THE NEFARIOUS WAY THE US GOVERNMENT TREATS WHISTLEBLOWERS WITH VIOLENT CRIMINALS IN CHARGE OF IT!
Sterling Family Fund
He is due to be sentenced on April 24, 2015. His attorneys are currently appealing the conviction. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, he became the government’s primary target because he had the audacity to do two things
He went through appropriate legal channels to address his concerns about a covert CIA operation.
He filed a discrimination lawsuit against the CIA in August of 2001 (two months later he was fired) which was coincidentally thrown out because proof would require release of classified information. Jeffrey contacted Mr. Risen in an effort to have his discrimination story heard. Mr. Risen subsequently did write an article about Jeffrey’s lawsuit. Another story was published in the May 20, 2002 issue of “People” magazine. Here is an excerpt:
“Sterling joined the CIA in 1993 and two years later became a case officer in the Iran Task Force. (He was the only black among its more than 20 professionals.) To prepare, he spent a year studying Farsi, the language of Iran. Sent to Bonn in 1997 to recruit Iranians as agents, he grew frustrated when he wasn’t given new prospects to recruit. Perplexed, he returned to Langley and confronted his supervisors. “I asked why I wasn’t receiving any assignments. They said, “Well, you kind of stick out as a big black guy,” Sterling recalls. “They said, ‘You bring unwanted attention to where you’re assigned. Everyone in management agreed I was too conspicuous. And I said, “Well, when did you realize that I was black?”
Arrested in 2011, he was fired from his job at Anthem Healthcare. This, after winning an award in 2010 for saving the company over 32 million dollars due to healthcare fraud. He has been unable to get another job. He and his wife Holly lived off their savings and Holly’s income as a social worker for a few years but the money has run out. Their house is on the cusp of foreclosure, they have had to depend on the kindness of family, friends and in some cases total strangers for the money to travel from their home in Missouri to court in Virginia.
I have never met a man with more integrity and more strength in family values. You know when you meet him that he is a man who puts family and honesty above all else. There are many people who believe that Jeffrey was steamrolled because of his color and because he stood up for what he believes in and would not plead guilty to something he did not do.
Please consider making a donation to help Jeffrey’s family to ease the ongoing financial burdens they face.
Jeffrey is not just “away”, he is in a federal correctional facility considered low security. He shares space with child molesters, rapists, murderers and other career felons.
At his first visit with the prison psychologist, she didn’t even look at his file just asked how many times he had been incarcerated.
Every time Jeffrey wants to send a letter, he must buy a stamp, we can’t send it to him, If he wants salt or pepper or any type of spice on his meal, he must pay for it, we can’t send it to him.
He sleeps on a concrete bed with a foam mattress and no pillow.
If he gets a cold, he can’t buy cough syrup because inmates will use it for tatoo ink.
If he wants sneakers to walk, he has to buy them.
When Holly goes to visit he can pay for food out of the vending machine in the visitor area. Holly will typically spend all the allowable time with Jeffrey going without so she can use the money she brought to let Jeffrey eat.
The prison had a plumbing issue that lasted for three days, 900 men urinated and defacated in toilets that were overflowing and did not flush for THREE days. You would think a hazmat team would come in and do the cleanup but no, inmates were responsible for the cleanup.
Jeffrey spends a few hours every day tutoring inmates who are primarily illiterate and have no desire to change. For this task he earns either 67 or 69 cents per day (I can’t quite remember).
It’s easy for me, for all of us to go about our days, worrying about both trivial and important things, spending time with our loved ones and living life to forget, in our very humanness, what Jeffrey faces every day. No, he is not at a camp, able to hang out with the likes of Rod Blegovich and other political prisoners. Jeffrey is incarcerated in a demoralizing facility where he struggles every day to maintain his dignity and his hope.
Please keep Jeffrey and Holly in your thoughts and prayers. Continue to send Jeffrey kind words. Mail is important to him.
Jeffrey Sterling, 38338-044
FCI Englewood
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
9595 WEST QUINCY AVENUE
LITTLETON, CO 80123
A bit of good news perhaps, a tentative date has been scheduled with the appellate court to hear arguments. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
Blessing to you all. Keep you loved ones close. Be ready with a smile and a hug for they can turn a frown upside down.
