Well, Congress returns from its August recess this week and, judging from what I'm reading in the newspapers, both parties are going to tell you a lot about security and how they're going to make you safe from terrorism as we enter our sixth year after 9/11. No doubt you've heard a lot from the president about this topic in the past couple of days.

Yet our nation still faces significant security threats. And while some threats come from enemies willing to strike at us, others come from unsafe government practices. Many times, the employees who could blow the whistle on these unsafe practices don't do it because they are afraid of retaliation that includes losing their security clearance -- or even their job.

Here are several examples of what national security whistleblowers can face: