Gold9472: Please contact Rep. Shay's office and encourage him to follow the recommendations put forward by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Sibel Edmonds. Encourage him to hold hearings regarding the 9/11 Commission's omissions including Able Danger. Capitol Hill switchboard: 202-224-3121 or Shay's office: 202-225-5541

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=32881&dcn=e_hsw

Groups representing national security whistleblowers are urging a boycott of an upcoming congressional hearing, saying their concerns and experiences will not be adequately represented by the witnesses who are scheduled to testify.

The House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations plans to hold a hearing Dec. 6 to examine whether agencies are unjustly revoking or suspending security clearances in retaliation against employees who speak out against wrongdoing.

Advocacy groups such as the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Concerned Foreign Service Officers, however, say the hearing should be postponed because the witness list lacks whistleblowers with firsthand knowledge of problems.

Whistleblowers sent at least 17 letters to the subcommittee Monday protesting the upcoming hearing.

"The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, together with supporting organizations and over 100 national security whistleblowers, respectfully urges you to postpone this hearing," Sibel Edmonds, founder and director of the coalition, wrote in a letter to Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., the subcommittee chairman. "We stand ready to work with your office to do the work necessary to schedule a meaningful event where valuable testimony and information may be provided to Congress."
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"It's just too bad they can't take yes for an answer," Halloran said. "This is the hearing that the whistleblowers wanted."
(Evidently not)
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"None of the witnesses on the panels you have proposed has current, firsthand knowledge of the issues," wrote Daniel Hirsch, a GS-15 level foreign service officer at the State Department. Hirsch earlier this year founded Concerned Foreign Service Officers, a group of more than 40 officers who have had their security clearances revoked or suspended.
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