Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection The Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Program ( DICWP ) is a sub - mission of the Department of Defense Whistleblower Program . In administering the DICWP , the Office of the Inspector General , U . S . Department of Defense ( DoDIG ) balances the competing national security and separation of powers interests raised by whistleblowing within the Defense Intelligence Community . The DoDIG provides a safe , authorized conduit for Defense Department whistleblowers to disclose classified information . The Inspector General also has authority to investigate whistleblowing reprisal allegations filed by civilian and military members of the Defense Intelligence Community . It therefore accepts the disclosures and provides source protection for those providing the information . The Department of Defense funds and supervises much of the Republic ’ s intelligence gathering . DoD IG accordingly provides protection to a large number of civilian and military intelligence personnel . Defense Intelligence Community & Whistleblower Protection . The Defense Intelligence Community includes the Defense Intelligence Agency ( DIA ) , the National Security Agency ( NSA ) , the National Reconnaissance Office ( NRO ) , and the National Geospatial - Intelligence Agency ( NGA ) , all military service and combatant command intelligence components , as well as those DoD components providing counter - intelligence mission capability . The DoD does not receive disclosures or investigate reprisal involving intelligence personnel outside of DoD , such as persons employed by the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) or the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) . The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 ( CSRA or Act ) was passed in response to public concern over the efficiency , integrity , and accountability of the federal workforce . The Act codified the merit system principles governing the federal workforce . One of these statutory principles states that employees should be protected from reprisal in response to whistleblowing . The CSRA provided the first substantive protections for agency whistleblowers , creating the Office of Personnel Management , the Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Systems Protection Board . A little over a decade later , the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 ( WPA ) enhanced CSRA whistleblower protections . The WPA recognized that whistleblowing federal employees “ serve the public interest by assisting in the elimination of fraud , waste , abuse , and unnecessary government expenditures . ” Through the WPA , whistleblowers gained an independent right to pursue an appeal to MSPB . Neither the CRSA nor the WPA provided protection for employees of the Defense Intelligence Community . The Church Committee hearings concurrently led to passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 ( FISA ) . To enable and implement the FISA , the Department of Defense issued DOD Regulation 5240 . R . Procedures 14 and 15 of this regulation provided whistleblower protection for Defense Intelligence Community service members and employees reporting “ questionable activities . ” In a separate move , the Congress legislated to protect its own access to Defense Intelligence Community whistleblowers through the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998 ( ICWPA ) . Whistleblower reprisal allegations under both the FISA and the ICWPA can be docketed and filed through the Defense Hotline . The ICWPA ’ s protection , however , is narrow . The ICWPA does not contain general protections against reprisal . Subject - matter experts in the field have suggested that a more appropriate name for the ICWPA would be the Intelligence Community Disclosure Act because the statute addresses only a very specific dilemma , namely , how one reports wrongdoing to the U . S . Congress when the wrongdoing involves classified information . Protecting Sources . The mechanics of protecting Defense Intelligence Community whistleblowers occurs , in part , through the Inspector General Act passed in 1978 . The IG Act authorizes statutory inspectors general to receive and investigate complaints or information received from agency employees concerning a violation of law , rules , or regulations ; or mismanagement ; gross waste of funds ; abuse of authority ; or a substantial and specific danger to the public health and safety . Like the CSRA , the IG Act also contains substantive protections against whistleblower reprisal . However , unlike the CSRA , the IG Act provides no general exemption preventing protection of intelligence and counterintelligence employees . The DoDIG , accordingly , uses this authority to provide protection to those filing reprisal complaint using the Defense Hotline . If the Defense Inspector General has jurisdiction over an intelligence or counter - intelligence service member or employee , there is a means of providing whistleblower protection . Within the Defense Intelligence Community , the DoD IG — as the lead inspector general of the Defense Department – delegates to the Civilian Reprisal Investigations ( CRI ) and Military Reprisal Investigations directorates the responsibility of conducting investigations into allegations of reprisal from civilian appropriated fund employees and military members . DoD IG accordingly exercises primary jurisdiction over complainants from the Defense Intelligence Community not having access to the federal government ’ s primary agency for whistleblower protection , the U . S . Office of Special Counsel . With respect to civilian Defense Department employees working in the intelligence and counterintelligence fields , the Inspector General ’ s CRI directorate was established in 2003 . The directorate investigates whistleblower reprisal by determining whether a complainant was subject to a negative action as a result of disclosing instances of fraud , waste , and abuse ; or violations of law , rule , and regulation . CRI uses title 5 of the United States Code ( 5 U . S . C . ) as the standard for its intelligence and counter - intelligence whistleblower reprisal investigations . Under section 2302 of title 5 , a negative action such as a suspension , a demotion or termination is defined as a personnel action . If a CRI investigation finds causation between a disclosure and a personnel action taken against the disclosure ’ s source , the case is substantiated . But if the employee ’ s Agency has clear and convincing evidence that a personnel action would have been taken against a civilian employee absent their disclosure of alleged wrongdoing , the Inspector General “ non - substantiates ” the case . The Defense Intelligence Community reprisal complaints prompting DoDIG investigation may come to CRI and MRI through several channels . An employee may file through the Defense Hotline , or one of the DoD component hotlines oversighted by the DoDIG . In addition , complainants may contact a member of Congress to report the whistleblower retaliation and then be sent to the Inspector General , or the case may be referred to the DoDIG by the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Oversight ( ATSD - IO ) , if it is forwarded through that office . The ATSD - IO administers DoD Regulation 5240 . 1 - R , but very few of the complaints filed by DoD employees involved in intelligence and counterintelligence activities have included allegations of reprisal for whistleblowing activities . The varied means of filing complaints lead to a process called “ deconfliction , ” by which government agencies prevent duplicative efforts . “ Deconfliction ” may be resolved by a component inspector general undertaking an investigation , with the DoDIG oversighting the effort . Similarly , inspectors general of the Defense intelligence agencies themselves may receive reprisal complaints and refer them to the Defense Hotline . Once an investigation is concluded , the Inspector General issues a report to the Agency ’ s proponent command . Unsubstantiated allegations result in case closure with no corrective action . Reports of substantiated whistleblower reprisal bear recommendations that the complainant be made whole through remedies provided by the command or component . Recent Defense Intelligence & Counter - intelligence Cases . Notable examples of the Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Program work within the last three years include : As partners of DoD IG in the Defense Intelligence Community Whistleblower Program , the NSA and DIA are thought by subject - matter experts in the field to be at the forefront of whistleblower protection within the general intelligence and counterintelligence community . By fostering these partnerships , as well as utilizing the IG Act of 1978 , DoD IG investigates claims of whistleblower reprisal from the defense intelligence community in order to protect all of its employees from reprisal .