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LOCAL HEROES: WHISTLEBLOWERS HONORED
THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT celebrated its 30th anniversary by
honoring several whistleblowers and congressional champions of
government accountability, public safety and whistleblower protections.
Among the honorees:
DR. DAVID GRAHAM a 20-year veteran of the FDA, who three years ago
testified in the Senate that the agency's handling of Vioxx, a popular
arthritis drug, was the worst public health disaster in the agency's
history. Research by Dr. Graham and his colleagues showed that the
painkiller had caused 88,000 to 139,000 heart attacks (30 – 40% fatal)
over the previous five years. In a preemptive move by drug-maker Merck,
Vioxx was pulled off the shelves one day prior to Graham's testimony.
A week after the hearing, sympathetic insider colleagues and press
contacts warned Dr. Graham that the FDA was finalizing plans to exile
him from drug safety work within days. Congressional whistleblowing
champions and the media rallied to his defense, and the FDA retreated.
Then-FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford issued a memo to all staff that
they no longer needed prior approval to communicate with Congress. Dr.
Graham's supervisors later approved publication of his study. Dr. Graham
again made news just weeks ago when he testified before an FDA Advisory
Committee meeting regarding the dangerous side effects of the diabetes
drug Avandia and its link to increased heart attack risk.
BOGDAN DZAKOVIC: Prior to the 9/11 attacks, he served as a leader for
the FAA's Red Team, which conducts mock raids on airports in order to
determine if airlines are equipped to thwart hijackers. Breaching
security with ease (a 90% rate), Dzakovic and other Red Team members
repeatedly warned that America's airports were vulnerable for terrorists
– including the same gate at Boston's Logan Airport that was actually
used by the hijackers a few months later on 9/11. The FAA ordered the
Red Team not to write up its reports, not to retest to check if security
breaches had been fixed and proceeded to warn airlines when the Red Team
would arrive to test security systems. After 9/11, Dzakovic blew the
whistle on this. He was grounded from the Red Team and repeatedly
reassigned to various duties. He has been vindicated again and again in
years since.
http://www.whistleblower.org/template/index.cfm
[Note: Your editor is on the board the Fund for Constitutional
Government which helps to fund the Government Accountability Project. He
is a GAP groupie of the first water] (Sam Smith is the editor of The Progressive Review)
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LOCAL HEROES: WHISTLEBLOWERS HONORED
THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT celebrated its 30th anniversary by
honoring several whistleblowers and congressional champions of
government accountability, public safety and whistleblower protections.
Among the honorees:
DR. DAVID GRAHAM a 20-year veteran of the FDA, who three years ago
testified in the Senate that the agency's handling of Vioxx, a popular
arthritis drug, was the worst public health disaster in the agency's
history. Research by Dr. Graham and his colleagues showed that the
painkiller had caused 88,000 to 139,000 heart attacks (30 – 40% fatal)
over the previous five years. In a preemptive move by drug-maker Merck,
Vioxx was pulled off the shelves one day prior to Graham's testimony.
A week after the hearing, sympathetic insider colleagues and press
contacts warned Dr. Graham that the FDA was finalizing plans to exile
him from drug safety work within days. Congressional whistleblowing
champions and the media rallied to his defense, and the FDA retreated.
Then-FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford issued a memo to all staff that
they no longer needed prior approval to communicate with Congress. Dr.
Graham's supervisors later approved publication of his study. Dr. Graham
again made news just weeks ago when he testified before an FDA Advisory
Committee meeting regarding the dangerous side effects of the diabetes
drug Avandia and its link to increased heart attack risk.
BOGDAN DZAKOVIC: Prior to the 9/11 attacks, he served as a leader for
the FAA's Red Team, which conducts mock raids on airports in order to
determine if airlines are equipped to thwart hijackers. Breaching
security with ease (a 90% rate), Dzakovic and other Red Team members
repeatedly warned that America's airports were vulnerable for terrorists
– including the same gate at Boston's Logan Airport that was actually
used by the hijackers a few months later on 9/11. The FAA ordered the
Red Team not to write up its reports, not to retest to check if security
breaches had been fixed and proceeded to warn airlines when the Red Team
would arrive to test security systems. After 9/11, Dzakovic blew the
whistle on this. He was grounded from the Red Team and repeatedly
reassigned to various duties. He has been vindicated again and again in
years since.
http://www.whistleblower.org/template/index.cfm
[Note: Your editor is on the board the Fund for Constitutional
Government which helps to fund the Government Accountability Project. He
is a GAP groupie of the first water] (Sam Smith is the editor of The Progressive Review)
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