Diane Roark

{{short description|American whistleblower (born 1949)}}

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|name = Diane Roark

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|birth_date = 1949

|birth_place = Oregon, US

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|education = Catholic University of America
University of Florida

|occupation = Regulator

|years_active = 1981-2002

|employer = Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Security Council, U.S. Congress civil services

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|known_for = Congressional committee staffer; whistleblower

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{{NSA surveillance}}

Diane Roark is an American whistleblower who served as a Republican staffer on the House Intelligence Committee from 1985 to 2002.[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/united-states-of-secrets/the-frontline-interview-diane-roark/ Diane Roark Interview] She was, right after 9/11, "the House Intelligence Committee staffer in charge of oversight of the NSA".{{cite news|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/14/james_risen_prepared_to_pay_any|title=James Risen Prepared to "Pay Any Price" to Report on War on Terror Amid Crackdown on Whistleblowers|date=October 14, 2014|work=Democracy Now!|access-date=18 September 2015}} In late 2001, Roark was informed by NSA official William Binney about the Bush administration's domestic surveillance programs, including Stellar Wind.{{Cite web|title=The FRONTLINE Interview: William Binney – United States of Secrets|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/united-states-of-secrets/the-frontline-interview-william-binney/|access-date=2020-11-10|website=FRONTLINE|language=en}} Along with Binney, Ed Loomis, and J. Kirk Wiebe, she filed a complaint to the Department of Defense's Inspector General (DoD IG) about the National Security Agency's highly classified Trailblazer Project.{{cite news | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071305992_2.html | title=Former NSA executive Thomas A. Drake may pay high price for media leak | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=13 July 2010 | access-date=19 October 2014 | author=Nakashima, Ellen}} Her house was raided by armed FBI agents in 2007 after she was wrongly suspected of leaking to The New York Times reporter James RisenC-SPAN.org: [http://www.c-span.org/video/?322401-1/qa-james-risen QA James Risen | Video | C-SPAN.org], accessdate: 2/7/2015 and to Siobhan Gorman at The Baltimore Sun in stories about NSA warrantless surveillance. This led her to sue the government in 2012 for not having returned her computer, which they had seized during the raid, and because the government failed to clear her name.{{cite magazine | url=https://www.wired.com/2012/08/diane-roark-story/ | title=Whistleblower, Suspected of Leaking Warrantless Spying Program, Sues NSA | magazine=Wired | date=1 August 2012 | access-date=19 October 2014 | author=Kravets, David}} The punitive treatment of Roark, Binney, Wiebe, and Loomis, as well as, and, in particular, then still-active (rather than retired) NSA executive Thomas Andrews Drake, who had gone in confidence with anonymity assured to the DoD IG, led the Assistant Inspector General John Crane to eventually become a public whistleblower himself and also led Edward Snowden to go public with revelations rather than to report within the internal whistleblower program.{{cite news |last1 = Hertsgaard |first1 = Mark |last2 = Kasten |first2 = Felix |last3 = Rosenbach |first3 = Marcel |last4 = Stark |first4 = Holger |title = Blowing the Whistle: Former US Official Reveals Risks Faced by Internal Critics |newspaper = Der Spiegel |language = en |date = 22 May 2016 |url = http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/ex-us-official-reveals-risks-faced-by-internal-govt-critics-a-1093360.html |access-date = 2016-06-16 }}