Tag Archives: OIG

by Ramola D/Posted April 2, 2017

Last December, George Ellard, Inspector General (IG) of the NSA was fired from his position by DIRNSA (Director of the NSA) Admiral Mike Rogers for evidence of retaliation against a whistleblower who had reported financial misconduct. This story was widely covered, and can be read about online at various sites.

Karen Stewart, with Mariska

Also linked to Inspector General George Ellard, yet less known, and, surprisingly, less covered by media, is the startling story of 28-year veteran of the NSA, a specialized Foreign Language Intelligence Analyst, Karen Stewart, whose exceptional skills in translation and analysis were highly sought after internally at the Weapons and Space Directorate where she worked, yet who was overnight made subject to a sudden barrage of internal harassment, denial of work credit, and loss of promotion by certain managerial factions within the Agency.

Underlying this story in the heart of the NSA, much-vaunted stronghold of uber-surveillance within the USA and worldwide, is a gaudy centerfold of common office intrigue, sex, and scandal.

Ms. Stewart, who has called herself “the accidental whistleblower,” distinguished herself at work on a special project, which led to her being named the lead researcher and reporter in an analytical 200-person project on Operation Iraqi Freedom, for which she eventually produced a series of award-winning reports. “At the end of that,” notes Ms. Stewart, “I had praise from a plethora of sources to include higher management as well as “customers” (Pentagon, etc.), and was often advised to submit paperwork for a promotion “since (I) certainly deserved it.”

Inexplicably, full credit for these reports, authored and led by Ms. Stewart, was assigned to another NSA employee, one, apparently, who had found secret favor with NSA higher-ups through age-old means.

As Ms. Stewart wrote last December to DIRNSA Admiral Rogers:

“I was fraudulently fired at the 28 year point in my career at NSA essentially because of the best work of my career, which cost me my job so that upper management in Weapons & Space (Robert G, Drew M) could “reward” an incompetent woman, Margarita L, in my office for her prolific sexual favors to W&S upper management, as witnessed by Cindy V H, by fraudulently crediting her with my work (award-winning support of Operation Iraqi Freedom) so that she could receive my double promotion.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

DIRNSA Admiral Mike Rogers, Image: Wikipedia

In a powerful and hard-hitting letter to the current NSA Director, Ms. Stewart outlined how the casual handover of credit for her reports and promotion to the notorious Margarita L was accompanied by various frantic efforts to discredit her, dismiss her as mentally ill, and trip her up on ordered polygraphs. The series of events that followed on her complaint to IG George Ellard, in fact, reads like panicked cover-up strategies from a bad spy novel.

First NSA Security—apparently supported by upper management—levelled concocted accusations at Ms. Stewart of leaks to media “in regard to a subject (she) never had training in, exposure to, or knew anyone with access to”. IG George Ellard, she says, refused to investigate or to interview her witnesses. Then she was ordered to undergo a polygraph. The polygraph—normally administered under calm and controlled circumstances—was sabotaged by a round of verbal abuse.

“After the false accusation by Suzette F L, Security (Joe F) gave me a thoroughly abusive polygraph in that regard, making me flunk the first polygraph ever in my career. Then attempts were made to upset and intimidate me for consequent polygraphs to make me appear guilty of the impossible. When I tried to complain to his supervisor, Renee H, she hung up on me showing me she knew he was instructed to skew the results by improper behavior.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is advertised, even on the NSA website, as the place to report internal fraud, waste, and corruption. Ms. Stewart notes she was merely exercising a right.

In an interview published last spring at Washington’s Blog, Ms. Stewart stated: “I simply asked the NSA Inspector General to look into a claim by a promotion board member that my Technical Lead and my Office Chief had lied to the promotion board to get the wrong person promoted. I had no idea that the full might of NSA Security and the Inspector General’s Office would come down on me to utterly destroy me and my career for simply asking that an egregious wrong be corrected.”

Retaliation at the NSA Starts with Psychiatric Evaluations

But that is exactly what started to happen. Already surreal, the sabotage veered into the blatant. Inspector-General George Ellard’s office did not investigate Ms. Stewart’s account of work credit theft and promotion sabotage. Instead, Ms. Stewart was ordered to undergo a Security Psychiatric Evaluation. This tactic is not unfamiliar to NSA whistleblowers.

A news article in 2006 reported:

“Five current and former National Security Agency (NSA) employees have told Cybercast News Service that the agency frequently retaliates against whistleblowers by falsely labeling them “delusional,” “paranoid” or “psychotic.”

The intimidation tactics are allegedly used to protect powerful superiors who might be incriminated by damaging information, the whistleblowers say. They also point to a climate of fear that now pervades the agency.

…The accusations of “Soviet-era tactics” are being made by former NSA intelligence analysts and action officers Russell D. Tice, Diane T. Ring, Thomas G. Reinbold, and a former employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. The allegations have been corroborated by a current NSA officer, who also insisted on anonymity, agreeing only to be referenced as “Agent X.” NSA Accused of Psychologically Abusing Whistleblowers, CNS News, Jan 25, 2006

Former NSA Intelligence analyst and action officer Russell Tice, who reported a co-worker at the DIA as a possible spy and criticized the FBI rather creatively in an email as “Federal Buffoons and Imbeciles,” says he was sent off by NSA Security for a psychiatric evaluation, labelled by a NSA forensic psychologist, Dr. John Michael Schmidt, as “paranoid” and “psychotic,” stripped of his security clearance, and eventually fired. This exact sequence was reported by other NSA whistleblowers, as this article records.

In a study of the use of psychologists at NSA to discredit whistleblowers, Wayne Madsen, a journalist specializing in Intelligence with experience covering the NSA, has noted pointedly:

“In the spirit of the Soviet “psikhushka” psychiatric hospitals where anti-regime dissidents were sent, NSA is using psychologists to eliminate independent-minded intelligence analysts and other career employees.” NeoCons Using Shrinks To Purge National Security Agency, Wayne Madsen Report, 8-24-2005

In February 2006, following allegations of illegal NSA surveillance of Americans exposed by whistleblowers, a Congressional hearing by the National Security Subcommittee (recorded on C-Span) addressed some of these issues of whistleblower retaliation, but it wasn’t until 2012 when Obama’s Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act was passed that some protections, mostly to combat rather than prevent retaliation, were put in place.

Blatant Oppression: “Doing a Mental”

In Ms. Stewart’s case, the Gulag inside the NSA soon made itself evident. The extent to which the in-house psychologist was being used with impunity as a power tool to crush enquiry and suppress reports to the OIG of fraud, waste, and abuse surfaced in brazen admonition from Dr. Dina Wieczynski:

“I even was called down to Security Psych Services and told by Dr. Dina Wieczynski that if I did not drop my IG investigation request that she would review all my previous psychological tests and “find a problem” in order to have me lose my clearance and job. She even cattily remarked what a shame it would be for me to lose out on my retirement so close to the end of my career.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

This piece of information alone, that a NSA psychologist was actively seeking to destroy an employee’s career, name, and character through fabricated psychological problems seems incriminating and actionable–and disclosure of vital importance, one would think, to DIRNSA Admiral Rogers. If honesty, integrity, respect for the law, and transparency are as critical as stated to NSA’s Mission and Strategy, wouldn’t the DIRNSA want to clean house?

Twenty-nine-year veteran of the NSA Thomas G. Reinbold reported a very similar experience.

“Former NSA officer Thomas G. Reinbold confirmed that the practice of “psychiatric abuse” inside the NSA is “very widespread.”

‘They call it ‘doing a mental’ on someone,’ Reinbold said, and it has a “chilling effect” on other potential whistleblowers, he added. ‘They fear for their careers because they fear someone will write up bad [psychological] fitness reports on them.’” NSA Whistleblowers were Allegedly Isolated, Intimidated, CNS News, Jan 26, 2006

Harassment Intensifies: Investigation by FBI, Security Clearance Revoked

The witch-hunt against Ms. Stewart continued to mount. Because Ms. Stewart refused to cave in to threats and retract her request for an IG investigation, a series of retaliatory actions by NSA Security followed. Falsified charges led to the FBI being brought in. The investigation opened by the FBI found nothing, but the harassment intensified. Internal confirmation that Ms. Stewart was being slandered and lied-about came back to her.

It can also be reported that colleagues have validated that Ms. Stewart was subjected to witnessed hostility in the workplace. A three-year period of hostility followed, in which Ms. Stewart reports she was actually stalked by NSA Security employees and Security contractors. (This remarkable phenomenon was covered here earlier in this interview, and others Ms. Stewart has given nationwide.) Stalking was not the only form of harassment. Ms. Stewart also reports the death by poisoning of a beloved pet and COINTELPRO-like action on the roadways including hazardous driving. Worse ensued when she described these abuses to new management. She was reported to NSA Security, who immediately pulled her clearances.

Apparently the reporting of stalking and harassment is used reflexively within the NSA as psychological evidence of paranoia, or so Ms. Stewart was mockingly informed by an employee under her supervision.

“..(S)ubordinate Robert A. taunt(ed) me that they could now claim that my report of people stalking and harassing me would be used to accuse me of being paranoid and delusional, and therefore unfit to hold a clearance so I could be fired and cheated out of my retirement just 3 years short of my eligibility.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

NSA Executive Caught Stalking, Witnessed at Local Bookstore Recognizing Ms. Stewart and Fleeing, Photograph: Karen Stewart

This, despite the fact that NSA actually encourages employees to report stalking, as a national security consideration, to forestall espionage by foreign agents. Karen Stewart reports: “NSA Security actually ran campaigns advising employees that if they noticed being followed or any undue attention, to report such suspicious behavior to them! They warned this could indicate being identified and targeted by foreign agents.” She underlines the irony: “Yet, my reporting of exactly this was ignored, obstinately ignored. Even ignored with hostility.” And apparently rewarded with revocation of clearance.

Depriving NSA Intelligence analysts of their clearances is no small thing, since it effectively cuts them off from the classified analysis they were hired to do. Diana Ring, a former NSA computer scientist, who protested being ordered to report for a psychiatric evaluation after she had a run-in with an egoistic Colonel at the Pentagon, describes the consequences of clearance-revocation:

“After she lodged a complaint about the alleged retaliation with the NSA inspector general, Ring said the agency moved to revoke her security clearance, “red-badging” her. “Red-badged” employees only have access to the corridors at the NSA….Ring said she was assigned to spend her days in a room full of other “red-badgers.”

….For eight months, the former action officer from the Pentagon read books and magazines. ‘They had these red-badgers spread out all over the place. Some were sent to pump gas in the motor pool and chauffeur people around,’ said Ring. ‘In our room, some people brought sleeping bags in and slept all day long. Others read. I would think that would incense the taxpaying public.’” NSA Whistleblowers were Allegedly Isolated, Intimidated, CNS News, Jan 26, 2006

NSA Security Contractor/Employee Caught Stalking; Image: Karen Stewart

Ms. Stewart was red-badged and sent to work a “punishment job” at the Travel Office. Ironically however, this office was situated right next to the NSA Security office, and Ms. Stewart was able to witness a rather extraordinary spectacle, that of her stalkers from the last three years pulling in to the NSA parking-lot and actually walking in to report to work at NSA Security! 

The tragi-comic farce that she seemed to be caught in however continued. Her reports to Howard County Police of these stalkers/apparent NSA contractors or employees’ license plate numbers found their way back to NSA Security, who now exacerbated their campaign against her by naming her paranoid and dangerous, and putting her on administrative leave, demanding that she obtain an external psychiatric evaluation and start psychiatric treatment for what they stated glibly was a mental illness.

NSA Security Blue-Badge Employee, Caught Stalking; Image: Karen Stewart

Relentless Harassment from NSA Security

At this point it is clear that, contrary to expectation, things were beginning to backfire on NSA Security. Dr. R, the external psychiatrist Ms. Stewart consulted, pronounced her mentally sound. Former head of Security Psych Services, Dr. Paul Clavelle, had earlier affirmed that Ms. Stewart was “one of the strongest people mentally and emotionally whom he had ever met.”

Ms. Stewart also reports that she sought the professional opinion of a co-author of the book “Mobbing: Emotional Abuse in the American Workplace.”  This co-author “wrote an assessment regarding the practice of lesser people to attack and destroy co-workers out of jealousy, envy, fear of being found to be doing unethical or illegal activity, etc. She described the NSA workplace as hopelessly toxic due to mentally unstable and immoral leadership.”

Additionally, Ms. Stewart filed an EEO complaint to record “that NSA was pretending I had a mental illness that I had never had and firing me on false basis to cover up a sex scandal,” which was responsible for cheating her out of work credit and double promotions.

This EEO complaint was not investigated, despite the law. It was later altered and closed, possibly due to nepotistic connections:

“Finally an EEOC judge forced NSA at the behest of my lawyer to investigate my complaint….NSA EEO then dishonestly changed my complaint to read that I thought I was being discriminated against for being Caucasian, which I NEVER SAID and is ludicrous. My lawyers objected but were blown off. NSA EEO, run by the wife of an NSA Security manager, investigated on a purposely false basis then pronounced itself innocent.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

Ms. Stewart’s EEOC lawsuit was accepted however, by an attentive judge, although it is still awaiting adjudication.

Intensification of Harassment and Retaliation: Electromagnetic Weapon Assault

The vendetta never stopped. Ms. Stewart reports that she was then subjected to 24/7 harassment by civilian vigilantes from a Neighborhood Watch program and police in her neighborhood, and was told by a Howard County Police Officer, Officer Williams, that NSA Security had actually characterized her as “crazy and dangerous” — worthy of 24/7 stalking and surveillance by one and all apparently, in today’s Amerika.

Retirement Benefits Withheld

Further, Ms. Stewart reports she was then terminated, and had to fight to get Discontinued Service Retirement benefits, since word from Human Resources (HR) and General Counsel Vito Polenza suggested she was not eligible. In a September 17, 2011 letter to HR at NSA, Ms. Stewart noted the illegality of this stance and cautioned against “acts of retaliation based on my EEO and IG complaints about managerial misbehavior (promotions awarded for stolen work credit and sexual favors).”

In her letter to DIRNSA, she notes:

“A fortuitous call to OPM (Office of Personnel Management) confirmed that NSA HR and the General Counsel were lying and OPM fought them in time to get my partial GS-12 retirement, though I should really have retired at a GS-14 if not GS-15, but for NSA malice and corruption.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

It is salutary to note here that other discrepancies in the treatment meted out to Ms. Stewart by NSA point to negligence. Ms. Stewart reports that an earlier promotion to GS-13, recommended by her superiors, was foiled by NSA’s lack of accommodation for a partial spinal impairment, which prevented long hours of sitting still to complete a written language-proficiency test; it took ten years and repeated requests by Ms. Stewart for personnel at NSA to address this disability issue (as required by law) and break up the test into manageable time units. Finally, after the disability accommodation, Ms. Stewart was able to take the test, passing Parts 1A and 2A (Translation) of the PQE (Professional Qualification Exam), the sections most germane to her duties. Poised to take the next sections, 1B and 2B (Transcription), she was disrupted when new work projects intervened, including the much commended one at heart of this story, credit for which was stolen, engendering the loss of a double promotion and the train of disastrous consequences discussed here.

Electromagnetic Radiation Weaponry Usage

Suspected Fed (FBI?) Stalker, Florida; Photo: Karen Stewart

With Ms. Stewart’s loss of employment in 2010, the stalking harassment actually ceased for 5 years, but in 2015 it followed her to Florida after she had moved away from Maryland and had asked her lawyer to subpoena new damning evidence she had discovered against NSA. With that subpoena, the stalking harassment not only was brought to Tallahassee, Florida, but was intensified to include the toxic and deadly use of Directed Energy Weapons. Pulses of measurable electromagnetic radiation began to be directed into her home and onto her person, topics covered at length in earlier articles here covering her story.

Suspected Fed (FBI?) Stalker, Florida; Photo: Karen Stewart

Notable too is this account of her being “Baker-Acted”after reporting EMF weapon assault to local police and the Sheriff, since the modus operandi, as reported by thousands of Americans experiencing covert EMF weapon assault today, is for FBI and police (who have now been sanctioned by DOJ to use Through The Wall Surveillance [TTWS] radar devices, and other radar, ultrasonic, infrasonic, and X-ray devices on civilians, for surveillance, despite a complete lack of public disclosure and debate about these deadly, health-damaging technologies) to pretend ignorance of this stealth radiation weaponry usage.

As a consequence of these assaults, Ms. Stewart’s single-handed dedication to speaking out about the covert use of radiation weaponry in surveillance and harassment by local Law Enforcement and fusion centers in interviews, talk shows, and radio shows has succeeded in bringing nationwide and worldwide attention to this crucial 21st-century issue, shedding light on the entire subject of “Targeted Individuals,” much maligned and lied-about in mainstream media.

Repression, Retaliation, Extermination

The extraordinary shower of retaliatory actions Ms. Stewart was subjected to in unrelenting succession, just for speaking out, must not go unnoticed. At this point, she was effectively put on a secret Extermination List.

“I went from no discernible health problems to a sudden plethora of health DAMAGE, heart damage, bleeding in the brain, brain granuloma/tumor, vision damage, and myriad on-going symptoms indicative of prolonged exposure to electromagnetic radiation, microwave, ultrasonic and infrasonic assaults, and others I cannot define yet.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

Not merely was Ms. Stewart subjected to severe retaliation while still at NSA, she was now being subjected to what Dr. Katherine Horton, particle-physicist from CERN has characterized as “Nazi death-camp operations,” a criminal global program of suppression, retaliation, and political oppression being run on thousands of innocent and upstanding civilians worldwide, with electromagnetic weapons and neuro-weapons, wielded by a conglomerate of lawless Intelligence agencies and organized criminals.

“From November 2015 to present, I have been under 24/7 assault with DEWs at low, slow-kill level merely because NSA does not want it revealed how viciously, criminally, and insanely they retaliate against anyone who might reveal the depth of NSA corruption, quite contrary to and in utter contempt of US law and the Constitution.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

Quite rightfully, Ms. Stewart, an ardent patriot and believer in liberty, who can trace her ancestry on her mother’s side both to George Washington’s mother’s sister and to the chaplain who baptized him, asks: “This is how my country repays me for my lifetime dedication to its service? Am I really to continue to be massively slandered and slow-kill murdered by traitorous bottom-feeder scum at the behest of NSA gone rogue?”

Unafraid to spell out truth as she sees it, Ms. Stewart closes:

“As an Admiral in the Navy and the DIRNSA, surely you can go a long way in investigating and stopping this illegal, unconstitutional, immoral, heinous and unconscionable assault upon me to cover up stolen valor and a tawdry sex scandal. And don’t say let the EEOC handle it, clearly I will be murdered before that is allowed to happen. You can and must right this wrong. DNI James Clapper refused to get involved in 2009, but then he is a thoroughly dishonorable and dishonest man.” Karen Stewart, Letter to DIRNSA, 22 Dec, 2016

Ms. Stewart reveals that she also provided written testimony of NSA misconduct and whistleblower retaliation to the House Select Committee on Intelligence in May 2015, following up with many queries, yet never received a response.

In that letter, Ms. Stewart emphasizes the danger posed by the existence and use of remote-influencing EMF weapons, and adjures the Committee to “tell Admiral Rogers to rein in psychopath Security manager, L. Kemp Ensor III and all the rest of a tainted and severely criminalized NSA Security group that has gone completely rogue and are a danger to all of us. They could easily do this to anyone who “displeased them,” including anyone in leadership….The leadership in NSA Security must be suspended and polygraphed for criminal and treasonous acts immediately, and this assault against me and my family put an end to before we are illegally murdered by a corrupt and out of control leg of our own government.”

Is the NSA Keeping America Safe?

This story is being reported in the national interest and to point up the state of affairs at what is touted to be our premier agency focused on national security and keeping America safe, the NSA–which is currently spying on all Americans, as well as facilitating the spying of all citizens worldwide–in addition to engaging in the dubious and predatory activities of EMF weapon assault and stalking described above.

Among other pious vows on the NSA website is this comforting claim: “We will behave honorably and apply good judgment as we would if our activities were under intense public scrutiny.” Yet this hardly seems true. At time of press, despite an initial query for clarification from NSA Media Relations, no response regarding the status of action on Ms. Stewart’s case following her letter to DIRNSA has been provided to this writer–offering the implication that no action is forthcoming.

Does NSA Security and the NSA as a whole believe they are above the law? How is the spending of taxpayer money on the long-term stalking, surveillance, harassment, and electromagnetic assault of a superior linguist, translator, and Intelligence analyst who should have been rewarded and retired with honors related to keeping our country safe? (Simple answer: it’s not.)

The incredible disclosure offered by Karen Stewart’s experience instead points to a vast, underground operation employing military-grade Electronic Warfare weaponry, wrongful classification to conceal crime, and an army of contractors and paid civilians to harass and persecute innocent Americans–thence dismissed, true-NSA style, as paranoid “Targeted Individuals”–all in efforts to conceal crime in high places.

What has happened to America?

Text by Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC

It is to be hoped that DIRNSA Admiral Rogers will indeed recognize the crucial importance of addressing Ms. Stewart’s complaint and begin work immediately to end the egregious ongoing harassment, retaliation and EMF assaults she is facing, come clean about covert government persecution of whistleblowers, put into action all motions to terminate this horrific abuse on Americans and civilians worldwide, recently reported in a joint public Memorandum to President Trump on Domestic Torture Programs Running Under Cover of Surveillance, and openly right this tremendous historic wrong.

Karen Stewart’s complete letter to DIRNSA Admiral Mike Rogers, with names selectively redacted, may be found here.

With many thanks to Karen Stewart for her courage and transparency in speaking out and keeping the nation and the world informed.

Related:

Letter from Karen Stewart to DIRNSA Admiral Rogers, 22 Dec, 2016

Techno Crime Fighters Forum 4/World Beyond Belief: Whistleblower Retaliation

Memorandum to President Donald J. Trump on Domestic US Torture Programs Running Under Cover of Surveillance, 25 Jan, 2017

NSA Whistleblower, Karen Stewart: Synopsis of the Silent Holocaust Taking Place in the United States

NSA Whistleblower Karen Stewart Speaks Candidly About Illegal and Criminal NSA & FBI Programs of Organized Stalking and Electronic Harassment in the USA & Abroad

NSA Whistleblower William Binney/InfoWars: NSA is after Total Global Population Control

Intel Agency Crimes: False Flags, Lies, Media Control, & Mind Control Psy Ops

NSA Whistleblower Karen Stewart says Intel Community Now Full of People More Dangerous to Freedom than ISIS

The Truth About 9/11: NSA Whistleblower Karen Stewart–“A Serious Concern to All Thinking Americans”

NSA Whistleblower Karen Stewart’s Letter to Dr. Otto Lampe, German Ambassador in Switzerland, on Dr. Katherine Horton’s Behalf