Whoopsie.

Dear [fill in recipient here]: You are officially fucked.

HEAD-SHAKING AFTERTHOUGHTS: You have to wonder who originally had this less-than-brilliant idea:

Although the panel said it would not accept anonymous tips, it assured those who came forward that their identity would be held in the "strictest confidence."

Why, sure, and if I was going to jeopardize my career by exposing corruption at the highest levels of government, I'd have no problem signing my name since I'm being assured that nothing could possibly go wrong and they'd all be really, really careful.

Honestly, what was the initial reaction to that idiocy? Did anyone look at that proposal and say, "You have to be fucking kidding! No anonymity!?"

And, somewhere, someone is sitting quietly, thinking, "I told you so."

AND WHILE WE'RE ON THE TOPIC ... how about this gem for the sheer entertainment value?

A technological error in a recent communication inadvertently disclosed certain email addresses.

Ah, and what "technological error" would that be? Oh, right:

But in an email sent out today, the committee inadvertently sent the email addresses of all the would-be whistleblowers to everyone who had written in to the tipline. The committee email was sent to tipsters who had used the website form, including presumably whistleblowers themselves, and all of the recipients of the email were accidentally included in the "to:" field -- instead of concealing those addresses with a so-called blind carbon copy or "bcc:".

So that would be the "technological error" of a human being doing something unspeakably fucking stupid, and the computer doing exactly what it had been told to do but, what the hell, let's blame the technology, shall we? It's just easier that way.