The Extraordinary Rarity of Whistleblowing 370

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The outpouring of evidence about Jimmy Savile shows that scores of people working in the BBC, Hospitals, childrens’ homes and even the police knew – not had heard gossip, really knew – about Savile’s paedophilia, but did not blow the whistle.

To me this correlates with the fact that scores of people in the FCO, MI6, MI5, Cabinet Office and other government agencies knew about extraordinary rendition, but did not blow – indeed still have have not blown – the whistle.

Savile had come to be seen as a big and peculiarly “Establishment” figure. The extreme rarity of whistleblowing in society is a strange phenomenon it is worth taking a few minutes to consider. Why did none of those now coming forward with their stories – not the victims, but the eye-witnesses – come forward at the time? Fear is probably the main answer, in particular fear of losing your job if you rock the boat. One problem in modern society is that people’s job is too central to their identity – most people when asked who they are, will reply what work they do. It is not just the need to earn money; your social status and personal relationships are often dependent on your position at work. To lose your job, or to become a social pariah within the organisation where you work, is too much for most people to contemplate.

That is why BBC producers who knew about Savile, saw him at it, did not blow the whistle on one of the Corporation’s biggest stars. It is why so few whistleblowers spontaneously come forward who have seen corruption in local government planning departments or defence procurement, to give an example. For most white collar crime there are people who are not directly involved bu see it and keep quiet. There is also the deterrent of self-incrimination – after a time silence becomes complicity.

In my own case of blowing the whistle on the international torture network, I know for certain that many other Ambassadors and diplomats knew just what was happening, most of them didn’t like it, but nobody but me blew the whistle. One Ambassador sent me a cheery “Rather you than me!” Some were actively complicit by being involved in rendition arrangements, others passively by not trying to stop it. This is why the Gibsom Inquiry into Complicity in Torture was shelved – it could not have proceeded without revealing that scores, possibly hundreds, are guilty, many of them still high-ranking civil servants. It was to protect them and the institutions in which they work, rather than to protect the high profile war criminals like Blair, Straw and Campbell, that the Establishment closes ranks. I always knew I would never be allowed to testify before an Inquiry into Complicity in Torture.

Whistleblowers are not just thrown out of their jobs. They almost never find new employment, as the one quality every employer values above any other quality is loyalty to the employer, right or wrong. Nobody wants a “disloyal” employee, whatever their motives. And if your whistleblowing involves the world of war and spying, they will try to set you up on false charges, like me, like Julian Assange, and not just sack you but destroy you.

Whistleblowers are rare because it is a near suicidal vocation, and everyone else is too scared to help. The Savile case teaches us far more important lessons than the prurient detail of a lurid life. Think about it.

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370 thoughts on “The Extraordinary Rarity of Whistleblowing”

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  • Mary

    Beware of going anywhere near the Coq d’Argent restaurant, Poultry, London. This is the third suicide in five years from the roof. Surely they could prevent this happening by putting a climbproof fence around it. Shows the desperation of some working in the ‘city’.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/11/coq-dargent-restaurant-suicide_n_1957596.html

    The man was married, lived in Surrey and was a father of three.
    {http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2122538_cobham_man_died_in_80ft_plunge_from_city_building}

    Yesterday it was the ACC of Leics police who jumped in front of a train. Terrible for the train driver. There were allegations against him of financial fraud and also an offence for swapping his speeding points with his wife who worked for another police force. There is no mention of the condition of the train driver in this report.
    {http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9622087/Body-of-suspended-assistant-chief-constable-found-on-railway-track-after-suicide.html}

  • MJ

    “ping 89.221.240.54 is successful…”

    That’s a relief. Perhaps Craig could be persuaded to compose a brief humorous piece entitled “Technical Stuff” and then insist that all posts like that one are directed there.

  • nevermind

    Thanks for that link to the open seas UN preamble,Mary, very apt. I hope that those on board are refusing to communicate with these pirates and that their Government’s will raise hell to let Netanyahu know that his interests abroad are going to get frozen and blocked unless he releases these people unharmed and instantly.

    Once again we see that the laws are flouted, that Israel can flout Greece’s territorial waters with impunity and that it does not care about international law.

    But it is Israel that invokes and uses this international law to get back what’s rightfully theirs, uses this same law to find and apprehend the third Reich’s murderers, using this same law, justice and courts to get their justice.

    But the Zionist Jekyll’s reject to act up and respect this law when it goes against their interests, their paranoia. They have no right to refuse Ghaza a working harbour, so it can better its economy and revitalise its trade. They have no moral right or reason to ignore the law they themselves call upon for justice.

    Paranoia, self destroyer!

  • Mary

    HM Queen and P Andrew are guests of the Qatari royal family at Ascot today. Their outfit QIPCO are staging ‘the richest event in this country’s horseracing history’ to rival the Breeders’ Cup and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

    http://www.qipco.com.qa/

    Perhaps P Andrew is doing some arms sales on the side.

    Frankel has just won the big race. Strange dichotomy. People are marching in London against austerity and a massive crowd is at Ascot cheering a horse. No recession is being felt by the attendees obviously.

  • William Smart

    >>>>>>>>> That is why BBC producers who knew about Savile, saw him at it, did not blow the whistle on one of the Corporation’s biggest stars. It is why so few whistleblowers spontaneously come forward who have seen corruption in local government planning departments or defence procurement, to give an example. For most white collar crime there are people who are not directly involved bu see it and keep quiet. There is also the deterrent of self-incrimination – after a time silence becomes complicity. <<<<<<<<<<

    That's an inadequate explanation.

    Enormous numbers of people just don't mind being lied to – as can be seen over the USS Liberty case. Israel has now admitted that the photographs issued on its behalf by AJ Cristol are fraudulent, and yet the dam has still not broken.

    Even the mothers of servicemen have failed to demand that the truth of Pat Tillman's death be dragged out of the people who've lied about it and covered it up.

    With cowardice on this scale, the chances of the human race being justly treated in the future must be slim.

  • N_

    @Mary @Clark

    According to the organisers of the Estelle aid mission, their website at http://shiptogaza.se (for pages in English, tag ‘/en’ on the end) is being “targeted in a coordinated attack”.

    This is what I expected.

    Here is their message:

    “At the moment our website is targeted in a coordinated attack. Website may be unaccessable for periods of time. We are working on a solution. Keep up to date through Facebook and Twitter #Estelle”

    Unfortunately the fact that they are working on a solution only at this stage suggests naivete on their part, which is quite frightening. There is therefore all the more reason for supporters to spread their communications, not just using Twitter and the CIA-created Facebook, but using every means we can.

    In legal terms, the attack is not simply “piracy”; it is an act of war, because it was carried out as an official act by the armed forces of one country against a ship registered in another country, whose passengers and crew had every damned right to be doing what they were doing, under Finnish law and under international maritime law. (Our host Craig can confirm this.)

    The most important immediate matter is the wellbeing of the prisoners.

    Here are their names, birthdates, and nationalities.

    Their numbers comprise 5 with Greek nationality, 1 Canadian, 4 Norwegian, 11 Swedish, 1 Spain, 3 with nationality papers from the Zionist entity, 2 Finnish, 2 Spanish, and 1 Italian.

    5 of them are members of parliaments.

    Their ages range from 23 to 79.

    Demands must of course include their immediate release.

    Kodelas Dimitios Greece 02/01/1979 (MP)
    Tiktopoulos Mikhalis Greece 24/12/1946
    Stamellos Loukas Greece 22/06/1979
    Diamantopoulos Evangelos Greece 20/04/1980 (MP)
    Piassas Evangelos Greece 02/04/1947

    Manly James Canada 29/10/1932 (former MP)

    Hagen Aksel Norway 10/04/1953 (MP)
    Hammervold Jan Petter Norway 1944-27-03
    Reksten Herman Elias Norway 1989-10-06
    Sjøstrøm Nils Johan Norway 1963-11-10

    Britton Sven Sweden 14/06/1938 (MP)
    Opperdoes Joel Arvid Alexander Sweden 1983-06-20
    Andreasson Charles Bertil Sweden 1965-03-10
    Särner Daniel Karl-Erik Sweden 1985-12-16
    Uddebrant Johan Lars OS Sweden 1981-06-28
    Widell Anders Nils Olof Sweden 1986-07-11
    Feiler Dror Sweden 1951-31-08
    Svenberg Kristian Sweden 02-07-1947
    Boethius Maria-Pia Sweden 09/04/1947
    Gardell Mattias Sweden 10/08/1959
    Vinthagen Stellan Sweden 13/10/1964

    Sixto Ricardo Spain 07/01/1967 (MP)

    Elhanan Elazar Israel 1977-04-01
    Mor Reut Israel 09/08/1982
    Shapira Yonathan Israel 12-02-1972

    Koivisto Velimati Finland 1968-03-01
    Jämiä Mika Finland 1959-09-06

    Arau Crusellas Laura Spain 02/05/1980
    Zabale Gouzalet BegoÒa Spain 09/01/1950

    Ramazzotti Stockel Marco Italy 17-09-1947

  • N_

    Sadly these good people do not seem to have been well-prepared on the media front. Help them, whoever can.

    http://shiptogaza.se/en/Pressrum/Pressmeddelanden/ship-gazas-web-site-attacked

    “Ship to Gazas web site attacked
    Publiceringsdatum: 2012-10-20

    “It is not only Ship to Gaza´s Estelle which has been targeted by attackers. At the same time as Estelle was hijacked our web site, shiptogaza.se, was attacked, which resulted in inavailability for several hours. Our IT-experts state that these attacks were intentional and well planned. Ship to Gaza is considering the option to report the incident to the police.”

  • nuid

    “Sadly these good people do not seem to have been well-prepared on the media front. Help them, whoever can.”

    Posted on Twitter …

  • George Harris

    Did any member of the royal family visit the Haut de la Garenne children’s ‘home’?

    Were any ever on Jersey at the same time as Jimmy Savile?

    Savile kept several houses around the country. None of them were big mansions. This is behaviour very similar to that of Marc Dutroux in Belgium. In one of them, near Glencoe, he entertained his friend Prince Charles, and provided three young females, wearing the letters ‘H’ ‘R’ and ‘H’ on their clothes.

    Of course nothing about this is suspicious in any way at all.

    Let’s stay as deferential as possible towards our ‘betters’. After all, journalists get banned from the UK all the time. Well, actually, they don’t.

    At Stoke Mandeville, where they opened a cafe called ‘Jimmy’s’ in tribute to Savile, he was pictured wearing two ID cards, one for Robert de Niro and the other for Al Pacino. This man was clearly above the normal rules. That only ever happens with high-level say-so. Let’s not blame the security guards, right?

    The Yorkshire Ripper connection is also very interesting. We have Savile’s ‘friendship’ with him at Broadmoor, to which he had the keys. (He what???) But that’s not all. One of the murders was carried out a matter of yards away from one of Savile’s houses. (That’s if it wasn’t actually carried out inside.) You’ve got to admit, it’s a bloody big coincidence that later the two men were ‘friends’.

  • Mary

    Just to make sure that any belief we hold that it was state sponsored terrorism is crazy, there are 12 mentions of the word ‘conspiracy’ on that Huffpost page about the new 9/11 Truther film.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/18/martin-sheen-woody-harrelson-september-morn_n_1981559.html

    The word ‘truther’ itself carries some baggage.

    Urban dictionary –
    Truther

    A now stereotypical, thereby ad-hominem label for an individual who is sceptical about world events. Such scepticism largely emanated from the events of 9/11.

    Some individuals embrace the term while others see it as a convenient label to paint all with the same brush.

    Pro: I’m a truther, I look at the empirical evidence that wasn’t in the official 9/11 commission report.

    Con: You’re just another one of those “truthers”! Inside job people.

  • Ben Franklin (Anti-intellectual Colonial American Savage version)

    “The word ‘truther’ itself carries some baggage.”

    So does ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’.

    To that I say, don’t hide your warts; decorate them.

  • Karelo

    May I also blow a whistle? Komodo seems to me somewhat of a sleeper who has to listen to his master’s voice when certain topics are raised. Or perhaps he or she or they is just a plain stupid lizard, David Icke tells us about. As our lizard believes that Wikipedia is the source of ultimate wisdom in these days, may I ask those who find my pathetic rumbling too confusing to look up “sleeper agent” in that well of knowledge.

  • Clark

    N_, 20 Oct, 6:24 pm: Yes, my results could be compatible with an attack upon the site; maybe I just caught the end of a phase of it. Strange, however, that the attack is not consistent, nor intense enough to keep people off the site entirely. I do hope that this indicates that Israel is short of support.

    Further good news is that DNS translation from the URL shiptogaza.se to the IP address 89.221.240.54 seems to remain unaffected. This shows that the power of Israel’s agents is limited; they cannot get the site’s URL removed from the Domain Name System.

  • Clark

    Karelo, Wikipedia is our encyclopaedia; ours, the people’s. If you find that it is wrong or incomplete, please go and edit it. Preferably, create an account. You’ll find me there; I’m Clark42.

    You do have to obey the rules, however, and I don’t pretend that they are perfect. You need to back up your contributions with a reliable source. But having Wikipedia is a huge improvement over it not existing at all.

    Karelo, Komodo is a fine contributor here, who does excellent research. You didn’t say what party you suspect him of being a “sleeper” for, but I’ll bet you’re wrong. Komodo is a Good lizard!

  • Courtenay Barnett

    @ All

    But – that is not why Craig Murray did blow the whistle on Karimov torture. He was indeed the opposite of the Savile facilitators.
    I am reading a book at present – Nassir Ghaemi’s, professor of psychiatry at Tufts University, A First-Rate Madness. It examines twelve world leaders, Blair and Bush are included. He links – John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill as having suffered from depression, hyperactive manias or bipolar syndrome. These conditions he theorises actually helped the leaders in crisis situations. He posits, that “normal” , or what he terms “ homoclitic” people, do not make good leaders.
    I cite the foregoing to suggest that Craig Murray is a leader; he stepped away from the norm of being a “good diplomat”; he did by choice invite a crisis, which realistically he could have anticipated when he blew the whistle; and – in all these regards – in the best possible way I can mean – he is not normal.
    “In my own case of blowing the whistle on the international torture network, I know for certain that many other Ambassadors and diplomats knew just what was happening, most of them didn’t like it, but nobody but me blew the whistle.”
    As I said – and I believe, Professor Nassir Ghaemi might agree – Craig Murray is not “normal”.

  • Ben Franklin (Anti-intellectual Colonial American Savage version)

    “Komodo is a Good lizard!”

    Agreed. But he can inflict a nasty bite :>)

  • Suhayl Saadi

    Trowbridge Ford: 8:12am, 20.10.12:

    Ivens XS?

    But seriously, a fascinating account, thanks. I knew nothing of this. D’you think he was poisoned?

  • Martin

    Sorry to enter the fray so late, and belated birthday best wishes, I am interested in your Madrid notes Craig. The comment section is closed.

    I lived there for 6 years, coming and going with my job and I quite liked it.
    I read a lot about Spanish history, ‘Ghosts of Spain’ was one of the better reads I thought.
    Mr. Beevor’s book about the civil war gives the scenario of how the rich did totally trample on the poor less than 100 years ago, with the blessing of the pope and king of course.
    I can only remember one detail in which it’s claimed that poor folk collecting firewood from an estate without permission were shot on the spot, guess who’s side the law was on?
    Surely if society is to develop and not repeat mistakes of old history should have more weight, The Road to Wigan Pier for example should be compulsory reading in the UK.

  • Karel

    Clark, sorry for altering my name to Karelo. It sounds more interesting but I just hit two keys at one go. Sleepers are usually “fine contributors”, as you say, but for this capacity they can often be found in leading posts of all kinds organizations or activist groups. Sleepers seldom know whom they actually work for. Hence, how and why should i know? It is the pattern of their contributions, which blows their cover. just like our beloved sir james displayed certain patterns of behaviour. I was not a direct witness of his escapades but that man always seemed to me too slimy to watch on the tv.

    But perhaps it is all fine and there are no conspiracies after all, any apparent anomaly is just accidental. Just like the BBC premature report on WTC7 collapsing broadcasted about an hour earlier. My interpretation of how this could have happened is as follows: The producer asked an assistant about the state of the building. Foxed and tired after a whole night drinking the assistant yelled in a coffee room, “is it all collapsing?” Meanwhile, Jimmy getting a rejuvenating blow job started bellowing “oh yes”, “oh yes”. Then the assistant returned and reported, “Jimmy said yes and he will fix it afterwords”. And that was it. No conspiracy whatsoever. I would enrich wikipedia with this plain account of events but I am afraid of its deletion within seconds. So, why to bother?

  • DoNNyDarKo

    I quite like your connection between child molestation and torture. No doubt the victims feel equally violated. There was a case a few years ago in Scotland, Hollie Grieg, and some quite prominent politicians supposedly involved.The trail led back to Thomas Hamilton guilty of the Dunblane massacre. The Govt. ordered the case to be kept under wraps for 100 years.

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