Sheriff releases report on DHS whistleblower Phil Haney’s death
DHS whistleblower Phil Haney at a Senate hearing June 28, 2016 (Screenshot Senate Judiciary Committee video)
By WND | March 9, 2022
Terror expert was punished by feds for pursuing politically incorrect leads
The Amador County Sheriff’s Office in California has released its report on the death of former Department of Homeland Security officer Philip Haney, concluding he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Feb. 21, 2020.
Haney was an Islam subject-matter expert whose investigations and research challenged the official narrative of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. His government punished and exonerated him nine times during his career for taking into account the religious dimension to terrorism. He wrote a bestselling book with WND News Editor Art Moore titled “See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government’s Submission to Jihad.”
After Haney was found dead from a gunshot wound alongside a rural crossroad southeast of Sacramento, Amador County investigators initially reported that the death was self-inflicted. But the next day, Feb. 22, 2020, the sheriff’s office backtracked after it became aware of Haney’s background and national stature, declaring an investigation was ongoing.
Undersheriff Gary Redman said at the time that the sheriff’s office had reached out to the FBI “to assist in analyzing documents, phone records, numerous thumb drives and a lap top that were recovered from the scene and Mr. Haney’s RV.”
Those items and numerous other pieces of evidence were turned over to the FBI for forensic examination.
On Wednesday, along with a statement summarizing the findings, the sheriff’s office released 278 pages of documents related to the investigation.
‘Purge’ of intelligence
Shortly after Haney’s death two years ago, in an emotional speech on the House floor, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, praised the former DHS officer as a friend who was “one of the finest, most patriotic, competent people I’ve ever known in my life.”
“A man of absolute honesty, complete integrity, who cared deeply about the future of this country.”
The congressman said Haney – who saw the intelligence he developed on Islamic terrorists erased by Obama officials – “was a Christian brother, and that certainly affected so much of what he did.”
Gohmert recounted Haney’s unlikely path to becoming a member of the advanced team at the National Targeting Center near Washington, D.C., which provides actionable intelligence in real time to customs officers at the nation’s ports of entry.
Noting the title of Haney’s book, Gohmert said the DHS officer “saw things that were a threat to this country, he said something, and he was severely punished for it, because apparently the Obama administration had some radical ties that they did not want anybody, including Philip Haney, to expose.”
His book, the Texas lawmaker said, “documents the Obama administration’s effort to obfuscate the role of radical Islam in numerous terrorist attacks.”
A sequel was underway, Gohmert noted, that would “name names.”
Gohmert recalled that Haney testified to a Senate committee in June 2016 of the “purging” of his intelligence on terrorist networks in the U.S. The Obama administration, he said, “modified” or eliminated more than 800 of his records related to the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. because they were deemed to be an offense to Muslims. In addition, a highly successful case he helped develop at the National Targeting Center was shut down by Hillary Clinton’s State Department and the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties out of concern for the “rights” of foreign Muslims.
See Rep. Louie Gohmert’s tribute to Philip Haney on the House floor:
And after Haney retired honorably in 2015, he discovered that had his case continued, it might have prevented both the Orlando and the San Bernardino terror attacks.
Along with the quashing of the case in June 2012, the administration subsequently ordered the deletion of an additional 67 records concerning a related network.
‘A real whistleblower’
Gohmert, clearly referencing the anonymous whistleblower who brought the complaint Democrats used to impeach President Trump the first time, said “Philip Haney was a real whistleblower,” noting his Senate testimony.
“That’s what a real whistleblower does,” Gohmert said. “A whistleblower does not remain anonymous. They come forward, subject themselves to cross-examination, and supposedly have protection.”
But the Obama administration didn’t protect whistleblowers like Haney, Gohmert said.
“They went after whistleblowers,” he said.
“In fact, the Obama administration prosecuted more people for leaking than every other administration in this country’s history added together.”
