all the protection and support that he possible could. But burn Barry and, well, you’ll be finding the horse’s head in your bed.

    JVW (60ca93)

  10. If the Supreme Court actually does follow election returns, these next couple of years are going to be hard on the President. Even if it’s just Roberts and Kennedy with their fingers in the wind.

    Kevin M (d91a9f)

  11. 8. that whistle ain’t gonna blow itself that’s for sure

    happyfeet (831175) — 11/9/2014 @ 8:11 am

    I hear Bill Clinton used that line a lot.

    Steve57 (c1c90e)

  12. UPDATE: Mr. MacLean needs work. If any Patterico readers know of a position for an honest, upstanding guy, email me.

    Patterico (9c670f)

  13. Pat, you have my email – please send me Mr. MacLean’s resume, just in case. I’m probably not in a position to help, but you never know.

    carlitos (c24ed5)


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