Attorney Jesselyn Radack has been at the forefront of opposing the government’s War on Whistleblowers. She has represented numerous clients indicted under the Espionage Act, including Edward Snowden, Daniel Hale, Thomas Drake, and John Kiriakou. Jesselyn knows first hand the perils of being a whistleblower.
Before becoming one of the leading attorneys defending the rights of national security whistleblowers, she was a Department of Justice employee who blew the whistle on FBI ethics violations during the interrogation of so-called American Taliban John Walker Lindh. Jesselyn joins host Chip Gibbons to discuss her journey and what it’s like being on the front lines of the War on Whistleblowers
My name is Umesh Heendeniya and I live in Hernando County, Florida, and have lived here since mid-2014. Prior to that I lived in Massachusetts. In June, 2010, I posted a book review on Mr. Mumia Abu Jamal’s book– Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the USA. About 3 months later, I began an online romantic relationship with a lady who lived in Iran a few weeks later, began following the Muslim faith. Soon, members of the Massachusetts Joint Terrorism Task Force (Massachusetts JTTF) began surveilling me and this lasted until I moved to Florida in 2014.
In approx. late-January, 2015, members of the Tampa-Orlando Joint Terrorism Task Force (Tampa-Orlando JTTF) began intensely and overtly surveilling me. On Jan. 15, 2016, 3 members of the Tampa-Orlando JTTF forcefully interrogated me against my will, even though I had promptly invoked my Right to Remain Silent and my Right to Counsel, right at the beginning of the interaction. Later, through Florida’s version of FOIA (Florida Statute Section 119.07), I found out that 2 of them were FBI Agents with the Tampa-Orlando FBI office while the 3rd was a Special Deputy U.S. Marshal with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). I have continued to be Aggressively and Excessively Surveilled, Harassed, Stalked and Intimidated by members of the Tampa-Orlando JTTF and Deputies with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office ever since then. Because of controlling U.S. Supreme Court case law (Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1 (1972)) and its progeny in the U.S. Courts of Appeal, there’s not much I can do through litigation, other than silently suffer.
The fact is, Cops (i.e., FBI Agents, Deputy Sheriffs, Special Deputy U.S. Marshals, State Troopers, Police Officers, Probation & Parole Officers, Prison Guards, etc.) have weaponized their surveillance authorities, in order to Punish and Deter Peaceful Civil Rights Activists from Advocating for the Protections and Safeguards embodied in The U.S. Constitution and The Bill of Rights, by the Cops Aggressively and Excessively Surveilling Their Target/Mark and thereby Harassing, Stalking and Intimidating Peaceful Civil Rights & Civil Liberties Activists.