“I’ve seen the IG not working because people were afraid to use it because it whitewashed improper and possibly illegal activities.”
I’m not sure what IG you may be talking about. In the intelligence community the IG has to answer to the Senate and House intelligence committees. Everything they do is an open book for those committees. It would be virtually impossible for them to begin an investigation (and all complaints open an investigation) and not have it be available to congressmen, senators, and their staff. If laws were being broken it is their responsibility to correct it. THe problem with going to the media is that they only tell one side of the story and the other side often can’t be told due to national security.
I spent 24 years in the Air Force. Lots of different bases. Some were better than others, and some were excellent, but some were pretty bad. According to the article, this guy talked to supervisors and others in his organization, and got told to shut up. I've seen that happen in the Air Force, and it always comes back to haunt someone eventually, but that doesn't stop some folks from giving it a try. One of the training bases I went to lost their base commander over an IG complaint that got stonewalled for a couple of years at the local level. Eventually, higher HQ IG wandered through, as they do, and everything fell apart: the commander, and several of his officers and sr. nco’s got taken down. This happened just before I got there, and we suffered the repercussions the whole time I was there.