Image: Leo Reynolds

Employees are usually the first to witness dangers and wrongdoing on the job. Although most employees remain silent, many choose to speak out and bear witness to corporate crimes or a life-threatening problem that has not been addressed when flagged through normal company channels. Although they may risk losing their jobs or face other forms of retaliation, whistleblowers report the violation or wrongdoing to another supervisor, report the problem to state or federal regulators, leak evidence to the media, or take some other form of action. Under the Whistleblower Protection Act, whistleblowing is defined as the disclosure of information that an employee reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, abuse of power, or something that poses a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.

Image: National Whistleblowers Center

Karen Silkwood was a union activist and technician at the Kerr-McGee nuclear reprocessing plant in Crescent, Oklahoma. She reported numerous workplace safety violations, including faulty respirator equipment, worker exposure to contamination and the failure to provide adequate showering facilities. She died in a mysterious car accident on November 13, 1974, while on her way to deliver evidence to a New York Times reporter. Her story was adapted by Hollywood as Silkwood and was later the focus of a Frontline (PBS) investigation, as well as a book by Richard Rashke, The Killing of Karen Silkwood.

Image: DailyKos

In 1995, Dr. Jeffrey Wigand (www.jeffreywigand.com), the former head of research for the Brown & Williamson tobacco company, became the highest ranking former tobacco industry executive to blow the whistle. He first spoke to 60 MINUTES, about the industry's use of certain addictive ingredients, and subsequently agreed to appear in a deposition for litigation brought by Mississippi and other states against the tobacco companies – which was later settled for $368 billion. Wigand's experience was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie, "The Insider".

Image: National Whistleblowers Center

Daniel Ellsberg is famous for secretly copying and leaking the Pentagon Papers, 7,000 pages of classified documents about the Vietnam War, which implicated the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations in misleading the public and Congress about the war. Until stopped by an injunction, the New York Times printed excerpts of the papers, and then Washington Post began to do the same. Ellsberg gave the documents to 17 other newspapers as well. In 1973, charges were filed against Ellsberg, but they were dismissed after criminal activities directed by the Nixon White House against Ellsberg (including a break-in at his psychiatrist's office) were exposed. In 2002, Ellsberg released "Secrets," a book describing his experience, which is also the subject of "The Most Dangerous Man in America", a documentary released in 2009.

 
Image: ABC news

Bunnatine "Bunny" Greenhouse, the top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers. She was demoted in August 2005 after testifying before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee about what she called a "clubby" relationship between Halliburton's KBR subsidiary and the Army Corps of Engineers, which awarded former Vice President Dick Cheney's favorite company (Cheney was Halliburton's CEO before he became vice president) a no-bid Iraq reconstruction contract. "I can unequivocally state that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career," Greenhouse told Congress. Greenhouse also testified that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office took control of "every aspect" of KBR's $7 billion no-bid Iraq oil infrastructure contract. Greenhouse has subsequently advocated for improved whistleblower protection standards for federal employees, including the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2009.
A gallery of additional whistleblower portraits can be viewed at the National Whistleblowers Center

Government Accountability Project (GAP): http://www.whistleblower.org
National Whistleblowers Center: http://www.whistleblowers.org/
Project on Government Oversight: http://www.pogo.org