Blowing the Whistle on Homeland Security

Another Whistleblower Fights Back

In spite of all the publicity and public support the Edward Snowden case has generated, the majority of whistleblowers suffer in silence. Below is an amazing interview with former US Customs inspector Julia Davis, who was declared a domestic terrorist by the Department of Homeland Security for following established protocol in reporting a potential security threat. The threat, in this case, involved border crossings of 25 individuals with known links to terrorist groups. As Davis indicates in the video, she never dreamed of becoming a whistleblower – she was merely doing her job.

When she inadvertently exposed corrupt practices the intelligence community over responding to this and other security threats, DHS retaliated by charging her with domestic terrorism. This, in turn, led her to be imprisoned twice, though she was ultimately exonerated of all charges.

As she later learned, DHS justified the domestic terrorism charge on the basis she supposedly made derogatory statements about DHS. She explains that the label of “domestic terrorist” is a ploy used against prospective whistleblowers because it deprives them of important Constitutional protections under the Patriot Act.

She has ultimately come to the conclusion that the main function of DHS isn’t to protect Americans from potential terrorists but to harass dissidents and whistleblowers.

Davis has helped produce a documentary about her ordeal called Top Priority

Among other projects, she is undertaking an independent investigation of the systematic harassment one of her supporters and her husband – who both subsequently died under suspicious circumstances.

photo credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District via photopin cc