"We cannot trust national security and intelligence agencies to police themselves, yet we leave frontline workers who report serious government misconduct and potential security risks completely unprotected from retaliation," said Melissa Goodman, an attorney with the ACLU National Security Project and one of the authors of the report. "Without whistle-blowers, we would have never learned about the shocking abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib or that the National Security Agency engaged in warrantless surveillance of our phone calls and e-mails. Whistle-blowers deserve our gratitude, not scorn and mistreatment."

In the report, "Disavowed: The Government's Unchecked Retaliation Against National Security Whistleblowers," the ACLU said U.S. law does not protect national security whistle-blowers.

"The Whistleblower Protection Act, which was passed by Congress to encourage government employees to disclose wrongdoing, does not apply to employees of most agencies involved in intelligence and national security, including the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Defense Intelligence Agency. National security whistleblowers can be retaliated against even for disclosing wrongdoing to Congress," the ACLU said in a statement.

The ACLU report said FBI translator Sibel Edmonds lost her job for reporting that the bureau's translation services were incompetent and marred by serious security lapses. Bogdan Dzakovic of the Federal Aviation Administration lost his duties after reporting serious problems with aviation security.

The report noted that Russell Tice, a former senior intelligence analyst, was prevented from telling Congress "about his concerns regarding NSA surveillance activity."

The report is part of a drive being mounted to get Congress to extend its protection for whistle-blowers.