Keeping The Corruption Within Channels

Military and other security forces (USAF, Border Patrol, Highway Patrol, State Police, etc.) in the American Southwest are of the greatest value for Mexican drug cartels to target. Drugs can be moved more-effectively by security forces under cover of official business than by anyone else, particularly if there is lax oversight, making them potentially weak links in American security. Thus, the state of corruption of these forces is of the greatest interest in combating the drug cartels.

The efforts of the Arizona National Guard to preserve the chain of command from disruption, and value smooth operation above simple truth isn't encouraging:

The new ethics code, in a section subtitled “Protection of Agency Records and Information,” tells Guard members that “only designated individuals” may speak out.

Accompanying guidelines warn that “any release of agency information to the public or media must go through either the Public Affairs Office or the Staff Judge Advocate’s Office.”

...The Republic’s ongoing reporting on corruption has been based largely on information from dozens of Arizona Guard members who say that the chain of command fails to combat wrongdoing and that complainants frequently are subject to retaliation.

...Experts on law and ethics said the new policy is confusing because it does not define “agency information” and therefore may be perceived as a free-speech violation.

“To the degree that there’s a mandate and you can’t talk to the press, that could be problematic,” said Kathleen Clark, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis who teaches and writes about whistle-blowing.

Tom Devine, legal director for the non-profit Government Accountability Project, which operates whistleblower.org, said Guardsmen are a hybrid of state and federal military, with the legal rights of neither.

“National Guards have been in a unique loophole to all whistle-blower protections,” Devine said. “They end up with the worst of all possible worlds.”