WELL, THAT’S BECAUSE IT WON’T: Intel Whistle-Blowers Fear Government Won’t Protect Them.

Nearly three years after Edward Snowden bypassed the intelligence community’s own process for reporting wrongdoing and leaked troves of classified documents to Glenn Greenwald, the system for protecting whistle-blowers inside the national security state remains broken.

This is the view of current and former intelligence officials, national security lawyers and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Their message is simple: Whistle-blowers are often too intimidated to take their case to the inspectors general and Congress.

“There is a systemic problem with the whistle-blower process,” Representative Devin Nunes told me. “There is no easy way for them to come forward that doesn’t jeopardize their careers, across the whole defense and intelligence community enterprise.”

My advice to people in the intelligence community who know of misdeeds there: Wait until there’s a Republican in the White House. Then you’ll be untouchable heroes. Some more sophisticated thoughts are here.