On November 19, 2010, the National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) hosted a visit by Middle Eastern officials as part of the State Department’s Transparency in Government project for the Near East. The program offered a view of the role of citizens, media and private non-profit advocacy in fostering transparency and accountability in government. Visitors learned about the uneven patchwork of whistleblower protections here in the United States, and our perspective about which laws work best and why.
Pictured here (not in order) are Dr. Amr Hashem Ahmed Abdel-Megid-Rabee of Egypt’s Center for Political and Strategic Studies (Al Ahram Foundation), Mr. Khaled A.A.M. Malek of the Administration of Kuwait Customs – Privatization Project, Mr. Sidi Mohamed Boyde, Mauritania’s Deputy Inspector General, Ms. Mariam Ait Alla of Morocco’s Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption (ICPC), Mr. Nassar Fakih Lanjri, Vice President of Morocco’s Urban Commune of Tetouan, Mr. Mustapha Labbassi, Tetouan Bureau Chief of Al Ahdath Al Maghrebiya, Mr. Daoud S.M. Darawi, Judge of the Palestinian Authority’s Supreme Judicial Council, Mr. Mugren Ibrahim M. Binmugren, Judge of Saudi Arabia’s Administrative Court in Riyadh, and Mr. Marwan Ahmed Qasem Dammag, Secretary General of Yemen’s Press Syndicate. With them are Mr. Stephen M. Kohn, Executive Director of NWC, Ms. Estelle Kohn, Deputy Director of NWC, and NWC interns Saki, Juliana, Leigh, Nobuya, Breann and Liz.