WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Last week, US media reported on 50 intelligence analysts who claimed top officials in the Barack Obama administration had altered intelligence reports to play down the threat posed by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the al-Nusra Front.
"I will assure you that we will do everything within our power to ensure that the whistleblowers remain protected and that there is no retaliation," Austin told members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee.
More than 40 US advocacy groups and foundations said in a Wednesday letter to the President Barack Obama that the White House should endorse legislation to restore protections for intelligence community (IC) whistleblowers.
"We call on you to actively endorse S. 794, legislation introduced by Senator Claire McCaskill that would restore whistleblower protections for IC contractors," the letter read.
The advocacy groups wrote the letter in response to the White House’s answer to a July petition to dismiss charges and pardon whistleblower Edward Snowden. The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch and the International Association of Whistleblowers are among the gruops that signed the letter.
The Department of Defense has a relatively poor record of protecting its whistleblowers. In May, a report by the US Government Accountability Office found that the Defense Department failed in nearly 50 percent of the cases to meet statutory requirements on investigating whistleblower claims of retaliation.
