Difference between revisions of "Frederic Whitehurst"

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'''Dr Frederic Whitehurst''' was a Supervisory Special Agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory from 1986 to 1998, where he went public as a [[whistleblower]] to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct.
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{{Person
 +
|name=Dr Frederic Whitehurst
 +
|constitutes=forensic scientist, whistleblower
 +
|birth_date=1948
 +
|wikileaks=https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Dr._Frederic_Whitehurst
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|exposed=FBI/Crime Lab
 +
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Whitehurst
 +
|image=Frederic_Whitehurst.jpg
 +
|image_width=300px
 +
|image_caption=Received $1.16 million from the [[FBI]] after blowing the whistle on misconduct
 +
|sourcewatch=http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Frederic_Whitehurst
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|historycommons=http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=frederic_whitehurst_1
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|employment={{job
 +
|title=Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI Crime Laboratory
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|start=6 June 1989
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|end=26 February 1998
 +
}}
 +
}}
 +
'''Dr Frederic Whitehurst''' is a former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] field officer and Supervisory Special Agent in the [[FBI/Crime Lab]] from 1982 to 1998, where he went public as a [[whistleblower]] to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct.<ref>[http://speakerpedia.com/speakers/frederic-whitehurst "Frederic Whitehurst biography"]</ref>
  
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In the 2009 film ''[[Lockerbie Revisited]]'', Dr Whitehurst was interviewed and described the [[FBI]] laboratory as a "crime scene", where his unqualified colleague [[Thomas Thurman]] would routinely alter Whitehurst's scientific reports over a five-year period. [[Ian Ferguson]] reported that the timer fragment - allegedly found in the [[Pan Am Flight 103]] debris and which allegedly was part of the [[MEBO]] timer that triggered the bomb - had not been tested for explosives residue because of 'budgetary reasons'. Whitehurst did not accept that cost could be the reason since it would have taken him just a morning's work to have tested the timer fragment.
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==Vietnam and Academic study==
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Prior to joining the FBI, Frederic Whitehurst volunteered for three active combat tours with the US Army during the [[Vietnam War]]. He received a number of military honours while serving in Vietnam, including four Bronze Stars and the Army commendation medal. Whitehurst obtained a BSc degree in Chemistry in 1974 from East Carolina University, and in 1980 received a PhD in Chemistry from Duke University Graduate School. He then conducted post-doctoral research at Texas A&M University and gained a Juris Doctor qualification from Georgetown University.
  
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In the film [[Thomas Thurman|Thurman]] confirmed that the fragment - the only real piece of evidence against [[Libya]] - had been brought over from the UK to the FBI crime lab, where he had personally identified it as coming from the circuit board of a [[MEBO]] MST-13 timer, only 20 of which had been made and all were supplied to Libya. [[Richard Marquise]] agreed that "without the timer fragment we would have been unable to develop additional evidence against Libya." He said that of all the evidence retrieved from the crash scene, only one piece - the timer fragment - was brought to America.  
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==FBI career==
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Dr Whitehurst joined the FBI in February 1982 and was promoted on 6 June 1989 to a position within the FBI Crime Lab in Washington, D.C. as a Supervisory Special Agent. For the next nine years, Dr Whitehurst worked as a chemist and an explosives bomb residue analyst in the FBI Materials Analysis Unit, where his scientific skills in the forensic analyses of explosives and in the area of explosives residues were recognised to be "unequalled in any other laboratory." Early after his appointment to the Crime Lab, he began raising concerns about scientific misconduct within the FBI and continued reporting those concerns to his superiors. By 1996, despite having provided public testimony critical of the FBI's conduct in the [[World Trade Center]] case, having been publicly identified as a "[[whistleblower]]" as a result of publicity surrounding the [[O.J. Simpson]] case and having been involuntarily transferred from all duties within the Crime Lab, Dr Whitehurst received his last performance review and was still rated "exceptional" or "superior" in every performance category.
  
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== Biography ==
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===FBI Crime Lab===
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{{FA|FBI/Crime Lab}}
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His efforts finally led in April 1997 to a scathing 500-page study of the Crime Lab by the [[Justice Department's Inspector General]], [[Michael Bromwich]], whose report sharply criticised the laboratory for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the [[Oklahoma City]] and World Trade Center bombings. Mr Bromwich recommended major changes and discipline for five agents, including [[Tom Thurman]], as well as the transfer of Dr Whitehurst to other duties.<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1997_hr/h970513w.htm  Introduction about Frederic Whitehurst by National Whistleblower Center Chairman Stephen M. Kohn before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, May 13, 2007]</ref>
  
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===Vietnam===
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In January 1997, Dr Whitehurst was suspended with pay and was facing disciplinary proceedings for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the publication of some of his allegations in a magazine. While under suspension, Whitehurst was forced to defend himself from retaliation by the FBI by hiring [[Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto]], a Washington, D.C. law firm specialising in defending whistleblowers.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGO-MoMsDvg "Frederic Whitehurst Interviewed on FBI Crime Lab Scandal April 1997"]</ref>
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Whitehurst served as an intelligence specialist at the Americal base in Duc Pho, [[Vietnam]] during the early seventies. He was tasked with reviewing seized documents and destroying any that had no military value. Working with translator Sergeant Nguyen Trung Hieu and following his advice, he saved two diaries written by Dr Dang Thuy Tram, a civilian doctor working for North Vietnam. He kept them for 35 years, with the intention of eventually returning them to Trâm's family, if possible.
 
  
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===FBI career===
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==Compensation==
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Dr Whitehurst received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Duke University, a J.D. from Georgetown University and joined the [[FBI]] in 1982 and served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI crime lab from 1986-1998. Dr Whitehurst practises criminal law in Bethel, North Carolina, and is a commissioner of the town of Bethel.
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On 26 February 1998, the FBI agreed to pay a settlement of more than $1.16 million to Frederic Whitehurst, the agent who brought about an overhaul of its Crime Lab. He returned to work from a year-long suspension and then voluntarily resigned as required by the deal to settle part of his lawsuit against the FBI. "The FBI did the right thing," said Dr Whitehurst's lawyer, [https://www.facebook.com/Stephen-Martin-Kohn-Author-Page-142083759187596/ Stephen Kohn]. "It's a positive message to all employees."
  
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While employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory, the FBI officially rated Dr Whitehurst as the leading national and international expert in the science of explosives and explosives residue. He investigated, uncovered and reported scientific misconduct which forced the FBI crime lab to agree to forty major reforms, including undergoing an accreditation process. During this period, Whitehurst was forced to defend himself from retaliation by the FBI by hiring Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C. law firm specialising in defending whistleblowers.
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In the 16-page settlement, a copy of which was obtained by ''Associated Press'', the Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed to pay $1.166 million now to buy annuities that would pay the 50-year-old agent annual amounts equal to the salary and pension he would have earned had he kept working until the normal FBI retirement age of 57.
  
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Dr Whitehurst currently serves as the Executive Director of the [http://www.forensicjustice.org/ ''Forensic Justice Project''] (FJP). The FJP was formed in 1998 as a project of the National Whistleblower Center, a non-profit 501(c)3 organisation. The goal of the FJP is to lead a national effort to accomplish the following:
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Under terms of the settlement, the FBI also agreed to pay $258,580 in legal fees to Dr Whitehurst's lawyers, and the Justice Department dropped all consideration of disciplinary action against him.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/27/us/fbi-to-pay-whistle-blower-1.1-million-in-a-settlement.html "F.B.I. to Pay Whistle-Blower $1.1 Million in a Settlement"]</ref>
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==Lockerbie Bombing==
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{{FA|Lockerbie Bombing}}
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In the 2009 film ''[[Lockerbie Revisited]]'', Frederic Whitehurst was interviewed and described the [[FBI]] laboratory as a "crime scene", where his unqualified colleague [[Thomas Thurman]] would routinely alter Whitehurst's scientific reports over a five-year period. [[Ian Ferguson]] reported that the timer fragment - allegedly found in the [[Pan Am Flight 103]] debris and which allegedly was part of the [[MEBO]] timer that triggered the Lockerbie bomb - had not been tested for explosives residue because of 'budgetary reasons'. Whitehurst did not accept that cost could be the reason since it would have taken him just a morning's work to have tested the timer fragment.<ref>[https://vimeo.com/41131094 "Interviewed by Gideon Levy"]</ref>
 +
 
 +
In the film, [[Thomas Thurman|Thurman]] confirmed that the fragment - the only real piece of evidence against [[Libya]] - had been brought over from the UK to the FBI Crime Lab, where he had personally identified it as coming from the circuit board of a [[MEBO]] MST-13 timer, only 20 of which had been made and all were supplied to Libya. [[Richard Marquise]] agreed that "without the timer fragment we would have been unable to develop additional evidence against Libya." He said that of all the evidence retrieved from the crash scene, only one piece - the timer fragment - was brought to America.<ref>[https://www.newyorkfestivals.com/winners/2011/pieces.php?iid=412747&pid=1 "Lockerbie Revisited"]</ref>
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==National Whistleblowers Center==
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{{YouTubeVideo
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|code=NSBh-Pgqfp8
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|width=310
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|height=250
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|caption=[[FBI]] admits to flawed forensics analyses
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}}
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Dr Whitehurst currently serves as the Executive Director of the [[Forensic Justice Project]] (FJP), which was formed in 1998 as a project of the [[National Whistleblowers Center]], a non-profit organisation chaired by [[Stephen Kohn]].<ref>https://www.facebook.com/Stephen-Martin-Kohn-Author-Page-142083759187596/ </ref> The goal of the FJP is to lead a national effort to accomplish the following:
 
* Review cases to make sure that innocent people have not been wrongfully convicted through the misuse of forensic science;
 
* Review cases to make sure that innocent people have not been wrongfully convicted through the misuse of forensic science;
 
* Provide expert testimony in cases in order to assure that forensic science is not misused in civil and criminal prosecutions impacting on the public interest or the rights of individuals;
 
* Provide expert testimony in cases in order to assure that forensic science is not misused in civil and criminal prosecutions impacting on the public interest or the rights of individuals;
 
* Offer objective scientific evaluations of forensic evidence;
 
* Offer objective scientific evaluations of forensic evidence;
 
* Publish and distribute information necessary for an objective analysis of the quality and objectivity of forensic science and crime laboratories nationwide.
 
* Publish and distribute information necessary for an objective analysis of the quality and objectivity of forensic science and crime laboratories nationwide.
 +
In an interview published in April 2015, Dr Whitehurst was asked about a recent announcement that 26 out of 28 FBI Crime Lab analysts had overstated conclusions of hair analysis evidence in hundreds of cases before 2000. Whitehurst said it only made sense that the FBI analysts gave erroneous testimony about scientific results; many of the analysts he knew during his tenure had no scientific experience or education:
 +
:“When I was at the FBI, we had people with English degrees, history degrees, doing complex chemical analysis. Our chief chemist didn’t have an undergraduate degree in chemistry. They were not scientists. They weren’t out to hurt anyone. They believed in their work. They believed what they were saying when they said it. Those people gave misleading testimony in courts of law but they believed it, and they taught it to thousands of state hair examiners all over the U.S.” When asked why more FBI scientists don’t speak out about questionable practices, Whitehurst said that FBI employees face many obstacles in speaking out. According to Whitehurst, [[whistleblowers]] risk losing their jobs and compromising their careers, and rarely receive support from their colleagues. “You have to be insane to tell the truth at the FBI, absolutely insane,” said Whitehurst.<ref>[http://www.innocenceproject.org/news-events-exonerations/former-fbi-whistleblower-fred-whitehurst-weighs-in-on-hair-analysis-allegations "Former FBI Whistleblower Fred Whitehurst Weighs In on Hair Analysis Allegations"]</ref>
  
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===The Diaries===
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{{SMWDocs}}
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In March 2005, he and his brother Robert (also a Vietnam War veteran) brought the diaries to a conference on the Vietnam War at Texas Tech University. There, they met photographer Ted Engelmann (also a Vietnam veteran), who offered to look for the family during his trip to Vietnam the next month. With the assistance of Do Xuan Anh, a staff member in the Hanoi Quaker office, Engelmann was able to locate Trâm’s mother, Doan Ngoc Tram, and from then on obtained connections to the rest of her family.[http://www.vir.com.vn/Client/TimeOut/index.asp?url=content.asp&doc=7080]
 
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In July 2005, Trâm’s diaries were published in Vietnamese under the title ''Đặng Thùy Trâm’s Diary'', which quickly became a bestseller. In less than a year, the volume sold more than 300,000 copies and comparisons were drawn between Trâm’s writings and that of [[Anne Frank]].[http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=252470&rel_no=1][http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article317801.ece]
 
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In August 2005, Fred and Robert Whitehurst travelled to [[Hanoi]], Vietnam, to meet Trâm’s family. In October of the same year, the family visited Lubbock, [[Texas]], to view the diaries, which are archived at Texas Tech University's [http://archive.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamarchive/index.htm Vietnam Archive], then visited Fred Whitehurst and his family in his home state of [[North Carolina]].
 
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The diaries have been [http://archive.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/diary/index.htm translated into English] and the English version was published in September 2007. It includes photographs of Dang during high school and with her family. Translations have been done and published in at least sixteen different languages.
 
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In 2009 a film about Tram by Vietnamese director [[Đặng Nhật Minh]], entitled ''Đừng Đốt'' (Do Not Burn It), was released.
 
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==References==
 
==References==
 
{{reflist}}
 
{{reflist}}
Line 40: Line 68:
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
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* [http://www.whistleblowers.org ''National Whistleblower Center'']
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* [http://www.public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/death/tscr/whitehur/fw_test.html Whitehurst' testimony at the World Trade Center Bombing Trial]
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* [http://www.forensicjustice.org ''Forensic Justice Project'']
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* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/reviews/980927.27johnstt.html"Dismal Science: When the F.B.I.'s crime lab makes a mistake, two journalists contend, it's a beaut", by David Johnston, ''[[New York Times]]'' review of ''Tainting  Evidence'' (September 27, 1998)]
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*[http://www.public-action.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/death/tscr/whitehur/fw_test.html Whitehurst' testimony at the World Trade Center Bombing Trial]
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* [http://www.crimemagazine.com/tainting-evidence-inside-scandals-fbi-crime-lab "Tainting Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab, by John F. Kelly and Phillip K. Wearne", ''Crime Magazine'' review]
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*[http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/reviews/980927.27johnstt.html"Dismal Science: When the F.B.I.'s crime lab makes a mistake, two journalists contend, it's a beaut", by David Johnston, [[New York Times]] review of ''Tainting  Evidence'' (September 27, 1998)]
 
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*[http://www.crimemagazine.com/tainting-evidence-inside-scandals-fbi-crime-lab "Tainting Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab, by John F. Kelly and Phillip K. Wearne", ''Crime Magazine'' review]
 
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* [http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1997_hr/h970513w.htm  Introduction about Whitehurst by National Whistleblower Center Chairman [[Stephen M. Kohn]], Esq. before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, May 13, 2007]
 
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{{PageCredit
 
{{PageCredit

Latest revision as of 14:44, 9 November 2018

Person.png Dr Frederic Whitehurst   Sourcewatch WikileaksRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(forensic scientist, whistleblower)
Frederic Whitehurst.jpg
Received $1.16 million from the FBI after blowing the whistle on misconduct
Born1948
ExposedFBI/Crime Lab

Dr Frederic Whitehurst is a former Federal Bureau of Investigation field officer and Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI/Crime Lab from 1982 to 1998, where he went public as a whistleblower to bring attention to procedural errors and misconduct.[1]

Vietnam and Academic study

Prior to joining the FBI, Frederic Whitehurst volunteered for three active combat tours with the US Army during the Vietnam War. He received a number of military honours while serving in Vietnam, including four Bronze Stars and the Army commendation medal. Whitehurst obtained a BSc degree in Chemistry in 1974 from East Carolina University, and in 1980 received a PhD in Chemistry from Duke University Graduate School. He then conducted post-doctoral research at Texas A&M University and gained a Juris Doctor qualification from Georgetown University.

FBI career

Dr Whitehurst joined the FBI in February 1982 and was promoted on 6 June 1989 to a position within the FBI Crime Lab in Washington, D.C. as a Supervisory Special Agent. For the next nine years, Dr Whitehurst worked as a chemist and an explosives bomb residue analyst in the FBI Materials Analysis Unit, where his scientific skills in the forensic analyses of explosives and in the area of explosives residues were recognised to be "unequalled in any other laboratory." Early after his appointment to the Crime Lab, he began raising concerns about scientific misconduct within the FBI and continued reporting those concerns to his superiors. By 1996, despite having provided public testimony critical of the FBI's conduct in the World Trade Center case, having been publicly identified as a "whistleblower" as a result of publicity surrounding the O.J. Simpson case and having been involuntarily transferred from all duties within the Crime Lab, Dr Whitehurst received his last performance review and was still rated "exceptional" or "superior" in every performance category.

FBI Crime Lab

Full article: FBI/Crime Lab

His efforts finally led in April 1997 to a scathing 500-page study of the Crime Lab by the Justice Department's Inspector General, Michael Bromwich, whose report sharply criticised the laboratory for flawed scientific work and inaccurate, pro-prosecution testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. Mr Bromwich recommended major changes and discipline for five agents, including Tom Thurman, as well as the transfer of Dr Whitehurst to other duties.[2]

In January 1997, Dr Whitehurst was suspended with pay and was facing disciplinary proceedings for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the publication of some of his allegations in a magazine. While under suspension, Whitehurst was forced to defend himself from retaliation by the FBI by hiring Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto, a Washington, D.C. law firm specialising in defending whistleblowers.[3]

Compensation

On 26 February 1998, the FBI agreed to pay a settlement of more than $1.16 million to Frederic Whitehurst, the agent who brought about an overhaul of its Crime Lab. He returned to work from a year-long suspension and then voluntarily resigned as required by the deal to settle part of his lawsuit against the FBI. "The FBI did the right thing," said Dr Whitehurst's lawyer, Stephen Kohn. "It's a positive message to all employees."

In the 16-page settlement, a copy of which was obtained by Associated Press, the Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed to pay $1.166 million now to buy annuities that would pay the 50-year-old agent annual amounts equal to the salary and pension he would have earned had he kept working until the normal FBI retirement age of 57.

Under terms of the settlement, the FBI also agreed to pay $258,580 in legal fees to Dr Whitehurst's lawyers, and the Justice Department dropped all consideration of disciplinary action against him.[4]

Lockerbie Bombing

Full article: Lockerbie Bombing

In the 2009 film Lockerbie Revisited, Frederic Whitehurst was interviewed and described the FBI laboratory as a "crime scene", where his unqualified colleague Thomas Thurman would routinely alter Whitehurst's scientific reports over a five-year period. Ian Ferguson reported that the timer fragment - allegedly found in the Pan Am Flight 103 debris and which allegedly was part of the MEBO timer that triggered the Lockerbie bomb - had not been tested for explosives residue because of 'budgetary reasons'. Whitehurst did not accept that cost could be the reason since it would have taken him just a morning's work to have tested the timer fragment.[5]

In the film, Thurman confirmed that the fragment - the only real piece of evidence against Libya - had been brought over from the UK to the FBI Crime Lab, where he had personally identified it as coming from the circuit board of a MEBO MST-13 timer, only 20 of which had been made and all were supplied to Libya. Richard Marquise agreed that "without the timer fragment we would have been unable to develop additional evidence against Libya." He said that of all the evidence retrieved from the crash scene, only one piece - the timer fragment - was brought to America.[6]

National Whistleblowers Center

FBI admits to flawed forensics analyses

Dr Whitehurst currently serves as the Executive Director of the Forensic Justice Project (FJP), which was formed in 1998 as a project of the National Whistleblowers Center, a non-profit organisation chaired by Stephen Kohn.[7] The goal of the FJP is to lead a national effort to accomplish the following:

  • Review cases to make sure that innocent people have not been wrongfully convicted through the misuse of forensic science;
  • Provide expert testimony in cases in order to assure that forensic science is not misused in civil and criminal prosecutions impacting on the public interest or the rights of individuals;
  • Offer objective scientific evaluations of forensic evidence;
  • Publish and distribute information necessary for an objective analysis of the quality and objectivity of forensic science and crime laboratories nationwide.

In an interview published in April 2015, Dr Whitehurst was asked about a recent announcement that 26 out of 28 FBI Crime Lab analysts had overstated conclusions of hair analysis evidence in hundreds of cases before 2000. Whitehurst said it only made sense that the FBI analysts gave erroneous testimony about scientific results; many of the analysts he knew during his tenure had no scientific experience or education:

“When I was at the FBI, we had people with English degrees, history degrees, doing complex chemical analysis. Our chief chemist didn’t have an undergraduate degree in chemistry. They were not scientists. They weren’t out to hurt anyone. They believed in their work. They believed what they were saying when they said it. Those people gave misleading testimony in courts of law but they believed it, and they taught it to thousands of state hair examiners all over the U.S.” When asked why more FBI scientists don’t speak out about questionable practices, Whitehurst said that FBI employees face many obstacles in speaking out. According to Whitehurst, whistleblowers risk losing their jobs and compromising their careers, and rarely receive support from their colleagues. “You have to be insane to tell the truth at the FBI, absolutely insane,” said Whitehurst.[8]


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References

  1. ↑ "Frederic Whitehurst biography"
  2. ↑ Introduction about Frederic Whitehurst by National Whistleblower Center Chairman Stephen M. Kohn before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, May 13, 2007
  3. ↑ "Frederic Whitehurst Interviewed on FBI Crime Lab Scandal April 1997"
  4. ↑ "F.B.I. to Pay Whistle-Blower $1.1 Million in a Settlement"
  5. ↑ "Interviewed by Gideon Levy"
  6. ↑ "Lockerbie Revisited"
  7. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/Stephen-Martin-Kohn-Author-Page-142083759187596/
  8. ↑ "Former FBI Whistleblower Fred Whitehurst Weighs In on Hair Analysis Allegations"

Further reading

  • Tainting Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab, by John F. Kelly and Phillip K. Wearne
  • Tainting Evidence: Inside the Scandals at the FBI Crime Lab Prologue, New York Times Web

External links

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