The Protection of National Security Whistleblowers: Imperative But Impossible A Critical Appraisal of the Scope and Adequacy of Whistleblower Protection Laws for National Security Whistleblowers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to undertake a critical assessment of the provisions, application and enforcement of whistleblower protection laws specifically accorded to employees in the intelligence and national security sectors. The underlying argument of this paper is that national security whistleblowers play an important role in promoting accountability and contributing to a system of checks and balances, but the current legal framework for their protection has significant weaknesses, resulting in a system that has been rightly described as “Kafka-esque.” It is this author’s opinion that national security whistleblowers should be subject to narrower provisions of whistleblower protection because of the sensitive nature of the information to which they are privy and in turn, may disclose. However, this paper seeks to demonstrate that a balance can and should be struck between protecting both the whistleblower and national security interests, but that the current system as it stands falls short of achieving this.