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For Immediate Release
September 22, 2004
11 FORMER AND CURRENT US AND UK GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES ISSUE LETTER
SUPPORTING DANISH WHISTLEBLOWER FRANK GREVIL
Frank Grevil’s press contact is: Tom Clark tclark@tiscali.dk
home (+45) 4444 1343
work (+45) 4452 6447
mobile (+45) 4095 0574 or (+45) 6062 1763
OPEN LETTER TO THE DANISH GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC:
We, the undersigned citizens of the United States and the United Kingdom, have recently come to learn of the criminal proceedings against our Danish fellow truth-teller, Mr. Frank Grevil.
As his case has been presented to us, Mr. Grevil is formally being accused of leaking three classified “threat assessments” to a Danish newspaper in January/February 2004, in order to substantiate claims made verbatim to the same newspaper. These documents demonstrated that his employer at the time, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, provided unbalanced intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction prior to the decision of the Danish Parliament to join the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" in March 2003. These documents also showed how the Service—due to its lack of sources—based its threat assessments almost entirely upon similar assessments provided by intelligence agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom, the content of which later turned out to be based on bad intelligence and in some cases even fabricated information.
We have learned that the Danish Parliament has recently taken actions to enhance parliamentary control over the intelligence service, which are clearly attributable to Mr. Grevil's revelations. This lends great credibility to his claims, which deserve in our opinion credit for serving the public interest rather than punishment.
What Mr. Grevil has undertaken reflects in many ways what we have done in our respective countries. With this letter, we want to draw attention to the important role that unauthorized truth-telling plays in a democratic state. In our experience, the proper chain of command often does not work to correct corruption, crimes, lies, cover-ups, or incompetence within state agencies. Disclosing documents without authorization is frequently the only way to expose these abuses or to substantiate verbal allegations about them to the press.
We strongly recommend reevaluating Mr. Grevil's case on the basis that his deed was done unselfishly and conscientiously, in order to strengthen democracy, and government transparency, and true national security.
SIGNATORIES
John H. Brown, Former Foreign Service Officer
Edward Costello, Former Special Agent (Counterintelligence), Federal Bureau of Investigation
Sibel Edmonds, Former Language Specialist, Federal Bureau of Investigation
Daniel Ellsberg, Former official, U.S. Departments of Defense and State
Katharine Gun, Former translator, GCHG, UK
Larry Johnson, Former Deputy Director for Anti-Terrorism Assistance, Transportation Security, and Special Operations, Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism
Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatowski (karen@militaryweek.com), recently retired from service in the Pentagon’s Office of Near East planning
Ray McGovern, Former Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency
Coleen Rowley, Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation.
(Clarification of Coleen Rowley's Signature: "I have signed this letter in support of Danish Major Frank Grevil in my personal capacity and not as a representative of the FBI. I wish to further clarify my view that the propriety of 'unauthorized disclosures,' such as the one Major Grevil made, is limited to only the narrowest of circumstances, to dire situations involving truly unlawful, unconstitutional or deceptive actions on the part of higher government officials entailing life and death consequences, for example, the My Lai massacre or the Abu Ghraib torture incidents. In less serious situations, I believe that the proper and most constructive way of bringing concerns and problems to light is through chain of command and other institutional mechanisms such as Inspector Generals.")
Philip G. Vargas, Ph.D., J.D., Former Director, Privacy & Confidentiality Study, Commission on Federal Paperwork
Ann Wright, Retired Army Reserve Colonel, Former Deputy Ambassador, Mongolia