Punish a Whistleblower, Get a Promotion; That’s Reportedly the Navy’s Way

The Washington Post reports that “Rear Admiral Brian L. Losey was investigated five times by the Defense Department’s inspector general after subordinates complained that he had wrongly fired, demoted or punished them during a vengeful but fruitless hunt for the person who had anonymously reported him for a minor travel-policy infraction.”

The inspector general “recommended that the Navy take action against Losey for violating whistleblower-protection laws” as three of the five staff members’ complaints were upheld in the years-long investigations. Furthermore, those suspected “whistleblowers” weren’t the ones who had filed the complaint against Losey in the first place, but rather just collateral damage in his campaign to clear his name.

The Navy decided NOT to punish Rear Admiral Losey, but instead promote him to two-star admiral. Losey contested all of the complaints against him, “asserting that the staff members were poor performers and that he had acted within his authority as a commander.”

“Senior Navy leaders reviewed the inspector general’s investigations but ‘concluded that none of the allegations rose to the level of misconduct on Admiral Losey’s part,’ Rear Adm. Dawn Cutler, the Navy’s chief spokeswoman, said in a statement. She added that ‘no further action is contemplated.’”

The government clearly has a problem with whistleblowers -- even when the accused “whistleblowers” are proven “innocent” of any trespass like in this instance with the Navy -- just ask Hillary Clinton at the CNN Debate when she said she’d prosecute Edward Snowden.

Among what makes our government great is our First Amendment protections that ensure we can call bullshit on the agencies that are supposed to protect us. When a whistleblower has to hide in Russia, because he has more freedom there than in this country, we seriously have a fear of telling the truth.