September, 24 2009, 10:28am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Kirsten Stade (202) 265-7337
Border Agency Axes Top Lawyer for Whistleblower Complaint
General Counsel Fired for Not Being "Collegial" in Reporting Waste and Abuse
WASHINGTON
The federal agency responsible for wastewater treatment and flood
control projects on the U.S.-Mexico border ousted its General Counsel
just three days after he reported waste, fraud and abuse to oversight
agencies, according to legal briefs filed today by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The agency's termination letter
stated that that the lawyer was fired for being less than "collegial"
in writing legal opinions protesting violations by top agency
officials.
Robert McCarthy, General Counsel for the United
States Section, International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC),
with headquarters in El Paso, Texas, had cautioned the agency about
financial abuses, including a $220 million Recovery Act flood control
project which threatened the safety of millions of border residents.
McCarthy's legal opinions also warned about improper expenditures,
illegal manipulation of payrolls, secret surveillance of USIBWC
employees, and other abuses.
On July 28, 2009, McCarthy
informed Bill Ruth, the holdover USIBWC Commissioner appointed by
President Bush, that he had disclosed these concerns to the Office of
Special Counsel, State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG),
Office of White House Counsel and the Government Accountability Office.
Three days later, Ruth ordered McCarthy's termination. Ruth's removal
letter cited McCarthy's legal memoranda, stating the memos demonstrated
McCarthy's "continued failure to support me...in a constructive and
collegial manner ... [which] leaves me no other recourse."
Ironically,
on the day he fired McCarthy, Ruth submitted testimony to Congress in
which he boasted "We have made implementing the Recovery Act a top
priority and are pleased to report that we are moving forward quickly,
efficiently and with an unprecedented level of transparency and
accountability...the public is encouraged to report instances of waste,
fraud and abuse to the Department of State OIG...."
Today, on
McCarthy's behalf, PEER has filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint
with the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) demanding his immediate
restoration.
"We expect government lawyers to uphold the law,
not compete for Miss Congeniality," stated PEER Counsel Christine
Erickson who filed the complaint. "Documents in this case show a rogue
agency acting without regard for law, regulation or even common sense."
Among McCarthy's disclosures was that USIBWC planned to build
"cosmetic" levees along the Rio Grande in order to give the appearance
of flood control while leaving residents vulnerable to seasonal
inundation. In Presidio County, Texas, the agency planned to patch up
structurally deficient levees damaged by a previous flood, with full
knowledge that the repairs would not withstand even a minor flood, and
that the levees themselves are located on unstable ground. In Hidalgo
County, the agency planned to divert flood control funds to subsidize
building a border barrier.
PEER has previously labeled the
USIBWC the worst agency in the federal government, pointing to, among
other things, a 2005 State Department Inspector General report which
concluded that "Internal management problems have engulfed USIBWC,
threatening its essential responsibilities for flood control and water
management in the American Southwest."
"Under Bush appointees,
the USIBWC has become a bureaucratic basket case desperately in need of
external intervention," said PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting
that his group has been contacted in the past few weeks by several
current and former agency employees reporting similar problems. "Not
only is the appointment of a new Commissioner long overdue but this
tiny agency should be put under the State Department's management
control to prevent these fiascos from recurring."
Look at the McCarthy MSPB complaint narrative
See why PEER calls USIBWC the worst agency in federal service
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) is a national alliance of local state and federal resource professionals. PEER's environmental work is solely directed by the needs of its members. As a consequence, we have the distinct honor of serving resource professionals who daily cast profiles in courage in cubicles across the country.
LATEST NEWS
Pentagon Urged to Just Say No to AI-Powered Killer Robots
"The Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons."
Mar 26, 2024
The watchdog group Public Citizen on Tuesday led a letter urging Pentagon leaders "to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the development and deployment of autonomous weapons systems," also known as "killer robots."
Last September, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks "asserted that the development of all-domain, attributable autonomy systems (ADA2) is an essential way for the Pentagon to maintain its comparative cutting-edge and keep up with the technological advancements of other states," notes the letter, which was addressed to her and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
"However, those comments failed to specify whether or not supporting autonomous weapons systems is one of the key focuses of this initiative," the letter stresses. "When addressing whether or not 'ADA2 means weapons systems,' Secretary Hicks stated: 'That's a serious question to be sure. They are not synonymous. There are many applications for ADA2 systems beyond delivering weapons effects.'"
"Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Public Citizen and the 13 other organizations argued that "this is no place for strategic ambiguity. Autonomous weapons are inherently dehumanizing and unethical, no matter whether a human is 'ultimately' responsible for the use of force or not."
Deploying lethal weapons that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) "in battlefield conditions necessarily means inserting them into novel conditions for which they have not been programmed, an invitation for disastrous outcomes," the groups warned. "'Swarms' of the sort envisioned by Replicator pose even heightened risks, because of the unpredictability of how autonomous systems will function in a network. And the mere ambiguity of the U.S. position on autonomous weapons risks spurring a catastrophic arms race."
"We believe the Department of Defense should declare its opposition to the development and deployment of autonomous weapons," the coalition concluded. "However, even if you are not prepared to make that declaration, we strongly urge you to clarify that the Replicator Initiative will not employ autonomous weapons."
In addition to Public Citizen, the coalition included the American Friends Service Committee, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, Backbone Campaign, Demand Progress Education Fund, Fight for the Future, Future of Life, National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, RootsAction.org, United Church of Christ, the Value Alliance, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom U.S., Win Without War, and World Beyond War.
The letter comes on the heels of Public Citizen releasing a report about the rise of killer robots, AI Joe: The Dangers of Artificial Intelligence and the Military.
The February report addresses the Pentagon's AI policy, the dangers of killer robots, the need to ensure decisions about nuclear weapons aren't made by automated systems, how artificial intelligence can increase not diminish the use of violence, risks of using deepfakes on the battlefield, and how AI startups are seeking government contracts.
The publication concludes with recommendations that Public Citizen president Robert Weissman echoed in a statement Tuesday.
"The United States should state plainly that it will not create or deploy killer robots and should work to advance global treaty negotiations to ban such weapons," Weissman said. "At minimum, the United States should commit that the Replicator Initiative will not involve the use of autonomous weapons."
"Ambiguity about the Replicator program essentially ensures a catastrophic arms race over autonomous weapons," he added. "That's a race in which all of humanity is the loser."
Keep ReadingShow Less
12 Palestinians Drown Trying to Retrieve Airdropped Gaza Aid From Sea
One campaigner called the incident "another deadly example of why airdrops are not the answer to famine in Gaza."
Mar 26, 2024
Human rights defenders on Tuesday pointed to the drowning deaths of 12 Palestinians trying to retrieve humanitarian aid parcels airdropped off the Gaza shore as yet another reason why Israel must stop blocking aid from entering the embattled strip by land.
Video published on social media shows Palestinians running toward the Mediterranean Sea in Beit Lahia as aid parcels parachute downward. Eyewitness Abu Mohammad toldCNN that the people who drowned "don't know how to swim."
"There were strong currents and all the parachutes fell in the water," Mohammad said. "People want to eat and are hungry. I haven't been able to receive anything."
Ramy Abdu, chair of the Geneva-based group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, said that some of the victims died after becoming entangled in parachute ropes.
BREAKING| 9 Palestinians drowned and 5 others missing in the Sea of Gaza while trying to get humanitarian airdrop aid due to falling into the sea. pic.twitter.com/tSPpbrKsTg
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) March 26, 2024
According to the U.S. military—which along with Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Singapore has been airdropping aid into Gaza—parachute malfunctions caused three of the 80 parcels dropped to land in the sea. The Pentagon did not say which country carried out the drop.
Earlier this month, five children were crushed to death and numerous other Palestinians were injured by U.S.-airdropped parcels on which the parachutes apparently malfunctioned.
The airdrops come amid widespread and increasingly deadly starvation in Gaza, where Israeli forces have been accused of using hunger as a weapon of war. Last month, Michael Fakhri, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, called Israel's forced starvation of Gazans part of "a situation of genocide" in the besieged enclave, where more than 114,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces since October 7 and around 2 million people out of a population of 2.3 million have been forcibly displaced.
While Israel claims there are no limits on aid entering Gaza by land, Israeli officials said Monday that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East trucks would be blocked from entering northern Gaza. Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked aid convoys and their police escorts, forcing UNRWA to suspend humanitarian deliveries.
Israeli forces have also on several occasions attacked starving Palestinians as they desperately attempt to get food for their families, including in the February 29 "
Flour Massacre" that left more than 870 Gazans dead or wounded.
Also blocking humanitarian aid from reaching starving Palestinians are Israeli civilians who have camped at border crossings to prevent convoys from entering Gaza. Last month, right-wing extremists set up a giant inflatable children's bouncy castle where aid trucks are meant to pass through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in an effort to lend a festive atmosphere to the action.
Medical Aid for Palestinians, a London-based humanitarian group, said Tuesday that "airdrops will not end famine and are a dangerous proposed 'solution.'"
Palestinians in Gaza expressed similar sentiments.
"We call for the opening of the crossings in a proper fashion," Mohammad told CNN, "but these humiliating methods are not acceptable."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Alabama Mercedes-Benz Workers Accuse Company of Union-Busting in NLRB Complaint
"It's just plain retaliation from Mercedes, but I'm not going to be intimidated," said one worker.
Mar 26, 2024
A month after the United Auto Workers announced that a majority of workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama had signed union cards, employees struck a defiant tone Tuesday as they filed official complaints of union-busting by the company with the National Labor Relations Board.
Workers detailed the illegal disciplinary measures management has taken against them for taking leave and objecting to anti-union materials that have been shown in captive-audience meetings since most of the plant's 6,000 workers indicated they want to join the UAW.
"Since we started organizing, I put in my [Family and Medical Leave Act] leave with management multiple times and every time they said they lost the paperwork," Lakeisha Carter, who works in the company's battery plant, told the UAW. "It's just plain retaliation from Mercedes, but I'm not going to be intimidated."
The U.S. Department of Labor last month recovered $438,625 in back pay, unpaid bonuses, and damages for two people who had formerly worked at the plant in Vance, finding that management had illegally fired the workers when they requested FMLA-protected leave to care for a family member and recover from a serious health condition.
After winning new contracts for workers at the Big 3 automakers last fall following an historic "stand-up strike," the UAW has launched campaigns at non-unionized plants owned by Mercedes, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Toyota, convincing more than 10,000 autoworkers so far to sign union cards.
Another battery plant worker, Taylor Snipes, told the UAW that managers at the company were forcing him and his coworkers "to attend meetings and watch anti-union videos that are full of lies."
After he objected, Snipes was called into a meeting and "immediately fired for having his phone on the factory floor," even though he had been given permission to have his phone with him so he could be in touch with his child's daycare center.
"I told management that it was suspicious that I was being called into the office on the same day that I spoke up in anti-union meeting," said Snipes. "My manager said the two had nothing to do with one another, but then proceeded to aggressively interrogate me about why I support having a union."
UAW President Shawn Fain met with Mercedes workers in Alabama on Sunday.
"Unlike previous drives, the workers are in command," said Luis Feliz Leon of Labor Notes. "They are the collective force that will either press on to a union victory or a defeat."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular