Risky Behavior for an Honorable Man

I should be too jaded about things like this coming from the Bush administration, but news about the head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) himself being under investigation is just too mind numbing. It has been alleged that the head of the OSC had retaliated against whistle-blowers among his own staff members and improperly dismissed whistle-blower cases brought to the agency by others. This hardly seems like something that someone from the Bush administration would do.

The primary mission of the OSC is to safeguard the merit system by protecting federal employees and applicants from prohibited personnel practices, especially reprisal for whistleblowing. The head of the Office of Special Counsel is the "Honorable" Scott J. Bloch, a Bush appointee who was confirmed on Dec. 9, 2003. Prior to this, Bloch served as Associate Director and then Deputy Director and Counsel to the Task Force for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Justice. As such, someone might find it a bit odd that Block is withholding from federal investigators copies of personal files that he deleted from his office computer.

According to Bloch, his personal computer records are not relevant and the investigation into his activity is a "fishing expedition." However, people are finding it just a tad suspicious that Bloch had technicians perform a seven-level wipe on his laptop computer as well as on those of two of his aides. Overwriting the hard drive seven times was supposedly done as part of a virus removal procedure.

This is apparently a new type of virus removal that I'm not familiar with. But Scott Bloch is an honorable man and we must take him at his word on this. I just hope that he does not engage in the same risky behavior that got all three laptop computers infected in the first place.

"Thank you 1 800 905 GEEK™ - you gave us such peace of mind."
-- Karl from Texas